#Islamophobia is the status quo

[gryficowa]

You know what's fucked up? The law assumes that only Jews were the victims of fascism, which is why we now have the absurdity that if you are a fascist but also a Jew (Zionism in short), you go unpunished because you are a Jew, and those who are against you are anti-Semites

So yes, the anti-fascist law turns out to be a perfect loophole for fascists as long as they are Jews (And in Germany it's so absurd that Jews were beaten and attacked by the police for anti-Semitism, so yes, such a loophole in the law was used for this shit)

The law assumed that other victims of fascism do not exist, so they do not have to be as protected as Jews (And before anyone gets outraged, the point is that every discriminated group should be treated under the law in the same way as Jews, i.e. Queerphobia, racism , Islamophobia etc… were treated as seriously as anti-Semitism, and not treated as a "Joke") and this shows how defective our law is, unfortunately, the status quo will probably also be preserved, i.e. they will add another group and ignore the rest, and then the same loop will occur (It is a gloomy thought, but since they erase other victims of the Nazis such as Poles, LGBT+ people, Roma and people with disabilities, because they consider them less important than Jews in the fight against discrimination, then I'm sorry, but it sucks and this anti-fascist policy works shit)

So yes, the anti-fascist law has so many loopholes that it hurts, it just hurts on many levels, and the absurdity that Jews are beaten for anti-Semitism is proof of this, simply assuming that fascism is only swastikas and hating Jews is harmful on many levels, no, fascism is behavior, it is discrimination, dehumanization etc… The victims are not only Jews, and even then they were not the only ones

Zionism has exploited loopholes in the law to silence its opponents, and it's so disgusting it's nauseating

If the fight against fascism doesn't work because the fascist is a Jew, then you know that this anti-fascist policy is so full of loopholes that it doesn't care about fighting fascism, and it can just be exploited by fascists and people shoot themselves in the foot in this law, yes, we should fight fascism, but we should fucking teach what fascism is and how it works, not teach that only Jews are its victims, damn it

Because we have made Jews victims of anti-fascist law because they are anti-Zionists

If this is how the fight against fascism works, you know something has gone fucking wrong

Today, fascists choose easier targets (Because Jews are better protected by law, because attention, anti-Semitism is taken seriously, not as a "Joke" and that's the fucking difference) like LGBT+ people, immigrants, Muslims, black people, etc… because the law is full of loopholes and society continues to ignore the fact that this discrimination is a serious problem

It just sucks, you can be from a group that was a victim of the Nazis (I'm from Poland, specifically Kashubian, I'm aroace and I'm a person with ASD), and you will still be fascist in the eyes of the law because you are anti-Zionist, the law doesn't care about you because you are not a Jew who wants the genocide of the Palestinians and it is sick, it is simply sick

It's simply such a huge loophole in the law against fascism that now it is showing before our eyes how badly it was made and how people concluded that the victims of the Nazis were only Jews, so now that there is anti-fascist law, it only cares about Jews and so , about those who are Zionists, because they treat anti-Zionist Jews like shit (Germany, I remind you)

It's just sick, the whole law is so flawed and against the victims of fascism, even if they are not Zionist Jews, that it's insane

We would have to destroy the law and build it anew, but the question is whether this would not cause problems for future generations, because we would have to do it damn well and analyze everything, and there would probably be a fucking risk that fascism will find another loophole to its own advantage anyway

The very fact that this loophole was ignored for so many years is also terrifying, because what the Zionists did to the Palestinians from the very beginning is an indication that the law even then closed its loopholes and we are only seeing them now because we have greater access to information

The law also showed that this applies to white Jews, because Arab Jews are not taken as seriously, so don't expect anyone to care about anti-Semitism when you are not a European Jew, because you are an Arab and your being a Jew means nothing, and the law doesn't care about Arabs, so you're fucked

So yes, the loopholes in the law are most visible today and well, the very fact that they were ignored for many years is a long-term problem, and the Zionists have been taking advantage of this loophole for years to their own advantage

[creepykuroneko]

Real talk everyone needs to learn: it is possible for someone to be both a victim and an abuser even simultaneously.

You can be victim of childhood sexual abuse and still grow up to be a horrible person who abuses your own family. The cycle of violence is real people.

White women are victims of misogyny but they can also be perpetrators of racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, classicism, sexism and abusive towards their families. Think about all those white women who claim to be feminists and looking out for other women but then still turn around and call the police on a black woman they saw in their neighborhood or a disabled homeless woman who was loitering outside a building. The term Karen exists for a reason and it is not about a woman who gets mad because her waiter brought her a tea instead of a coffee. It is a white woman who specifically targets black people and calls the police on them. There is a reason why white women have been fighting against social media to change the definition of calling a white woman a Karen. Saying the term was sexist didn't work (because misogynist don't believe in sexism) so now they try to claim that being a Karen is a superpower meant to stand up for the marginalized and get results.

