#(in a i am a raging leftist way)

[m-a-d-e-l-e-i-n-e]

I hope leftists who think they’re above voting for president or are voting for Jill Stein or whoever because it’s their stupid way of protesting the system feel good about themselves, especially if Trump wins partly because of your negligence 😍 I know you’re not doing shit to plan the proletarian revolution, especially before January, so you guys better not complain about something harming you that you didn’t even bother to try and change

(edit: changed the last part bc I wrote “…if life gets a lot worse for you” cause that does nottt sound right at all and I apologize for writing that)

[horsyunicorn]

I just still. cannot believe all those ppl who consumed media with clear leftist political messages in their youth, didn't pick up on them, grew into right-wingers, and are now complaining about everything being too political

[apocalypseofvanities]

me when i’m in an answering the question i was asked competition and my opponent is running for president in 2024

[comradecowplant]

The sims 4 is 100% a comfort game, but only after I've been able to calm down somewhat beforehand, because oh sweet lord the way those pixel people DO NOT LISTENNNNGJFJDHEGGE will push you over the edge some days if your equilibrium is not already equalized 🙏

[skyethel]

What does Judith Butler know about loading her son’s corpse in a cab? What does she know about the horror of turning a taxi into a hearse?

im so mad. i've been in mourning and a state of constant rage for palestine for the past few years, and these past weeks have been especially devastating. while im not palestinian myself, i have friends and family that are, and i cant help but be on edge about the things they cant afford to think about right now.

i read their 'thought piece'. its nothing new on that front, and thats why it makes me so mad. im really struggling to connect with the blind, white-american privilege of calling for non-violence in the face of a genocidal apartheid regime. the fucking gall of these so-called western intellectuals to preach how rampant anti-intellectualism has become just to turn around and buy into some colonial playbook of peace shit is hilarious. people i thought were with me on this, not only on palestinian liberation but on liberation full stop, have been a constant disappointment. i cut off so many ppl i called friends over the absolute lack of grace and empathy they handled this with. when are white western 'activists' going to stop treating us like timed bombs of irrationality?

this part in particular kept coming up and made me feel like i was going insane:

"When, however, the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee issues a statement claiming that ‘the apartheid regime is the only one to blame’ for the deadly attacks by Hamas on Israeli targets, it makes an error. It is wrong to apportion responsibility in that way, and nothing should exonerate Hamas from responsibility for the hideous killings they have perpetrated...The necessity of separating an understanding of the pervasive and relentless violence of the Israeli state from any justification of violence is crucial if we are to consider what other ways there are to throw off colonial rule"

literally nobody is asking anyone to 'exonerate' hamas. hamas is a military organization fighting the US-backed israeli occupation with smuggled weapons that is active in 365 km² at best. hamas is not even in the orbit when it comes to comparisons to israel.

israel said it with its own mouth that hamas is a product of israeli occupation. this isnt a matter of opinion, right? or am i too far left to think that a brutal occupation will radicalize its victims? and they gave them the means to become a 'terrorist organization'? how are you claiming to care about palestinians if you don't bother unsubscribing from the very schools of thought that constructed the occupation in the first place?

some of you 'leftists' have been lying about what you've been reading because where are the frantz fanon quotes you like to throw around, huh? where's the malcolm x, the angela davis? where are your insta posts with chomsky's books?

holy shit WHAT OTHER WAYS?

keep our communities out of your mouth. we are not some thought experiment you can exercise your conscience on. we're watching an ethnic cleansing unfold, and instead of supporting palestinians so many of you are playing out your own little fantasies of the 'progressive' solidarity you fail to show. sometimes, you need to fucking stop and listen instead of consulting the higher morality police on whether you need to 'contextualize' your incompetence.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

Sorry for throwing this at you but you're the most politically active person I follow so I thought I'd ask you for a second opinion. A few of my friends are getting mad at Harris and Biden for peacefully ceding power to Trump, calling it capitulating to fascists. And while I definitely understand the rage that this is happening, am I wrong in thinking it's kinda ridiculous to expect anything different? Unless some big evidence of election fraud comes out, Trump is currently the rightful President-Elect. I don't see how the Dems could just deny him without just arresting or killing him. If they just drag their feet I feel like the Republican controlled Congress would just step in and force it. So like, even if it was possible to accomplish I feel like it'd destroy the party's reputation at best and completely wreck our democracy in it's own way at worst.

The fact is, peaceful transfer of power is important and needs to be preserved. We do not need a leftist January 6th. We need to reckon with the fact that we lost because not enough people showed up and figure out how to avoid that in future, not search for a reason why we should do an authoritarian takeover of the government but for leftist reasons which makes it okay.

And if principles aren't enough, appeal to pragmatism: anything that the Democrats do to try and reclaim the White House even though they lost what was by all accounts a free and fair election, the Republicans will use as precedent to do the same in the next political cycle. Do not set that precedent.

[kickthecan-revolution]

This is long.

I had dinner last night with my friend/employee who’s here for a work trip. He had some incredibly profound things to say about the election that I’m still thinking about today.

I’m reflecting on where I could have been braver. Where I could have been kinder. Mostly, on a part of my life where I was on staff with Young Life, a Christian organization I was heavily involved in during college, and afterwards. When I graduated, I signed up to support a small tutoring program in Seattle’s Central district with at-risk kids that were little, not in high school. Mostly Black and Samoan. My parents hated it. I was the rebel.

