#Palestinian liberation does not see rights the same way you do

[palms-upturned]

Frustrates me to no end seeing people say “what’s your alternative to voting blue? Stage a revolution right now? This second? Get real, you’re posting on your computer instead of firebombing walmarts.” I don’t think that you understand what people are actually doing. I know for myself, I’ve been reading more history and theory than I ever have before. I’ve been marching. I’ve been getting involved with labor activism. I’ve been doing strategic research. I’ve tried to archive and share resources. I’ve watched other people do WAY more than I ever have or probably could. I’ve seen people occupy arms manufacturing sites and hold wildcat strikes and disrupt daily life as much as possible. We’ve all seen this happening at unprecedented levels for months now. And most of all, I’ve seen Palestinians telling us, rightfully full of anger, do not ever go back to how things were before. Do not turn away from what’s happening and your own complicity in it.

This is not something that we can vote our way out of. Our state is built on the same violence being inflicted on the people of Palestine. We helped to build Israel. We are still arming it and funding the “war” right now. Even the most half hearted measures from international bodies like the UN to take the bare minimum of a stance against genocide are quashed by the US. As they always have been, our power and resources are used to reinforce imperial and colonial hegemony. That remains the same no matter who is sitting in the Oval Office. And so does our own struggle for liberation. Meaningful change is never, ever going to come from within. We force the change to happen, as we always have.

If you can understand intersectionality, then surely you can understand this: we are not going to free ourselves by sacrificing colonized people. You may vote blue, and for you it could be a matter of life and death. Believe me, as a poor disabled person in a red state who almost killed myself over medical debt, I know the stakes. But I think you have to own the fact that you are empowering perpetrators of genocide and breaking solidarity with colonized people, not even to liberate yourself, but just to bargain with the oppressor for your life. That Palestinians and everyone else who we have harmed are going to be angry and they are more than within their rights. Instead of deflecting by just assuming that no one else is capable of putting their money where their mouth is and actually trying to lay groundwork for change, just do whatever you feel you have to do and sit with the reality of the situation.

Palestine will be free, we will be free, the whole world will someday be free. But for now, this is where we are, and we won’t free ourselves by operating like crabs in a bucket. Get organized, take care of each other, commit to solidarity. Empower yourself and each other rather than the state.

[rozieramati]

Plum Enthusiast Community: Introduction

Hi, my name is Rozie Ramati. I am from Los Angeles, CA (born and raised.) I am a musician and an artist. I graduated UCLA summa cum laude with my bachelor's degree in American Literature in 2021. 

There is so much I wish to see change in the world. 

For art, I want people to take music seriously as a craft. I want people with an understanding of music across many boards- historians, instrumentalists, professors, journalists. —to be valued and prioritized for their professional opinions on the music landscape, especially for award shows like the Grammys.

I want streaming to pay. Laws need to be enforced on Spotify to give artists a living wage of 1 cent per stream instead of the current 0.038 cents per stream. My first headlining show in Los Angeles was in October 2024. It was for the United Musicians & Allied Workers labor union: https://weareumaw.org. UMAW is a dedicated and reliable source if you are interested in fighting for the rights of musicians. They have petitions linked in their Instagram bio.

For the political climate in America, I want the oligarchy that is forming to stop. I want the genocide of Palestinians to stop. I want there to be laws in place that prevent billionaires from buying social media apps in order to have power over our voices, jobs, mental health, and politics. I want the promotion of Hitler's ideologies and propaganda on social media to result in serious consequences. Elon Musk should never have been able to do a Nazi salute for all of us to see; there is no excuse for it. He did it twice. In Australia, when his Nazi salute was aired on their news stations, they blurred out his violent message to show their resistance. We can learn from them. I studied the Holocaust in depth at UCLA; I took classes and seminars such as: "Holocaust in Film," "Exile Artists," and so on. It gave me the depth and context I needed. That is why I know, with absolute certainty, what is happening in America. History is attempting to repeat itself. The only exception is that this isn't Nazi Germany; it is Trump's America in 2025. 

The one thing the Trump administration and their crew of billionaires do not want us to know is that we outnumber them. Please read that again; we outnumber them. 

Nazi Germany rooted so much fear & prejudice in their society that they were able to recruit the majority. The Trump administration does not currently have the majority. Trump admitted this himself when he said Elon rigged the election for him: "he (Elon Musk) knows those computers better than anybody… those vote counting computers… and we ended up winning Pennsylvania in a landslide." video link

I want the Constitution back on the White House website. I want us to abide by the Constitution of the United States. I want convicted felons and rapists to do time, regardless of their wealth or status. 

I want us to return to our humanness, to value education and educated individuals, and to make a better world for our children and for ourselves. 

Liberation should feel liberating. That is why I created the Plum Enthusiast community. I want to contribute to helping others understand the power they hold inside and how they can use it to achieve their dreams.

Our minds are the most important thing in the pursuit of our dreams and a better future. We must protect our minds, enrich them with tools that serve us and our community, and encourage others to do the same. 

I will leave you with this: As much as Billionaires want to control Americans into thinking we have no agency and no way to take back our rights, we all know they are wrong. We outnumber them. As much as the Trump administration wants us to think Nazis have power in 2025, they are wrong. We outnumber them. The fact that we outnumber them is exactly what has driven them toward their extreme measures to maintain power and control. When they can no longer make money off of us, they will not have any choice but to change. 

We have not stepped into the wrong timeline; we've stepped into an important one. When America comes together, it has historically been so beautiful to see. We've fought for our civil rights, women's rights, gay rights, and environmental rights with inspirational strength, compassion, and beauty before. That beauty is what is to come in our path toward liberation, uniting against this great evil. I am so grateful to be here and to do it with you. 

[doyouevenknowwhatshappening]

You are, in fact, not a leftist or even left aligned if you do not support Jewish people and denounce anti-semetic behaviors when you see them.

You can not call yourself a leftist, an alternative person (such as punk, goth, etc), or call yourself anti-fascist if you do not stand up for Jewish Voices.

There is an actual rise in not-zees in the USA and even other places. This is usually a mind frame seen in the EXTREME right and MAGA crowd.

Know your dogwhistles.

Such as "Have a totally joyful day" or "lizard people control the government," as some of the more well known ones. Which are blatant calls for Jewish hate.

I am Goyim, I am not a Jewish person. I have no Jewish ancestors. However, I was taught about Jewish history in the most dumbed down way any kid can. Then I took it on myself (as you're supposed to do) to learn MORE. I have read about the past, both ancient and modern, of what jews have gone through. The amount of hatred, judgment, and fear these people experience is beyond me. For simply existing.

And before ANYONE begins to say anything about Palestine, I am 100% pro-palestine. I support the nation's right to exist peacefully, to have jurisdiction over their land, just the same as I support the right for Jewish people to have a safe place. The occupational control of the Palestinian people, the fact Hamas was created by Isreal, the fact that thousands are dying right now as I type this out; none of this is okay. What Isreal is doing, what Netanyahoo is doing, IS NOT OKAY. All of this has been caused by white nationalism, anti-semetism, and colonialism.

Jewish people as a whole, and Muslims, are NOT TO BLAME for the genocide happening in Palestine right now.