Women of color are victims of both racism and sexism yet can still be guilty of racism, colorism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, classicism, sexism and abusive towards their families. Colorism is a really big problem amongst all the various poc groups. unfortunately WOC still hold up the same racist cast standards. Whether it's turning to skin lightening products, straightening one's own hair to fit with eurocentric standards, getting plastic surgery, or repeating the mantra lighter than a brown paper bag, a lot of WOC buy into the idea of what is the right way to look and what is not. Before any of you reactionist are quick to scream, " but if they don't conform to eurocentric standards they are not going to be treated like human beings!" Conforming to the status quo literally does not cause racist to stop being racist. Keep in mind that these women don't just view themselves in a negative light but everyone else who looks like them as well. What do you think women who use skin lightening products do to their children? Especially their darker skin daughters? What do you think happens when these women pray that their child will be fair skin but then are mad to see that they ended up with a brown or black child? Talk to any black, hair stylist, pediatrician, or dermatologist and they will tell you that many parents are so quick to hide their child's natural curly hair while they are still toddlers. that they want their child to have straight hair by age 3. What do you think that does to a child's mental state and self-esteem?

A white physically disabled person will face discrimination for being disabled but still perpetuate racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, classicism, sexism and abusive towards their families. There are some physically disabled people who rely on social safety nets whether it be food stamps, disability, Social Security etc etc and yet they believe that these programs should be more strict on who is allowed to receive benefits. Even though they themselves have complained about having to prove to their case worker that they are still disabled. They honestly believe that other people in need are fakers who just do not want to work. Because many families cannot afford to have a private nurse come over to assist their disabled relative, oftentimes people will care for their disabled relative despite having no medical training or knowledge. Well this is not the case for everyone, sometimes the family member they are taking care of is abusive towards them. They don't want them to leave the house, have friends, significant others, or even just a little bit of time to do something for themselves. They do abuse their caretaker, throwing things at them, calling them names, tearing down their self-esteem, and threatening to tell their caseworker that their caretaker is abusing them if their caretaker does anything they don't like. Yes this does happen in the real world.

The neurodivergent community is extremely guilty of ableism, especially towards other neurodivergent people. People will complain about how they have every right to exist in public and stem however they want, but then turn around wish that other neurodivergent people disappear. They call other disabled people normal or neurotypical for doing something that they personally do not like. The action in question is something that literally other neurodivergent people do. Think about how many posts you've seen on Tumblr where an autistic person complains about being triggered ( often times they don't even use the term trigger correctly) because their "neurotypical" coworker keeps talking very loudly and fast. Do you know who else talks very loudly and fast sometimes? Other autistic people and people with ADHD. The neurodivergent community seriously needs to stop diagnosing everyone around them as normal. Oftentimes when people try to hold neurodivergent people accountable, the neurodivergent person in question will try to completely manipulate the situation and say things like "my brain doesn't work. I don't understand did I do something bad?", " I can't be held accountable because I'm mentally disabled", or " ableism! How dare you treat me like this!". I had a former coworker who had a form of down syndrome. She would wait until management was not around and then scream in the faces of our other co-workers (often fellow neurodivergent people themselves) and literally call them stupid. When management would ask her about her behavior, she would immediately begin to cry on the spot and say she didn't know she was doing something bad. When he would leave the room she would stop crying and bragged to me about how she knew what she did. Please note she was a disabled white woman calling other disabled mostly black women stupid. For other cases of neurodivergent people being horrible people just look at Chris Chan or Jupiter the hybrid. Apart from believing that they are the only disabled person in the room, racism is also extremely common amongst neurodivergent people. White autistics also love to call the police on disabled brown and black people. If an Asian or black person announces that they are autistic, they are often met with skepticism by white neurodivergent people. I really do not have time to get into it but look up the racist history between who gets diagnosed with ADHD and who gets diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). This very much plays a role in how neurodivergent people determine who is a "valid" neurodivergent person and who is not. Remember folks just because someone is neurodivergent that does not mean they are not upholding racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, classicism, sexism and are abusive.

Trans people can face discrimination for being trans but then they themselves are also guilty of being transphobic. Just take a look at the trans men's rights activist movement (TMRA), the tramsmed community, and the huge rise of anti-feminist trans people. Please note I am not talking about trans people who are anti-terfs and serfs, but trans people who are anti-feminism in general. For some reason the TMRA movement also believes that every single trans woman is a terf? I refuse to go down that rabbit hole to see their "logic". Unfortunately for the trans community large chunks of the community still hold on to their same Conservative Christian values they were brought up with and it's very telling when you see people talk about who is a valid trans person and who is not. There are also trans people who are homophobic. They believe homosexuality is a sin. Take a look at trans influencers who make fun of gay people, especially those who do drag, and talk about how they find drag offensive despite the fact that the trans community has a long history with the drag community. Don't believe me? Take a look at trans influencer Nikki Secondino's anti drag comments on her platform before she was arrested for murdering her dad. As with the other groups the trans Community is still guilty of homophobia, ableism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, classicism, sexism and abusive towards their families.

