#heard this in response to a lot of pro palestine people

[will-pilled]

"Who cares what happens to middle easterners there is always something going on there anyways" oh so you're just extremely evil aren't you?

[obxfiles]

The hate is way too much, and I’m sure Rudy is anxious as hell. Remember last year everyone was worried about his mental health and now it’s “let’s just bully and harass this actor because his exGF made a TikTok and we’ve jumped to conclusions.”

End of the day, he’s dating someone who’s using the attention to share pro-Palestine content.

Love or hate her Elaine is doing more to help people right now and I applaud her for that. If it was me I’d be telling all the fans to F off lol.

putting my response below the cut because it's quite long and gets a little on tangent but i really appreciate you pointing this out! it's so important to keep in mind!! i hope i worded this well...sometimes my word choice doesn't always come out the best

from what i've heard, elaine has always shared links for important issues on her social media; she uses her platform for the things she cares for and that's awesome of her. i totally agree, she's done a lot of good and even some of her instagram captions that may not seem like much, have made me self reflect on some of my own views.

i think it absolutely sucks when people hold someone's past against them and do not allow for any growth or change. none of us are the people we were in our teens. it's wild to think she's still the person she was at like fifteen. most of us at that time were just spoon-fed what our parents believed, or our peers. especially in the time period we were teens in. i think people forget what high school looked like for her vs. what high school is like for them now. there wasn't all this social media. you were pretty much in a bubble. and, unless you actively got out of that bubble, back in the day, you were just kind of locked in to what your family and friends were saying.

she's about my age and while i knew of course what was wrong and right, there'd be jokes friends would make that i'd laugh at without really thinking about on a deeper level. it took getting out of my small bubble to really see that hmm some of that stuff just wasn't and isn't okay

i think there's a lot of young people on social media that just simply do not allow for any kind of grace or change or progress. you are who you were and the mistakes that you made as a teen no matter how much time has passed and how much growth has happened. and i just can't agree with that. like of course you don't have to like her or anything, no one has to like anyone, but there's a certain level of grace and empathy i just can't wrap my head around withholding from a person. and of course if someone is a POC and they have an issue with her it's an important to hear that out and understand where they're coming from. a lot of what i've seen though, that has not been the case. a lot of the hate on twitter stems from people just trying to stir up drama and it's sad.

sorry for going off on a bit of a tangent there!

and yes i agree!!!!! no one is seeming to take mental health into consideration. i've seen threats, and even "spells" wishing ill upon both him and her on twitter and it's wild. people were even laughing about madison's car being wrecked. it's sick and disgusting. the lack of empathy is bizarre and frightening to me.

i'll never understand it, those levels of cruelty. it's inhumane, plain and simple.

[the-rainbow-lesbian]

Help me understand this please. Israel is the home of the Jews but since they were practically scattered around the world, Arabs took over the land and it became Palestine. Ever since Jews were allowed to return home, the Arabs there have been upset about it and there has been on going war. Hamas, not innocent civilians, are attacking Israelis and they are attacking back which sometimes causes harms to innocent bystanders. Due to this, people are saying Israel is attacking Palestinians but Israel is just defending itself. That’s what I’ve gotten from this but I can be wrong. Is this correct?

this is very simplistic, that area has been subject to many conquests not just by the arabs, but arabs/muslims will not accept jewish sovereignty and independence because historically jews and other religious minorities have been treated as dhimmis (second class citizens) in muslim controlled areas and had to wear identifiers, till this day religious minorities don't thrive in muslim majority countries, antisemitism in the muslim world has been prevalent even before zionism and a lot of pogroms and massacres were carried out against jews living among muslims. I do feel sympathy towards palestinians because many have lost their homes and lives because of irresponsible and corrupt leaders who continue to choose war with israel and jews over their lives, but I vehemently disagree with the propaganda that frames jewish refugees as invaders because it's simply false and there is a lot of malicious historical revisionism going on.

people want to constantly bring up the crimes of israel and of course they haven't been perfect and there are legitimate grievances and concerns, but in these conversations the responsibility of arabs and their own deplorable behavior and actions are always ignored, and I don't remember where I heard this but it rings true:"people believe in the rights of palestinians but not their responsibilities and people believe in the responsibility of israelis but not their rights" if you wage war against a group of people and carry out terrorist attacks against them, you will be hit back, I don't understand why this is a strange concept to people. I know there has been concentrated efforts to twist the narrative but decent human beings don't support massacres, no matter what the context is.

I also recommend the book "son of hamas" by mosab hassan yousef because he talks about being in israeli prison, being a double agent for israeli intelligence and hamas and although he is very pro-israel he does not shy away from talking about things he has been subjected to by israelis. he also goes into the political motivations behind the intifada and how it isn't an organic revolution like people think it is.

[haberdashing]

Indie Music Rec: Carsie Blanton

I wanted to promote an independent musician I'm a fan of, so here's a music rec post!

tl;dr:

Music: Folk, country, punk, maybe pop with some songs if you squint? Some love songs, some protest songs. Tempo varies wildly based on song. Definitely catchy. Some are sing alongs.

