#i acknowledge it as genocide

[diabetesnscoliosis]

I had thought that the rhetoric of "I'm a part of x group and don't think y is xphobic" would eventually come crashing, but I didn't anticipate it would take oct 7 to do that. Not that it doesn't make retrospective sense.

from my perspective over the years, there were all sorts of conversations around this: is criticism of Islam racist? Is Queer a slur? The concept of "identifying" as disabled, which then expanded to various sexualities, gender, sex and incredibly rarely... race.

My experience looking at these circles showed me that the answers to these questions and concepts lied in who thought it was OK, rather than critical analysis of the questions and concepts itself. It was the priority of token representation than dealing with the issue itself; the bigotry in question.

This would culminate in the US 2016 election, with many justifications for voting in one of the most dangerous and impactful presidents in the world boiling down to "I'm Mexican and I agree" or "I'm gay and I agree". No discussion of why agreeing with a politician that has tangible, negative impacts on the target demographic would render one individual protected from rhetoric or policy.

What am I seeing post October 7 is similar . "My statement isn't anti semitic, x jewish person agrees with me!" This statement doesn't address why the statement isn't antisemitic, but shuts down criticism by tokenising the Jewish person and dehumanises them; they are a prop to use to "prove" the point of someone else and no more.

The use of tokens to prove arguments instead of facts and reasoning is probably the byproduct of the US "culture wars" ideology that's been forcibly exported to every anglicised state. That doesn't mean i don't expect better from leftists, who should be the group to use facts and reasoning to argue against individualist right wing policies. It is such a shame to see my political ideology become downtrodden by intellectual laziness.

If you cannot use reasoning to prove your point, who are you acting for?

That's a rhetorical question. If you cannot use reasoning, you use ideology, and ideology only serves to divide the "believers" and "unbelievers"; it's about power.

Bigotry is irrational and can always be argued against.

[tododeku-or-bust]

Because has "white power" or any other actual racist, antisemitic, white supremacist slogan ever gone through what "river to the sea" just went though? Curious. Because we all know that the US government does NOT actually care about its Jewish populace. Crazy how I keep talking about the white right of comfort because it keeps applying.

[feral-ballad]

I don't think it's because they support or do not support that they're unfollowing. I honestly think they're like myself who is absolutely EXHAUSTED seeing bad news after bad news in this stupid world and being FORCED to have an opinion on something we cannot control. Just something to think about before getting hostile or feeling superior.

i don’t know why you think condemning someone’s silence to a genocide is “getting hostile or feeling superior” but sure. i guess i can’t get hostile when there’s people dying. so sorry you’re forced to have an opinion, must be very tiring.

[plushpile]

Currently frustrated (again) abt how little it feels like we can talk about certain things in the plush community, mainly when it comes to politics and stuff like that

A huge example on my mind rn is the whole squishmallow/jazwares thing

It frustrates me to see ppl in my servers and on other sites continuing to buy squishmallows right now, and I feel like it's only gonna get worse as the holidays get closer

I can't help but think that a lot of these people just don't know (I mean shit, posts about it were literally hidden/deleted on the main squishmallow subreddit), and I want so badly to tell them but in multiple places that's not allowed, because of the nature of the community and people wanting to keep it a certain way

In a way I get it, but the silence is deeply upsetting when support of genocide and disgusting misinformation is what's on the table

I know a lot of us are in this community for comfort, or to connect to childhood, whatever it could be but as adults in this community we should not let our own comfort take precedence over the lives of innocent people, it doesn't matter if you're political or not

On the other hand, I feel like we're avoiding this topic to specifically avoid discourse, but frankly I don't care because I don't want to share a community with anyone who would oppose the beliefs fueling the boycott of this company

I don't want to share a community with people who would defend genocide, specifically the killing of innocent people in Gaza, for any reason, and it's disheartening not knowing who I could be rubbing shoulders with in this community because of the specific lack of conversation about these important topics

I don't really have any profound point here, I don't have a solution, I'm just frustrated and disgusted

Fuck Jazwares, stop buying squishmallows, and FREE GAZA

[gayvampyr]

leftist: kamala said she would continue aiding israel and allow the “war” (genocide) in gaza to continue. she also promised to be harsher on border policing and immigration, and to make the american military the most lethal globally to further american influence and imperialism. these are all things she admitted and made key parts of her campaign

online liberals: so you wanted trump to win? you’re a russian bot aren’t you. this is a psyop. election interference. you’re puritanical . [slur]

[terryfuckingturniptruck]

Alright, here we go again. I'm sorry that you all want to feel righteous and just but not voting or voting third party is only going to make everything worse. Of course the dems are fucked up politicians too but if you are going to just not vote for anyone bc of the genocide, then you are voting indirectly for that orange fucker to be back in office. And not only is he for the genocide in Palestine, he is for various other types of genocide and other egregious behaviors as we've seen.