Gay and lesbian people are victims of homophobia but also dish out the same bigotry. There is a huge problem of acephobia, biphobia, transphobia, and discrimination towards intersex people within the G & L community. Think about all the posts you've seen that come from gay people who say that they are gay but they're normal about it unlike the more stereotypical gay people out there. They are looking to conform to their conservative values. They want the approval of the society they were brought up in even though that Society does not like them. They want the benefits of being white, christian, middle-class, and they don't want queer people "messing it up for them". They want to prove to conservatives that they are still conservative just like them they just happened to be gay or lesbian is all. Not a surprise they are really horrible to their fellow gays, queers of color, and trans people. Some people like to joke about the man who has the public life with the wife and kids but then in private is a closet homosexual who goes to the hotel with a sex worker. The thing is though that is a reality that still goes on today. It's not uncommon for them to beat or even kill their lover. Think about all the gold star lesbians and gold star gay people out there and pay attention to the terminology they use. How proud they are to have never had sex with someone of the opposite gender or someone with X genitalia. Well some people may know and accept early on their sexuality that is not the case for everyone and that is not a bad thing. This type of ideology is extremely sexist, biphobic, transphobic, and homophobic. Clinging to these out of date views will not help the lgbtqia+ community in the long run. Another thing that the community does not like to acknowledge AT ALL is the domestic violence that happens amongst queer couples. Look up the tragic case of Lyndsey Vaux, a queer woman who was murdered by her lesbian girlfriend if you need proof that queer people can also be abusive domestic partners. Ask any asian, brown, or black member of the LGBT community their experiences and they will tell you they would rather hang out with cishet asian, brown, and black people than with a white group of the lgbt+ people. Because they are more likely to be accepted by straight members of their same race then they are to be accepted by the white queer community. I know I didn't touch on it but the gay and lesbian Community are also guilty of racism, ableism, sexism, classism and more than capable of abusing those they love.

Poor people tend to really hate other poor people especially in america. I loosely mentioned it above about how disabled people want social safety nets to be harder for other people to obtain despite the fact that they also need them. It's not just disabled people who are guilty of this though. I've met a lot of people who are on food stamps but at the same time think that food stamps should not exist because it "encourages the lazy bums to leech off the system". When you try to point out the fact that they are also receiving food stamps they try to justify it. They think of themselves as a good person who didn't intend to end up in this type of situation but clearly they are the only exception, everyone else just doesn't want to work. Look at the people who are anti-free lunch programs, anti-affirmative action, anti-affordable healthcare, and anti Universal basic income, anti homeless shelters, anti-free birth control, Pro Redline laws, Pro business, pro profits over people, the entire libertarian movement. Many of these people are in fact poor and working class themselves. They just cannot admit that. Hell even amongst homeless people there is judgment and discourse. Some homeless people really do believe they are better than other homeless people because " my situation is different from theirs". The YouTube channel invisible people is a heartbreaking Channel where the interviewer pays homeless people to interview them and share their stories. The guy who runs the channel used to be homeless himself. His goal is to humanize and try to help homeless people. Every once in awhile one of the people he interviews will be in complete denial about themselves and their situation. Bigotry is a problem with poor people just like every other group.

This post is not meant to divide the different marginalized groups but rather acknowledge the problems that already exist. If you consider yourself left leaning in the slightest but this post made you mad, it probably means you have some issues you need to work on. The reality is we live in a very bigoted society. It does not matter if you're a disabled, queer, non-binary, stunning creature, you still have to check yourself for any bias you learned growing up. White people in the lgbt+ community get mad when issues like racism are brought up and accuse queers of color of trying to divide the community. In reality it is the racism that divides the community not the acknowledgment of.

This is where I'm going to end this for now. I know there's a lot I didn't touch on but let's be honest this post is already too long. If any of my fellow marginalized people want to share their experiences about bigotry and discrimination within their own communities please do so.

[gaypornvideoswebsite]

deprogramming the held belief that western imperialism (anti-communism, islamophobia, sinophobia) is morally good is a great challenge. a lot of liberals right now are seeking to settle their own cognitive dissonance, having to realize that the only difference between them and the “right” is who says it out loud. calling for a return to the status quo is calling for sedation and comfort. those more preoccupied with personal feelings of guilt than greater global causes. well if biden doesn’t win we get trump. well if america doesn’t win we get “bad country” in charge. they do not believe they are settling for the “lesser of two evils” and they offer no critique.

[lazaruswitch]

that post from eveningdawn22 (I think??) about "not palatable (notably to tim) transfem jay" is only reassuring my ideas and thoughts for the lily todd au but in like a different specific-to-me and specific-to-this-au way

speaking from experience tim drake Would be weird about lily* (for context: lily as in lily todd, from an au where jay is a transfem Muslim, among other things)

this isn't like a character condemnation thing, this is me speaking from experience about what people are like about queer Muslims. (bruce would also be very Weird about it but i think the source would be first and foremost bruce/batman shit, particularly in relation to jay specifically, before we hit the like more general social aspects and whatnot)

people around here (new jersey, but also america in general) are just Like That. the white kids (esp rich white kids from those gated mansion communities or whatever) around here are especially Like That. i've been going to school with them for years and have even been "friends" with some (for a given definition of friends) and they all inevitably to some degree will be Like That. in fact the vast majority of the world is Like That, to varying degrees of severity, not just specifically because of the Muslim bit or the queer bit, but because of the two things together in one person.

(from my personal experiences, it's not always a malicious thing or an intentional thing, but it is inevitably demeaning and isolating in a particular way that's supposed to be acceptable and is brushed off as like, "people can have different political beliefs blah blah blah". microaggressions and the taint of Islamophobia and all that)

there are a lot of places and people that are theoretically queer friendly or push this idea of no prejudice, like my uni, but it's inevitably not actually that straightforward

(tim and tbh a lot of the batfam, or even superheroes/vigilantes in general, are or would be like that. not even your beloved heroes are immune to propaganda, overt or otherwise. jay is already basically a freak in canon. in the lily pot au, lily is a freak existence for arguably "worse" reasons. "crazy" white boy is vastly more preferable to transfem niqabi mom.)