Vibes: Leftist, anti-capitalist, clearly channels her rage at the system into much of her music. Funny. Genuine. Passionate. She might just be on tumblr now actually it looks like the url is taken and probably actually by her but not used since 2018

Identity: From the American South, Jewish, Millennial-ish. Doesn't really center her own identity or story in most of her music.

Carsie Blanton... where do I even start in recommending her?

There's how she's about as far left as my own corner of tumblr tends to be. (I swear I heard her describe herself as politically "somewhere between Bernie Sanders and Karl Marx" but now I can't find the quote. It sounds about right, though.) How she refers to herself as "socialist" unabashedly and rails against the excesses of capitalism. How one of her songs has the lyric "you're just a Democrat, I'm a revolutionary".

How she has a song inspired by her response to the Charlottesville rally, and how the rally hit home for her, as she grew up in central Virginia as one of the only Jewish kids around.

How her songs channel her leftist rage, advocate protest, tear apart the system we're living in.

But importantly, she's not just writing protest songs, she's writing catchy protest songs that are genuinely quality pieces of music to boot.

When I saw her in concert a couple months ago, she mentioned how Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" is great because it's about as far left as you can get while still being a catchy pop song, and I think Carsie Blanton's own music fits that pretty well too.

I posted not too long ago about how my mom saw her posting something pro-Palestine and thought she was going too far because of it. I looked up the post in question; it had the caption "Free Palestine" along with some informative text that wouldn't look out of place in a tumblr post. Nothing radical, nothing anti-Israel. Just support for the Palestinian people. And while that might cost her some fans in and of itself--I think my mom's lost some interest in her because of it--I think it's a good example of how her leftism isn't just an act, or deployed just when it's popular. She speaks out for what's right, regardless of what the rest of the world thinks.

Now, that's enough of an introduction, I think. So I'll leave you with some examples of her music, and a quick blurb about each song I'm linking.

This is the one in response to Charlottesville, and it's the sort of fast-paced, angry song you might expect:

This one's also very anti-capitalist but a bit slower and more mellow, though that's not to say it won't get stuck in your head fast:

This is the one that first got her on my parents' radar, a fitting tribute to beloved country artist John Prine:

Apparently this one's big on Tiktok? I believe it, it's got the fast pacing and witty lyrics for that crowd. (Age-restricted because it uses the word "bitch" a lot, I imagine. Title is "Ugly Nasty Commie Bitch".)

This is the one with the lyrics I quoted above, despite being not generally a political song, just a fun silly listen:

Not quite as upbeat as the title might make it seem, but very fitting vibe for the current moment given, y'know, everything:

Are you an American with deeply divided feelings about what that means given your place of privilege in the world but being stuck in a system that keeps causing harm? Carsie Blanton feels that too:

Another slower, mellow one, and not political this time, but this one's gotten stuck in my head a few times lately:

And finally, a sing-along that seems like the perfect way to wrap things up:

[ritzcuit]

"i would have rather the highly televised eurovision song contest be filled entirely with pro-israeli/neutral audience members who would have made zero fuss and brought zero attention to the pro-palestinian cause" says local tumblr user who reportedly understands how protests work

by which i mean, "omg they gave money to esc >:(" is stupid. esc Was Going to have money either way.

there were not going to be empty seats at eurovision.

so either those seats are filled with people who loooooove israel/neutral and meaningless people,

or theyre filled with people who will boo and protest and cause a scene and sneak in flags and make, however small, literally any representation of palestine and what's happening there....

same with the performers. they should have just dropped out! trueee. They should have just dropped out, and let israel's involvement go entirely uncontested.

esc has been an uncritical supporter of israel for years now, is definitely funded by israel in some regard, and serves as a massive stage to legitimize israel's existence.

if esc is being used as a bullhorn to whitewash israel's crimes, it's only fair that the audience gets to co-opt that reach and protest israel's existence.

bc now, that shit was broadcasted... or cut out and made esc look worse. there's press... people were disqualified. performers made statements and brought awareness. the ebu showed their entire ass here, and they wouldn't have had the chance to if no one was there to push back. you know?

these zionist freaks couldnt help sharing an arena with other people for three days. they heckled and harassed and bullied and made threats to other performers the entire time...

if they were in an arena full of other zionists, it would have gone totally peacefully.

plus israel won the audience vote, which ppl have to pay to vote in. to me, this implies there wasn't a lot of "counter protest" voting, which is good. even if israel won the jury vote too, it's rly not worth saving the ebu's reputation by making israel lose lol we know whos side theyre on.

but now, there was like. A fuss. and a scene. and attention was drawn. "omg the booing was performative" and what a performance it was, considering the ebu tried to silence the audience's mics and pipe in canned cheers and *still* the booing was heard...

idk.... i don't think eurovision was like, a life altering tide-turning protest. or anything. worlds werent changed or anything. but it's simultaneously a fucking stupid song contest and a massive propaganda machine that's directly responsible for helping israel's reputation. i think it's fine if ppl bought tickets before october, and instead of selling off those tickets to zionists/neutral parties, co opted eurovision's propaganda machine for like, a little bit. i think it's fine.

maybe it wasnt the pragmatic ideal of a protest or anything but it was like. fine. it's better than letting israeli propaganda go uncontested.

