Notpashut,
I took a poll amongst my friends about having a Rav. Everyone told me that they do to some extent. Some are in temporary areas and use their childhood rabbonim. Others are in a permanent place and use the rav of their shul. A third category have a rav that they are using right now and are searching for a new one (for whatever reasons) but still ask the first rav their questions until they find a “permanent solution.” I only had one friend who doesnt have a Rav, but honestly, I am not sure she cares to follow halacha very well so it wouldnt matter much. I would call her on the cusp of practicing/non-practicing.
About the vilifying the black hat/charedi communities – I think the vilification goes both ways between MO and black hat /charedi. In my experience, it is also more likely to happen from the black hat community to the MO community than vice versa. I think this is because many MO kids are becoming black hat / charedi and their parents still love them and accept them. The families I know where the kids went from black hat to MO (in general) have a much harder time accepting their children for who they are.
Just remember, you admitted that you don’t think MO is halachically sound. Why are you asking the MO community to respect your halachic path when you don’t respect theirs? Isn’t that a double standard?
As for maikel/machmir – I think its a circular debate because the terms are sort of dependant on each other. 10 is greater than 9, but 11 is greater than 10. Its a reference point, rather than an absolute.
One more thing about TV: if you can accept that it wasnt damaging (and was beneficial) to me, why cant you accept that for some people it can be beneficial? I think that people who cannot handle TV should absolutely NOT use it but that its a personal decision. Thats it 🙂
Intellegent, I don’t think notpashut has had trouble saying what he thinks. We have had plenty of spirited debates on this site before where he has been involved. I just think we will have to disagree on wheter or not notpashut is the only one speaking “truth,” which is what your post seems to imply.
You didnt really flesh out your statement that you think yeshivish people are more “frum” than modern orthdox. Can you give some sort of explanation?