there's a specific idea of queerness people have in mind when they talk or think about acceptance, and it's one that does not involve the majority of the real world or communities, and they react poorly when asked to confront that

none of this is new or revolutionary information or ideas; queer bipoc people, especially Black and Indigenous queer people, have been talking about their personal experiences with this for ages, and have been demanding attention and change for just as long

some people are receptive, some people are theoretically receptive, most people don't like confronting or acknowledging the status quo

but i almost never see those kinds of discussions about or from Muslims, especially Muslim women or hijabis (i specify this bc of the visibility of hijab)

if anything it seems like everyone is deeply uncomfortable with just Muslims existing in a way that is not in fact "Other", and having to think too hard about Muslims as people who can have similarities that Really don't fit certain narratives (e.g. devout hijabi who is also proudly queer) even "positive" ones is just so.... incomprehensible, and disgusting, to them

it's exhausting when even the blue-hair-and-pronouns cannot stand the blue-burqa-and-pronouns but everyone pretends that's like. fine. and acceptable. if they acknowledge it at all

tim drake would think lily todd was weird and freaky and he'd be with the majority on that

[solareveille]

my abject frustration with the vote blue no matter who people is that at best they view palestine as an unfortunate casualty of our political system but one they are ultimately ok with sacrificing. im not ok with it!!!! im not ok with voting an octogenarian who enabled genocide in for another term!!!!!!! and even if i wasnt muslim this would be true! i honestly havent decided yet what i'll do in november, but a post crossed my dash just now that enraged me so you get this angry rant. if i vote for the democratic party in nov it'll be a carefully weighted decision. but you dont get to tell me i have to. not when this entire establishment has proven it doesnt care about muslims or islamophobia or literally ANYTHING apart from protecting their power and status quo. and you FOR SURE dont get to tell palestinian americans they have to.

[plethoraworldatlas]

The American Muslim 2024 Election Task Force, a national coalition of American Muslim 501(c)4 political organizations, today called on President Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race after losing the confidence of key voters due to widespread opposition to his support for the Gaza genocide and widespread concern about his ability to serve as president for another four years.

In a statement, task force members Americans for Justice in Palestine Action, CAIR Action, ICNA Council of Social Justice Action, Muslim American Society Action, Muslim Civic Coalition Activate and the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations Civil Action Network said, in part: "President Biden should now step aside so that the Democratic Party can identify and nominate a new, able, and qualified candidate who better reflects the values and views of most voters, including opposition to U.S. support for the Gaza genocide."

The task force also said that President Biden’s withdrawal is the best and perhaps only way to prevent Donald Trump from returning to the White House

FULL STATEMENT CALLING ON PRESIDENT BIDEN TO WITHDRAW FROM THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL RACE

"As American Muslim political organizations that care deeply about the future of our country and justice for all people, we must today call on President Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race.

"Even before his deeply concerning and disappointing debate performance, President Biden's financial support for the mass murder of Palestinians in Gaza, his failure to effectively address anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia here at home, and his dishonest response to the diverse and overwhelmingly peaceful anti-genocide protests on college campuses had already alienated and made it difficult for many American Muslims, young people, and other voters to consider supporting him in the fall.

"Now widespread and growing concerns about President Biden's ability to continue serving in office for another four years have made the political status quo untenable. If President Biden remains the Democratic nominee, he could lose Michigan, Georgia, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and other key swing states, thereby returning President Trump to power.

"Just as many American Muslims cannot bring themselves to vote for President Biden, many American Muslims also do not want to see Donald Trump return to office. Former President Trump has made it clear that he plans to round up undocumented immigrants in mass camps, reinstate the Muslim Ban, entrench racial inequities in our economy and criminal justice system, stack the federal civil service with political loyalists, and pursue a foreign policy just as or even more immoral than the Biden foreign policy. 

"During the CNN presidential debate, President Trump even said the Israeli government should be allowed to complete its genocide, ignored the question of whether he would support the recognition of a Palestinian state to achieve peace, and weaponized Palestinian identity as a racist insult. 

“Meanwhile, President Biden touted his transfer of deadly weapons to Israel and falsely claimed that Netanyahu's government wants the genocide to end. Their positions on Gaza were despicable and their performances were deeply disturbing.

"The American people should not have to choose between such fatally flawed candidates. The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and this genocide should be a red line for any administration.

"President Biden should step aside so that the Democratic Party can identify and nominate a new, able, and qualified candidate who better reflects the values and views of most voters, including opposition to U.S. support for the Gaza genocide. In an ideal world, the Republican Party would also force President Trump--a failed president and convicted felon who sparked the Jan. 6th insurrection--to step aside.

"The American Muslim community is not a monolith. We are politically diverse. But our community is united in supporting basic principles of justice that all people should support. Human rights. Racial equality. Religious freedom. Free and fair elections. Economic opportunity. 

“American Muslim voters expect anyone who wants to lead our nation to support all of these basic principles. Opposing racism, occupation, and genocide are not big asks. They are basic asks. Both President Biden and President Trump have failed to clear this very low bar. American Muslims and the broader American people demand better options now.”

