#IRL left/liberal politics

[thekimspoblog]

Fandoms this blog supports (in order of priority)

Better Call Saul

Breaking Bad

IRL left/liberal politics

Westworld

Steven Universe

Twilight

American Psycho

Pussy Riot

The Barbie Movie

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Portal 2

Netflix's "YOU"

Vampires: Other

The Righteous Gemstones

Midnight Mass

Inspirational Joker Quotes

Im Sorry Jon

Bugsnax

Monkeypaw Productions

Futurama

... It's a Lovecraftian anarcho-feminist agit-prop thirst-trap trash blog!

[red-red-spout]

The art of speaking requires achieving the exact right balance between simplicity, complexity, vulgarity, and decency to avoid sounding like, respectively, a preschooler, redditor, reactionary, or liberal.. I have yet to master this skill

[mugiwara-lucy]

Now as promised I would be getting back to my daily Politics/Vote Blue posts since I took a day off since yesterday was my birthday and apparently it's going around that apparently Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama asked Biden to step down.

Thankfully I've went to both of their Twitters so this was revealed to be bullshit put out by CNN (no wonder their shit network is losing viewers left and right) but I need EVERYONE TO CALM DOWN AND CONSIDER THE RAMMIFICATIONS if Biden were to step down.

If Biden DID step down, the ONLY WAY people MAY vote blue is IF (and it's a pretty strong if) Kamala Harris takes over BUT here's the problem.

The MAGAts in Red States have said they would make sure the next Democratic Nominee would NEVER get on the ballot and the sad part? They'd actually SUCCEED since I've had friends to call me in Red States (I live in a blue one) and confirm they've been pretty rampant with the Anti-Harris ads.

You all (Not talking to all Democrats/Liberals but the ones who think biden needs to step down) need to realize Biden is HERE TO STAY and if you're gonna be weak as to let some weak spineless Democrat Congress folks and some washed up actors like George Clooney or a dumbass news organization like CNN talk about how Biden is old and sleeps yet ignores Trump's fat, orange pedophile ass sleeping during his OWN SON'S SPEECH DURING THE RNC; I would almost say you deserve a second Trump term BUT I think of all the innocent people like my parents, grandparents, little sisters, friends irl, disabled, mentally ill, POC and my mutuals on here and they don't deserve to suffer just because some of you so called Democrats are as spineless and weak as the people you claim to be above.

[luulapants]

Stop Being Weird About Indians

Let’s talk about virtue signalling when talking about American Indians and how it’s doing more harm than good. I saw a take that writing about Kaia, an indigenous character in Supernatural, in fanfiction is a cancel-able offense because the way she’s depicted in the show is problematic. I’ve heard similar things about the skinwalkers in Teen Wolf - I’ve also heard that you shouldn’t even type the word “skinwalkers” because it’s offensive, which... I’m not gonna go into all the details, but that’s a gross misunderstanding of the belief around the word, and also the actual word the belief is about - you won’t believe this - isn’t an English word.

Anyway.

The topic of indigenous oppression in the US is complicated, but one of the fundamental issues, which actual indigenous activists (not just keyboard warriors) constantly talk about, is the way indigenous people are ignored and erased from the story. It’s called “The Terminal Narrative.” Text books talk about indigenous people like they’re a relic of the past, like they’re all dead and gone. (Do you know how weird it is for Indian children on reservations to read a US history book that implies they don’t exist?) Human rights abuses and social issues on reservations are left out of the conversation or skimmed over as if they’re too obscure to be fully understood, or like they impact so few people, it doesn’t really matter.

Policing wording is not activism. Sharing call-out posts isn’t activism. You are not doing anything to help anyone. You’re not funding, volunteering, calling politicians, or doing any actual work to better the lives of indigenous Americans. (Before anyone calls hypocrite, I do work with an indigenous rights group IRL.) When someone scolds another person online over using a word that isn’t PC, 99% of the time it’s clear they don’t actually care - they derive a sense of moral superiority from knowing the “correct” way to speak. And they don’t care about the chilling effect it has on speech overall. This naturally leads to one of the most toxic elements of liberal conversations about race: that you must have the conversation perfectly or not at all. And that’s the impact it has. People just stop talking about it for fear of being wrong.

Can you see how, in a society where indigenous oppression is actively facilitated by silence and erasure, making people afraid to speak about Indians is one of the worst things you could possibly do?

It’s become standard fare for Indian Studies books to start with a disclaimer explaining that “Indian” actually isn’t an offensive word and is the word that most indigenous people use for themselves. The disclaimer isn’t because it’s new or radical information. It’s because white Americans are so goddamn weird about virtual signaling about ~The Native Americans~ that they would condemn a much-needed book of scholarship on native issues just for using a word that they thought was offensive.

Native people aren’t a monolith. You’ll find Indians that insist you need to spell it NDN or that XYZ is offensive. Production companies can pay a native person to come tell them they’re allowed to write about something most people from their tribe would find offensive. Fact of the matter is, a lot of Indians are not experts on like... heritage culture. If they grew up on a rez, they can tell you about rez culture, but they’re not all Indian Studies scholars, the same way not all Irish people are experts on Celtic paganism. Not all Indians are experts on indigenous politics, the same way not all Americans are experts on American politics. And it goes without saying that a GODAWFUL amount of the people lecturing on acceptable ways to interact with indigenous characters are not only uninformed about indigenous issues (I saw one post where someone clearly linked the first thing that came up when they googled “Native American drug addiction”) but are also not indigenous themselves.

And, yes, the vast majority of depictions of Indians in American media are problematic in one way or another, but saying that the solution is to erase indigenous characters from fandom entirely (because they’re all problematic) is the absolute WORST conclusion to reach. Fix the characters if you care that much! Give the Teen Wolf skinwalkers names! And an iPad! Let Kaia be the master of her own destiny! Let her bitch Dean out for pointing that gun in her face! Let her live happily ever after with her girlfriend! What the hell is fandom for if not fixing the issues we see in canon? Why are we allowed to reclaim and rewrite problematic queer characters but not problematic native characters? Who is that serving? Because it sure as hell isn’t serving Indians.

