The Opinions Meme

[sistermagpie]

Gacked from helkamaria



Ethnicity

a) Do you feel your ethnicity is a large part of your life?
I don't feel it at all, so it's more like I know it's a large part of my life. Only some ethnicities get to not think about it. What's that line in that Warner Brothers movie I was forced to watch? Bill Murray about Larry Bird: "Larry's not white. Larry's clear."

What is your ethnicity?
Irish mostly, and Italian. I think there's probably some English and Scotch in there somewhere maybe. Catholic, if that adds anything.

c. Is your ethnicity distinct from your national identity?
Not really. I'm American. I think with some people in the family tree going way back (by American standards, of course.)

d. Do you speak the same language your grandparents spoke?
Yes.

e. Great-great-grandparents?
I think so. Most of them spoke English definitely, but there might be some Italian in there. *is ignorant about this and must ask parents*

f. Do you have a feeling of solidarity or even simple recognition for people of similar backgrounds?
Recognition more than solidarity. I think everybody does.

g. What part does the perception of race play in your understanding of your own ethnicity?
Hard to say what part of it. If I think about my ethnicity it's obviously set against other ethnicities, which gets into race.

h. Do you feel your ethnicity is a matter of "blood" or descendency or do you feel it is cultural?
Cultural most of all, but the culture is based on people's perceptions of decendency or blood. Ethnicity literally means blood and decendency, obviously, but, for instance, I've never had anybody think I was "ethnically" defined by the ethnicity of my last name.



Politics

a. Do you follow politics?
Somewhat.

b. Are your politics similar to or wildly divergent from those your parents espoused when you were growing up?
Definitely divergent. (Interesting that on one hand it's just "similar" while on the other side it's "wildly" divergent, like if you're going to diverge it's going to be WILD!)

c. Do you feel your personal politics spring more from how you perceive your needs or from your personal morality? Something else? Tell me what you base your political decisions on.
Personal morality--but that is also tied to what I think is needed.I try to vote against the person who seems to want to screw up the world.

d. Do you feel that any political party or movement truly represents your values?
No. It would be weird to think something as impersonal as a political party represented an individual's personal values completely.

e. Do you feel any particular political party is looking out for your interests?
I think they probably all do or think they do in some ways, and not in other ways.

f. Have you studied history? How has this affected your political view?
Probably. I assume everything I've learned or experience has!



Sex

a. Do you feel sex is a moral issue?
Anything can be a moral issue.

b. Do you ascribe an inherent value to virginity?
No.

c. Do you feel that some sexual thoughts/feelings/or behaviours are acceptable for one gender but not for another?
No.

d. Is the "forbidden" somehow more sexually exciting for you?
I don't really think of "the forbidden" being a major kink for me, but it can be somewhat sexuallty exciting in some contexts.

e. Do you tend to be more passive or aggressive sexually?
Um, do you mean like in bed? I can be both.

f. Do you think celibate people are "better" people or simply have less of a sex drive?
If a celibate person is better than a non-celibate one it's not because they're celibate! I think there's probably millions of reasons why a person might be celibate. Less interest in sex is only one of them.

g. Do you feel sex between two consenting adults can be "wrong"?
It can be the wrong thing to do, sure. But not in the way this phrase is usually used. (I.e., sex between unmarried people is wrong, sex between two people of the same sex is wrong.)

h. Do you believe there are any inherent differences between the minds of men and women?
Yes, but usually when somebody claims there's an inherent difference that justifies whatever thing they're talking about it's bullshit.

i. Do you think strangers can have satisfying sex?
Yes.

j. Conversely do you think it is possible to have sex with the same person for 30 years and still find it exciting and fullfilling? What about hot?
Yes and yes.



Food:

a. Do you cook?
No.

b. Do you feel the use of mixes and prepared foodstuffs is a moral question?
Anything can be a moral question.

c. How often do you eat meals outside the home?
A lot if I count deli lunches etc. at work. But still, fairly regularly.

d. How often do you have a sit down meal at home?
That's how most of my meals are eaten. I sit on the floor.

e. Do you feel eating is a moral question? Do you feel you are a moral failure when take great pleasure from eating?
It's hard for me to imagine how eating becomes a moral question (eating a still living, conscious human being would be immoral!). I don't think it's a moral failure to take great pleasure from eating. (That's one of the weirdest ideas I've ever heard!)

f. Do you feel morally superior when you refrain from eating?
No.

g. Do you ever pass judgement on strangers based on the items in their grocery carts?
LOL! No, but they might be passing judgment on me based on mine. Sometimes they do it out loud.



