#media suppression

[hussyknee]

[the-lady-maddy]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eye On Palestine (@eye.on.palestine)

[hussyknee]

I'm going to plug my own post on here.

Ayat is one of the fifty-three Middle Eastern journalists killed since Oct. 7. Forty-six of them were Palestinian, most massacred along with their families. Air strikes on other journalists managed to kill only their families instead. This is the deadliest period for journalists recorded by the Committee to Protect Journalists in its thirty years of existence. In fact, Israel killed one of the CPJ's own journalists documenting the murders around the same time as Ayat.

Nearly all these are targeted strikes. Israel controls the census in Gaza and therefore has information on where everyone lives. They also track journalists cellphones and use surveillance drones and quadcopters (drone snipers). Journalists and their families are known to receive threatening phone calls from unknown numbers before they're eventually attacked. While Western journalists from CNN and BCC are embedded with IOF teams to safely "report" on Gaza, Palestinian journalists who have been reporting there for years, wearing a press jacket and helmet they know won't protect them, are documenting and broadcasting the situation on the ground, watching their colleagues being picked off one by one for the last month and half.

Politico article https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/21/biden-hostage-israel-hamas-war-00128351

Tweet source

[redley-of-many-noodles]

Rule One of Spotting Genocide

If you’re debating the semantics of what does and does not constitute genocide, you’re in the middle of a genocide.

Rule Two of Spotting Genocide

In the midst of debating the semantics of genocide, you can tell where a news outlet’s underlying bias lies by checking the headline to see whether ‘genocide’ is in quotes.

This also frequently applies to individuals.

Rule Three of Spotting Genocide

Use your fucking eyes. When shit like this goes down, it will be heard on the internet. Even a competent military will struggle to hide the evidence of an ethnic cleansing.

To uphold the integrity of Rule Three, ensure you strike down any and all internet censorship laws with extreme prejudice.

Rule Four of Spotting Genocide

Word of mouth and community service are your friends. During a genocide, protests will break out in public spaces, and political discussions may seem divided to an abnormal degree. Keep an ear to the ground, and both eyes on the streets.

Rule Five of Spotting Genocide

Check news sources from more than one country. In fact, check from as many different countries as possible. Even the ‘developing’ ones. Especially the developing ones.

I’m talking to you, ‘United’ States.

Rule Six of Spotting Genocide

Posts like this will be in heavy circulation across the web.

Open your eyes.

[kihteyu]

If you write fanfiction please just say “kill” and “die.” Everytime I read the word ��unalive” it does irreparable damage to my brain

[timetravellingkitty]

hi! sorry this is random lmao😭 but like my friends are arguing about modi and how he is good and shit- (I am definitely losing braincells due to that conversation and I want to bang my head against the wall) can you explain some of the stuff he has done bc im having a hard time explaining it in a concise manner 💀

wow i'm so early oops but speedrunning; there's weaponsing the ed and cbi, limited press freedom, farmers' protests, wrestlers' protests, abetting ethnic violence in gujarat (2002) and manipur (2023), censoring media critical of modi, bulldozer raj, the 2020 delhi pogroms

oh and income inequality is worse now than under british rule

[hussyknee]

Ayat Khaddura, 27, was a digital content and podcast presenter in North Gaza. She was one of the five journalists murdered by Israel's targeted air strike on Nov 20, along with her sister and grandmother in her home. She posted this video in the knowledge that these were probably her last moments.

Video description:

A young Arab woman in a hijab and abaya speaks into her camera in Arabic in a high, frightened voice. The subtitles read: "This might be the last video from me. Today the Occupation Forces dropped phosphorus bombs on the Beit Lahia residential area, and frightening sound bombs. And uhm, they dropped letters from the sky ordering us to evacuate. So of course nearly everyone evacuated for the most part. Everyone ran into the streets in a crazy way. No one knows where they're coming or going. Uhm, we're all split up and around. Me and some others stayed at home. The others evacuated and left. We don't know where they've gone, that's for sure. The situation is terrifying, the scenes are horrifying [voice breaking as she starts to cry], the situation is extremely difficult. May God have mercy on us." [She closes her eyes as she starts to cry openly. End clip.]