Anyone that tells you it’s better to ignore Indians than say the wrong thing about them is, knowingly or not, actively promoting a terminal narrative and the continuation of indigenous genocide.

[taylortruther]

This is more aimed at your audience than you but I’m a communist living in a red state (not the kinda red I want haha). I obviously do not come across people in my every day life who share my particular views very often. Frankly until recently I only knew one or two other people irl who i identified with politically.

All this to say, making broad sweeping judgments about *normal people* not exiling folks based on political leanings is just … exhausting. You have got to learn to deal with people in your life you even vehemently disagree with. You’re gonna have friends who date people you don’t like and you’ll be doing a disservice to the ideas you represent if you’re gross to them.

no exactly like, almost no one in my life aligns with me politically (because they're liberals and i'm further left). it is really strange to me that some parts of the fandom are acting like they don't know anyone who still associates with republicans. i try really hard not to in my personal/intimate life, but i am only like, 1 or 2 steps removed from republicans. some of my friends are completely apolitical except for voting blue in the presidential elections. i had several friends ask me who to vote for during local elections because none of them pay attention and didn't want to research lmao

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for vagueing one of my irl friends on my tumblr?

This is a bit of a long story thats spread out over a period of time that happened about a while ago, but here's the situation: It was freshman year at a liberal arts college, with a sizable chunk of the campus being queer online nerds (and by extension had a tumblr account). I like to keep my digital life and my real life completely separate, and I was/still am very paranoid about people finding my account. When my friend (we'll call him decimal) started asking for peoples tumblr, I told him that I wasn't going to give it to him. Fast forward a few months, I made 2 posts about decimal (one of which boiled down to me saying "i think decimal was in the wrong about this situation" and the other being about him sending me something when I didnt ask for it) on tumblr. I find out that decimal found my tumblr account and followed me, and texted me a playful message about it. I told him very politely that I don't want him to follow me. He responded "[mutual friend] is following you" (a surprise to me) and then "L + ratio + you vagued me on your tumblr" (his exact words). Now, at the point I am in my life, I acknowledge that me vaguing about him is shitty behavior, but then I thought it was fine since I complain a lot about people on my tumblr about others who were closer to me. When I responded in confusion about the mutual friend following me and found my other post. Afterwards I apologized to him about vaguing him, and he apologized about looking through my tumblr (though looking back he never explicitly said I'm sorry?) and we moved on, though the situation never really left me, and I still wonder if I was being a asshole and overreacting when I was caught in the act of vagueing decimal. So, was I?

What are these acronyms?

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

Not only does the military governance of Amestris remain in tact post-Promised Day;

Not only do the war criminals of the Ishvalan genocide remain free from legal penalty (though of course a punitive legal system is an oppressive system in and of itself);

Not only do those same genociders get to enjoy further rank and class mobility, with one of the top genociders getting to enjoy being next in line for fuhrer;

But Amestris also doesn't become a democracy. At all. Lieutenant General Grumman snatches the seat of fuhrer in the vacuum of the coup against Bradley and now rules the nation, the political structures of the land otherwise left intact.

Don't get me wrong, becoming a democracy 1) doesn't stop a nation from being an imperialist and genocidal force (please refer to the numerous ongoing and past atrocities done by the West irl), and 2) doesn't liberate those who are under occupation (Ishval may have been *conditionally freed, but Amestris' borders have been expanding outwards from all directions to form an alchemic circle). But it's incredible how every single claim our idealistic war criminal protags hinged their redemption from being fascist boots onto absolutely did not come to fruition, yet the narrative fools the audience into accepting as having happened all the same in the epilogue.

Truly the coup of the Promised Day only really accomplished flushing out one regime in exchange for another. One that pinky-promises it won't do what its predecessors have been doing for centuries without relinquishing the borders, land, people, wealth, and resources gained in the 400 years of imperial expansionism. Sure, there won't be a nation-wide purge to create unending philosopher stones via a central homunculus, but that doesn't negate the far more mundane realities of a powerful war mongering nation state.

But please, turn your brain off and unquestioningly defend this ending as a wholly happy, progressive one. Liberation looks like a marginal shift in the status quo! Woo! 🎉

*Conditional because Miles and a military-leashed Scar are the arms of the Amestrian Military that directly oversees reconstruction of Ishval, with Mustang at the head. This is characterized as part of Amestris' reparations towards Ishval and the Ishvalan refugees, and on paper they are no longer occupying the land of Ishval, but this reeks of imperialism via soft power as opposed to direct ownership/violence.

[duxfemina]

Hey just went through your previous ask.

But honestly consider that if you are women in your early to mid 20s rank the ancient romans which of them would be least to most creepy on your journey.

Thank you for establishing that my theoretical life here is that of a woman of rank. So I'm my head the scenario is my litter or whatever I was traveling in has broken down and it's just me and the two slaves who were with me (real me would never have slaves obvs upper class Roman me pretty much would have to)

Octavian - one look at this man and my skins gonna break out. I'm baby faced IRL so his creepy ass would mistake 24yo me for 14 and he had a thing for underage girls so he's probably gonna try to take liberties. This isn't gonna end well for me I fear. Especially if I'm somebody's wife because if it's not teenage girls his next favorite amorous target is other guys' wives. 1/10 the only reason 1 is there is just in case I actually get to escape this scenario without him forcing himself on me.

