#free it and give it back to indigenous people

[11oh1]

[official-boobies-posts]

always was, always will be aboriginal land ❤️💛🖤

[galaxyb1tchsblog]

Israel’s existence is lowkey antisemitic

[raymurata]

Just scroll (or go ahead and block my #dav critical tag) if you don't wanna read me whining abt Bellara's Archive choice again, but I'm not done with the salt.

What bugs me isn't that the choice to destroy the archive exists, it's that the game frames it, through its UI (which is the closest thing we have to a nonbiased narrator in this medium), as equally weighted against the opposite choice.

If they had worded it like this:

"Free the archive (the knowledge will be lost)" x "Keep the archive (the knowledge will be kept)"

With no extra commentary, then that would be better. If you got to be openly racist against the Dalish or openly in favor of the Dalish, period. Just like in previous games.

Bellara says "(the archive would help us) get back what made us who we were," and "With it, we could be that again."

Which is funny because... People don't study history to return to the past. It's fine if Bellara is idealistic and saying whatever unrealistic, grandiose dreams she and Cyrian had, but the Dalish would never (could never) become like the ancient elves again. For starters there is a Veil now. So what it would in fact do is help them understand where they come from, what they've been through, and trace the changes in their culture.

Of course our modern historians and scientists have tried to reclaim lost technology, too. They've figured out how the Romans made their extra sturdy concrete, and scientists in Brazil have long been trying to replicate the extra fertile Terra Preta from indigenous peoples that lived in the Amazon basin, and several South American historians would love to know how exactly the Inca used the quipu as a writing system aside from counting tool, etc... And that's super cool!!! And maybe (but that's a big maybe) the Archive could give the Dalish a technological edge to carve a corner of the world for themselves without the constant struggle with Tevinter trying to enslave them or Andrastians trying to subjugate them.

But I personally don't think anyone's reading Aztec accounts of human sacrifices to replicate the same practices in modern cults, or that there is an army out there utilizing Roman decimation as a method of discipline. We're using different horrific methods of control now, lol.

But let's say a modern general does decide that the best way to punish a battalion for one man's insurgence is to force every group of ten soldiers to violently murder the 10th man.... Do you really think that the fault would lie with the historian who unearthed that information and put it on Wikipedia? Or the insane general that decided to do this? Would modern morality and laws allow for that punishment to be executed? Do you think that the existence of that article online is inherently dangerous and controversial, and that it should be taken down? Do you think this general would have been a good and non-violent general if he hadn't ever read about Decimation? Or is it clear to you that violence and ingenuity are both inherent to mortals as a whole and can't be so easily blamed on the spread of knowledge?

Because it's not clear to DAV. The game (not Bellara, not Varric) words it very unambiguously as a dichotomy: The only safe way to deal with this Archive is to destroy it. Keeping it is inherently dangerous because the knowledge could fall in "the wrong hands."

What Bellara says is "Cyrian is gone because of what that thing knew," and "what about the bad side, the other things we did?" and "We stole the dwarves' dreams."

Again, she gets to say whatever she wants because she's a character and she's an anxious, idealistic mess. Love her for it. I like that she feels guilt here too because she has been established (through her way of dealing with Cyrian's first death) as someone who takes the blame for mistakes she didn't even commit (She certainly isn't responsible for Solas' actions). She's someone who drives herself sick cooking up the most horrific scenarios in her mind, and she's so compassionate she can't stand the thought of being the one perpetrating violence against innocents. Her misplaced guilt and dread are the emotions that lead her to consider destroying the Archive.

But no matter how guilty a young german may feel about the holocaust, destroying knowledge about gas chambers is not what will prevent other genocides from happening around the world. Individual guilt is barely productive.

Furthermore, Corinne Bursche says that DAV gives you a choice between "destroying" or "sharing" elven knowledge, which is not how the game worded it. But the point still stands even if the Veil Jumpers, for some condescending plot reason, completely lost control of this knowledge, or were so flippant as to put everything on Thedas' wikipedia without curing it at all.

Let's accept, too, that the Archive contains knowledge of how to build something equivalent to nuclear weapons, which one could argue is in fact truly dangerous, but... Well. Do you think it's fair that the countries that have nuclear arsenals are some of the most vocal about the dangers of other countries ever developing their own?

Because that's what it feels like, to me, when the game calls elven knowledge dangerous without ever allowing you to question -- what about Tevinter rituals and magic? Tevinter's millennium of slavery, still in practice at present day? Should we destroy all their libraries too to keep the world safe from dangerous magics? Why do we only get to tell the Dalish, the nomad nations severely subjugated in present Thedas (If you ever played the previous games and have the context, at least, since this game that happens in Tevinter somehow manages to completely gloss over racism against elves as if it never existed) to destroy a one-of-a-kind, ancient trove of knowledge? And have it be framed as good and safe? As "moving forward"?

If you choose to free the archive, Rook says "The elves deserve the chance to chart their own course" to which Bellara answers "Right. Define ourselves by who we are, not who we were," but once again that writing just makes me question Bioware -- Do they not understand the point of history at all? Do they think indigenous peoples are monoliths stuck in the past if they choose to study the history they lost to colonialism? What purpose do they think that keeping that history and culture extinct serves? Who do they think it benefits?

If you step outside of what the game is telling you as fact and think for yourself, with the context of the other DA games in mind, do you still agree that it's inherently dangerous to keep the Archive? Do you still think these are equally morally weighted choices?

Or would you agree that DAV has to subtly convince you, out of character, that keeping this knowledge is inherently dangerous to make this dichotomy make sense?

