#Check on your Jewish and Muslim friends

[theravenkin]

hey followers and mutuals:

just a reminder that you can help suffering palestinians from afar. it feels hopeless, but there's always something we can do.

you can donate. i've been donating to the palestinian children's relief fund; there's also a chapter on campus at my university. there are other organizations you can donate with, too: unicef and launchgood are good ones too i think. it doesn't have to be a hundred dollars at a time; give whatever you can afford. just remember why you're giving in the first place.

you can boycott. boycott starbucks, boycott mcdonald's, boycott nestle products, coke products, unilever products...there are so many fucking companies with their hands in israel's pockets (and vice versa) right now. even better, the boycotts are working. starbuck's stocks have dropped like crazy in the past couple of weeks; the world is feeling our collective effects. boycotts work if we stick to them. go to bdsmovement.net to learn about more companies you can boycott or pressure.

you can call your representatives. call and email your representatives every single day. you can call the white house. you can tell them that you are a registered voter and that you will not be voting for any candidate who does not demand a ceasefire. tell them that you will refuse to support any elected official who accepts bribes from AIPAC (such as democrats Brian Higgins, Gregory Meeks, Joseph Morelle, and Ritchie Torres of NY and Pete Aguilar, Ami Bera, and Julia Brownley of Cali). flood those motherfuckers with messages. it does more than you think.

you can share. get on social media and find those palestinian journalists and civilians who are sharing in real time scenes from Gaza. it's gruesome and it is horrifying, but people (especially those so removed from it) need to see it to understand. western media can only spread so much propaganda; when you've seen those dying children, people crying and searching through rubble for their families, something is bound to change. go to instagram and follow motaz (@motaz_azaiza), bisan (@wizard_bisan1), plestia (@byplestia), the heroes on the ground in gaza, risking their lives. they start each new post with "i'm still alive", often worrying that they may not be for long. palestinians are begging the rest of the world to listen and to tell their story in case they don't make it. they just want to be remembered. that's the very least we can do.

you can have conversations. talk to your friends, your family. post on social media. address it directly. it will be uncomfortable. you dont have to be aggressive about it; just try to appeal to people's humanity, present them with the facts, and if you must, show them the gruesome footage from gaza or the badly veiled propaganda from israeli officials. do anything you can to get them to care. tell them how they can help. get people talking about it, even just thinking about it.

you can educate yourself. i've learned more about the history of israel and palestine in the last few days than i ever had before. and let me tell you: learning the objective facts of history makes it 200% easier to know who to support.

you can support your muslim, jewish, and arab friends. they all need it right now. check in on them and see how they're doing. let them know that you're trying to do something; even though it feels small, it will mean something to them, i promise. let them know you're there and you support them.

please please share and do whatever you can to help those suffering without food, water, electricity, or medical care right now. don't be afraid of the issue because it's "sensitive" or "controversial". it's uncomfortable to face, but it should be more uncomfortable to allow thousands to die while we do nothing.

free palestine. 🇵🇸

[amyisraelchaiforever]

Jewish culture ischecking your notifications on a ssocial media site and seeing:

[user you followed yesterday and wanted to check out but didn't have time]: Writing is politics, so if u expect to follow writing and not hear politics than what are u even doing. writing = politics!!! On that note, that's why we need to free palestine! the Jewish apartheid is committing genocide to the poor Palestinians in Palestine and the displaced Arabs in Israel have no rights bc of these white Israeli colonizers!!! (more here on why Israel sucks) and right below that, my previous notification: [Israeli user who yaps in Hebrew about her life]: [in Hebrew, a giant paragraph:] I'm so excited to go to my friend's new shop: her grandparents are from Lebanon [she's a Muslim Arab] and they've and her aunt & uncle finally opened a new halal restraunt in a big city!! we're going on Friday I can't wait!!

Like, I'm sorry, but I think I'm more likely to listen to the Israeli on this...

(i'm just tired atp)

[mariacallous]

When Haroun got the phone call he had been waiting on for almost 10 years, he told the caller to hang up. It was too risky for a Jew in Iran to take such a call — authorities could be monitoring his phone. 

“Call me back on WhatsApp,” he said, putting faith in the messaging app’s promise of privacy and encryption. 

It was early last year and a representative from the refugee agency HIAS, formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, needed to tell Haroun that his turn had come. 

