#obviously antisemitism is bad y'all

[cooking-with-hailstones]

I am fucking INCANDESCENT.

So on Monday while Israel was bombing Rafah, there were demonstrations all over Canada calling for Canada to put an arms embargo on Israel. In Toronto, there was a march between the Israeli and the US consulates, which went along major Toronto streets. Along one of those major streets is Mt Sinai hospital.

Did our prime minister listen to the thousands of people begging for Canada to take a stand against the slaughter of civilians in Rafah??

Oh no. Absolutely not.

So now instead of having a conversation about "hey Justin Trudeau, why has Canada sent $28 million dollars worth of military equipment to Israel since October, for a campaign that has been described as genocidal??"

Now pro Palestinian activists are being forced onto the defensive and being accused of deliberately targeting a Jewish hospital.

I'm LIVID.

Anyways I guess bombing hospitals is fine and good though, right?

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2024/02/trudeau-protests-at-hospitals-are-reprehensible-bombings-to-be-judged-on-a-case-by-case-basis/

(no alt text but if you follow the link above, it's screenshots of the article text)

[slyandthefamilybook]

bad post, worse notes

[indecisiveavocado]

using this to show goyim the kind of stuff jews face

brief note: for quotes, some were replying to other users. Because I do not want them to be harassed, I have removed their name when it appears, and if that bothers you, you are welcome to make a world where I don't need to worry about that. I have also generally not mentioned the name of the antisemites, although in some cases I have, generally if the rhetoric was ridiculously antisemitic and/or I considered it worth flagging so Jews would know they should probably block that user.

further brief note: trigger warnings obviously apply here.

even briefer note: this is a long post

These are actual quotes, by the way.

ACTUAL GODDAMN QUOTES

For reference, here is my post in its entirety:

why are jews skeptical of antizionism? a guide for gentiles I'd be ok with the notion Israel wasn't needed if y'all could be trusted not to fuck it up when Jews needed somewhere to flee. But last time (to put it politely) you fucked it up real bad, and six million Jews died. Fundamentally, antizionism is asking Jews to put our lives in the hands of the same people who saw us screaming for help, who knew that death awaited us, and did all of nothing. Nada. Nil. (As demonstrated by the recent Amsterdam pogrom, Israel is totally ok and often proactive in flying Jews out. Around the same time as Palestinians were being exiled, Jews from all over the Arab world were being driven out in similar numbers. The reason you don't hear about that refugee crisis? Israel accepted them, without complaint or delay or objection, just urgency.) Pardon us for being a bit skeptical of your assertions that it won't happen again when a constant theme throughout our history has been it happening again. This is a slightly modified form of an older, longer, post's tags/tldr.

and the tags:

jumblr, jewish, jewblr, antisemitism, judaism, israel, jewish tumblr, tw antisemitism, anti zionism, shoah mention, tw shoah, amsterdam, amsterdam pogrom, jewish history.

Nothing horribly unreasonable. I made no comments on Gaza. I said I supported the existence of the state of Israel, which is different from supporting its policies. Regardless of what China does to Uyghurs, Uyghurs can and should not take over all of China. You would not be able to reasonably make an inference on my support, or lack thereof, for Israel's conduct in Gaza.

Here are some of the replies in the chat. Bolding is mine.

Israel only exists because the us gave asylum, ended the war and created israel. To turn around and say they did nothing is a gross mistelling of history but i get it, youre jewish. Rewriting history to glorify yourself and demonize everyone else is the cornerstone of your culture

“Pogrom” 🙄 so fucking disrespectful to the actual casualties of historical pogroms around the world. Your football fans couldn’t handle not being racist for five minutes. That shit may fly in Israel but not in Europe. [from a non Jew, seemingly; by the way, the pogrom, which has been widely called such by Jews and was called "reminiscent of a pogrom" by Deborah Lipstadt, current US Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, was premediated, before any of that happened, and as I've said before, even if someone is wearing a Trump 2024 shirt and jabbers about woke threats to the country, that is not an excuse to throw them in an almost-freezing river and not let them out until they say "Harris Walz 2024!"]

Why don't you look at your fucking religion for the foot if your problems and you think that you are now safe in occupied Palestine? We are going to sweep you back like garbage. Hi and get your revenge from those who turned you into soap [note that later they say they're Semitic. Those who turned us into soap were European. They're not the same. Unless they're saying Palestinians were Nazis...?]

I'm actually saying the username here, because Jews should immediately put them on their blocklist: michmanbiker. Also from Michmanbiker after I called them antisemitic:

Anti Jewish!!!! I am Semite [sic] and 99 % of Jews are slav mongrels. So cut the bullshit

[I should note here that:

Regardless of its original meaning, antisemitic now means anti-Jewish. It's like how "slave" was originally a synonym of Slav, but you'd be laughed out of the room if you referred to them as synonyms today.

Most Israelis are not Ashkenazi--from central/Eastern Europe, where Slavs live. Most of them are Sephardim -- from Spain, generally living in the Middle East for centuries before being driven out due to an outbreak of antisemitism following the foundation of the State of Israel

Both Sephardim and Ashkenazim are recognizably Middle Eastern genetically

Considering the historical situation in which Jews lived - frequently killed, dispersed as slaves, et cetera - and Judaism frowning on intermarriage and having few converts, it is reasonable to assume that a fair portion of that ancestry is from rape. It's also worth flagging that traditionally Jewish status is passed on from the mother, because the Romans raped so many Jewish women that the rabbis changed it, and there has been a whole book written about gendered violence [read: sexual violence] in the pogroms, as well as one about sexual violence in the Holocaust. This is effectively blaming Jews for being raped.]

