#From Novara media

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

do you have any advice about boycotting? I have been trying to follow bds but people online are always calling for boycotts and saying people are supporting genocide for bot boycotting xyz and Im having a lot of anxiety about it. Obviously feelings arent more important than not supporting a genocide etc

There's a bit of discussion of boycotts at the moment, so it seemed like a good time to finally respond. I do have advice - very simple and strong advice. The point of a boycott isn't individual moral purity, it's using collective power.

The starting point for building collective power has to be people resisting oppression. Just like a strike can only be called by the workers, a legitimate boycott can only be called by those who are resisting oppression.

For the last 20 years, a coalition that crosses Palestinian society has called for Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions. I follow what they say - I don't give a shit about what people online are saying. They are very clear about their strategy - and the important of strategic boycotts. There are some global targets, and then other targets are organised locally - the link above includes information about how to find out what the local calls are.

I believe there is a strong moral and political imperative to observe BDS. I hope that the clear direction and the short list will help with your anxiety.

I think it's really important to understand that there's a principle here - it's not just about BDS. When offering solidarity, you start with what organised groups resisting oppression have asked for. Don't listen, or get stressed out about what random strangers have said.

******

There is, I think, another point, which is just as important. People who are going around making up targets are actively harming the Palestinian Liberation struggle. There are two messages I hope people get from this post - the first is that the starting point of meaningful solidarity is what people collectively resisting oppression are asking for. The second is that the sort of mouthing off online that is stressing you out is actively doing harm - and anyone who wants to do meaningful political work - has to stop pretending that indulging in self-righteous and reactionary social media posting has anything to do with meaningful political work.

There are two reasons that people who make up things they think other people should do actively does harm. One is that it undermines the ability to build power by substituting an individual's voice, for the collective voice of people resisting oppression. Substituting individualism for collectivism is guaranteed to weaken movements

The second is the behaviour you describe is coming from the more reactive parts of our psyche. Politics is about building power through coalitions. When people try and prove they're right and other people are wrong they are letting the anxiety processes of our brains take control - and substituting our most reactionary selves for meaningful political organising - then they're actively getting in the way of building power.

The fact that you're feeling anxious isn't an accident - it's a direct result of other people's choices to act from the reactionary and anxiety part of their pscyhe. If one person is acting from their own anxiety - it absolutely does promote anxiety in others. Good political work comes from building power and coalitions - which involves strengthening relationships - none of which are done best from a position of anxiety (you'll probably be anxious at times, when doing political work - that's really normal. But that's different from anxiety being at the centre of the political work).

I think one of the biggest problems of social media's impact on our ability to organise - is that it's very easy for people who are reacting entirely individualistically, from the reactionary parts of their psyche, guided by their anxiety, to persuade themselves that they're doing collective organising - when they're actually doing the opposite.

I'm sorry you're feeling really anxious. I think it would really help to turn around what you think you're doing. You frame this as not supporting genocide - but that's probably not an option. The political and economic system you are living in supports genocide, and if you imagine you can opt out of that you're setting yourself up to fail. If instead of trying to do the impossible - you focus on acting in solidarity with people collectively resisting their oppression - then it should both be less stressful and more effective. The requests are clear and simple - and you can and should do them.

[watermelon-project-archive]

Vile.

[tenobelisk]

"The sky is starting to go light again, I've taken no drugs at all; a really obscene way of seeing the dawn."

[theonpilled]

do you ever just go down a weirdly shallow rabbit hole

[probablyasocialecologist]

Activists are “shoplifting” from supermarket shelves and dumping the proceeds straight into the stores’ food bank bins in a “redistributive action” to protest the cost of living and the climate crisis.

[...]

“The reason we’re doing this is that supermarkets in this country have been raising their prices ahead of the rate of inflation, essentially stealing from ordinary people in order to line their packets with profits.

“We’re acting against this in order to deliver food and necessities to the people of the community that need it the most in the middle of the cost of living crisis.”

The activist is seen ripping the security tag off a tub of baby formula. He says: “This is a basic need for every family with babies and it’s £18 in Asda, which is an immense price tag. […] Supermarkets are prioritising their profits over the safety and health of families in the community.”

Xander Cloudsley, 29, a community food co-ordinator and member of This Is Rigged, the campaign group behind the actions, said: “In my job, I’ve seen the lived reality of the cost of living crisis […] while corporate giants like Tesco are boasting astonishing profits year in and year out. I’m taking action because this disparity is sickening and profoundly unfair.”

The protest comes as food bank usage – already prevalent following austerity – has surged alongside spiralling inflation.