Sulla - depends on if it's party boy Sulla or Sulla on a military mission. Either way I'm gonna either get basic courtesy but very brusque at best or at worst I'm getting r*ped and left on the side of the road, potentially without even the protection of my servants who he'd probably steal 3/10 if he's in a good mood my vehicle may get repaired but the prospects aren't great

Julius - Julius would follow the same route as Agrippa except if he found me attractive or thought my family was of strategic influence then he'd spend the whole time trying to seduce me. Which depending on how footloose and wild of a Roman lady I am here, I might do, especially if I think it will bring political advantage to my own family because that's all Romans care about. But if I turned him down emphatically enough he'd probably take it well enough and leave me in peace and then he might not be as considerate as Agrippa but he wouldn't be outright rude because he never knows when he might need favors from my fam. 7/10 on safe vibes.

Cicero - he'll be perfectly safe just very self important and remind me how indebted I am to him ever after this event. 7/10 I'll be safe, he won't be pervy, he'll just be annoying and pompous

Antony - he'd offer his assistance, invite me to the party he's having, invite me to travel with him, try to seduce me, but if rejected he'd take it just fine and give me a couple amphora of wine for the road 7/10 he might get handsy when he's drunk but other than that he's gonna be a gentleman about things

Brutus - he'd offer me what hospitality he could, even if this is Liberators Era Brutus and he's scant on supplies or something he'd still do his best to uphold the reputation of his family for hospitality. Definitely not creepy, dinner with him might turn morbid though so 8/10 simply because he might be a little too passive to stop the men under his command from behaving unseemly

Agrippa - would stop, offer his protection and assistance. He'd probably talk to me about his kids and treat me to a nice dinner and then if I wasn't headed the same direction as he was he'd send me on my way with a detachment for safety and protection or have his men repair my chariot or whatever I was traveling in. No creepy vibes whatsoever 9/10 on safe vibes

Aurelius - he would be very courteous and help me out and even restock my provisions and set me up with a whole new vehicle rather than even delaying me to wait for repairs 10/10 this man is not creepy in the least

Gnaeus Pompeius - Magnus is magnanimous as heck. He's also very traditional. He would treat me with respect and honor and be extremely courteous. If this is Pompeius the married man he wouldn't even think of flirting with me because he was notorious for his monogamy in marriage. If it's bachelor Pompeius he might be making observations on my suitability as a spouse but he's not gonna make any forward moves. He'd talk to my family about it afterwards if he was interested in marriage. 10/10 I'm gonna be safe and sound and if any of his men made inappropriate comments he'd be the most likely of the guys on this list to admonish them for it

[godeaterazathoth]

Issues I have with ikevamp

That I’m venting here because they won’t leave my skull

*Content warning, we’re talking about men in the past, they did some bad stuff*

Part 1, historical inaccuracies

I’m I history nut so this really gets to me, since I know the deep details of these peoples lives.

The timeline, ok so the game takes place in 18th France, correct me if I’m wrong but I think it is in the second empire (1852-1870) considered there is a noble class, yet you can clearly see the Eiffel Tower which was completed in 1889, there is no mention of the 1889 exposition, so it must be after the tower had become permanent, by then the 3rd republic was around, if we are in the republic the Count wouldn’t be called that by the npcs at all the parties he goes to, no matter which we’re in, NOBODY mentions Napoleon III at, NOT EVAN HIS UNCLE (WHOSE SOMEHOW BECAME CASS CONSCIOUS!)

How does the time travel work, example, Dazai died in 1948, his plan was seemingly to wait until he’s born in 1909 then kill himself as a baby, but then he decides to use the magic door, what are the consequences of 2 Dazais existing at once or him erasing himself from history, he’s a pretty important literary figure, does someone else replace him or does the space time continuum collapse?? Is the future Vlad sees set in stone or can it be changed, just copy someone else’s time travel bit!!!

So straight up these guys aren’t who they say they are, we’ll go through 1 by 1

Napoleon- doesn’t mention he left the love of his life to marry a girl 20 years his junior (like think how interesting it would be if he’s conflicted about love cuz he had to give it up for political reasons) -that scene where MC talks about all the ‘good’ that he did in Europe, like committing war crimes against the Spanish and Portuguese and Eastern Europeans, being a coloniser, killing the slaves he freed when they asked for more rights, killing thousands of men in a meaningless war (ligit H*tler vibes)

Arthur- goofy irl, literally believed in fairies, had 5 children and married twice but he never mentions any of this, he cheated on his first wife while she was dying of TB, he was a liberal unionist (tldr didn’t like Irish people) he was anti-immigration, might have committed fraud. We’ll get to the other issues I have with him.

Leonardo- fruity as hell, vegetarian

Mozart- they got his character completely wrong, the guy was a complete man child, vain, broke, by the end of his life his career fell off (Beethoven better composer), in love with his cousin 🤢, had a s*at fetish 🤢🤢🤢. The hole Salieri thing didn’t happen.

Vincent- they made him too mentally stable, I’m all for him being meek, but the guy had serious issues that they ignore, he ate paint thinner, was rejected by his both crushes, WHY DOES HE HAVE BOTH EARS, DID IT GROW BACK, THEY SHOULD HAVE LEFT HIM WITH ONLY ONE, also he should be ginger smh. Oh yeah and they never mentioned the s*ecide attempt.

Theo- doesn’t mention his wife, or son, WHO HE NAMED AFTER VINCENT, his wife is the person responsible for Vincent’s work not being completely forgotten, was way nicer irl.

Issac- tbh hotter irl, low key ace, maybe a fruit, kinda mean, the only thing they got right was the major virgin vibes.

Jean- WHY MAN!??!! Even if the didn’t want a lesbian route, they could have gone with any other guy from the 100 years war, Edward black prince, idk WHY GENDER BEND ONE OF THE MOST PROMINENT WOMEN IN HISTORY, I’m fine with the delusional trans dude lie, but they say that he was a guy all along, THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT OF HIM BEING BURNT AT THE STAKE IF HE WASN’T CROSS DRESSING???!!! was he double cross dressing??? This is the worst of them all, give me the girl boss we deserve (revers fate)

Dazai- not depressed enough imo, he was a leftist, again missing wife, their were two su*ecide attempts, guy lived through fire bombing, had a few children that he is fine to erase from existence.

