
Shibboleths that get you past the initial script stage - signor_bosco
https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1201003855770607618
======
notacoward
I've found that pretending to know someone's profession, or one related to it,
is generally a _very bad_ approach. It's easily seen through, at which point
you're worse off than before. Instead, what I do with members of other
professions is try to impress on them that I do _not_ know their business but
respect its complexity and our roles within the scenario. Whether it's a
doctor or a plumber or even a computer technician (a field which I probably
_do_ know better than they do), I explicitly steer away from diagnoses even
when I have a pretty clear idea what the problem is. Instead I describe as
clearly as possible symptoms, timing/frequency, possibly related changes,
things I've tried and results I've gotten, etc. This has generally worked much
better for me than deceptive or manipulative hacks. Often I get thanks or
compliments for having made their job easier, which makes me happy. YMMV

~~~
nkrisc
This method works wonders for corporate tech support. They're pretty used to
the "my monitor won't turn on (it's not plugged in)" type users so when you
try to tell them you know what's wrong, they assume you're there former type
and you have no idea what you're talking about. Instead I very clearly tell
them the specific symptoms and relevant information that they would look up
anyway.

Recently I had a corporate installed process maxing out my CPU so I went to
the help desk to see the techs (the triager at the front desk thought it might
be a fan issue and that I didn't know what was wrong). Since I was able to
tell them the exact process and other details, they immediately recognized it
as a specific issue they had seen before and we skipped the whole diagnosis
back and forth. If I had gone in there and said, "the fan is running really
high" I'd probably still be there.

~~~
michannne
I do support along with my usual dev work and interface with users daily. I
can't count the amount of times I've heard "I'm pretty sure it's because
of..." followed by something completely unrelated, along with a stubborn
resolve to not try the professional's recommended solution

~~~
Aeolun
I think I’m about 50/50 on thinking their solution is absolute bull and being
right, and having made a retarded mistake and their solution solving
everything.

~~~
exikyut
This seems like a very scalable sane default presumption, in any case.

------
PragmaticPulp
Many of these are equivalent to demanding to speak to the manager in order to
get what you want. That can backfire quickly if you’re not careful.

> Present as if you are collecting a paper trail. Prominent indicia of this
> include notebooks, organized files, and repeatedly asking for specific
> names, dates, and citations for authority “for my notes.”

I worked at a smaller company where any semi-threatening support requests were
escalated up the chain to me. The “I’m taking notes to use against you” trick
was a sure-fire way to get your ticket escalated, but it had the reverse
effect of what customers expected. Our front-line support was empowered to
diagnose customer problems, issue refunds, replace product, and even give
customers free upgrades as a token of apology.

However, once the customer threatened us with the note-taking act, we had to
be extremely careful about anything that would admit fault, lest they try to
use it against us later. Or worse, try to take our statements out of context
and tweet them to the world. Once the customer escalated the request, they got
slower responses (support wasn’t my primary job), more limited options
(minimize potential admissions of fault), and narrowly constrained
communications (assume every response will be retweeted out of context to make
us look bad).

Before you try these “Dangerous Professional” tricks, please just try to be a
decent human with the front-line support staff. They deal with difficult
customers all day, and the last thing they want to do is encourage another
person to play the difficult customer role to get what they want. The opening
example (Xcode visible in dock creating mutual understanding) is very
different than sending your demands directly to the company’s general counsel
or threatening to take notes for future retaliation. Please don’t use that as
option 1 in your communication toolbox.

~~~
mycall
> However, once the customer threatened us with the note-taking act, we had to
> be extremely careful about anything that would admit fault, lest they try to
> use it against us later.

That is hardly fair as the whole "this conversation may be recorded for
training purposes" puts the caller on edge right from the start. Are they
allowed to record the call too? Is that legal?

Obviously, the caller should just record the call and tell the other side they
are doing that. I guess most people don't know how to record calls.