Again. This wouldn't bug me if they just owned up to the fact your protagonist can, once again, genocide elves/their culture, just like in previous games. And scapegoat present elves too for the sins of their thousand-years-old tyrants, now suddenly returned (it would make so much sense for characters in the narrative to scapegoat the elves, and for us as heroes to fight against that. But no, they don't even go there except through Bellara's guilt.). It's just bizarre to have an elven historian guiltily agreeing with destroying the Archive and then telling us "The Evanuris broke us and kept us broken" without anyone, either Rook or her, ever mentioning a thousand years of Tevinter slavery and several centuries of Andrastian persecution and subjugation.

No. The Evanuris are the be-all and end-all of evil and everything bad that ever happened in Thedas, ever, can be traced back to them.

[stil-lindigo]

Hello, very confused and overwhelmed outsider here. Looking at posts here and on news sites I see such pradoxical views, one saying to not support Palestine is to support genocide and the other saying to not support Israel is to be antisemitic. I wonder, and I am going around asking people on different sides of the war, do you believe it is possible to support both the lives of Palestinian people and the lives of Jewish people?

Feel free to ignore this ask or to point out any ignorance on my part. I hope you have some peace in your day/night, I can only imagine how stressful it is to have so many people asking so many serious questions.

hi anon. I’m gonna try to make this is as concise as possible, since I’m technically writing this on my lunch break. Yes, it is possible and in fact very easy to support the lives of Palestinian and Jewish people because - and this is the important part - Israel and Zionism is not Judaism. Depending on who you may ask, Zionism began as a pure-hearted desire for Jewish people post-WW2 to create a place that would always unequivocally be safe for Jews, but as I am not Jewish myself I feel like any description I might give comes off as insincere and not fully grasping the scope of that mission. But no matter what Zionism once was, it is now the belief that Jewish people have the right to commit genocide against indigenous population so that they can establish their ethno-state. And you can split hairs all you like, but after the past four months, my belief in that has only solidified.

Perhaps the strongest opposition to Israel comes from Jewish people themselves, who’ve popularized “not in my name” as a protest chant. Holocaust survivors have come out in droves to protest the actions of Israel, and they’re often the strongest front of any protest action since - yes, you’re right - mainstream news is very committed to selling the idea that this “war” is Jews vs Muslims which is just inflammatory racist garbage. There’s more to it than I can easily get into right now, but just for a start, it completely erases the existence of Palestinian Jews or Palestinian Christians, and also ignores Israel’s historically abusive and degrading treatment of their own Holocaust survivors in their population.

This “war” is not a war. It’s a genocide, where the total amount of bombs dropped on Gaza is officially over twice the impact of a nuclear bomb. One side is asking for a stop the fighting, for aid to be allowed through, they are asking for clean water and food as their women have been forced to rip off scraps off tents to use as menstrual products. One side has had all 35 their hospitals bombed (a war-crime the first time, and it continues to be a war crime every time it still happens), over 100 of their journalists have been targeted and murdered (more journalists than were killed in all of WW2, and btw this is also a war crime). And the other side films TikTok’s levelling apartment buildings, looting houses, kicking Palestinian hostages, stripping them naked and urinating on them. Israel has rained white phosphorus down on Palestine, they have bombed Palestine indiscriminately, they have destroyed archives, historical locations, they have done their best to rob Palestinians of their dignity and empathy and still, they’re not done.

Oh and the excuse that they’re just doing all of this to save the hostages? Hamas offered them all back in exchange for a ceasefire. And the Israeli prime minister, Netanyahu, said no.

In the future, try to get your news from trusted news sources like Al Jazeera, and following journalists on the ground like Bisan and Motaz.

[mage-of-mip]

Half-Foots and Ainu Culture in Dungeon Meshi

It sometimes feels like I might be grasping at straws with this, but I do feel like it's not completely unfounded. Please note, I am a white woman living in the USA, I am by no means an expert on Japanese culture in general, much less a marginalized subculture. I have simply made limited attempts to educate myself out of genuine interest born from exposure to media about Ainu characters and culture. I am always hoping to learn more.

I think it's fairly obvious that many parallels can be drawn between Ryoko Kui's Half-Foot race, and more than one ethnicity or subculture in real life. Romani, Irish, and Jewish stereotypes come to mind immediately.

But I think there's another one that may be explored less in the text, and much harder to catch by a western reader, but nonetheless could be intended by Kui, or perhaps was at one point. That of the Ainu people of Hokkaido, Japan.

There's not a lot of translated information about the Ainu online, so please bear with my limited knowledge. In short, the Ainu are the indigenous people of Northern Japan. For generations, their way of life has been taken from them and they were forced to assimilate to the wider Japanese culture. There are not many who still fully practice the cultural heritage in this day, but there are movements to bring the Ainu culture back.

In Delicious in Dungeon, there are two instances that reference the Ainu, both relating to Chilchuck. This could, of course, be a coincidence, especially if there are more references that I missed. It may be flimsy, but it still feels significant that this is the case, and that Half-Foots are or were meant to be an allusion to the Ainu.

This is the first instance. A significant panel in the context of the story. To my knowledge, this is the only specifically Ainu dish that's referenced in the text. On it's own, its just an interesting factoid, and the same dark humor that's being used for all the other character deaths in this fight against Thistle.

This is the second instance. From the supplemental material rather than the main story, Chilchuck is discussing what Half-Foots are called across the languages. The one that caught my eye here is the one in the top corner. Korpokkur.

The Korpokkur are a race of small people in Ainu folklore, their name meaning "those who live under the butterbur leaves".

Again, in a vacuum, this could just be a Japanese person using a Japanese word [Edit: Correction; An Ainu word] in her manga. But I think it's interesting that the two instances of Ainu culture being referenced have to do with Chilchuck and Half-Foots as a whole. It could warrant a deeper read-through looking for other references, perhaps by someone more educated than myself.

I think this could have some interesting implications in the wider worldbuilding. Perhaps the Half-Foots have faced similar cultural erasure and assimilation attempts, which is why a lot of their customs and clothing are just "Tallman but smaller", and why other races regularly mistake them for the children of tallmen, despite having pretty noticeable differences in how they look other than just their height(their disproportionately large ears, for example).