Many supermarkets now have collection bins for food banks. In 2018, Sainsbury’s trialled dedicated shelf-edge labels alerting customers to items that food banks need. In 2022, Tesco gained positive media attention for launching a “reverse food bank” where shoppers could buy and donate goods.

Meanwhile, supermarkets have also been accused of driving inflation. Analysis from trade union Unite shows the top three supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda – have taken advantage of increased food costs and doubled their profits to £3.32bn in 2021, up 97% on 2019. Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham has called this “greedflation” – something supermarket bosses deny.

Ironically, supermarket workers, often poorly paid themselves, are amongst those forced to turn to food banks. One supermarket worker accused Tesco of “forcing us to use food banks, while using food banks to look good.”

[metamorphobic]

There are about 30 official parties (not counting the independent candidates). So it really does depend on where you are, my constituency had 6 candidates Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Green, Reform and UKIP (this was Nigel Farages party until he decided they weren't racist enough). This election has been mainly about getting Tories out of power. But labour has only 33% of votes, meaning people have been voting more for other parties which is great! However we don't have proportional representation so they have 410 seats...

Are Labour good? Not really, as op said they've gone more rightwing but they are better than conservatives so I'm taking this as a win. I will be continuing to support the green party but they only have 4 seats currently (the same number of seats as reform 😬) so they really are a small party.

don't know Super much about uk parties- who are we rooting for?

The UK isn't a 2 party system - so that question is quite hard to answer.

Personally? Because I'm in Wales, Plaid Cymru (the Welsh Party) does well and it supports the Welsh language, which I also support. The Green Party (which runs in both England and Wales) is also a good shout, because they are good on environmental policy and LGBTQ+ rights. Plaid Cymru, SNP (Scottish National Party) and Greens are considered small parties.

Now the prediction for this election is that it will be won by Labour - who used to be the UK's working class, socialist party. But in recent years they've gone rightward. They're still not as right wing as the ruling party, the Conservatives (aka. Tories) but they're a far cry from the socialist party they were founded as.

Now, the real problem for everyone is Reform. The current leader of Reform, Nigeria Farage, is friends with Donald Trump. Says it all really. He's a massive populist who is very anti immigration and Reform has multiple racist candidates. They've been getting a worrying number of votes.

It might be easier to answer your question with who we're not rooting for.

While most of us are glad to see the back of the Tories, the predicted massive Labour majority isn't as good news as it should be because the party is way too right wing for a supposedly left wing party.

We're definitely NOT for the Conservatives or Reform.

Now - we (read: the specific opinions of this tumblr blogger) are for the smaller parties - especially Plaid, Greens and SNP. But the dual edged sword is that these parties are too small to form a government. So we're happy if they win in some of the seats, but we also know there won't be a government formed by this party.

I'd recommend reading up on UK politics in general - I'm a beer in and my attention is divided on the election right now. But I hope this gives a basic sketch

[heavenlyyshecomes]

misc readings pt. 11

tech edition

It's not your fault you're a jerk on twitter, katherine cross, wired

Becoming human again: a reading list for the extremely offline, lisa bubert, longreads

The internet is rotting, jonathan zittrain, the atlantic

ambient cruelty, linda besner, real life magazine

Searching for lost knowledge in the age of intelligent machines, adrienne lafrance, the atlantic

Ghosts of the future: the smart home is a haunted house, julia foote, real life magazine

The internet is flat, charlie warzel, galaxy brain

How TrueCaller built a billion-dollar caller ID data empire in India, rachna khaira, rest of the world

Vivid hues: what does it mean to think of the internet as a color? anna rose kerr, real life magazine

Singapore’s tech-utopia dream is turning into a surveillance state nightmare, peter guest, rest of the world

The $2 per hour workers who made chatgpt safer, time

I cut the 'big five' tech giants from my life. It was hell, kashmir hill, gizmodo

Social media is not self-expression, rob horning, the new inquiry

The narcissism of queer influencer activists, jason okundaye, gawker

On losing perspective, or, why i don't give a fuck about geronimo the alpaca and nor should you, rachel connolly, novara media

The exploited labour behind artificial intelligence, noema

The class politics of the instagram face, grazie sophia christie, tablet

Google, amazon, and meta are making their core products worse on purpose, ed zitron, business insider

All advertising looks the same these days. Blame the moodboard, elizabeth goodspeed, eye on design

Seen by, megan marz, real life

[beardedmrbean]

I bet the last thing Bernie Sanders expected upon his arrival in Ireland and Britain was to be met by angry protesters—to find himself heckled and damned as a sellout by the kind of radicals who would have been shouting his praises just six months ago. And yet that is what happened: Some of Britain's Bernie Bros have morphed into Bernie bashers.