If you read the history, if you KNOW things before you scream them at the top of your lungs, you'd also know this. You'd know to blame Europe for what it has caused. You'd know to blame Anti-Semitism and the UK for "giving" Jewish people, Isreal. You'd know to blame the USA for getting involved in anything in the Middle East. You'd know that NEITHER THE JEWS OR PALESTINIANS WANT THIS.

Propaganda is two sides of the same danm coin people. Listen. Learn.

There are DEFINENTLY people doing things that are cruel, unjust, and horrifying to Palestinians. However, fear mongering has led people everywhere to believe, "Look what this one IDF soldier did/said!" Means "look, Jewish people ARE bad! Think of the children!"

The same way that many Israelis are being fed the same propaganda about Palestinians/Muslims as a whole. SINCE BEFORE OCTOBER 7TH.

Lies will and HAVE came from both sides. This doesn't mean that everything coming out of Palestine is false by ANY MEANS. But it does mean that fabrications to aid your opinions will always and have always been part of how wars have been fought.

People who scream for justice for Palestine while screaming at anyone for being Jewish and inciting hate against them are just as bad as the people supporting said Genocide.

You can acknowledge that what's happening to the Palestinian people is caused by a terrorist state. While also continue to fight against the hatred, misconceptions, discrimination, and fear of Jewish people worldwide. This is not about "picking sides" between Palestinians and Jewish people.

This is about liberation. Full stop.

This is about ending the tyrrany.

You can not be anti-war and yet celebrate when war is being fought. This is not a football game. This is not chess. These are lives.

[scarlet--wiccan]

Hello! I've been boycotting Marvel ever since I saw the BDS notice you reblogged however I'm a bit confused: when the post says it's okay to buy from independent sellers does that mean it would be okay to buy the Scarlet Witch comics from a small comic book store? Or it is just meant to say it's okay to buy comics from other prints and companies if we know they aren't supporting Zi0nists?

This is my personal philosophy, which is A) subject to change; B) not intended to be proscriptive or authoritative; C) not a representation of the BDS movement, its praxis, or its goals. I've made my beliefs very clear about Palestinian liberation. I am 100% pro-boycott, but I would urge you to defer to actual movement organizers and leaders, which I am not.

Boycotting is a goal- and result-oriented action, and organizers name specific targets for a reason. My understanding is that the primary targets of the Marvel boycott are Marvel Studios and the M C U. This is a cultural boycott that was called specifically in response to the upcoming Captain America film. Marvel Studios has also historically had close dealings with the United States military industrial complex.

The comic book industry is an incredibly unbalanced system. Low sales impact independent retailers first, and with much greater severity than the publishers and corporations, and the majority of writers and artists who work for Marvel or DC are in vulnerable positions where project longevity and job security often depend on presale numbers. For these reasons, I have always prioritized buying print, buying from local independently owned comic book shops, and going out of my way to place preorders for titles that I want to support.

Marvel is a large corporation and it's owned by Disney, which is also a target for boycott and divestment, so you would be within reason to boycott all Marvel products, but to the best of my understanding, BDS has not listed comic books as a target-- and I don't see the impact as being optimally productive, due to the economic imbalances I described. I, personally, have continued to purchase print comics from a local store where I am familiar with the staff and owner, and I trust their politics. I do my best to keep track of the public behavior of writers and artists, and only purchase work made by people I feel I can similarly trust.

If you choose to purchase Marvel or DC comics, I would encourage you to perform the same due diligence, and ONLY buy print and ONLY buy local. Don't make digital purchases or buy subscriptions directly from the company, and don't buy merchandise, specifically of the M C U.

I would strongly encourage you to match your purchases with donations. The most effective way you can give money right now is by donating to personal fundraisers. My friend Eeri has organized a spreadsheet tracking GoFundMe drives for dozens of Palestinian families and individuals, all of which have been verified. They've also made individual posts and reels for each fundraiser that you can share on your instagram, if you have one.

[unsolicited-opinions]

Re: your post about the Ezra Klein, Coates interview, and specifically the analogy you drew about civil rights; I’m kind of confused about how you came to the conclusion that the Palestinians haven’t tried doing nonviolence. Did the march of return not count? Furthermore, moral sobriety did not convince the American public that black people weren’t inferior. I think you calling Coates a polemicist was incredibly uncharitable and shows apathy to the point that him and Klein both agreed on: that Israel is an apartheid state.

Thanks for the comment. I'll presume your good faith and return the same in this longish answer.

You wrote: "I'm kind of confused about how you came to the conclusion that the Palestinians haven't tried doing nonviolence." 

Your confusion may be a result of the fact that I neither said nor implied this. What you're doing here is called a straw man fallacy.[1] 

What I did say was that Civil Rights activists led by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Congress of Racial Equality were utterly committed to nonviolence. You can tell this is true by how they never committed acts of terrorism. 

You wrote: "Furthermore, moral sobriety did not convince the American public that black people weren't inferior."

I don't know what "moral sobriety" is. I don't know what moral inebriation would be, either.

I certainly didn't claim that moral sobriety accomplished anything and this is another straw man.[1] 

What I did claim was that the principled nonviolence of the Civil Rights Movement impacted public opinion sufficiently to get the  Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed. 

This is from the transcript of the Coates/Klein conversation[2]:

TA-NEHISI COATES: I can’t accept that your interest in a true democracy was destroyed by violence from your partner. I just can’t accept that. First of all, I think even in this rendering that we have here, I suspect that there are reasons for why that suicide bombing even happened.

'You' here refers to Israel. Coates is saying that Israelis must not be committed to peace because violence from Hamas derailed Israeli public support for a peace process. If this is true, why is it not also true for the Palestinians? This seems to me like both a double standard and terrorism apologetics.

You wrote: "...I think you calling Coates a polemicist was incredibly uncharitable…"

Coates himself acknowledges this. Here's a long excerpt from the transcript [2], keeping his comments in context:

EZRA KLEIN: Did you go around with anybody who would say, no, we’re doing the right thing here. Or even we’re not doing enough here.

TA-NEHISI COATES: No.

EZRA KLEIN: Why?

TA-NEHISI COATES: There are things in this world that I see that I just don’t want to hear the justification for. I just don’t think can be justified. I don’t want to hear — I don’t know what I can glean from a justification for — and I’m talking about in an American context — segregation.

I don’t know what necessarily I can glean from a justification for enslavement by hearing somebody like interviewing somebody and say, tell me why this is legal. Some things come down to, for me, just a moral decision. And I actually think journalists do this all the time. I think we all draw a line somewhere about what we feel is out of bounds and what we feel is beyond.

For me, I was willing to entertain probably a debate from people who were anti-occupation, but maybe not necessarily anti-Zionist. Maybe it would be classified as liberal Zionists even. All the way over to people who thought Zionism was a terrible idea and the worst thing that had ever happened. The justification for settlements was outside of my frame.

EZRA KLEIN: But that does wipe out all of Israeli society almost, right?

TA-NEHISI COATES: I was concerned with what I don’t know. And what I haven’t heard. And for me, Palestinian voices have been pushed so far out of the frame. Like that is the thing that is hard to access. And I think this is open for critique. But I made a conscious decision, frankly, in the language, you know what I mean?