The most profound thing I experienced from that year was seeing and contending with my own racism. My classism. I learned how my family had made choices in where we lived so it was predominantly white. I felt unsafe being the minority. I hated how I was seen differently by the other white people in camp, I was there with the kids who made them uncomfortable. I saw how much my identity was viscerally tied to being one of them, these white leaders who had so much fun, were so funny and made me feel like I belonged to a group of people who wouldn’t reject me. But it was these kids who made them do that, I thought to myself. Now they see me as “other”. I hated it.

I remember buying a brand new car and the kids oohing and hanging over it, and I felt sick, realizing the wealth disparity between us. I was 22 years old, realizing some of this for the first time.

It was the most uncomfortable time of my life, I hated almost every second of it but I emerged from it differently, mostly because my Black and Samoan colleagues were so kind to me. I confessed a lot to them - I asked a lot of questions that were likely exhausting for them. They never called me a racist, even though it would have been true. They never scolded me. They loved me and were excited for me that I was on this journey. They were right next to me the whole way. They weren’t shy about asking me questions or saying hard things. They moved in a way where I felt deeply accepted in my vulnerability. Looking back, how hard that must have been in the face of my ignorance is not something I take lightly. It was by far, the most foundational year of my life, I think about some aspect of it almost everyday. I became more aware. Less racist. More empathetic. It changed me permanently.

One man in particular, a speaker at a camp, said something to me that became a core memory. There was a certain girl that was very tough, and I was trying to figure out how to be with her. He just stared at me, probably bewildered and said “just hang out.” that answer baffled me at the time, mostly because I had no idea how to do that with anybody. He spoke to a large group of people after that, mostly white people, and someone asked him how they’ll know they aren’t a racist anymore. He quietly said “when you are willing to give a person of color the full and complete control - the last word - on who they are.” I’ve never forgotten that. Isn’t that what any of us want?

There’s much to be humbled by. Am I invested in being angry, or effective? Everyone infuriated me during this election - Trump supporters, Christians, Andrew Tate supporters, Joe Rogan fans Jill Stein supporters, even pro-Gaza supporters and a lot of the Leftists in the political landscape. I was furious with everyone who wasn’t completely behind Harris. I called people racist on the internet. I called them evil. I scolded, I routinely and regularly vented my moral outrage. The worst part is that I meant it.

So this is my confession, this hatred. My misuse of moral outrage. My need to feel like I was liked.My rage when someone wasn’t acting in my own very specific terms. My behavior that made so many defensive instead of supported.

Ironically, those who I felt were screaming at me (broadly, not specifically) for my Whiteness, for not supporting Gaza enough, saying I support genocide if I didn’t do or say or agree with their very specific terms of support absolutely shut me down and I felt myself pulling further away from them, just keeping all of my thoughts to myself. I wasn’t brave enough to say it out loud and felt like I couldn’t, after all it was largely this group that got us a decent candidate in the first place. Were they right, and I was just being defensive? Well yeah - they were right. And yes, I was defensive. Maybe I didn’t care enough. All I knew is I was tired of being told my level of care was not acceptable, and trying to appreciate the position that the VP was in with our Ally as Putin pushes further into Europe meant I didn’t care at all. That was not giving me the last word on who I am, and I was pissed. I stopped learning about it, I minimized my engagement with them. There was no psychological safety to be vulnerable.

It’s overly simplistic to say who is at the heart of that blame-wise. I think it’s more important to acknowledge it’s pretty human, and the damage it causes when we go underground is significant. And that in this decolonizing journey, I still don’t know how much of the oppressed opinions of me I need to accept if it doesn’t ring true for me in my soul. If there’s any space to say “no you’re wrong about me.”

And I have to wonder if that’s how a lot of people in the country who voted for Trump felt about me. I know that’s true. I wanted to feel like I was part of “the best”, and I treated them as though they weren’t. I hated their character - I still do. They genuinely frighten me. But being the same as those who I saw as the most righteous was more important to me than anything else, it was more important to belong to those I saw as “right” vs being effective. It’s my need to have a family. To not be alone.

It is also my Whiteness, needing to never feel rejected or that someone is mad at me, that’s how it manifests most for me but I’m glad I’m at the place where I am know it’s not entirely that. I am not my Whiteness entirely, though people can and do see me that way. I still get to acknowledge those other aspects of me that many might be unwilling or just not invested in seeing.

Getting at the root cause of why we (white women) do so much damage is mystery and is pretty personal but I think there has to be space for vulnerability to see the brokenness inside of us that is the source of so much unconscious, harmful behavior. There are margins of us that are broken and kind of insane - what do we need to get ahold of it? Is there any solution? I don’t know, beyond something supernatural but I do know being scolded by those who are aligned with elevated values does not seem effective. Part of me as I write that says “oh my God, are you saying you need to be managed and catered to?” that’s gross if the answer is yes, and exhausting. I just don’t know what’s truly effective in promoting change. Part of me wonders if full change is possible and we just need to be overcome/minimized/outnumbered. Its possible.

So I own a lot of contribution to this failure. This rage I feel is weird, particularly when I''m not going to be hurt much by any of this. I need to figure out what parts of it are grounded in empathy and which parts aren't. All I can do is be more honest about my missteps, my own lack of character and braver in talking about it and hope the journey will find some companions along the way. Or not, most of this is a journey we take alone, I guess.

Do you want to be angry or do you want to be effective, Diane. You can be both, but not when they cancel the other out.

[theautisticjedi]

'This is not Kamala's fault' I mean. It kinda is.

You tried to court Republicans who were never gonna vote for you anyway (and didn't) instead of focusing on the youth vote. She had only four months to get people to vote for her because Biden was too cowardly to step down, so that's fighting a battle uphill, which is not entirely her fault. You doubled down on securing the border, which most leftists are against/have concerns about the way these immigrants are treated. You doubled down on your support of the ongoing genocide instead of taking a strong ceasefire stance, which a lot of younger people care about.