[zatdummesmadchen]

As you have requested on the button, I will certainly go crazy.

Here goes : Hamas is the good guys and 99% of the bad things you hear about them are israeli occupation propaganda. If not 100%.

Kay let me explain.

Just... How many crimes did the IDF (and the israeli occupation in general) told us Hamas committed that later turns out they committed themselves? It's to the point that *THERE IS A LIST*.

They said Hamas oppresses the people of Gaza, actually they do, they said Hamas killed babies, actually they do, they said Hamas did the massacre on Oct 7, actually they do (seeing from the later interviews with IDF and using basic common sense and knowing the existence of the Hannibal Directive), they said Hamas kills the israeli hostages, actually they do (mass-bombing Gaza), they said Hamas uses human shields, actually they do (there are reports both old and new), they said Hamas bombed that first hospital, actually they did and are bombing more, they said Hamas r*pes people, actually they do, they said Hamas controls the news coming out of Gaza, actually they do, they said Hamas hides weapons and headquarters under schools and hospitals, actually they do, and...they said Hamas is a terrorist organization, actually the IDF itself came from the terrorist organizations that were responsible for the 1948 Nakba that in turn was what created the state of Israel.

This probably ain't even all.

The last two points are pretty crazy, yes, so here's my link to the source :

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1XXHHWIYkm/?igsh=MWswZWVtNTZjaWY1MA==

It's a reel from Middle East Eye, dubbed a 'Hamas source' by zionists. My personal experience with 'Hamas sources' is that they are reliable and trustworthy, especially when compared to CNN and co. that didn't fact-check the 40 beh*aded babies and the calendar before airing. You're welcome to decide yourself whether the reel is trustworthy or not.

So, why am I doing this? Am I a 'terrorist supporter' as zionists would call me?

...It's simple, really; if I had found Hamas to be a legitimate dangerous organization as reported by trustworthy sources, I would believe it, because I stand with truth. However, by the time October ended I was already distrusting of the west narration of Hamas and by December I was already entirely sure they are innocent. I.e., they are slandered. I.e., they are also Palestinian men, the men who showed us the best of humanity under the worst of tragedies. The fact that it is the ISRAEL occupation that begs the world to believe Hamas is the criminal should tell you all you need to know. Especially with the little apparently-well-known-among-some-if-not-all-palestinians trivia that the IDF themselves came from Haganah, Irgun and Lehi, terrorist groups that are recognized by the US and the UN.

From what I heard, the Israeli Occupation basically repeated 'Blame Hamas' throughout the hearing - it's like their entire moral existence (and existence in general) as a state is hanging on the belief that Hamas is a criminal, and maybe it's true. I want to take away their power on the narrative, for the sake of truth and justice, for the sake of a free Palestine with no more daily death tolls, for the sake of a world free from israeli occupation lies.

I know this ask is basically one big pro-Hamas propaganda piece - technically, ANY sort of information sharing and education can be defined as propaganda, whether it's truth or lies, you see me? - but in case you actually decide to answer : what do you think?

I am literally going insane, I don't even know anymore 🙃

What I do agree with is the fact that the Zionist entity definitely spreads a lot of lies, and I stand by that fact.

This was such a whiplash. Thank you for sending this ❤️

[bea-trician]

Regarding a lot of upsetting things I’ve been hearing about Etsy;

To begin, I can’t ignore the reports I’ve been hearing about the company’s stance in support for is//rael and their practice of taking down listings that show support for Palestine or donate proceeds towards them. It stands in direct opposition of my personal political beliefs, which I have tried to make as clear as possible through the information and posts that I have boosted and shared on ALL my social media, not just here. What’s going on in Gaza is an open and deliberate campaign of genocide, and it’s sickening how long it’s been allowed to go on without any interference from the rest of the world. I want to do all I can to support the people of Palestine and keep calling for a permanent ceasefire.

I’ll admit, I didn’t really want to make my merch store on Etsy in the first place. I did so at the request of someone I know IRL who has been coaching me as I try to revive my art career. I’d been avoiding it due to details I’d heard through the Artist Grapevine about how unfair their policies are to the creators who try to make a living using their platform, and have now experienced firsthand the ridiculous premiums they charge for every single service they provide. The only reason my mentor advised me to set up a shop there was for networking purposes, and to make my items as easy to find as possible. At the time of making this post, my store hasn’t even been open for a month, but it’s taken up a huge portion of my daily life just to set it up and monitor it, and it has already been linked to all of my social media accounts. Now that I’ve sunk all this time into it, it seems like a depressing waste of time and energy to close the shop and have to start from the ground up on another platform. That, and I know for a fact that my mentor is keeping an eye on my progress and will expect me to keep it open, and I’m not sure how to explain my reasons to her if she sees me backing out.

Being on Etsy was far from my first choice for setting up an online merch shop. In the immediate future, I’ll be looking at other options. Most people I know use BigCartel, which I’ve heard good things about, and I do plan on creating more digital items to upload to my Gumroad store. As far as I know, neither of them have made any moves in support of is//rael, so if anyone is aware of related news that I haven’t heard about yet, feel free to let me know.