One user said the following about Israel:

I go into youre property and say i want the half of it

This superficially sounds reasonable. As I replied, it is not:

No. Two people are living in a region. One is lesser in number because they were *forcibly exiled as slaves*. A neutral group draws up a plan for two states. One group accepts it. The other group, aided by every other country around them, rejects it and attempts to destroy the other group. Miraculously, the smaller group not only survives, but takes some land. (It also loses some - Jews were expelled from the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem following the first war).

From thegreatkhan, who I am again naming because they seem fairly active and at first glance reasonably innocuous in name and description:

How about you stop playing victim and just admit that the world is fucking tired of Israel atrocities?

I replied,

you realize that it's not inherent to a state of Israel? Zionism does not imply being a supporter of every action of Israel. It means being a supporter of the fact that Israel gets to exist. It's like confusing "Americanism" (to coin a phrase), which properly refers to "yes, the United States of America gets to exist" with "from 2017-early 2021 you supported every single action taken by the US government!!!". Or, for you (since you're Spanish), confusing thinking that Spain as a country should exist with supporting the Spanish Inquisition.

Instead of engaging with this, he repeated the precise same thing.

And

Isrelies are not a fucking marginalized community. If they were a marginalized community they would not be getting billions in help from the United States. [note that he's conflating Israel with Jews]

Considering your [not mine; this was in a reply to another user] post about the dropout apology, I don't care much about whatever you have to say. Israel is committing genocide, and supporting the existence of Israel in any way shape or form is the same as supporting said genocide. [So if I think Myanmar should not have been colonized by the British, I'm supporting the Rohingya genocide?] If people believe that the land of Israel belongs to them for some kind of special gift or god [that's not why I said it should exist - I am agnostic] then that's their problem. Nobody is special, and there's no excuse to go around stealing houses and land then claiming you are the victim. I desire the worst for anyone that supports Israel, whatever their background. [I have yet to see any examples of thegreatkhan harassing Evangelical Christian users, who are generally also pro-Israel. If that's false, I welcome corrections. But when you only harass Jews, instead of the much, much, larger Evangelical Christian segment of Zionism, it comes off as sketchy]

Michmanbiker drops in:

Jews are not a race they are a religion [we're both, it's called an ethnoreligion, it's fascinating!], a filthy one at that, 99% of Jews don't have one drop of Semite blood in their veins. The whole premise for that abhorrent thing you call Israel is based on a lie. Everything Jewish is a lie including Jews being Jews as you are all sons and daughters of Shikshas. Your common traits are cowardly, evil meek and weak. I guess that makes you a people.

Switching back to thegreatkhan's better concealed antisemitism (michmanbiker is actually fairly weird, their rhetoric is closer to rightwing antisemitism, but they are clearly left-wing. Evidence in support of the horseshoe theory):

How about you isrelies stop committing genocide? It's a pet peeve of mine, sorry.

This is my response:

I...I'm not Israeli. I've never even been to Israel. The only way for you to infer that I'm Israeli from this post is to have a) not looked at my profile, where I say I am a Pittsburgher, and you may not realize this but PITTSBURGH IS NOT IN ISRAEL, which is in itself ok, and b) assumed that everyone Jewish [or Zionist, I forgot to mention that] is Israeli. I have no more ability to influence Bibi than you do. I am not a citizen of Israel and, despite y'all, I am not planning on becoming one soon. I have never been to Palestine. I don't see how I could possibly be committing genocide. Oh, that's right! You equate all Jews with Israelis! Gee, that's not antisemitic. Hey, while we're doing this - how the hell do you justify supporting the Spanish Inquisition, which you clearly do, since you're Spanish [it's in his profile]? How about Spanish colonization? What do you think of Columbus's genocidal actions? Very hypocritical of you to support genocide (what do you think Columbus did, what are you, brainwashed) when it's the Spanish doing it, but hate it when it's the Jews. Spain shouldn't exist, it should all be given to the Basques. All Spanish people (except for the Basques of course) are devils (hey, you called Israelis that [no, I'm not joking, I wish I was joking], it's not like genocide is any less bad when it's in the past)! Oh and by the way I'm not anti-Spanish cause ACKSHULLY Spanish can also refer to Basques and I'm pro-Basque."

thegreatkhan completely missed the point and replied

I actually left Spain years ago [so you were there, which means my extremeness was slightly more justified than yours], and never looked back, and I'm working hard, (through legal means, and not just arriving at a new place and throwing someone out of their house like isrelies do [Tel Aviv was founded legally, most of them were founded legally, after purchasing land, and this was after we had been thrown out of our house - right of return, anyone?]) to bring my dad over. I'm a Spanish republican, and andalucian. I do believe that Basque country should be independent [christ, it was an example!], same as many of other Spanish counties that have been for centuries treated like shit by the central fascist government of franco. Unlike isrelies, i actually work hard to put my money where my mouth is, but I can't expect a tribe of child killers and rapists to comprehend that.

(The child killer argument, by the way, was frequently used to justify violence against Jews in the MIddle Ages. Worth flagging.)