As long as Haroun passed an FBI background check, he’d soon be able to settle in the United States under a special program for persecuted religious minorities. The sudden news came thanks to a decision by the Biden administration to relaunch the so-called Lautenberg Program for Iranians; it had shut down when Donald Trump enacted a travel ban on a group of Muslim-majority countries at the start of his first term in office in 2017.

Haroun was ecstatic. He had tried nearly everything in his quest to leave Iran and come to the United States, unsuccessfully applying for student and work visas. 

“It was like seeing a miracle with your own eyes,” he said in a recent interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, recalling the moment HIAS called. ”You simply can’t believe what it felt like. All I’ve wanted is to practice my religion freely.”

Haroun, who is in his early 30s, began making preparations in secret, telling almost no one about his plans. When applying for a passport, he lied, telling Iranian authorities he hoped to vacation abroad. They questioned him, but eventually approved his request, allowing him to leave as a tourist. 

Haroun made it into the United States, to settle in Los Angeles, in late December, and it was just in time. Three weeks later, on the day Trump returned to the White House, the new president signed an executive order indefinitely suspending the admission of refugees. The order closed the country to 700 Iranian Jews who had applied for refugee status through HIAS, including Haroun’s parents, siblings, and cousins. These Jews were among more than 13,000 applicants from other religious minorities in Iran, including Christians, Baha’is, Sabean-Mandaeans, and Zoroastrians.

Independent information on the status of these groups is hard to come by, but they live under a host of legal restrictions that privilege Muslims. Haroun described a culture of fear gripping Iran’s Jewish community: “Our kids know they are not allowed to talk about their religion to other people,” he said.

Concern about the Jews of Iran spiked last year when authorities executed a young Jewish man who had been convicted of killing a man over money. Critics said the justice system had mishandled his case and that antisemitism played a role in his sentencing. 

[jewishbarbies]

Waiting to see if any non Jewish friends check on me today. Not holding my breath…

and then they’ll act confused when you’re not happy or seem off at the function.

for anyone wondering: if you would check in with a muslim friend after a mosque attack or your black friend after a racist murder, check in with your jewish friends after jews have been killed.

[crimsonender]

Hey man, you white washed a genocide by calling it a conflict, maybe have some reflection on your own biases before assuming everyone else is just being antisemitic. /Even you're learning about religions post you brought up your fascination with Christianity and Judaism, during Ramadan, you left out Islam.

Okay, I'll bite.

Yeah I believe that what's happening in Palestine is a genocide. I was being vague because I'm uncomfortable talking about it, and I am sitting my ass down and listening people who know more about this than I do. There are smarter and more influential people with direct involvement in what is happening and I encourage you to look to them for guidance. Not me.

Moving on to the other thing.

I give less of a shit about Protestantism and especially Evangelicalism, and have more of an interest in Catholicism specifically because of the mythology, and I have a lot of Jewish friends that speak to me about certain cultural beliefs and have taken interest in what they have to say, especially where it compares and contrasts with my Evangelical Protestant upbringing. I have one Muslim friend right now, and we don't really talk about Islam, though I do check in with her whenever I have questions. Islam is just not something that personally grabs me. I believe it's just as valid as any other religion or spirituality, it's just not one that I have any personal interest in. I'm not religious. So when I say I'm interested it's more in a intellectual capacity than anything else. Emotionally it holds the same weight as my other intellectual interests. (Paleontology, Primatology, Geometry, Astronomy, Phylogeny, Mythology, etc etc)

I have exchanged greetings and offered support to my friend and people in my Discord whom I speak with regularly that are practising Ramadan. But you don't get to decide to what capacity I engage with a culture and it's practices. That's my personal decision.

If you're Muslim and are practising, then Ramadan Murbarak, anon. Stay safe and healthy as possible and be kind to yourself. I don't really wish to engage with the religion in any capacity beyond what my friend invites me into to support them, and while I am welcoming and dedicated to making my Discord and Youtube a welcome and safe space for Muslims (and any religion) to practice and express themselves, that does not mean that I "have" to do anything, or that I'm even obligated to split my interest evenly between the three major religions. I'm not an institution, I'm not a corporation, I'm just some guy. I like what I like and I get curious about what I get curious about.