So far, I haven’t made many sales on etsy, and hopefully traffic will remain on the low side so it won’t be too big a transition to move my shop somewhere else. I don’t know the exact numbers, but I’ve definitely donated more to help Palestine than I’ve made off my etsy store since it opened back in January. Rest assured that I want to leave the platform as soon as I possibly can. In the meantime, however much money I make on my Etsy store, I will be matching or exceeding the amount in donations to pro-Palestine organizations.

I strongly discourage anyone from shopping on etsy, and if you do have interest in any of my merch items, I’m completely willing to sell them to you directly through DMs with payments over Venmo. I’m still making art, and I want to share it with you, without perpetrators of ethnic cleansing benefiting from it.

If you have no money but you DO have a minute, go to Arab.org and participate in the daily click. I’ve been returning to it every day, and the button can be clicked multiple times if you open it in different browsers or on different devices.

https://www.pcrf.net/

I’m going to do all I can to stand by my beliefs and correct this oversight.

Don’t look away. Share and amplify their voices. Call for peace and justice. Don’t stop talking about Palestine.

[thelittlepalmtree]

I cannot deal with the conversations around voting. Because every election, It's a bunch of people being like "I don't wanna vote!" At 1 point I was talking to someone and he said, "I don't vote because voting is the least you can do." And I was like. "Yes it is the least you can do so you should do it." And we just went back and forth like that.

And maybe it's just because I'm a teacher. And I am literally waiting through rivers of bullshit Every single fucking day to try to help these children have a fucking future. But I just don't understand how people are ignoring the reality so hard. I am not voting for democrats because I am like super enthusiastic about the democratic party. I like some democrats. But the system is broken. And we know it's broken. I am literally a public servant. And I am so deeply frustrated about the fact that whenever we talk about education. We're talking about bathrooms and fucking book burnings, I'm not the fact that we are in a national teacher shortage and have been for like ten years. Like I guarantee you, Every single family in america would be benefited right now by an infusion of funding into our education system. Education reform is the most kitchen table of kitchen table issues. What are most parents talking about with their children?

But we're not talking about that. Because politics these days is all about trying to keep a small group of people from fucking burning the whole country down. And you know what, It's fucking exhausting. But you don't just say ok i'm walking away let him burn it down. Cause then, Everything is burned down.

Like I really and truly and deeply understand the exhaustion. I am so exhausted. I do not like the way things are. And I do not think my vote is gonna make anything better. But y'all, I'm still gonna fucking vote. And i'm probably gonna fucking campaign. Not out of joy, Not out of excitement, But out of Pure anxiety and fear. And there is not a single issue, On which voting for a third party candidate Or not voting Will cause any improvement.

Everything that you do not like about joe biden, Will be worse if you choose not to vote. And the people who are talking to you about this, Are not people who can name the key, senators and key people in the house of representatives who are actually causing a lot of the problems. And please do not fucking talk to me about gaza. Because I am Egyptian. And I gave a shit about gaza way before most of you even heard about it. I have been pro palestine since I was a fucking child. And I am incensed and enraged an upset about everything that is happening. But there is nothing that I can do. There is nothing that you can do. And you can tell yourself that not drinking starbucks and being A fucking toddler about voting is gonna make you better than everybody else and somehow making not complicit. But you are complicit. Because if biden does not win, Say goodbye to gaza. Not only will it be that america did not stand up to israel. Not only will america be giving israel aid. You will not be safe, I will not be safe, In america. And everything that is happening in gaza, Will be expedited. Netanyahu is rooting for Trump. Your little self righteous Act of boycotting an election will do nothing. It will actively harm the people living in gaza. And that will be on you. Although I'm guessing that when that shit does happen. You're just gonna act like you're not responsible.

It's time to wake up. Being an adult is about making hard choices. And just because someone doesn't have a fucking gun to your head, Doesn't mean that there's not guns to other people's heads. The person most likely to vote for a democrat is a black woman. Do you think that black women vote for democrats at such a high rate? Because they just absolutely love grandpa Joe over there? No. They show up and they do it because they know there's no other choice. Everyone who is voting democrat knows, That there are people in the margins. And now life is not gonna get better anytime soon, That is just a fact. But, There is work we can do to make it not be as bad as quickly. An in that space is human lives. And if you decide to opt out, To just not participate, To decide that you're smarter than every other person, And take a little ego trip. That is your privilege talking, Or maybe just your stupidity. The person I see who talks the most about not voting and opting out, Is a white queer person. And this isn't anecdotal evidence we literally take a study every four years. More than that every year. So if you wanna stay home stay home. But think about who you're listening to.

[socialistgamergirl]

So a while ago I made a post saying that I think a consistent outlook on conflict would lead someone to be both Pro-Ukraine and Pro-Palestine (or the opposite if you're a fash, I guess.) I made this post to criticize the majority of liberals and neoconservatives in the US who are pro-Ukraine and pro-Israel, but ironically it started a debate with someone who's hypocritical in the opposite way. In hindsight I could’ve done a lot better at explaining myself there, though. Some of my points fell flat, and there were more convincing arguments I could’ve made that I didn't think of. Lucky for me, I got a chance to redeem myself this morning when I was running late for work and hungry.