All of this on a post that mentioned supporting the existence of a country. For no other country are supporting the country's existence and actions conflated. If someone says that they don't think Russia should be invaded and taken over by Finland, we don't accuse them of supporting Putin and genocide in Ukraine. If someone says that they don't think Eritrea should be invaded by Ethiopia, we don't accuse them of supporting what's been called the African North Korea. If someone says Afghanistan shouldn't be taken over by Pakistan, we don't accuse them of supporting the Taliban. If someone says why they don't support the British taking over Myanmar (again), we don't accuse them of supporting the Rohingya genocide. If someone says they don't think France should recolonize Mauritania, we don't accuse them of supporting slavery (Mauritania being the last country to outlaw slavery, in the 1980s, and, according to some estimates, a fifth of their population is enslaved). If they don't think the UK should conquer Iran, we don't accuse them of supporting sharia law and despising women. If they say Turkey shouldn't take over Saudi Arabia, we don't accuse them of hating women.

In fact, in many of those cases, it doesn't come up. It's accepted: of course Tibetans shouldn't run China, of course Russia has a right to exist, even if it commits atrocities.

All of those countries I listed--Russia, China, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Mauritania, Iran, Saudi Arabia--are committing human rights abuses, sometimes genocide. But you still don't need to explain why China and Myanmar deserve to exist.

[thelittlepalmtree]

Hey y'all, expecting Jewish folks to speak out against Israeli occupation has the same energy as expecting Arab folks to condemn 9/11. Let me give you some examples of when it is and isn't appropriate:

Antony Blinken: US Secretary of state. Has Jewish ancestors. He is one of the main people in our government in charge of policy. Not only should he be asked about the conflict he is a person who can make change and has power. He is also expected to have a competent knowledge of the situation, history, and current data. He should be questioned and criticized. However, there should not be the underlying assumption of Zionism due to his heritage. He has actually been more supportive of Human rights in Gaza than Biden has.

Gal Gadot: Gal Gadot served in the IDF and currently lives in Israel. She has posted multiple times in support of Israeli occupation. Her Instagram is currently chock full of pro-Israel posts. It is completely fair to question her stance on the Palestinian lives lost because she is actively discussing this conflict. Again, though, her status as Jewish should not mean that she is evil or inhuman. She should be evaluated on her statements not her heritage.

Natalie Portman: Made the movie Freezone about the issues between Israel and Palestine in a way that was very humanizing to both groups. She has an Israeli father and has spoken to the UN about the need for a peaceful solution. She supported Israel after the October 7 attacks but has been noticably silent since them. It is appropriate to question this silence and even criticize it, but it's not fair to paint her as a zionist who has never cared for Palestinians when she has been critical of Israel in the past.

Sarah J Maas: Jewish. Visited Israel once. Literally has not spoken about her experience in years. Has never made any comments about the occupation or Israeli policy. To be honest, probably doesn't know anything about it. There's absolutely no reason why anyone should go to her for any political opinion she is deeply unqualified to make any kind of statement. You shouldn't be asking her for one.

Taylor Swift: Not Jewish. Knows nothing about this. Is just rich and famous. We have no reason to believe she has any understanding of this conflict. Not only should she not be asked for a statement, it would be deeply irresponsible for her to give one as she is neither a stakeholder in the area nor an expert in its history.

Now if you're full of rage because you read this and you think you're somehow saving Palestinian lives by commenting on all of Taylor Swift's Instagram posts, let me give you another ego hit. I'm Egyptian. I am not a direct stakeholder, but obviously, Egypt has a long history with this conflict and currently borders Gaza. Not only that, the US government essentially provides money to Egyptian dictators that they use to imprison public critics in exchange for Israeli security. My family members in Egypt run the risk of imprisonment if they speak ill of the government and the US government facilitates this in order to protect Israel's apartheid state. So I do not make this post because I believe Israel to be good. I think that when we resort to antisemitism, we delegitimize our cause.

I understand that you are angry. I understand that it feels like Israel gets away with so much. That doesn't mean antisemitism is okay. Racism is still bad when it's in service of what you think is a just cause. Dehumanization is still bad when it's being done against people who dehumanize others. It is easy to blame random people you know who actually have zero power here. It is hard to accept the people who have the most power (Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu) are unreachable because of their own horrible convictions. It is hard to accept we (Americans) have all accepted and contributed to a system in which the majority of us are powerless. It is hard to accept your own powerlessness. But that is what you must do.

You cannot do anything but bear witness.

[fictionkinfessions]

THESE ARE ALL THE HETALIA RACIST SOURCE ASK RESPONSES. IF YOU WANT TO CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION REPLY OR REBLOG THIS POST. IM NOT POSTING ANY MORE ASK RESPONSE ABOUT THIS

I'M SHOVING THEM ALL INTO ONE POST BECAUSE YOU ALL HAVE A TERRIBLE HABIT OF READING PAST EACH OTHER AND PLAYING TELEPHONE GAME. NOT ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT BECAUSE THEY GET PARTITIONED ON ON THE QUEUE. ANYWAYS.

THANKS FOR UDNERSTANDING.

READ MORE'D DUE TO LENGTH. CAPSLOCK CRUISE CONTRol deactivate.

Anonymous asked:

Some of y'all need to remember that it is not, in fact, morally wrong for people to make fanworks of your kin that you don't like. I'm not talking about legitimately problematic stuff, I'm talking about totally normal ships and interpretations you don't like. You don't get to be the fandom police, suck it up and just block people and tags that make you uncomfortable like the rest of us

Anonymous asked:

guys you can just… choose to not talk about certain kintypes, esp if you know they are from something harmful 😭 like, sure, on here it’s fine, that’s what the blog is for! but it supremely sucks seeing people defend their sources from criticism when the criticism genuinely is ‘this has so much racism/antisemitism/ableism/etc.’ i have kintypes from harmful media, i get it! i just… don’t talk about them, or if i DO i recognize the harm the media has caused, and boost the voices of those it affects. also, on this point: no one ever needs to feel guilty for kinning from smth - esp spiritual kin or someone who does not control it! just be understanding of the harm the Media does, and be respectful - thats it. idk, critical thinking and respecting others is so important.