The American Muslim 2024 Election Taskforce is a coalition of American Muslim 501(c)4 political organizations formed to amplify the American Muslim community’s views on key policy issues, enhance its civic engagement, boost voter turnout, and, ultimately, issue a joint recommendation or endorsement in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election

[queerasaurus-rexx]

i just think it's really funny how laughably bad radfems and terfs are with feminism.

like, even putting the rampant transphobia aside, modern radical feminism is the only school of feminist thought where misogyny is not only allowed, but expected. only, radfem misogyny flies under a different flag; looking out for women.

women only exist to be oppressed, so says radical feminism, and any woman who denies that is worthy of mockery and derision. the oppression of women is only to be complained about and used as a springboard for hating men. a woman who dares try to use her power to strike back with the tools available to her is lumped in with the other 'bad women' because women using the tools they are oppressed with to fight back is actually just feeding into the patriarchy.

radfem ideology sees no way to change the status quo, because despite how much they claim to want to destroy the patriarchy, they seem to enjoy their perpetual victim status. just ask one to explain why they never discuss how women help uphold patriarchal structures. there is no serious interrogation of this; several radfems have literally told me women will eventually 'figure it out' so it's not worth discussing.

radical feminism says it stands for all women, but radfems routinely go out of their way to mock, slut shame and belittle a class of women they have deemed an acceptable target: 'liberal feminists', which has come to encompass pretty much any feminist who disagrees with them.

in the eyes of the radical feminist, women are not capable of perpetuating misogyny because all womanhood is equal. the two pronged struggle of racialized womanhood that women of colour face is discussed for lip service, but i have yet to meet a radfem willing to interrogate her own place in the social hierarchy in relation to women of colour. to a radfem, sex is the primary axis of oppression women face. to a white radfem, the world is just as dangerous for her as it is for a black woman.

and heaven forbid you ask a white radfem to unpack her own racism. islamophobia and anti-brown racism runs rampant in radfem circles. this one is very contradictory too - muslim women are poor, brainwashed women who must be saved from their oppressors, but also simultaneously educated enough to ALL be radfems.

and this isn't getting into how utterly biased they are regarding pretty privilege. conventionally attractive women get a pass; women who do not fit this mold must secretly be men in disguise. you see this all over twitter and tumblr. how they lament that the 'tras' have made them so paranoid they see any woman with a square jaw and broad shoulders as a secret man in hiding.

if you are this lost in the sauce that you don't even trust the women you claim to want to protect, you are not a feminist, you are two degrees shy of a qanon conspiracy theorist.

[rjalker]

Taking this good anon's message from a Vote Blue No Matter Whoer's shitty post. (Archived version)

Anonymous said, November 17th 2023, with extra paragraph breaks added for accessability:

"not to criticize Palestinian Americans-" Okay, then don't. You're speaking as if Palestinians (inside and outside the United States) are just Too Stupid to understand how Important this election is and that they're Too Dumb to realize that (white) Americans (Biden's administration has increased police funding and brutality, islamophobia is worse than under Trump, there's even More children in cages than under Trump and Obama's administrations, and the border wall is currently a work in progress by his administration specifically) will Always come before any other people in the world, including Americans of color. That not supporting someone spending our tax dollars on committing genocide is political suicide. That's so incredibly racist and also extremely selfish. Foreign policy shouldn't be the last thing you check off the list, especially as the United States government has a history of backing genocide around the globe as a major superpower, like it's doing as we speak. What power is there in voting if you're just going to vote for a genocidal monster no matter What he does. The DNC knows this and is banking off of you spineless racist liberals voting for whoever they decide to put in front of you. "It's so frustrating when don't vote people come out of the framework with no solutions" Then give your vote power for once and vote third party instead of just Giving it Away to Joe Biden like he's expecting you to because "blue good, red bad". Green Party always skews left. ACTUAL leftist politics, not rebranded conservative talking points that Democrats use. If enough people are fed up with the dual colored one party system we have, there's an actual chance to change that in 2024. I'm incredibly fed up with liberals like you begging everyone to stay appeased by the status quo of the DNC when that same status quo is careening further and further to the right with every passing year, and your only solution is "push them left" which, mind you, did not work for Obama's second term nor for Biden's current term. Biden being in office for four more years will not make anything inside or outside this country any better and you need to quit talking about Palestinians as if you are smarter than they are.

[catgirlcaliphate]

The major way that liberal zionists perpetuate anti-Arabism and Islamophobia is by normalizing and invisiblising the violence inherent in the status quo.

Talking about Israel and Palestine as if they were parties on an equal footing, with equal power.

Refusing to name genocide for what it is and insisting that ~~the situation~~ is something people can reasonably debate. Like it's an intellectual exercise and not the violent subjugation and elimination of a people.

Israel is a genocidal Apartheid state and to pretend otherwise is to become complicit in the violence it inflicts.

If you don't think that Zionist spaces--even and especially liberal uwu smol bean Zionist spaces--are absolutely rife with anti-Arabism and Islamophobia,

please consider that might be because anti-Arabism and Islamophobia have been normalized for you all your life to the point where you don't even notice them.

Please listen to Arabs and Muslims who point it out.

[xswitchboardx]

I’m still digesting this, and this might not make any sense as I reckon with a lot of different ideas.

To start I love a little pessimism, it’s my fave. I’m an emo at heart. :3 There’s pleasure in looking at the world through such a dark and jaded perspective. Because there’s a lot of sickness and violence in the world - so it can feel very affirming (and kinda relaxing?) despite the obvious shortcomings of a totally pessimistic view. But damn I love it.