Shakespeare- probably a fruit, again never mentioned his wife and kids, btw the way he talks is annoying, some people don’t think he’s real.

Faust- NOT A REAL PERSON.

Sanson- too young, this guys is 67, really liked the guillotine, just saw execution as his job didn’t really care, had a wife and kids.

Vlad- Ok is he supposed to be Vlad THE impaler? Cuz he’s not evil enough, or is he a Dracula reference, cuz he can’t dance that dance either, why did they call him Vlad if he isn’t a blood thirsty war criminal.

Count- not enough history to work with.

Part 2, problematic moments

So I ha have seen some posts on the low key misogynistic way the MC is written and treated and there are a lot of issues wit white washing history so another trigger warning ⚠️

Misogyny- the MC of this game is not the best, I know she’s a self insert but she has no backbone at all. She lacks agency I’m most of the routes, like the MC getting kidnapped is a troupe in all these games, but Emma can escape on her own, Kate has ⚽️, even Alice had more depth to her, seems the only thing MC can do is cry and wait to be saved, I swear she gets kidnapped once in every route, I think they could have given her more character to work with. Another thing, but Jean being a man is bad, really bad, she’s a feminist icon but they made her a man, it’s sought of saying that women aren’t capable of this so she had to have actually been a man.

Handling of SA, important one here, I’m ok with the flirty guy, but I really hate Arthur, he doesn’t just flirt with her in chapter 1 he assaults her and acts like he did her a service, and she just forgives him!?! I’m fine with a guy that sleeps around, I like Jin and Nokto fine, but the way Arthur talks about women, always calling them Birds (if they were going for English slang it doesn’t work cuz he doesn’t have a cockney accent) or worse Skirts, it’s dehumanising, and shows that to him women are vehicles for sexual pleasure and aren’t on an equal level of understanding. There are smaller parts to, Leo kisses her without consent, the Count hides the truth from her, idk but Theo calling her a ‘hound’ sounds like he’s calling her something else…

Minor points on classism, I’m not expecting the communist manifesto, but all these games aren’t very good at dealing with class deviation. In Vlad’s route, the orphan boy thinks he can impress the rich girl, this is the 19th century, capitalism is on the rise, but there’s no comment about how it’s impossible. The little school Napoleons runs is strange, considering he was in a position where benefited from poor people existing and staying poor, ( side note, he’s teaching them swordsmanship when ww1 is right around the corner, just saying they won’t need it in the military) called MC out as a social climber, these games sought of depict the past through rosé tinted glasses, there’s only passing reference to how fucked people were in the past, Also all the historical inaccuracies above tie to this.

Anyway love to hear some other opinions, (I started playing this game before my transition and have always thought it it was wired, it’s my personal least favourite just cuz I couldn’t really get into any of the guys, my OC ended up as a Carmilla reference so….)

I have seen a post talking about some of the issues before so that’s what got me to write this out, if you disagree or want to add anything I’m all ears 👂

Thanks for reading 💗💖💖💕💓💝💗🥰🥰🥰❤️✨✨✨✨❤️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[arielmagicesi]

Why am I leaving Tumblr?

OK, I'm done with all the stuff I was planning to do on here, and I said I would make a longer post explaining why I'm leaving. I don't owe anyone an explanation but I figured I would give a brief one (it turned out not so brief though).

I'm putting it under a read-more and giving the trigger warning now that I'm discussing bullying, suicide, self-harm, descriptions of mass violence, war, and various forms of bigotry.

It's very long. If your thought is "hell no I'm not reading all that shit" then you have one of two options: you can put me out of your mind and accept that you will never fully understand me and as such cannot really make judgments on who I am, or you can go apologize to your English teachers for being unable to read. (Or you can simply not read it but just, like, don't be a dick about what you assume I may have written.)

Tumblr is not good for my mental health. No social media is. I left Twitter years ago, and then Instagram, and then Tumblr. The only social media I really use is that I watch YouTube and I check Facebook for my handful of IRL friends and family on there.

I'm a member of the LGBT+ community and I have generally leftist politics. This means I was involved in the LGBT and leftist online communities on social media websites. They were probably the worst possible thing for my development as a lesbian and as an actually effective force for progressive change, and as a person with what is likely OCD, and who survived bullying (which, yes, is a serious issue and traumatic, fuck off). This website, combined with my own issues, and the community at Sarah Lawrence College, is what led me down a very dark path in college with trying to "prove I was a real lesbian and not a cringe freak who deserved bullying". The same for "trying to atone for my toxic, evil, problematic existence as a privileged person". Instead of embracing the beautiful complexities of queer identity and life, I made a new version of the closet to torture myself within. Instead of working to help my community with positive change, I stayed inside self-harming and planning suicide and refusing to seek help because I didn't deserve it because I was inherently marked with evil as a sinful member of the bourgeoisie, etc. etc.

I already, as a result of so many things, have issues where I am terrified to make mistakes, terrified to be seen as annoying or "bad". The culture on social media has made me so much more terrified to make any mistake, because mistakes = proof of Intentional Evil and apologies are just fake attempts to win back brownie points that I don't deserve. This attitude has hindered my recovery process so much. I think of it as like Statler and Waldorf, the hecklers from the Muppet Show, only instead of two old guys, it's two college students that I call Sarah and Lawrence (after my delightful fucking alma mater) who tell me that I should be first in line to the guillotine because I'm a teacher and teachers are "child cops" (I once read a post on here saying that "in a world with any real justice, teachers would be shot and dumped in mass graves", and I'd love to say that that was just one crazy outlier of a post) or that my food sensitivities are proof that I'm a toxic privileged demon because some people can't afford food so I should just die or whatever. Being on this website feeds Sarah and Lawrence with a thousand new hot takes they can use to torture me. And you know what, I don't deserve that. And if you think I deserve that, then you're wrong, and I don't care.

