#but part of being a Nazi is trying to genocide a minority

[hidesinthedark]

All of the stuff here is very true, but I think people don't necessarily say this to deny their humanity, but rather as a tactic to discourage sympathy for their rhetoric. There will always be people who claim they were "just following orders", but at a certain point that stops being an explanation and starts being an attempt to make their actions seem less monstrous. When people say that "Nazis aren't humans" in my mind, it isn't ment to dehumanize them, but rather it is hyperbole to point out that a society that is safe for all humans cannot exist in the same place with their views. Any place a Nazi exists is automatically dangerous for any minority, and the Nazi is the aggressor. Nazis may be human, but pointing this out in a situation where it isn't relevant (A relevant situation imo would be regarding their human rights, like fair treatment in prison and such) only serves to create sympathy for Nazis, whom we Can Not be lenient with, because they are a threat to so many other people.

Tldr. ; I think the reason people don't like to encourage talk about the humanity of Nazis specifically is because while it might not be intended, the only result of this point in most conversations is creating sympathy for a group of people who it is extremely necessary to keep strict rules on. It almost never serves any other purpose (in my experience). Any tolerance of Nazis, even if it is ment to rehabilitate them, puts minorities in danger. This is why I personally find people pointing out the humanity of Specifically Nazis to be a red flag.

i wish ppl on this website, and within leftist circles in general, were a little less gung ho about making jokes or statements like "billionaires arent people" "nazis arent people" "police arent people"

there is no level of evil where a human stops being a human. if you decide to kill them for their crimes, then you are killing a human. and sometimes that is justified! oil execs and war profiteers have destroyed countless lives in service of their own sick greed, and given the chance to enact that same violence on them, id probably pop their heads like a pimple.

but it is important that we do not shy away from the reality of that choice. it is a human life that is being ended. a person with interiority, feelings, family.

if we stop considering any group as people, even a group defined by their own evil actions, then we are drawing a line to divide society into persons and non-persons, and stating that those non-persons do not deserve to live.

i hope i dont need to explain why that is a dangerous position to take.

these people and all of their evil, their greed, their hatred, are just as much a part of humanity as art, culture, language, food. they are a part of us that has grown malignant and cancerous, and like a cancer, they must be excised for the sake of the whole--but they are still a part of us, made of the same stuff as us, down to their cores.

evil humans are still humans.

[still-searching-for-something]

I want to go back to how things were.

I want to go back to when I believed that the progressives were on the right side of history, fighting against oppression in all its forms, and had critical thinking, honest compassion, and understanding in a way that the right--inundated with racist conspiracy theories and absurd lies--did not.

In many ways, I'm a perfect demographic fit in the pro-Palestine circles. I'm bisexual. I'm a young university student who's been progressive for as long as he knew what progressivism was, and I never experienced genuine economic insecurity or wondered if I'd eat that night. In another timeline, maybe I'd be there marching and shouting their horrible slogans. But there's one, teeny little thing that ruins it, which makes me fall through the cracks and renders me politically homeless, outcast by the progressive left and the MAGA right.

I'm a Jew.

And I'm trying so, so hard to hold compassion for the suffering of minorities who have not extended us that same compassion. I'm trying to maintain my progressivist urge to go out and help minorities in solidarity, but it's so hard when they make it clear that they hate us and want our state dead and gone. I supported BLM, but Al Sharpton, Leonard Jeffries, Alice Walker, James Baldwin, Louis Farrakhan, Malcom X, Jesse Jackson and many others either were or are wildly antisemitic, especially Sharpton and Walker, and so are the BLM movement's leaders, who openly sneered at Jews for being shocked by them by announcing, "I guess their activism was just transactional. How (((Zionist))) of them!"

And the queer community forced me out of their ranks for merely questioning whether the war in Gaza is a genocide, for pushing back against them saying that Hamas is fighting oppression. And spread antisemitic lies about me, claims of harassment and supporting genocide to my friends because I dared to question them. And they've chosen to side with those who would throw both of us off roofs for being queer. Cast out by the outcasts.

Like, what do I do? Our only allies are Hindus, Iranians, Kurds, Republicans, and Christian Zionists (respect to all of these groups for that... even you Republicans. This is one of our only points of agreement). That's literally it. No loud show of from indigenous nations supporting what is effectively the most successful anticolonial land back movement in human history. No push from "antiracist progressives" against rising antisemitism and genocidal terrorism from a reactionary fundamentalist group against a historically discriminated group.

And they aren't even just leaning back and being silent--many members of these groups are being actively antisemitic--especially the progressive left, which has morphed into the most antisemitic mainstream political movement since the Nazis. Instead, we're 'Zionazis' and genocidal colonizers who aren't even oppressed anyway, that's just evil Jewish Zionist lies designed to stoke sympathy for their unrelentingly evil nature, which we can't even help. The notion that Jews are intrinsically predisposed to evil acts and deception--never heard that one before.

So now, when I look at pictures of Pride Parades, a celebration of an identity of which I am a part and would have previously killed to attend--I wonder... would I be allowed to hold up a rainbow flag with a Magen David on it? If I asked any of their views on the state of Israel, what will they say? What about on Zionists who support its existence? Would all parts of my identity be respected, valued, and celebrated? Or would I be forced to leave the Star of David flag at home, pretend I don't notice their antisemitic views, and pass the litmus test of disavowing Israel before being accepted?

I feel suspicious and wary of the very community which I am 'supposed' to belong in. I feel uncomfortable. I hate, hate, hate that I feel this way. That I've become more closed, more cynical, more angry. Those of us who fall through the cracks, who hold multiple marginalized identities--queer and Jewish, black and Jewish, Indigenous and Jewish--we are ignored and silenced, our voices and experiences entirely spat upon as being a front for 'Zionist crimes' or whatever new buzzwords they create.

I've decided that first and foremost, I am Jewish. The me that was proud to be a part of the queer community is dead. I want to support the progressive causes of antiracism and social justice, but they hate us. They want us dead. They wouldn't view my participation as being a genuine gesture of solidarity, but an evil Jew Zionist seeking to con them and co-opt support in order to aid our evil apartheid genocidal settler-colonialist white supremacist illegitimate entity in a land that should really be given to Hamas anyway.

How am I supposed to hold space for other minorities when nobody is holding space for us right now?