Why? Because he refuses to describe Israel's war on Hamas as a "genocide" and he doesn't approve of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel.

Quick—cast him out. Unperson him. He has ventured outside the parameters of acceptable Left-wing thought and must be punished.

It all kicked off in Dublin. Senator Sanders, who is on these isles to promote his book, Why It's OK To Be Angry About Capitalism, was speaking at University College Dublin. A group of pro-Palestine protesters assembled at the entrance to the venue, all wearing the uniform of the virtuous: a keffiyeh. "It's OK to be angry about capitalism, what about Zionism?" they chanted.

It got heated inside, too. Sanders was interrupted by audience members. "Resistance is an obligation in the face of occupation!" one shouted. "Occupation is terrorism!" yelled another.

Sanders kept his cool with his reply: "Good slogan, but slogans are not solutions," he said.

It continued at Trinity College the next day. Sanders was in conversation with the Irish journalist Fintan O'Toole. Outside, a small but noisy gaggle of anti-Israel agitators displayed a banner that said: "Boycott Apartheid Israel."

"Free Palestine!" they chanted. (Deliciously, a woman who was queuing for the Sanders event bellowed "from Hamas!" every time they said it.)

Again, Sanders was heckled by hotheads. "Ceasefire now!" they shouted. At one point, in the words of Trinity News, Sanders "threw up his right arm in frustration and looked at O'Toole, as if to ask him what would be done."

It is little wonder he felt frustrated. Sanders was there to talk about capitalism, yet angry youths kept badgering him about Zionism. He is used to a fawning response from Socialist twentysomethings, and yet now some were effectively accusing him of being complicit in a "genocide." It's quite the downfall for one of the West's best-known leftists.

The turn on Bernie is underpinned by a belief that he is too soft on Israel. The radical Left will never forgive him for initially supporting Israel's war on Hamas. Even his more recent position—he now says there should be a ceasefire—is not good enough for these people, who seem to measure an individual's moral worth by how much he hates the Jewish State.

They want Bernie to say the G-word. They want him to damn Israel as uniquely barbarous. They want him to agree with them that it is right and proper to single Israel out for boycotts and sanctions.

In short, they want him to fall into line. They want him to bend the knee to their Israelophobic ideology.

These illiberal demands on Bernie to bow down to correct-think continued when he arrived in the U.K. A group of communists protested against him in Liverpool. Normally, Sanders would have been shown only love in a historically radical city like Liverpool, said the Liverpool Echo, but this time, "the atmosphere was different," for one simple reason: "his refusal to brand Israel's actions in Gaza as 'genocide'."

Sanders' resistance of the G-word haunted him in his media interviews, too. Ash Sarkar of Novara Media, a key outlet of Britain's bourgeois Left, asked him three times if he would call Israel's war on Hamas a "genocide." He refused and it went viral. Armies of ersrtwhile Bernie fans damned him as a "genocide denier."

There is something quite nauseating in this spectacle of an elderly Jewish man being pressured to denounce the world's only Jewish State as genocidal. Millennial Gentiles who want to trend online might be happy to throw around the G-word. But Senator Sanders, who lost family in the Holocaust, clearly has a deeper moral and historical understanding of what genocide is. And it seems he is not willing to sacrifice that understanding at the altar of retweets or an easy ride.

Good for him.

Sanders' father was born in Poland, where most of his family were exterminated by the Nazis. Sanders is a son of the Shoah, a descendant of survivors of the greatest crime in history. To subject him to the modern equivalent of a showtrial in which you demand that he scream "Genocide!" at Israel feels unconscionable. As does branding him a "genocide denier."

Why won't he call Israel's war on Hamas a "genocide"? Maybe, says a writer for the Jewish Chronicle, it's because he lost so much of his family to Hitler's gas chambers and therefore he "knows what a genocide is, what a war crime is." He knows that while the war in Gaza, a war started by Hamas, is "horrible," to use his word, it cannot in any way be compared to the Nazis' conscious efforts to vaporize an entire ethnic group.

There has been a Inquisition vibe to some of the Bernie-bashing in Britain. At times it has felt cruel. The sight of fashionable, privileged Israel-bashers haranguing a man who will have heard stories from his own father about the genocidal mania of the Nazis has come across like Jew-taunting rather than political critique.

More broadly, this unseemly episode gives us a glimpse into the authoritarian impulses behind the Left's obsessive opposition to Israel. Israelophobia, it seems, is less a rational political stance than a borderline religious conviction. There are true believers, who dutifully repeat the G-word like a mantra, and sinful outliers, who refuse to treat Israel as uniquely "problematic."