[messymindofmine]

Fandoms and Marginalized Communities

Before I say anything, I want to make it known that everything I say, I am saying as Muslim WOC. I am also saying it as someone with a best friend who is the reason I got into Lone Star to begin with. This best friend is a gay, Jewish man who is also a recovering addict. One of the first things he said to me about the show was that it felt like TK Strand was written especially for him. However, my friend (who was in the fandom since the beginning) left a while back because he finally decided he was sick of feeling unsafe in the fandom. This was a feeling he had since the beginning that had gotten progressively worse.

As disappointing as it has been since s4 to see the way people turned on Carlos, I do appreciate how many people are calling it out. Even though I don't come from the same background as Carlos, I do know what it is like to come from a culture that pushes you into a heteronormative role and so I can empathize with Carlos on his reasoning for marrying Iris and then keeping it a secret even if I wish he had told TK sooner. But then of course he felt like he couldn't because when you have spent your whole life feeling like you could be rejected for revealing something about yourself, it's extremely hard to move beyond it.

That said, I do think it is important as a fandom to talk about reactions we have to characters and why we need to check our own biases. I'm not saying that people have to agree and love every single thing that Carlos does but we can and should give grace to him and consider why he is doing something. It is deeply problematic to assume that he is going to be a bad, neglectful husband the way people were prior to 5X05. Same with how people reacted towards him in s4. You can be upset about a character's decisions while also being compassionate about why they are behaving that way. To go "well they suck and are bad" and interpret every single thing they do with the worst-faith interpretation is deeply problematic when discussing a character of color.

I have been having conversations with the friend I mentioned before about all this stuff and one thing that he said to me that has stuck with me is how one big reason why he left the fandom was because he kept seeing people bring up the ableism TK has gotten since the start of the show in conversations about Carlos and racism and to him it felt deeply insulting because it felt like those people were just using ableism as a way to deflect from the conversation about Carlos and not because they actually care about the issue. Especially since so many of them are the same ones that never had anything to say about the ableism in the past and even indulged in it before s4 when they turned on Carlos. @paperstorm and I have also talked about this and how it's so frustrating that when a conversation is being had about racism, people who have never cared about ableism before will bring it up as a weapon. I do feel like it is extremely important to have conversations about ableism in the fandom because just like racism, misogyny and homophobia, it has been an issue in every fandom I have ever been a part of but bringing it up in the context of a conversation about racism towards Carlos is not the right time and only serves to diminish the seriousness of ableism as an issue. It is not a weapon to be used to deflect and silence people who are hurt by how Carlos has been treated since s4.

That said, I do want to acknowledge the frustration and hurt that I know a lot of people are feeling when it seems like conversations about Carlos are being had in a way that conversations about TK have never really been had. There are people who have talked about TK and ableism but those conversations have been on a pretty small scale. I get the hurt because I feel it too seeing big blogs talking about Carlos and racism and even unintentionally making it seem as though TK has always been favored by the fandom because he is white. I know that it can be hurtful to see people say that Carlos is only getting hate because he is no longer perfect for TK as though TK wasn't the one on the receiving end of hate since 1x02. It is important to acknowledge that Carlos was put on a pedestal right up until s4 and defense of him was done at the expense of TK. When 3x13 aired, people were outright accusing TK of cheating with Cooper and just generally hating on him because they felt he made Carlos sad by excluding him. This was actually deeply triggering for my friend because he is in recovery himself. Let me tell you, it was painful for me to see how much it hurt him seeing the way TK was called selfish and all kind of other things because it is something he has to live with on a daily basis in his own life. There have been so many times since the show first started that people have said things about how Carlos deserves better and how TK just doesn't love Carlos as much as Carlos loves him. How TK gets all the care and attention and he never does anything for Carlos. How TK gets special treatment from the fandom. All of these things and so much more. And then in s4, when these same people turned on Carlos and started using TK as a weapon, it became too much for my friend and he left the fandom. I know he is not the only one who did so for the same reason.