Was her being a woman a reason she didn't win? Absolutely. Was her being black a reason she didn't win? Absolutely. Was rampant disinformation a reason she didn't win? Absolutely. Was her campaign strategy a reason she didn't win? Absolutely. Was her support for the ongoing genocide a reason she didn't win? Absolutely.

Am I annoyed at people who voted third party? Yes. But those third party votes would not have done much to get her to win.

Am I even more annoyed at people who didn't vote? Yes. Especially those who didn't vote not because they hated both candidates, but because they didn't care.

Democrats need to learn they can't just hold people's rights over their heads every election. The people are tired.

Do you remember at the DNC conference when people wearing Palestine shirts got kicked out? Do you remember when they laughed in the protesters' faces? Instead of supporting these people, or even just ignoring them, they got nervous, it would make them look bad and kicked them out. They have no spine. They're too worried about losing money than raising their voice.

You can't just keep saying 'well the other side is worse' every single time. We all know that.

The democrats will attack black people, mulisms, and trans people for not voting for them, even though those demographics primarily did. But they'll ignore the demographics that didn't because they either see it as a lost cause or because they think they don't need them.

If you made it to the end of this post, take a very deep breath. Take a break from your phone for an hour, go wash your hands, use the bathroom, take a shower, eat something, brush your hair, go outside, play with your pets, go to a rage room, go to a cat cafe, watch your favorite movie, read that book you've been meaning to forever, take a pain relief pill (because I bet you have a headache right now), drink some water you're dehydrated.

Don't sit in defeat, get angry, and use that anger. Demand change from the democrats. Don't take anything that happens in the next four years lying down. Get angry. Get angry at people who voted for him. Get angry at democrats turning a blind eye to genocide.

And remember one thing. You must outlive Donald Trump. You can do it. It's what got me through 2016-20. Do it out of spite. Do it out of rage. They want you to lay down and die, but you must get up. You must keep going. When you're feeling hopeless, just remind yourself that you will see the news that he has died sometime in your future. Maybe not as soon as you like, but it will happen. You will live to see a better world one day. And you will.

[itmeblog]

I'm not sure how much this matters any more, because I've been vetting my own stuff and the problem has shifted a bit, but let's talk propaganda and the Palestinian Genocide (and fatigue).

Propaganda is essentially biased information used to influence public opinion. It tends to do this by targeting people emotionally.

Make no mistake. There's a lot of propaganda coming from the IDF (with marginal success... they don't really understand their audience any more and the emotions they're targeting tend to be national pride and righteous rage, both of which they've lost a handle on.) But I've run into a lot of propaganda on the left too.

And the emotion that I've seen a lot of leftist propaganda target when it comes to Palestine (particularly people trying to keep up to date and informed) is guilt.

Personally, I think guilt has limited use. In the right amount it can spur people into action but too much can force people to disengage.

I'm saying this because I've literally seen posts that go "You are directly responsible for this man's death!" and spool out the bloodiest most torturous story about the death of a teenager. You'll also see "don't you dare look away". "The world is doing nothing while Palestine dies", "the world is only watching", etc are also favorites.

And I think that falling for these tactics has the potential to lead to the sort of self-flagellation that we in the US tend to witness most often in the form of White Guilt. Which has the same consequences listed above, it either forces people to act or disengage entirely. And threatens to turn into White Shame, which is the difference between "I feel bad for what happened" which can lead to "how can I fix it", and "I am bad" which leads to spiraling and burnout.

The latter isn't terribly helpful to the Black community. I'm going to surmise that it won't help the Palestinians either.

So, when I felt myself falling into the self-flagellation pit, I started asking myself simple questions: What is the goal of the article I'm reading? What is the purpose of the caption? What is it trying to make me feel? What does it want me to do? What is the purpose of the video? (The answer to the videos, particularly the bloodier ones, is not usually to cause guilt, but rather to document and inform the public of what's happening, in the hopes that someday someone will be held accountable. It bears saying that I refuse to watch them for personal/mental health reasons but you can often get the gist from an article or video description if you wish to stay informed.)

And it's helped a lot. If the goal of a piece is to make me feel guilty, or watch something heinous, I click away. If the purpose of a piece is to inform me (either of the situation or places to donate) I read on. It's also helped me choose what to share, which now tends to center on ways to help, which I find people engage with more meaningfully.

This is all to say, I think it's worth looking up articles on propaganda and how to interact with it, if only to identify it so you can interact with the piece in a healthier manner. Or decide where you want to focus your attention.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Phyllis Chesler

The young women who demonstrate for Hamas are surprisingly vulgar, physically aggressive and self-satisfied. Their body language is, dare I say it, rather male. They curse. They enjoy the discomfort they cause in Jewish onlookers. Some wear hijab and niqab (face masks). Others wear Queers for Palestine t-shirts or sport black-and-white checked keffiyehs as scarves.

These girls and women are super-sonic “mean girls.” They smirk as they triumphantly tear down posters that feature the faces of kidnapped Israeli civilians. They look quite happy with themselves when a Jewish student appears visibly distressed.

Leftist women of all ages, many of whom are Jews, and some of whom are rabbis, lead chants against Israel. They wield megaphones, blow whistles and bang drums. They are seasoned, “in your face” performers and feel utterly righteous about drowning out everything and everyone else.

Of course, the young pro-Hamas men are even louder and more menacing. They are taller and wider. They scream, mullah-style, in hoarse voices of rage and are sometimes armed with knives, sticks and guns. They use their feet and their fists to kick, hit, beat or sucker-punch anyone who dares to carry an Israeli flag, wears a Jewish star or is in any way visibly Jewish. I’ve seen this in videos and heard about it from people who were there.