Later in the interview, Coates returns to Klein's criticism:

COATES:... this was just a decision I made. OK, who am I not hearing from? Who have I not heard from?

And so that necessarily means marginalizing a portion of it.

Coates openly acknowledges that he decided consciously, deliberately, to ignore the parts he didn't want to hear in order to protect the narrative he wanted to focus on. He states that this is open for critique…which is what I'm offering. I haven't been uncharitable in any way. 

You wrote: "...and shows apathy to the point that him and Klein both agreed on: that Israel is an apartheid state." 

That's a third straw man[1]. Look again. How did my post start?

I agree with Coates and Klein both that the circumstances for Palestinians in the West Bank can be compared to apartheid. Israel within the green line can't be described that way, but the West Bank, in my opinion, can be described that way.

I think the West Bank settlements are indefensible. They are shameful and wrong. Israel could have protected its security without building settlements clearly meant to eventually annex the land into Israel. I have nothing but contempt and condemnation for them. 

Coates and Klein, however, also agreed about what would happen if Israel unilaterally pulled out of the West Bank as they did in Gaza in 2005. Again, here's the transcript:

KLEIN:...If we ever pull back, if we do what we did in Gaza, and allow this to be self-governed, an army will be raised, and what happened on 10/7 will be a small preview of what will be coming for us eventually.

That doesn’t make anything happening in the West Bank right. It doesn’t have any effect on the morality of it whatsoever. But it is the politics of Israel that somebody is going to have to deal with at some point or not. And then we’re just here. I’m not here to tell you I’ve come up with some answer. It’s just one of the things that has to sit in the pot.

TA-NEHISI COATES: Yeah, I don’t disagree with that at all. I don’t disagree with that at all.

Given this agreement between Coates and Klein that Israel pulling out of the West Bank unilaterally without enforceable security guarantees would result in disaster, what would you have Israel do? If it was up to me, I'd start with making water distribution fair in area C of the West Bank.

Now that I have defended my reasonable and supported criticisms of Coates from three straw man comments, I need to mention that the same category of error Coates gives us had a mirror image this weekend in Bill Maher.

BONUS GRIPE: Bill Maher does the same kind of thing as Coates, but in a mirror

Did you see this?

Set aside for a minute that Maher condescending to Chappell Roan and Roan's audience won't change any minds and set aside that Maher continues to be a living avatar for Peak Boomer Asshole Behavior - and what we're left with is a narrative about Israel/Palestine which is made to seem reasonable only by consciously, deliberately, dishonestly choosing to leave out utterly essential information. They're both writing for confirmation biases. There are only two differences between what Coates did and what Maher did:

1. Maher leaves out essential information about the Palestinian concerns and Palestinian realities while ignoring or downplaying Israeli failures…while Coates leaves out essential information about Israeli concerns and Israeli realities while ignoring or downplaying Palestinian failures. 

2. Coates at least ADMITS, when pressed, that he's doing this. Maher, smug prick that he is, does not. 

They're both wrong. It's assholes running the Israeli government, assholes running Hamas, assholes running the Palestinian Authority, and assholes running the Iranian government- and NONE of these parties has honestly sought peace for at least a couple decades. (Iran and Hamas have never sought peace.)

And with their deeply dishonest determination to serve their narratives by leaving out half the story, neither Coates nor Maher are helping elevate the conversation and fumble towards truth or resolution nearly as much as Ezra Klein does with consistent intellectual honesty.

[1] https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/strawman

[2]https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/11/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-ta-nehisi-coates.html

[meatcute]

Not an American, and I despise Harris and Biden for their enabling of genocide, and Harris in particular for her role in so much institutional cruelty and misery. If I were there, I don’t think I’d vote for either if it came down to it.

At the same time, there’s a glimmer more hope for me when it comes to Palestine specifically with her than with Biden. It’s not a lot, and definitely not enough to be convinced she’d be willing to denounce Zionism or push the Democratic Party to distance themselves from the Israeli regime, though. It’s something though.

Here are my reasons why:

Biden specifically has been a huge voice of Zionism for decades. He once told Netanyahu that he was Israel’s best friend in US politics. Harris does not have that degree of personal investment in Israel- Obviously, she is supported by AIPAC, but she has not entrenched herself in it like Biden did.

She’s just not as old. Everyone I know that’s Biden’s age, smart or not, liberal or conservative and even actively leftist, take a lot of talking to in order to reconsider their stance on anything. We don’t have the ability to do that directly with Biden, as we can see from it taking weeks and personal lobbying for him to step down- Harris will probably be more receptive to adapting her stance on most issues than we could ever hope Biden to be.

I guess my overall feeling on the situation is: I wanted Biden gone; I want Harris better. I think everyone continuing to talk about Gaza, pressuring her on that, alongside her record on Native American rights, sex workers, police reform, etc has a genuine chance of affecting her policy choices as president.

So I’m holding out hope. Not hope on the way that “if American’s just vote for her, she’ll be a good president!” way, but in a “If this election campaign continues the way it is, she can choose to reinvent herself and her stances on major issues that the Biden-Harris administration failed.” way.

If she doesn’t make those choices, and chooses to stand even stronger pro-Israel, pro-cop and toe the Democratic Party line, then you can drag this post back up and we can all laugh at it together as a symptom of chronic centre-left apologism.

TL:DR: Keep criticising Harris�� record, keep condemning the Biden-Harris administration’s fucking awful treatment of Palestinians and apathy towards Sudan. I believe that doing that has an active political purpose in changing how Harris will approach things, and that keeping that open as a possibility can energise this movement even stronger.

irdk this just sounds like youve been totally sold over by harris having better optics than biden. harris being younger or not as expressive on her opinions on israel does not mean she doesnt stand by the decisions shes made. do you think she endorses the genocide by accident?

"we can laugh together" ah nvm you dont care about this. you typed this whole essay only for your reaction to a future where our president kills palestinians to be "lol guess i was wrong!" like what is the point of this. congrats on the successful ragebait ig?

[tshifty]

I actually do blame people for staying home. Trump will be even worse for Palestinians. Choosing not to go vote for Kamala is going to result in more harm for EVERYONE. If you can even help any number of marginalized people suffer less by voting and you don’t, I just can’t understand that thought process. This isn’t at you since I know you said you would be voting. But also from a strategic standpoint, democrats aren’t doing to start listening to leftist until they can show they are a reliable voting block and that takes time. I wish liberals/leftists could play the long game like republicans always do and look how far they’ve moved the party right.

I think this is a really important conversation to have right now, so I am going to answer this very earnestly in a long form. And I don't purport to know the right answer-- honestly I don't think anyone knows the "right answer" or if there really is one atp. But I do want to share my perspective on this, which is a bit contrary to yours.

TLDR; bc this is very long: I think that political and social change is more nuanced than simply "voting is right or wrong", and I think that we are about a decade into fundamental systems change in this country which does add a layer to the conversation.

I think as a baseline, we can agree on a few points:

Voting is an important tool that we have in the system we live in

Trump is objectively, on every issue, worse than Harris

If Trump gets elected, more people will die, and faster

Shifting our political culture and system is long-game

So now a few of your points that I am going to disagree with.