I just wish that people would understand that conversations about TK and Carlos can both be had and we can even talk about how bigotry towards different groups are ultimately the same in the way they are perpetuated. That is to say, it's not always they obvious ways of using slurs but in the way of microaggressions. I also think it is important when defending Carlos to not ignore the hate TK has gotten. I'm not saying we have to bring it up in detail in every conversation but simply just not making it seem like TK gets favored. There was a double standard against TK right from 1x02 and it's not fair to ignore that. Actually, even the way people weaponize TK is a big microaggression. To act like somehow he has no agency in his own marriage and that he is going to fall apart if he doesn't have Carlos' attention is a big microaggression because it leans into this idea of addicts being selfish and weak. The TK that exists in the show is the opposite of both these things and it is just as offensive to speak about him as though he is those things as it is to make Carlos out to be a terrible, neglectful husband.

Overall, we all need to be more careful about how we speak and write about characters. And even if our only intention for wanting a character to make a mistake is to maximize angst, we need to be careful about how we project our desire for angst. Wanting Carlos to mess up because the angst potential of it is exciting is still a microaggression both because it villainizes him unfairly and because it takes agency away from TK. The same applies the other way round too. Wanting TK to mess up for the sake of angst (as has happened) is also a microaggression because it villainizes him unfairly and it takes agency away from Carlos. When we talk about characters that represent marginalized communities of any kind, we need to take these things into consideration. We also need to listen to others when these issues are called out. If your response to someone pointing out something that is offensive is anger and deflection, that is on you. As someone who has been in this fandom since the beginning and has seen people leave because they feel unsafe for any reason, I don't want that to happen to anyone else. We can have fun and escape real life in fandom while also calling things out. We can also call out one issues without ignoring or minimizing others. I know it can be a hard thing to balance sometimes but the best thing for us to do when it comes to situations like this is to be open-minded and willing to learn and grow ourselves rather than lashing out at others for speaking up about something that hurts them.

[spot-the-antisemitism]

cecil, i swear the questions are genuine, in good faith and not meant as a gotcha, i know you get a lot of backhanded ones.

can you please tell me, what to avoid while criticising the israeli government. things like not lumping every israeli (and every zionist) as a monolith is obvious, but what else is there? bc while i dont want to stay silent abt bibi, ben-gvir and their buddies, i also dont want to cause any harm to jews in general, while criticising these guys (obviously)

also, what sources you would deem generally trustworthy? bc ive seen you name a bunch of institutions, not all of them that obvious, as untrustworthy, so i want to know, who you consider to usually have it correct/true to facts/etc.

and this one isnt that much of a question, as it is an observation, bc reading your posts i sometimes feel like we live in different realities (in some sense we do, i guess, since im a goy), but from people around me, who identify with pro palestine movement, ive seen genuine interest in learning from different sources and understanding all the nuance, elections in usa not changing anything. not to mention, none of them being antisemitic (at least not intentionally and when on rare occassion of something like that happening, met with the information, that this might be, usual response is "shit, i had no idea, thank you for telling me, i wont do/say that anymore"). it is also just one of many "things" (for the lack of a better word) they care about, we are all generally interested in politics, social issues and local activism. but my social circle may be a bubble, since i am careful about who i befriend, not to mention i live in an entirely different country. idk. this last part may have been a dm, honestly, i just felt like sharing it with you, bc dissonance between our experiences is on my mind a lot.

tldr, im trying my best to be an ally to jewish people and im asking your advice

Dear Zina,

"can you please tell me, what to avoid while criticising the israeli government?"

If what you're saying sounds like a desparagement of all Jews rather than certain idviduals you're doing it wrong. The moment you imply people are cruel or doing harm because they're Jewish or Israeli, you fucked up.

But sure go off how the Likud silences hostages when they talk about their rapes but say the real rape is them not being able continue the war.

Talk about how Ben-Gvir finds Muslim call to prayer upsetting and hires police to harass Mosques and claim it's for "safety" and that the calls "drown out the bomb siren" but never imply it's because Jews are evil and hate Muslims or that's it illegal for Muslims to pray in Israel (it's currently not, but Ben-Gvir wishes he could change that)

"also, what sources you would deem generally trustworthy? bc ive seen you name a bunch of institutions, not all of them that obvious, as untrustworthy, so i want to know, who you consider to usually have it correct/true to facts/etc."

that's hard as all media either has a pro-Israel bias and sometimes softens the things they do or more usually an anti-Israel bias and exxagerates it to stoke antisemitism. Al-Jazeera and the grey zone and mint media exist for this sole purpose. Avoid them. Know that Haaretz and JPost are biased in the other direction. As for the rest plug that into Media bias

Media bias is your friend

"bc reading your posts i sometimes feel like we live in different realities (in some sense we do, i guess, since im a goy), but from people around me, who identify with pro palestine movement, ive seen genuine interest in learning from different sources and understanding all the nuance, elections in usa not changing anything."