Generally, philosophy and academia feels more like art to me than facts. As I understand it, Afropessimism is this representation/framework of antiblackness as an all consuming and insurmountable presence/force - created from the minds of Black Americans who experience antiblackness in every corner of their fucking lives. Hilderson (i forgot if this is his name but mr. pessimist) uses accounts from his personal life to explain and define afropessimism. This article describes his book as a psychodrama, and who doesn’t love drama. Pain and misery everywhere. He states that the dehumanization of Black people is actually integral, essential to the existence of the world (western world? America?). Which, historically and materially, is true. Being American, I am constantly aware that the disproportionate wealth and power that resides in this country and the “Western world” is a direct result of hundreds of years of work of enslaved Black Africans and their descendants. But to him it goes further, further beyond material reality. The world would simply not it exist if anti-blackness did not exist. And there is no world without antiblack racism.

He also says some crazy shit that I immediately clocked - like the assertion that a Palestinian person (after an interaction with his Palestinian friend, in which the friend regurgitated some antiblack sentiment) has more in common with an Israeli than with a Black person, on account of their shared antiblackness as part of the “status quo”. That’s frankly untrue for quite a large number of reasons, and also very troubling.

To me, this depicts Blackness (however tf we’re defining that, anyways) as something pure. The most oppressed of all.

I do believe Antiblackness is pervasive, a sickness that plagues this whole fucking planet, to be honest. Certainly in this country. To have grown up in America is to have grown up with internalized antiblackness. With all of that said - particularly as someone who came up in the early 2000s - to have grown up in America for me was also to be indoctrinated into anti-Arab sentiment and Islamophobia. So what now?

This is getting a little unorganized now, but there’s something else that speaks to me about Afropessimism. (Getting into the idea again that this “academic framework or whatever” is more emotional and personal than it is historical or materially accurate), There is a resentment there.

Now, as a Black American person, there is some shit that has always been repeated by my family, friends, and other ppl in my (albeit small) community. And that is, “They would never let Black people do that shit”. Translation, “They would - without any hesitation or regret - beat, harass, shoot, kill, or arrest a Black person for doing the exact same thing a White or nonblack person is doing”. This would be in response to some nonblack people getting up to some fuckshit. More extreme examples include the January 6th thing, or anytime White people show off their guns and #2ndAmendmentPride, or anytime someone nonblack disrespects or confronts a cop. I mean the specifics don’t matter, Black people experience violence at an increased rate for whatever reason.

I mean shit, Black people have been historically and systemically denied the right to do basic shit - like simply occupying space - without the threat of police or white supremacist violence (and when I say violence I mean both bodily violence, but also the violence of being denied access to something. Or being denied peace.)

And, on my personal level, it does feel (to me) that antiblackness has this way of sneaking in and feeling like it is inescapable, even among circles of people who claim to be antiracists. And when it is tied to dehumanization, it feels like everything stops there. But I haven’t investigated this line of thought thoroughly enough to come to any conclusions, to be honest. This is mostly personal for me, and in relation to the other marginalized identities I occupy (queer, female). More anecdotal than anything.

Now, this article here ^^ also did some shit that really blew my mind. It drew connections between Afropessimism and Zionism.

Relating the ideology of Zionism and Afropessimism as one of “pure, inescapable and all consuming oppression”. One that cannot be solved, that lives permanently in the hearts of every human. What kind of action does that ideology lead to? To believe yourself as The Ultimate Victim in all of history and time. To the end of the universe. At best this is sketchy as hell, at worst, it can lead to a self-feeding cycle that perpetuates the same violence over and over and over in the same of “security or preservation”. (This is a side note for another post- but it’s interesting to think about how this idea plays out on an individual scale and in relationships too!)

(I also want to note here that Hilderson is importantly, a middle class man who works at a prestigious American university.)

In my heart (and not my mind), do I believe a Black Nationalist nation would ever be backed by the US Military and receive the kind of funding and support Israel receives? Hell fucking no! But then again, I just learned about the history of Liberia. And how US-backed Black American and West Indian settlers more or less colonized the indigenous African population.

Obviously the history here is complex, definitely above my head. And I understand this author is drawing a connection between these two settler states, not insinuating they are exactly the same. But interesting as fuck!!!

Anyways, solidarity is the key. Thinking about power and oppression in relation to class, material reality, privilege and proximity to a ruling class is essential. This wasn’t a totally new idea for me, but being able to let go of deep emotional resentment for long enough to really open myself up can be hard sometimes. Anyways, a lot to think about.

[tielt]

my heart understands people who press for peace regardless of the fatal divestment of liberty in the possibility of divergence from the status quo. No you are not being racist in criticism towards the lack of action against Islamophobia. I will be supporting Harris/Walz despite not agreeing with liberalism in a general sense and endorse voting for her to live to fight another day.

.

[gravitascivics]

A LACK OF REASON

A writer who has addressed the effects of social media on current day politics is Andrew Marantz.  Early in his book, Anti-Social, he describes an encounter with three journalists who have utilized social media to spread their form of journalism.  Marantz writes:

[Cassandra] Fairbanks, [Luke] Rudkowski, and [Tim] Pool didn’t agree on well-developed policy agenda.  What they shared was closer to an attitude – an instinctive aversion to anything mainstream.  They often expressed this in terms of their antipathy to the establishment wings of the Democratic and Republican parties, but their guiding principles seemed more temperamental than political.  Things they liked:  energy, scrappiness, rebellion.  Things they disliked:  institutionalism, incrementalism, the status quo.  If something could be described as an emanation of the Man, then they were against it.[1]

This blogger can’t verify this characterization; he is not aware of these journalists beyond Marantz’s description.  But he feels these overall biases do reflect how a lot of current politics is being conducted.  And as such, it goes a long way to explain why one finds the polarized nature one observes at the national and even local levels of politics.