This idea might be a tad more indulgent, but I also like the idea that Half-Foot children don't receive a permanent name until they are toddlers. At one point, in Ainu culture(this may not be practiced today, I could not find information on that), the Ainu would give their children "vulgar" placeholder names until they started forming personalities, as a ward against evil spirits. Perhaps the same is done for Half-Foot children, and their two part names are selected when they are a little older.

Again, these are just the observations of an outsider looking in, please feel free to correct any mistakes I may have made! And if I'm completely off-base or have said something offensive, I apologize and will delete or amend the post as necessary.

[tiredmagicalwarrior]

I think one of the things I appreciated the most about Nocturne was the protagonism on the Haitian Revolution.

This was a revolution that didn't just change Haiti, it changed the world. This was the revolution that would make the first black state. The first slaveless state. That would make every slave nation tremble with fear, from Europe To America to Asia to Oceania to Africa. It was what was never meant to happen, but did.

It's the nation that would defeat Napoleon and the British marine. Nobody could take down Haiti. You know why Napoleon went to colonize Europe? Haiti. That's why. He couldn't take down Haiti. Couldn't make it french territory again. So, he turned towards Europe.

We are talking about an undefeated nation.

AND! AND! A largely Vodu nation!

I was SO happy to see Vodu be portrayed as the wonderful religion it is, sacred and divinely intertwined with the Haitian revolution. The revolution was noted to start with Vodu chants and ritual.

White people refused to understand the link between the two worlds that could bring ancestors to meet their descendants. They created zombies as a horror trope. They made vodu dolls as a horror gimmick. They took a sacred religion and reduced it and vilanized it.

And I'm so happy to see it being positively portrayed in such a famous media. Vodu practicioners have already made media of the like. But I was positively surprised with what Nocturne had to present to us.

Of course, the knowledge that the french revolution was incomplete, that it was NOT FOR EVERYONE, is then again, something I really appreciate as a history student and a person. The french revolution killed mostly peasent and established the bourgeoisie, but did it end the Noir Code? No. Did it establish women's and black people's suffrage? No. Did it make a agrarian reform? No. Was it for the people? It had it's importance. But it was, at the very least, not for all the people.

And let's not forget that the french revolution's main intellectual current would birth biological racism, an unscientific current that claimed evidence of "different sized skulls" for example to prove humans possessed different races based on phenotypes.

Last, but certainly not least: it is absurd to see people claim that "all indigenous people have been killed". Acknowledging multi-ethnic indigenous genocide HAS to go along with the respect that there STILL are indigenous people and they continue their fight for their lives and land.

You know who the show demonstrates as such? Olrox.

While I don't appreciate the show claiming "all of his people were slaughtered" as that is historically inaccurate, I was most happy to see an Aztec vampire present and very alive, connected to his culture, protagonizing the show. The Nahua are still very much alive and kicking and I appreciated that the show took that into account.

And Annette! Sweet Annette being one of the leads makes me most joyful. I can't stand idiots that claim her presence.on France was """historically innacurate""", check again, dumbasses, free black people were all over France (especially the children of black Caribbean elites, for example, from Haiti back then known as Saint-Domingue, which did not possess universities and would sent their children to study in Europe.)

Anyway. To see her star as one of the leads made me so incredibly happy. She's a wonderful character and I appreciate how they let Annette be unapologetic and direct, especially during a moment between revolutions were she was very aware the french revolution didn't mean shit to her people.

But she was so lovely and to see her afro-caribean religion present AND source of her power made me emotional more than a few times.

Castlevania Nocturne really did hit this nail on the head.

Anyways. To make sure I give people answers to "but where's the evidence to x thing you said?" Here are my sources:

THYLEFORS, Markel; “Our Government is in Bwa Kayiman:”A Vodou Ceremony in 1791 and its Contemporary Significations, 2009

DUBOIS, Laurent; Avengers of the New World : the story of the Haitian Revolution, 2004

BUCK-MORSS, Susan; Hegel, Haiti and universal history, 2009

[copperbadge]

Radio Free Monday

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

As a reminder, I will be discontinuing Radio Free Monday in the new year, although the guide to fundraising will remain, and you should feel free to link to it. I have had inquiry about passing it to someone new to keep going (I swear I will reply soon) and I'll keep you all informed about that as well.

Ways to Give:

stabbedinthenameofscience linked to a friend, Spark, who has life-threatening endometriosis that has gotten into zir lungs; ze is fundraising for extensive lifesaving surgery and aftercare. You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

amour-de-tours is a multiply disabled and chronically ill queer Indigenous woman; she is in the process of applying for SSI, but has been unemployed since 2019 due to disability, and is in need of $1,500 for urgent medical care. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here or give directly at Paypal here.

dignitywhatdignity's 8 year old's school is fundraising to bring back their chess club; funding dried up, so one of the parents has started a fundraiser, especially since the chess club helped his kindergartener with behavioral issues. You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

Darcy linked to Blank Conversations Theatre Company, a small community theatre in New Mexico, which was founded five years ago by queer students and aims to diversify theatre in southern New Mexico. They've put on musical, comedies, dramas, and a signature "Brews with the Bard" series, and are now fundraising to finish out the season with their female-led Jesus Christ Superstar in January and The Play That Goes Wrong in March. You can read more about the theatre or support the fundraiser here.

Help for Free:

mooseman13579 is going to Pax Unplugged and the planned accommodations are under construction; she needs to find a place to stay for three nights. If you are comfortable hosting her, you can message her on Tumblr; I should say while I've never met her in person I've known her many years on tumblr and can vouch that she's not a random.

News to Know:

soc_puppet wanted to let people know that Dreamwidth community moodthemeinayear is wrapping up its first year of existence and looking to next year; if you've ever wanted to make your own custom mood theme for Dreamwidth or Livejournal, and need an excuse or just want some folks to cheer you on as you do, check out the community!