It started with a YouTube video, specifically this one:

While the video itself is objective and not an opinion piece, I took issue with some of the polls cited in the video; specifically the way they irresponsibly framed the conflict. For instance, one poll asked people if they were more sympathetic towards Israel or Hamas. The problem being that generally, people who are condemning Israel's actions aren't doing it because they support Hamas, but because they view it as a disproportionate and unjustifiable response to Hamas's initial terror attack. At least, that's my view on it. You can find stupid dipshits here and there on Twitter or TikTok or... probably here somewhere that are unironically cheering on Hamas and saying that they're revoluntaries, but that doesn’t seem to be common for obvious reasons. As such, this poll, along with a lot of the other messaging from western politicians and media, commits one of the underhanded tactics used to muddy the waters on discussion of this conflict, that being boiling it down to an ethnically essentialist perspective.

I guarantee you've heard this before if you're even remotely plugged into this issue. You have to support Israel or you're anti-semetic. You can't sympathize with the plight of Palestinians or you're pro-Hamas. There is a total conflation between the powers of the region and the ethnic groups of the region. I consider this way of thinking to be insane and incredibly reactionary. Imagine if we treated any other conflict this way. Does not liking the government of China give you a right to be racist against Chinese people? Does disapproving of Modi's government give you a right to disrespect Indians on the basis of their race? Obviously not. Anyone with basic critical thinking skills should be able to figure this one out. Unironically, I think this way of thinking is what's actually anti-semetic. You're essentially saying that any wrong that Israel commits, every Jew should also be held liable for. (By the way, this is a perspective currently being pushed by Nazis who are using the situation to spread anti-semetism.)

Anyway, tangents aside, I went to the comments to see if someone had already shared my concerns, and thankfully someone had.

However a look at the replies completely set me off, leading to this (I'm the anime pfp, obviously.)

I got kind of mean with the third one (and cheesy at the end,) but I really hate that kind of anti-intellectualist line- blaming any opinion you don't like on the vague concept of "Twitter" or "TikTok." (People used to do this with Tumblr all the time!)

In summation- It’s pretty obvious to me by now that Americans didn't learn a single damn thing from the war on terror.

[one-little-goat]

On Anti-Israel/Pro-Palestine Protests and Media Coverage

Shavua Tov, everyone. Shabbat ended for me about an hour ago, and in that time I've heard and seen a lot of reporting about the pro-Palestine protests that took place in London earlier today (yesterday if you're in England, I suppose). The coverage that I saw largely painted the protest as a peaceful one, with London police officers being noted as clashing with the pro-Israel counterprotestors, 90 of whom were arrested. I later learned that many of the pro-Palestine protestors were filmed engaging in antisemitic rhetoric (e.g., saying "Hitler was right". lighting flares, and harassing Jews leaving synagogues after Shabbat morning prayer services. This seems to be something of a trend in these protests, in which news outlets report pro-Palestine protests as peaceful and respectful, only for evidence to emerge later suggesting that this was not the case, and for the violent and bigoted aspects of these protests to go unreported by news agencies, thus skewing public opinion in favor of those protestors. Such graces are not extended to pro-Israel protests. Coverage of protests in the UK (from all news outlets) seems to be especially guilty of this. I don't want to make the claim that the antisemitic rhetoric and behavior of some of the pro-Palestine protestors should be considered indicative of the entire protest movement, any more than I would want the bigoted actions of some pro-Israel protestors and speakers to be portrayed as representative of that protest movement. At the same time, I have seen very little effort on the part of the protestors not engaged in this rhetoric and behavior to halt, impede, or even call out those who are engaged in it, whereas many within the liberal and progressive Jewish community are quick to call out such behavior towards Palestinians and Muslims in general coming from members of the pro-Israel movement. I am a firm believer in the people's right to protest, and in people's right to protest in disruptive ways in order to make their message clear. However, I also believe that it is the responsibility of protest movements to disavow members of their community engaging in morally reprehensible behavior, both for practical and moral reasons, and that it is the responsibility of news organizations to accurately report on the nature of protests in order to provide people with a clear picture of the beliefs and behaviors engaged in by the protest movement.

[notchainedtotrauma]

Okay, so how and when do we factor the fact that Donald Trump Jr. praised Tim Walz for his response to the George Floyd protests ? The same Donald Trump who is running today ?

When do we factor in, since we're talking about the protection of queer people, the fact, that there is a rise of anti-trans bills, and extremely dangerous concepts would be legislated if it wasn't for organizing and protecting, like "trans panic", ripping trans children away from accepting parents ?

When do we factor in libraries disappearing from towns because librarians were receiving death threats for holding in their stacks queer and Black books and books that honestly told the history of both, which also meant the history of the oppressor ?