So first off you're a gentile and really really miss a lot of Dogwhistles. secondly I debunk terminally online slactivists who wish to join Hamas but can't even go the polls, you are friends with people with lives and actual activism. Your friends and my enemies simply aren't the same

"but my social circle may be a bubble, since i am careful about who i befriend" yeah see you might be activist Georg who is the outlier since you don't befriend abusive people and so you just don't hang out with antisemites

"i live in an entirely different country" you live in POLAND. one of the more nationalistic, xenophobic and antisemitic countries. You are lucky not to be Russian like myself but I know how your countries treated and continues to treat immigrants and Jews. Your friend group sounds great but beware of the substrates of your culture seeping in.

"bc dissonance between our experiences is on my mind a lot" you do know this is just my online experience and most of my friends IRL who do care about Palestine are very reasonable people? it's just very dangerous to be a jew with any degree of fame online right now

please write again,

Cecil

[drdemonprince]

i’ve been feeling compelled to plan a protest for Palestine in my small texas hometown. i haven’t made any posts about it yet, but i’m anxious about being the only one to show up. there have been protests in my town before in the same area and people had nasty reactions. do you have any advice for doing something like this solo?

You shouldn't do a thing like this solo. You should partner with local groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (check all your local college/university campuses), the US Palestinian Community Network, American Muslims for Palestine, various anti-racist and abolitionist groups within your community, other leftist organizing groups (but NOT the PSL or RCP), etc.

If your town is tiny tiny and not plugged into the existing infrastructure for these groups, you should still reach out to them and see how these orgs would prefer for engaged comrades to make a positive impact. They might have strong reasons to prefer that you invest your energy into another activity. Our energies should be coordinated and strategic here, and we should take our lead from the movement leaders who have been doing this work for decades and have the existing connections and know-how.

If these groups are supportive of the idea of you holding a protest but cannot offer the resources to support it, then you want to tap into local groups that might be able to generate a turnout: your local Mosques and Islamic community centers, Unitarian Universalist Churches, Society of Friends groups, pro-Palestinian Jewish groups, etc.

You want to make sure you are including the Palestinian liberation community directly in all things that you are doing here, and handing off the mic to them, if you are not Palestinian, or do not have extensive experience doing this work.

If there aren't large enough numbers of folks with close ties to this kind of activist work within your community, you can still make a big showing of solidarity with a small symbolic protest, but you want to exhaust all other options first, because it is far more useful for you to get organized alongside other people who have been doing this work than to launch an event yourself that potentially no one might go to. It might very well be the case that you have a lot more growing in your connections and activist experience that you need to do first and as your primary act of service to the cause at this time.

[love-to-love-puppies]

I know the world feels like it's on fire, especially if you're American getting hit with an onslaught of complete and total bullshit from our idiot in chief.

Here's where you start:

Take a deep breath. Stop doom-scrolling when you notice it impacting your heart-rate, get plenty of sleep, rest when you need to. I know we're all terrified, that's their goal, but you are no good to anyone burnt-out or paralyzed by fear

Check-in on your friends, especially friends who are more likely to be impacted by the influx of policies. Plan game nights or dinners with them; they'll probably need to be pulled out of paralysis too

Find community. Easier said than done this day and age, but there are tools for that (Meetup, Eventbrite, etc.)

Also volunteering is a great way to get involved in your community and to find that community. And right now, with everyone's federal funding on the chopping block, volunteers are needed more than ever

If there's not a group for what you want, make one. Even if it's a Meetup to play cards at a local restaurant every week, you're still getting involved and patronizing local businesses

If you are asked, you no nothing about people's immigrantion status, race, gender identity, or sexuality. Don't be a snitch

Avoid shopping at places like Walmart, Amazon, Target, McDonald's, etc. I know especially in rural areas that this can be difficult, but try to make an effort to shop at local stores or online small businesses

Register to vote if you are not already, they're about to try and make that significantly more difficult (I'll cover that in a second), so do it NOW

