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[paulpablo]

For example, have you ever been ashamed about being an atheist and so modified your behaviour in a certain way just to avoid the subject?

No, I never did - if asked or if the conversation went a certain way. I'm me and if you can't deal with that, I'm probably better of without you (not you personally, of course, but in a general way).

Some 18 years ago, I had some conversation and it turned to jew bashing. I proudly mentioned my own jewish heritage, not because I'm actually proud of the coincidence of birth or both of my grandfathers having been jewish, but because to point out the bullshit argument this is. Blaming someone just for the coincidence of birth. It told me something about the people I was talking to, and that I didn't have that much in common with them as I thought.

There are matters I can't keep quiet about when they come up. I would hate myself if I idly sat by to watch hate- and fear mongering happen.

I can relate to this slightly.  I'm part Polish and there's sometimes some anti Polish sentiment, some people might call it racism, going around these days.

Sometimes it can be something that's not even conclusively against Polish people, just a feeling I get when people will say things like "It's all full of Poles down there." In a certain tone.  

It can go up a notch to talking about sending Poles back to where they came from and stop them taking our Jobs.  I agree with limiting immigration if you're going to have boarders, but it's hardly a nuanced and productive idea just to "send them back where they came from"

The worst or funniest experience I had relating to this was with a girl  I hadn't seen for years and decided to visit her again and she was talking about Polish people and how they shouldn't be allowed in the country, shouldn't be able to buy property or own businesses.

I could have told her that she'd done lots and lots of x rated acts with someone who is part Polish and from a very Polish heavy family but I just couldn't be bothered. In her case I just really felt sorry for her, she was jobless with two kids, quite heavily into drugs and anemic from an abortion she'd had and she's criticizing Polish business owners.

It's really weird to judge people on their nationality I personally think.  I think you could rationally criticize a specific culture if something within that culture resulted in more rape, child abuse, things like that.  I think there are differences in the races of people but not so that any individual from any race should be judged dependent on which race they generally belong to.  But when you criticize a nationality you really are against them because of the rock they were born on, not their behaviors or their genetics or what they believe.  Just simple because they popped out of a vagina in a specific location.