When do we factor in Lady Ruby and her daughter, elections workers in Georgia, that became Trump and his weasel of a lawyer (and politician and all around grifter, including grifter of the heart) Rudy Giluiani's major targets in 2020, told to have falsified the results in favor of Biden ? And who where violently, even threatened with possible death by those people and K***'s manager ? And they had to sue and I still haven't heard that Biden or Kamala Harris took care of any of this before it could happen ?

When do we factor in the removal of several and very specific departments in universities across states, and not only in Florida, and not only in Republican states, way before the pro Palestine campus protests, a lot of them about Black Studies, Feminist Studies, LGBTQ Studies, the study of specific histories ?

When do we factor in not only the sudden end of, but the rising hatred towards DEI (Diversity. Equity. Inclusion) in all spaces ?

When do we factor in Black teachers running away from their states because it's no longer safe to teach here and maybe there needs to be a collective of people to rewrite and re-edit the Green Book ?

Listen. Trump is here, teeth bared, ready to strike. But please, don't come here and sell people a fairytale. At this point, YOU, YES, YOU are ENDOCTRINATED. Because if you had any sense, if you're worried about Trump, then you should be worried that Kamala Harris is putting a Republican in her cabinet. By doing so, she is signaling she's going to work actively with the Republicans, with also means, she'll let them have a couple of victories, respecftully. So where does that fit in your fucking cotton candy, glitter and haloed world ?

The other thing: can you please stop telling people to vote and start organizing about the active suppression of ballots in Texas, Georgia, Arkansas, Wisconsin, where people are thrown off voting rolls like donuts in hot oil. If you want people to vote, make sure they CAN vote.

Demsoc motherfuckers: "It will be easier to push Kamala to the left! We have to elect her!"

Kamala Harris:

[summer-fruits-and-cream]

Tbh this is the best pro-Palestine response I’ve ever seen (compared to all the times before where the narrative was “Israel has no choice” and any and all dissenters in America would be labeled as anti-semitic and it would be over).

But it’s still nothing to how social media exploded over other social issues in the past couple of years, at least not on my dash. It’s nothing compared to the outcries for BLM. There’s a few people I’m following who are speaking up, on Tumblr and other platforms, and the majority of you are silent. Presumably because people are scared to be wrong on this issue. Especially given the pro-Israeli rhetoric that’s surrounded it for almost all of our lives, where the only Americans who heard anything that challenged it growing up were Muslim (and yeah, it’s not a “Jews vs Muslims” issue, but the fact is all the Muslims I know were kept appraised of the atrocities that happened in Palestine which the news media simply refuses to cover- probably because it was easier to see the prejudice against Arabs and Muslims that color how the issue was presented).

Anyways, it’s the best response I’ve ever seen, but it’s still really sad. If you’ve learned anything about privilege in the last year, which a lot of people have in the push to be anti-racist, please understand that silence and “oh I’ll stay out of it” has only ever helped maintain the status quo. It has only ever helped the oppressor. There is no such thing as neutral. If you are neutral, please educate yourself so that you can choose a stance.

I’d be happy to talk about Israel-Palestine stuff with people also. I can’t guarantee that I’ll have the energy for it at any given moment, but if I do, I’m happy to discuss. I also promise to be civil, even if we come away with different opinions.

[the-archlich]

Why do people conflate anti-zionism with anti-semitism? Is it just propaganda or a genuine misunderstanding? On an unrelated note, i'm glad a lot of Jews do see the injustice in Palestine and don't condone the actions of Israel in any way.

I’m sure there is some genuine confusion, due to the extensive efforts by various governments (particularly those of America and Israel) to obscure a lot of basic fact. If you haven’t looked into the Palestine question at all and have just heard the pro-Israeli narrative all your life, I expect it’s normal to be confused.

There are people far more qualified than me to explain these matters but to keep things simple:

Israel claims to be the homeland of all Jewish people. Therefore opposition to Israel is opposition to all Jewish people. It’s nonsense, of course, as the innumerable Jewish people speaking out against these atrocities prove. Obviously you can criticize the policies of a nation’s government without attacking an entire ethnic group, or even the average citizens of the state. People are not their governments, after all.

But as I think I’ve stated before, I do not believe most claims of anti-Semitism (in response to criticism of the actions of the Israeli government) are made in good faith by people who actually believe them. It’s an effort to silence dissent by labeling the other party as inherently villainous. You can’t really stop people from doing that, so you have to be willing to shrug off that blow and trust that rational people acting in good faith can see the truth for themselves.