Anonymous asked:

@ post/703018736627679232 - Would you rather someone be upfront about it on my list so you can block them and move on or befriend them not knowing and then only learn it way into a friendship? I've had the latter happen before as someone who kins from a problematic source (not Hetalia), which is why I mention it upfront.

Anonymous asked:

cannot believe we are actively having hetalia discourse in 2022. don't you guys have jobs

Anonymous asked:

Respectfully, it is not the responsibility of everyone else to suppress themselves when it comes to catering to some random individual's personal discomforts. It's up to you to curate your own online experience.

Block users! Block more tags (such as # racism cw)! Don't interact with content that bothers you! Nobody is forcing you to read, reply to, or send in your own asks about sources that are triggering to you.

Also, being kin doesn't mean you support or enjoy your source's creative origins, writing, or canon at all, obviously. Identity on this level is not a moral issue, it's just a fact of being.

Anonymous asked:

Boy some of y'all are missing the point of that guy's ask about Hetalia kins. The "stop kinning" thing might've been poor wording because yeah, most people can't simply not kin anymore, but you can absolutely stop engaging with the source, stop supporting it, not list your kintypes publicly.. I kin from Hetalia too and I simply don't talk about it publicly. I actually started keeping a diary where I write about my problematic sources and kins when I get the urge to talk about it. It's helped a lot more than I thought it would, honestly. Maybe some of y'all should try that too?

Anonymous asked:

Hmmm MPC, if it’s okay, could you add on to my Hetalia ask (the one signed from a biracial POC) the addition that the anon I think was very out of line was the one who claimed only the English dub was racist, however, I was already seeing people say this before that ask, so don’t think those comments are only directed at them?

(I felt a little bad about singling someone out, but the more I think about it, I really do need to clarify that. Sorry for a SECOND discourse ask now!)

Anonymous asked:

Okay sorry to add to the discourse but I think some people are seriously conflating “kins a character from a show” to “enjoys the show.” To me, someone liking Hetalia is one of the biggest red flags, but idk why we’re acting like kintypes can be helped. They can SOMETIMES be suppressed healthily, but not always!

I totally get if you don’t want to interact with Hetaliakin. I’m not sure I could comfortably, tbh. But people keep saying stuff like “how dare you ignore the racism in that show and act like nothing is wrong with it,” when I don’t think a single person defending the ‘kin from it has said anything like that. -A mixed POC

Anonymous asked:

wrt 703034476015566848 - yes, there was someone in the replies of one of the (many) hetalia posts blaming you for their being triggered because the post was "untagged" … even though if you use blacklist properly it blocks any post with the blocked word (in this case "hetalia") even if its untagged, so its just kind of on them and i dont like seeing people put responsibility on strangers for their own caretaking lmao. sorry if commenting on it was out of place though.

Anonymous asked:

Hetalia discussion: idk why this is a discussion at all. It's between a kin identity and a history of oppression and genocide and real people's trauma and discomfort. Genuinely how is this discourse. What's more important.

[bfdreaming]

I am really, genuinely happy to see such an outpouring of support for Palestinians. It's long overdue. At the very least it sounds like N*tanyahu won't be in office much longer. Once he and his cronies are out, maybe some actual progress can be made.

But pro-Palestine spaces are so fucking dangerous to me. It's an active Nazi recruiting ground and so few people seem to notice or care when really blatant antisemitism is snuck in. I'd say it's making me hypervigilent, but is it really hypervigilence when it really is all over the place?

I don't want to block the Palestine tag. I want to keep seeing support. But I've been unfollowing and unfollowing and I'm running out of people that will talk about it at all AND refrain from antisemitism.

And I'm glad that the news networks have been relatively careful to keep it out, and I'm glad that they're treating it with appropriate nuance and compassion. I'm glad they're not doing that gross overgeneralization thing, throwing the word "zionist" around as a casual identifier for bad Jews rather than what it actually means. I remember one story they covered well, essentially saying "antisemitism is on the rise and should be taken seriously but calling this particular slogan hate speech is reductive at best and muddies the water in a way that is really not helpful" while another incident was like "these protesters (in America) were harassing and threatening complete strangers for being visibly Jewish and that's fucked up". I don't always agree with how much time they dedicate to a given topic, but almost every Israeli person I saw interviewed has brought it up anyway: the violence against the Palestinians needs to stop yesterday. The news, at least that I've seen/watched, has been careful, and will mention when they have not independently verified something yet.

There's no nuance around whether or not genocide is ever okay. Obviously it's not. There's a lot of stuff that is not nuanced, and is unambiguously bad. But there's a lot of stuff that IS nuanced, and people tend to favor simple explanations and broad strokes. Factoring in multiple kinds of bigotry DOES make the conversation more difficult. You DO have to double check pretty much everything said and it IS exhausting. The news networks have entire teams of people that are paid to do exactly that. But in conversation? On social media? It often falls to the people that are affected. I see Muslims going through it too. Y'all don't deserve it either and I do see you. I see, on occasion, Israelis and Palestinians fed up with the way Westerners tend to discuss it. Like, yeah, protest, but also don't act like there's a simple solution for the long term.