[didalexiabreakupwitholgaisback]

You're right about the US election! People need to read the room. As I saw on my fyp, we're seeing the return of the far right with our own eyes, and the situation in Europe isn't pretty either. Have people forgotten that UNFORTUNATELY the US has set itself up as the " owner " of the world? The ceasefire in Palestine? The sanctions on Cuba? Sending ammunition to Israel? I don't think many people are aware of the US's power over “third world” countries also, people are no longer afraid to be racist, to make apologies for Nazism and facism. we are seeing a large generation of young conservatives growing up, who don't study history. we are seeing the genocide of the Palestinian people, who by ONE VOTE did not have a ceasefire.

yes, unfortunately, the election results in the us seemed quite inevitable if you look at everything on a global scale. america may appear an extreme example, but it's not that far off from what's happening in many parts of the world, where women's rights, minority rights, religious freedoms, and more are being eroded.

the fact that a lot of countries are still sending arms to israel to enable its genocide, as you mentioned, is just another symptom. and how many countries have spoken out against the genocide in the democratic republic of the congo or sudan happening right now? but no, as long as we keep getting materials for our new phones and vapes, who cares, right? 🙄

immigration was a major talking point in the us election, but how many of us have heard our colleagues and neighbours or even family members making racist statements about too many immigrants in our own communities. with the economy as is and many of our peer group unable to even buy homes (remember the earlier protests in barcelona?), how much longer until we go down that path? wake up!

i'm so sorry you are dealing with that in your life, anon. and i hope it gets better for you and you are able to change your conditions! 🙏

but i also find that people in other parts of europe (countries that pride themselves as 'liberal, western democracies' 🙄) create these smug, insular bubbles where they turn a blind eye to what is happening right outside their door, like the race-based riots in the uk we saw earlier this year to the palestinian/gaza protestors being beaten and arrested in germany to even right-wing nazis taking advantage of the dana in spain to try and assert their dominance. this behaviour is all around us and it's only getting worse. 😔

so again, we need to stay vigilant and be very careful about the messaging that we are consuming at home, too!

[amporella]

Those posts floating around about how all the boys are equally as bad as Cartman (and thus the hatred of Cartman is driven by fatphobia) are really undeserving of a response because of how much of a reach they are, but I'm going to give one anyway:

To compare Cartman to the other boys is foolish for many reasons, but the largest one is that it utterly misses the point of the actual show, and of the characters. Naturally, as a fandom, we try and see the characters as more than they're intended to be, and in some cases, that's a totally reasonable perspective - take a character like Craig, for example, where his characterization is limited solely by the fact that we see very little of him. For all we know, his inner life could be rich; in fact, it's likely that it is. It makes logical sense to want to explore that more deeply.

Cartman's characterization is also limited, but not because his screen time is lacking; he very well could be the character we've seen the absolute MOST of throughout the series. Instead, it's limited because Cartman is not an actual character. He's one huge extended joke, and the fact that we don't see his good qualities isn't because we don't have time to; it's because he literally doesn't have any.

Cartman exists for shock value, and that's it. He exists to be an iconic example of what's wrong with the world; he's antisemitic, racist, and a raging misogynist. Even the scenes where he appears to have a 'soft spot' for something aren't actually representative of his character; when he appears to try and save cats in Major Boobage, it's all part of a joke about Anne Frank. In Post-Covid, when he appears to develop a family of his own and convert, it's part of a scheme to take down Kyle. Every single action of his throughout the series is either a joke, or part of the build up to a joke at some minority group's expense - usually Jewish people.

His actions - his attempted genocides, attempted murders, antisemitic comments - can be taken at face value because of those traits. When Matt and Trey have Cartman make an antisemitic comment, they don't intend for you to think of it as another tally mark of the Bad Things these characters do; they intend for it to be viewed as a legitimately evil act coming from an irredeemable character, which is balanced out by zero positive qualities.

Have the other boys done bad things too? Sure! Kyle did blow up Canada. But is that actually intended to be seen in the same light? Kyle's act of blowing up Canada isn't meant to be seen realistically; it's metaphorical, and it's supposed to be read as absurd. Cartman, on the other hand, is supposed to be taken literally. Reading into him as a character as someone who is secretly pure of heart, or even just on the same moral level as the other characters, shows a massive lack of media literacy. Furthermore, when Kyle blows up Canada, it's significant because it's out of the norm for him. We don't bat an eye anymore at Cartman's behavior because that is literally the point of his character. It's only when he doesn't do anything along those lines that his behavior comes off as uncharacteristic.

So no, Matt and Trey don't intend for Kyle to be 'just as bad' as Cartman. Kyle is a legitimate character, while Cartman is a political statement at best condemning nazis and a joke at worst. The fact that we're even discussing comparing a Jewish character's few and far in between harmful mistakes to a nazi's (whose ONLY REAL CHARACTER TRAIT IS TO BE A NAZI) intentional attempts at genocide is baffling to me. You are absolutely grasping at straws if you think Kyle (and the other boys) being as bad as Cartman is what Matt and Trey were going for.

This is literally the most basic concept of the show.

[matan4il]

That CUPE poster is fake. I don't know why someone would try to frame a Canadian workers union like that, but that is NOT the kind of thing they post, ever. They are in support of minorities and deal with Canadian issues and working conditions, not international conflict. And they would absolutely NEVER make a horrific poster like that. See for yourself: instagram . com/cupeontario/ and instagram . com/cupe_scfp/ and they're on Twitter and stuff too. The pixelatedness of that poster speaks to how fake it is too, none of their other material looks anything like that. And while Fred Hahn has posted/retweeted some stuff about the conflict on his twitter, he has never posted anything inflammatory like that and the reply of his that is in the screenshot is replying to something completely different.

Hi Anon,

I'm gonna reply to you and to the following ask together.

https://www.tumblr.com/matan4il/742531713829404672 This is a faked image; CUPE may have problematic opinions, but it doesn't help anyone to falsify atrocious posters when the reality should be more than enough.

Here's the post in question, showing a poster with the photo of Shani Lock's stripped, raped and murdered body being kidnapped into Gaza. The poster has CUPE's logo, as well as a text that legitimizes the Oct 7 massacre. CUPE, as mentioned above, is a Candian workers union.

Here are the links to the two IG accounts of CUPE from the first ask. To fthe first anon, you're right that the poster in question does not currently appear on either, you're wrong that they don't touch upon international conflict, they def weighed in on this one (more on that later in my reply).

The poster does use the pink filter and the CUPE logo with the right font, but it's true that someone skilled enough with photoshop can fake that. At the same time, if that person was good enough to be able to copy that well CUPE's visuals, I doubt they would be "exposed" through pixelation, so rather than proof of photoshopping, the pixelation seems to be a result of zooming in on the poster to show just a part of Shani's body along with the text. That would make the pic appear pixelated, and then a screenshot was taken that way.

So far, I would say nothing's conclusive one way or another. The poster isn't on the IG accounts, but it could have been there and deleted, or could have been posted on another social media site to begin with, the visuals being the right ones doesn't prove anything, and neither does the pixelation. BUT since I noticed the dialogue about the poster seemed to have taken place on Twitter, I went to have a look there.

