#i blame capitalism and israel

[ilys00ga]

I'm grateful for being algerian. well, for starters, algeria isn't the best of countries out there—though, I might even argue that it's far away from being "great," but it's still not bad enough. so imma pay it some justice for this—and life is still gonna be hard and tough no matter where u go on this planet (unless you have rich, loving parents, of course), but the more I look at the outside world, the western world, the more I realize that pretty much everything they say, do and believe in is either unrealistic or not inclusive for us the people of the "east", if that makes sense.

The west is full of pride when it's time to talk about 'freedom', 'human rights' and 'open mindness', when in reality, it's just a delusional bubble they’d built for themselves to block the rest of the world out. The West is so out of touch with the rest of the world, which is something that has more cons than pros. and somehow, we're supposed to adjust and abide by their system? where's supposed to change our languages, lifestyles, attires, cultures, behaviors, and beliefs for them, but then they turn their backs when we reach out to them in hospitality or in desperation.

To the west, the majority of us are nothing but "uncivilized somethings". people who live on weird lands, perhaps inside weird cabins, eating weird foods and wearing weirdly aesthetic outfits, riding wild animals to school and work. If we die, that's on us. If we live, that's also on us. cause how dare we have our own, entirely different worlds? worlds that are completely different from the bubble they'd customized for themselves?

and by the way, I say "The West", as in the government, the authorities, the officials, the people in power, the privileged, ignorant individuals...you know who I'm pointing a finger at in this conversation.

[gayhenrycreel]

the soviet union was not communist

in real communism everyone is equal. the instant there is a superior class, it is no longer communism. communism does not let people starve en masse, because everyone has an equal share of resources. i have had multiple people who were born in communist countries tell me that russia and the soviet union were never communist, and neither is china.

everything western society knows about communism was told to them by capitalists. if a fascist tells you freedom is wrong does that mean freedom is wrong? no.

the soviet union, russia and china claiming to be communist is the same as america and england claiming to not be fascist. its a lie made to control, because a controlled population is easy to exploit.

america and england insisting that communism is a dictatorship is not far removed from america and england insisting that they themselves are not fascist despite killing millions of people and still funding genocide to this day (if america stopped providing the bombs to israel its unlikely the palestinian genocide would last much longer, or at least not be as severe as america allows it to be).

dont listen to the fascists who tell you human rights are the real fascism.

[xclowniex]

The whole "tik tok was banned because people on it were calling for a ceasefire" is just the latest addition to those shitty infographics that went around a while ago blaming every issue in the world on Israel from global warming to capitalism to wars which Israel has no involvement in, neither direct or indirect involvement.

And to non jews, it just looks like criticism of Israel, but it really isn't.

People are saying Israel now but it's not long till they say the quiet part out loud like they always do and say it's jews controlling everything.

Because they're using a common antisemitic trope and have currently just replaced jews with Israel, which must I remind everyone is the only jewish country and houses roughly half of the world's jewish population.

Of course it won't be long till people go from claiming half of the world's jews control the world to all jews control the world, especially when they're using a common antisemitic trope.

[traegorn]

Actual Palestinians: "Please vote for Kamala so Trump doesn't let Israel annex the entire West Bank."

American "allies": "Anyone who votes for Kamala is betraying Palestinians!"

(I know a lot of them have just been taken in by Russian propaganda, and I'm empathetic to that, but I wish they would take a moment to consider what they're actually saying.)

It's not fair to blame this all on Russian propaganda. Like, I'm certain we've seen plenty of it this election cycle, but there are also just genuinely folks who prioritize their own perceived moral purity over what effect they have in the world. It's part of the individualism that's been drummed into them their whole lives by our society through capitalism and the cultural influence of Evangelical Christianity.

It goes deep, and a lot of folks haven't confronted or deconstructed that yet.

And while normally I'd be happy to hold their hand and try to walk them through it, we're working on a deadline here. We need to prevent the rise of a building Christofascist movement, and we need to do it now.

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Probably the biggest news in Israel today is how many of the hostages are already confirmed dead. The thing isn't that we didn't know some were. If you've been following my update posts, then you know that more than once, we got the news that a hostage was confirmed to have been killed, and their body held hostage in Gaza. The thing is that up until now, no one talked about the total number of dead, or the number of those with an indication (which still needs to be verified) that they might be dead. So here are the numbers, as published: out of the official number of 136 Israeli hostages in Gaza, 32 are dead bodies, with the IDF trying to determine whether at least 20 more were also killed. That means that it's confirmed there are no more than 104 living hostages abducted from Israel and held in Gaza, and potentially no more than 84.

In the wake of the Oct 7 massacre, Hamas has been self contradictory. On the one hand, they shared footage of the carnage themselves, many times live (this website is dressed as if it's Hamas', and presents some of the evidence from that day, for all the deniers). The footage and testimonies of survivors, as well as forensic evidence collected from the slain shows that civilian communities were intentionally targeted, and that women, men, kids were intentionally raped, maimed and murdered under close proximity, where no mistake about the identity of the victims could have been made. A Hamas senior has openly said that they would repeat the massacre until Israel is destroyed. All of Israel destroyed obviously harms the civilians, including the women and kids. Following the massacre, Hamas has also called for Oct 13 to be a global 'Day of Rage' where Hamas supporters were called upon to attack Israelis and Jews worldwide. They did not specify leaving women and kids out of it, and when Jews are made into targets globally, meaning way beyond Israel and its army, that obviously means civilians. Yet at the same time, Hamas has denied having targeted civilians, that if Hamas did kill them it was due to confusion, and even blamed Israel for the civilian deaths. But now, Israel has released evidence of a book of fatwas (Islamic religious decrees) found in Gaza, which exlpictly allowed the Hamas terrorists to target civilians, including women and kids. The pic on the right shows the cover of the fatwas book, with Hamas' emblem, and the left shows the relevant fatwa.

