Moloch, Religion, and Population
The Haredim “problem” we have in Israel is also a Moloch Trap. The Muslim “problem” in the rest of the western world is similar but different.
Let’s start with the first: Judaism, like every religion, has a convoluted history that left us with the branches we have today. We have Reformists, Conservatives, and Orthodox sects (Let’s leave the Secular and Traditionalists out of this one). The newer ones, Reformists and Conservatives, have only been around for a few decades and are still a minority. But Orthodox Jews aren’t that simple either. There are many subsects of those. But this point applies to basically all of them: They have more children per family than any other denomination, 6.6 children on average according to recent data compared to 2.1-2.4 that is the general average. This means that over time, Orthodox Jews will become a bigger and bigger part of the population. A part that, in Israel at least, mostly distance themselves from everyday life of work, military service, and participation in the mechanisms of the state (some don’t. I had a couple in my university preparation classes), a part that will more and more require financial support from the smaller and smaller population of active tax payers. Despite more and more Orthodox and “Ultra-Orthodox” people splitting off in favor of regular life every year, their leaders, the Rabbis and “Askanim”, actually work to keep those societies isolated and under control. So yes, it’s easy to point at them and their lifestyle that is significantly less well off than your average middle-class, more secular family so I don’t fear that other people will want to join them, but this is a shift that must be addressed by the state in some way, at some point, or the economy is set to tumble.
A lot of Muslims around the world are very similar in this respect to our Orthodox Jews: They have vast numbers, they emigrate to western countries, often rejecting the culture of the country to which they emigrated, and their religion is highly, damagingly, frighteningly critical of any notion of secularism or conversion. Haredi Jews are also very critical, often disowning and ghosting the splitting son/daughter, but their smaller numbers, the lesser general fear of the religion, and the wide accepting communities in Israel make it less of an issue. Add to that that you most likely know of famous people who converted to Islam (We also have those in Judaism), maybe changing their name in the process, but have you seen or heard of a celebrity breaking away? I haven’t (Warning: Argument of Incredulity. Give me your spears).
All of this to reiterate: Because, in Israel, the Orthodox have increasing relative numbers and thus increasing political power, they get the government to basically fund most of their own escapism from everyday life. They are using “legal” political power to take more of the cake without giving back enough, gaining an easier, “more profitable” position at the expanse of everyone else. Luckily for us, the response here is mostly to fight it instead of trying to join it. With Islamists, mostly in Europe, their relative numbers are increasing while their integration is not. With more numbers, though not a lot of political power (yet), they feel free to engage in actions that are usually not tolerated in polite society, as you can see from the increasing violence and hate crime.
I do not want to condemn one religion or another. I am an atheist but I will defend anyone who wants to believe whatever as long as it’s not harming anyone around them. It is hard to standby, however, when singular actions lead to hate of entire groups, when extremists are gaining more power and pushing everyone towards more extremism, when populism wins out because people are more disconnected from the truth and care less about it, and mostly when people feel so entitled that they ignore the fact they are a part of civilization that is more than 8,000,000,000 strong made out of people exactly like them that all deserve the same access and the same opportunities.
We won’t have that for long if we allow more Enshittification and exploitation of Moloch Traps.
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