~~~
dqv
Maybe not in larger organizations, but in smaller ones those recordings really
do get used for training purposes. And to verify claims about what _agents_
say. I don't think the intent is to intimidate callers, but to let them know
that something an agent says to them can be verified. I know it saved me
before when someone claimed I was threatening them and using inappropriate
language.

>Is that legal?

For the most part yes.

>Obviously, the caller should just record the call and tell the other side
they are doing that. I guess most people don't know how to record calls.

Yes they should. It's even better to take notes on things you miss by
listening to the recording.

From experience, though, the people acting like "Dangerous Professionals" are
just dangerous to my psychological well-being because it's almost impossible
to distinguish them from any run-of-the-mill ass hole.

~~~
imgabe
As a customer I would have zero expectation that the company would use one of
their recordings to verify something in my favor.

------
zer00eyz
Find the accounting department at work and make as many friends as possible.

These people see the "numbers" (and that is the heart of any business). They
can get your checks expedited (reimbursement or for vendors). They can tell
you when a lay off is coming, or when the company blew out the numbers. Most
of them keep booze at their desks. All of this will come at the price of
coffee and doughnuts/pastries/baglels at the end of the fiscal year, or during
an audit.

~~~
eschneider
Or when they close out the quarter. Don't skimp!

~~~
vertis
I made a friend in the accounts department when we had to reconcile our credit
cards. He was manually copying and pasting stuff into excel for reports for
his boss.

Needless to say I whipped up some easy to use scripts that did the job for
him. It changed my relationship with that department.

You become visible and friendly. You're not just someone making work for them.

------
jordansmithnz
I’ve given thought in the past to some sort of ‘support reputation system’.
After calling tech support, they’d rate your manner and how capable you
seemed, and this would feed through into your future calls (e.g. calling an
ISP with a genuine + very technical question might mean you go straight to the
highest tier of tech support next time you call).

It would save time for tech support workers too; no need to vet very tech
capable callers for things like ‘have you tried turning it off and on again’.
So theoretically, the call wait time might even reduce for callers with
simple/obvious questions.

There are probably some details to iron out and problems to solve, but the
basic idea seems pretty feasible to me.

~~~
ahofmann
Over the years, the people who were technically capable were the ones who made
the most unnecessary work for me. I trained myself to ignore everything they
tried to do to solve the problem. If I have a technical problem, my colleagues
should do the same with my input.

~~~
turbinerneiter
I had issues before were I was 100% convinced to know the issue and gave the
supporter a really hard time walking me through the script. Wasn't as
pretentious of an asshole anymore after the "this won't work, it has nothing
to do with my issue" actually worked.

Nowadays I'm always trying to walk through the steps posted in the self help
manuals before I actually call. If you tell them that you already did
everything in this manual, they also move on quickly after a couple of
questions to double check.

------
mirimir
> Any bureaucracy: Present as if you are collecting a paper trail. Prominent
> indicia of this include notebooks, organized files, and repeatedly asking
> for specific names, dates, and citations for authority “for my notes.”

This is my wife. A survivor of over three decades in the corporate world.

~~~
mirimir
Edit: I wasn't clear that I respect her hugely for this.

------
ValentineC
Another article from the same author on how to be a Dangerous Professional:
[https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-
credit-r...](https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-
reports/)

(HN discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15206926](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15206926))

~~~
fogetti
> “But I’m not a shareholder!” A surprising amount of Americans are
> shareholders in large financial institutions. Do you have an IRA? Does it
> invest in e.g. mutual funds? If you own a mutual fund or index fund, you are
> highly likely to beneficially own fractional shares of US financial
> institutions. Someone who owns 0.01 shares is a shareholder; welcome to the
> magic of capitalism.

I like this guy. He has great insight, this is very well put :D

~~~
aguyfromnb
> _I like this guy. He has great insight_

I'm sure customer service people and healthcare professionals _love_ people
coming on premises and throwing their weight around with exaggerations and
half-truths.