          As this blog repeatedly describes, a federated politics is one in which citizens share a sense of partnership.  When one calls out, “Hey, partner,” certain assumptions come into play.  One would be an ability to engage in discussion reasonably and reflectively, to problem-solve and negotiate.  In turn, such approaches to political intercourse count on institutional modes of discussion that are calm, disciplined – not jumping to conclusions – and empathetic.

          To the extent these journalists represent what one is apt to find on social media and, given its popularity, it is not difficult to see how a reliance on social media for one’s information leads to the anti-federated landscape that one finds in contemporary America.  And to boot, Marantz goes on to describe how well organized this element of the political class is.  They even have a VIP element.

          He gives this group more substantive description by writing:

            The VIPs shared a common set of enemies – the Clintons, the Bushes, the globalists, the mainstream media – but they didn’t agree on everything.  Some were more anti-Semitic than others.  Some were more openly racist than others.  Some emphasized misogyny, whereas others were more passionate about Islamophobia.  Still others, rather than committing to any consistent ideology, rotated through evocative tropes about Davos or the Deep State.  Each of them espoused opinions that were so politically retrograde, so morally repugnant, or so self-evidently deceitful that no reputable news organization would ever hire them.  And yet, in the twenty-first century, they didn’t need traditional jobs.  Instead, they could mobilize and monetize a following on social media.[2]

All this results on messaging undermining the acceptance of basic factual information which until recently the bulk of Americans secured from those reputable news sources.

Of course, as many have pointed out, this inability to agree on facts undermines any chance at productive discourse.  And when, as a result of this disruption, a faction within a nation has become large enough to affect political outcomes, that polity is in trouble.

          The next posting will share how Marantz describes what possibly motivates this type of mischief.  The last quote above hints at what that might be.  Possible answers might include ideological commitment or monetary rewards.  Readers are invited to guess what Marantz judges this motivation to be.  One might also ask:  is one type – beliefs or dollars – more ominous than the other?  Of course, whatever motivates most, there is no guarantee that all involved are similarly disposed.

[1] Andrew Marantz, Anti-social:  Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation (New York, NY:  Penguin Random House, 2019), 14.

[2] Ibid., 18.

[sunspira]

remember that the culture and theology of middle eastern christianity is not the same as european christianity and the same goes for islam being remarkably different in south asia. there are manifestations and movements of these religions that have been incredibly shallow, dogmatic and fundamentalist and others that are far more spiritually complex and progressive and a meaningful expression of culture. both have been tools for mass genocide and settler colonialism. because of islamophobia in the west i genuinely wish to promote a balanced view. that includes letting MENA people bring light to the beauty of the religion that is demonized in the west, but that balance also includes giving MENA people space to talk about their religious trauma under islam and their racial and ethnic oppression under islam. many of these stories are incredibly similar to peoples stories of religious trauma and genocide under christianity!

we saw twitter calling arab and middle eastern ex muslims "islamophobic" for their protests like burning their hijab or the Quran. in their own countries where islam is the majority and in some cases a powerful institution ingrained in the government. and frankly i am begging people to recognize that when culturally muslim people protest their own status quo with these outrageous acts of sacrilege that is in no way comparable to racially motivated act of hate. europeans and americans burn bibles to protest abusive catholic and evangelical institutions. you understand why. crying islamophobia over muslim people's own criticisms of the institutions that oppress them is nauseatingly similar to the "war on christmas" american conservative pity parties.

and indeed pay attention when political conservatives in muslim countries like Iran are the loudest opposition to these secular grassroots protests. pay attention to the way iranian and saudi conservatives use familiar anti-BLM rhetoric to paint a marginalized secular movement as senseless rioting, copoganda and Trad red pill bro fundamentalism to condemn the secular revolution in Iran. as uncomfortable and ironic as that is when meanwhile trad bro conservatives will rip hijabs off muslim women in France, the women in iran have the opposite problem, assaulted and hate crimed and killed by police for not wearing it, imposed by the same kind of right wing red pill douchbag. and i do really root for iranian women of color taking off their hijab and burning it to assert their rights either way

as always oppression requires privilege + power. and the manifestations of islam are varied and complex. as simplistic as it sounds do not weaponize these issues to be islamophobic as a westerner and also please do not be hostile and victim blaming when culturally muslim people share their positive and negative experiences with the religion as they know it

also acting like judaism and islam are inherently more spiritual than xtianity, like theyre inherently more progressive than xtianity, like theyre the "good" ~moral~ religions to xtianity's "inherent evil" or that they arent forced on ppl is like, hilariously historically revisionist at best, straight up erasure and dehumanization at worst.

and im not an antitheist and im not saying judaism and islam are """bad"""" religions or that theyre inherently oppressive and again, it all comes down to the tools people use to enforce stuff like misogyny and homophobia, which religion has historically been a major one. (im a religious jew myself)

but like. if your solution to opposing antisemitism and islamophobia is to treat these complex, living religions, with many many (billions with a b in islams case) different followers and interpretations as simply "cutesy uwu spiritual and nonthreatning", youre not actually opposing antisemitism and islamophobia. like there are more options than the binary "blind hatered" and "blind romanticization historical revisionism" lmfao. youre just making it harder for jews, muslims, ex-jews and ex-muslims to talk about their experiences lol.

and like. the only way i can describe that phenomanon is 'europilled americel'

[weepingfireflies]

"not to criticize Palestinian Americans-" Okay, then don't. You're speaking as if Palestinians (inside and outside the United States) are just Too Stupid to understand how Important this election is and that they're Too Dumb to realize that (white) Americans (Biden's administration has increased police funding and brutality, islamophobia is worse than under Trump, there's even More children in cages than under Trump and Obama's administrations, and the border wall is currently a work in progress by his administration specifically) will Always come before any other people in the world, including Americans of color. That not supporting someone spending our tax dollars on committing genocide is political suicide. That's so incredibly racist and also extremely selfish. Foreign policy shouldn't be the last thing you check off the list, especially as the United States government has a history of backing genocide around the globe as a major superpower, like it's doing as we speak.