[New clip.] The same young woman is seated on a desk in front of a world map wearing a jacket over a t-shirt and her hijab. Large video caption reads "Message from Ayat Khaddura who was martyred yesterday". Her voice is sad and resigned, and her face is tired and tear-stained as she speaks in Arabic. Subtitles read:

"We are human beings, just like other human beings around the world. We had many big dreams, but unfortunately today our dreams are that if we are killed we will be martyred in one piece, one body (not torn to pieces) so that people can recognise us, and we will not be cut off in pieces and put in a bag. [struggles not to cry.] When we are martyred there will be a shroud for us and we will be buried in a grave. Our dreams have become that the war will stop, that we stop hearing the sound of bombing. We never imagined we would reach such a stage and live such a life that does not have the lowest basic necessities. [Blinks back tears.] There are things we can't talk about, there are things that people photographed and did not document. When the war will end, who will continue to talk to people? What happened to us, how we lived, what we saw. Everything is being destroyed before our eyes." [Looks down with a sob. End video.]

Israel dropping leaflets onto trapped and hiding people minutes before bombing them is nothing but a sick PR exercise— there's nowhere safe to go, no telling where the bombs will drop, no way to not leave family members behind while fleeing. Many people in North Gaza decided not to evacuate to the South, not only because similar calls to go South have ended in Israeli airstrikes massacring the refugees, but the possibility of being killed while trying to make the journey, the lack of food and water to sustain them, and inability to leave old and disabled family members behind. Some like Hind Khaudary, who had the opportunity to leave the Gaza strip entirely through foreign embassies, stayed behind to continue reporting the situation unfolding in the North. Meanwhile, Israel is continuing to bomb the South, despite their own evacuation orders.

Ayat is one of the fifty-three Middle Eastern journalists killed since Oct. 7. Forty-six of them were Palestinian, most massacred along with their families. Air strikes on other journalists managed to kill only their families instead. This is the deadliest period for journalists recorded by the Committee to Protect Journalists in its thirty years of existence. In fact, Israel killed one of the CPJ's own journalists documenting the murders around the same time as Ayat.

Nearly all these are targeted strikes. Israel controls the census in Gaza and therefore has information on where everyone lives. They also track journalists cellphones and use surveillance drones and quadcopters (drone snipers). Journalists and their families are known to receive threatening phone calls from unknown numbers before they're eventually attacked.

As to why Israel is so concerned about journalists? For the same reason the Biden Administration has stated openly.

But the administration remains wary about Netanyahu’s endgame and seeming lack of a plan for what to do once Hamas is defeated. There was no sense that the pause would turn into a lengthier cease-fire, a senior administration official said. And there was some concern in the administration about an unintended consequence of the pause: that it would allow journalists broader access to Gaza and the opportunity to further illuminate the devastation there and turn public opinion on Israel.

Please spread news of these journalists' murders, show their faces, say their names. While Western journalists from CNN and BCC are embedded with IOF teams to safely "report" on Gaza, Palestinian journalists who have been reporting there for years, wearing a press jacket and helmet they know won't protect them, are documenting and broadcasting the situation on the ground, watching their colleagues being picked off one by one for the last month and half, not knowing when it will be their turn. Ayat was not a combatant. She was a young woman a lot like most on this site, young and angry at injustice, armed with only a degree and internet connection to fight for her people. She wanted the world to witness her last moments: documenting the situation till the end, her terror of dying, how she clung to her faith and wanted to live. Hers and her compatriots work is to resist letting their people disappear among the vast uncounted; she resisted it to her last breath.

Empires and colonizers win wars by reducing people to numbers. When people become numbers they become collateral, cattle, "unavoidable casualties". This is what Palestinians have fought for decades to show: "We Are Not Numbers". If the West wants to kill human beings with impunity, everyone gets to see exactly which lives and loves and hopes it's snuffing out forever.

[the-lady-maddy]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Al Jazeera English (@aljazeeraenglish)

[burningchandelier]

It is worth keeping in mind that fanfiction is produced and distributed for free, making it impossible to capitalize on.

Fanfiction is written predominantly by queer authors for queer audiences.

Fanfiction often explores mature themes, including sexual topics and trauma.