One's moral fitness for radical society is increasingly judged by one's willingness to treat Israel as the most wicked nation in existence. The dangers of making hostility to the Jewish State a requirement of being a Good Leftist should be clear to everyone.

Sanders is wise to resist this tyrannical zeitgeist, and to say what he believes rather than what he believes will be popular.

Brendan O'Neill is the chief political writer of spiked. His new book, A Heretic's Manifesto: Essays on the Unsayable, is available now.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Blockading factories is probably one of the most effective thing people in the UK (and elsewhere in the Western world) can do to support Palestine right now.

Donations that will actually reach the ground are also good.

I'm not saying marches and other actions aren't worthwhile- I do think they are. If a senior UK politician called for a ceasefire, that would be something. And obviously if we could persuade the UK government to ban the export of arms and military parts to Israel, that would be huge.

But in the meantime, if we can stop arms from being built, if we can slow down the Israeli war machine at all, that may save lives.

And the more people who turn up to these actions, the better- this makes them safer and more effective.

Also, for transport workers, especially in ports, if we can stop this stuff leaving the country, that is incredibly valuable too.

[icedsodapop]

More receipts on Aaron Bastani, Ash Sarkar and Novara media being unreliable allies of Palestinian liberation:

Source: (Twitter)

There are pple within the left who will invalidate legit criticism of pple within our circles. Oftentimes, career and online leftists subscribe to this in-crowd/outcrowd clique mentality:

Once again, being an advocate and an ally does not absolve you from criticism when you are being a dickbiscuit. I've seen it time and time again. You do not get to weaponize gratitude from oppressed people, it's fucking sick:

And always, always being wary of career leftists who usually turn out to be grifters, simply don't put people on pedestals:

[eretzyisrael]

by Jane Prinsley

A Jewish charity event to help disaffected young boys has been mobbed by anti-Israel protestors after the address was leaked by a provocative social media activist.

Disturbing footage shows a number of masked men abusing Jewish passers-by in Hendon while being blocked by police.

Dilly Hussain, the editor of Muslim blog, 5 Pillars, shared information about the event on social media, including the charity’s address and charity number. Hussain appeared to call on his followers to attend the event, claiming that Simon: “Posted a video of himself rummaging through a Palestinian woman’s nightwear after her house was evacuated in Gaza.”

Hussain provoked criticism late last year after interviewing former BNP leader Nick Griffin about the war in Gaza. 

The event was also mentioned on the hard-left website Novara Media.

The Boys Clubhouse is a Jewish charity that provides a safe environment for disadvantaged teenage boys in crisis. 

The charity’s founder and Chief Executive, Ari Leaman MBE, told the JC that Levi Simon had been invited “to inspire the boys to do well in life, it had nothing to do with the army.” Simon was due to speak to four disaffected boys who had been excluded from school, “it was a talk about overcoming adversity and not doing drugs.”

Simon posted about the event on his Facebook, a screenshot of which was widely shared on anti-Israel social media groups. Leaman said it “somehow went out to almost every Palestinian group that there is an IDF guy hosting a charity event.”

The lunchtime talk went ahead at a different address. Leaman said that the boys “know this is part of being Jewish in England today.”

A passerby told the JC, “A lot of guys with balaclavas started targeting the office.” According to the witness, the gang was trying to break into The Boys Clubhouse office. The CST and police had to guard both the front and back entrances to stop the men getting into the building.

The witness said, “it is terrifying. Really awful.”

The braying mob were filmed shouting “you’re a baby killer” to the Jewish men standing on Hendon Way. They called the men “Israeli scum.”

As the incident unfolded, a witness told the JC, “they are harassing the surrounding offices. No one can work because of their loudspeakers.”The Boys Clubhouse does not have identification on their building for security reasons. There is nothing on the office to suggests it is a Jewish charity, but the address was widely shared on anti-Israel channels.

The witness told the JC that he had not seen any arrests.

The JC has approached Dilly Hussain and the Metropolitan police for comment.

[maaarine]

"What leaps to my mind is misogyny that occurs within relationships, which maybe isn't as visible."

'"Insecure jealous partners are way more threatening than the sexless incels that [women] may or may not encounter.

But the misogyny within relationships functions similarly, I think.

Why do people insult their partners? That's when you're trying to lower your partner's mate value and self-esteem so she's less likely to leave you.

You hear abusive men say things like "look at you, who would have you except me?".

That's a clear indicator, I'm trying to not let you know that you could leave.