Recurring Needs:

Aviator Celadine is an unemployed trans woman raising funds to try and keep above water while she continues to apply for jobs and preps to apply for state aid; she needs to raise $2.5K to survive until she can reapply for aid in February of next year. You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

loversdoom is raising funds for an assessment to get help with mental health so she can be treated and remain in school, where she has a safe place to live and basic psychiatric support. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here or give via paypal here.

chingaderita is raising funds for their mother-in-law, who recently found a lump and needs medical attention to determine if it's cancer; the family has been struggling after having to move into an unsafe living situation after a house fire. You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can post items for my attention at the Radio Free Monday submissions form.

[whencyclopedia]

Repartimiento

The Repartimiento system was a distribution of rights to Spanish colonialists and municipalities, which allowed them to extract forced but low-paid labour from local communities in conquered territories. Designed to replace the inefficient encomienda system, the repartimiento system was eventually only used for crucial industries such as food and cloth production and precious metal mining.

The Encomienda System

When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the New World in the 16th century, they searched for and shared out the resources they came across. Initially, this was gold, silver, and other precious materials, but as the European colonization of the Americas got underway, labour and slaves became just as valuable. The right to extract labour from a local population – used for working agricultural lands, particularly plantations, and mines – was awarded by the Spanish colonial administration as a license called an encomienda. The license applied to the individual holder and was not tied to any specific area of land, even a town could hold an encomienda. In return for this free labour, the Europeans were expected to give military protection to their labourers and to offer them the opportunity to be converted to Christianity. A holder of an encomienda, therefore, had to fund a parish priest. Although the system was very close to slavery, license-holders could not sell their labourers. The pope had prohibited the slavery of indigenous Americans in 1537, but this scruple clearly did not apply to imported Africans.

From the viewpoint of the Spanish, the encomienda system worked for a while, but it was highly inefficient. Many indigenous peoples, understandably, made attempts to escape. Many were unused and unsuited to working on large-scale agricultural schemes. European-born diseases devastated local populations making it much more difficult to find the labour the Spanish required. Overexploitation of the labourers they could find – literally working and starving them to death – became such a problem that voices in the Establishment back in Spain began to be raised in protest. It was noted, too, that many license-holders did not fulfil their spiritual obligations to their labourers. Bodies like the Council of the Indies, which managed all of Spain's colonies, began to search for a better alternative to the encomienda system. The twin aims of colonization were the extraction of resources and the saving of souls by converting local peoples to Christianity. The encomienda system seemed to be failing on both fronts. The answer the authorities came up with was the repartimiento system.

With rapacious conquistadors and unprincipled settlers eager to extract all they could from colonies, any attempt at change was bound to face practical problems. The first attempt to abolish the encomienda system came in 1542, and a set of New Laws hoped to reduce its application. These attempts failed. The next serious attempt at reform came in 1573 when Philip II of Spain (r. 1556-1598) outlawed any use of the encomienda system in any new territories. Although it was no longer a major aspect of the colonial economy by the end of the 16th century, it was not until the 18th century that the encomienda system finally died out.

Continue reading...

[mythalism]

i think, anecdotally, canadians love to use land acknowledgments and Diversity(tm) a bit more than americans do, and have a degree of always pointing at the us and being like "well at least WE didn't do anything that fucked up! we're so much more enlightened and respectful 😌". and so any acknowledgment that racism exists, or that necessary societal change is often only brought by unpleasant disruption, or specifically that indigenous people live in terrible conditions because of colonization, is bracketed with this type of "but it's very complicated, and who's to say if there's a solution? we're thinking about it really hard, and holding space, and listening and learning, and maybe we will get to fixing it in like 50 years if people ask nicely" rhetoric. and there's a degree of apprehension that "land back" is a call for ethnic cleansing of settlers (somehow, despite this being both physically not possible and not actually anyone's demand) and that any movement towards that will be bad and overly radical.

which maps directly onto how bioware writes elves specifically haha. they'll sympathetically show how they're oppressed and living under the boot of a catholic church-esque entity, but then... ahhh noo, actually they had a very problematic pre-colonization culture, and they're too impractically fixated on the past and that prevents them from moving forward, and the church employees are sometimes trying their best and making amends, and the demands of the elven leadership are just too out there and violent... so really, it's very complicated. maybe it could be better to keep the status quo and only have Incremental Change, forever.

(they sort of didn't do this in the masked empire, but as always they had to throw in a bit about how Rude And Mean the dalish are. plus the ridiculously evil chevalier lore of each one randomly executing a few elves as a rite of passage, and then never mentioning that aspect again bc i guess it wasn't relevant to michel's story. as well as the insanely underwritten premise of what briala and celene's relationship actually was. there's ~toxic lesbians~, and then there's "extremely rich and powerful white noblewoman calls her younger servant class gf ugly for being dark skinned, lies to her for years, has her family and then entire community killed, then tries to seduce her back when she gets angry and leaves" lmao. i think weekes was going for a tragic morally grey starcrossed lovers to enemies vibe, but to me it was more of a horrific one-sided exploitation that the author did not seem to realize they were writing.)

and in veilguard i suppose they tried to avoid the entire issue by mostly removing those aspects of the setting, so you no longer even have the somewhat well-observed depictions of oppression combined with Justin Trudeau Moments, it's just kind of empty.

anyway thank you for appreciating my very long ted talk! i left tumblr after the whole "popular bloggers mass reporting pro-palestine people for terrorism" thing (i can get that treatment for free irl, don't need that extra stress from the Fandom Webbed Site haha). i've just been drifting back to look at dragon age posts bc i was curious about veilguard. i didn't expect much from bioware but it was surprising that they just went even further into tone-deaf bizarre race allegories rather than reading 1 (one) nonfiction book in the years since dai, or hiring anybody from a different background who could weigh in. :')

wow this is seriously so fascinating and insightful and truly does give me a better understanding of both canada and bioware LMFAO so thank you so much for sharing seriously. you are welcome in my inbox for more ted talks anytime and now im just gonna leave this here to marinate on it further and hope other people read it because its fantastic. xoxo

[girlactionfigure]

Let's Talk About the German Nakba

No one disputes Germans are indigenous to Europe. Nevertheless, following WWII, approximately 14.6 million ethnic Germans who've lived there for generations were relocated from east-central Europe into Allied-occupied Germany.