The people I know would put you on the bottom of the list.

~~~
lolc
You're lacking context. It says that when you don't know where to send
correspondence at big banks you could try and address investor relations
because they are usually bored and will gladly forward your complaint to the
right department. This is where the investor part comes in. And only there.
Other suggestions are that you could address the legal department because they
are diligent by law. Or the CEO, because if it gets handed down from their
office it will have more weight.

Note that the cases talked about involve legal deadlines so knowingly delaying
to handle them is not a good option.

~~~
aguyfromnb
> _Note that the cases talked about involve legal deadlines so knowingly
> delaying to handle them is not a good option._

Are we reading the same thread? The cases talked about are mundane customer
service interactions.

My significant other works in consumer facing healthcare. Every day customers
come in proclaiming they "know the owner" or "are a lawyer" or "will take
their business elsewhere", expecting to be prioritized. This isn't some clever
life-hack; the people who do it are, in my opinion, jerks.

~~~
lolc
I'm talking about the article linked in the comment upthread which is about
identity theft. Where in that article or the thread was it suggested to refer
to yourself as a shareholder to customer service? It's only ever mentioned as
a reason to contact investor relations.

The author specifically recommends against grandstanding exactly because it
signals "not a professional". So I really don't get your complaint.

------
rdl
Interesting USG shibboleths are using the correct acronyms, especially for
insider stuff (TDY, "allowances", "authorities", and referring to NSA as NSA
and not "the NSA", CIA as CIA and not "the CIA", State for "the State
Department", etc.)

~~~
whatshisface
Is that good grammar? If you expand out the acronym you get "I work at
National Security Administration," and if you remove the adjectives you get "I
work at administration." Administration isn't a proper noun so that's why you
would want to use "the."

In electrical engineering you are supposed to say "DIP" which stands for dual
inline package, but laymen tend to say "DIP Package" which expands out to
"Dual inline package package." In that case, having the wrong words adjacent
to the acronym means you don't know what it stands for. That's in contrast to
"the NSA" vs. "NSA," where the public (might?) have it right.

~~~
PascLeRasc
The more common ones I hear are "PCB board" and "MCU microcontroller". "CAD
design" used to bother me too, but I think it's become its own legitimate term
for the sub-genre of CAD, since we're used to also using Solidworks for stress
analysis or simulations.

------
netcan
This is (hopefully not) obnoxiously off-topic...

As a Hebrew speaker, I wish the "shibboleth" idiom (which is a good one) was
translated, rather than transliterated. laoned idioms are inherently exotic,
and this one is worth demystifying

It means any choice of word (or pronunciation, in the literal example) that
clearly identifies the speaker's group affiliations.

A good modern example is "LondonDerry/Derry. This'd be my my choice for an
English translation of shibboleth.

These tweets are about hacking shibboleths, which is advanced mode. Basic mode
would be just noticing shibboleths, and also why and how they so clearly
identify speakers.

Shiboleths can have serious weight, can be used to disarm/arm. They're
probably interesting to text analysis as a classifier. You can use them to
reliably imply things about you, like patio does

One hack among many possibles. I'm looking forward to Mackenzie's modern
Machiavelli YouTube series using Derries.

~~~
aasasd
> _I wish the "shibboleth" idiom (which is a good one) was translated, rather
> than transliterated. [...] A good modern example is "LondonDerry/Derry.
> This'd be my choice for an English translation of shibboleth._

Well, the thing is, I'm not an Englishman so have no idea what's the deal with
‘Derry’ is, but I know what a shibboleth is. It has become an English term—and
btw not an idiom in English since it has no other meaning in that language.

~~~
netcan
I agree. Terms become terms and we can't change it.

I just meant that idioms tend to be richer when the source is material.

Point taken on finding an example that everyone understands.

Any political context creates shibboleths by the dozen. The UK is good for
making ones that stick around. "Nationist" and "National" political movements,
for example, are apposite (and opposing).