I do not like the form of leftism on this website. If this is what real leftism looks like- romanticizing gulags and guillotines, trying to figure out who the "Bad People" are and then sending them to those gulags and guillotines, carceral logic, cult-like communities- then feel free to call me a pathetic, spineless, centric, milquetoast liberal. My form of social justice looks like getting up every morning, driving to my job at a public high school, and teaching literacy and critical thinking to teenagers who need it. And when I come home, I rest and work on myself so I can learn more about the world I live in (about which I know woefully little, since I spent years educating myself on goddamn tumblr.edu instead of out of books and reputable news sources), and gain the energy to make my school community and larger community a safer, more inclusive place for everyone. If that's too fucking liberal for you, then I'll see you at the guillotine when the revolution comes and you're chopping my head off. Until then, leave me the fuck alone.

Now let's get to the actual part that may alienate me even from my friends. I hope this isn't the end of our friendships, and I hope you have the patience to read all of this before deciding to cut me off, and if you do decide to cut me off, I wish you all the best.

I am a Jew. Both my parents are Jewish. My mother is an Ashkenazi Jew whose parents narrowly escaped the Holocaust in Poland. My father is an Iranian Jew whose family had to escape Iran when he was eight because of the Revolution. Both sides of my family had been in those countries for as many centuries back as it is possible to trace. They were forced to escape or die. My maternal grandparents were both babies during the Holocaust, and their families took them to Russia. My maternal grandfather was shipped to a displaced persons camp and his family had no choice where they were taken. My maternal grandmother's family went back to Poland after the war, where they were treated so horrifically, due to being Jewish, that they chose to leave. My father's family, on the other hand, had been relatively prosperous in Iran (notwithstanding every couple of decades when a new regime would force them to go underground with their Judaism or be killed), but realized that the revolutionary government would likely mean death for them.

My maternal grandmother's family, my maternal grandfather's family, and my father's family all fled their countries of origin and went to the recently formed state of Israel. My mother and father grew up there. They met there, married, and moved to the United States, where I was born. They raised us as Jews. Many of my relatives on both sides, however, stayed in Israel and still live there.

As an adult, I do not think I am anywhere close to an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but I have studied it a bit (I recommend Rashid Khalidi's The Hundred Years War on Palestine especially, and the work of Benny Morris). I certainly think I have more knowledge about it, based on what I've seen, than 95% of the fucking assholes on here posting about it. I'm not an expert on public policy or war, but my general opinion is that Israel was formed using settler-colonial tactics (which, to be clear, is bad), that the Palestinian refugee crisis never should have happened and that in a just world it would end and Palestinians would have right of return and right to safe and equal citizenship in their homeland, and that the current government of Israel is, I don't like saying the word evil (because I'm not a child watching a superhero cartoon) but they should be taken down, and their actions in Gaza are despicable.

HOWEVER. I do not think that every citizen of Israel is responsible for the crimes of its government. (Kind of like America is a settler colony but I don't think every single American citizen should be killed?) I do NOT fucking think that Israeli civilians deserve to be killed, bombed, tortured, or raped, because I do not think that any human deserves that, even "evil" ones, even if those actions are "resistance". I do not think that Jews in the diaspora deserve to be considered suspicious, to be interrogated for potential Zionism lurking beneath our skin, to be cast aside as problematic if we so much as suggest that we are frightened of antisemitism, to be told to shut up and suck it up if our synagogues and cultural centers are vandalized, threatened, shot up, because we deserve it for sharing heritage with Benjamin Netanyahu, and anyway it's sending a message and that's what revolution looks like, so maybe stop whining. That we need to stop whining about the Holocaust and that if any of us supports Israel or Zionism (which apparently means not wanting our family- our relatives who escaped MENA countries that no longer allow their Jewish citizens to live- to die horribly- apparently not cheering for the painful deaths of my family makes me a Zionist?), then maybe we deserve another Holocaust, and Hitler was right. That idk maybe there's something suspicious about the fact that Jews keep getting kicked out of countries, like maybe there's just something inherently vermin-like about us like idk if *I* kept getting oppressed I'd wonder if something was wrong with me, but idk I'm just a leftist who supports revolution and punch Nazis or whatever... That "NO ONE IS EVEN SAYING THAT, STOP WHINING" even though I have seen every one of those posts on this website, from nearly everyone I follow. (And the people who harassed my sister, who has been less frightened than I am over the past 7 months to admit she's Jewish on social media, and was told some truly vile personal things). (Oh, and the ten-year-old children I used to teach in Hebrew school, who got told "Hitler was right" on their TikTok accounts and got swastikas painted in their middle school in liberal New Jersey).

I am not just angry and frightened as a Jew, but as a teacher. Even those who don't spout antisemitism have not seemed to bother to educate themselves about the conflict before running to hit the reblog button because the post said that posting is the most important thing you can do, and I see y'all who don't reblog and that's really suspicious and if you don't reblog you must support genocide. If you studied the history of this conflict for five fucking seconds, you would not be saying shit like "We stand with Hamas", at least not if you give a shit about Palestinian rights. I was gonna write up a whole explanation of that but to be honest, while I hate the old Tumblr axiom "it's not my job to educate you! Google is free!" I honestly do stand by it in this case- I'm not gonna word these explanations well. I'll point you instead to the two authors I recommended above- Rashid Khalidi and Benny Morris. Khalidi is a Palestinian scholar and Morris is one of the Israeli "New Historians" who believes in telling the truth, not Israeli propaganda. I, on the other hand, am just some idiot who cares about things like Palestinian lives, Palestinian autonomy, Jewish lives, Jewish autonomy, Arab independence, fighting antisemitism, fighting Islamophobia, education, and the stupidest thing of all, according to this god-awful website: peace. So don't listen to me. But don't just listen to whatever Internet user is angriest.