Just to give you a sense of scale, of the 524,000 ethnic Germans who lived in Yugoslavia before WWII, about 370,000 were relocated, 84,000 were killed, and 68,000 disappeared. 

That's 99%!

Königsberg, Breslau, Sudetenland are all territories where Germans have lived for hundreds of years. These places no longer exist because the inhabitants were relocated and those places were renamed and resettled. 

Königsberg is now the Russian city of Kaliningrad. 

Breslau is now the Polish city of Wrocław.

Sudetenland is now split into many Czech territories.

Why is there no German Nakba? Why are there no Yugoslav-German refugee camps in Germany? Why's no one fighting for the Germans' right of return to Russia? Why is there no German resistance movement to free occupied Sudentland and send the settlers back to Czechia?

The reason is that that the German people understand and accept that these are the natural consequences of losing a war of aggression meant to exterminate your neighbors. This allowed them to move on and become one of the wealthiest nations on the planet, albeit with diminished territory. The relocated Germans are generally now wealthier than their non-German neighbors, who’ve settled in their abandoned homes. 

Since they’ve lived in peace for generations, they can now visit the places their ancestors were relocated from places, just like any other people. In fact, nothing prevents a German whos grandmother fled Czechoslovakia to buy in house in what used to be Sudentland and live there peacefully. No one is afraid a young German would suddenly shout “heil Hitler!” and start shooting random people. 

Israel and America are being far nicer to the Arabs of Gaza than the Allies were to the Germans of post-war Europe. Trump and Israel are working hard to find safe ways for the people of Gaza to leave their devastated enclave and prosper overseas. The Germans were just brutally kicked out by the Allies, resulting in in as many as 2.5 deaths. Still, on the long run, they’ve benefited from it. The world benefited from it.

To return to our original point, claiming indignity doesn't absolve you from facing the consequences of your actions. If you don't want to be displaced, don't start total wars because here's the thing about total wars: when you lose them, you lose totally.

URI KURLIANCHIK

FEB 7

[solar-sunnyside-up]

God I’m just. So scared and so fucking angry at America and its broken system. Whenever I see someone who’s in the third party who is significantly better than both the Republican and Democrat candidates it feels like a false hope. I’m at the point where everyone in the country realizes everything we’ve done wrong and actively try to reverse this to the best of our ability. I’m talking official apologies to those we’ve done wrong, I’m talking taking money away from the police force, military, and tax the hell out of the 1% to repay our debts, and talk to indigenous groups to give their land back. I’m just. So disappointed in the country I was born and live in. We’re supposed to be the “land of the free” give me a break what a joke. We enslave our own people in debt to ensure they work for the rest of their lives. Ugh I just needed to get that off my chest

Dw that's what this week is for!!

These are all valid feelings, the only comfort I think I can offer is:

You are not your government. I am Canadian, and we have more in common with one another then either of us have with "Leaders" from our countries. I have more in common with someone who couldn't understand me bc of language barriers then I could ever have with a billionaire. You are allowed to grieve these horrors, bc you care, but never EVER blame yourself for structural problems beyond your control. Your the one fixing it despite everything. And God I'm proud of you.

[zionistgirlie]

Hiii! You seem really good at collecting info and facts.

I'm not Jewish so l've never really heard a pro-Israel side to the war that wasn't from the POV of a non-Jew. I've also mainly been of the opinion of 'plz can no one die' so l've usually leaned to the pro-Palestine side, because of the huge amounts of deaths l've heard of.

I was wondering if you could maybe give some examples of pro-Palestinian arguments+views, and your opinions of them? Like for example the colonisation argument, or the fact that a lot more Palestinians have died than Israelites.

I'm not going to say that you're necessarily going to change my mind on a lot of things, but I really value all opinions and would like to broaden my understanding of the war.

Thanks for your time!

First of all, I really appreciate your willingness to seek views that go against your own. I think it's courageous and something that people of all opinions hate to do.

Honestly, I don't follow the pro-"Palestine" arguments too much; they seem to all end in "(((zionists))) are killing babies and using them for baking matzot", I don't know if I've seen many actually decent, logical points even when I was an antizionist, so if you have anything specific you'd like me to refer to, feel free to send a following ask!

I don't know if I'll manage to keep it short and sweet; this is a vast topic to cram into bullet points, and as the Talmud says, "Ten measures of speech descended to the world; women took nine", but let's try!

YOU'RE A WHITE COLONISER

This view seems to ignore two main points:

Colonies, historically, were under the rule of an empire. Colonies, by definition, are an extension of an empire, a mother country or a sovereign entity. The British Empire had colonies, the best known of which are, of course, the 13 colonies of America. There was also Arab colonisation, which, for some reason, people don't like to mention.

The Jews, on the other hand, were a persecuted minority group in every country they were in. They were not an empire, and they had no mother country. Zionism began, in fact, when Herzl watched the Dreyfus affair and realised that Jews, even if they were in high positions, were still persecuted and scapegoated. Is it Colonialism when members of a persecuted minority return to their native land? This brings me to the other point:

In no case in the history of colonialism, except for the case of the Jews and the Land of Israel, have settlers arrived in the land and found archaeological evidence dating back thousands of years that they were indigenous to the land. Is it possible to colonise a country you are native to? This seems to be the case, but only when it comes to Jews.