~~~
aasasd
Yeah no, don't do that. After reading about the Derry thing, I realized I
better forget all about it and never mention it in the presence of an
Irishman, a Northern-Irishman or anyone else from GB, and especially not botch
my reference to any one side. ‘Shibboleth’ has the nice quality that no
Ephraimites recently had, or are likely to soon have, misfortunes because of
the phenomenon, and the whole affair was three thousand years ago.

Where I'm from, some people, having nothing better to do, occasionally raise
noise saying that ‘to each his own’ is offensive because it happened to be
written by Nazis on a concentration camp. I don't think I need any more
unnecessarily politically aroused stubborn people around than there already
are.

~~~
purple_ducks
> never mention it in the presence of an Irishman, a Northern-Irishman or
> anyone else from GB, and especially not botch my reference to any one side

It's really only an issue in written form.

In spoken form, the London part is silent so they're both just pronounced
Derry..

Signed,

An Irish person.

------
braindeath
This is not always fair but saying “500mg of acetaminophen” is more likely to
get you labeled a kook or someone with illness anxiety disorder, at best
someone trying too hard, rather than a pro. Doctors in the US say Tylenol..
like most brand names it’s easier to say than the generic.

~~~
perspective1
Exactly this. It's mostly just the ivory-tower kind of docs that say
"acetaminophen" over "Tylenol." If you use the generic of something like Zosyn
"Pipercillin/Tazobactam" you'll firmly go in the weird category. Same with
most (but not all) antibiotics. The normal parlance changes from generic to
trade with each drug and even region of the country.

The actual medical shibboleth is knowing your dose and dosing interval, total
doses over time period X, dose adjustments, that gives doctors the information
they need about your drug. Basically just know your history down cold. You'll
be forgiven for mispronouncing med names, using the trade or generic name when
the other one is more common, etc. Nobody cares. _All (yes, all) doctors have
a specific framework when it comes to history taking, and it 's easy to get.
And it's easy to tell when people don't get it._ It goes something like, "I
(or pt Y) have med problem x, y, z. Recently, I noticed u happening. I tried
a, and then b but neither worked." Boom. You're now miles ahead of everyone
else seeking care, you're not wasting time while the doc tries to organize and
digest everything you're saying, it's that simple.

------
itamarst
For health insurance claims in the US, apparently you want to say "I want to
file a grievance", at least in Massachusetts (magically fixed $5000 bill where
health insurance company was obviously lying). I'm told "I want to talk to the
ombudsman" also works.

~~~
kevindong
Doing this for regulated utility companies (e.g. electric, natural gas, etc.)
generally also works.

NYC's electric utility, Con Ed, was giving me a massive run around [0] until I
filed a complaint with the New York State utility regulator. After that, Con
Ed fixed my problem within a week.

[0]: Long story short, Con Ed installed new electric meters that were supposed
to automatically send readings to themselves but they never "provisioned" it
(to this day, I don't know what "provisioning" means). But since they had
installed those new meters, they stopped sending out meter readers to my
apartment building despite the building manager repeatedly making appointments
that the meter readers never showed up to. Consequently, my apartment building
of ~400 units got estimated bills for three consecutive months.

------
swebs
>it isn’t a state secret that “500mg of acetaminophen” and “a Tylenol” are the
same thing

I always make a habit of specifying the chemical name anyway since certain
drugs have different names in different regions. For example, if you were to
order Benadryl in the USA, you'd get diphenhydramine, but in the UK, you'd get
cetirizine. Also sometimes if you specify the brand name, they'll give you the
brand, rather than the generic.

~~~
rdl
Another pharmacy one is just saying "brand" vs. "generic", generally.