I found the post where someone quote retweeted Fred Hahn, asking him about that Oct 7 poster, along with Hahn's reply that CUPE had nothing to do with it, and then he added the false accusation of genocide, telling people to "focus" (because apparently Jewish pain is never the main focus, not even when we talk about the Holocaust, which is the term for the genocide of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis... there's a reason I mention this, I'll get back to it later). I will keep my mouth shut about how many ignorant, antisemitic, anti-Israel tweets I had to see as I was scrolling in order to get to the relevant one, I'll just say that workers unions that want to be safe for Jewish workers as well should do better than that, including when the heads of these unions post on their "personal" accounts (since they're not posting as a private person, they're posting as the head of said union). Here's the exchange, dated Feb 14:

But the person who challenged Fred Hahn did mention where this poster was supposedly originally shared:

Apparently, CUPE has local branches, with numbers, and each has their own Twitter account, so I went to CUPE 3906, and went all the way back to their tweets around Oct 7. Needless to say, this official account is full of anti-Israel, antisemitic propaganda, too. Now around the relevant date, what does their timeline look like? There's one last pre-war tweet on Oct 6, a general anti-colonial one re-tweeted on Oct 7 (even though the timing makes the context obvious, the wording doesn't explicitly mention either Israel or Gaza), and then the next, VERY interesting tweet is on Oct 11. Here's the relevant segment (obviously the tweets appear with the latest at the top, older below):

Here is that Oct 11 tweet, which is a statement made in response to backlash they got for a tweet that they say was "made in solidarity with Palestinians."

Only the first paragraph is truly relevant, but the last one is also telling. "As the death toll rises," they said, just a day after Israel's counter action started, and while Israel was still counting its dead from the deadliest day in the history of this conflict, and the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Still, the more important part is that if there had been nothing wrong with the tweet they refer to in the 1st paragraph, it should have still been up on their account, but it's not. Something was there and deleted, because there's now NO TWEET between Oct 6 and this statement, that could explain getting backlash... Deleting the tweet indicates they KNOW something was wrong with it, and they no longer wish to be publicly associated with it. But what was it? Have a look at this tweet, replying to CUPE 3906 on Oct 11:

It explicitly mentions rape. If the above poster was a fake, photoshopped and shared online in February 2024, how did someone posting in October 2023 know to mention rape specifically, and not just CUPE 3906's general justification of the massacre?

I can't prove anything one way or another regarding a deleted tweet, and with the progress of fake images, no one else can either. But I feel like the general progression of events indicates to me that it's more likely the poster is real, CUPE 3906 realized they won't get away with it, deleted it, and then they all closed ranks, claiming the screenshot is fake. Again, whatever they posted in the deleted tweet had to be real bad for even people as one-sided as they are (with all of the anti-Israel and antisemitic stuff they do proudly still have up on their accounts), that they were compelled to delete it. And justifying not just the massacre, but the rape specifically, might just do that.

Now let me get back to the IG accounts that the first ask pointed to, because even though they post less frequently than the multiple Twitter CUPE accounts, they're still very clear regarding this union's bias, and I'll also get back to that Holocaust mention, as promised.

I did not find a single post of solidarity with or compassion for Jews on either IG account following the Hamas massacre. I did find, on the Ontario account (and cross posted to Twitter, too) shared on Oct 10 a post that states they stand with the colonized over the colonizer, while the image (as well as their anti-Israel tweets) makes it clear they're erasing Jewish history and native rights in the Land of Isral and Jerusalem. The image could have been inclusive, show both mosques and the Western Wall, but nope. Jews are excluded from this image of our holy city and historical capital.

I also found a post about Holocaust Remembrance Day, which presents the Holocaust as including Jews. To make it clear, as someone who works in the field of studying this: "The Holocaust" is a term which is meant to reflect the Nazi intention to fully annihilate the Jews, something that didn't characterize their policy with other minorities. This is why we distinguish the Holocaust, the genocide of the Jews, from the persecution of other minorities by the Nazis. BOTH matter, and we talk about and educate against both, but they do have different characteristics, and so these are events, which are related, but CANNOT be reduced into one framing term. It is so problematic, talking about an event that was specifically about the Jews, as 'including Jews.' But let's say maybe that was ignorance, a lot of people don't get this distinction. CUPE's text doesn't mention antisemitism once, in a post about the most extreme antisemitic event in history, at a time when antisemitism is reaching its peak since WWII. When CUPE posted nothing else about this rise in Jew hatred, this text is just NOT good enough.

And what makes it even more obvious that CUPE is not treating Jews as it does other minorities, is that the same account DOES include posts that are specific to other communities, and does center the term for their hatred and persecution. They shared a post about a mosque attack that occurred in 2017, and in the text, they don't hesitate standing in solidarity specifically with Muslims, and against Islamophobia. So, to CUPE, 6 murdered Muslims are worthy of centering in the post about them (rightly so), but at least 6 million murdered Jews are not. Worse, the post then goes on to repeat the false claim about a genocide in Gaza. It also mentions the rise in Islamophobia following the war, even though they posted NOTHING, on NONE of the accounts I looked at, which recognizes the much greater rise in antisemitism we've seen over the same period of time, and which was launched by an attack on Jews.

The bilingual account, which I guess is a national one, didn't even mention Holocaust Remembrance Day. But on the very same date (Jan 27), it did mention the 2017 mosque attack, as well as Islamophobia, anti-Palestinians, but not a word on antisemitism.

All of this together is so upsetting, shows such a deep lack of concern for the well being of Jews, such a strong bias against the Jewish state and Jewish identity, that I honestly wonder whether that one poster is truly an issue. If it was posted by CUPE 3906, as I tend to believe by all signs I've seen, it seems to be a continuation of everything CUPE is completely unashamed of. And if they didn't share that poster, well... I guess there's a certain amount of poetic justice about being accused of something you didn't do, and no one listening to you protesting against the lie, eh CUPE?

You're welcome to do with this what you will.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[boredmezzosoprano]

Okayyy… So I’ve recently become ultra obsessed with Naoki Urasawa's Monster (it’s sooo good). The trope pages for it however are really giving me a migraine🤦🏼‍♀️ simply because they labelled Johan Liebert as a Complete Monster!! If you look on the wiki list for CM in Anime/Manga - HE'S THE PAGE IMAGE🤯 Ahem, he’s a monster for sure but most certainly a Tragic Monster or what is called a Woobie Destroyer of Worlds - there’s a difference! A Woobie Destroyer of Worlds has a reason for why they are what they are, oftentimes something traumatic in their childhood - Johan had several severely messed up things happen to him from the time he was born‼️ Also a CM is incapable of loving another human being: JOHAN WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR ANNA!! Listen, I’m not trying to justify his actions but I don’t think it’s accurate to describe the character as being born pure evil when there’s plenty of textual information that refute that claim! Plus how can they call Johan a Complete Monster but not these characters:

Petr Čapek

He is complicit in Franz Bonaparta's atrocities, likely taking part in the experiments at the Red Rose Mansion. He also helped Bonaparta kidnap Anna from her home and threatened her.