[samuraisharkie]

I know I’m posting a lot of like. semi-bitter stuff and especially posts with frustration towards the Democratic Party and the liberals who refuse to look anywhere but themselves when it comes to why they failed, as well as acknowledging the fear and anxiety that comes with what we’re about to go through. But I want to say, that despite all of that and the awful feeling in my chest, I have so much compassion for the world. I still think we can fight for a better future, that it’s not over. We got this. It’s bleak but it was going to be no matter what, and we can make it. The results have inspired me to get even more active and try even harder, and I know there’s a lot of people that feel the same. We’ll all support each other, and we will make it. It’s going to suck, and I don’t want to put down the very real fear and danger folks are in— but I also don’t want to give in to that feeling of hopelessness and doom. There are so many people all over the world facing similar plights, or worse, and the least we can all do is keep fighting and supporting each other! Again I don’t want to step on the very real anxieties and fears and sadness from the results of this year’s election, I just feel some encouragement is in order amidst all the fear. For every person that refuses to turn on each other and continues to stand with all those who suffer just like us in our own homes and all over the world, we will be stronger for it. Take care of yourself, and take plenty of time to cry and fear of course, that’s not wrong, but don’t forget it isn’t over. There’s still a lot of love in this world!

[inaflashimagine]

i will say that it's telling of the oscar voters that kotfm, a movie about white men committing genocide and the mass murder of the osage nation, didn't get any awards tonight and the way they only talked about the film during awards season was 'how long it was'

[estrogenism]

idk i wish people would talk more about papua when it comes to occupied nations.

free papua.

[oldhabitsdiescrming]

i can't explain this eloquently, but i'm thinking of my ancestors in light of palestine.

i'm native american. what happened to my ancestors runs in my blood. it lives in every move i make and lies down with me at night. it's been centuries and i still feel it, still look up at the trees and know that the nature i am so connected to is due in part to the bones buried beneath. my heart aches for the people i will never know anything about besides how they were buried by colonization and lack of mercy, lack of humanity. i miss their ghosts, and i cannot help but think of how inevitable it is that future palestinians will feel the same.

because that's the thing. palestine will persevere. there will be a revival of gaza. i believe this, much like my ancestors believed centuries ago. even so, there will be no going back to the way it was before- a before that existed in the 1940s, not recently. the generations born from those who have survived and the generations born from them (and so on) will have this in their blood forever. the same moon i look at will be the one these generations will look at, and the same grief for those we never got to meet will settle deep within. there's no escaping generational trauma. even when that apartheid state fades to nothingness, palestinians will be forced to persevere.

[jyndor]

spoilers for farha, which you all should watch but is very, very brutal even if it is not terribly graphic.

tw: infant murder, settler colonial violence. read with caution.

the scene where the one israeli genocider doesn't end up killing the infant is such a powerful scene for a number of reasons. but one aspect of it that sticks out to me is that when his commanding genocider tells him not to "waste a bullet" and he can't go through with curb stomping the fucking newborn to death, he ultimately condemns the baby to a crueler death - to starve to death, alone in the night, beside his family's bodies.

it is of course a crueler death, and I am sure the soldier is aware of what will become of that baby when he places the kerchief over his face and walks away. but this moment is not about the soldier being decent or kind at all, of course - if he was halfway decent he would die rather than kill that baby.

he doesn't care what will happen to that baby as long as he doesn't have to bear witness to it. to cover the baby's face is to cover his eyes to the cruelty of his and by extension israel's actions. it makes him uncomfortable to think of curb stomping a baby to death, but not of starving him. of leaving him alone and screaming.

he doesn't even consider for a second disobeying the order and shooting the baby, putting him out of his misery - as horrific as that would be.

because it isn't about the baby for him - it is about HIS comfort. he's comfortable with ethnic cleansing, he's comfortable with terrorizing a woman who has just given birth and her family, it is not at all about shame or horror or a tiny spot of decency in him. he's just not comfortable with having to step on a baby and kill him.

he is more comfortable with letting that baby starve out of sight than he is taking direct action against him.

this is the liberal zionist or frankly the liberal colonizer even beyond zionism - because it's all connected. as long as they do not have to be the ones to crush the infant to death under their boot, as long as they can shield their eyes from the brutality of their country, they'll take that option.

I think about israelis living so close to the gaza strip, living in relative security and having food and shelter and yes bomb shelters because THEY are citizens of a settler colonial state and people who are being colonized are going to resist the violence of occupation.

I think about how generally they are so removed and detached from the brutality of what israel does to palestinians, and how after oct 7th, many people who considered themselves liberal zionists went completely apeshit racist and genocidal, and this is according to actual peace activists in israel, actual anti-zionists in israel, actual leftists in israel. the ones who have refused to cover their eyes to the realities of the occupation and the genocide.

you see it on social media - people who consider themselves non-zionists or liberal zionists have been laughing at hateful genocidal zionist memes, and centering their own pain, and it reminds me of how liberals in the united states will do ANYTHING not to witness the horrors of us imperialism when it threatens their comfort.

this is not unique to zionists, this is a symptom of settler colonialism. I do believe that sometimes liberals can do better than that, but they often end up useless as allies to resistance, actual resistance, when it fucking matters the most.

so many liberal americans will continue to watch their favorite racist shows or buy disposable vapes or support joe biden, and they'll make all kinds of excuses about why they have to but the truth is this: they value their comfort more than they care about genocide.