The newly elected president of Argentina is visiting Israel, to announce the moving of the Argentinian embassy to Jerusalem. I'm just gonna remind everyone that foreign embassies normally are in a country's capital, and that foreign countries don't get to choose a capital instead of a country's own people. In fact, I personally don't know of any other case where foreign nations refuse to acknowledge a country's choice of capital by keeping their embassies out of there. Originally, the refusal to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital happened before the war in 1967 (when the two parts of the city, torn apart by Jordan in 1948, which also ethnically cleansed East Jerusalem of Jews, were re-united), and was connected to the fact that in the 1947 UN partition plan (which wasn't legally binding, and was nullified by the Arabs' refusal to accept it, and them starting a war against Israel), Jerusalem was supposed to be an internationally governed area. In other words, this isn't the world acting on behalf of the Palestinians, it's acting on behalf of its own political and religious interests in the historical Jewish capital, and the city holiest to Judaism for over 3,000 years. Currently, Jerusalem is home to the embassies of the US, Honduras, Guatemala, Kosovo (the first Muslim country to have an embassy there), and Papua New Guinea.

And while it's not an official embassy, because it doesn't represent an actual country, the other day a symbolic one was opened in Jerusalem, the Indigenous People embassy. And to see other native people connecting with the Jews, who are native to the Land of Israel, warms my heart. The embassy may not be an official one, but it has the support of various indigenous leaders from around the world, and its opening was attended by over 100 ambassadors.

This is 42 years old Lara Tannous.

She's a Palestinian from East Jerusalem. On Jan 7, 3 Palestinian terrorists opened fire at the car she was in. Another Palestinian man who was driving along the same road, 32 years old Amar Mansour, was killed immediately. Lara was seriously wounded. She was hospitalized in Hadassah Ein Kerem, the Jerusalem medical center where she's been working as a pharmacist for the last 17 years, but succumbed to her wounds on Jan 24. She was buried in the Palestinian-ruled city of Ramallah. The three terrorists thought they were shooting at Jews. According to at least one source, they were 2 doctors and a male nurse, before choosing to take lives instead. This morning, I happened to undergo a procedure at Hadassah. Before leaving, I noticed there's a corner for the workers or their family members killed on or since Oct 7. Here's the corner dedicated to the hostages, the one to the victims of Palestinian terrorism, and one zoomed in pic, where you can see Lara's photograph a bit better:

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

[fairuzfan]

okay, so i know technically BDS hasn't called for folks to boycott PJO. but a LOT of Palestinians organizing anti-Israel protest have and I don't understand why so many people seem to think that doesn't count for anything bc it doesn't come from BDS?

i saw that post you reblogged on it and i'm so confused about the ppl complaining on it bc...boycottings not that hard and its a form of pressuring disney, which BDS HAS called for. is this just a case of ppl not understanding or just genuinely being so attached to their shows they don't give a fuck?

(i'm also palestinian btw and love your account.)

What sucks is I'm a PJO fan (or at least I used to be) but after Rick's stupid ass statement about "humans blaming each other" or whatever I can't even think of watching it without a sour taste in my mouth.

I am severely disinterested in what genocide apologists have to say, whether fictionalized or in actuality. I don't understand how anyone else can be interested in it at this point. Even Abbott elementary, I can't watch that shit even though I was excited for the next season knowing that people on there are genocide apologists and don't see Palestinians as people. They fully allied themselves with the imperial war machine and they're not shy about it.

If you wanna watch, fine, whatever, just don't give him the social capital by posting everywhere. Just out of respect at least.

[old-school-butch]

What do they think Hamas wants? What do they think Israel is supposed to do? Do they seriously think Israel is supposed to be like sure here you go we are all going to leave Israel and you can have everything? Do they think that would bring about peace? I’m serious. Like really do they think there is anything Israel could do that would stop any of this? Do they think Israel should’ve done nothing and this situation would’ve just disappeared? Americans are the dumbest fucking people on the planet. Hamas wants compliance or death, that’s how terrorism works, that’s war.

Whoever is running the information warfare at Hamas is truly brilliant. The ideology of Islamists has been run through some kind of autotuner so it sounds like it came from a chapter in Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Western liberals are eating it up. While liberals are still catching up on which river and which sea the chant refers to, they still don't grasp that the end goal here is the elimination of the state of Israel entirely. And while 20% of Israelis are Arab Muslims, there are zero Jews in Gaza. The PR people are saying Zionist these days instead of Jews, so maybe it doesn't sound too bad when they say Kill All Zionists but that's just the English translation. Zionism is the creation of a Jewish state. Hamas will call it the 'Zionist entity' because they don't recognize it as a state. They don't recognize it because all states should be Muslim. Israel is occupying territory that should be Muslim. When they say 'end the occupation' it sounds like a call for liberation of an oppressed people, instead of the desire to destroy Israel, kill or expel the Jews and create a Muslim state in its place.

Yemen's Houthi rebels (who are currently attacking Israel) have a slogan "God is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, A Curse Upon the Jews, Victory to Islam" and I think it says a lot that they take the time to double down on how much they hate Jews/Israel instead of a single 'Houthis are great!' thrown into their own slogan.

The Islamists have noted the 'anti-colonial' rhetoric in Western universities and capitalized on it by positioning Israel as a proxy for the West and thus a scapegoat for the West's sins of imperialism. It does rely on some very old anti-Semitic tricks - because Jews assimilate fairly well (because they don't have an evangelical aspect to the faith) they are both within a culture and othered from the culture - the perfect scapegoat. Many liberals shrugged when the Nazis marching in Charlottesville chanted "Jews will not replace us" but the suspicion that Jews control the media, capitalism, also socialism, Hollywood (and any other center of power you can imagine) runs very deep in Western cultural anxiety. Imagining Israel as a prowerful villian is all too easy when you're primed to believe that.

A wild example of this is how Westerners view Israel as a colonialist power rather than a gathering point for religious refugees. The reality that Jews originated from the land of JUDEA should not be hard to grasp, but is conveniently ignored. The fact that they've negotiated with colonial powers like Britain and the UN is viewed as a sign of political power, even though the main goal of those colonial powers was to prevent Jewish refugees from flooding their own countries. And the memory that the post WW2 boost in political heft came at the price of the Holocaust in Europe, seems to have been lost. The reality that most Israelis are Jewish refugees expelled from Muslim countries, is conveniently ignored. There are enough white faces and dual citizens in Israel for guilty Westerners to find a convenient scapegoat to do all that decolonizing and let themselves be destroyed for our sins. Not that anyone is thinking that hard about it, it just feels right, because it's safe and convenient to accept blame and then shift it to someone else - no matter how many land acknowledgements they crank out.