------
Amorymeltzer
Had something similar at the Apple Store as well the other day. I had the wifi
turned off on my laptop while waiting, and when the genius came over and
turned it on, it wouldn't connect. After about a minute we came to the fact
that I used (google|cloudfare)'s DNS (apparently Apple's wifi doesn't like
that), which was enough of a signal that we likewise skipped a few steps.

------
mwattsun
The misuse of slang is probably the most common indicator that a person is not
really a member of the group. Or not even slang, but just using the wrong
word. For example of both, I know a businessman who retired recently and
decided in retirement to present himself as a laid back ex-hippie (I live in
Santa Cruz - a good choice of persona for this area) He grew his hair long and
started wearing tie-die. Except, he referred to himself as a "hipster" back in
the 60's who did a lot of "psychotropics" instead of psychedelics. It was
obvious to me at least that he was never a hippie in the 60's and this was
borne out later

~~~
pgcj_poster
Note that the word "hippie" actually comes from an older usage of the word
"hipster"
([https://www.etymonline.com/word/hippie#etymonline_v_12029](https://www.etymonline.com/word/hippie#etymonline_v_12029)).

~~~
mwattsun
Right, but hipster usually meant cool cat beatniks, not flower child hippies

------
dmitryminkovsky
>A bank: a) Do it only on paper. b) Address to any of Office of the President,
Chief Compliance Pfficer, General Counsel, or Investor Relations.

My dad speaks English as a second language and asks my family to proofread
things. I have no idea where he got this from, but there was a period of time
when he'd write letters addressed to the President of JP Morgan, or, The
Comptroller of Maryland, etc. At first we all thought he was just being kooky,
but lo and behold these letters were effective for all sorts of issues.

~~~
tyoma
This is my dad too. I thought he was nuts, but it was very effective.

Looking at your name I am going to assume that like me you are from the former
USSR.

The explanation my dad said is the following: a lifetime of dealing with
soviet bureaucracy informed him that orders always flow down, and each worker
tries to prevent complaints from flowing up. Therefore, to get a problem
resolved, your request has to come from up high in the bureaucratic hierarchy.

The easiest way to do it? Write to the very top and hope they forward it down
with a note saying “fix it”. Then it will get fixed.

~~~
arkitaip
Soviet Life Lessons needs to be its own site or at least video series. I'm
being serious as someone who lately has been reading up on the Soviet and
realizing that its people developed amazing survival skills to deal with the
trauma of daily life.

~~~
dmitryminkovsky
This isn't quite what you're describing, but
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClXTAMdHwvWdmFyOlQmEtpQ](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClXTAMdHwvWdmFyOlQmEtpQ)

------
seanwilson
Somewhat related, but when working with new clients for freelance work, I
usually ask them if they can write complex Excel functions, make their own
website with HTML and if they know any programming languages. After that, I
adjust my level of jargon and what analogies I use to explain stuff to match
what they know.

------
mmahemoff
Technical support would go more smoothly if they asked about the submitter's
technical level.

Dreamhost's support form used to have a field on how technical are you. The
options went something like "I know nothing" to ""not being funny, but I
probably know than you".