And stop advocating for mass deaths and tortures. And stop just hitting the reblog button because you're being guilted into it. I am not saying that posting CAN'T be helpful. In my week of being back on this website briefly, I've seen people sharing verified links to sources to donate to Gazans in need, or support for solidarity movements between Israelis and Palestinians.* That's a great example of posting being helpful. And despite my personal distaste for political discussion on social media, I know there are people capable of doing it well- sharing news thoughtfully, discussing the best methods of dealing with it, etc. But seeing my own people being tossed into the fucking machine of "There's A Certain Heritage That Are All Either Oppressors Or On Thin Ice, and We Need To Guillotine Them, Or Else We're Oppressors Too And Should Die" has shown me even more clearly than before that something is deeply wrong about the way we approach social justice on social media.

(*yes, solidarity between Israelis and Palestinians. Israelis are not a monolithic oppressor block, and Palestinians are not required to lie down and just take their oppression until Americans save them with posting. They are all human beings and are allowed to work together to stop what I think is the true problem, the governments treating their lives as pawns.)

I don't know enough about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Or quite honestly, a lot of the real-world issues I used to "just reblog" about). Chances are, neither do you. But I at least know that I will never give in to hatred and prejudice and thirst for violence. I will never sit back and be fine with the acts of the Israeli government and military simply because they share my heritage, and even with the terrible burden of knowing with more and more clarity every day how viciously the world, even my friends and allies, view my people. That will never excuse what Israel is doing, and I know that I disagree with many of my fellow Jews on this point. But I will also not be bullied into giving up my values- kindness, equality, peace, love for humanity- by somebody telling me that if I value nonviolence, if I don't believe in the dichotomy of "enemy race vs. good race", I must be a secret Zionist/neoliberal/etc, and thus an oppressor. I know who I really am and I know what my values are. If you don't like that, and we used to be friends, please do me the justice of at least letting me know before blocking me or whatnot.

I'm sorry this post was so long. I tend to ramble. I plan to log off. If you would like to contact me about this post, I suggest you don't unless we were already mutuals/friends and I gave you my contact anyway. If you aren't my mutual/friend but you truly must tell me something, I've created a blog called arielmagicesi.blogspot.com and there's one post on there and you can comment there.

FINAL THING:

Most of this post is me appealing as a leftist, a Jew, a human being. I'd like to appeal as a friend. I have been terrified, like constant-nightmares-and-panic-attacks-for-months terrified, of my friends turning on me if they found out all of this. I'm pretty sure there's at least one or two old friends of mine who, because they know that my parents grew up in Israel and I haven't disowned my parents, probably no longer want to be friends, and maybe even think of me as an enemy. If you do want to stop being friends with me because of this, please be direct. If you don't, just keep it in mind- not in a "develop an anxiety complex about Ariel's hurt feelings" way but in a "be careful how you talk about Jews on social media, if possible" way.

[redditreceipts]

The trans movement at large doesn't give a single damn about TiF bodily (even transitional) or reproductive autonomy and no one's fucking saying it but it's true.

Rape is "just getting laid" and sometimes "hole is owed" for career maneuvers and for "having societal power over trans women." Nonconsensual and unaware detransitioning of TiFs during bdsm isn't considered rape or transphobia or misogyny and can't be discussed even when no information about the perpetrator is given at all beyond their action because it's supposedly "transmisogynistic" to even say that it happened (way to tell on yourselves, TiMs and transmisogynistic TiF white knights) and it's supposedly "transmisogynistic" to share cautious and preventative measures against being hormonally detransitioned without consent or awareness for "safer" bdsm.

Prostitution is great ✨ except when it's to "use" a cis man (mutualistically) for networking purposes.

I'm processing all of the shit they put me through and all of the exact opposite of support that the trans community has for survivors, transmen included, transandrophobia bloggers and baeddels and irl trans community are all the same, and feel like I'm bleeding out on the inside but no I have to go work an over ten hour shift for pennies.

I hate them. I hate them so much. Left libertarian and liberal "queers" are the same as the rightwing religious fanatics regarding females, only virtue signaling.

hey :)

first of all, sorry for the late answer, I am trying to give a thought-out answer to an ask and sometimes, that takes a bit

and secondly yes, they don't care about bodily autonomy in the sense that they don't care about addressing the root of the issue. Most genderists do say verbally that they support the right to an abortion, but the issue won't be resolved unless it it understood that the female body is seen as a factory for new workers and soldiers in a patriarchal capitalist state. Women, the only ones who have control over this process, actually have an immense leverage if given control over their own bodies because they are inseperable from the means of production and have to be convinced and consenting to give pleasure to a male or new workers to a capitalist. That's why female bodily autonomy is incredibly threatening for a capitalist and patriarchal state, and that is also the reason for taking away that very right, be it by making it extremely expensive or outlawing it completely.

But gender identity believers can't admit that the subjugation of the woman is because of her body, because that would invalidate trans identity.

Politics are about our bodies. Work is performed by our bodies, and we can't identify into or out of a female body just as a worker can't identify into a capitalist* or a Black person can identify into a white person.

But genderists will never solve this issue, because they are allergic to material reality and because of that, every talk about "bodily autonomy for women" is just some sad echo from the days when feminism was interested in women's liberation.

It's actually good that you're angry, and you have every right to be! I don't know your personal history, but being angry can be a reason to change the world for good :)

*Yes, a worker can become a capitalist because the mechanics of capitalist vs. worker are different from the mechanics of woman vs. man, but my point is that identity alone is not a relevant factor in material reality.