This hot Jew-hatred has been brewing for a long, long time. Yet it is being experienced as sudden and unexpected. The sight of Jewish blood on Oct. 7 has activated what we may metaphorically think of as “sleeper cells” that have been well-trained in mob violence against the Jews. These mobs are now on the move around the world and on American campuses.

Young American Jewish students, both women and men, are shocked, reeling, in free fall. They are traumatized. Frightened. Students did not suspect that such Jew-hatred existed so close to home. Like Anne Frank, they truly believed that all people were basically good. (Frank never exactly believed that, however.)

Such Jewish students are not prepared for a pogrom; or for the fact that Israel is now fighting an existential battle for its survival.

From a psychological and practical point of view, here’s what the students must learn. I am now addressing them directly:

First, you must understand that you have suddenly been drafted into a war. You must think like soldiers. In particular, you must accept that it does not matter if your enemies do not like or love you. A soldier’s only duty is to fight to win.

Second, you have to learn not to take anything personally. If you are cursed as “colonialists, racists, Islamophobes, capitalists,” it has nothing to do with you, who you are or anything that you’ve done. Jew hatred/antisemitism/anti-Zionism is a sickness, a virus, a plague that has afflicted Jew-haters. The shame is theirs, not yours.

Third, you must accept the fact that, despite exceptions, most people, both young and old, tend to be cowards and conformists. If you stand up to evil, if you stand up for Israel, you will lose friends, teachers, employers, even family members who may strongly disagree with you. This is the price that telling this particular truth exacts.

Fourth, you—or your parents or Jewish and Christian organizations—must fund armed guards to keep each one of you safe, just as synagogues and Jewish centers require armed guards. More importantly, you must spend at least a year or more learning Krav Maga or some other form of self-defense.

Believe it or not, if civilian haters, even in mobs, know they you know how to fight, they may decide to leave you alone. It’s happened many times before in Jewish history.

Fifth, it is important that you find like-minded students and meet regularly both in person and on the internet.

You have no choice. Please realize that the sight of Jewish blood excites and thrills the Jew-haters. The sight of Jews fighting back brilliantly and methodically, as the IDF is currently doing, enrages the Jew-haters.

We are not going to win any popularity contests no matter what we do. Like Golda Mair, I say: Let’s survive. Let’s win. We are in that kind of battle.

I must thank trauma psychiatrist Dr. Larry Amsel, with whom I discussed these ideas. You will hear more from both of us soon.

[ohanny]

KentaKim royalty AU!

(screw “five fun facts” i have never been good with rules, @le-trash-prince hope you don't mind)

once upon a time, in a land far, far away tony is king and also a giant, sexist dick. he rules his kingdom with an iron fist, over-taxes the poor, believes alphas are the shit and omegas are only good for breeding and has made being the royal gardener into the most perilous position in the land (he beheaded four gardeners last year alone for over watering his bonsais and one for looking at them with “malice in his eyes”). but even a grand monarch like tony must have allies - and since everyone thinks he's a raging asshole, he actually desperately needs them which is why he resorts to the oldest royal scheme of them all: MARRIAGE.

enter kim. kim is the royal omega from an extremely wealthy kingdom just across some ocean stretch and sails into town, set to marry tony’s eldest son babe. (well, currently eldest. tony does not have a great track record when it comes to keeping custody.) babe is not very enthusiastic about this situation since he is carrying a secret affair with the castle archivist, charlie. (and by secret i mean pretty much everyone except tony knows but since they like babe, they just pretend babe actually is that passionate of a reader behind closed doors.)

but babe also has a conscience and really feels bad for kim who seems like such a nice young man so when they stroll in the gardens, arm in arm, far enough from their chaperones for an illusion of privacy but in their sight so nothing uncouth could happen, babe apologetically whispers that he finds kim bewitching indeed but alas his heart belongs to another. to which kim says “oh thank fuck, i would rather jump off a cliff than let you knot me”

babe: well that’s a bit harsh.

kim: also your dad’s shit.

babe: i mean -

kim: and i am here to kill him

babe: um -

kim: by the way, pete says hi!

and oh pete, tony’s original eldest son who years ago sadly perished (was banished) because he fell off a horse (because he dared to do something as leftist as write poetry to the stable boy way). it was actually kim’s family who sheltered pete and recognized him as a way better option for tony’s throne and kim is in cahoots with him, going undercover. in return of a proper alliance and the liberation of tony’s people, kim’s family will get rid of tony - plan a being an assassination, plan b an outright invasion.

plan a is proving to be quite tricky due to tony being a paranoid motherfucker, but kim is patient. of course something has to throw a spanner into his plans and that something is someone: namely kenta, tony’s secret bastard son most loyal knight. it starts when kenta is sent to summon kim to afternoon tea and sneaks up to him so quietly that he startles kim and suddenly finds himself slammed against a statue with a knife against his neck - oh how the turns have tabled!

kim: oh shit.

kenta: …

kim: i mean oh no, you scared me kind sir!

the knife disappears in the blink of an eye and kim let’s out this ditzy little giggle and offers his arm all “isn’t it time for tea! how lovely!” steadfastly ignoring kenta’s disbelieving are-you-fucking-kidding-me eyes. and well, kenta does escort kim to have his lovely afternoon tea with the other palace omegas. and then keeps escorting kim everywhere. no matter where kim tries to sneak off to, kenta somehow always finds him and it takes everything he has in him to not snap and scream because it is infuriating.