On a related note, get a passport. Even if you have no plans to travel put of the country for the next 4 years, please get a passport (note: if you cannot get a passport rn, contact the Nation Passport Information Center and your representatives, helping with that is actually part of their job. There's probably a spot on their website that says "passport help")

Vote! Of course midterms are vital, but even this year there are likely local elections going on. Some happen as early as May with registration closing for that election in April. Local elections are one of our best lines of defense for our community, please vote and make sure other people you know do too

Protest the SAVE act. This is the bill that will require you to have your birth certificate or passport everytime you register to vote or re-register to vote. This is intended to disenfranchise anyone who has a different name on their birth certificate, not only trans folks, but also married women, and it will also hurt anyone who doesn't have their birth certificate available to them, like college students. Contact your house representatives. Be polite, but be clear that you as a constituent, would be very disappointed if your representative voted in a way that would harm hundreds of thousands of Americans

Honestly, contact your reps in general. I know that living in a red state it feels like a waste of time but it's not. Become a nuissance. The ICE tip line got shut down because people were calling and reporting Elon, more of that energy

Attend protests when possible. Also attend events for Pride, and Black History Month, Holocaust remembrance, Juneteeth, etc.

Stand with black folks, and trans folks, and queer folks, and women, and immigrants, and Jewish people, and Muslims, and poor people. Nobody's free until we're all free

Remember that only 1/3 Americans actually voted for Trump when you factor in people who didn't vote and by his own implication, there was likely some tampering with votes. And now, even some of his supporters are suddenly seeing the error of his ways. Despite the election results, most Americans do not agree with him and more still do not support becoming an oligarchy

Continue to make art and to write and to do things that bring joy and beauty and meaning to the world and do not be deterred by what this administration deems "acceptable"

To that point, continue to live as loud and authentically as you can

Tyranny wins when we roll over and give it to them, and we're not going to give it to them

[edenfenixblogs]

I feel like what is disturbing about (some) people discussing the Israel/Palestine conflict is that they insist that most major news sources actually can’t be trusted because the news sources are secretly lying all the time. And I feel like that is what conspiracy theories are, the insistence that everyone is lying to you, and that you should only trust these people. I feel like I was falling into it too, I was starting to believe it.

I’d always told myself before that I would never fail for conspiracy theories because I am a reasonable person, but clearly this isn’t true. I can fall for conspiracy theories if I am not always careful, and complacency is dangerous.

I feel like this same idea applies to antisemitism. People think, “I can’t be antisemitic because I want equality for all people”, but we can if we’re not careful. Complacency is dangerous.

Oh, @jellymarbles! This is very insightful!!!! Look, every major news source has flaws and bias. That is and will always be true. Because it is written by people. And all people have bias. And that's ok! The problems only arise if people allow their writing to consistently and only favor bias in one direction and leave no room for uncomfortable but necessary information from other viewpoints.

If anyone is telling you not to trust "the media" or "the mainstream media," then they are not only untrustworthy on any issue, but are likely especially dangerous on any issue where antisemitism is likely to occur. This is because it is usually rooted (whether the person is knowingly being antisemitic or not) in the conspiracy theory that Jewish people control "the media."

Anyone behaving responsibly would not urge you to shun mainstream sources. Rather, people behaving responsibly will urge you to develop the very necessary skill of media literacy, which will enable you to better discern which sources are trustworthy in a variety of situations. Whenever evaluating any source, but especially when dealing in issues that involve strong and volatile opinions and contested information from a variety of voices, it is vital to critically evaluate your sources using trusted media evaluation tools, like Media Bias/Fact Check. Fact check the story details too, if possible.

You are a private citizen. You are not a journalist. You are not an international diplomat. You are not a crisis negotiator. There is no reason for you to feel pressured to respond to everything quickly. Nobody will benefit from you responding to things you don't have appropriate information on. It is not your job to respond to all information as you encounter it.

There is no prize for speaking up first or most or loudest.