I guess Westerners think colonizing is something only white people do, and they are blissfully unaware of the size and scope of the Arab Islamic Empires of the past. And also apparently unaware that Islamists explicitly say they want to recreate that empire. Zionists want a single state - and I have a lot of issues with the idea of a religious state at all, but no one can accuse Jews of ever having or wanting to create an Empire. Israel might be criticized for not having a more liberal democractic state, but Hamas isn't even trying to create one. It wants a single Muslim state occupying their entire region, where Jews are killed or expelled and Islamists can consolidate regional power - that's their goal. But the slogan is 'end the occupation' which sounds way nicer than 'end the occupation of land of Israel by Jews so we can make an Islamic state in its place and kill all the Jews who don't run away fast enough.'

Maybe it's that most Westerners don't live in a theocracy, and have no sense of just how controlling and energetic theocratic societies can be, that they can't grasp the idea of global jihad and what that really means. "The Caliphate is the answer" is written in Arabic on protest signs, flying under the radar of English-speakers and certainly not seen as hate speech, but when people tell you they want to establish a global world order under Islamic rule, and are actively coordinating their efforts between states and regions - you should believe them. Moderation is apostasy, punishable by death. Anyone negotiating with Israel faces opposition from more radical Islamists ready to take their place. This is why Islamists spend most of their time attacking more moderate Islamic states and leaders. And by 'moderate' I mean the Taliban, which can barely set up a state in Afghanistan - because it means diverting resources from expanding and conquering other areas. A group called ISIS-K is trying to overturn the Taliban to bring back the glory days of the Khorason, an entity so sprawling it would involve invading China, Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, which would undoubtedly spark a global conflict. That doesn't phase them. Hamas can barely control the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which rejects any peace accords with Israel including the Oslo accord. Dying as a martyr is the highest achivement - eternal war is not a problem. The Islamic world is failing to contain radical movements it created and supported for its own interests.

The Palestinians are a good microcosm of this. When Israel declared independence in 1948, the region was invaded by its neighbors. The war ended with Jordan occupying the West Bank and Egypt occupying Gaza and normally the people living there would have been absorbed into these countries, or created a self-governed state. Instead Palestinians, as a group, were created as a stateless people. They didn't want to form a state within the boundaries determined by the war, but instead remain as refugees from a war and promised the 'right of return' i.e. that Israel would be returned to them. Importantly, the war didn't have a declared end. It's still happening, which is how they are still refugees 75 years later. And they live in 'refugee camps', otherwise known as buildings and towns, but it's all temporary in this narrative. Does no one wonder why the pro-Palestinian rallies call for a ceasefire and not for peace? Peace is not desired, just a pause in fighting until they can regroup and try again.

A separate reality was created where the 1948 war is still happening, Israel is not real, it's a 'Zionist entity' occupying the land and that refugees includes everyone displaced by the 'ongoing' war, and all their descendants are refugees too because they have nowhere to live - because where they are living is just temporary. And ‘all they want is to go home’ (but not their current home for 3 generations, the home back in Israel ofc). In this world, they all have to right to live in the region that the zionist entity is occupying, where their duty is to establish a Muslim state. The purpose of this fiction is to create a perpetual problem for Israel, a stateless population whose entire existence is focused on them eventually overthrowing Israel. But it's had unexpected effects.

Palestinian refugees have been more than willing to bring violence to any country that has taken them in as immigrants. Their nationalists have a long list of assassinations of anyone who supports a peace treaty with Israel, including the King of Jordan, the former prime minister of Lebanon, Robert F Kennedy and more. They've also started a civil war in Jordan until they were expelled to Lebanon, where they hijacked a series of international flights and started a civil war there that lasted for 15 years. Palestinians living as refugees in Kuwait aided Saddam Hussein's invading army until they were expelled when his regime fell. These are the reasons none of Israel's neighbor's will accept any more Palestinian refugees, but the Islamist problem remains for any country in its path. What I have found most disturbing among feminists on Tumblr, however, is the complete wilful ignorance about Islamist ideology and its relationship to women. You think you’re ok with the Quran? Read it. There aren't many religions founded by a conqueror who wanted to rule the world. Read what it says about conquest, murder, torture, raping and enslaving non-Muslim women. Arab slave traders castrated men and bred female slaves who were kept as captive wives. Using sexual violence as a tool of war and as a reward for Islamic fighters is long documented and continues today. The birth rate in Gaza is about 5 children per woman and frequently exhorted to be higher. Why? Arafat said it most clearly ‘the womb of the Palestinian woman is the weapon that will defeat Israel.' Population and fertility are part of the political landscape and Islamist strategy. It's how Lebanon went from being a Christian majority country to a Muslim majority country today. There is no reason whatsoever that feminists - who have not shied away from criticizing the sexism of Christianity or Judaism - should mince words when it comes to criticizing Islam in the strongest possible terms. Islamists - who combine Islam with a goal for global dominance - should ring every alarm bell we have.

[hiriajuu-suffering]

Kamala aunty and the Hindu vote

Getting this out of the way, I'm voting for Kamala Harris. Biden really should've dropped out two months ago, and there's no other corporate democrat I would really endorse besides her, and not because of the identity politics. Well, sort of. If the Republican primary taught us anything, is a person of South Asian descent will continue to be the ideological punching bag of the white community.

South Asian men get deleted so hard I can't even find a GIF of Vivek Ramaswamy

How Kamala was treated the past four years by the democratic administration of Biden's was nothing short of egregious. Every impossible problem to solve she was blamed for with no tools address the root cause, and she stayed in there looking dumb like a loyal corporate employee. Now the entire system is banking on the political capital they were sweeping from underneath her to stop a literal convicted felon from retaking power and pardoning himself.

Not to mention the states where votes actually mattered 8 years ago were too sexist to put in a woman in power before, so now we're hoping a woman of color would go over better?