Fanfiction cannot be banned in a traditional way because it is not distributed by booksellers or libraries.

Those who benefit from the suppression of fanfiction for monetary purposes and people whose ideologies are against access to “undesirable” reading material are the same people banning books.

They want you to be on their side. They want you to think fanfiction is harmful and evil so that they have the moral high ground to get rid of it.

people can be so weird about their double standards for fanfiction vs traditional fiction. once saw someone very seriously say that people who write fic for the terror are fucked up and need to stop because those were literally real people who died on the franklin expedition, but they were also completely fine with tv show the terror itself existing, despite the fact that it, too, is fiction about the literally real people who died on the franklin expedition. our blessed historical fiction vs their barbarous rpf.

[stuckinapril]

i think i officially set my sights on a therapist and i'll be contacting her very soon?? therapy was legitimately not on my 2024 bingo card (or in the cards for me at all) but here we are????

[teruthecreator]

(tw for racism, pedophilia, transphobia, child impregnation mention)

yeah idk why y'all read this

i was originally going to just post this and have some tags with my reasonings, but i realized that opens me up to too much bullshit from people who may think i'm being unnecessarily mean or whatever. so i'm going to explain exactly why the screenshots above are something i hold issue with.

firstly, and i just want to get this out of the way, this post is not intended to be a hit piece against the creator. i've seen how she reacts to any mild-mannered or slightly joking criticism, so i know this post is probably going to not land well. but it isn't my intention to make her mad or anything--she's writing a piece of content for the internet, which means she is just as open to criticism as any other poster. and what i intend to go into in this post is criticism. i'm allowed to do this, as that is the nature of the internet. people are allowed to critique whatever they please, and if you don't want critique then you shouldn't post. simple as!

i am also making no attempts to posit myself as better than the creator. i'm not doing this for clout or moral superiority or any of that dumb shit. i simply want to discuss something that's been bothering me for a bit, while simultaneously warning people who haven't read this yet (who may be sensitive to the issues above) to steer clear. if things like casual racism or transphobia aren't properly tagged, then readers who are affected by such things run a risk reading this! same goes with people who are triggered by lewd content involving minors. i wanna make sure people are getting a more critical scope of this work than what has been hoisted up by others.

okay, now that i've gotten that out of the way, i'm going to get into my points.

firstly, the subtle and not-so-subtle racism throughout this fic, especially in relation to serizawa. i'm white, so there is only so much i can speak on without trampling over the words of other fans of color, but some of this feels so blatant it's odd it hasn't been noted earlier. it's important to note before i go into it that serizawa is specifically written as half-black half-japanese for this fic, in case the screenshots don't make it abundantly clear. but there are just too many moments of casual racism in this fic. i'm not talking about the plot point of serizawa being bullied as a kid for being mixed; i'm not mixed, so i can't speak on the accuracy there but it is well-known that black people face a lot of racism in japan. i'm talking about how it seems everyone else has these racist moments that aren't acknowledged by serizawa or the narration as being bad.

reigen hypothesizing over serizawa's exact ethnic background is just strange. yes he's a fairly observant guy (he has to be, with his job), but there is no canonical evidence to suggest he would immediately jump to theorizing whether serizawa is american or not. and the way it's posed in that first quote--"he has darker skin and the kind of hair texture that would likely indicate African ancestry"--is not great. that's an extremely inappropriate way to bring up someone's race. i don't think most people would stare at someone and be like "hmmm well your nose shape and hair texture would suggest you're of this race". it's racial essentialization that is only slightly covered up by the excuse of "oh he tweets in english". there are some other smaller moments of questionable wording, like calling serizawa's afro "sloppy" when it isnt (which btw there's another issue with the creator only referring to an afro as a "fro". it's a hairstyle; you're allowed to use the actual name of it). even if reigen cuts his hair in canon, he never states it's because serizawa's afro looks sloppy. (also there's something to be said about the casual racism baked into making your employee cut his natural hairstyle for a job, as that is a very real issue many black people face when wearing their natural hair or even protective styles in the workplace.)