"Democrats aren't going to listen to leftists until they can show they are a reliable voting block" -- this is something that I used to also believe to be true, but I don't anymore. I don't think the Democratic party is ever going to in truth embrace leftist policies, because those policies by nature weaken the grip of our 2-party system, and thus lose democratic party leaders and politicians a lot of money. The Democratic party has shown time and time again that they are very willing to do whatever it takes to prevent a leftist, or a democratic socialist, or a progressive whatever label you use, to rise through the party ranks and succeed. The party endorses in down-ballot elections against progressives; the party bankrolls moderates to defeat progressives; the party spreads disinformation and works to cause fragmenting within left spaces. Unfortunately, the Democratic party is at the end of the day one side of the electoral machine; and while the GOP is worse on policy issues, I would say that the parties operate the same in many functioning ways.

"People who choose not to vote are (at least partially) to blame for the result" -- again, something I wholly used to believe, but don't entirely anymore. At the end of the day, I believe the blame lies with those in power. I blame the Democratic party and elected officials for being morally decrepit and absolutely incomprehensibly unstrategic. I blame politicians for being spineless fucking freaks who either are actively trying to harm people, or refuse to do what is needed to actually create the change they run their platforms on every few years. While I do personally still believe that voting is an important tool even given the context we are seeing in 2024, I cannot bring myself anymore to blame those who are continually spit on by the Democratic party, for not voting for them. So while I do agree with the sentiment that voting is important to the extent that we vote to choose our enemy, I do not believe that it is really those who don't vote that are wholly to blame. I think this system is designed to hurt people, and I can't blame people for refusing to vote for politicians who continue to harm them and their communities.

"Liberals/leftists should play the long game in a similar way that republicans have"-- I halfway agree with this and halfway think we may disagree. I agree that Republicans, as fucking morally decrepit as they are, have as a collective deployed some pretty brilliant and terrifying political strategy over the past many decades to achieve their goals. I agree that the Republican party plays politics much better than Democrats, and that it's pretty embarrassing to watch Democrats and leftists etc. fail to do so. However. I disagree in the sense that, I don't think this political system that we have is even worth fighting for. I think that fascism is knocking at our door red or blue; one is just going to happen faster and more intensely than the other. The Dems are running towards fascism at 20mph; the GOP is running towards fascism at 200mph. So while I am going to vote for the 20mph option bc that buys us more time to prepare, I do unfortunately now believe that we have crossed that point of no return. Our politics will never be "as they were". I think that for the past 10-15 years, the US has been in a stage of political and social revolution (and let me be clear, NOT in the way i have seen many self-proclaimed communists talk about in that revolution is some big event, that shit is stupid as fuck), and that we also have a long ways to go. The US is a very young country, and historically we have been due for this for a while. I think the next 4-8 years are going to dramatically accelerate our democratic backsliding, and I honestly am at a point where I am going to spend my energy to prepare for how to operate in that reality, than I am going to spend my energy trying to save an outdated system. I do think we have to play the long-game, and to me that looks like reimagining how we want our government and politics to operate, and being extremely pragmatic about what that will entail and how we can leverage power to get there. I believe that social and political revolution and change takes DECADES, and ultimately that the change will not come from within our current system but from outside it. Also to be clear I believe that armed revolution in the context of the United States would be fucking stupid bc that means going up against the US military and ultimately that is truly just some stupid half-baked notion coming from very privileged people who don't believe they will be the first to get shot.

So this has gotten extremely long and I do apologize for that lol.

[satansluckycigarette]

As a working class American living below the poverty line: fuck Bernie and Pelosi both! There is absolutely no excuse to vote for an ultra-nationalist like Trump: if you voted for him, you are trash. Plain and simple. Trump let Americans die in the streets during covid, and it was absolutely not cheaper before then. I was lucky. I was an essential worker during 2020, and I managed to stay employed throughout Trump's first term. I struggled to pay a $500 rent despite that. Biden raised my wages because Indiana follows federal wage law. When Bernie says that didn't happen: he is a fucking liar.

Another lie Sanders pushes is to say Biden is anti-union. That is complete and utter bullshit. Biden signed executive orders strengthening unions in his first ninety days and is the first president to have ever marched in a Labor strike. To say otherwise is to deny facts that you can just Google. Sanders is a fucking liar who is afraid of losing the white Vermont vote and he can eat shit.

Pelosi is no better if she wants to deny that corruption exists within the party. Hiding from internal problems is a guarantee path to failure every time. The way I see it: they are both looking for ways to make nice with the incoming regime. Fuck them. The Democrats are not going to save us and real leftists have known that for decades.

Why did Harris lose? She didn't get the same votes Biden did in 2020. Plain and simple. Trump's margins did not increase- every body who voted him did it again. Why didn't Biden voters vote for Harris: four reasons:

1. Gaza. Obviously. You can't win the Palestinian vote when you're giving money to the people murdering their friends and family.

2. The Border. Obviously. You can't win the Latino vote when everyone remembers the day you went to the border and cheered on the mounted cavalry you sicced on their friends and family.

3. Sexism/racism. Liberal men suck just as hard as conservative men. Cis straight men are trash: any idiot could've told you that.

4. Appealing to centrists. Obviously. There is no middle ground between us and the people threatening to kill us. Attempting to find that middle ground makes you look weak. Obviously.

Trying to pretend anything else happened is ignorant at best and pandering to Fascists at worst, and wasting time arguing about who really screwed the pooch here does nothing to protect the people that Trump will kill. The Democrats as a whole fucked up for very glaringly obvious reasons. Sanders and Pelosi are equally guilty.

For the real average American and everyone else fucking terrified right now: don't cry, organize. The IWW, The Socialist Rifle Association, and whatever you and your friends can think to do to fight back and stay alive are all more helpful than anything the Democrats are going to come up with anytime soon. Stay furious.

[bookishfeylin]

I don't want to accuse Sjm of Zionism, there is simply not enough evidence and it is a severe accusation because of the state of Palestine right now and can very easily be blatantly Anti-Semitic. But I do want to say with her track record of being racist, misogynistic, homophobic and with a tendency to write her white main characters as conquerers and colonizers (Its not confirmed but we can all get a picture of Feysand being primed for High King and Queen) it does rub me wrong.

Not to mention a lot of ToG has that same undertone. There's a conversation between Aelin and Rowan where they talk about conquering more lands after taking back Terrasen and she says that if she gets “bored of being queen she will conquer and gain more land to be empress". And once again I'm not saying this to accuse her of Zionism, but it doesn't feel right and Sjm is known to write in a way that mirrors her personal beliefs. I say this with only regards to her actions (through her writing) and not her beliefs as a Jewish woman.

There's nothing wrong with visiting her family in Israel, or even having a grandmother that still volunteers at a military base because that's her grandmother's actions and not hers. There is something wrong with the fact that she wrote Aelin as someone who's "taking back" her country and then contemplating conquering more. And Feysand possibly being High King and Queen when they treat PoC coded Illyrians like they're savages and you don't see them outside of the Mountains unless they're dying for Rhysand on the battlefield. It just all feels very colonizer to me.

I hope I'm not coming off as rude, the issue of Palestine is very close to my heart and reading ToG and Acotar and seeing some things mirrored in them has always kind of remained unsettled with me and I would love to hear your opinion on it.