Religion

a. Do you believe in a god or gods?
Not exactly. I think they can be real in so far as what I think they are.

b. Do you feel your god/s is/are personal and are concerned with the minutiae of your daily life?
Since I think people create the gods they worship in their minds--since that's the only way they can understand them even if they're objectively real--if you think they're interested in the minutiae of your life then they are.

c. Do you think other people who believe as you believe are inherently better people than those who have different beliefs?
So are people better based on which God they believe in and how they believe in them? Well, people can take their own bad beliefs and turn them into a God based on those beliefs. In that case I'd probably find their god just as annoying as they are.

d. If you could wave a magic wand and convert everyone on earth to your belief would you? Why? Why not?
Yipes! No. That's like a Twilight Zone episode waiting to happen.

e. Were you converted from one religion to another?
I don't think I've ever believed in any religion strongly enough to call it a conversion.

f. Was your religion inherited, as in do you worship and believe in much the same fashion as your parents and grandparents before you?
I inherited a religion from my parents but don't consider myself part of that church. As they're not very religious either, we're not too different on that score.

g. To what extent are your religious beliefs cultural? Or to put it another way are they the prevailing beliefs and customs of your social set? Is your religion "normal" for your area?
In Manhattan "normal" covers just about everything--which is a good thing.

h. Does the god of your understanding play favorites or does it love everyone more or less equally?
Depends on the god. Some are more human and like some more than others. But if we're talking about the deity force of the universe behind all imagined gods, for instance, I think that would love everyone equally.

i. Does the god of your understanding condone killing?
Depends on what's killing what or who's killing who for what reason.

j. Does the god of your understanding play favorites with one gender over the other?
No.

k. Does god as you understand it care if teenagers masturbate?
I think that would be like asking of god cares if teenagers daydream. Have at it, teenagers!

l. How does your god feel about sex?
That it's one of many parts of life.

m. Same sex marriage?
Exactly the same feelings as heterosexual marriage.

Comments

[kerosinkanister.livejournal.com]

One of the most interesting memes I've come across in awhile. I'm on my way out but I'm sure to be pondering some of the questions and answers.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

[kerosinkanister.livejournal.com]

b. Do you feel your god/s is/are personal and are concerned with the minutiae of your daily life?
Since I think people create the gods they worship in their minds--since that's the only way they can understand them even if they're objectively real--if you think they're interested in the minutiae of your life then they are.

I like that answer and it made me think. I'm a self-described atheist, though of the don't believe sort, not the fundatheist "god can't exist" sort. Anyway, if a person has faith then it's absolutely real for them, regardless of what the "truth" is, the latter is basically impossible to define for something we cannot know. Hmmm.

I thought all your answers to the religion section were particularly interesting though the questions themselves seem to assume a person believes in some sort of god. I'm thinking how I'd even answer those questions, if I do the meme.

Something like this: j. Does the god of your understanding play favorites with one gender over the other?

I'm not even sure how to answer. There is no god of my understanding but if there were it wouldn't play favorites with gender?

And same-sex marriage is something I'd put under the politics section, not religion, because as a contemporary issue it, at least to me, is more tied to government. But then the current system uses "marriage" for at least three different situations: a legally defined relationship with certain privileges, restrictions, and responsibilities; a relationship recognized and sanctioned by some religious body; a private decision defining the relationship between two (or more) individuals. I think it's the failure to recognize those distinctions that causes the current fuck-up.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought a lot of the questions seemed to come with a lot of assumptions...so they made more sense if you could picture the "imaginary meme taker" in your head. Like with the religious ones, I agree that the same sex marriage one is more about politics. But of course some people talk about it as a religious issue even as they're making it a political one--iow, marriage is a sacrament between a man and a woman, God says that's what it is, therefore it's a religious abomination for two people of the same sex to get married, therefore I want a constitutional amendment banning it. Really I think it's political, but religion gets brought into it.

I had the same trouble with the religion questions--I'm glad my answers made sense. Because when I think of gods I'm picturing all sorts of gods, and some of them could certainly favor gender just as they might favor a certain group of people. The Christian God for a large part of the Bible obviously plays favorites--he's the God of the Israelites.

[kerosinkanister.livejournal.com]

Religion definitely gets brought into, though obviously for self-serving reasons, which gets to something that really drive me nuts: when people pick and choose out of the Bible just to support their pet cause but have the lifestyle they want.

And marriage is constantly evolving anyway. Does anyone want to go back to the days where the woman was the man's property and that's it? I suppose some fundamentalists do.

[ackonrad.livejournal.com]

Do you think strangers can have satisfying sex?

Very weird question. Maybe I just don't get it.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

It seems like a lot of the questions come from a certain pov...so I figured they were asking if you think sex can be satisfying if you don't have an emotional connection to the person with whom you're having it.