and then the ball happens. because of course there has to be a ball to celebrate the fortuitous engagement full of fancy dresses and foods and wine and palace plots! kim wants to take the opportunity of all the chaos and security being centered around the throne room where tony holds court to sneak but this time it is not kenta who catches him first. this time it is just your regular assassin hired by your regular jealous local omega noble who had their eye on babe and are now pissed they missed out on the royal wedding special. kim is honestly a bit shocked because “seriously?!?” but then kenta, once again, appears out of nowhere and steps in front of kim to shield him as the assassin attacks.

kenta kills the assassin but gets rather seriously hurt in the process. they’re alone in an empty hallway and kim is applying pressure on kenta’s stab wound, cursing up a storm, just letting it all out because what’s the point of hiding anymore? he goes on an epic, totally not panicked, rant about his fuckass skirt and who the fuck wears this many frilly layers, it is the most impractical shit ever and how he totally could have dealt with the assassin on his own if it weren’t for these damn petticoats! “see this is what's wrong with your entire society!” kim hisses as he drags kenta towards the sick bay. “obviously your omegas cannot do anything because who fucking could wearing all this crap! i am a person, not a cupcake!”

kenta stares up at kim in awe. he should probably have more questions but… wow. at least he can blame it all on blood loss.

so anyway, kim dumps kenta outside the sick bay and then runs off before anyone can see him and his blood stained clothes. he enters his room, sends a maid to the party to tell them he suddenly felt ill and retired early, and then spends the rest of the night pacing, pretty sure he fucked up and should be fashioning a rope out of his sheets to scale the tower and disappear. but nothing happens. he hears there was an attack, of course, and sir kenta got hurt but when questioned, kenta looked tony straight in the eye and said he must have hit his head because he cannot remember anything.

kim really could have done this without catching feelings but fuck.

so the next time he and babe have their little garden stroll, kim lowers his voice and insists they will add kenta to the list of people who will be protected at all costs. when babe sceptically exclaims kenta is tony’s right hand man, kim stares him down with a “he goes on the list or you can kiss me and my armies goodbye.” that is one thing dealt with. the next is actually avoiding getting knotted by babe because tony would love to have them married by the end of the month and that cannot happen. so kim starts delaying by any means necessary - he insists his religious beliefs demand they be wed when the stars are aligned a certain way and oh, he simply must have pink gardenias in his ceremony! it has been his dream ever since he was a little pup but alas it is november so they must wait until gardenias are in full bloom!

kim in the council meeting in his cupcake dress:

tony, gritting his teeth: of course. we don't want that.

but the longer kim delays, the more tony suspects something is off. kim is cagey and his mask is wearing increasingly thin. there are rumblings of soldiers making moves and gathering in kim’s kingdom. fuck, even kenta is being shady with his head injury and insisting he keep an eye on kim and then come back with shit like “he complained the tea wasn’t sweet enough and then accompanied babe to the library to read poetry.” absolutely useless, that one. the horror.

of course this will all come to an end when tony, sick of kim’s antics, invites him into a totally non-threatening family dinner in the privacy of his quarters. babe is there, as is kenta, guarding the door. it is the tensest consuming of roasted quail the kingdom has ever experienced with buttholes all across the land clenching for seemingly no reason. for dessert tony serves kim tea with a side of hair yank and knife to a throat with a “you will marry my son in three days time or take a dive off the tallest tower, you filthy fucking -”

aaaaaand he has a knife in his back. it's unclear who looks more shocked: tony or kenta himself who kind of acted on instinct when he saw his kim threatened and about to be married off to someone else. he is about to just go full catatonic because oh, what has he done when kim grabs his face and kisses him. “wow. the plot twists just keep on coming” babe says to absolutely no one but if he has leaned one thing from charlie, it is that someone needs to narrate things for the record.

(of course it isn't as easy as simply getting rid of tony but it is a great start. they will have to weed out loyalists and find out who they can trust and then rework the whole damn constituion but hey, no tony! pete and way will ride in with an army at their backs only to meet open gates and a very smug kim (happily wearing pants) stating “i told you my ass was irresistible enough to get the job done!”)

[safety-pin-punk]

Damn its like people aren’t allowed to have an opinion on this site.

So instead of relenting, I will repeat myself. I did not misread the post. I understand the post was saying that being punk requires both enjoying punk music and being inherently leftist. I get that. Really I do. I just. Do not agree with it. Sue me.

Punk is SO much more than just a music genre. (Though yes I am FULLY AWARE that it is a music based culture. And it started because of the music. And etc etc etc.) i’ve actually written an entire post on EVERYTHING ELSE INVOLVED IN PUNK CULTURE BESIDES THE FUCKING MUSIC (you can find it here)

I simply, in the year 2023. Do not understand WHY you would so heavily enforce the idea that someone HAS to like punk music to be a punk. If there are two people who are dressed alternatively, and engaged in leftist actions, it doesnt matter which of them likes punk music. To the outside world, both of them are troublesome punks. Hell punk used to just be a word used to refer to gay people. I hate the idea that there is this defined line between who qualifies as punk and who doesnt. Its a word with a definition. Words and definitions change and evolve over time. Get over it.