[stele3]

Hi

Sorry to bring up Aaron Bushnell, but I just started thinking about something that happened, regarding him, a while back, and I wasn’t sure who else to go to

So there is this subreddit that I (generally) agree with politically. And a while back, they pinned a post saying that Bushnell was beyond criticism and banned anyone that was… horrified, essentially, saying they were “concern-trolling libs”. And later, one of the mods admitted that this was done intentionally as a way to weed out and boot liberals who claimed to be leftists in the sub because “every leftist sub gets infiltrated by vote blue shills during an election year”

This doesn’t lead to a larger point, I just need to bounce this off someone and know for sure if it’s fucked up or not, because I genuinely don’t know if I’m the one overreacting

No, you're not overreacting. That's some weird, fucked-up shit.

To be clear, I don't have criticisms of Aaron Bushnell. The guy was raised by a notoriously-abusive cult; he was a victim who the system failed to protect or help. I have a fucking MOUNTAIN of criticisms for anyone who valorized his suicide, but he was very clearly mentally unwell and I mostly feel angry on his behalf.

Now, this subreddit sounds incredibly toxic and designed -- either accidentally or intentionally -- to divide the Left rather than uniting it. Anytime you're in a group that tells you to believe XYZ or face ostracization, be very skeptical and consider leaving that group, because that's cult behavior; if that group is full of Leftists who refuse to vote, then be super skeptical. Chances are good that they're either a right-wing psyop trying to discourage leftists from voting or they're actual leftists who have been taken in by other right-wing psyops and now actually believe that they're Winning at politics...by refusing to participate.

People like this will tell you that the only way for progress to be made is through violence, but then will kick out any potential allies for wrongthink. Like, who's going to fight beside them in the glorious revolution? They've alienated everyone who's even close to them on the political spectrum!

I encourage you to find other subreddits to visit...or better yet, try to join a group IRL! Certainly there's no guarantee that they'll be any less crazy, but maybe look up the DSA or other progressive groups in your area. Or hell, maybe you can join one that meets online.

[marxistmuslimah]

i feel like the western "left" is gonna move their gaze of hate from jews to us, like it's happened before like I remember the mid to late 2010s and I've heard tales about the early 2000s.

While the majority of the left was pretty good during that time was very chill and similarity to now, a group of bigoted opportunists and rich kids playing at having radical politics attacked people who were Muslim, Arab and Sikh.

these sort of opportunists and people who say "I'm a _" then later in life end up being the most milquetoast liberal on earth an example would be Van Jones, who went from a Maoist to a liberal (i'm not saying van Jones was a rich kid).

These people view themselves as so important but are so stupid that they don't realize that having economic left wing ideas doesn't mean you can't have a reactionary mindset.

It's painfully obvious that this moment in the left will moves on from Gaza, as they did with Ukraine, Syria, Myanmar and Afghanistan they WILL move on from Gaza either once this current conflict ends or if this goes on for another year.

Now I will be honest, part of me feels we should remove these opportunists from the left for obvious reasons of being human and the other part of me wants to remove them from the left cause I can see the way they look me as a hijabi, it's very obvious that I am a momentary ally to these members of the "left" when it comes time I will be next in line for these opportunists.

tldr: remove reactionaries from the left. having left wing economics doesn't mean you're a leftist. if it's a selfish reason we should still remove the opportunists and reactionaries from the left, or else we (non white passing, non Christians/culturally Christian) will be next, which policing our communities is hard especially with should a large split from irl stuff and online stuff.

[little-desi-historian]

OP--turned off reblogs and it is bad tumblr etiquette to try reblog it again, but I am sharing this with two cents cause I have opinions + media criticism credentials + done archivist historian work + my current wip centres largely around this nuance and the nuance of inherent human unreliability. See here, and here. Meaningful citation I am gonna quote a lot… also this is just my opinion having read Das Kapital and worked at a unions museum and being a historical fiction writer + gothic horror writer.

when I say "apologize" for Robespierre I don't mean take away his humanity or complexity. The same applies to Marie Antoinette as much as I don't like at all what she stood for or her irl views, she was still a person, as well Napoleon I Bonaparte (the first 'Liberal' Dictator) are all people, not necessarily 'moral' or 'good' people, and we don't have to erase their humanity to talk about how they were not 'good.'

As competent as Louis XIV nicknamed, Louis the Great (Louis le Grand) or Sun King (le Roi Soleil) for his competence and ability to win France's colonial wars (a thing shockingly-- historians of all political leanings agree upon), could've spared France and all of its citizenry a lot of hurt if he just took away the ancien regimes social powers but left them their titles etc. TLDR: if France became a constitutional monarchy none of the French revolution would've happened.

Robespierre was by no means an "avenging angel" but it is important to keep in mind most of what he fought for was warranted and he was the victim of a posthumous smear campaign.

I cannot possibly reiterate enough times just how messed up the ancien regime was, yeah, not all nobility had power or wealth, like country nobility. But, unless you are the bourgeoise new money, titled and wealthy or court nobility. You along with the 99.9% (who is not the clergy or the second estate) might as well be getting by on scraps, Dangerous Liaisons (the book) touches on this conflict a lot.

Historical fiction is by nature fiction it shouldn't be moralized differently from any other fiction.

The French (and by extension European + American) empires never really 'died' they just rebranded themselves a lot.