i'm especially bothered by toichiro's very casual racist remarks. toichiro in this fic is a general bother of mine (most of which can be boiled down to "he would not fucking say that"), but the way she chooses to characterize him in relation to serizawa feels gross. calling a black man a slave should be a very obvious red flag, but also saying serizawa (again, as a black man) has a "brutal masculine appeal" is also extremely stereotypical and racist. and really there is just no need for it; toichiro's actions in canon prove how shitty of a guy he is without the need for him to be racist (along with other things i'll get to in a bit). as my girlfriend put it: he doesn't need to be a member of the fucking kkk to show he's a bad guy.

there's also, again, the very casual racist remark of calling serizawa a "dog". i don't care if that isn't the intent; when you are writing a character of color you need to be aware of your wording, even in insults (unless she intended to make tsuchiya racist, which i don't think she did).

secondly, the eugenics/child pregnancy bit. it is surreal to even have to write this, but i seriously do not understand the purpose of either of these bits in the story. they are so minor yet so jarring you can't help but wonder why they're there. once again, i do not think you need to have toichiro doing esper eugenics just to prove he is an evil guy. he has nuance, and by making him casually reference child pregnancy (like that isn't an INSANE thing to say) reduces that nuance to nothing. that's the only reason i could see why that bit was included: to make toichiro look worse. but, even still, the author is running the risk of potentially triggering victims of csa or people who don't want to see that by not properly tagging the mention of it (or, at the very least, warning readers in the intro notes). the only other explanation for it would maybe be shock factor??? but that's a pretty shitty thing to use for shock factor, if i'm honest. also the fact that the esper eugenics was referenced again in a more recent chapter just has me very disturbed and confused. there isn't a canonical explanation for why we see less espers who are women than espers who are men, but that doesn't mean we need to jump to fucking Eugenics. it's weird!

thirdly (and this is probably one of my biggest problems and the main reason i wanted to make this post), the weirdly lewd/sexual language shou uses constantly, along with referring to reigen as a pedo or a creep at several points. frankly, i think it's pretty fucking gross for someone in their near-40's to be writing a 12-year-old talking so casually about sex like that's normal. which, i'm sorry, but it's not. yes, teens know about sex and like to joke about lewd shit. but a 12-year-old is not about to make references to a grown man's virginity. 12-year-olds draw dicks on their desk bc they think it's funny. 12-year-olds say the word "buttfuck" because it has the words "butt" and "fuck" in it, and those are the two funniest words on earth to a kid that age. i literally do not understand the purpose of having shou be so lewd all the time. for one, it doesn't make sense for his character. shou is shown time and time again to be extremely mature for his age, but that maturity extends to shit like assembling a counter-terrorism unit and extending a hand to his father to allow him to try again. and even then he's still just as naive as any other kid his age! the omake where he's telling his guys to go to the "far right corner" based on ritsu’s advice proves that he still has plenty of blindspots that are indicative of his age. leaning into this raunchy, lewd version of shou is just weird. and, again, i think it is made a bit weirder given the author's age!!! not ageshaming or whatever--i'm 23 and i write fanfic, clearly i cannot judge there--but it is just extremely inappropriate in my opinion. also having shou be more versed in sextalk than serizawa is odd too and speaks to a larger issue of serizawa's infantilzation throughout this fic, but that's something i can get into in another post if people want an explanation.

also, the way she constantly calls reigen a creep and even has him being accused of being a pedophile during the twitter cancellation is extremely inappropriate when, again, there is NO CANONICAL BASIS FOR THIS! everyone just calls him a fraud and a scammer during separation arc; there is never a reference to reigen being seen as a pedophile in that arc. and, yes, while there are versions of mob psycho where reigen is very clearly written as a creep (looking very specifically at the netflix adaptation), that doesn't mean it's good. honestly, the creep mentions all just feel like really poor jokes that do not land in the slightest.

finally, the transphobia (aka WHY IS SHIMAZAKI A CHASER). i literally do not know what else to say other than: why? why is this a thing? why is he a chaser? what is the purpose of this? is it a joke? i feel like it's supposed to be, but seeing as the author is cis i don't think that's a joke she should really be making. it not only comes out of left field, but it's just kind of a weird thing to ascribe to a character for no reason. not to mention, it's uncomfortable! trans women deal with enough creepy antics from cis men in real life--why must they be accosted by this guy too? it's just weird and uncomfortable.