And even going back to just punk music. What even is punk music? How do you define the genre?? You dont! Because its SO diverse!!!!!! The only common thread is that the lyrics have leftist values! And if you want to go that route, a lot of hip hop artists or old country songs are actually SUPER leftist!! But you wouldnt call them punk. Is it the distorted sound? Well distortion goes all the way back to rock music in the 60s!! (And honestly probably further). The use of the word punk to describe music doesnt even start with punk music in the 60s/70s! IT GOES ALL THE WAY BACK TO 1899

Sure we can all look at the Sex Pistols and agree that is punk music by a classic punk band. But what about Green Day? Or is that just alt rock? Or Rage Against the Machine? Are they too metal despite their obvious punk influences? Do you see what I mean??? Its all alternative. To anyone outside of these subcultures they dont care. It just. Gets WAY too gatekeepy for me with these kinds of stupid arguments. Just let people listen to whatever the fuck they want. I’d rather call someone listening to pop music but hates cops with a burning passion and is willing to do something about it a punk than someone more concerned about peoples music tastes than actual fucking problems in the world.

And you dont have to agree with me. Thats fine. You are entitled to your opinion as well. But next time, instead of assuming I’m stupid and being a prick about it, how about you just unfollow. Cause you can do that. Hell if I really annoy you, theres even a button to block me!

[sad-daddy-long-legs]

So I went to the Hozier concert on Friday, and it was lovely for all the reasons I wanted it to be of course, but at the end, Andrew spoke about the US voting against the ceasefire in Palestine. You can find a clip someone posted here. He said, truthfully, that the only reason Ireland knows peace is because of the intervention of the international community.

Some people on Twitter and tik tok have decided that his decision to mention and condemn the Hamas attack on October 7th in conjunction unnecessarily “muddles” and “softens” his otherwise pretty clear anti-colonial and pro-Palestine stance and I am over it. This is not actually coming from a place of stan culture and defending Hozier on the internet. It is coming from a deep disgust with the way my fellow white leftists consume war as if it’s a sporting event and ever acknowledging the humanity and pain of the “other side” makes you suspect and disloyal.

What took place on October 7th was horrific. It was terrifying. It was an act of unspeakable cruelty inflicted on the vulnerable. The collective punishment and war crimes perpetuated by the Israeli government in retaliation are inexcusable. To do so in the name of victims, many of whom have family members speaking out against the war crimes of the state, is awful. The Palestinian children, women, and men who have died as a result of Israeli war crimes over the previous decades and in the past few weeks deserve to be grieved with the same rage and lament as the Israeli victims of Hamas. All of these things are true.

That is basic humanity. It is not a sudden condoning of the actions of the Israeli state to acknowledge this. To pretend like Andrew, or anyone else, expressing similar sentiments was condoning or softening the violence of the Israeli state is the purity testing nonsense that continues to damage and divide leftists spaces. It is also deeply decontextualized.

Most Americans—again, especially white Americans— do not know what it is like to live with the the threat of violence and war daily. We do not even have a memory of domestic war on our land. Domestic war in 1998 in Ireland. People remember this violence. It’s not hypothetical. A desire and a call to action and a call for peace is fucking bold. A call for a cease fire is a call on the behalf of the Palestinians people. It’s realistic, though we may not want to believe it, but we must remain hopeful. Hope is a discipline.

I don’t know man. I’m so tired of Twitter fingers screaming for blood they’ll never shed, never bury, never know, and condemning people for grieving for lives that were truly lost. War is not sport teams with unfailing loyalty and anything that insists on dehumanizing a side to “win,” means we’ve already lost. I desire to see freedom and justice for Palestine, and I will not apologize for this. I will grieve for every brother and sister and child who is robbed of their life at the hands of violence, and I will not apologize for this either. I will continue to call my representatives and ask that the United States vote for the ceasefire and supply humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people. I will continue to donate and march.

We may all have opinions about the different methodologies that will be used for our own liberation and the liberation of oppressed people throughout the world, but if your methods require you to close off the part of yourself that is able to recognize the humanity of your neighbor, of a child on either side of the Gaza Strip, then you will only ever reinvent violence to inflict on those who were not able to preform loyalty the way you wanted.

[frida-kahl-of-the-rocky-horror]

Antisemitism is evil

Genocide against the Palestinians is evil

If you disagree with either of these, please leave my page

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Further Reading:

Yes it’s a Genocide

TL;DR: there are many classifications of genocide, and one of such classifications is ethnic cleansing. Israeli military and government forces claim they are doing a Nakba 2. The first Nakba is the definition of ethnic cleansing, by UN definitions, which is a form of genocide. Israel has admitted that they are committing genocide.

No criticizing Israel is not antisemitic

TL;DR: if criticism of Israel or being pro Palestinian equates being antisemitic, then here is a list of raging antisemites (direct quotes included): Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein (is Jewish), Stephen Hawking, Frida Kahlo (is Jewish), Noam Chomsky (is Jewish), DJ KHALED, Muhammad Ali, Jimmy Carter, Ben and Jerry (the ice cream people), Bernie Sanders (is Jewish), and Susan Sarandon.

Why Israel hates Palestinians (and why it’s unjustified)

TL;DR: Early post Zionist radical philosophy was to get back at the Germans and kill 6 million Germans senselessly for their systemic murder of Jews. This was rejected by Israel, but this thought process and reaction to historic European antisemitism was channelled into mistreatment of Palestinians. Europe is to blame yet Palestinians are the ones suffering,

I am very well read

TL;DR: Someone called be a slur and told me to pick up a book, I responded with a list of books which I read, a good chunk of which are from pro Israel Zionists and anti Israel Jewish and Palestinian academics

Antisemitism Post #1

TL;DR: a critique of white leftists who thing all Jewish people must categorize themselves as “good Jew” or “bad Jew”. Ethnonationalism like Zionism is dangerous but so is bigotry such as antisemitism. I also use my personal story of hating Belgians.

Antisemitism Post #2

TL;DR: if you replace “Israeli” with any other ethnicity or nationality and it’s bigoted, then your statement is antisemitic. If your statement isn’t bigoted and a rightful criticism of government or military positions and actions, it’s not antisemitic. It’s not antisemitic to criticize a genocide.