Candace Owens already showed how envious she is of Kamala's biracial swag with some really dumb comments.

Her black half isn't what's the issue is, because she embodies a lot more blackness than Asianness in her disposition to the American psyche. And the precedent for half black Presidents that perfectly fall within the cookie-cutter corporate democrat on policy has already been set.

It's her Asian side that might stoke the xenophobia that caused the whitelash red wave of 2016; y'know, because she's going to be subject to nearly the same misogyny Hilary was.

As an Asian-American, Kamala Harris and Andrew Yang weren't just the two candidates I identified most with, they were the best candidates in that primary, period. But they got dismissed and belittled so immensely because of the need to appeal to milk-toast whiteness. Republicans pander hard to grab minority votes, Democrats just avoid putting any minorities in significant positions influence. Don't believe me? Seen any LBGTQ+ positions in real moving and shaking positions?

The DEI stuff the right is going to criticize the entire scope and sequence of how Kamala became the candidate isn't good or fair, but it's not entirely wrong. Because of just how hollow the Democratic Party treats anyone with the poor affliction of being a minority.

There's a key part of the South Asian diaspora Biden lost exactly that Kamala herself is a part of, which makes things interesting to say the least..

Kamala does have the best policy on Israel of any candidate, but that's not saying much since her policy is essentially Obama-lite.

But that means she might lose her own identity vote on just that considering how abhorrently Islamophobic naturalized Indian-Americans have gotten in their support of Narendra Modi

I don't care how effective the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue has been at curbing Chinese aggression, the Nationalist imagery isn't a good sign for any society, really.

Especially when Muslim civil rights in India have all but evaporated. Nikki Haley wasn't particularly bad on Muslim civil rights compared to other Republicans, even as a half-Indian, she didn't buddy up to Modi (probably because he's done more to encourage gender-based violence in India than stop it), and I expect Kamala to actually get the misogynistic slander from conservative Indians because the hyperpatriarchy only comes when it comes to the opposition.

Being half Brahmin though certainly can't hurt her chances with her Hindu base, right? Well, Hindu men certainly have deeper roots in the red pill movement then we'd like to believe, and the first ones they point the finger towards are Hindu women that didn't choose them. Nikki Haley was polling better but Vivek Ramaswamy ate up her press pretty handily. Everyone sees Asian feminine beauty as valuable, but our misogynistic standards prevent us from seeing that type of ethnic image as leadership-worthy.

At least it's not Gavin Newsom. But that might not be enough for South Asian American males dissatisfied with their lot in life. Trump's message is appealing to us because it feeds into our vanity and takes responsibility off us as to why our sisters are meeting the model minority myth and we aren't. While we're not solely to blame, at least the right has some crazy narrative that explains why life didn't turn out to what was expected of us, even if that narrative twists it in a way that will end up just making us feel more isolated, because the right has the most racist women in the country, bar-none.

Well, women on both sides of the political spectrum are equally pretty racist in their courtship preferences, it's just liberal women will explain things in vague externalities and icks rather than being a sign for public restrooms in pre-1963 America.

In either case, this is a biracial black woman who was never in touch with the struggles of an Asian man, never really having been related to one even though she's an Asian woman. To a lot of Asian men, Trump is just more of what we expect of the lunacy of American politics, versus Kamala might be one of those people who actively makes us feel subhuman by being of the same race but still treating us as less than, like many desi women have been doing since biracial marriages within 1st generation South Asian Americans began getting normalized.

The normative view has to become where femininity isn't inherently more attractive than masculinity, especially so that women aren't just fit to be more educated and start making more, but actually lead society in meaningful ways.

I think if you're an AAPI in any capacity and you're not voting for Kamala Harris, you're missing the point somehow. But we're not the movers and makers of these elections, because we always reside in states that are firmly blue or red (well, at least until 2016 when Georgia did a thing). Kamala Harris's black vote definitely extends further than Biden's, but by less than makes actual sense. Can't do much worse than Biden on the Hispanic vote, but Kamala Harris if anyone is how you do that.

So if there's fundamentally just about how identity works in America, we will have a POTUS 47 in 2025. But we've learned the two decades in America has been anything fair to identity. Heck, as a Muslim teacher of a liberal arts content area in a red state I feel at the time. My supervisors won't make exceptions for me they readily make for anyone else, not that they were requirements to begin with, just because my identity bears the ugliest parts of the model minority myth. I don't look Asian enough to be Asian, and the media makes my ethnic identity look to threatening to be trusted with novel ideas, at least.

That's at least something this candidate and I have in common. Biraciality and Multiethnicity isn't well understood in our discussions of intersectionality in social and political discourse. The only people that try to make sense of it are the ones that actively try to erode the ethnic barriers enclaves self-segregate on. Kamala has had to think about that because it's a fundamental part of her identity.

I'm not voting on identity or identity politics, as the right would claim I will. I'm voting because at least this candidate has the capacity to understand me, because they're not a white, entitled, spoiled brat that tried to overthrow the government when he didn't get his way. Y'know, fundamental stuff like that.

Because I'm still American through-and-through, regardless of what my ethnic background is. What's more American than having a minority prosecutor in a liberal enclave? That's literally one of the top 5 career options every desi child is given when they think about their careers.

So yeah, Kamala2024. Bite me.

[some-triangles]

Politics under the cut

The Vietnam war was famously the first war to be televised. Some people thought this meant it would be the last war, but people often think that and they haven't been right yet. The carnage on the evening news probably spurred the anti-war protests on - although the draft was certainly the main cause, as nothing motivates a person like the prospect of an early death. Either way, the protests did nothing, and the war ended because we lost. Americans contrived a way to blame the soldiers themselves for the horrors they'd seen and the imperial project trundled on.