He killed a family, including two children, on Bonaparta's orders.

After re-establishing himself in Germany, he psychologically tortured a new group of innocent children, driving them to violence and suicide, causing the suicide of Milan's son, and showed no remorse for it even though they were childhood friends.

He had contempt for Turkish people, trying to expel them from their homes.

He murdered the five leaders of the resistance against him.

He masterminded a plan to burn down the Turkish quarter, which could have caused massive loss of life.

He attempts to convince Johan to be the Neo-Nazis' leader in a grand plot to begin World War 3 and wipe out all non-Aryan races in the world.

He repeatedly tried to have Johan's sister kidnapped so he could use her as a hostage.

He showed no apparent remorse when his childhood friend Milan was gunned down in an attempt to assassinate him.

He ordered Eva Heinemann killed when she had served her purpose, and then had Martin killed for failing to do this.

He showed no concern for the murders committed by Johan, claiming that they were his will.

He murdered his driver in a fit of paranoia.

He gave up Bonaparta's whereabouts in order to save his own life.

Compared to Franz Bonaparta, who made a serious attempt to atone for his own crimes, Capek shows very little remorse.

The Baby

He is established to be a Neo-Nazi and a racist politician, even owning a neighborhood filled with people like him.

The Baby plans to use Nina in order to get her brother's attention.

Despite appearing affable towards Nina, it is nothing but a facade in his manipulation towards her.

He arrogantly believes that Johan supports and agrees with his racist views without understanding that he is a nihilist who doesn't care about those beliefs as he looks down on all humans equally.

He runs over Tenma with his car and is disappointed that he did not die from the impact and then later kidnaps him.

Like the organization, he wants to convert Johan to his racist ideology and make him the new leader of Germany under the organization's control.

He tries to purge the Turkish community by burning down a neighborhood filled with them. This is really bad as this would qualify as an attempted genocide since he strongly hates the Turks.

While at that, he enjoys the destruction of other minorities that he causes.

The Baby tortures Tenma just because he's Asian.

Even when Tenma told him that Johan hates all humans equally, he continued to beat him anyway.

He attempts to kill Dieter, who is a kid that Tenma saved from Hartman and expresses gleefulness during the action.

He threatened to kill Martin if he failed his job.

Throughout the story, he shows no remorse for his actions.

UPDATE: Johan was recently removed from the Pure Evil wiki 😃

[bodies-needs-a-fandom]

Hello there. This has like, very little point, because the bodies fandom is tiny and so is my blog, but whatever.

Currently watching episode 5 of Bodies (again). Karl is in the synagogue speaking with the Rabbi, the night after a bombing from nazi aircrafts. WWII ended in 1945, after approximately six million Jewish people were brutally killed in the ethnic cleansing. At that time, the world came together and swore never to let something like this happen again.

The year is currently 2024, and wow. It's happening again. And it is going largely unnoticed by those who matter. Right now, Gaza is still being bombed and palestinians are still being slaughtered. Children are getting stuck in cars and left to starve, or watching their siblings and parents die in attacks. Parents, likewise, are losing their kids to the genocide. People are starving with little water or food, and those with severe illnesses are largely unable to receive the treatment they need to survive this hell.

I am a minor on a tiny tumblr blog with no job due to health issues and therefore no money to donate to anything. What I can do is talk. That's something we can all do on this site. We can talk, we can spread the word, and we can just maybe reach people, so I'm trying to do my part.

Talk, write, reblog, whatever. So long as people are speaking about this there is still hope.

[thegayfromrulid]

I'm really sorry for my silence lately. It's really hard to open social media and scroll right now. While I know many people aren't intending to spread fear and hatred, most want to be participating in activism, the rise of anti-Semitic posts on every form of social media has been overwhelming. Even amidst posts of people being very reasonable and educational, anti-Semitism is seeping through the cracks on these same tags, throwing all Jewish people under the same umbrella.

It's very hard to come online and see not only posts about how my family could be killed any day now, but also those ignorant posts that seep through saying I also deserve death as an Ashkenazi person. These sentiments are not exclusive to my online world. People are screaming to kill Jewish people on my own university campus. I do not feel safe online nor offline right now, and I am not a supporter of the war crimes and genocides occurring.

My family fled Nazis in Europe not that long ago. We want no part of genocide. We do not believe in genocide. Yet we are being harassed constantly right now as a loud minority of ignorant people throw all Jewish people under the same umbrella.

So, I apologize for being quiet. I apologize that I'm forgetting to post my updates. I am drowning in an ignorance that throws someone else's opinions and morals on me. I am trying so hard to keep on living and keep on going to my classes and go out to get food and necessities. But every day it gets harder the more people scream and tell me innocent blood is on my hands.

Please let me speak for myself, if you have a complaint. I lost a very dear friend in Palestine. I may lose dear family right now. We are not a monolith. I weep for the injustice. I weep out of fear for my loved ones. Please do not call me a murderer. Please do not call me a racist. I am a Jewish person who can think and reason for myself.

[brehaaorgana]

Y'know as a Chicana (mestiza) and a Jewish woman I have to say the fact that the Oppenheimer movie fails to really explore either

a) the Latinx and native victims of the bomb tests and give them their due, that they were poisoned, mistreated, ignored, and erased from public consciousness as the original victims, OR

b) the fact that Oppenheimer was Jewish and was desperately trying to create the bomb before Nazi Germany did, and who was aware Nazi Germany was actively aiming towards a total genocide of the Jewish people, and this did, in fact, hugely fucking influence literally everything about his approach to the project and his feelings about what was being created

— means I think it fails as "a based on history" film, nevermind as a biopic with any integrity whatsoever and I have zero desire to watch it. If you don't really focus on the local community of minorities who were impacted, and you don't focus on the eventual victims, AND you don't even explore that Oppenheimer himself was also a member of a persecuted minority that was being systematically slaughtered in Europe and that was a massive part of his motive then you just have a movie about like...a scientist hero who gets villainized with trauma(TM) and explosions.

It turns the story into broad and digestible archetypes, I suppose, but it also strips away the individuality and humanity that would make this story unique and not generic.

[countkunt]

We don't fucking like Biden or support his genocide, we're trying not to get slaughtered ourselves by the violent fascist regime looking to seize power here. And unfortunately the only fucking option to prevent them from gaining more power is to vote for Genocide Joe.

It's not a good solution. But it is a means of self preservation. I can't fight for Palestine to be free if nazi trumpers have locked me up or murdered me for being queer and disabled.