And, again, the massive piles of misinformation floating around don't fucking help. If it has not been fact checked by a trusted source and you lack the means to fact check it yourself, just leave it alone. Don't let hateful people co-opt your compassion.

[ziskeyt]

#Finally somebody other than me saying this#It is extremely possible to be critical of Oppenheimer and the Manhattan project whilst having an ounce of nuance#about antisemitism and the holocaust#y'all wouldn't punch a nazi if they pissed on your duvet#Oppenheimer#Like obviously he was a flawed fucking guy who made some bad choices#Obviously he is complicit in some shit#You still need to contextualise it @tikkunolamorgtfo's tags are great

I feel really ignorant now but I've only recently learned that J. Robert Oppenheimer was Jewish and I'm so disgusted with the discourse on tumblr and twitter now.

"Progressives", start actually acknowledging and being against the genocide of Jewish people challenge.

"Sad white man tears" and it's about a man who was living at the same time his people were being systematically exterminated and was only one generation away from being a Jew in Germany during the Shoah himself, how the fuck do you people live with yourselves?

Some of you wouldn't give a shit that the Shoah happened if they had only murdered Jewish people and it shows.

[cooking-with-hailstones]

I am fucking INCANDESCENT.

So on Monday while Israel was bombing Rafah, there were demonstrations all over Canada calling for Canada to put an arms embargo on Israel. In Toronto, there was a march between the Israeli and the US consulates, which went along major Toronto streets. Along one of those major streets is Mt Sinai hospital.

Did our prime minister listen to the thousands of people begging for Canada to take a stand against the slaughter of civilians in Rafah??

Oh no. Absolutely not.

So now instead of having a conversation about "hey Justin Trudeau, why has Canada sent $28 million dollars worth of military equipment to Israel since October, for a campaign that has been described as genocidal??"

Now pro Palestinian activists are being forced onto the defensive and being accused of deliberately targeting a Jewish hospital.

I'm LIVID.

Anyways I guess bombing hospitals is fine and good though, right?

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2024/02/trudeau-protests-at-hospitals-are-reprehensible-bombings-to-be-judged-on-a-case-by-case-basis/

(no alt text but if you follow the link above, it's screenshots of the article text)

[rozzywell]

Absolutely do not reblog this post but I literally don't respect a good 70% of the tumblr bill and ted fandom bc apparently none of y'all can consume content without being gross. The tag is full of adults being horny for the high-schoolers, art that feels uncomfortably fetish-y, folks saying stuff that has serious biphobic undertones, etc etc. This is why I tend to prefer existing in my own little corner of the internet

[socialistexan]

I don't understand how so many people* can't just let go of Harry Potter.

Let me tell y'all about a book series that was really loved by me. It was about a child who was preordained for great things by a higher authority, who is plucked from his family and put into a far-off, otherworldly school where he undergoes a rigorous education, fends off rivals, and then with the help of friends he made at the school and mentors achieves what he thinks is his ultimate goal.

Then I found out the writer of these books was deeply bigoted against people like me as well as other groups I care about, and didn't just keep it to themselves, but actively denounced people like me publicly and funded campaigns to strip me of my rights. After finding that out, I couldn't read those books or find any enjoyment in the series anymore. I started looking at them more objectively, seeing the writers flaws, bad politics, and prejudices seeping into the work. I dropped it entirely, even though I enjoyed that series a lot when I was young because I grew up and saw it for what it was.

But I'm not talking Harry Potter, I'm talking about Ender's Game. I loved Ender's Game from the first time I read it. I loved it so much that I read both the sequels and the Shadow series. I didn't agree with everything in the books, but they just grabbed me in a way other series hadn't.

Orson Scott Card is a homophobe, a Trump supporter, and a war monger. And those are the things I can prove, his odd obsession with "the great man" in a fascist sense and his... poor handling of genocide and colonialism in his work is questionable at best. In 2004 he said laws that make being gay illegal should, "be used when necessary to send a clear message [to] those who flagrantly violate society's regulation"

There's no way around these things. It makes it utterly impossible to enjoy his work for anyone with a moral compass that isn't set to the worst societal way points.

So, no. JK Rowling is not being held to some separate standard just because she's a woman or a millionaire or whatever bullshit response people use for whataboutism when people critique her transphobia, racism, and antisemitism.

Rowling is "defending womanhood" in the same way Card thought he was "defending traditional values" against the gay agenda. It's the same shit over and over.

Both series meant a lot to me as a child/teen, but I then I grew up and saw them for what they were. Why can't y'all?

(*neurotypical people, obviously a hyperfix is a different story, but neurotypical people need to stop using that as a shield for Rowling when people ask you to stop giving her money by supporting her work)

[doberbutts]

Just for context, the wikipedia article about Fagin that goes into more detail. I bring up Fagin because, as said before, he's in a pretty commonly retold story and he's probably my first experience with blatant antisemitism in fiction. I read what must have been an early copy because it was "the Jew" this and "the Jew" that whenever he was around, and his description was a tall and lanky fellow with a hooked nose and large coat, who walked either with his back bent or leaned over the shoulders of others, with "dark eye" or "dark expression".

So, of course, when reading Witcher, I went "hey... Wait a minute..." when I reread that description of Stregobor, though I definitely didn't catch it the first two times I read through this section.