I'm thinking about this because we're currently in the middle of the first war to be livestreamed. This time around the carnage is not only available in real time, it's interactive - we know the perpetrators and the victims by face and name, and we get direct appeals for aid through our social media feeds, optimized like youtube thumbnails in the hopes that we'll find one displaced person more deserving than another for the disposition of our limited funds. (Where this money ultimately goes is still a black box - the inevitable scammers aside, who are the fixers and coyotes who end up with the cash?) Despite this, protests have been comparatively muted. It may be because we have seen that they don't work. It may be because the powers that be have successfully convinced many of us that being opposed to genocide is antisemitic. It may be because our need to Do Something is being met by dropping fives and tens into various GoFundMes. It may be because it isn't as immediately obvious to people that we Americans are responsible for this war, that we fund it and that Israel continues to prosecute it - indeed, continues to exist - because we allow it to. But I think it's ultimately because none of us are in danger of being sent over there to die.

That urge to Do Something is interesting in and of itself. In stories, the residents of the imperial capital are generally pretty callous about violence at the periphery, or are simply unaware that it exists. Ignorance is no longer an option for us, but where's the callousness? Why do we need to vocally express our opposition to the system that supports and nurtures us, and keeps us relatively safe from violence and hunger? Secure in the knowledge that nothing that we say or do will threaten the empire that protects us, we rail against it. The naked bloodlust of the Israelis is not ideal from a PR perspective but at least it's honest. If they fished a new diary of Anne Frank - a Fatima Ahmed, let's say - out of the rubble, they'd say she deserved it because she probably threw a rock at a tank once. It's a refreshing lack of cognitive dissonance. "It was bad when it happened to us because it was us it happened to" is at least cogent.

Americans, on the other hand, have been hypocrites from day one, and it gets exhausting. How many times do we have to appeal to ideals which were not believed in by the men who wrote them down? How many atrocities must we commit on the way to the formation of a more perfect union before we understand that we're building on a rotten foundation? Our best hope is for a radically nurturing empire that protects trans kids at home while it blows up kids of all genders abroad. Vote accordingly.

[dalekofchaos]

Who I most blame for Trump's second presidency

There is much blame to go around for this fuckery. Here are who I blame the most

Trump. I blame Trump for obviously being public enemy #1. I blame him for being a convicted felon, a rapist and friend of Epstein, a bigoted piece of shit, inciting an insurrection giving classified info to our enemies, and stroking the flames of hatred, fearmongering and gaslighting already disenfranchised Americans from his already bigoted supporters, working class, just ordinary people to marginalized communities who felt abandoned by Biden and the DNC. He suckered them hook, line and sinker and everyone who voted for them are all gonna feel the consequences with the rest of us.

MAGATs who clearly fell for a snake oil salesman, a bigoted piece of shit, a billionaire who suckered the working class to believing he stands for them(HE IS THE FUCKING SWAMP, YOU IDIOTS!), a rapist and Epstein's partner and a convicted felon. You doomed us all and you're gonna reap what you sowed.

I blame stubborn non voters and leftists who either chose not to vote or vote for third party candidates and wanted to feel morally superior and would rather see a Trump presidency and hurt marginalized communities than see Kamala win

I blame Jill Stein for once again conning gullible leftists and third party voters for thinking she is the answer to the two-party system. She's not. I fell for her parlor act in 2016 and regret it(especially after finding out she believes vaccines cause autism) Trump spoke good things about her, which should've been a dead giveaway. European Green parties, ESPECIALLY Irish Green party(who is the LEADING PARTY speaking out against the genocide) have asked Jill Stein to step down from the GLOBAL GREEN PARTY, you know you fucked up. Let me make myself perfectly clear. The two party system will never allow a third party to be legitimized and will never give up their power. Capitalism will never allow a socialist to gain power in the US and the Military Industrial Complex will never give up their power. Jill Stein is a lot like Dutch Van Der Linde. Capable of amassing a cult following, sounding all philosophical and saying all the right things, but in reality, you realize you're being conned. Everything Jill Stein says all sounds pretty and are good policies in practice, but it will never happen because this capitalistic system will never give up their power for a better tomorrow. And to top it off? Her whole campaign of being the "only pro Palestine candidate" is a sham as well. she came out as a zionist and her VP candidate is a transphobic misogynist who supports a nation wide abortion ban.

Musk. I blame Musk for buying out Twitter, using it as a right-wing propaganda, buying and funneling money into the Trump campaign and it's been proven his hand in election interference.

The Heritage Foundation. They are behind Project 2025. Their people are Trump's friends and we're all fucked because of them

Biden for refusing to drop out earlier

The DNC for refusing to hold primaries

Kamala. Kamala was clearly the better candidate. But she did all the wrong things 1. Choosing The Cheneys and Bush & Reagan era Republicans instead of the progressives and the left(and would you look at that, now liberals are showing their true colors and throwing Trans and other marginalized people under the bus, once again Malcolm X was right) 2. Refusing to promise an arm's embargo, continuing to tout the "Israel has a right to defend itself" mantra and continuing to fund and arm a fucking genocide 3. Promising to be harder than Trump on the border, promising to make the US "the most lethal force in the world" and continuing fracking in the midst of the worst climate crisis in history 4. Instead of allowing Palestinians and Muslims to speak at her rallies to convince disenfranchised Muslim Americans to support her. She continuously silenced them with "I'm speaking" and to make matters worse, the DNC sent Obama and Bill Clinton to talk down to Muslims and victim blame Palestinians for their own genocide 5. Not running on medicare for all. Not running on Climate Change. Not running on Roe V Wade or LGBT rights(we were not even mentioned in the debate) and removing the death penalty and torture off the DNC platform to appease the fucking Cheneys and promising to put Republicans in her administration. It was abundantly clear it was more of the same.

Kamala was a neocon dressed in blue, but again she was clearly the better candidate than Trump. She chose to embrace Liz Cheney over progressives like her own VP Tim Walz(fuck the DNC for muzzling him, he got everyone calling MAGATs weird and IT WAS FUCKING WORKING), Bernie Sanders, AOC, Rashida Tilab, Illhan Omar or Jamaal Bowman. Refused to let Palestinian Americans speak at the DNC convention or literally any of her rallies. And alienated the Muslim Americans into Trump or Stein's arms. Alienated the working class and prioritizing lobbyists and corporate overlords over standing by their voterbase. We have been thoroughly infiltrated, bought and paid for by the billionaires, AIPAC and insider trading(fuck you Nancy) and surprise surprise, fucked around and sent them to the arms of the Republicans. The DNC refuses to see they have fucked up and the same fucking thing will happen in the next 4 years.

