apollo-enthusiast

[apollo-enthusiast]

Okay this is gong to sound condescending on several levels but:

There's a kind of cliche about training a dog - that if you want it to always come when it's called, you should never scream at or punish it when it does. Even if you just spent twenty minutes getting increasingly panicked thinking it was dead in the woods! Even if it had been trampling through the neighbors garden! It is very important that it's direct association is 'stopping whatever super interesting thing I was doing to go back to human = being praised and rewarded'. If the association is instead being screamed at or punished, the dog will be less enthusiastic to stop whatever fun thing it's doing to run to that.

I feel like a great many people would noticably improve their own lives if they started applying the same logic to how they treated other humans.

[apollo-enthusiast]

*As a city (culture, architecture, landscape, people etc.)

**I put this here because there are so many of you guys and it would skew the results

Also pls tell in the tags if you live/have lived there, I want to see if it affects people's opinions

[apollo-enthusiast]

you’re telling me this guy lives in Israel? of course he isn’t kosher… look at that face… that’s a friend…

[apollo-enthusiast]

Of course you'd think Jews are white if all the "Jews" you know are random white people lying for validity/attention.

[apollo-enthusiast]

Y'know all the Gen Z folks online who oversimplify the entire world and all morality into a binary oppressor and victim dynamic which...just doesn't reflect reality? Which routinely regards murdering, raping, suicide bombing, gay-hating, misogynist terrorists...as the good guys. Want to know how they developed this particular set of cognative distortions?

This worldview, often seen among Millennials and very common among Gen Z leftists, was produced by the corruption of a good and useful bit of critical theory meant to address nuance, complexity, and compassion: intersectionality.

Coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality began as a way to explain how different forms of discrimination overlap and interact, especially for Black women who face both racism and sexism in ways that neither anti-racist nor feminist frameworks alone fully addressed.

So, for example:

A white woman might face sexism but not racism.

A Black man might face racism but not sexism.

A Black woman faces both, and often in compounded ways.

This seems like a helpful way to understand complexity in lived experiences, right?

Because it is! It's fantastic and appropriate and necessary! Sojourner Truth brought it up in 1851.

So late Millennials and Gen Z college students were exposed to sloppy versions of Crenshaw's thesis and, like a lab leak, the idea spread beyond academic critical theory into activist and online spaces...where it began to mutate into something else entirely.

Instead of just understanding overlapping disadvantages, intersectionality became a kind of oppression calculator.

People began to stack their marginalized identities in a way that assigned moral authority. The more marginalized identities you hold, the more your voice is prioritized.

If you have "privileged" identities (white, male, cisgender, etc.), you may be expected in leftist spaces to sit down, shut up, and only listen.

The problem is that it is awfully illiberal to grant agency to (or take agency from) an individual based on their group association.

(Liberals recognize that as old fashioned bigotry masquerading as justice.)

Oppressor/Oppressed

So this framing helped flatten the complexity of individuals into a binary of oppressor or oppressed, based solely on which and how many marginalized identities one can claim.

This framing inevitably led to hierarchies of victimhood in which competing identities are ranked to determine whose suffering is more valid.

Leftists seemingly trade memes like the one below without irony:

That's the origin of Oppression Olympics.

This is where it went completely off the rails, with some movements and organizations deciding that only those with certain identities or performed political perspectives should be permitted to speak.

But what if you're not a holder of one of these victim identities? Well, if you belong to a privileged group, you're now the proud owner of collective guilt and you are held responsible for the system of oppression, even if you've personally done nothing wrong.

This made it easy to turn entire groups, millions of complex people in varying and complex circumstances...into simplified moral symbols.

If a group is judged powerful or privileged, it (and anyone associated with it) is an oppressor.

If a group is judged marginalized, it becomes the victim.

Wait, though - it gets worse.

Once this kind of "intersectionality" (which no longer resembled Crenshaw's) became part of the social media discourse, algorithms the boosted simple, emotional content that aligned with the victim/oppressor binary. In social media, engagement is everything, and it distorts everything.

Gen Z folks are particularly susceptible to these distortions because they have spent most of their lives soaking in performative social media activism which offers a (wrong but) clear, simple, binary moral compass in a world which otherwise feels messy, confusing, and overwhelming. This gives them the opportunity to express solidarity with those who suffer injustice, which makes them feel like they're good people for siding with the good people against the bad people.

So intersectionality went from "people are complex" to "if you check [X] boxes, you are righteous, and if not...you're complicit."

Intersectionality started as a tool for empathy and nuance, helping us see how systems of oppression intersect and interact. This, I want to repeat, is great.

In social media activism, though, it got flattened into a worldview where people and nations are judged morally based on their group identities and perceived power.

This isn't justice. You can tell that it isn't justice because justice is rarely so simple, binary, and completely devoid of nuance.

Okay, so there's the mindset of the Gen Z leftist. Let's look at how they apply it to Israel.