~~~
villahousut
I wonder why they dob't do this - it would be a win-win for every ne. I've
done this for years, describe in the initial ticket your environment, and say
that you're reinstalled several times. Stuck for weeks with Microsoft and
Adobe on the part where they just keep parroting the script and asking to
reinstall no matter how many times you say you're done it. It's infuriating!

~~~
GordonS
I imagine a lot of people would oversell their capabilities. And to be fair,
as annoying as it is to run through a script of basic things, _sometimes_ it
will work, even for experts.

------
randomsearch
Relatedly, when on an automated phone line “press 1 for accounts” etc I just
mash the keypad and/or make random noise down the phone until it sends me
through. Otherwise try staying quiet after being presented with options.

------
monkeycantype
I have found when speaking to police officers, that they find it soothing if I
spell names in the phonetic alphabet (alpha, bravo, charlie) and describe
people and events in a structured way, as if I am intending to assist their
note taking. (a Caucasian female, approximately five' nine, professional
appearance, mid forties, dyed red hair cut shoulder length, in a grey coat
driving a silver mercedes convertible ALPHA WHISKY NOVEMBER SEVEN SEVEN NINE')

------
otakucode
The one example with regards to doctors has worked for me in the past. I am
sure the doctor didn't get the impression that I was a doctor also (I'm not),
but when in my initial meeting with a new doctor the fact that I knew the non-
brand names of OTC medications and mentioned only asking for antibiotics after
having a fever that wouldn't break for more than 48 hours she basically said
"oh you know what you're talking about, if you ever need antibiotics just call
me and I will call in a prescription for you." I'm not a medical professional,
I'm just technical and value precision and knowledge, and doctors seem to
appreciate that. It helps if they can relax and not worry about overwhelming
the patient by suddenly dropping chemical names or the real names for
disorders, diseases, etc. If you show that you're actually interested in that
stuff and not an 'alternative medicine' type that they have to pick and choose
their words with like tip-toeing through a minefield, they can relax and do
their job.

~~~
Tenoke
I'm very skeptical that any doctors think you are a doctor because you know
Acetaminophen and Tylenol are the same thing (the example from the tweets) in
general.

I know doctors and they are typically very used to people 'knowing' random
bits from their googling before they came in, and would rarely act like the
patient has an actionable expertise even if they do.

In this example I suspect the doctor would've ended up giving you the option
to just call in for antibiotics at some point, regardless of your knowledge of
the names of OTC medications.

~~~
weinzierl
> I'm very skeptical that any doctors think you are a doctor because you know
> Acetaminophen and Tylenol are the same thing (the example from the tweets)
> in general.

That's what I thought too, but at the same time I don't doubt the rest of what
otakucode described. Being well prepared and honestly interested gets you
often a long way. More importantly the expert (the doctor in this case) does -
in my experience - almost never care if you are a _real_ doctor, your wife is
a doctor, you abandoned med school, etc. All they care is that there is an
individual that seems to speak their language and that they can at least try
to skip the translation layer and explain the problem in their own language -
which I think is relief to them.

Being well prepared and honestly interested instead of trying to leave the
impression to be the expert is the key here I think. With that being said I
wouldn't advise stressing not being an expert in the field either. This only
puts up a barrier and puts the real expert under pressure to switch on the
translation layer again.

------
aazaa
> (This is partly about demeanor, above all not looking confused about the
> process, and partly judicious use of shibboleths. I’m occasionally surprised
> how few are required; it isn’t a state secret that “500mg of acetaminophen”
> and “a Tylenol” are the same thing.)

I can't think of a single situation in which it's a good idea to make it
appear as if your medical knowledge is greater than it is. When the
conversation shifts to whether your child is allergic to diphenhydramine,
you'll wish you had taken a different approach.

Try honesty and interrogative-led questions instead.

~~~
hawaiian
It would be remarkable if one could be allergic to a general antihistamine
such as diphenhydramine. If anything I would suspect an allergy to an adjunct
or inactive component.

------
cowpig
I had never seen the word "shibboleth" before reading the article about "The
Real Class War" this week, and now I'm seeing it in the title of a submission
days later.

It's not spiking in google trends[1], but I wonder if the usage of this word
spiking in this community? Or did this twitter user read that article? Or is
it just coincidence?

[1]
[https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%201-m&q=...](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%201-m&q=shibboleth)

~~~
FabHK
Might be the Baader-Meinhof effect.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases#Frequ...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases#Frequency_illusion)

------
artsyca
How about 'lollapalooza' this word was similarly used to distinguish friend
and foe

~~~
lolcat5e
Likewise for Scheveningen (Dutch/German)

~~~
cjfd
There is an even nicer word for dutch/german.
slechtstschrijvende/schlechtstschreibende. Yes, 9 consonants in a row and you
have to pronounce all of them like you are a beatboxer.