Patriotism vs Nationalism vs Jingoism

TL;DR: A Patriot loves their country, she celebrates when it does right and criticizes it when it does wrong. A Nationalist loves their country, she celebrates it when it does right and ignores when it does wrong. A Jingoist loves their country (or at least a specific version of it), celebrates when it is right and when it is wrong, because their country is unable to do wrong in their eyes. Everything can be justified.

Antisemitism Post #3

TL;DR: the Jews don’t control Hollywood.

Rebutting the “It’s Complicated” Claim

TL;DR: it’s not complicated, it’s apartheid

Antisemitism Post #4

TL;DR: Israel is Antisemitic, non Ashkenazi Jews frequently face discrimination, especially in Netanyahu’s Israel, but it’s always been this way with Yiddish language bans, forced sterilization of Ethiopian Jews, and European supremacy in all corners of government

Extremism is Sometimes Justified

TL;DR: one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter, and if you claim all extremism is bad, you support European colonial control of Africa, Haiti, the USA, and so many other evil regimes.

Yes Israel is a Colonial Project

TL;DR: Direct sources from the founders of Zionism calling the creation of Israel a colonial project and referring to Palestinians as the indigenous peoples who are in the way

Continued:

In a few months more journalists have died in Gaza than in WW2.

Gaza: Israeli company plans luxury beach side Apartment on the ruins of Gaza

A Message from a Palestinian Friend

People who are not Israeli or Palestinian are allowed to engage in discourse on this issue, especially Americans

Goat Jewish Boi Slays

The Post that Blew Up

Debunking idiotic Israeli arguments

Where’d you Come From, Where’d you Go

USA is the most diverse country on earth

Direct quote from an Israeli cabinet minister calling this conflict a war on Gaza not a war on Hamas (what happened to the plot??)

I love Jewish men who love humanity

Israel doesn’t care about peace

[sarenth]

Reflecting on some of the posts that I have made and seen in the last couple of weeks, both here on Tumblr and on TikTok, I am increasingly suspicious of anybody that insists that voting is a useless or misdirected effort of energy. Not only have I seen innumerable cases in my state where this is simply not the case, entire sections of the federal government are effectively locked into right-wing positions because Trump won his election. He has entire sections of the appeals system and federal government more broadly aligned with him precisely because of how many nominations he's successfully put forward. Now, this does not mean that Biden or even the Democratic party more generally is going to ride to the rescue, however it speaks to the power that voting results wield.

Not voting is not an effective protest. All you are doing by not voting is saying hey someone else make this decision for me. By not voting you are not actually saying to the system "Hey I'm protesting against you!" At that point you have given the government system cart blanche to fucking ignore you.

I don't know who told you that not voting was anything other than giving up what little power you have to influence your government and therefore how your tax money and society operates on an everyday level. They lied to you. After a certain point there's no nice way to put this.

If you choose not to vote, that is a choice. I view it as an incredibly poor one. I also look at voting third party outside of elections where you know the candidate has no honest to the Gods shot to be a waste of time. You can vote however you want. If you want your vote to be effective then you're going to have to play with the system we've got until we can make a better one. These things take time. If we are being realistic, it is likely more than a few election cycles.

Another thing I have found intensely distasteful this entire election cycle has been from some leftists to sneer at harm reduction, as though opposing Republicans with Democratic candidates is just caving to fascism. Democrats and my State backed up unions and secured a woman's right to choose and secured bodily autonomy not only for women but forLGBTQIA+ folks. Republicans have fought against that.

"Oh but Manchin-" "Oh, but Sinema-"

Are not the whole of the Democratic Party. They were conservative holdouts in a largely center to center right coalition party whose younger constituents are far more left that the old guard. They fucked up some excellent legislation (or at least excellent opportunities) to put us in far better positions through helping to kill the Democrats' Build Back Better Plan and similar legislation.

Trying to punish the Democrats retroactively for not pushing Roe v Wade into law or not fulfilling all their campaign promises, by withholding your vote come the elections is short sighted, retrograde, and ultimately, harmful. It hands power to the Republicans without a fight, and allows them to set the boards for zoning, schools, city council, and so much more. It actively shoots your fellow citizens in the foot so you can feel moral superiority.

It reminds me of folks saying "Well I'm not filing because I am not gonna pay my taxes!" Unless your income is entirely under the table or illegal, or you intentionally changed your contributions, chances are that you were paying taxes this entire time and the only thing you're doing by not filing is potentially fucking yourself.

I get being angry, desperate, and despairing at the state of things, whether the political system, the world more broadly, or whatever issue you hold most dear to your heart. I'm not saying don't be angry, sad, depressed, or raging. I'm saying use it well. If you cannot summon up the give-a-shit on your own case, do it for those around you. Every bit we can do helps, and voting can make a lot of difference in our neighborhoods, and from there, the greater world.

Whether you are reading the missives from various pulpits or you're looking at project 2025, Christofascism is here. Folks have been warning about this for quite a long time, and it is here and it is in full swing. We cannot afford for the Republicans to take over. Heathens, Pagans, magical folks, none of us can afford a Republican victory at this point. Republicans have shown a deep willingness to use the apparatus of the state to harm queer and non-Christian people. They have shown a disdain for the separation of church and state. If you are on the right in this country you should be concerned if you're in any marginalized group. You will not be spared because you're "one of the good ones ".

Did you not see how they treated the Log Cabin Republicans? Did you not see that? Voting red will not save you, it will not make you more palatable. If the Republicans take power and get what they really want through their Christofascism and Project 2025, it does not matter how long you've been a Republican; if you are queer or Pagan you may as well not exist.