Now we got Trump as president, a Christian nationalist and senior couch fucker as VP, Muskrat was given his very own fucking department just so it spelt "DOGE" lol we are fucked, the anti-vaxer and brainworms with a road kill fetish leading the healthcare, a literal sex trafficker and pedophile that his own fucking party has tried to get rid of in Matt Gaetz as attorney general. A fucking Fox News host who hasn't washed his hands in 10 fucking years as the secretary of defense, a Putin sympathizer leading the national intelligence, a dog killer leading DHS, the writer of Project 2025 in charge of staff for policy and so much more neocons, zionists and Christian Nationalists. leading he most corrupt, and incompetent administration in US history. If no experience, their only qualification is they are loyal to Trump.

Let's only hope his cabinet is going to be too fucking cartoonishly incompetent to get a fraction of what they want done.

It's both Trump and Kamala's fault, it's the Republicans' fault for refusing to let this clear and present danger go, but most of all it's the DNC for absolutely refusing to embrace the Left.

So here is my advice to democrats if they want to save democracy within the next 4 years, IF THERE IS EVEN AN ELECTION IN 4 FUCKING YEARS. Get rid of the fucking DNC leadership. Get rid of the lobbyists. Get rid of Nancy Insider Trading Pelosi. Stop bootlicking corporations and billionaires. Stop being bought and paid by AIPAC and for the love of god embrace progressive policies and the left!

You are out of options. We are on the verge of a Christian Theocracy and we don't have fucking long until climate change kills us all! Stop throwing Trans people under the bus, stop bootlicking Israel, stop throwing marginalized communities under the bus and embrace them and promise to, oh I don't fucking know, FULFILL YOUR FUCKING PROMISES TO YOUR VOTERS AND FUCKING DO SOMETHING!

[bardonastick]

It's going to be very easy to blame your neighbor for not doing the right thing here, but remember that there are many reasons why this happened on top of the national culture of racism, sexism, xenophobia, and transphobia. No matter how uncomfortable this is, we need to seize the motivation of this moment and start working now so that this never happens again.

Most of my friends have no say in Republican politics, but we can do something about the Democrats. We have to accept the facts about this candidacy and change them so we can win next time.

If you need to grieve, now is not the time to read more. If you're ready for this conversation on how we do better next time, there's more on what went wrong below.

One, the issue that the whole country is talking about: Dems cannot fund a genocide and win our elections anymore. The next candidate must be staunchly anti-genocide or they will lose again. It is a fact that this administration has sent tens of billions to Israel alone while we watch what that money is doing to innocent Palestinians. This behavior will lose in future elections. Genocide IS the red line, and people will not vote for it. We also have proof now that we won't be shamed into voting for it either. Our ONLY option is to change the stance of the democratic seat of power, not the millions of voters who will not sign their name next to genocide ever, or ever again.

Two, Democrats can no longer win by appealing to the right. For months Harris has touted her "200+ Republican nominations" and reiterated that the GOP will have a seat at her table. The same people Dems have spent years calling fascists and the greater evil. Despite the viral posts, there are relatively few never-Trump republicans who flipped to Harris this election because of this.

She has spent her energy appealing to people who won't vote for her, and in the process assured her most vulnerable voters that their biggest enemy will have a seat in making the policy that affects their lives. This strategy failed.

Three, Democrats can no longer alienate and resist the left. For those who aren't aware, American Democrats are globally considered a right wing party. This is defined by their relationship to capitalism (billionaires) and imperialism (attacking other countries for power and resources) - supporting them makes you right, opposing them makes you left.

Leftists (e.g. Socialists, Communists, Anarchists) fight for things like universal healthcare, abolishing the rich, massively defunding police and the military, free education, giving workers collective ownership of their companies, preventing climate change, abolishing the death penalty, and so much more. All of this along with the civil rights we credit Democrats for. Dems didn't give us these - WE the people fought for them.

Notice that none of these have been seriously committed to by the democratic party. Harris quietly dropped opposition to the death penalty from her policy, and when asked if she would support Trans people getting gender affirming care, said "I think we should follow the law" and basically gave an 'all lives matter' response instead of saying yes. When anti-genocide activists disrupted her rallies, her motto was "I'm speaking" as she many times had them ushered away. The DNC refused to allow a Palestinian speaker this year and even removed Dr. Ahmed Ghanim, a Muslim Democrat, from Harris' Michigan rally (that he was invited to) with no just cause.

In short, Harris spent her candidacy rejecting the left and appealing to the right. This strategy failed. Future candidates must be left of center, or they will lose. The base is growing more anti-capitalist by the day. Dem candidates must catch up or we must abandon them.

The voter base has seen through Vote Blue No Matter Who. We see that Dems are using the Trump bogeyman to excuse their every step towards the right. We will no longer vote for the lesser evil because we will no longer vote for evil. The Democratic party will either adapt to that reality or lose again and again and again, taking all our rights out with it. Or maybe we'll finally choose a better party.

There is so much more to be said on the topic, but in short what must be done now is:

- Demand better. Organize and agitate Dems to be the party we need them to be, or jump ship for the Party for Socialism and Liberation like many have already done.

- Organize. Find local political action and mutual aid groups. If they don't exist in your area, make them.

- Educate. U.S. propaganda is dead set on you believing socialists and communists are evil and that capitalism is the only way. Research why they want you to believe that, and what they've done to socialists throughout history. Research what socialists have actually done. Educate yourself and then others.

We will not solve this alone. Start somewhere. Start NOW. Go like a page or join a group on this topic just to get you thinking about it. And in the next Dem primary, remember that a centrist candidate will not win. We have the proof. The strategy must change.

[whatevergreen]

Anyone blaming the actual Left will be shot.

Blame Biden and Harris, everyone around them, and too many of their supporters for running a god-awful campaign, and one that seemed to be aimed at attracting anti Trump republicans, whilst openly supporting or callously ignoring or excusing genocide. Blame Israel. Blame ignorance and neglect. Blame voter suppression. Blame the people who have been in positions of power to bring about change for the better for 4 years but mostly pissed the opportunity away like they always do.