~~~
artsyca
Yet I'm downvoted as usual the whole point of these shibboleths is that
they're hard to pronounce but the LondonDerry/Derry example set forth is not
hard to pronounce but based on cultural context anyone can call San Francisco
"Frisco"

------
goatinaboat
Of course if you take this to it’s logical conclusion you end up with Masonic
handshakes...

------
fortran77
Today, Jews who attend synagogue know the bible, because it's read, chapter by
chapter, out loud, every Shabbat, Monday, and Thursday, and continuously
studied in yearly and multi-year cycles. Yesterday, Jews everywhere heard the
story of Esau and Jacob, read in Hebrew.

I don't think any Christian denomination does this, so unless you attend a
specfic religious school you'll never learn the Christian bible (which
includes parts appropriated from the Jews)

~~~
crazygringo
Sorry, but this is a completely inaccurate generalization of both Jews and
Christians, both of which are incredibly diverse populations with practices
that vary incredibly widely by denomination, country/region and social group.

Bible study groups are a common Christian thing in many, many churches, for
one. Also, it's fairly loaded to suggest that Christians "appropriated" the
Old Testament. Perhaps you could choose less divisive language.

~~~
fortran77
It is in poor taste to refer to the Hebrew Bible as the "old Testament."

~~~
TimTheTinker
It’s common usage within the Christian community to refer to it as such.
Christianity’s roots are in Judaism - and that fact doesn’t constitute poor
taste. So neither does using the Christian term for the Tanakh within a
Christian context.

Now, knowingly calling it that to a Jew might possibly be interpreted as a
form of disrespect, but in my experience most Jews don’t mind at all. It’s a
shared scripture, so there’s common ground there regardless of the terms we
use.

~~~
fortran77
Saying that the bible of a certain religion is obsolete and has been
superseded (which is what "old" means in this sense) can't be interpreted
kindly to say the least. You have every right to feel that it is obsolete, of
course, but you should at least realize that this is not going to be
considered well by the people whose holy books you appropriated, modified, and
replaced.

~~~
TimTheTinker
> which is what "old" means in this sense

You’re very mistaken. “Old” in the term “Old Testament” does not mean obsolete
and superceded, at least not in the way you mean. To think so would be
considered heresy from most mainstream Christian schools of thought.

“Old” and “new” are, with regard to the sections of the Christian bible,
temporal designations delineating the law and the prophets that were written
_before_ Messiah and the writings that came _afterward_. But all of it is
considered to be the holy word of God.

As any Jew knows, the coming of Messiah heralds major changes in religious
life and practice. As Moshe said, “you shall listen to him”. If some believe
that has happened, that’s no slight on the former scriptures. In fact, if such
a Messiah were to declare them no longer the word of God, any Jew would know
and be right to say that such a person is a false messiah.

So there are _aspects_ of the Tanakh that the coming of Messiah causes to be
obsolete — like certain temple practices, or the first covenant at Sinai.
Jeremiah 31 speaks of a “new covenant” God will make with the house of Israel
and Judah. That doesn’t mean the first covenant is no longer God’s word.

It’s like when David gave directions for the construction of the temple and
Solomon built it, that didn’t mean Moshe’s directions regarding the tabernacle
were no longer God’s holy word — even though there never again was a
tabernacle.

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everyone
So when this guy is dealing with a doctor. He pretends to be a doctor himself?
I assume the doctor would notice the guy is acting like a weird asshole for
some reason but not mention it.

I guess the tweeter thinks hes being cool and 'hacking' his interactions with
people, but I reckon he's just acting like a weird asshole and people are
having to deal with it.

This is just quite funny imo.

~~~
partyboat1586
Completely agree. The guy should look at his own profession first and realise
how easily he could spot people who learnt a few phrases or facts then look
again at himself.

~~~
everyone
Yes, exactly.