Quit punching down on the people who are trying to prioritize their own lives over being a perfect ally in an imperfect world. Only ever supporting perfect people isn't going to make the world perfect. It will just make it easier for the worst bastards to enact their wills on the less fortunate.

keep enabling one wing of the same bird that hates you in the name of “self preservation” and you will have nothing left to preserve. biden is as much a fascist as trump. if the past 2 months haven’t made that clear to you i’m not sure anything will. in fact, looking at his career, he’s actually had a decades long track record of radical support for the zionist project. your final hope against fascism is to the far right of ronald reagan on israeli violations of international law. guess what that effectively makes him and his supporters?

libs have bought into a perverse and frankly racist ideology that anything can happen over there as long as it doesn’t happen here. but even if we convince ourselves our “safety” is more important, let me assure you we are more interconnected than that. if in the year of 2023 joe biden can explicitly and zealously (as he’s done throughout his career) endorse, fund, and arm the second Nakba, and fucking win the next term, what message does that send the Democratic Party? what lines are left to cross? do you actually understand the type of world neoliberalism is and has been building?

if both parties are coming together to censor dissent across the country, if the House is proposing a bill legally redefining anti-zionsim as anti-semetism, if what’s left of Gaza is destroyed with our tax dollars and arms dealers, and voters don’t even fucking flinch in the face of it, exactly what kind of future do you think you’re preserving for us? Cop City and the surveilance state are being championed just as hard by dems, and of course they're learning plenty from israel on how to go about it. biden is continuing the border wall after promising not to and waiving any environmental and indigenous protections in his way. the kids in cages libs used to be crying over are still being put in them. families are still being separated. biden continues the muslim ban. hate crimes against arabs and muslims are drastically on the rise thanks in large part to his administration's abhorrent leadership.

lie after lie, attack after attack against the most vulnerable of the domestic minority and global majority. the House just voted for H. Res. 894 that will legally censor anyone who’s against apartheid israel-finally finding a way to legally redefine anti-zionsim as anti-semitism. 311-14. the US has long dictatied what politcal movments youre allowed to support, but now Congress is bipartisanly deciding which politcal movements you're allowed to be opposed to. even those among the 14 reps who voted against H. Res. 894 have voted for aid to israel in the past or cowardly abstained, and that includes members of the beloved squad ilhan omar and aoc (.). this is the exact shit that got us to this point. and you still think you’re safer under fascists and enablers in blue. giving our government a bright green flag to act upon anyone they don't like with impunity is what liberals are working with conservatives towards.

i want to say more about how as we worry about ourselves a generation of Palestinians are being permanently disabled, how netanyahu is speaking with our congressional leaders of both parties about “thinning” a population of 2.5 million as we try to convince ourselves biden’s ghouls are any better than trump’s. but what can i say that hasn’t already been better said? it’s long past time americans admit that you can’t claim to be against something and then vote for it every election day. the capitalist system is irredeemable. neoliberalism is unsustainable. all our politicians are bought and sold by the ruling class and therefore only serve the ruling class. not disabled people. not the lgbtq community. the ruling class. you couldn’t change that in a voting booth if you tried and this system is not going to get better in any meaningful way. that is not punching down, this is the reality we have to work with. every time a liberal chooses their (ever right-shifting) status quo over human life, that’s punching down on all of us, hardest on the "third world." no one is free until Palestine is free because no one is free until we all are free.

or else, human life is worthless and we in the US will spend the rest of our lives (more time for some than others) watching BOTH parties chip our rights away as they condition the population to accept that this or that minority is merely collateral. or a nuisance that must be disposed of. or it's just the way of the world. fuck that fuck Joe biden and fuck everyone who tries to shame people into playing their games.

[spider-sideblog]

Hi, person who you said had “a bit of common sense” here again. Your logic is flawed, regardless of whether you believe it or not. I am sorry that you are receiving antisemitic hate, that is morally repugnant and I disavow any antisemite who shares my views on Israel. However, anti-Zionism and anti-Israeli beliefs do not automatically equate to antisemitism.

I have nothing but respect for Judaism, back in college I took several courses on it as part of my minor, and I am proud to say that I have Jewish friends who have wished for me to be inscribed in the Book of Life on Rosh Hashanah. I am also fervently anti-Israel, as I am against the ethnostates in general and apartheid in specific. Nothing in my anti-Israeli views is influenced by the religion of the country, and frankly I find it insulting that my desire for a singular, secular Palestinian state where Jews and Muslims can live together harmoniously causes me to be lumped in with antisemites.

Hey what's up!

So, you and I don't actually have differing views, at least not that much. It would absolutely be the dream to have Palestine be one state and for everyone to live in harmony huh?

But Jews got kicked out of Judea

They got kicked out of Spain (or forcibly converted)

They were kicked out of Russia

They were kicked out of Germany and Poland and France

They've historically been blamed for almost any travesty in a country where they resided

They are, without a doubt, unwanted

What would prevent them being kicked out of Palestine and massacred again at the slightest hint of trouble that can be blamed on them?

I don't typically support ethnostates, however, if you were kicked out of or killed in every country you resided in, you would also want to return to your homeland and make a small place for yourself to live in peacefully. You may even welcome like minded people to your home just because you know how hard it is.

I do not support the actions of the Israeli government, and I have lit a candle every day for all civilians affected by the Israel-Hamas war. I cannot condone just about anything that's been done to Palestinians, even from during the formation of Israel. It is a travesty that they were moved and given no support. It is a travesty that they continually are displaced because Israel wants them gone. I can't believe I have to say this but no, I do not support or defend the clear genocide happening. I assumed that would be obvious. I genuinely wish there was an option for both groups to exist peacefully near their homelands and their Holy Land. It's not guaranteed to stay peaceful, though

We don't actually have differing views on anything. I just take into account that, realistically, what I want isn't going to work. Antisemitism is on a steep rise again and the political climate in the states is very evocative of pre war Nazi Germany. Hamas is actively trying to kill as many Israeli civilians as possible- making it a war on Jews, not a war on Israel.

The issue is very nuanced, and I'm sorry so many people with your similar views are using this war to justify anti semitism. People with my similar views are using it to justify Islamophobia and genocide. Neither of us are being lumped well right now. I hope that if you have bullying in your inbox, it's not affecting your mental state. You actually seem very cool, and I'd be likely to follow you, anon

[nothingbuttrashhere]

It is not just Russia. I can honestly see why minorities and certain groups see no perceptible difference between the two parties. I can understand why people believe that they should not participate in US governance and should not vote because it is “participating in one’s own oppression.” I get the logic.

But.

A big reason why there is no clear difference between the parties is because of how the US government works—it’s supposed to work in checks and balances and compromise. This means that the best actors are forced to compromise with the worst and vice verse. If your best people are constantly being checked by the worst and the worst are being checked by the best there can be no good progress in either direction.

This is, unfortunately, part of the reason why participating is necessary. If you can force out the worst, the best can actually get shit done and we have a mechanism for helping this happen- voting. The fewer conservatives are in power, the fewer roadblocks exist to passing progressive policies that improve people’s lives.