Hi anon! Nope, you’re not rude! :) So a big disclaimer: I am a Black American. Any analysis I can offer on this is through that lens, fortunately or unfortunately. That being said:

While the pro-imperialist, pro-colonialist, and pro-"both sides" themes PERMEATING Sarah's writing do likely point to her beliefs or biases (even unconscious, internalized ones she has), so do the artistic works of many white creators, often in way worse and way more blatant ways than Sarah's books. How many of tumblr's beloved “children’s shows” feature the imperialist/colonizers/genocide committing villains be shown as redeemable, as sympathetic, and worthy of redemption while simultaneously declaring any victims of colonization/genocide who have the audacity to fight back as the REAL bad guy, or just as bad as their oppressors? And not just children’s shows—so much media in general has this same theme, where the colonizers are more redeemable than the colonized, often including a cautionary tale warning oppressed peoples to “be careful” in our liberation efforts so we don’t become “just as bad.” (See my on media tag for a lot of discussion on this, among other things.) Our media—our books, our television shows, our movies— are, unfortunately, FULL of colonizer/imperialist apologia. Full of some “they’re human too!” nonsense that I am TIRED of having shoved down my throat. My point is, Sarah's writing is more likely due to her being a white woman in western society rather than any support of what’s happening to Palestinians. She’s one white creator among many, and merely exists as a symptom of a greater problem in our society and white fans who argue that pointing this out and critiquing this disgusting trope of “oppressor is redeemable and sympathetic and HUMAN but oppressed aren’t” in their favorite cartoon is being a ~toxic anti puritan~ make this worse. So does her writing point to her own biases about the nature of oppression? Yes, but in a way that appears to be no different than most media made by white people in the West, and unrelated to her thoughts on the Israel-Palestine conflict specifically. But yes please be unsettled because these ideas are ALARMINGLY present in media.

[mariacallous]

At the weekend, as tens of thousands marched in London to protest against antisemitism, a charity which calls itself the Campaign Against  Antisemitism managed to split the Jewish community.

It went for London’s mayor by insisting that the London where supporters of radical Islam chant and preach was “Sadiq Khan’s London”.

It was not the London of a Conservative government that has been in power these past 14 years. It was not London, the capital city of a free country, where people are entitled to demonstrate peacefully. But Sadiq Khan’s London, where according to a video put out by the campaign (see above) fear and hatred is the fault of London’s Muslim mayor.

Forgive me, I am so sorry, I forgot to mention Sadiq Khan’s religion, although to the worst people on the right his religion is the single most significant fact about him.

“Here are some of the things you can look forward to in Sadiq Khan’s London,” the commentary begins. “Being harassed in McDonald’s” – the film cuts to shots of demonstrators shouting “shame on you” in a McDonald’s, possibly because McDonald’s has an Israeli franchise, but who knows?

The screen changes to shots of demonstrators calling for an intifada, comparing Israeli Jews to Nazis, and chanting for a Palestinian victory from the “river to sea”, a slogan, which contrary to the soothing claims of western apologists, means and is meant to mean the ethnic cleansing of Jews.

And all of this is Sadiq Khan’s fault, apparently, for not denouncing the protestors loudly enough.

There are two ways of fighting racism. You can either embrace liberalism or communalism. The liberal response in this case is to oppose anti-Jewish racism because conspiracy theory and prejudiced hatreds are antithetical to a free society.  The communalist response is to embrace sectarianism, and combat prejudice against blacks with prejudice against whites; prejudice against Jews, with prejudice against Muslims.

You do not have to look too deeply into anti-Muslim prejudice before you run into the global phenonmenon of the irrational hated of Sadiq Khan.

To be fair to the Campaign against Antisemitism there is plenty of anti-Jewish racism to oppose. Since Hamas attacked Israel abuse of Jews in the UK and across the West has exploded. Many people, and not only Jews, are frightened about a revival of Islamist terrorism.

But like so many on the right, the campaign goes beyond fighting prejudice and confronting legitimate fears.

Liberal Jews were angered by the Campaign’s claim that the mayor was failing to challenge “antisemitism, glorification of terrorism and incitement to intifada”. They knew that, unlike his Labour predecessor Ken Livingstone, whose rule as Mayor of London anticipated the far left takeover of the national Labour party by Jeremy Corbyn, Khan has befriended London’s Jews

London’s old rulers would have been chanting “from the river to the sea”, and allying with Hamas and every other misogynist, racist and homophobic group. Khan has gone out of his way to build good relations with Jews. When Jeremy Corbyn was in charge of Labour, Khan spoke out against anti-Jewish hatred, and showed as he did it more political and moral courage than most people on the British left could muster in the 2010s

Khan is a liberal Muslim and as such faces the scorn of Islamists. He received death threats after he supported same-sex marriage.  No serious organisation combating antisemitsm would hold him responsible for the pro-Hamas wing on the streets of London. The Islamist right hates his politics.

Nor while we are about it does Khan have sole oversight of the Metropolitan Police. He shares the task with the Home Secretary, who has been a Conservative politician since 2010. In any case, as everyone knows or ought to know, no politician has the right to ban demonstrations in the UK.

Rishi Sunak and then Home Suella Braverman tried to prevent pro-Palestinian protests in the autumn, and were told by the police that marches could only be stopped if there was a threat of serious disorder, and that the "very high threshold" has not been reached.

Shouldn’t we be grateful for that, incidentally? By which I mean we should not only be grateful that politicians cannot arbitrarily constrain our civil liberties but that, for all the fears of terrorist violence, there has not yet been “serious disorder” on the streets.

It’s not just the pathetic jabs at Khan that has caused such anger. I hope for the sake of the reputation of the Campaign Against Antisemitism that they did not know it, but linking Khan with terrorism takes British conservatives into the darkest corners of right-wing politics.

When I interviewed him I was staggered by the level of security Khan needed. The police’s concern for his safety is up there with their concern for the king and prime minister. Fifteen armed officers, trained in counter-terrorism and emergency medicine, are on his security detail because Khan is a Muslim, on the receiving end of the paranoia generated the Great Replacement Conspiracy Theory.

The hate he receives is astonishing. I am not belittling Khan when I say that he is a standard social democratic politician. His political priorities are building more social housing, controlling traffic and limiting pollution.  If he were a white politician, no one would trouble him

As it was, Khan’s staff told me that the police took one bomb threat so seriously, they had Khan conducting online meetings while dogs sniffed for explosives in the mayoral office. Officers routinely put 24-hour surveillance on his family home because of credible threats against him and his wife. And a Nazi sympathiser from Surrey, who threatened to “do something” to Khan, which would mean “we will see him in the news” was sectioned under the mental health act.

So great is the hate staff at City Hall receive, they are offered counselling to help them cope with the volume of racist, Islamophobic, violent and abusive messages they see.

Khan is at the centre of global conspiracy because he is a Muslim politician running a great western city.

That’s all there is to it.

While he was president in 2019, Donald Trump took time out to attack Khan, claiming that he had turned London into a violent hell hole. Trump went on to befriend the British far-right commentator Katie Hopkins, a reality TV star turned mob raiser, who said that London was now "Khan's Londonistan."