Rather, you will always be the most trusted human source if you take the time to know what you're speaking about fully before you speak. If you feel an urgent need to say something because you directly wish to help someone you know, sharing unverified and possibly false information is never the way to go. Rather, instead of trying to prove your commitment to a cause with self-righteous anger, reach out to the person you wish to help directly. Tell them you know that they are going through a rough time. You may not always know what to say or what you need to share, but say that you are committed to always sharing verifiable and the information, but that you also don't need the affected person to act as a news source for you. And in the meantime, you don't need news stories to be there for a friend. Lending an ear and some comfort to someone directly will mean more than shouting into the void. Personally, I'm always a little uncomfortable when I see non-Jewish and non-Muslim/Arab/Palestinian people I know screaming onto the internet about issues related to i/p when they have never actually taken the time to talk to a single Jewish person about how they actually feel about any of it (or when they only talk to Jewish people to determine whether they are Evil Zionists or Actual Humans).

Many people are willing to make sweeping statements about how all Jews feel about Israel or zionism or Netanyahu, but aren't willing to actually have a conversation about any of those things to find out if their assumptions are correct--let alone to see if the Jewish person in question has insights into issues they haven't thought of before. (Hint: as an oft-ignored micro-minority, Jews do often have insights that are not adequately understood by those who have refused to interact with us)

I can only imagine that Palestinian people as well as Muslims and Arabs in general experience similar bigotry when people make assumptions about their views of Jews, the politico-religious ideology of Islamism (which I'm acutely aware is different than the religion of Islam), the i/p conflict, Hamas, and a variety of other issues.

Because make no mistake, choosing to ignore your responsibility of media literacy during a time of stochastic terror for multiple groups is to support that terror. Choosing to ignore media you disagree with because you disagree with it and not because the source is wrong or untrustworthy is the same as making a conscious choice to be stubbornly set in your ways at the expense of people desperately trying to make themselves heard.

In other words, choosing to maintain media illiteracy is choosing bigotry.

That said, you'll make mistakes sometimes. It's inevitable, and that's ok. Just today I deleted a post I reblogged about the extremely good and worthwhile charity organizatin Anera that is providing much needed aid to Gaza at the moment. Is that because I stopped supporting the organization? Is that because I hate Palestine and its suffering citizens? OF COURSE NOT! Rather, the person I shared it from had a blog full of hateful antisemitic content and misinformation. I couldn't direct my followers to a resource like that, because I can and must share information from sources worth listening to. If a bigot is your only way of sharing information about something, then that information is useless. If the information is actually useful, you'll be able to share it from a source who isn't dangerous.

There are many trustworthy people who regularly share information about Anera as well as other organizations that are providing aid to those suffering in the region, by the way.

It i so easy to think that a post is innocuous enough to share without fact checking. But bigotry can sneak in to a lot of places. I didn't know about the person I reblogged from until a follower pointed it out to me. Someone trustworthy will act swiftly to amend the information and thank you for the information rather than acting offended that you dared to question them. And a trustworthy source certainly won't continue to behave irresponsibly or allow others to behave irresponsibly on their behalf without putting in any effort to do better in the future.

You will make mistakes. It's OK. Don't let the fear of making a mistake stop you from taking action to help. Just be sure not to let your desire to help turn into causing actual harm. As long as you try your best and keep an open heart, all reasonable people will understand if you stumble now and again.

<3

As always, feel free to explore my #Media Literacy tag for more info and discourse on the subject.

[idontmindifuforgetme]

Hey I checked out the BDS site but every time I use it it wont load any campaigns for the United States, do they have a list somewhere else on the website for usamericans?

That’s strange! I just did it for you; here’s the list of BDS-affiliated organizations in the states that you could look into:

US Campaign for Palestinian Rights

Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)

Jewish Voice for Peace

Pittsburgh BDS Coalition

American Muslims for Palestine

Democratic Socialists of America

Jews for Palestinian Right of Return

Another hack is literally just going on IG and typing your city name followed by the word Palestine. If you don’t find any local branches w these orgs (doubtful but just in case!), it’s still a guarantee that other local organizations are hosting pro-Palestine events in your city. You just kind of have to dig for them, but I’ve found multiple coalitions/orgs around me that are so mobilizing and helpful. Ik a lot of people give up bc the statewide rallies don’t take place in their cities and they don’t have the means to drive, or maybe they just don’t want to march, but there are so many ways to help not limited to that.

[spot-the-antisemitism]

This whole situation is making me incredibly upset and i feel powerless to do anything, I’m not Jewish but I want to be an ally as best I can, sorry for venting to you, you’ve just been a light of some sanity to me. Thanks for what you do.