[bloomfish]

on the topic of teenaged incels, I think that a big failing of the left in recent years is to make almost no effort to appeal to working class people with "bad politics" and instead write them off as morally lacking/inherently ignorant instead of the potential allies that they actually are. This isn't to excuse incels/right wingers/whatever but it's an undeniable problem that young boys, literal children, are increasingly turning to the right and becoming radicalised within incel spaces online. simply writing them off and not giving an ounce of thought or empathy to their humanity and the reasons why fascism might be so appealing to them is not the solution. a big reason why a young boy might become an incel is, imo:

they are poor, depressed, anxious, socially outcast. these are things that happen to almost everyone under capitalism to some extent. however, they're then, thanks to identity politics, told by liberals that they shouldn't complain, because they're "cis white het men" or whatever, when actually objectively they ARE having a hard time. because society sucks and everyone's having a hard time. and they take this to mean that cis white het men are now being oppressed rather than correctly identifying the issue as being based in class, as being a natural product of capitalism.

these are boys who have grown up in a patriarchal society that basically teaches them they've a right to, essentially, ownership of a woman. when this obviously is "denied" to them they also take it as a sign that they're oppressed. imo porn is a contributing factor in this, as they've grown up with unlimited access to women's bodies which also gives them a sense of entitlement.

I am not saying "poor incels wahh," nor that others might not have it worse. it's terrifying seeing what boys are saying on the internet and irl. I am saying that ultimately recognising the humanity of these people (and this also goes for trump supporters etc too) rather than just seeing them as morally impure irredeemable villains would be more productive. Anyway this Mark Fisher quote:

Capitalist realism insists on treating mental health as if it were a natural fact, like weather (but, then again, weather is no longer a natural fact so much as a political-economic effect). In the 1960s and 1970s, radical theory and politics (Laing, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, etc.) coalesced around extreme mental conditions such as schizophrenia, arguing, for instance, that madness was not a natural, but a political, category. But what is needed now is a politicization of much more common disorders. Indeed, it is their very commonness which is the issue: in Britain, depression is now the condition that is most treated by the NHS. In his book The Selfish Capitalist, Oliver James has convincingly posited a correlation between rising rates of mental distress and the neoliberal mode of capitalism practiced in countries like Britain, the USA and Australia. In line with James’s claims, I want to argue that it is necessary to reframe the growing problem of stress (and distress) in capitalist societies. Instead of treating it as incumbent on individuals to resolve their own psychological distress, instead, that is, of accepting the vast privatization of stress that has taken place over the last thirty years, we need to ask: how has it become acceptable that so many people, and especially so many young people, are ill?

[bi-wizard-queen]

My personal experience with Lily Orchard (as a viewer, I have never actually spoken to her)

I was a fan of Lily Orchard from 2014 until 2020 (an on-off fan I guess, like I watched her casually but I have, y’know, other things going on).

I was 17 when I started watching her (I was really into MLP: FiM at the time and she was one of many Brony Analysts I watched) but I will admit she was engaging in a way the others weren’t for me so I kept watching her. I even followed her on Tumblr

I remember back in 2016/17 I stopped watching/following her for a while because I was upset with her very blasé opinion on Palestine and her general liberal politics (I’m a socialist btw) but I came back (most people I like to watch don’t have political views as left wing as mine, that’s something I just accept) but stayed off her Tumblr.

That changed when the ToonKritic stuff happened in 2018 (TL:DR a Brony Analyst was exposed as a sex predator) and I was drawn to Lily’s very angry and cathartic video on it and so I followed her on Tumblr again for more of her takes.

Since I followed HER I took her side in any of her fallouts even if I was initially surprised by them. I also adopted some of her views (not on everything but I was massively on the “Queer should never be used by LGBT+ people” and “Rebecca Sugar is a Nazi sympathiser” views back in 2018/19) despite still being more left wing than her.

I never agreed with her disdain for Bernie Sanders for example even when I was a big fan - ironically I now don’t really like Sanders but that’s due to him not being left wing ENOUGH

I remember when Lizzy broke up with her I was MASSIVELY on Lily’s side. She is very good at framing things in a way that makes her the most sympathetic. I believed EVERYTHING she said about Lizzy and I even retroactively made Lizzy seem worse in my head.

I really need to emphasise that I thought Lizzy was this flaky, transphobic, racist and abusive bitch who relies on daddy’s credit card. I even took Lily’s opinion that Lizzy making her OC Elethyn asexual was her actually being homophobic.

I’ll be honest at this point I sort of stopped watching her as often, that was mainly because 2019 was my final year of uni so I was sorting out moving and getting a job. I also stopped using Tumblr as often for the same reason.

But when lockdown started in March 2020 I was bored and started getting back into a bunch of YouTubers I hadn’t really watched in a while. It was mostly a pleasant experience tbh and even with Lily I enjoyed her Disney recaps that she did in 2019 (though her incest jokes made me uncomfortable)

And then I watched her 2020 update video which was basically her “I hate my fans” video. Like she spent 15 minutes talking about how much she hates her fans and I remember thinking “oh wow this is awful, I’ll go check her Tumblr to see if she’s okay”

There I found some posts about someone called “Opal”. After looking this up, I found the post about Opal’s fanart and Lily’s absolutely horrific reaction to it. This is where my eyes were opened — I’d had these little doubts over the years that I’d pushed aside but this was crystal clear. She had yelled at a minor who had done nothing wrong and refused to back down.

It made me realise, “oh wow she’s always been like this”.

It made me want to look more into her, I think the blog thassabadtake existed at that point so I looked through there and others came later. I also went on Twitter to find info on Opal and then Patch and Lizzy who I realised weren’t the cartoonish villains Lily made them out to but her victims.

(I didn’t bother with Josh since he always rubbed me the wrong way and even without Lily I would dislike him for being a conservative)

But I was always just lurking. I’ve sent some anonymous messages to some of the blogs but I never posted anything on my Tumblr. Because I didn’t want to “corrupt” it (and also people I know IRL follow me and I don’t really want them seeing anything about her).

I again sort of forgot about her for another year or so until I got curious a few months ago and found that things had gotten a LOT worse and that her sister (who I remember her shit talking in vague terms for YEARS).

But since I had a policy of not reblogging anything about her on my blog I was still just lurking so I decided to finally make a side blog just to get my thoughts out a bit