Stregobor, to my knowledge, is never outright stated to be Jewish specifically, but then there also are no outright Christians or Muslims or otherwise within this world either. He *is* afraid of a prophecied return of Lilit, obviously based off the Jewish lore, and when the town is threatened by Renfri looking for revenge for his kidnap/assault/assassination attempts (because she'll bring about Lilit's return) he more or less says "kill the town, what do I care". He cheats Geralt out of pay, and he more or less runs the town from the shadows while thinking himself better than the people who live there.

That being said, Sapkowski also wrote the entire series' morals to be things like "fascism is bad" and "rape also bad" and "genocide? very bad" and "stop being racist" and "respect women" so it is difficult for me to say that it's an intentional show of antisemitism, especially knowing Poland's history with both antisemitism AND nazis. I'm also decidedly not Jewish, so I'd rather hear y'all argue about this and shape my writing plans based on what I think would be the best path, than make an assumption one way or another.

Blaviken/Renfri/Stregobor's story is a very loose retelling of Snow White, which I think every adaption of that has used at least some amount of antisemitic trope with, which makes it harder for me to say is it "fantasy villian tropes frequently carry at least a touch of antisemitism because of European race politics throughout history" or is it "author's thinly veiled antisemitism".

Again, I thank you and everyone else who's commented, because you've given me a lot to chew on. I really appreciate it. The show gave us a Stregobor who I feel is... less trope-y, and I'm sort of picking and choosing between canons what I feel like doing with various characters.

However I ALSO noted that I think Stregobor is also an example of antisemitism but I'm not Jewish so idk. Jewish followers feel free to add your 2c.

He's tall, lanky, "with a long and hooked nose", large bushy beard, tends to lean over people and has a "dark eyed expression". He's notoriously stingy with money and cheated Geralt out of pay for a job done multiple times. And he steals girl children claiming they're cursed, keeping them imprisoned before experimenting on them and killing them to further his research. He sometimes performs small miracles in his tower for the townspeople but mostly keeps to himself and they serve him instead.

Which sound oddly close to jkr's blood libel goblins but again, I'm not Jewish.

[octopuscato]

The interesting thing about your book burning post is that you mention that burning books is simply "burning things that have values that we don't agree with". JK Rowling is a antisemitic transphobe. Are you saying that those are values that should be protected? Are you saying those are values that you, yourself, value? I'm not one to agree with book burnings, but it makes me wonder what /you/ so easily agree with.

So, what you're saying, essentially, is: "I don't agree with book burnings, but it's suspicious that you don't agree with book burnings either!" And why is it suspicious? Because I like a book series that's got some problematic themes, and whose author is a bigoted arsehole. And let me tell you: if we follow that logic, everyone who doesn't agree with book burnings is suspicious - yes, even you - because there's absolutely no media that doesn't have some problematic aspect, same as there are no people who don't hold some wrong and possibly harmful opinion. "PURITY" DOES NOT EXIST. It's a harmful myth made up by oppressors to keep people in line, and y'all are playing so nicely into their hands still, all the while thinking you're oh so enlightened and progressive. I pity you. You know, the hilarious thing about this ask is that I'd laugh at how transparent you are if it weren't so sad that you're desperately trying to make me look bad to some irrelevant online people with very questionable morals. But yes. Obviously, I, the trans person with a trans son, the person who's writing their PhD on antisemitism in historical theatre and has taught at university about - guess what - antisemitism in historical theatre, totally value transphobia and antisemitism. This makes a lot of sense.

If you'd actually wondered this in good faith, you might simply have searched my tumblr and found posts about JKR and antisemitism. But your goal isn't actually gaining knowledge, it's to a) make me look bad, as pointed out above, and/or b) annoy me. Too bad you've got neither the intellectual capacity nor the emotional impact to do either :')

[clatterbane]

Historical, Mythological & Social Origins of the Satanic Panic and How it Nearly Destroyed My Life

Starting in the early 1980’s the Satanic Panic ignited in the United States before spreading through the world. Here law enforcement, psychiatrists, social workers and occult ‘experts’ uncovered a vast satanic conspiracy which predated upon children at daycares, infiltrated heavy metal music, lured in teenagers through Dungeons and Dragons all organized by a grand network of satanic covens. These claims resulted in constant bullying for social non-conformists, hundreds of arrests, prosecutions, compromised guilty verdicts along with accusations which ruined lives and livelihoods for many more. The Satanic Panic is even more shocking when considering that no evidence has come to light in over 40 years to substantiate these claims. Feeding on centuries of demonological lore set into the social and economic degradation of the last quarter of the 20th century, the Satanic Panic continues to have a decisive social impact. Join me as I dive deep into the origins and development of the Satanic Panic and how it nearly destroyed my life.

Another unfortunately excellent video from Justin Sledge, which carries just about all the content warnings you might expect in this context. From medieval antisemitic violence, up through the 1980s ritual abuse craze--and, as he discusses some, more recently getting resurrected to some extent through the QAnon garbage. It's ugly history all the way down, y'all, though he treats it with the usual sensitivity here. (And more soberly than usual, with the multiple levels of obviously still uncomfortable personal relevance there.)

I was 12 when Geraldo Rivera's first mega-trainwreck special peddling this bullshit aired. So yeah, I remember this period a little too well--if thankfully more in the background, growing up in a non-religious family outside the Bible Belt. The White Evangelical Right hadn't made many inroads in our area (yet). I did know some other kids who ran into more trouble at home, with parents who were keeping an eye out for various supposed Satanic Influences. I did also hang out around some of the local Redneck Stoner Metalheads, so yeah. I'm still pretty cool with most of that crowd back home, and have no reason to think it's not mutual.