Speaking of colonisation: Those who hold the view that Jews colonised the Land of Israel claim that the Arabs who call themselves "Palestinians" are the natives of the Land of Israel. But there is no archaeological evidence of an Arab or Muslim presence in the Land of Israel until the seventh century, when the Muslim conquest began (the conquest, begun by Arabs in present-day Saudi Arabia, took from Kashmir and Punjab and parts of India in the east to Morocco and parts of Spain in the west). The Arab conquerors reached the Levant (where they were not natives), and ordered the construction of a mosque on the Temple Mount, above the site of the first and second Jewish temples. In the eighth century, the Muslim conquerors ordered non-Muslims to wear identifying clothing (a yellow star for Jews (sounds familiar?) and a blue star for Christians).

TLDR:

Arabs are native to Arabia, not to the Levant; Jews are native to Judea. You cannot colonise a land to which you're native.

A persecuted and displaced minority group, who returns to their native land in order to protect themselves from persecution and genocide: this is not colonisation.

WHAT ABOUT THE CRAZY DEATH DISPARITY?

First of all, it is worth saying that a higher death toll in a war does not equal moral superiority, more just (justest?) claims or righteousness in general. In World War II, more Germans died than the British, and that includes civilians. The logical assumption is not and should not be that the Germans were probably right and that the Nazis were righteous. This opinion seems funny when applied to other conflicts, yet for some reason, when it comes to Israel and Gaza, it seems a correct and logical opinion.

However, if you believe the numbers provided by the Hamas Health Ministry (which you shouldn't), it does appear that there are more deaths on the Gaza side. So why is that?

Israel devotes the largest percentage of its annual budget to the defence budget. The budget allocation within the Ministry of Defense itself is mainly confidential, and yet we still know that Israel has some of the most advanced defence systems in the world (Iron Dome and the like), so advanced that several countries, including the United States, have purchased them. Israel is an advanced, technological country, with good minds, and is constantly working on inventing, building, and improving its defence systems in order to ensure maximum protection for its citizens.

Gaza, how shall we put it, is none of these things. Gaza receives enormous sums of money from the West, as well as from Iran, and invests it in purchasing offensive equipment (Kalashnikovs, tanks, missiles, explosives…) and building a network of underground terror tunnels, in which senior Hamas figures hide. It was recently revealed that these tunnels are 200-400 miles long.

The shafts for these tunnels are often found inside hospitals, mosques, schools, and even children's rooms (including the tunnel in which the six hostages were murdered), as revealed by the IDF spokesman.

Hamas has continuously, since 2007, hidden weapons and tunnel shafts in these humanitarian locations, carried out shooting from these locations, and put its citizens in danger. A NATO report from 2014 also says so. This is a violation of international law.

During the war, Hamas prevented civilians from evacuating areas that the IDF announced it would attack, in some cases even shooting its own people who wanted to flee an area of ​​attack. This, too, is a violation of international law.

Former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar said "the growing civilian death toll would serve to benefit Hamas more than a cessation of fighting would." He also called the high civilian death toll "necessary sacrifices." From their actions and words, it is clear that Hamas does not consider protecting its citizens important.

TLDR:

Hamas does not defend its people. Furthermore, they hide behind them in order to use "lawfare". Israel spends money and effort on defence and protects its civilians rather than hiding behind them.

I don't support death, hence I support Palestinians:

Israel is not looking to murder Gazans. Israel was in a ceasefire with Hamas until the massacre of October 7, 2023 and the kidnapping of 251 men, women and children. An existential war was forced upon Israel, which it waged most of the time with one hand tied behind its back (courtesy of the Biden administration and the West). Even if you look at the number of deaths that Hamas has provided (in which there was no separation between civilians and militants), after over a year of fighting, it can be said that Israel is waging a precise war and is very careful to avoid harming civilians. For reasons detailed above, and also due to the nature of war in general and the October 7 war in particular, harm to civilians cannot be zero. This is the bleak nature of war. I would love to find a war in which not a single civilian was harmed, if you have any links or ideas, please! But this war began following a massacre in which 1200 people were brutally and cruelly murdered, many of them civilians, a hundred of them children. Fifty more children were kidnapped to Gaza, where they were abused. Two children, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, were strangled in cold blood in captivity. The argument that you don’t want unnecessary death is a great one, but it misses the point that Gazans do want unnecessary death. Of Jews, and, to be honest, of Gazans too.

In short, Israel is waging a war against jihadist terrorist organisations. That should be the basic premise. It is difficult to wage a fair and lawful war, even more difficult when the enemy does not follow international law, the laws of war, or basic decency.

The premeditated murder of civilians is a violation of international law. The premeditated murder of children during a war is a violation of international law. Kidnapping of civilians and children is a violation of international law. Sexually, physically, and psychologically harming the hostages, as well as starving them, is a violation of international law.

To be honest, you don't have to be pro-Israel now. It's strange to me that people who have no skin in the game are choosing teams as if it were a football game. The view that war is bad is a good enough "side." The view that the death of civilians in war is bad is a good enough "side". The view that harming Jews who have nothing to do with the war is bad is also a good enough "side".

We are not looking for your support or your love. We are not a football team. We are a broken and hurting people who have experienced the greatest massacre since the Holocaust and are just trying to bring our sons and daughters home, to eliminate a terrorist organisation that is willing to shed our blood, and to be left alone.

(Don't get me wrong, your support is appreciated, but that's not why we're fighting.)