You need to take a step back. No previous US president would have wasted his time with an obscure, foul-mouthed commentator like Katie Hopkins or thought that the mayor of London was a worthy opponent.

But in our world their warm embrace makes a hideous sense. Trump has a fascistic appeal and relies on conspiracy theory to drive up his support. The modern far right, which may be back in power in Washington DC  this time next year, is powered by the  belief that the globalist elite  is plotting to destroy the white Christian West by flooding it with migrants.

I can’t think of a better symbol of the new world than the willingness of the President of the United States to befriend and amplify an obscure propagandist from the other side of the Atlantic or for Khan to become an object of their mutual and mutually advantageous loathing.

The incitement to violence is real. As Brenton Tarrant prepared to massacre 51 people in Christchurch mosques, he found the time to urge his supporters to show their commitment to a “white rebirth” by removing the “Pakistani Muslim invader [who] now sits as representative for the people of London”.

“Why would a terrorist in New Zealand know about me?” Khan asked at the time

Because fascism in one of its modern variants has found him to be a perfect target was his answer.

It is a sign of how we have normalised extremism that Khan must be surrounded by teams of bodyguards and the British media barely find that fact worth mentioning. It is a sign, too, that apparently respectable right-wing newspapers, politicians and indeed anti-racist organisations don’t stop to think before joining the pile on.

[arianagrandre]

can I ask a question?

I was raised with one view. As I've gotten older, I've learned this view was wrong. But for the longest time I was surrounded by people who agreed with that view, and convinced me it was right.

In regards to Noah, isn't he Jewish? If he sincerely apologized and learned, would it be okay then? I know some people are calling for a boycott of stranger things, which I will support, but I also know when I was 18/19 I was still surrounded by those who had the same view I had growing up. Thank God I don't have that view anymore.

I want to make it clear I do NOT support what he did. I am also NOT against the Jewish people. You can say that Palestine should be free and there should be peace without being antisemitic. It isnt the same thing.

hi thanks for the ask and your honesty! i can understand only growing up with one mindset and only having that to fall back upon because that’s all you’ve ever known. but at the same time i think context and circumstances matter.

lately i’ve been seeing a ton of people (particularly from the West) who have started to deprogram and unlearn everything they’ve been conditioned to believe about israel, their govt, zionism, islam etc. and i’m sure it wasn’t easy getting there. but i have to be honest and show how privileged of a position that is, to be able to have that distancing in the first place. to have the space to change your mindset or perspective about an ongoing genocide that palestinians have been experiencing for their whole lifetime. unlike the rest of us who are afforded the time and privilege to learn or unlearn what we think we know, palestinians don’t, they were born into their oppressed reality, their fight for liberation is all they’ve ever known.

noah could change his mind but… why should we bother making him comfortable if he did? having basic compassion for palestinians is the very least anyone can do. it’s not something i feel is really worth ‘celebrating’.

i think what makes it worse is that noah has all the resources at his fingertips, being someone with a huge platform and connections. he could easily choose to be more accurately informed if he wanted to. it’s a choice he consciously makes. one could argue that he was only raised with his mindset but again, it’s his choice to refuse to question his own way of thinking, even now, amidst the huge support and protests around the world—and questioning your own perspective is the most fundamental first step in having a deeper understanding about your own worldview, let alone unlearning it.

the problem isn’t whether he knows that civilians are losing their lives—the problem is that he does know and he’ll find ways to justify it (this is what zionists do). there are so many jewish people and organisations in support of palestinians and he could easily google why and maybe start to unpack his personal views. but he’s too comfortable where he is and he’s willing to choose his own comfort over the lives of palestinians. so whether or not it’s okay if he apologised and changed his mind is of no concern to me, because he’s clearly not concerned about anyone else at the moment anyway

[obislittleone]

Hey, I just wanted to be informed about what “from the river to the sea” means? I’ve been looking it up but all I’ve found is free Palestine bullshit. In one of your posts you implied it has a separate meaning so can you please explain if you’d like? Sorry if I’m being rude or anything I just want to be informed.

"From the river to the sea" (Arabic: من النهر إلى البحر, romanized: min an-nahr ’ilā l-baḥr; Palestinian Arabic: من المياه للمياه, romanized: min al-mayeh lil-mayeh, lit. 'from the water to the water') is a political slogan that refers geographically to the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, which currently includes the State of Israel and the Palestinian territories: the West Bank, which includes East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

At first glance, it has no other connotation to it other than the meaning people are shouting, which is 'Palestine will be free.'

It sounds very progressive and helpful to Palestinians when that's all that's said... but with the additional words that belong to the phrase: فلسطين ستكون عربية

It translates to: from water to water, Palestine will be Arab.

Not 'Palestine will be free', Palestine will be Arab.

Little white liberal ppl are writing these inscriptions on signs and protesting against the killing of Palestinians, but when they do, they don't even understand that they are encouraging Hamas to make Palestine an Arab only state. They claim they want to save lives while literally chanting for the extermination of jews using Hamas Nazi rhetoric.

This, of course, does not mean that all Palestinians are Arab or that there are not Arab jews. However, the notion of Hamas wanting to irradicate only the Israeli government is completely false when their mission was to mainly kill jews and try and take the land by force of killing innocents on October 7th. My friend Hasharon had sent me video attachments of hamas recruits shouting their kill count to one another and saying in their language 'praise allah, for all these dead jews.' They also screamed things on the phone like 'father, i killed ten jews, be proud of me, father, i killed ten of them.' They quite literally committed the exact same attrocities but on a deeply personal level. (Y'know, the same thing that people are condemning Israel of doing... except commiting numerous war crimes in the process.) Obviously, it is too complicated of a situation to take one look at and choose sides. For the most part, I side with Jews as I am one, but we must not forget about our muslim brotherhood in this time. Jews and Muslims are cousins, and they have the ability to live in peace. They have for thousands of years, and the discourse is only now coming from the ways this notion of 'there has to be only one bad guy' is being portrayed in the media.

There is no one bad guy. That would be the easy thing, to say 'oh Israel should be wiped off the planet because they are settlers and have no right to be there and by existing in that land, they are causing Palestinian suffering,' or to say 'Well Hamas is the literal government that Gaza chose for themselves and not only did they use secret tunnels to invade Israel and kill over a thousand innocents, but when Israel responded, their people hid them in hospitals and schools and made Israel look like the bad guy for irradicating terror.'

Do you see how both notions seem to fall on the radical of either side? It's why the conflict not only gets out of hand through the media, but starts to paint a picture that 'if you don't choose the right side you are an evil nasty person and you also deserve to die.' Or at least that's what my anons have been saying, but I digress.

The point is, by going to one extreme or the other, we make even more chaos in an already complex and sad situation.

Very few people in Israel actually believe Gaza should be destroyed, and likewise, I've not seen any of posts from actual Gazans saying they condone the death of others in their name. There are always going to be extremists, because unfortunately, there are some adults who behave like children and think they are of the highest possible knowledge in this world. Being well educated means nothing if you're only educating yourself based on the things you already believe. There's some Jewish wisdom that my grandmother taught me saying: to achieve knowledge is to experience the discomfort of realizing you may have been wrong.