And I did run into some bullying with that shit used as an excuse--but surprisingly little in retrospect, as a neurodivergent weirdo with an interest in the occult myself, who was getting bullied within millimeters of my life already. Which whole experience honestly helped steer me harder into that punkmetalgoth freak glory, btw. Along with a lot of kids pushed well over onto the margins in those days.

(I also got much less directly caught up on the edges, through what was thankfully a much more straightforwardly secular version of the whole deeply pernicious "repressed memories of nonexistent abuse" fad. As I have talked about some before. Basically because I was obviously ND as hell, no doubt sending off some serious queer vibes, and dealing with plenty of then-ongoing trauma to boot. That whole mess was frankly traumatizing as fuck, but I feel like it at least didn't screw with my head in as bad a ways as, say, actually becoming convinced that you were indeed sadistically abused in Satanic rituals. They also never pulled out hypnosis on me, but stuck to insistent leading questions based on horrible assumptions in the face of my persistent "poor insight" and total lack of recall of any earlier childhood abuse of the sort ever happening. Don't know how well hypnosis would have worked either, tbh, but there was more than enough badness there even without finding out. And without the explicitly "Satanic" elements.)

It is difficult to stress hard enough just how many people did get harmed in some way by this particular load of conspiracy theory horseshit. And in some ways that were still echoing down, even before the QAnon revival. As he goes into some here.

Dr. Sledge, OTOH, is just enough younger that I wouldn't have thought he'd have been at as much risk. But yeah, he was also a similarly geeky weirdo growing up in Mississippi and getting involved in Judaism at the time--who was actually into D&D, some occult special interests, and at least now black metal. (Hard to tell which way any connection there might have run, of course, considering he doesn't mention the metal back when this shit was actively playing out.) And, of course, he ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

At any rate, this video is indeed a pretty long deep dive, but I would really suggest checking it out.

[princess-of-the-corner]

hi i'm jewish and i'd like to explain the horns thing! there's a passage in the talmud that talks about moses, and it refers to him having like a halo/aura kind of thing, similar to the gold disk christians put behind the heads of saints in paintings, but the word it uses could theoretically also be used to mean horns. it doesn't but it was mistranslated as such, which lead to people believing that jews have horns. like, some people actually thought that for real. i know people in real life who have been asked where their horns are upon telling someone they are jewish. obviously not everyone actually believed this, but it's propoganda, the point isn't if you think it's true, the point is to get people to think it.

like the lizard thing, it seems on the surface a very silly idea, almost comical, and therefore deceptively harmless. in reality, even it its ridiculous, it has been used to legitimately harm many people.

its a bad choice, giving him horns.

id like to give ml the benefit of the doubt too but france has some really extreme issues with antisemitism and i just dont have it in me at this point. i understand everyone who does, im just a bit too burnt out to take the risk. i still love the idea of the show and these characters and ill probably stay in the fandom but if i hadn't already dipped on actually supporting it a while ago this would be the last straw lol.

Thank you for explaining!

That is actually very interesting historically and I'm sorry y'all have to deal with that.

And yeah I don't know enough about French culture to know if it's intentional but it's enough to have me giving it the side eye. And I will be switching it so that Marc has the Goat and Nathaniel the Rooster when I get around to writing it.

[inazuma-fulgur]

Also this here, this is something I felt and feared as a critic of Israels politics, that many are stooping to less civil and even openly antisemitic discourse.

I've seen the questioned pondered by a young activist who I generally liked, just 18, whether Jews are white now (Because of Israel). Which is a very bad question to ponder, Jews are in fact not white just because some white nationalist like Israel. But even those who do, like Trump, still can't talk about Israel and it's relations to the US without showing their own antisemitism.

The thing is, Israel is a state and as a state it cannot represent any ppl except the ones in it's government. It's actions don't reflect on Jews and y'all should stop sending them hate and keep falling for antisemitic conspiracies just because there once again is a genocide being perpetrated by a state. Critique the fucking genocide, and the fucking state

Don't attack Jews who aren't even remotely responsible, have we really gotten nowhere?

(Although to be fair and balanced, it should be noted that Israel trying to make itself out as a representative of ALL Jewish ppl and getting represented like that by media conpanies and states like germany or the usa also leads to more confusion. And more ppl who dislike what's happening to Palestinians conflating jews and israel because of low political literacy and also misinformation and disingenuous/bad political actors who benefit from or plain want to spread antisemitism.

(Anecdote. One of my prev roommates, I have moved out since, talked about how his mom as an Alevi who is no stranger to discrimination herself supports everyone in their struggle and hates no one except Jews. That created a more than awkward silence, because like you can't just talk about how racism is bad and then drop shit like this. So he added that this is because she can't tell the difference between Israel and the jewish people. And obviously this is anecdotal and I have quite a few issues with his political views overall* idk but if you ask me that sounds like a propaganda problem nonetheless. (*he's quite big on gym science, mysogyny, transphobia and homophobia, and also hangs with people who share like Andrew Tates ideas. They all hate Tate and at least partially believe his shit don't ask me how this works) Essentially what I'm saying is Israels efforts to build an untrue image that they represent all Jews enables antisemitism further.)

