#Complicity

[cumaeansibyl]

The Substance

short version: five out of five stars, I had so much fun, for God's sake read the CWs. there are so many needles in this.

further thoughts: I think the viciousness of this movie rests on Elisabeth (Demi Moore) having built her career on promoting the very same unattainable beauty standards that she finds herself in conflict with. It's no coincidence that she's not just an actress, she's a celebrity fitness instructor. Going on TV every morning to tell us all that our bodies aren't good enough. She threw her lot in whole-heartedly with the beauty merchants, she preened and profited, and then she was shocked -- shocked! -- when they inevitably, predictably turned on her.

It's also telling that once she's injected the titular Substance and generated a new, young, beautiful version of herself, what does she do? She goes right back to the same business as before. Being sexier, fitter, more desirable than anyone else. Telling everyone their bodies still aren't good enough. Well, why not? Even her own body wasn't good enough for her anymore.

Coralie Fargeat has zero fucking sympathy for her and I feel the same. Oh, is it hard now? Is it alienating and dehumanizing and humiliating? Did you never bother developing yourself as a person because you were too busy peddling feminine oppression for Dennis Quaid, of all people? Fuck you! Suffer harder! You are complicit!

I would love to know how this lands for conventionally attractive women -- I never put in a sustained effort of this kind because it was made quite clear to me from a young age that the "right" kind of beauty would not be available to me. That comes with its own pain and its own fantasies about a "perfect" version of myself, but I suspect it's a different set.

I also wonder what trans women think of it, because while it's a very cis woman story (in that Elisabeth has always been a conventionally attractive girl and woman) it's also like... about transforming into a more desirable version of yourself, which, come on.

Finally, I feel like there's some disability commentary to be had in here, though that's not a subject I'm well versed in. I did find myself thinking, from time to time, that to many people it would be very tempting to have a body with no pain, a body that always moved easily and performed all its functions with no trouble. Even if only sometimes.

[cavalierzee]

Keir Starmer: Israel Has The Right To Kill

These so-called leaders keep giving Israel the green light to commit genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

They supply that Rogue state with weapons to commit genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Then they consistently validate that pariah's genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

[wordswithloveee]

[inter-st]

[kropotkindersurprise]

Let's see those fucking genocide enablers in Kamala Harris' campaign team co-opt THIS trend!

[workersolidarity]

🇵🇸 🚨

STATE OF PALESTINE CALLS ON INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO STOP GENOCIDE IN RAFAH

The State of Palestine today issued a statement Monday, February 12th 2024 calling on all responsible actors to stop Israel's imminent "genocide and destruction of the Palestinian people and prevent mass slaughter" in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

"States must urgently and immediately intervene to stop Israel's blood shed, uphold their obligations under the Geneva Convention and in line with the International Court of Justice's Preventative Measures Order, including by immediately imposing sanctions and an arms embargo."

The State of Palestine calls Gaza a " slaughterhouse" and slams Israel's deliberate mass murder, forced starvation and the displacement of 1.3 million Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, which the Palestinian State points out are composed mostly of children, with Israel's actions in the city of Rafah being described as "the most barbaric and savage of all."

"Israel, the occupying power, and those who provide it with the diplomatic, military and political cover are complicit in this genocide and are defying their obligations under International Law, as well as the ruling of the International Court of Justice."

The administration of the State of Palestine calls on global leaders, who it says have a "historic responsibility" to prevent Israel from launching its immenent genocidal ground invasion of Rafah and the "foreseeable apocalyptic consequences".

The administration added that "expressing concern without taking determined effective" action against the Israeli occupation is tantamount to a "moral and political failure".

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[alyssa-ai]

We're off for a 10-hour flight ✈️☁️ , we're going to work, sleep, and above all laugh together!

[ohyeslawd]

January 6th the crowd of magats shouted, “hang Mike pence, hang Mike pence!”

Dafuq?! Yes that actually happened. You can google it.