The other reason why participating is important is because of the internally focused genocides in the USA. The USA invented certain forms of interracial violence and oppression. Nazi Germany took the US’s playbook on genocide and used it. This is not hyperbole, this is a documented fact.

We are seeing the same thing with Israel and Palestine today. Netanyahu’s attacks on Palestine and his political playbook are pulled from the US’s centuries of violence at home and abroad. The US government and US corporations are still committing these acts of violence today, the corporately owned news just chooses not to adequately report on it.

But here’s the thing- we know exactly which party is more interested in committing genocide. The Republican Party has made their stance on minorities clear. They want a white Christian ethno-state without any LGBTQIA+ people (I am including intersex people here because I am discussing the LGBTQIA movement as a political movement for bodily and sexual autonomy without forced or coerced conformity toward a specific concept of “normal,” not as a social or cultural movement—no forcing bodies or people to change via non consensual surgery or conversion treatments) or people with disabilities. There is a tangible difference between when democrats are in charge and when republicans run things. Republicans actively work to erode human rights at home and abroad when they have power.

To me, the types of legislation that pass during Republican control of any part of government speaks loudly to their desire to bring about a white, christofascist state by any means necessary. And white participating in the electoral process can be framed as participating in one’s own oppression (because no matter how you feel about the US government it is an oppressive power that actively subjugates people), the decision to not participate can also be framed as participating in one’s own genocide. If you are inside the machine that can and will kill people (yourself included) for the sake of creating conformity and you have the power to try and prevent that machine from doing that, why would you not try to stop the machine? This is not to say voting is the only solution, there are countless other methods and modes of social and political participation that can do this work, but voting is a powerful tool that can help remove genocidal christofascists from positions of power. And it is very important to remove genocidal christofascists from power.

To be honest, I think the framing of participation as a choice is fundamentally false. I do not feel that I have a choice to not participate in the electoral process. I feel that if I am not participating, if I am not speaking up and being involved, I am letting others make important decisions about my life and the lives of others. And I think that if I do not participate, I become a passive participant and potential victim in the ongoing project that is US-perpetuated genocide.

I have compared elections to a game of Russian roulette, where failure means a certain, but significant, percentage of people will die. You vote to prevent as many deaths as possible and hope others are playing the same game.

Again, I can see how minorities might see participating in the electoral process as a means of participating in one’s own oppression and I know that to a degree this is probably true. But participating also means being active in ensuring the survival of my communities and tipping the political scale toward leftism and toward the interests of minority communities. I would rather participate in a flawed system to save as many lives as possible (and commit to other forms of local activism) than stand by and let a conservative government come to power that will seek to kill as many people as possible.

It is true that bad actors have co-opted the rhetoric of minorities and resistance movements to encourage people to withdraw participation from the electoral process. However, these are still the beliefs of leftists and minorities and they do make sense within the theoretical framework they’re working off of. And theory is great in theory, but often has no real-world practical benefits except in providing a better understanding of reality and understanding and knowing things does not fix anything if there is no tangible action associated with it. And grass-roots will only go so far. There needs to be action on a far greater scale, but all that theorists offer is revolution and revolution is clearly a pipe dream at this point. Conservative militias have a better chance of a revolution than any leftist group.

I just think that ceding one’s political voice in any situation that can impact people’s lives globally is short-sighted and has no practical or tangible benefit for anyone except conservatives who want to commit more genocide.

And why the ever loving fuck would you do anything that benefits anyone who wants to commit more genocide?

There are 8 years of new voters since Trump took the White House in 2016. That is the generation that will change the world.

Find them. Inspire them. Tell them their vote matters and is important.

[mayedays]

At the risk of sounding deranged again...

Because my brain hates me, I occasionally get hit particularly hard by The Paranoia™ that the people saying ~the Darkling is basically Hitler~ are interpreting authorial intent correctly and that Bardugo might literally think it appropriate to base the Grisha on the Jewish Scientists who fled to America in the era around WWII and base their leader on Hitler (or Stalin).

However, I've come to some conclusions surrounding this.

(1) regardless of her opinion, I think that its deeply NOT okay, and don't think I'm insane for holding that viewpoint no matter what The Paranoia™ says (although I'm frustrated that I don't know that I have a logical justification for the viewpoint, but on the other hand, I'm not sure that I should have to),

(2) if Leigh disagrees with me on that front (i.e. he is supposed to be Grishaverse!Hitler), she certainly has a right to do so, but I have an equivalent right to decide that I don't respect the judgment (artistic or otherwise) of anyone who would consider that a reasonable thing to do, and so I don't actually care if she did mean for him to be Grishaverse!Hitler, and

(3) arguing he's Hitler is fucking stupid and insensitive because the thing that sets Hitler apart from other tyrants/dictators/facists/etc is the massive industrialized genocide he committed against two vulnerable ethnic minorities (who had a long history of being horrifically mistreated by the ethnic majority) and not only does Aleksander not do anything like that, he is part of a historically-vulnerable (although not ethnic) minority (Hitler was not--anyone saying otherwise has swallowed some rancid & bizarre Nazi propaganda). It's clearly canon that he's a mass murderer and was long before the start of TGT but there's no evidence of deliberate systemic persecution, let alone systematic genocide, of a vulnerable minority demographic to destroy them as a people (at least not on his end, Fjerda is another story). I'm pretty sure that bombing a city is only genocide if its part of a project to destroy an ethnic or national group. (I'm not going to try to claim that he would never commit genocide--its debatable but not something I'm all that interested in seriously litigating--only that I don't think he actually does.) Its insensitive because, leaving aside for the moment if its possible to compare a fictional person to a real-life war criminal without being insensitive, by comparing a character which does not preside over death camps to a real person who definitely did...it treats the Holocaust (& the specific form it took) as dismissible and unimportant.

But having said all that...I don't feel like I have a very good rational explanation for why its beyond the pale to base the Grisha on the Jewish scientists of WWII while also basing their historic leader on Hitler. I just basically have a disgust-based argument, which leaves me kinda dissatisfied because I feel like if I'm right I should be able to construct a logical one...but its slippery like an eel and squirms away every time I try.

[former-leftist-jew]

YUP.

Fun fact: My Native American Literature professor, who's from the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, once mentioned that he'd backpacked through Europe and saved money by staying at a number of people's houses and hostels. Everywhere he went, he encountered people who claimed, "Our family hid Jews during the Holocaust."

After, like, the dozenth time he heard it, he quipped, "It's amazing that the Nazis found enough Jews to kill at all, when everyone was hiding Jews."

The joke being, of course, that it's flat-out lies and history revisionism: Few to no gentiles actually hid Jews during WWII. It was actually hard and dangerous at the time, but easy to claim generations after the fact, when it's no longer feasible to verify it.