Also, because it is mentioned here I'll link and quote the working definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

"Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic. Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for “why things go wrong.” It is expressed in speech, writing, visual forms and action, and employs sinister stereotypes and negative character traits."

https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antisemitism

This is not the whole thing obv so take a look at this link

(the definition actually got updated since I last looked at it, it used to call all criticism of Israel antisemitic. Which lead to many problems, like activists denying any wrong doings by the state and refusing to pay attention since they learned the state of Israel is beyond criticism, a problem heavily attached to german activist afraid of being antisemitic and ending up antisemitic equating Israel to an objective representative of all jews. Which it's not, it's a state. And other activists developing another form of antisemitism, where they jump to the topic of Israel and Genocide whenever Jews are even mentioned.)

If you're a genocide denier gtfo. If you're an antisemite gtfo but even faster or I'll beat your ass.

If you're still reading you weirdo (thank you <3), let's acknowledge the fact that the more I learn the less I understand Zionism. I now know it as a progressive, a conservative, a secular and a religious movement. But never all of them at the same time since half of them are contradictory.

And the sources I can reach are not all great, I'm not comfortable with the potential for me reading misinformation that is involved. I'm a goyim after all and should know my place, I hope I do

https://m.jpost.com/opinion/op-ed-contributors/nathan-birnbaum-and-the-search-for-authenticity-320941

"Today, Israel suffers because the reality of the state is rooted in a modern European nationalism; very shallow roots. The desire to “be like the nations” is not enough to sustain a unifying ideology that can take the place of a failing Labor Zionist ethos."

Since I've not just met tiktokers believing weird shit and buying into transphobia but also had someone in casual conversation about police and state violence start telling me about covid conspiracies and the rothschilds and their dynasty lets talk about short video form content platforms and the spread of antisemitism

https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5172/2/4/41

Tiktok is incredibly potent in spreading anything, often misinformation, and similarly incredibly dangerous

You might have noticed that a lot of social media platforms are pushing for more and more 1-2 Minute video content and even, like YouTube or Instagram, award extra visibility and a push from the algorithm for using those. Now it happens that misogyny is more common in yt shorts than it is in long form videos, for whatever reason. And it's not the only thing.

But if education gets broken down to 1 min clips with heavily censored language and receiving context is watching 50 of those cut ups to watch one full interview and even then you still don't know who's talking or what their qualifications are, that's bad.

So here, read this study, it's good, I swear

[your-naked-magic-oh-dear-lord]

I didn't want to clutter up Trans Mom's post but I want to say something regarding it.

Not long after I came out as nonbinary, one of my dear friends, a pre-transition trans woman, made an offhand comment about how the world will never take trans people seriously as long as people make up nonsense like ethereal genders, or no genders, or genders in between, etc.

I commented back "you're a fucking truscum?" thought better of it, edited to "transmedicalist" and then remembered that this poor kid had the cock of conservatism so far down their throat, they can't breathe, so I deleted the comment knowing we couldn't have an actual conversation about it.

(my friend is trans, and I want to use female pronouns, but they're still dealing with metric tons of internalized transphobia, and won't let us. But I feel really guilty and uncomfortable calling them male pronouns because they deal with so much disphoria. So please forgive me for using they/them on this context here.)

My friend (at the time) was a 27 year old, 6 ft. tall, half-Mexican, half-Ethnic Jewish, bi/pan/vaguesexual, trans woman.

They had medium tan (obviously Hispanic) skin, stereotypical Jewish traits, including the profile and very thick, heavy, tight curly hair they referred to as the "jew fro".

And this person believed that if you pandered to the ruling class, it would earn you acknowledgement of your humanity.

And I found that so infuriating. That mindset, which I see a lot in exclusionist factions in many oppressed groups (gays who claim to be the "good" gays, bi/pan/ace exclusionists, transmedicalists, certain race groups but I know it's not my place to discuss that, for just a couple examples) that "If I kiss up to the bigots and nazis, and condemn the actions/appearances of the 'fakers' below me, surely they will acknowledge my humanity and welcome me into the ruling class!"

That doesn't work. It will never work.

It's so frustrating. If Nazis patrolled the streets, my friend would be gutted just for looking Jewish before they had time to say "no I'm a GOOD trans".

The point is to destroy the ruling class, not condemn those who need your help in the off chance you might not be destroyed by it.

I love my friend. We're no longer speaking because of something unrelated to this conversation, but I would die for them in a heartbeat, unquestioningly.

But the knowledge that they consider themselves better than me (and many others) because... What, I hate the gender binary and don't feel a part of it? Because I didn't have a label for it til I was 30?

They didn't come to terms with their trans identity until 2014 (don't make me do math) so early-mid 20s? I didn't know that you could be something other than male or female. I didn't know you could just reject the things that trapped you or made you feel bad/weird. If someone had explained nonbinary identities to me at 12, I would have picked it. I spent a year in my tweens adamantly insisting I was a boy.

And see? I'm actually sitting here justifying my identity. That is not why I wrote this.

I just want to address that ridiculous, counterintuitive, directly harmful, (and futile in its intended purpose) attitude.

When all the queers are being herded into the salt mines or the prisons, they're not going to ask at the door, "are you a good trans or a filthy transtrender?" and release you if you answered correctly.

Oppressors don't pick and choose. They don't take any of us seriously. They would wipe us off the face of the earth if it were logistically possible.

So we're comrades. We should be comrades in arms. Picking each other up in the fight for human rights, not using lesser identities as footholds.

I'm sorry I'm rambling. I'm sorry for any antisemitic or transphobic things I said. It was not my intention. I wanted to accurately portray my friend and their beliefs.

I don't care if you're a queer elder or a 10 year old fae sparkle ufo butterfly gender, I believe it's my duty to uplift y'all, protect y'all, unite with y'all. I love y'all. 💜