[ackonrad.livejournal.com]

Right, thanks for clarifying! Like you said, I read it from my POV - i.e. I understood the question like 'Do you think strangers (people you (I) don't know) can have satisfying sex' and was like, 'Huh? Sure people I don't know can have great sex, but who asks such a thing?' Now it makes sense - they meant whether two (or more ;-)) people that don't know each other well or at all can have good sex. Don't know why I didn't get it myself. I guess it's too late and I'm too tired to think.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I didn't see that at first but when you asked I realized that that could be a way of reading it too and...what a weird question! Would anybody think only they were capable of having satisfying sex?

[sydpad.livejournal.com]

Heh, I'd do this meme but (as I often feel when I read your posts) it would just turn into, "I agree with Magpie!" *fangirls slavishly*

I'm only strongly divergent on the food.. I think eating is a central moral issue, and not enjoying what you eat is a despicable moral failure ( I can't even get my head around it being the other way around). Plus I'm horribly judgmental over other people's food carts.. I'd be the one tutting out loud. :P

[matitablu.livejournal.com]

Lol, I totally look at other people's carts too! Although I just mainly try to figure out what they were buying for - there's always someone who's obviously shopping for a party. And there used to be a time where *I* was that someone... *sighs*

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

We probably shouldn't shop together.:-D

Can you imagine actually thinking it was a moral failure to enjoy your food? What is it not a moral failure to enjoy?

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

I think the food thing refers to the attitude so many people, especially women, have that says enjoying your food too much is bad and you should always be counting calories and making sure you're not making yourself fat or eating like a pig. More like ladylike decorum than morals.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yes, though it reminds me of the idea that it's immoral to enjoy sex--it's like it's just moved on to food now. There's an element of ladylike decorum there too.

[marionros.livejournal.com]

Well, it's certainly no coincidence that Twiggy became the rolemodel for women, the figure to aspire to, right in the middle of the sixties, when sex became more liberated and women had access to birthcontrol.
If you can't guilttrip women into obedience with sex, telling them that a Virgin was the only Good Woman (and if you couldn't stay a Virgin, at least be a - legally wedded, cleaved to their man - Mother), you could always try controlling them with food. And every spindoctor can tell you that the ultimate way of controlling people is giving them the notion that its *their own idea*!
Besides, fat (in moderation) is sexy. Ask any man what they'd prefer in bed and they'll tell you they don't want a woman so skinny you can count their ribs but prefer one with 'curves'... And there is a very good evolutionary reason why fat is sexy; fat is necessary for women to be fertile. Models, balletdancers and female athletes stop menstruating when they lose to much fat.

[godspoodle.livejournal.com]

You know, I guess I can do the meme, but then it'd be like, 'what Sister M said' :> Except for me being Russian Jewish, I guess :))

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Hee! Of course, that's because we're totally right!

[truehobbit.livejournal.com]

That was pretty cool - did it right away myself. :D

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Cool! *goes to read*

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

e. Do you feel eating is a moral question? Do you feel you are a moral failure when take great pleasure from eating?

Not a weird question for anyone with an eating disorder, or a fat woman eating in public.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

The one reason I could think of for asking the question was if you were trying to figure out if a person had an eating disorder. I hadn't thought about a fat woman eating in public--or maybe even in private if enough guilt's been piled on.

[go-back-chief.livejournal.com]

Even so, I think it's very weird to mix in "moral" with eating. IMO, moral is not really the same thing as self-disciplin/character.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's more I would think that somebody would feel stronger than the person eating because they're more in control.

[go-back-chief.livejournal.com]

Maybe they just can't feel stronger than anybody unless they can also tell themselves they're "morally superior"? It's just such a weird way of using the word "moral" or "ethics" to me. I agree with helkamaria about how food can be an ethical question if you think about how and under which circumstances it's produced and delivered, but how can something that only affects your own health be a question about "morals"?

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

These are odd questions, covering the taboo dinner table subjects. The questions seem to go towards the titillating at the end, or the plain annoying.

I answered them, but I friends-locked the post (on IJ) because I'm super-paranoid that way. My answers are similar to yours. Yay, big city diversity!

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Isn't that a fact? I get used to living in a city and forget that there are places where people are probably more the same.

[anehan]

I don't think it's a moral failure to take great pleasure from eating. (That's one of the weirdest ideas I've ever heard!)

It's definitely weird. Very Puritan. I wonder who wrote this meme.

g. Do you ever pass judgement on strangers based on the items in their grocery carts?
LOL! No, but they might be passing judgment on me based on mine. Sometimes they do it out loud.

Out loud? O.O

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Hee! Not usually in the supermarket but people have often commented on things I eat as being bad. So I'm sure they think it in the supermarket!

It does seem like Polly Puritan wrote this meme, doesn't it?