[jraker4]

OK! I'll admit, I wouldn't have expected a definition as accurate as that. That was a prediction I had, and I was wrong about that with you. Of course, you're not quite entirely right, but that's not unexpected for such a thing as a long-running, widely spread political idea. It's not always easy to know when you've broadened a term enough to encapsulate all adherents, but not broadened beyond the point of usefulness. I would add a significant asterisk to 'the territory of Palestine', since there's complicated history involved in just when it started to be called that and by whom, but that doesn't erase the indigeneity of Palestinians to the region, it just adds some context. Depending on what you mean, I wouldn't object to labeling Israel a Jewish state. Certainly Israel as it exists today exists in significant part due to displacing many thousands of Palestinians, conquering territory, and even killing many thousands of Palestinians as well. I don't think anyone would dispute that. But genocide? No. Not all wars are genocide. Not even all the most terrible wars are genocides, and to use the term 'genocide' to refer to the creation of Israel would mean that we must use the same term for many, many wars and events before, during, and since as 'genocide' that...we don't. For instance, the massacres and expulsions of Jews throughout the Arabic world at the same time should also then be referred to as genocides, and yet while you can't swing a dead cat around a pro-Palestinian speaker without hearing the word 'genocide', I can't recall the last time I heard this referred to as one. I'm afraid it's just Holocaust inversion. *shrug* Again, if it weren't just Holocaust inversion, we'd be hearing the term used a lot more often for a lot more places...and we don't. That doesn't mean the war and ongoing conflict aren't terrible. It doesn't mean that Palestinians don't deserve to live in safety, dignity, and with self-determination. It doesn't mean Palestinians-many of them, at least-have been treated awfully by the government of Israel. And many others, not least their own governments and 'allies' such as Hamas, Fatah, Egypt, and Jordan. As for your...'plan' to redress the genocide of scores of Native American peoples and the supposed genocide of Palestinians, there is the little, tricky problem of what to do with the hundreds of millions of people who immigrated to, were born, live, and died for generations on that land for centuries in one case and generations in the other. Which isn't to say that justice shouldn't be pursued and obtained for the descendants of those people, it's to question what shape that justice should take. And in the case of Israel, there's the very real, and completely reasonable, question of 'hey, how much of a say should we let groups that literally teach from Protocols from the Elders of Zion have in the government of millions of Jews?' Just as one example. 'Solutions' which handwave such concerns aside, or blithely suggest destroying a nation of hundreds of millions and replacing it, are frankly not even remotely serious. It's difficult to regard them as anything other than performative. Zionism was certainly integral to the current conflict and the creation of modern Israel. It wasn't alone responsible for the conflict, however...and it does beg the question: do refugees deserve a home? Also, I'm afraid your tags are silly. American evangelicals don't embrace (their version/interpretation) of Zionism out of some supposed colonialist solidarity, they embrace it because they-like some others-are a death cult that craves the end of the world, and Israel has a central place in their myths about the End Times.

Try replacing “Zionists” with “80% of Jews” and repeat your sentences that way before you say them.

“Zionists are incorrect.” —> “80% of Jews are incorrect.” Okay, sure.

“Zionists are evil.” —> “80% of Jews are evil.” Unless you think 80% of the world is evil, that’s a messed-up (and bizarre) belief to have.

“I wish all Zionists a very painful death.” —> “I wish 80% of Jews a very painful death.” That’s really gross, don’t you think?

Hope this helps.

[adhd-hippie]

Hey, abt your reblog on the Palestine Israel situation. I recommend being very cautious of what you read/share on the situation bc there is a LOT of misinformation out there, or painting of one sided narratives (for example in the post it says Israel fired a rocket at a building in Gaza. It was a response to the 1500+ rockets fired from gaza into civilian populated places in israel, and the building held hamas'(a terrorist org) weapons. Israel announces beforehand of an attack so all people can evacuate the area). In addition a lot of these posts are filled with antisemitism, and there has been a HUGE rise in antisemitism around the world. People have been chanting "death to jews" At pro Palestine protests, and using nazi imagery around the world, it's terrifying. Yes of course one can support Palestinians, but you can't apply western views into the situation. It's not black and white, good and evil. Just keep that in mind. Social media has now turned this topic into a trend but spreading false info can be super harmful, and ultimately will not lead to peace. I recommend following Jewish activists that are talking about the issues going on (I can recommend some if you want - all of them pro palestine as well)

Hi, thank you for your insightful, and generous post regarding the dangers of only talking from one side regarding the Israel/Palestine conflict. 

I am posting this two to show the other side, your side, your opinion.  I personally do not believe that the existence of Israel, which was created post-WWII by allied forces is legal or right.  That’s my opinion, the fact that Israelis are currently trying to evict Palestinians from land that they’ve occupied for generations is also not right, finally, it’s not right that the media was targeted.

These are however my opinions and in discourse, opinions can differ and yes both sides need to be heard. 

To be clear:

I support Jewish people's right to exist, I support their struggles and acknowledge the danger they are in from antisemitism which is why I also reblogged a post about how the narrative needs to be Israel vs Palestine and not Jews vs Muslims because that’s not accurate and places people in danger.

The situation in Israel and Palestine is extremely complex and you’re right, there are multiple sides to the story.  I have posted only a limited number of posts about it mostly those which shocked me. 