The facts and history of the Arab/Israeli conflict don't fit neatly into this framing, so the narratives must be re-written to cram them into the shape such leftists demand:

Palestinians = oppressed

Framed as an indigenous, stateless people living under military occupation and suffering from systemic discrimination, they are victims without agency who need the good people of the West to save them from...

Israel/Jews = oppressors

Cast as a colonial, European, settler colonialist, imperialist, racist power with military dominance, seen as inflicting structural violence on a vulnerable population. And because they don't read history (just memes and TikTok), they believe this oppression has been going on from time immemorial.

(That's perhaps part of where they get the idea that "Palestine" is an ancient civilization.)

This framework, this need to be on the right side of a false binary requires them to aggressively ignore, bury, borrow, downplay, or invert all Jewish historical trauma, indigeneity, and security concerns...all to make a complex set of circumstances fit into the box of their simple moral binary.

Think about it. Isn't that the content of most of the ugly comments you get from them? Simple, moral binaries which aren't supported by facts, evidence, or reason.

(Yes, the far right Gen Z folks do the same thing, but in a mirror...where victim and oppressor just...switch places. That's a topic for another time, maybe.)

Israel as White Colonial Power

Israel is increasingly racialized as "white" or "European," despite its multi-ethnic population (including ~50% Mizrahi/ Sephardi Jews and ~20% Arab citizens).

Zionism, instead of being recognized as a liberation movement for Jews after ~2000 years of genocides and ethnic cleansings, is recast as an extension of European settler colonialism...despite Jews being undeniably indigenous to the region and never meeting the definition of the term.

The term's definition must be changed to cram Israel into the oppressor box! Remember when Amnesty International could only try to make "genocide" stick to Israel by changing the definition?

Remember when Ireland demanded that the ICJ change the definition of genocide for the purpose of slapping that label on Israel?

Its still effin' ridiculous, but this finally explains their cognative distortion of reality. They have to distort reality in order to feel okay about themselves.

Palestinians as Eternal Victims

Palestinians, to be crammed into this framing, are depicted as having no agency, portrayed solely as victims of Israeli evil.

Violence by Palestinian actors (terrorism, 138 suicide bombings, incitement...October 7th...) is justified, excused, or omitted as a "reaction" to occupation. They're oppressed, say the leftists, so they bear no responsibility for their choices.

Like children. Infantilizing, isn't it?

Power is Oppression

Israel's military, economy, and alliance with the US make it the powerful party and therefore the oppressor. Why?

Because the framing requires the more powerful side to be morally wrong...even if it is acting in self-defense.

Not satisfied with existing Jewish Erasure, this victim/oppressor framing erases:

Jewish indigeneity to the land.

The Holocaust's role in accelerating global Zionist momentum after WWII

The ethnic cleansing of 850,000 Jews from Arab lands, most of whom went to Israel.

~2,000 years of Jewish ethnic cleansings and genocides.

This false binary requires that Jews be racialized as white and labeled privileged.

De-legitimizing the oppression of Jews usefully de-legitimizes their right to self-determination.

So history, facts and reason are set aside, any attempt to bring nuance to the conversation is shut down, any fact of view shared by an Israeli or a Jew is obviously a lie because Jews, remember, are oppressors. As a result, any defense of Israel is framed as siding with oppression. (Once again, Jews are just wrong and evil and will be condemned regardless of what they do.)

Again, think about it. How many times on Tumblr have you seen a reasoned defense of Israel and the response from the tankies is something along the lines of 'you're lying and defending genocide.'

The victim-oppressor lens simplifies the complex, long-term Israel-Arab conflict into a grotesquely, dishonestly simplified morality play with a powerful villain and a powerless victim.

That's why kids who claim to care about justice do shit like this:

Understanding how they got like this is just the first step.

The next question is:

Can they be de-programmed?

Thoughts?

[apollo-enthusiast]

[apollo-enthusiast]

[apollo-enthusiast]

And dual loyalty!

I hope someday in the future there is a real reckoning regarding how the spread of rampant, vile, atrocious antisemitism ushered in a permissive atmosphere for countless other strains of prejudice to flourish.

[apollo-enthusiast]

המתח המיני בין מפקד אחד למפקד השני שבא ללחוש לו המשך לוז באוזן

[apollo-enthusiast]

It was a long time coming: An incomprehensive list of similarities between antizionism and transphobia:

An obsession with deadnames: Transphobes tend to insist on calling trans people by the name they had before they transitioned. Antizionists tend to insist on calling Jewish people who Hebrewfied their name or just changed their name to a Hebrew one, by their old name.

"If you want your own representation so badly, why don't you make it yourself?" *representation exists* "omg why do you have to shove it into our faces all the time??"

"One of the good ones", tokenization on the greater scale of hate - Queerphobes will look for transphobic LGB people to use as tokens, and nothing more. Similarly, antisemites will look for antizionist Jews to use as tokens. And nothing more.