(It's true that there's, like, 30,000 honorable gentiles credited with hiding Jews during the Holocaust, but Europe's estimated population at the time was, like, over 300 million--less than 0.01% of gentiles actually put their necks on the line to actually protect their Jewish neighbors.)

My Osage professor told us this story while he was telling us about the late 19th, early 20th century US government conducting an official genocide against Native Americans as a matter of policy (like putting a bounty on buffalo for the express purpose of starving out the Plains Indians). He talked about how lots of Native American families living in the American Southwest had to pretend to be Mexican to be left alone....

Only for Native Americans to become cool and trendy following the 1960's, leading to tons of white people now trying to claim Native ancestry ("They're part of the Wannabe Tribe.")

He basically used both stories as a commentary about human nature. It's natural to want to look good and do right by our peers, but it's often hard to do both at the same time. And since humans are social creatures, it's sadly natural and common for many people to not want to risk the negative social consequences of standing up for a hated minority at the time, when they need it.

But once the danger has passed and society has decided, "Trying to harass and kill those people wasn't the right thing to do after all," it's very safe and easy to claim after the fact, "My family hid Jews," or "My recent ancestors were open-minded enough to marry a Native when most white people were too racist to do it."

(And I've been guilty of this as a well--I also claimed Native ancestry for years, until I did an actual DNA test and found I'm 37% Ashkenazi Jewish on my mother's side, the rest European on my gentile dad's side.)

And now, I guess we're seeing this with so many Leftists.

So many young Leftists are so obsessed with being "on the right side of history" that they often jump the gun in declaring one group a persecuted minority and another part of the privileged majority, all so they can claim they were ahead of the bell curve afterwards.

To that end, so many young leftists were so EAGER to see Palestinians as a "poor persecuted little brown minority" and Israelis/Jews as a "privileged white settler colonialist apartheid oppressors" so they could claim afterwards that they stood up for Palestine when few did, the way they'd like to think they would have stood up for Jews when the Nazis persecuted us in 1930's and 40's Germany.

But, as we've seen, the gentiles of today act just like the gentiles of back then: When Jews were slaughtered, they cheered. When people started blaming most of the world's problems on Jews, they eagerly swallowed anti-jewish propaganda whole and regurgitated even more outlandish conspiracy theories of their own. They mocked and jeered and gloated over Jewish deaths and Jewish pain, until doing so was no longer socially acceptable.

And if they didn't wholeheartedly agree with the jeering, they still refused to risk actual social push-back for "sympathizing with the wrong kind of people" aka being a "Zionist sympathizer."

Only NOW that it's no longer cool or trendy to support "Palestine" so fanatically--only now that they're starting to look bad to the general public, and pro-Palis are now alienating potential allies (like some Pro-Palis demanding African Americans vote against their own interests to spite Harris for not being antisemetic enough) are some Leftists and the general gentile public starting to tepidly admit that that maybe there was some antisemitism involved in the "Globalize the Intefada!" "Gas the Jews! Kill the Jews! Fuck the Jews!" crowds.

... Not enough to actually own their mistake, say they're sorry, or openly stand with Jews going forward, mind you. But enough to try to distance themselves from some of the more out-and-proud antisemites and then pretend afterwards that they were never affiliated with them in the first place.

It's all about looking good, not doing the right thing.

And I am NEVER going to forgive or forget.

It’s so funny seeing the gentiles gradually distance themselves from the pro-Palestine movement and acting like they’ve been fighting antisemitism all this time. Because, like—

Where did the people who attended “long live the intifada!” rallies go? By any metric, pro Palestinian protests have been becoming less and less attended (see the DNC) and less well received. But the people who used to attend them haven’t vanished. They’re still out there, living their lives. Do you think they’re embarrassed? Ashamed? I doubt it.

The pro Palestine movement has, as it was always going to, alienated potential allies and out purity-politicked their members into radicalism and terrorism. And while I am glad the world seems to be leaning away from them now, I will never trust the goyim again. Their first instinct upon seeing the deadliest pogrom of Jews since the Holocaust was to cheer and celebrate it.

The news uniformly decided the word of a genocidal terrorist organization was more credible than the official press releases of the rules of engagement abiding armed forces of a liberal democracy. Why? Because said liberal democracy was Jewish. The academics decided human rights, feminism, antiracism, and historiographic honesty were useful, until it would have applied to the Jews.

And the world swallowed it up. Eagerly. Like it was cathartic to return to the status quo of the Jews being responsible for the ills of humanity.

And now, the news cycle has moved on to other topics (Biden steps down! Deadpool and Wolverine! Trump Trading Cards!). The pro Palestine movement has attacked everyone who doesn’t traumatize themselves with gore or set themselves ablaze to protest a nonexistent genocide. And shockingly, that doesn’t make people particularly sympathetic to your movement. So, the world’s decided yeah, okay, maybe there was some antisemitism in that pro Palestine movement.

No fucking shit.

We’ve been telling gentiles for the last 10 goddamn months that! I don’t know about you, but I saw that antisemitism on October 8th! And for pointing it out, we were accused of “playing the antisemitism card!” and “defending genocide!” and called “Zionazi scum!” But now, it’s so loud it cant be ignored and they’re deciding to disavow it.

Well, thanks. Thanks for stating the obvious after spending a year attacking Jews in every quarter. Thanks for making us fear for our lives and livelihoods. Thanks for reminding us why we need a Jewish state. And thanks for correcting those of us who were naive enough to think maybe the world wasn’t so antisemitic anymore, that maybe we were accepted and valued members of our countries, universities, companies, and communities.

We won’t forget this. Even when you do, when you deny your role in this, when you delete the celebrations you posted on October 7th, we will remember. Always.

[will-o-the-witch]

I love your blog and was reading through a lot of your witchy/spiritual/religion asks and posts, which are chefs kiss honestly. You don’t have to answer this and can even block me if I offend you (which is not my intent at all) but I’m a Christian and really wish that people would specify who and what they’re talking about when they badmouth Christianity. Fact is most of the harm is being done (or was done) by Catholicism and white/European interpretations of the religion. I’m part of neither, and when people talk about Christians going around the world and colonizing people and forced conversions and hating women and ripping up Africa and slavery and abortion etc etc etc, I want to rip my hair out because literally that’s not what it was ever about for those of us who are nonwhite and come from nonwhite countries. Idk it’s just frustrating that people can’t see that all of that was performed by wealthy white European men for political and power purposes and they used Christianity to do all that because they realized it was effective to weaponize a religion like that and found out they could take it globally. They could’ve used almost any religion to do this, they just CHOSE “Christianity” for proximity purposes thanks to the Holy Roman Empire (get fucked, glad that’s somewhat gone) and people who don’t ascribe to any of that, who actively condemn all of that and just happen to be Christian shouldn’t be forced to answer for those actions. Catholicism is its own thing, evangelism and fundies are their own thing, and I hate when people lump us all together just because people purposely use the broad Christianity umbrella to engage in decidedlyunChristian behaviors. Someone in the abortion tag just said something similar and I realized how fucked it was that people and anti theists are like that.