i wanna round out this post by saying, once again, that i'm not trying to attack anyone with this post. but i do hope people come away from this with a new perspective on this work, and maybe think twice before recommending it uncritically to someone. to the author specifically, i hope you can read my post without rage or indignance blinding you. i might be a little blunt or rude in parts, but it's only because i'm passionate and i don't mince my words when it comes to things i'm passionate about. to the readers, understand i am not judging you for reading this fic without noticing these things. your own life experiences will give you certain blindspots and there's nothing wrong with that. i have plenty of blindspots of my own! it's what makes us human.

there is more i could say, but this post is long enough. i ask that if you come to me in my inbox or in dms about this that you treat me with respect, as i will do that for you. writing something like this took a lot out of me, as i'm usually not so open about my opinion on shit like this.

have a good day :-)

[hussyknee]

Thanks! There is an increasing number of white supremacist accounts who've been jumping on the way the tide of public opinion is turning against Israel, but like you said, Israel's propaganda literally runs on white supremacy and Christofascism in particular. If anything this situation is revealing how deeply entrenched it is in mainstream media. Afaik none of the racist elements have been supporting the Palestinian cause for that long. The grifters are something the rest of us need to monitor, but it's irresponsible to take these accusations at face value and really unfair to put it on Palestinians.

It's distressing how true this is. Even we have to use non-Palestinian sources to convince other people because Palestinians themselves are seen as biased towards their own survival. It's why Western Jewish allies are so necessary, even conditional ones like Haaretz, so we can be like, "Israelis don't believe this shit either", like somehow they're??? more?? trustworthy??

I keep coming back to that evergreen comment someone left: "white ignorance is seen as skepticism and objectivity while white knowledge is seen as expertise".

(Quoted Tweet checks out btw. Please avoid those people.)

Hey. I got an ask about whether Mondoweiss was funded by white supremacists and it sounds obviously like ADL propaganda. Searched for anybody else legit who might be talking about it and only turned up a bunch of butthurt Zionists spinning conspiracy theories so I told anon it was all bs. I noticed you saying that you "didn't love Mondoweiss" though. Is there some reason they are sketchy?

I heard of that but I also didn't find much about this. I didn't do too deep a dive though to really see the origins of this claim. Honestly though, it's a bit odd to be focusing on mondoweiss out of all the news sources in the world since.... you know there are a lot of papers that are funded and run by white supremacists themselves.

So my dad has been following Phillip Weiss for years, he loves his original blog and then the newssite that came after. The thing that annoys me a bit is that sometimes it feels like people take the site's viewpoints over Palestinians' viewpoints and experience. Though recently they've started to include more Palestinian journalists and writers which I appreciate.

But yeah, seems like an odd argument to make when prominent Palestinian activists trust it enough to write for it lol, at least to me. Thanks for sending this in.

[fairuzfan]

Meta (aka facebook) being just flat out racist:

[ummmuhhidk]

girl help im trying to fight the urge to consume problematic media

[cryptix23]

Okay listen I've seen a few people criticizing Ed for still feeling 'unlovable' despite Izzy's confession, but like, of course that means nothing to him?

Ed is afraid no one can love Edward. All of him. The parts of him that aren't all myth, the parts of a real and complex person who loves satin and fine dining and lavender soap and goofy outsider artists. The parts of him that aren't retold in hushed, awed voices. Izzy literally said to his face that he loves Blackbeard and hates Edward. That he hates all the softness and comfort and frippery and care and appreciation. That he wanted back the man who laughed while people burned. (And later realized that was a Huge Mistake but that's beside this point.) So when Izzy says "I have... love for you," what Ed hears is just a reaffirmation that he loves Blackbeard -- the myth up on the pedestal, the terror of the seas, the Kraken. The monster with no use for fine things like love.

And Edward is still unloved, because Edward is not worthy of fine things.

(yes he is, but he was not in a place to hear that and especially not from Izzy.)

[mirroredmemoriez]

I really want to watch The Substance- But I think it will make me really sad? As I’ve gotten older and have stopped trying to “regulate” my emotions as much, I can start tearing up over most things…

Do not get a bitch started on Laika The Dog.