"Your existence doesn't add up with my beliefs, so clearly you just don't exist / you're not who you claim you are"

"Actually zionism is the real antisemitism slash the reason antisemitism exists" / "Actually trans people are the ones giving a bad name to queer people"

"They are coming for us": "Trans people want to turn other people" / "Zionists want to take over the world"

Pretending to care about academic sources but actually disregarding most studies made (studies showing Jewish indiginity over the levant / studies showing the results of transgender healthcare)

"Why would you need to be defended? You are already the most protected group on the planet!"

Obviously a lot of Nazi background for both rethorics.

Pretending to care about children, oh but not THOSE children: Transphobes basic off of "protect the children" because "trans people are trying to turn out children trans", ignoring how untreated dysphoria leads to higher suicide rates among trans youth, or how a trans kid is literally murdered for being trans; Antizionists claiming to care about kids dying but cheering on when Jewish kids are being fucking murdered.

Refusing to listen to the targetted group about their own fucking experience (because clearly they're lying to achieve some secret agenda).

This might be a small thing but demonization of a flag to extreme extents: "The star of david is problematic because it appears on Israel's flag" / being "suspicious" of anything that's colored using the same scheme as the trans flag (or any queer flag in this case)

Hating on an identity trait and/or claiming it's not actually an identity trait, thinking that claiming enough that people don't exist will make it true ("Israel doesn't exist" / "there are only two genders")

Treating an identity trait as an ideology (being Israeli equating to an "evil" ideology / being trans equating to an "evil" ideology)

This one is pretty universal but telling people to kill themselves

Telling people their very existence actively causes harm

Being nosy and not minding their own fucking buisness (antizionists actively looking for posts made by Jews/Israelis to send them hate, transphobes actively looking for posts made by trans people to send them hate).

"Why make it your entire personality???"

you lot are welcome to add more

edit א:

"i identify as a toaster" / "it was promised to them 3000 years ago"

edit ב:

"cis is a slur" / "goy is a slur"

[apollo-enthusiast]

Goyim need to understand that every single jew in the world is my family. Even when I don't like them. Even when I HATE them. No one else is looking out for us so we have to look out for each other and sometimes that means caring about absolute motherfuckers.

Something prompted me to write this but idk what anymore i just found it in my drafts

[apollo-enthusiast]

מה שאירוני בישראל זה שרק ממשלת שמאל יכולה לנצח מלחמות ורק ממשלת ימין יכולה לעשות הסכמי שלום

[apollo-enthusiast]

A bit more political than usual but:

There has been a rash lately of blogs posting anti-Israel stuff in the jewish tags.

Now, I am not going to get into a discussion about whether or not being anti-Israel or antizionist is antisemitic or not, if you care you can look it up yourself.

What I will say is as follows: the 'jumblr' and 'jewblr' tags are used for jews to talk about jewish stuff. It is also used by non-Jews to talk about Jewish stuff on occasion, or for Jews or Jews-in-progress to talk about whatever.

All of which is fine, I am not a gatekeeper of tags.

But what it is not for is for a non-jewish person to use in a post unrelated to Judaism, written in an intentionally inflammatory way, so as to aggravate at least 80% of tumblr Jews.

You have also started to use the 'orthodox' 'Judaism' and 'frumblr' tags, which are (even amongst Jews on tumblr) basically only used to discuss the religion itself.

So I want to be clear: You are being antisemitic.

You are entering a Jewish space and screaming loudly so as to drown out whatever the Jews are trying to say.

It doesn't matter what your screaming, you could be making posts about star wars with no political implications and it would be the same (provided you did it with the same frequency).

I am pretty sure this is all one person, as there have been about 10 new blogs in the last 5 days that follow basically noone, have one non-political post, and then constantly spam politics in the Jewish tags.

And the fact that you have made all these accounts (with seperate emails, as each one has it's own like and following page which doesn't happen with sideblogs), means you know on some level that what you are doing is wrong.

I do not care what you're reasoning is, what your defense is: You are making the primary way that Jews on tumblr communicate with/find eachother practically unusable, and that is an antisemitic act.

So, to whomever is doing this. If you have an ounce of capability of self reflection: read this. think about it. be better.

If you don't? Well, you are fucked anyways, because this behaviour will eventually leave you friendless in the real world.

[apollo-enthusiast]

Remember to love yourself, let love be your strenght 💕

[apollo-enthusiast]

I was searching for a picture for my lockscreen on pinterest... found these funny pictures instead (the 1st one is my favorite)

[apollo-enthusiast]

[apollo-enthusiast]

Captain America and Superman are Jewish responses to the Nazi idea of the ubermensch that ask different, but equally compelling questions in response to it. Captain America asks "what if the ubermensch was real, and he loved Jews?" and Superman asks "what if the ubermensch was real, and he was a Jew?"