site banner

Transnational Thursday for April 16, 2026

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Some friends in my right-wing group chat shared a photo of him in a yamaka with a star of david on it.

You know that, contrary to popular belief, non-Jews can wear yarmulkas and neither God nor Mossad would strike them down? Also, contrary to popular belief, it takes more to become a Jew than putting a piece of cloth on your head, even if you photograph the occurrence. It is hard to believe that a person with the last name of "Magyar" is actually a Magyar, but it seems to be the case here.

I mean I get where it's coming from - Hungarian Jews are one of the most prominent branches of Ashkenazi Jews, who gave the world prominent people from Teodor Herzl to Robert Fischer to Milton Friedman to Edward Teller to Paul Erdős, and many many more, so when you see a smart, successful, prominent Hungarian some may be tempted to ask the question. In this case, however, the answer is "no".

The retard right finds the motte.

I have no dog in this fight, nor am I particularly Joo-pilled. It was more of a curious piece of evidence that might have weighed in on a model of behavior. Not every underlying model mechanism is correct.

That's the point - it's not "piece of evidence" of anything. OK, maybe it's a piece of evidence Magyar is not a flaming antisemite, since otherwise he'd refuse to wear the yarmulka, but beyond that it's not much of an evidence. Certainly not an evidence of him being or not being a Jew. I don't know about the particular photo but likely it was in the context of meeting some religious Jews on a religions occasion (such as celebrating a Jewish holiday maybe?) - and it's completely appropriate for a non-Jewish person to wear one, e.g. when visiting a synagogue. In fact, in most such places, when you enter, there is often a pile of yarmulkas near the entrance so anybody entering could take one and be polite. If he wore it day to day, it'd be weird for a non-Jew to do that, but I don't think he does.

In a data modeling understanding, everything is a "piece of evidence" any observation, any data, is fuel for the bayesian model. I observed it, made a tentative connection, stated my theorized connection, you and the other poster pointed out why is not a likely connection, I updated my understanding model of the what/when/where/why's. The end.

Idk why you are jumping at this so aggressively.