Many liberals are very confident that they have all the answers in this time. I'm not condemning anyone, and I'm not excusing other's behavior either, but I want to make it known that you can't just say something without backing it logically and with context. 'From the river to the sea,' is a perfect example of that.

Sorry for this long rant I've just been wanting to get it off my chest as I've seen even more non arabic people posting the arabic signs around my city and non even realizing what they actually mean.

[edenfenixblogs]

Just reblogged your post about how we're out here desperately asking people to just say three simple words 'antisemitism is bad' because I had a recent exchange with a 'friend' asking the same who responded with this -

She then said she 'needs to step back from this situation and from [me]'

Losing so many friends to this kind of behavior is driving me insane. I feel broken. Hope you're doing okay.

This sucks and this person sucks. I’m luckily doing pretty ok. I still get waves of unadulterated panic when I see dog whistles from people I care about. I have to wonder if they’re coming from a place of ignorance (which is fine with me, actually. Ignorance, not willful ignorance, can always be fixed by knowledge), or if a secret but long-held hatred is beginning to emerge.

I’ve had to have a similar conversation with a few friends. Not identical. But basically saying, “Hey. I’m really sorry to come off controlling or aggressive, but that thing you said/posted/shared was kind of alarming to me. It made me feel unsafe and unsure how you feel towards me.”

Luckily, most of the people I spoke with about this (there weren’t that many. Many people aren’t sharing anything about either side at all, which I think is also fine. People should be allowed to craft politics free spaces for themselves and their sanity), took my words as I intended. A couple used the opportunity to learn more about antisemitism and Jewish history. I’m very grateful for that.

On the one hand, I’m a big believer in boundless empathy and giving people the benefit of the doubt. On the other, I cannot imagine telling a friend telling me that I’ve done something that scared them and made them feel unsafe and responding with an accusation of any kind. I certainly cannot imagine responding that I wanted to abandon the person I harmed.

I also can’t imagine seeing a group of people under threat, being told I am contributing to that threat by someone directly affected by it, and not caring enough to correct my actions.

I want to say that my instinct is to tell you that this person is not your friend and doesn’t deserve your time or care. But I am also Jewish at this time, and I know exactly where you are emotionally. It’s so scary to lose people from your life. And it’s really scary to lose them on terms where they are left feeling in negative ways toward Jews in this political climate. Not only can severing ties leave us completely isolated, but we also have to carry the weight of feeling responsible for leaving someone with a resentment toward Jews and worry that this will cause more harm to our very small community.

I want to say that whether or not you drop this person from your life, you are totally justified in your stance. Their antisemitism is not your fault. Not all goyim respond to correction so callously. This person’s continued antisemitism will not be your fault if you sever ties with them.

In many ways, kind, firm, and measured words are the single most important thing that anyone can do for the Jewish community worldwide right now. Repeatedly affirming that supporting Palestinian liberation and self determination does not exist at odds with antisemitism. It is possible to care for two parties at once, and everyone should do so.

Sending love and hope your way. It’s a scary time.

PS check out the post I made just before this one.

[jyndor]

im the anon you told to fuck off here to say thank you.

i had read about terrorist organizations using that slogan and i had a gut reaction. im a jew and i fear for both muslims and jews with everything that is going on right now. because i read what you wrote and i researched again and i see where propaganda got the better of me (even if those words have been used by terrorists). and i see time and time again where propaganda gets the better of most of us on something as fast paced as the internet.

as i read i remembered. the naz*s took a symbol that was once peaceful and turned it into something the world cannot look at the same way ever again-entirely their fault not the fault of the original culture from which the symbol came.

i dont want to see that happen with words that are truly important and stand for something i do believe in which to be clear: is a free and peaceful palestine where no one has to live in fear.

in saying what i did based off of a gut reaction i made a mistake. i did the same thing i hate from others on the internet which is speaking on an issue before doing further research and i am ashamed of that.

but i am also committed to learning and doing better tomorrow. no one can become an expert in any part of this as quickly as plenty have claimed to. im writing this to share my perspective and as a reminder of fallibility for whatever that is worth.

i think its important for ensuring we dont become what we wish to stand against.

thanks again for sharing your research. you told me to fuck off but ill sign off by wishing you well

anon I'm shook no okay so hold! on the fucking off pls do not fuck off I recant the fucking off. its how I handle anons (I'll explain later) until yall prove you're not trolling or bots or whatever.

it's worth a LOT. like really it's worth a lot. Unfuck off, I would love more people in my orbit who don't just critically engage with criticism but also go on to look into it for themselves. instead of just taking my or someone else's word for it. I try to do that myself because I can be such a fucknugget and sometimes need a good smack lol.

I just want to say I'm sorry that you're experiencing the fear you're experiencing. and um I have jewish cousins and family who I am scared for always, I try not to bring them up bc it feels kind of gross in this context but yeah, I don't want to invalidate your fears.

I mean what the n*zis did with that symbol is a whole other thing and I don't feel like I should speak on it other than to say fuck n*zis they ruin everything they touch. I liken this more to the way that black lives matter gets misconstrued because I know more about the history of that phrase than I do about that symbol you're talking about. I also don't like to bring up n*zism in the context of israel/palestine because actually almost every time I have seen that comparison with israel, it is a cheap shot at jewish people. Like in a youtube comments section or something, not thoughtful discourse - because tbh these are very, very different situations and the comparisons could be made of almost any other genocide, but like the commenter knows it's a painful thing for jewish people and so like I said, it's a cheap shot that's easy to take and says more about them than it does about palestinian liberation or israeli apartheid.

I know plenty of anti-zionist jewish people do actually talk about the shoah in the context of why they support palestinian rights but for me it just doesn't feel right.

and yeah i understand falling for shit - I've done it, it's easy as hell to read something and feel like it's right, like yeah I personally don't actually say from the river to the sea all that often, you won't find it as a tag on my blog because I think it's best coming from palestinians?

you're totally right - no one can possibly learn the history quickly. It's taken me 16 years to feel like I am actually relatively well versed in the history and I'm not even well versed, I'm just decently versed lol. and if you add into it the propaganda that we've all been told for years, and then the added generational trauma you have? of course it's hard to fight gut reactions because often they're somewhat based in experiences we've had or others have had.

the reason I told you as an anon to fuck off is because of my history and views towards anonymous asks more than anything else, btw. THAT is a gut reaction but it is also informed by my experiences. I hope this maybe explains why I may sometimes come off a little harsh towards anons (and why I decided to turn them off - until rebelcaptain secret santa forced me to open them back up lol).

so I used to love to keep anonymous on because I know that a lot of people don't feel comfortable reaching out for a number of reasons and I wanted to remain accessible as a user of this shithole site lol. however what happens is sometimes, a lot of times, people will just be saying anything. and then they'll say "I'm an x person and y is true" and often people getting those anons will be really well-meaning and just accept it at face value. because genuinely so many people want to be on the side of marginalized groups and want to be good allies. and so shitty people will just be saying bullshit about whatever, and people who may not understand the details of whatever situation anon is talking about will say, "oh shit I didn't realize that! Thanks for educating me!"