Reflect honestly on why so many people wouldn't or couldn't vote for Harris.

Stop expecting voting alone to fix everything. Or anything.

Learn from this.

Caring about racism, fascism, LGBTQ+ rights, imperialism, capitalism etc isn't just for when the republican slime is in government. So much of the shit just continued or got worse under Biden, and Harris showed too few signs that any of that was going to change.

Also, as much as I could strangle anyone who supports Trump, many people who hate him still voted for him as a republican. Many people who aren't racist (or at least aren't consciously so) voted for Trump. And the fascistic clown has supporters across all races. Many people who support the LGBTQ+ and will respect names and pronouns... still voted for Trump. Some LGBTQ+ voted for Trump.

It is disgusting that Trump was ever allowed to run again. That he continues breathing. And that after everything that has happened he still won.

If you want anything to get better you have to fight for it and keep fighting for it no matter who is in government. It still irritates me how much of the open support for BLM and ANTIFA faded away as soon as genocidal Joe was elected.

Fight for your rights and the rights of others and stop treating voting as if it's a magical cure all. It's this nonsense which has led to Trump II.

Don't survive. Thrive. And bash your nearest fascist.

[wienersmosh]

rapid fire list of my smosh-related opinions:

noah grossman needs to have been phased out 3 months ago. people acting like FREELANCER contracts are so fucking ironclad and that's why smosh couldn't do anything are so disingenuous. they phased out saige in 2022, they could've very easily done the same to noah -- they just didn't want to.

eat it or yeet it was fun for the first few episodes, but they ran it to the ground when they realized it was a hit with the locals/casual viewers and they needed those numbers. it's SO absurd that they made 89 episodes and it got really boring, really fast. (i'm glad anthony got to be on it before they got rid of it tho)

i've always found garrett annoying and unfunny for the most part. he's maybe said one or two funny things in all of my time watching smosh and i will never understand how some people stan him or find him attractive.

to be clear even if they replaced garrett as host on eioyi, it would still be boring and stale to me.

i miss kimmy being on camera. she wasn't the funniest and the smiley sunshine persona can be a bit much but she was one of the better sketch actors imo.

i do not want the og smosh games cast back. it's also weird they keep bringing up smosh on their ogsog content. i'm glad they appear to be on good terms with ian and anthony but unless there's ACTUALLY a future collab in the works they need to stop namedropping smosh so much.

i don't necessarily miss saige on smosh but i do miss damien and saige as a couple.

i don't care if people don't like anthony or don't find him funny, but the way a LOT of fans (mostly on twitter and reddit) blatantly disrespect him, the fact that he started smosh, and him literally reuniting with his best friend, just bc they got rid of the unscripted series on main really pisses me off. also he's not to blame for EVERYTHING wrong with smosh today.

HOWEVER, that being said, i do believe there was a better way to transition smosh main. they could've had anthony do a speed run of all of their unscripted series to give them a proper goodbye, and THEN uploaded the sketches.

EBE was a hit or miss, but when they did it well they did it REALLY well.

other than ian, anthony, and finnerty, syd and olivia were their best sketch writers.

people who are genuinely mad that they have memberships now are overreacting. i get that paying for anything sucks but if you're an adult with a job in a first world country $10 USD a month *maximum* really isn't that much. also, they're independent now, that's just the reality of capitalism.

people who act like smosh is above any and all criticism genuinely terrify me. they're a youtube channel and a company, and as audience members we're allowed to critique them.

the old smoshcast was better than smosh mouth, but i might be biased bc ian did host most of them.

agree to disagree was a good series, but they botched it when they started using more serious prompts which caused a lot of viewers to lose respect for some of the cast for problematic opinions.

i used to like olivia but considering she was only in 30 videos last year and she really doesn't seem like she cares anymore, i don't get how they expect any of us to still care about her. also she posted something in support of israel on her story, but hardly anyone knows about it.

i love the guy but shayne doesn't need to be in every video. i get that he brings in the views, but jesus christ.

smosh pit theater is their best pit series, followed closely by beopardy.

i find a lot of their defy era series on pit eg sleepover, show with no name, put it in my mouth, etc to be really boring and i’m glad they got out of defy and sarah whittle was more in charge of pit.

i didn’t like angela at first but i love her now.

[eretzyisrael]

by Gil Troy

That few feminists, especially gender studies professors, have denounced this familiar yet deplorable evil exposes a darkness deep in their soul. It is part of a broader scandal in higher education some are now, belatedly, starting to recognize. Call it fruits from the poisoned Ivies. For years, America’s most elite universities have been cultivating a generation of grievance junkies—dividing the world into “the oppressed,” who are forever blameless, and “the oppressors,” who are forever guilty. Those deemed “oppressors” are often accused of enjoying “privilege,” although those grade-grubbing radicals dining out on their parents’ Black AmEx card as they pay $70,000 university bills, somehow don’t count themselves as “privileged” either.

Since Oct. 7, these fanatics have emerged as Ivy League jihadis, leveraging the Palestinian brand as the world’s most oppressed and blameless people, suffering from the evils of Zionist colonialism, to silence condemnation of inhumane butchery.

The feminist blindness to these crimes is particularly outrageous given gender studies’ stated commitment to eradicating rape culture, with its silence, its skepticism, its victim-shaming, and its victim-blaming. But this violation also points to a deeper, endemic scandal the feminist movement has suppressed, namely, many radical feminists’ instinctive aversion to Jewish women and Jewish issues.

Even though many Jews launched the women’s movement, feminism has long had a Jewish problem. From Betty Friedan to Bella Abzug, Jewish women were among the most visible forces in American feminism—even as feminists often rendered invisible their particular challenges as Jewish women facing sexism and antisemitism.