Anyways, I enjoy reading about and learning about Judaism from your blog. I wish every cultural appropriator, antisemite, genocide apologist, nazi (neo or otherwise) and Lilith worshipper a very die and get blocked by you (bugs bunny meme)

Hey there! I understand you're approaching this in good faith and so I'll try my best to do so in the same way. Sorry this is long:

I understand that not everybody's individual relationship with Christianity directly stems from sharing the same colonizey mindset, but if you're Christian, the modern-day Christian hegemony still benefits you. Even if somebody doesn't have white privilege or wealth privilege, they would still have Christian privilege. If you live anywhere like where I live, you will never have trouble finding a variety of different churches to choose from (or anything else you need access to for your faith,) can expect to get ample time off for your religious holidays, and can publicly express your faith in almost any situation without fearing for your safety. Many people will even go out of their way to help you because of your faith. (On the flip side, I know businesses around here that went under because people found out the owner wasn't Christian and stopped giving him business.)

Catholics may have been the military powerhouse back in the day and evangelical protestants may have a vice grip on US politics, but a lot of the concerns us minority religions have with Christianity are not exclusive to those groups. Evangelicals are NOT the only ones telling me I'm going to Hell, secretly feeding Jews/Muslims pork without their consent, having cute little "Christian Seders," etc. There are some things written in the "New Testament" Christians of all stripes use to prop up how awesome and moral Jesus is, which are very troubling and uncomfortable to read as a Jew. Pretty much every denomination I'm aware of emphasizes the importance of "spreading the good word" in various degrees or endorses the idea "mission trips" (which are fucking evil.) I've never seen any denomination of Christianity actually formally denounce these things, even if some individuals do.

It's worth mantioning I have absolutely nothing against Christians as individuals and have many dear pals who are Christian and understand perfectly that it's not a monolith. Sadly, though, saying certain behaviors are "unchristian" doesn't do much to make me (and others) feel better when pretty much any form of Christianity given systemic power throughout history has tried to expel and eradicate Jews, convert others, establish a hegemony, etc. It's a "No True Scotsman" fallacy. Like it or not those people are Christians and these issues need to be addressed rather than brushed aside as not being "real" Christianity.

This honestly comes off to me similar to the #NotAllMen sentiment. (I don't say that to be hostile or dismissive, just to convey the feeling it gives me.) If you're a Christian and aren't doing X Thing people are upset about, then the statement isn't about you. If you feel personally attacked when oppressed minority religions don't like/feel uncomfortable around Christianity, reflect on why that might be. And if you want to change people's opinions on what it means to be a "real" Christian, lead by example.

Also important to point out: falsely conflating Christians with other Christians does not have the same negative impact as conflating Jews/other minority religions with Christians.

[lercymoth]

As someone who is pro-choice, I think we need to have an important discussion. You can be pro-choice but also anti-eugenics, and I think a lot of people see abortion as a black and white subject where if you're against any form of abortion. I say this because I've had multiple other pro-choice people get mad at me for questioning this.

(Note: This person got banned for this post. Don't support this crap.)

In light of recent events, abortion posts have been popping up more. And that's a good thing! But that being said, there is something we need to address in our movement. I've noticed a lot of people are saying "Women should unconditionally have the right to choose what they do with their bodies.", and that's valid! The state shouldn't have control over people's bodies. But that being said, there's a specific way in which people are supporting that, and we need to talk about it. People have been using abortion to support eugenics, specifically, a lot of people are trying to say it isn't eugenics to abort a fetus solely because the mother sees their traits as undesirable (traits like skin color, genetic condition like autism, etc).

I have seen multiple pro-choice advocates state that since women should have access to an abortion unconditionally, it's okay if the sole purpose that someone gets an abortion is that they were already planning on having the child, but then out of nowhere get their child screened, discover that they might have undesirable genes (being black or autistic), and then decide to get the abortion for that reason.

Not only is this hateful, denying births to a protected minority group because they're part of said minority group is eugenics. This has been practiced by governments before as racial eugenics. It's no different if it's practiced by individuals. The point of it being bad isn't "the government is doing it", the point of it is that eugenics is bad.

I think we need to talk about this because as leftists, we lean towards pro-choice arguments because our goal is social justice. Pro-choice arguments generally talk about situations where the pregnancy was always unwanted, and that's good, but we need to talk about situations where it was wanted from the beginning and then changed because of hate.

Now before anyone says it: No, abortion is not eugenics. Pro-lifers, fuck off. Don't use this to support your beliefs.

Another thing I see a lot of pro-choicers say is that "It isn't eugenics because it isn't being forced by the government / It is not a coordinated attempt by the state to wipe out an entire group"

Eugenics is neither of those things. A coordinated attempt to wipe out a protected class is genocide. Eugenics is an ideology. Think of it like fascism. Just like fascism, it started in Europe. It spread about in the UK and got us posters like these, supporting the idea of not having 'mentally defective' children (it then changed to be about race too).

This did lead to genocidal policies in the United States, where the US forced sterilizations on disabled people and enacted similar policies, but it also had general hateful policies like the Immigration Act of 1924, which barred immigrants based on race. Eventually, Nazi Germany picked it up but even then, it wasn't used to justify killing entire groups until later. At first, it was just about denying births to protected classes because they were deemed flawed, such as preventing births of disabled people and ethnic minorities. (It should also be mentioned that eugenics used to be about superiority and aborting fetuses just because they're 'unfit', but in modern times that is not always the case)

Why am I mentioning this? Because it seems like a lot of people have flawed perceptions on what eugenics is, and that's really bad because it leads to people accidentally supporting eugenics by claiming what they're supporting isn't eugenics.

I have seen a lot of people say this isn't a form of eugenics because it's being done by an individual and not the state. Well, the thing about that is eugenics was advertised as an individual choice, as a self directed thing. This is not to mention eugenics is an ideology, and ideologies can be practiced by anyone.

Lastly, I want to state that this is not about the fetus. This is about eugenics being bad, and that we shouldn't normalize it in leftist circles. We can't say we're fighting for social justice when we're normalizing eugenics talk. This is about minority groups. We can be pro-choice and anti-eugenics at the same time. But I feel like for a lot of people, they refuse to see what has been practiced as eugenics on a state level as eugenics when it's practiced by an individual. And for others, they hold "Women have the right to choose no matter what" so strongly that they're willing to put minority groups in the line of fire just to get that point across.

This is not okay, no matter what. This is not okay. This only goes to make us look bad. I've seen so many pro-lifers using this against us and I am tired of it. Stop giving them ammunition.