[chromolume]

did someone say... northern ireland travelogue?

i’ll start by saying that i was there for two days so i didn’t exactly have the deepest experience. mainly what i saw was the legacy of the troubles (which to be fair isn’t exactly made discrete). so my account is probably a bit unfair to northern ireland! my main, subjective takeaway was that it was quite... weird, but for many, many people living there it’s not. so while i’ll talk a lot about things that strike me an outsider to sectarianism, and i’ll discuss subjectively how i saw the north differ to the south, in a way that’s doing northern ireland a disservice. but that said... its not like there isn’t much to talk about

if you’re wondering when i first heard the word “wee” it was on the train from dublin to belfast. and if you’re wondering when i first got offended it was upon exiting the train at belfast and seeing a sign that said “londonderry”

lad quotient of belfast is higher than in dublin, smaller than in cork, as is to be expected. homo quotient surprisingly high. jerseys are political here. i did spot of few GAA ones.

belfast to me seemed very different from any other irish city i’ve been to. lots of new, nondescript, sorta ugly buildings which i’m not used to seeing in an irish city centre. but at the same time there was old buildings that were much more impressive and beautiful than you’d find anywhere else in ireland, even in dublin (maybe worth mentioning that at the time of partition belfast was the largest city in ireland).

the fact that these buildings were mixed with (and somewhat overshadowed by) bland new development i found strange. i haven’t seen any building in the rest of ireland as classically beautiful as belfast city hall (first one), but then note the bland glass building in the background. also, from many of the main streets you can see the completely uninhabited mountains very close nearby, making the city seem startlingly small. it has an urban vibe in the centre similar to dublin but the centre itself isn’t that big. and while i’m talking about the centre i should say that its mixed, modern and bears little relation to the kinds of things i’ll be talking about below. at night (albeit a monday night) it felt lively and safe. though this wouldn’t have been the case thirty years ago, you can’t tell when you’re there.

btw i had considered that there’d be union jacks in belfast so i wasn’t so surprised at the sight of those but it was seeing statues of queen victoria that made be think “oh, this place really is all that”

so now we get to falls road and shankhill, only a 10 minutes walk or so from the centre. this area is famous for the “peace wall,” which separates the catholic falls road from the protestant shankhill. this was the centre of much of belfast’s violence during the troubles and today remains a deeply political area. it’s a poorer residential area. i went to falls road first and then to shankhill so i’ll talk about it in that order.

both disconcerting names but at the end of the day i’d rather fall on a road then get shanked on a hill

on falls road you’d see an irish tricolour maybe every few minutes walking down the street. LOTS of palestine flags and pro-palestine murals here (in the north, some people express their politics by supporting either palestine if they’re catholic, or israel if they’re unionist. in my experience i didn’t see any israeli flags though the unionists showed little engagement with politics that weren’t their own. conversely the nationalists are supporting catalonia now.)

along with the irish tricolour there were many rainbow flags hanging from streets and houses, and many, many murals such as these:

seriously a LOT of palestine stuff

the messages of the falls road murals were nationalist, leftist, and supportive of disenfranchised peoples across the world. still, i found the level of politics on the street gave it a hard edge. ahh but i was very naive then and had not yet been to...

shankhill! lads without prejudice this area was quite bizarre. whereas i saw maybe five tricolours along falls road, shankhill looked like this:

i stress that these photos do not convey the amount of union jacks along this road. for the first picture, the entire street was like that. for the second picture, the entire row of houses was like that. i went into a catholic pub along falls road and saw a single, small tricolour behind the bar. i went into a protestant pub on shankhill and the entire place was covered in union jacks and slogans of “no surrender”

“no surrender” was their only slogan. their murals were graphic accounts of IRA terrorism, sometimes combined with very graphic images (to be fair, I saw some graphic images displayed by catholics in derry also). the posters had captions like “IRA - Sinn Fein - ISIS no difference.”

where falls road was political, shankhill was territorial. they displayed the crimes of their adversaries but ignored their own. i think the murals on shankhill are a response to those on falls road. they feel more than a bit propagandistic.

as i said, i didn’t find falls road to be exactly pleasant either. but with its LGBT support, and its support for oppressed peoples, it at least didn’t feel hostile. now HERE’S me being non-objective: unionists can’t seem to grasp to a righteous political cause. not that being unionist is an invalid position (i disagree with it, but they have their reasons), but their side was the side of the oppressors. they have no cause for the political engagement visible on falls road.

in general it was much, much more common to see union jacks flying in NI than tricolours. again, depends on the area, but while catholic areas would have a few tricolours, protestant areas would have many union jacks. the catholic areas were often ostentatious with... other things, though. still, never very much confusion as to which side you’re on.

this is divis flats on falls road, which looms over its part of belfast. until 2005 the top two floors were an observation post for the british army. during the troubles soldiers had to enter by helicopter at the top of the flats because of hostility from the locals living there. that’s the strangest thing about the troubles: the domesticity of the violence. despite falls road and shankhill being highly political, i found it hard to imagine the violence that must have taken place there. they were otherwise fairly normal-looking residential areas. an apartment building like this would also be a rare sight in the south. anyway anyway anyway in this picture you can see (if you look closely) one tricolour and two palestinian flags hanging from the windows. have fun spotting them as i write my post on derry...

it’s a privilege to live without considering politics and in northern ireland i found the very visible politics, from whichever side, to be wearying. it’s wearying to talk a walk across belfast and suddenly see a dozen union jacks, and know you’re in a protestant area. at the same time, i didn’t exactly love the sight of the irish tricolour either. 

to be continued dot dot dot