[toshootforthestars]

ALT text:

Jake Sherman (with Punchbowl News) tweeted:

Breaking News--In a reversal, Speaker Johnson will put a bill on the floor to send $17.6 billion to Israel with no corresponding spending cuts, a reversal meant to preempt the Senate's border-and-national-security supplemental. Here's a letter from Johnson to the House GOP: https://pbwl.news/xx3 ...This plan is a shift for Johnson. The House passed a bill that tied Israel aid to domestic spending cuts. Senate leaders plan to release their supplemental spending bill this weekend. In the letter, Johnson said the House would not give "swift consideration" to that legislation.

Reporter Mehdi Hasan quote-tweeted:

Seventeen. Point. Six. Billion. Dollars. I would love to see polling on how many Americans agree with sending this much of their taxpayer money - more than the entire budgets of several U.S. states - to a foreign nation that the ICJ has said is plausibly committing genocide.

(source)

[news4dzhozhar]

Michael Fakhri, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, calls out the nations of the world at the UN Human Rights Council, even those allegedly supporting Palestine, for doing nothing to stop the starvation of Gaza.

[commiepinkofag]

unsurprisingly, not much coverage of the IJC hearing today in the mainstream media, and the few that do solely discuss what the genocide convention is, what defines genocide and whether any decision by the court is legally binding for the 'accused'. very little on these if anything on these accusations

however! there is real journalism occurring…

[wordswithloveee]

[lets-make-light-now]

6 months of genocide

Nothing but speaches

Because you western countries are Israel's little Bitches!

Always doing what your master says.

You don't want to act there for are complicit!

[kropotkindersurprise]

September 2024 - The Palestinian school year is starting up again amid the rubble and devastation caused by the Israelis and their American allies, Biden and Harris. May the innocent and resilient Palestinian children be blessed and protected. May Israel and the USA be damned and destroyed. [video]

If you can, please donate to any or all of these organizations providing relief on the ground in Palestine: UNICEF Gaza appeal Palestine Children's Relief Fund Palestinian Red Crescent UNRWA Gaza Municipality

[nando161mando]

"Palestinian Christian groups have launched an open letter accusing Western church leaders and theologians of "political and theological complicity" with Israel's ongoing bombardment and starvation of the two million civilians trapped in Gaza:"

[eretzyisrael]

by Seth Mandel

The global complicity in Hamas’s brutal reign is quite a thing to behold. Egypt won’t accept even the temporary residency of Palestinian civilians, but it knows that under its nose Hamas leaders mosey in and out of the Sinai. The Qataris only possess leverage in the hostage talks because they are Hamas’s checking account, funding their wayward buddy’s murder habit. Turkey is, for crying out loud, in NATO. And yet Ankara hosts Hamas offices, aids the group financially, gives it diplomatic backing whenever conflict flares up (always at Hamas’s instigation), and even temporarily hosted one of the key planners of the October 7 rampage, Saleh al-Arouri. (Israel eliminated Arouri in Lebanon right around the new year.)

None of this even gets into the support Hamas gets through the various agencies of the United Nations, or from naïve-seeming Western nations, or even the fundraisers on America’s college campuses.

All of which is to say: On this issue, there isn’t much credibility to go around. Israel deserves full support from a chastened community of nations—especially those that will benefit from a Hamas defeat. That includes Egypt, which will sit on its hands while Israel dismantles terror tunnels underneath Egyptian sands. In fact, defeating Hamas will benefit everyone in the region who is threatened by Iranian expansionism. And this certainly includes the Biden administration. Washington’s sudden obsession with taking “irreversible” steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state cannot even be contemplated so long as Hamas rules a single square foot of land on which such a state would stand.

All these countries’ opinions on Gaza deserved consideration up until the moment October 7 revealed a dearth of clean hands among them. And if the IDF’s operation in Rafah further embarrasses Hamas’s enablers, so be it.