Dear anon,

if you want to feel less powerless check in on your friends, especially any LGBT or Muslim or Latino and Jewish friends. You'll feel better, they'll feel better.

don't have any? go out and MAKE some

but I'm glad the blog where I scream at bigots and make up silly names for their usernames and ocassionally talk like a comic book character helps ground you, a random gentile somewhere else in the world

yours,

Cecil

[magickfromscratch]

You can't research or imagine your way to empathy.

Recently, I was discussing lycanthropy with magicky friends. Ok, no, wait, hold on, this is going somewhere, and it's not as Loony Toons as you might imagine.

We were discussing the universal natural phenomenon of shape changing. As children we grow. As old people we begin to fall apart. We go through puberty. We acquire injuries and disabilities.

On that topic, I discussed what aging was like. "I imagined many times what it would like to grow old, but actually going through it isn't at all like what I imagined."

I thought I'd be cool with it. I had a positive attitude about it. I never thought less of people who showed their age.

But it's distressing to watch your body change. You don't look like you remember looking. During peaks of aging, where you age a lot in a short period of time (which is how aging works, and it usually happens every 10-15 years after you turn 30), it's disconcerting.

Knowing that people age, imagining aging, is inferior to first-hand experience. Whatever you imagine it might be like to turn into a wolf? It probably won't be like that.

And this came up for me again when I talked today to the nurse practitioner who checks in with me about my ADHD meds.

I was mentioning about the neurospicy clumping effect. If you go most of your life with untreated ADHD, you will one day look around and recognize that almost everyone you are close to exists somewhere in the AuDHD hypercube.

"That seems unlikely," he said. "Only 6% of people have ADHD."

Bro, tell you you're cishet and neurotypical without telling me! Less than 10% of people are queer, and yet that describes most people I hang out with on a reg.

But also something-something not knowing about paradoxical effects of certain drugs.

He's devoted his life to psychiatry, and understanding people's brains. He's assuredly tried to imagine what ADHD is like. But he's never experienced it.

And I thought... how often do we assume that we know what another person's experiences are like, because we imagine it.

When people who've never struggled with their weight imagine that struggle, they can't do it.

When people who've never experienced systemic racism imagine what that's like, they're gonna fall short.

To attain empathy, we can't just use our imaginations, or read about certain struggles in a book written by sociologists or clinicians. We need to listen to the lived experiences of people, and we have to trust them to accurately report what it looks like, feels like.

This is why representation produced by the represented groups is so important. This is why we need Black literature, Trans literature, Jewish literature, Muslim literature, Gay literature, in libraries. This is why book burning is so destructive to society.

I dunno. I think I knew all this before, but it all connected as a galaxy brain moment for me, and I thought I'd share.

[jellybeanium124]

ok so I saw a post going around a few times *claiming* that they witnessed the owner of a kosher store and a halal store fall in love and now they are combining the stores (or the children of the owners). I am extremely skeptical of this for one very fucking obvious reason if you know the absolute bare minimum about kashrut and halal. they are not the same fucking thing!!! they are similar-ish, but they are not the same! I am not muslim so I know very little about halal, and while I am jewish I don't keep kosher so I'm not an expert on any of this, but I know that halal is not just copy-pasted kosher!

why tf would you combine two stores that each serve a clear function into one store that doesn't. if a jewish person walks into a kosher store, they know they can buy anything there and eat it. if a muslim person walks into a halal store, they know they can buy anything in there and eat it. a combined kosher/halal store puts someone who follows either rules back in the same position they're in at any other nonspecific grocery store. they have to check everything to see if they can eat it. there just won't be any pork products there.

to me, this sounds like a fake story made up by someone who doesn't know anything about judaism or islam. or maybe it is real and the people involved are just dumb and making a dumb business decision that makes no sense.

am I wrong here? am I the stupid one? did anyone else notice this very obvious flaw in that post? I've seen it a million times by now. I know "tumblr story fake!" isn't exactly news or anything but I've seen it uncritically passed around a bunch and I felt like I needed to point out that kosher ≠ halal and you shouldn't just feed your jewish friends halal meat assuming it's kosher and your muslim friends kosher meat assuming it's halal. like that's still not being respectful of their religious practices. at least as far as I know if I'm the stupid one here someone say something.