I mean frankly even I do to some extent. I pay my taxes. I'm not gonna go to prison on tax evasion because I want to make a point about genocide. I wish I had the courage of my convictions to that level but I don't. I know that I would never go serve in the military even if it was conscription, I'd go to jail for that but that's never been a real concern for me here.

meanwhile, there are people who do not have the comfort to lose. in the film, farha does not have the privilege to choose comfort. she can close her eyes, she can look away, but she hears the baby cry and cry and cry until the baby passes away. she has no choice.

in choosing his own comfort, the soldier unknowingly condemns a child to witness trauma he can choose to ignore. now farha, a 14 year old girl, has to live with not being able to free herself from her sanctuary/prison to save the baby.

a 14 year old girl injures herself to save a baby, but a grown man covers a baby's face and lets it starve so he can live with himself. he still murdered that baby, but he'll tell himself that he didn't.

people often say they know what they'd have done if they'd lived during the holocaust or other atrocities. but honestly these same people don't do shit now. they cover their eyes.

if you're going to accept the deaths of innocent people, at least say that your comfort, your security, matters more to you than their lives.

because it clearly does.

anyway go watch farha on netflix.

[dead-salmon]

"at least with kamela i'll get my abortion rights back!"

did you know that the germans (who weren't queer, non-aryan, communists or related to poc&jews) benefited a lot from electing hitler back then?

unemployment levels decreased from 5million to under a million! businesses profited a lot! farmers struggled less under the nazis! the general standard of living increased, working conditions improved! a lot of housing became available! (because any non..: ..cishet ..german ..aryan people got killed and their houses raided, obviously.) german childcare was great! (because the nazis sure cared about getting more little soldiers and indoctrinating their youth to blindly follow them)

fun fact: many of the people who elected hitler back then didn't even care too much about him wanting to genocide all the jews, that wasn't why they voted for him. anti-semitism ran high in all of europe for centurues, yes, but it wasn't their main reason to elect him. they got told THEIR lifes wouldn't get any worse and perhaps even BETTER, that's why they voted for him

still doesn't change the fact that they MOTHERFUCKING ELECTED THE GUY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MURDERS OF WELL OVER 6 MILLION PEOPLE

i don't fucking care how difficult and impossible electing third party will be for you. i do not fucking care how much worse trump is and how kamela is so much better in all other topics. you cannot try and look back on history and judge the german people of 1933 and then turn right back around and vote for harris because trump would be worse

you'll have just as much the blood of palestinians on your hands as the germans of 1933 have the blood of all the holocaust victims on theirs

be motherfucking aware that with this elections you're forfeiting your right to ever judge the people who elected hitler back then again

look i won't judge you for wanting to save your own life if you're part of a marginalized group. i won't judge you for being scared of trump. i will not judge you on self-preservation, i don't have the right to do that.

i will however judge you for the way you talk about the genocide in relation to the us-election (this is @ the "singular issue" crowd). i will judge you for who you're willing to sacrifice for your own life (how many until it's too much?). i will judge you for the way you'll talk about contributors of genocides for the rest of your life ("how could the germans elect hitler back then!?" promised benefits, the same way you're willing to elect a genocide endorser for your own).

[fatfemmefreaquency]

. probably gonna delete this later

[sucharide]

the destiel breaking news meme is so interesting to me. I know people have (fairly) criticised the format because it is a cavalier way to share news, however every time i see mishia collins's tear-filled eyes I think, "Ah shit, what the fuck happened this time?" and it prepares me to read a breaking news headline. Which is, i think, kind of valuable on a website that is not aimed at news.

I often skim textposts that arent about topics I care about. there's a 90% chance i wouldnt have read a post mentioning the name Liam Payne because i dont care about One Direction and if I saw that name while skimming, i would have ignored the post. But seeing the destiel meme signifies that there is going to be a culturally important piece of information coming in the second picture.

Even though it may not be a respectful way to share news, it does seem to work on this specific website.

Is it appropriate? In many cases, definitely not. But I wonder how effectiveness and appropriateness should be balanced. I dont have an answer to that.

[news4dzhozhar]

How deranged does the US look to the rest of the world to be proudly welcoming an indicted war criminal to address Congress?

[leolaroot]

i follow this artist on tumblr and they post/reblog a perspective on joe biden that is so ridiculous to me its funny to watch happen day by day. the main thought appears to be that joe biden is 1 incredibly mentally strong 2 a victim of an ageist slash ableist conspiracy where everyone around him is trying to push this false narrative that hes unfit for his job and finally 3 in need of constant praise, acceptance, encouragement, and statements of support from his voters. predominantly in the form of youtube videos/gifs of people dancing being shared every time he accidentally OR intentionally says something that turns away voters.