What power is there in voting if you're just going to vote for a genocidal monster no matter What he does. The DNC knows this and is banking off of you spineless racist liberals voting for whoever they decide to put in front of you. "It's so frustrating when don't vote people come out of the framework with no solutions" Then give your vote power for once and vote third party instead of just Giving it Away to Joe Biden like he's expecting you to because "blue good, red bad". Green Party always skews left. ACTUAL leftist politics, not rebranded conservative talking points that Democrats use. If enough people are fed up with the dual colored one party system we have, there's an actual chance to change that in 2024. I'm incredibly fed up with liberals like you begging everyone to stay appeased by the status quo of the DNC when that same status quo is careening further and further to the right with every passing year, and your only solution is "push them left" which, mind you, did not work for Obama's second term nor for Biden's current term. Biden being in office for four more years will not make anything inside or outside this country any better and you need to quit talking about Palestinians as if you are smarter than they are.

Thank you for missing my point entirely. I'm talking about two different people - grieving Palestinian-Americans and the ppl who say "don't vote" no matter what is happening. I'm not trying to criticize someone for not wanting to vote for Joe Biden - I'm just asking for an actual solution.

Right now, I'm planning to vote for Marianne Williamson in the primaries unless a better candidate comes along. And if he is elected as the Democratic candidate, yeah, I'll probably vote for Joe Biden until we can get rid of him as well. I'm not saying vote for Biden and let him do whatever, I'm saying find another option before or after the election. If the Green Party has a chance and will not split the vote like it always does, I would vote for their candidate in a heartbeat.

Both Biden and Trump are horrendous options. I want to get rid of both of them. Their actions are completely unexcusable. But I'm not going to pretend Trump is not so much worse. Like he didn't say he would "send deportation officers to pro-Hamas protests" or impose a travel ban from the Middle East, including the Gaza Strip (Reuters). Like his appointment of Supreme Court Judges didn't lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Like he hasn't supported pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement and "vowed to increase U.S. production of fossil fuels," which will worsen climate change that disproportionately affects people and countries in poverty (Reuters). Like he wouldn't be even more gung-ho to support Israel's genocide.

Any change to the status quo is going to need us to have the rights and means to do so, which are significantly more at risk under Trump. There needs to be more done than just vote for Biden if it comes to that.

Every goddamn year. Every goddamn year, people say, "Don't vote" or "vote third-party" and it never fucking changes anything. It never does. And I've seen absolutely no evidence it'll change anything this year either. The small changes we have won have been voting for Democrats at the cost of the Middle East - it's fucking revolting, and I want to change it, but save for an actual revolution, how is the best option to vote for a party with no chance of winning?

I would love to be wrong. My dream is you or someone else finds a poll that shows West or Stein ahead and that I'm just a dirty liberal shill for the Democratic pary. That there's a movement to abolish the party system and/or include ranked voting. Something that changes the fact I live in an incredibly red, gerrymandered state that never votes blue, let alone third party. Even that there's a powerful and just candidate in the Democratic primaries that overshadows Biden and supports a free Palestine.

If there is a mass movement of any kind that has a better option than voting Biden if he wins the primaries, I am all-fucking ears

[shararan]

Sweden is all for Palestine until it's actually about doing something. Fucking cowardly nation hasn't changed since WW2, propping ourselves up as particularly enlightened by being ""neutral"" when that's just not admitting the actual stance we take as a nation. Easy to preach about peace and putting aside our differences when not having to face the consequenses of the lack of said peace, all while profiting from our weapons export and playing a major role in upholding the global status quo.

Kräket Kristersson can whine all day about "fighting antisemitism" but if he and his gooneys cared even the tiniest bit about such then it's curious how non existent the care for swedish jews is. But what is the othering of one minority group when the oppression of our many minorities is a century long tradition amirite?!

It's literally just wanting a piece of the colonial cake in the region, all while islamophobia AND antisemitism both have brewed non stop for years. The government approved public quran and torah burnings in the same time period, going against the supposed laws and regulations they fervently claimed allowed it.

Not only does the state now debate whether or not Sweden should withdraw our recognition of Palestine's statehood, we can't even grow enough of a spine and instead abstain in the vote for ceasefire.

Never in a thousand years fall for the self infantilizing marketing scheme Sweden has painted up for itself. This is no socialist paradise, and the heroic deeds the nation prides itself on were done by individuals who went against the machine of uncaring indifference. Never forget how far our capitalism reach all over the world while acting like the consequences is somehow just an unfortunate coincidence ("not as bad as USA"), and never forget that our 200 year long freedom from war and conflict is only because we sacrificed others around us.

It's not unexpected for Sweden to pretend Palestine cannot be saved and that it's too complicated to take a stand after our part in WW2, but you'd hope that the self righteous and conscious ignorance act would get fucking old to people at some point.