It's a shady thing and a weird concept to wrap your head around, to want to lower your partner's mate value.

Basically we describe it as "mate retention behavior". There's two types of strategies for mate retention.

One is benefit provision: you provide so many benefits to your partner that she doesn't want to leave you.

If you don't have much benefit to provide, you have to cost inflict. The dark finding is that this manifests in status-mismatch couples.

When women are higher-educated or earn more than their partners, it's a massive predictor of intimate partner violence.

I'm at risk of losing her so I need to lower her sense of self-esteem, which is really dark.

One white pill on that data is that it doesn't apply to men who enter willingly into a relationship with someone who's out-earning them at the beginning. It's when it flips that it's a risk factor.

To get back to incel misogyny, I describe that as that cost-inflicting strategy from outside the confines of a relationship.

Jim Morrison from The Doors said "women seem wicked when you're unwanted", that's exactly how it manifests.

Then it becomes a cycle, because as I understand it, women don't like to date misogynists. So it creates more rejection, more resentment."'

Source: Novara Media: The Truth About Incels | Ash Sarkar meets William Costello

[feckcops]

Palestinian journalists are risking their lives to counteract the ‘Israeli narrative’

“Reporters working in Gaza told Novara Media they are living and working in constant fear of death. ‘I’m under huge psychological pressure, as I feel I could be killed at any moment,’ said freelancer Rakan Abdelrahman. Last month, three of Abdelrahman’s colleagues were killed while trying to film a building in Gaza which was about to be bombed. Wearing jackets and helmets that clearly identified them as press, the men set up hundreds of metres from the stated target, only for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to instead strike a different building, much nearer to where they were standing.

“Last week, the IDF told Reuters and Agence France Presse it could not guarantee the safety of their journalists in Gaza, leading the news agencies to release a joint statement describing the situation on the ground as ‘dire’. ‘The IDF’s unwillingness to give assurances about the safety of our staff threatens their ability to deliver the news about this conflict without fear of being injured or killed,’ the statement said.

“In its letter to the news agencies, the IDF claimed Hamas is deliberately putting military operations “in the vicinity of journalists and civilians”. But several journalists who spoke to Novara Media said they believe they are being deliberately targeted by Israeli forces. ‘There were threats to several places where I was present, including Hiji Tower and Al-Tabbaa Tower’, said Abed Elhakeem Abo Riash, who has worked as a freelance journalist in Gaza for 14 years. ‘These towers all house the offices of journalists and foreign agencies.’

“Last week, Abo Riash was told to evacuate a residential tower by Israeli forces. He struggled to carry all of his equipment – which included his sleeping gear, two cameras, a laptop and a first aid kit – down from the 14th floor, and feared he would not make it out in time. ‘I was very afraid. The army has mercy on no one,’ he said.”

[probablyasocialecologist]

In Istanbul, a flotilla of ships is preparing to depart with 5,500 tonnes of aid and around 1,000 medics, lawyers, senior politicians and human rights observers. Its destination: the Gaza Strip. On Sunday, the Gaza Freedom Flotilla will begin making its way to the besieged strip, its fifth voyage in 14 years. While the journey would normally take three to four days, it is expected that the flotilla – initially comprising three vessels, one cargo and two passenger ships, with further vessels expected to join later – could be waylaid by Israeli forces. 

[...]

The flotilla is organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which brings together 12 national groups from Canada, Malaysia, Italy, Norway, the US, Sweden, Spain, Turkey, South Africa, New Zealand, the UK and France. Altogether, delegates from over 30 countries will be represented on board. The flotilla’s crew and passengers – among them Che Guevara’s daughter Aleida and Nelson Mandela’s grandson Zwelivelile – will be unarmed. Their peacefulness will not guarantee their safety, however, as the Israeli state has a long and bloody history of targeting humanitarian groups. The flotilla’s first voyage to Gaza in May 2010 was a bloodbath: Israel sent a naval ship to meet it, killing 10 crew members (all of them Turkish, including one Turkish American dual national) and injuring 30. A UN report later found that Israel appeared to have executed at least six people in an “extra-legal, arbitrary and summary” manner; a Turkish state autopsy found that five had been shot in the head at close range.  Israel subsequently apologised to Turkey for the raid and agreed to compensate the bereaved families $20m. Further voyages in 2015, 2016 and 2018 saw Israel seize the FFC’s ships and detain and deport those on board. Israel has also targeted humanitarian workers on land. Earlier this month, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) food aid workers, among them three British citizens, in a drone attack on a marked convoy whose movements had been coordinated with the IDF. An Israeli investigation blamed “grave errors”, a finding WCK rejected.