In June 1982, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, a founding editor of Ms. magazine, interviewed 80 Jewish feminists about their experience as Jews in the movement. Her bombshell “Anti-Semitism in the Women’s Movement,” anticipated today’s hypocrisy. Struck by the “invisibility” of Jewish issues, noticing how “the feminist litany of the ‘oppressed’” omitted Jews, Pogrebin challenged her sisters. “When did anti-Semitism turn into a ‘balanced issue,’” she wondered. The opposite of being against antisemitism, she noted, is not being pro-Palestinian but being “for��Jew-hating.” And why, she asked, would anyone expect Israel “to commit suicide for the sake of Palestinian liberation?”

Pogrebin later recalled realizing that “to feminists who hate Israel, I was not a woman, I was a Jewish woman.” Today, 41 years later, to feminists who hate Israel, the women that Hamas targeted were not women but merely Jews—or subhumans—not worthy of solidarity.

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Don't you think there's better ways of showing support for Palestinians/Israeli Christians than by perpetuating the "Jesus was Palestinian" myth that people constantly try and use to deny Jewish indigeneity. Allegory or not, it's not a great look for someone who purports to be against that kind of erasure and supercessionism. Also, having 1 line about how his death was the Empire's fault so don't blame the Jews is meaningless when in this allegory, the Empire (Israeli government) *is* Jewish

(anyone curious about what anon's referring to, I believe it's my poem here)

Hey there anon, thank you for your feedback. In this situation where various marginalized peoples are being pitted against each other (and/or conflated with political groups), I've been struggling to make sure my words don't add to the misinformation and harm. So whenever someone takes the time to remind me of that danger, I'll take the time to re-examine my words — even if I end up standing by them, as I mostly do in this case.

I can't promise to say and do all the perfect things, because there isn't time to waste getting my words just right before saying something — people are dying right now (and yes, anon, that includes those Israelis who are still hostages of Hamas, who are also endangered by Israel's continued attacks.)

I have been spending much of my free time these past few months learning more about Israel and Palestine, and I still don't feel I'm even close to knowing enough! But I've listened to those who are actually in the midst of the violence who say that all of us across the world must join their cry now, not letting our ignorance be an excuse. That means there have been a few things I've said that I then had to re-consider after learning more.

...

Just a few days ago, I was actually trying to look into the origins of the statement that "Jesus was a Palestinian Jew." (Btw if anyone knows the origins of this statement, please hit me up!)

Arguments against it note that the term "Palestinian" didn't exist in Jesus' day. Looking into the accuracy of that statement is still on my to-do list; I did skim over this article calling it a myth but yeah, still digging. Regardless, sure, I don't think Jesus called himself a Palestinian in his lifetime.

That doesn't necessarily mean that the statement is useless, however. I do very much believe that if Jesus were born today, in the same place, he'd be born to a Jewish Palestinian family, not an Israeli one.

That does not erase his Jewishness; it confirms God's "preferential option for the poor," God's choice to side with and become one with the most oppressed and discarded. It also does not assert that Jewish persons don't "belong" in the region — only that the modern nation/colony Israel isn't necessary for them to live and thrive there.

All that said, if anyone has more info on the statement that "Jesus was a Palestinian" — its origins, how it's been used over the years — I would absolutely like to examine it further. For now, I stand by the phrase, with an openness to re-considering that with further education.

...

I feel more confident in talking about Empire — how I used it in my poem, versus how you've interpreted it. I'm genuinely grateful to you for bringing your reading of it to my attention, because it's shown me that my words weren't clear enough there!

In these verses from my poem:

"...And now, as then, some may blame Jesus’s death on his own Jewish people — but resist this lie! Now as then the crime is Empire’s and those of us who would cast stones should ponder first what our nations gain from genocide. ..."

You interpret Empire as being Israel.

My intention was that Empire with a capital E is a much larger network of all imperial forces on earth. Israel is entangled in that, and directly backed and funded by those forces. My own country, the United States, is one of the nations at the helm of Empire.

So when I talk of Empire being to blame, I'm not saying just Israel — honestly, I'm personally more concerned with the US's complicity, because I feel as a US citizen I can help demand they stop.

So I'm going to rework that bit to better express what I mean by Empire, so it doesn't sound like I'm focusing only on Israel. Empire is so much bigger than any one state, colony, or government.

...

Okay, I'm out of steam. I'm going to link a few pieces that have been helping me frame all that's going on right now to resist pitting marginalized groups against each other:

This art piece naming "contradicting truths"

This article by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg also naming seemingly contradictory truths

Since I didn't really get deep into this part of your ask, I also appreciate this article discussing the question of indigeneity. It discards the "need" to figure out "who was there first" in favor of exploring intersecting histories.

Oh also, because you claim that the Israeli government "is Jewish," I think discussions on how Israel isn't actually a safe haven for all Jews, only those that fit into their goals, are vital.

[freetheshit-outofyou]

I often hear "Rights are not absolute and have consequences when used", almost exclusively in reference to the 2nd Amendment, I think that's why I apricate this move so much. I am not a fan of Doxing people, but we are kind of at that point in our history where people who say or do deplorable shit can just hide it out and move on in the shadows. Well, unless you were on the Capital grounds on 6 Jan., in that case they will scrub high and low to find out who you are. (I'm not even opposed to that were it applied equally, it never will be though.) If you sign you name to something supporting terrorists you should be put out there on blast. If you take actions that support terrorists in any way you should be put on blast. That is one of those consequences that Rights have. If I signed a letter saying the KKK was cool and quite like the YMCA, I should be put on blast. If I stood on the front porch of Mr. Obama or Justice Thomas porch supporting anyone who would kill them, I should be put on full public display. I'd be willing to bet that these people never plan on working a real job. I bet the bulk of them plan on staying encapsulated in their echo chamber of academia. Lawrence H. Summers, a former Harvard president said “This is not a time where it is constructive to vilify individuals and I am sorry that it is happening,” said just like the people who were ratting out the Jews in Germany. Don't tell on us now, just wait until millions of people have been killed and I've had ample time to hide. Fuck you, you face is made public. "The letter’s publication on Saturday was met with near-universal outrage, with several CEOs calling for Harvard to release the full names of the student organizations’ members. “I would like to know so I know never to hire these people,” tweeted Jonathan Neman, CEO of restaurant chain Sweetgreen."