[ladyimaginarium]

g-d as an antizionist native jew you literally cannot win.

on one hand you'll have uber hardcore zionists & also technically, kahanists (because it's important to keep in mind that not every zionist thinks the same way & there's different types of zionism & to listen to jewish voices about this topic bc i'm tired of goyim speaking over jews on a term that jewish people created, but for the unaware: kahanism is basically a type of far right zionism that straight up is like "the land of israel should be for jews Only & anyone who isn't jewish don't get the same rights as jewish people",) who will believe that you're. somehow a "traitor" or "not a real jew/self hating jew" for y'know not. wanting to have your jewishness be associated with medinat yisrael (the modern state of israel, there's a difference between am yisrael, the jewish people, eretz yisrael, the physical land & medinat israel, the modern state of israel), specifically the government's actions against not just palestinians but others too or by simply saying that "hey man regardless of how you feel about zionism, it's a nationalist ideology that, like many other nationalisms, has harmed people & zionism Has harmed palestinians & they have every right to talk about it, just like the mayans & those at sbrenica who were also affected by it" & i was blocked by a zionist for saying that or denying palestinian indigeneity alongside jewish indigeneity (because some straight up just think that only jews are indigenous there which. just isn't true, jews & palestinians are literally related & they both have a shared connection to that land), making excuses for the israeli government & the iof's actions, & misconstruing land back shit into a violent movement when it isn't & even be islamophobic & racist towards natives including native jews who naturally feel a sense of solidarity to the palestinian cause because we know what it's like to be displaced & killed by an occupying government.

& THEN on the other hand you'll have many nonpalestinian goyische/nonjewish western leftist antizionists who think they somehow have a free pass to say whatever they want & think they somehow can't be antisemitic & racist just because they support the free palestine movement, some give a platform to well known bigots & antisemites who literally spout blood libel & antisemitic conspiracy theories & many don't even notice let alone care just because they agree with said people on other types of activism, supporting groups like jvp when it's basically the autism speaks for jews, engage in atrocity denial & terrorism apologia because nothing says resistance like cheering on violent antisemitism against jews (/sarcastic) you disagree with & thinking that groups like hamas, hezbollah, the houthis etc are based people when multiple palestinians from gaza & other people like iranians, syrians & yemeni have spoke up against them when hamas killed 1200 people, mostly civilians, but apparently that doesn't matter & throwing all their morals they claim to support down the drain & be antisemitic or islamophobic to innocent individuals who had nothing to do with the warcrimes being committed & excusing the inexcusable & justifying the unjustifiable, conflating jewish people with white european people, calling random ass jews "zionists" even when they say repeatedly that they aren't even for just calling out their antisemitism, literally using slurs used by the literal fucking kkk (i.e "zio" & any variants of the word), people waking up & graduating from the instagram-tiktok school of law thinking they know everything about this topic when they don't, people treating this very serious thing like a fandom with teams when people aren't your blorbos or celebrities, these are real people who are traumatized, grieving, suffering & dying, treat them like people, some people can't understand the very basic concept that you can fight for more than one cause & one community at the same time, they don't call out the virulent antisemitism in their own movement, deny jewish people Any type of connection & historical presence to the southern levant despite there being a fuckton of historical, cultural & archaeological evidence & straight up deny jewish history in the region, stay silent when there are jews literally being harassed, beat up, sexually assaulted, & murdered in the streets & mobs have already been targeting jewish neighborhoods & synagogues & almost nobody outside of jewish people are talking about any of this & almost none of these people are deconstructing their antisemitism & when that happens that just allows the far right to further advance itself & its agenda. because a lot of these people think they're immune to propaganda & antisemitism when they're really not because some people will straight up be parroting nazi shit & most people don't even blink an eye except for jewish people & most people from what i've seen don't do anything about this huge issue & these are coming from the same people who're like "punch all nazis!!".

& regardless of either side of the discourse even when we& say "hey uh. we& believe in ceasefire de-escalation humanitarianism accountability justice reparations & the hopes of saving as many lives as possible & we reject all forms of dehumanization, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, xenophobia, harassment of innocents, scapegoating & collective punishment, every human life is precious & no one should have to fear for their life, we hold human rights to be universal & nonnegotiable, a value we hold above every movement, ideology or cause just as we've been taught by our elders, our indigenous beliefs & jewish ethics, we want liberation, safety, dignity & self determination & a homeland for everyone & we haven't made an exception to this topic" some people would probably just assume that we're "both-sideism" or being "centrist" when like. no dude that's literally just a humane take on things, not a neutral one & it's. really fucking weird that that's somehow a hot controversial take to have.

like. you get antisemitism from literally every possible side of the spectrum regardless of their politics, its insidious & it's not fun At All.

[rederiswrites]

Menus, Oct. 23-30

Several people were open to seeing my menu planning, and it's something I enjoy doing well, so here we go!

Notes: My dishes can all be gluten free (they are, for us) by using gf pasta (we like Rummo brand gf noodles and Tinkyada are good too). Otherwise, we're pretty generally low carb and most things are from scratch, but typically pretty simple. Most of these rely on root vegetables or beans for their carbohydrates.

Feta tomato pasta and sausage --This was viral on Instagram a while back, and I decided to try it. Now my daughter requests it pretty often. I don't make it quite like the original--mostly, I add some zucchini, double the feta, and add a bunch of Italian seasoning. This link is pretty much the same thing. They add shallots, which does sound lovely but costs a bit extra. I cooked some sausage with the meal because I didn't want to load up on pasta, personally, as I'm still staying very low carb.

"Bowl of the Wife of Kit Carson"--modified caldo tlalpeño--Pity poor Maria Carson, whose indigenous name I can't even learn, now remembered by her husband's name. That aside, it's a family favorite. We make it with the entire can of chiles in adobo, but that's a family preference. The avocados are pretty much the vegetable in this one so uhh...have plenty. I make the rice separate, both because that way you can vary it depending on your spice tolerance and because that way the rice doesn't suck up all the soup for leftovers.