Believe me, I am not for a moment stating that Democrats are our saviors. They are a coalition center right political party that we can influence through our lobbying and votes. We can influence them through a variety of other means, including direct action is some have done. Some of you have failed to notice that your direct actions actually were useful! Kamala Harris came right out and said that they were pushing for a ceasefire, after so long of just leaving it off the table entirely. It is not that the narrative cannot be pushed, it is not that we cannot be heard, but you all need to recognize when you are heard and act accordingly without moving the fucking goal posts.

You demanded the administration work on a ceasefire and now they are. That is a victory! However, the Democrats cannot make the Israeli government and the Palestinian government come to a ceasefire. There is also only so much that we can do given the treaties and the alliances that we have. Yes, I know that America has a history of breaking it's treaties and why couldn't we just break this one? Well, because we're just not going to because it's been policy for almost the last 80 years. I just fervently wish the left more generally understood the political process better than it does and realize that we are doing quite a lot to move things along from where they could have been.

If you think for a second that Trump presidency would be better on any of these things you're wrong. That there are some leftists want to sink this project of American democracy simply because they didn't get what they want reminds me a lot of screaming fucking children who want a toy and are going to scream and shout when they don't get it. There's a sincere lack of understanding of the political process that I am seeing right now, especially given what I saw during the primary elections, and is sincere lack of understanding the political process with regards to our position with Israel. Again, I am not saying for a fucking moment don't be angry and don't do everything that you can't tell lobby for the Palestinian people. Engage in whatever diversity of tactics appeals the most to you. Part of having a diversity of tactics is including voting and on the ground diplomatic work. It isn't fun, it isn't sexy, but it's absolutely necessary in the meantime to get us to a place where we can be more effective. I would rather be more effective than being morally pure. I would rather be more effective and do what is possible than see everything around me fucking burn because it isn't just right.

I really do not hold with deontology. As a heathen my ethics are more centered in consequentialism. I care about how the tapestry looks after it's been woven, more than I care about how it has been woven. I will take an imperfect way of getting to the end of a tapestry then the tapestry never getting finished or being finished poor due to constantly unraveling it. There is no way that burning everything down is going to be helpful or effective for most folks. In any case, burning everything down with nothing to replace it leaves folks like me who rely on regular medications like insulin completely fucked. To be sure, the system fucks me and those in my position. It fucks the poor, the disabled, the marginalized. However, not having anything to replace it and just burning everything down, having no complex systems in place to slot into place will do immense, untold amounts of damage. Reforms are not sexy, and but they are how we can continue to live while we do the work needed to make things more equitable, more fair, more just.

I want change. We need to change as a society to become more just, equitable, fair, and to survive in the face of the challenges that we are facing. However, stepping away from the system as a whole, as though you're not going to be wrapped up in it as things go forward, that, to me, is giving up. It's not revolutionary. I would far rather see leftists and left-leaning Heathens and Pagans to flex their vote and their activism locally, to make the changes on the ground that we can where we live, how we live, with the Ginnreginn we live alongside.

[inqilabi]

Thoughts on the American Communist Party (ACP) or its members (Haz Al Din, Jackson Hinkle, etc)?

I like ACP and I am hopeful for them. I started out critical of them initially (back when they were the infrared collective), but I tried to focus on the actual content of their message as oppose to the presentation of it (the abrasive characters they had). And a while back, before ACP was a thing, i said to a friend who is now in the ACP, that I believe overtime infrared will mature. I felt that with the unparalleled strong historical and Marxist analysis they had, they would either have to mature or it would lead them to mature regardless.

I mean they are talking about things that, I for example have mentioned many times before. Gender stuff being a ruling class microidentity and pharma exploitation. Or that the type of revolutionary involvement that the people participate in the west being ineffective because they're ruling class's version of protests. But they present that with an effective Marxist analysis which is something that has been missing from the western left.

At the moment I see them as the only Communist party that is openly and properly Marxist. Has an anti-sex trade stance, openly venerates Hamas as freedom fighters. You will notice that all of their existing communist and socialist parties dont take a stance or cannot take a stance because they are pandering to liberals. CPUSA openly told their members to vote for Kamala. So they tail liberals.

They've done a lot of work in their community for a party that's barely 3 months old. They're implementing some proper historical methods of organizing (which CPUSA PSL etc don't imo). So I do think they will be successful.

Now the following part is purely based on gut and vibes, not necessarily a logical thing: Jackson Hinkle is someone that I feel, something is off about him. He is important to the ACP because he reaches the masses in a more layman way. While Haz does the theory well. But actually find Jackson to be more immature. Haz was immature initially back when he started this collective and he was 25. And I predicted that he would mature and stop saying rage bait things, and he has.

I think that online leftists can't get past the original rage baiting infrared did. Or like the MAGA Communism thing. Or fully understand their tactics. Online leftists also don't want to reach out to conservatives in any manner because they think every single conservative is a Nazi. Which is of course wrong. There are about 50% of the population. A communist vanguard party must reach out to them.

I also think that more women should join this party so as to drive change internally for women's issues. Also interestingly I've been hearing Buzz from Chinese media and accounts within China celebrating ACP and saying that they have been waiting for a proper American Communist party. So the world knows that America didn't have a proper Communist party for ages. Everyone except Americans know that the CPUSA was defanged back in the 60s. Every version of communist that has appeared within the left in America has basically just been a liberal with communist veneers.

I now know a number of people in the ACP. Many were critics initially. So I think it's worthwhile to actually listen to their materials. Call in to their show and ask questions.