Shel For The PublicSep 13, 2017

Hey friends it's your favorite Righteous Preacher of the Holy Word here to remind you Yet Again about Lashon Hara.

Lashon Hara is a despicable sin condemned by HaShem the god of the Jews. It is when you spread bad things about people which may be true but which have no useful or productive purpose to be brought up. The classic example is bringing up a mistake someone made a while back which they have since already apologized and atoned for, and have not made again. It hurts community and hinders learning

Show threadShel For The PublicSep 13, 2017

Mastodon's userbase may lean older than tumblr or so but many people on here are still young and don't advertise it; and also no matter how old you are you can still be in a process of learning.

After someone has already been confronted, been held accountable, made up for their hata (sin, literally "going astray"), and we've all moved on without another incident, we should acknowledge that this person has learned from their mistake and bring it up again only if they transgress again

otherwise why do it

Show threadShel For The PublicSep 13, 2017
when you just say someone's name or are somehow affiliated with someone, and another person brings up something they did wrong some while back, ask yourself why? what is the useful purpose of bringing this up besides to say "this person is Bad" and is it the entire story? sometimes this is a useful interaction and sometimes it is not. use your best judgement. if someone routinely is a broker of pointless nasty gossip, we call them Ba'alei Lashon Hara, lords of the evil tongue.
Show threadShel For The PublicSep 13, 2017
"But Puppy!Rabbi! Why does HaShem tell us that Lashon Hara is Hata?" Well when any and every mistake/misdeed you ever make is never forgotten and constantly mentioned, it makes people extremely terrified of making mistakes. If admitting to any mistake means it will be held over them forever, then learning and moving on isn't an option. So instead they tend to get defensive and insist it was not a mistake and refuse to learn, in order to hopefully stamp down the criticism. Nobody learns. No accountability.
Show threadShel For The PublicSep 13, 2017

If this kinda of extreme proliferation of Lashon Hara throughout a community becomes dominant, you get extremely paranoid anxious communities with incredibly toxic all or nothing approaches to each and every conflict. Your stance on any one person's mistake puts you into factions of social groups who condemn each other for associating with or defending each other. It rips apart communities and makes everyone miserable.

Absolutely confront people when they fuck up but when it's resolved, move on

Show threadShel For The PublicSep 13, 2017
Bringing this up cuz gosh i sure do remember chr apologizing for That Thing He Did pretty soon after being criticized and then undoing it. So why bring it up? You can keep personal grudges all you want but unless he did something else similar to that, which afaik he has not done anything like that since, then there's no reason to bring it up and make it a community issue all over again. It was settled. Let it rest.
Show threadPan💔
@shel just wanted to say ty for writing this. a social solution for a social problem ^w^
Sep 13, 2017 at 5:20amWeb
Show threadShel For The PublicSep 13, 2017
@pan hehe thanks. I feel like a broken record bringing it up every few months but I'm glad it's helpful. Thank God (literally) for the concept