Roast whole chicken, roasted mixed root vegetables, and garlicky kale. I basted the chicken with avocado oil (expensive but healthy; feel free to sub cheaper vegetable oil), seasoned it with a Penzey's mix I like called Ozark Seasoning, and stuffed it with rosemary, onions, and garlic. The root vegetables can be whatever; mine were yellow beets (slightly less "earthy" tasting than red, which might be more appealing to some), rutabaga, and carrots. Salt, pepper, and garlic powder is enough, seasoning-wise. And the kale, I blanch and then saute with a LOT of garlic.

Garlic parmesan white beans, brussels sprouts, and Gujerati carrot salad. I've not made the beans yet; they'll be a new dish for us. Sound great, though, and I'm trying to learn more meatless dishes generally and bean dishes specifically. We like to halve or quarter our brussels sprouts, depending on size, steam them, and then eat them with sour cream. And the carrot salad is a longstanding family favorite, which I got from my well worn copy of Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking. This is almost the same recipe, but I don't add cayenne, and I wouldn't use olive oil, since it has such a low smoke point. I'd use peanut or canola or something. It's not spicy or "exotic" tasting, and it's been well-received at potlucks.

Pot Roast. There's no point giving a recipe for this one; just pick one that looks good to you. Just include lots of good veggies. I like carrots, onions, potatoes, and parsnips. It's fun to add a bag of frozen pearl onions, and I like frozen peas put in at the very end of cooking.

Tuna salad. I eat it over lettuce, the others eat it as a sandwich. Dinner for a tired night. My tuna salad is made with well-drained chunk light (in water), finely diced celery, finely diced green salad olives, salt, pepper, and mayo to bind. My family really likes the olives so I go heavy and also use a little of the jar liquid as a salt stand-in.

Deviled eggs and raw veggies with hummus. Another phone-in meal, or it would be if I didn't find making deviled eggs such a hassle. We all love them, but I have some inexplicable personal antipathy for how long they take to make. ANYWAY, my deviled eggs are the bestest, and you will not think so if you eat yours southern-style with (shudder) "salad dressing" instead of mayo, or sweet relish. No, mine are made with salt, pepper, mayo, and lots of finely minced green salad olives, and topped with paprika, preferably sharp paprika.

Pork tenderloin, frozen corn, and stewed apples and quince. Aren't we just POSH? Jacob got me a quince to try at the farmer's market. It's uh...well pretty much I guess it's like a rock-hard and fairly tart apple, with the granular texture of an Asian pear. They're generally eaten cooked, which is why I decided to stew it mixed with apples. So I just sliced the apples and the quince up fine (just leave out the quince if you don't have it which you probably don't, and maybe add a dash of lemon juice instead), simmered them in a couple tablespoons of apple cider (or juice; we had cider), and threw in a teaspoon of pie seasoning, a fistful of dried cranberries (the recipe called for raisins) and very approximately a tablespoon of allulose syrup. Obviously you could just use sugar instead. I topped mine with pecans and it was so so good. Oh, and also the pork: Usually two tenderloins come in a pack of tenderloins, so I put a different seasoning on each just for fun. Various blends. Lemon pepper and Montreal Steak Seasoning are favorites, but tonight I opened an unlabeled container in the pantry and discovered that it was rosemary salt the bestie made and left here, so I mashed it up with some garlic and put that on one, and did bbq rub on the other. The frozen corn....is frozen corn. Except, you know, microwaved.

[multiplicity-positivity]

Here’s some positivity for systems who are punk or pluralpunk!

Punks of any movement play key roles the movements they are a part of. Plural punks and those who are pluralpunk are not only important members of the plural community, but they helped make it into what it is today! Here’s to all the pluralpunks out there, and the punks who are plural!

🖤 Shoutout to systems who are part of the pluralpunk subculture!

🩼 Shoutout to systems who are a part of madpunk, cripplepunk, crustpunk, solarpunk, straight edge, anarcho-punk, or other punk subcultures!

🤘 Shoutout to systems who push against oligarchy, monarchy, colonialism, imperialism, and authoritarianism, who are involved in leftist politics in their cities, and who fight back against unfair establishments!

🌿 Shoutout to systems who are poor or live in poverty while still finding ways to live punk lifestyles!

☀️ Shoutout to systems who take part in mutual aid and give back to their communities!

🪡 Shoutout to systems who sew, cross-stitch, repair furniture and appliances, and know other skills to help prolong longevity of every day items!

🎵 Shoutout to systems who are inspired by alternative and punk fashion and music!

♿️ Shoutout to disabled systems and those with chronic pain whose disabilities prevent them from learning DIY skills! We promise you’re just as punk even if you can’t practice DIY!

📖 Shoutout to systems who create flyers and zines, table at events, and help spread the word of the punk movement in their spaces!

🎨 Shoutout to systems who are punk artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and other creatives!

🌟 Shoutout to systems who are Black, Indigenous, or Asian punks, and to all punks who are people of color! Y’all are the pillars and cornerstones of these movements - have always been and always will be!

🌈 Shoutout to individual headmates who are punks in systems who aren’t! Your punk identity is not invalidated in the slightest by not sharing punk culture with your system!

📢 Shoutout to systems who stand up against and readily call out transphobia, homophobia, racism, xenophobia, and other forms of bigotry in their spaces!

Remember punk is a culture, a mindset, and a way of life! There’s no one right way to be punk - punk is by nature refusing conformity and living life on your own terms outside societal standards! So please embrace your identities as plural and punk, and feel free to express yourself and be yourself in punk spaces!

We’re wishing the very best for you and your system in all that you do! Remember to stay safe and anonymous when engaging in direct action, keep yourself hydrated at punk shows and events, and give yourself plenty of breaks when crafting if you need them! It’s punk to take care of ourselves in a world that’s actively working against us! Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day!

(Image ID:) A pale orange userbox with a cluster of multicolored flowers for the userbox image. The border and text are both dark orange, and the text reads “all plurals can interact with this post!” (End ID.)