and often it is legit! and it's also important to remember that no group is monolithic, so if an anon comes into my ask box saying that they are from, idk let's say, venezuela. i don't know a whole lot about venezuela. I know there is a lot of propaganda and shit from the us, and I know that there are class dynamics and racial dynamics that I vaguely understand because I have a relatively okay understanding of the entire region but it's not good enough to hold up more than a little bit under any kind of actual pressure like being told something by someone who claims to be venezuelan and says that everyone is actually indigenous (which i do understand to be indigenous erasure), and so it would be more comfortable for me to just say, "okay thanks for the info, my bad!" etc etc etc which... okay but like what if they're not venezuelan? what if they are and they're actually just anti-indigenous? what if they're a right-winger or a bot or idk just wrong lol. some people can be just incorrect without it being disinformation, right? so if I post that without any pushback or skepticism, I'm now spreading misinformation that is used to harm indigenous people.

so for me, because anons necessarily get to hide their identities more than even these already relatively anonymous social media accounts do, my policy has always been to handle them with skepticism and frankly to assume the worst.

not everyone does that and also like I don't have a big following but I don't have a TINY following either so I do feel some responsibility to provide accurate information. and that's just from years of experience and not always doing that lol.

anyway sorry for being long-winded, and thank you for reading what I wrote and more importantly for not just taking what I said at face value but for doing the research yourself. that's what is most important.

[kittkattys]

On twitter, I saw you liking tweets in support of Palestine. I'm Jewish, I have family living in Israel that's hiding in their homes and scared for their lives...I feel conflicted over the whole conflict because I hear different accounts on what led up to this and I don't know who to believe or who's in the right. I wanted to hear your opinion over the whole conflict because I really like your art and don't want to think negatively on you over it.

Yes, I support the Palestinian people and believe that the end of the state of Israel is the only viable solution to ending the conflicts there, however this does not mean that I agree with the actions of Hamas.

I fear for the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians who are in the middle of the conflict, they have nothing to do with it, but I cannot ignore the massacre that is happening there and the hypocrisy that always surrounds the situation, everyone looks at 1 attack that Hamas makes but closes their eyes to the other 10 exactly the same (sometimes even worse) that Israel constantly carries out, the state of Israel has been promoting genocide against the Palestinian people for more than 70 years and this is barely talked about and is even bizarrely normalized while Palestinians are generalized as terrorists because of a small portion of people who make up an extremist group that responds to Israel in kind. When Israel attacks Gaza, it also attacks and kills innocent Jews who are Palestinians, but the State doesn't care because it just wants to continue its colonization process, no matter who gets in its way.

I really hope your family stays safe and well, no one deserves to live in the middle of such a violent conflict 🙏🙏 I also recommend that you see more about the subject, see what Palestinians and anti-zionist Jews have to say and why they have this view and form your own opinion, as for my opinion, I defend the liberation of the Palestinian people and this can only happen when the colonialist and genocidal >state< of Israel is extinguished and a popular Palestinian nation is built with power coming from the people, Israelis and Palestinians can live in harmony in the same territory and I hope that this can happen as soon as possible 🙏

[the1975attheirverybest]

Hi Hala! So, I know your opinion on matty not speaking up about Palestine but I was here thinking about it, follow my train of thought.

Considering everything he ver spoke, we know where he stands on this issue, right? So It's not that we want to know his opinion on this. We want him to speak because of the "signing towards utopia" thing.

But then we get to something he has already talked about his tweet about George Floyd, that is the dicotomy between long and short term expression (I don't remember the exact words). But he said he thinks It's better to speak through his songs, cause he actually work oh the lyrics, think deeply about the issue and can articulate his thoughts in a better way than in a tweet.

In fact, that was what happend when the whole bomb thing on People mv happend.

That being said, I don't know why but I think It's possible that he addresses this issue on a song for the next album.

Now, I don't agree with you on this matter for reasons that I don't think are important, but I wonder: if he really talks about it in a song, do you think It would be enough or anything he does from now on is already overdue?

Hey anon!

You can hear the gist of my take on the matter over here. It hasn’t changed recently. I suspect it won’t ever change. Barring some like exceptional circumstances.

I’ll address some of the points that you make here and iterate what I say above.

1. There is a difference between speaking out about every bill that is ever proposed to be made into law ever, and speaking out against genocide. Do you understand me?

Let me put it this way: let’s say Utah introduces a bill to ban even more books that show queer love stories. Or Alabama starts a debate about the age of consent. Or a school board in South Dakota has an initiative about critical race theory. I do NOT expect Matty to get onstage every single time that any of this happens and start yelling about it. He said something very poignant in the ION PACK pod. He said that artists used to be bohemian outsiders. Now everyone expects them to be liberal academics. And he’s just not the liberal academic type. I AGREE WITH HIM. TREMENDOUSLY. I don’t want him out there as a political pundit. I think punditry is one of the dumbest most self-absorbed jobs lmao.

HOWEVER genocide and ethnic cleansing is VERY different. It is a humanitarian crisis. One that demands all of us be accountable. Literal bloodlines have been wiped from the earth. The Palestinian ministry of health has had to delete family lineages from their database because Israel has killed them all. Like there is not a single person remotely related to them who’s been left alive. The family name is gone forever. Children are being starved. Tortured. Literal kids.

In my opinion, it’s not a valid argument to say that because he’s pro BLM then he’s obviously pro Palestine. If you talk to liberals, if you watch the news, if you speak to majority white communities, you’ll see a curious phenomenon. The most progressive of folks suddenly turns into a bloodthirsty animal horny for the destruction of Palestinians. This is due to 75+ years of propaganda by Zionists. Even the “good guys” are against Palestine because they genuinely believe we have to destroy Palestinians for the safety of everyone else (especially Jewish folks). Being pro-Palestine has gotten people fired from their jobs, black listed in hollywood, influencers have lost sponsorships, authors have been dropped by their publishers. This wouldn’t happen to anyone who says Black Lives Matter.

Moreover, regular methods of advocacy are not working for the same reasons. Biden and Congress folks are staunchly pro Israel. It’s the same in the UK, France, Germany. you’ve seen what has been happening to student protestors. Suspensions, expulsions, jail, physical injury.

If, at times like these, people who are of immense privilege, who claim to be brought up on punk values, who “make standing up for human rights as part of my schtick” are not only SILENT but say “really? You wanna hear me and Brittany broski on Israel-Palestine?” “I’m just a singer.” Then tell me what’s left?

2. How is saying “he spoke up once about one political issue years ago shouldn’t that be enough.” Any different from saying “Taylor swift spoke up about queer rights once when she was trying to sell an album. Therefore she’s a queer advocate”?

3. I can’t speak about the song hypothetical. In other words, I would have to see the song. My reaction would be different based on if it’s one line or a whole song and what the context and message etc. but I will say that he has already used Gaza in the show. The barrage of news stuff that plays before POTB. Where he has the clip of the lady saying “the woke left are angry with my favorite artist even though he’s on their side let’s talk about it” or whatever the fuck.

4. The right time to speak out was October 8. The second best time is now. Every day that goes by where he’s silent, more and more blood is shed. And it’s on his hands and his consciousness whether he wants to admit it or not.

5. Finally, I’m sorry, but it’s a tad disingenuous and bad faith of you to say you “disagree for reasons that aren’t important.” If you’re going to scrutinizes me for my words you should be willing to lay yours out first.