#or other poc/muslims/etc

[squilliamtriker]

zionist jews never seem to figure out that them feeling "uncomfortable" or "attacked" by critique of zionism is a form of white fragility akin to when white racists are called out and get extremely defensive about it. this weaponization of fear is pretty on par with people who believe in the great replacement theory, the "we're terrified because people are trying to get rid of our way of life" when said 'way of life' is white supremacy

[vamptastic]

its always funny seeing non-white and/or lgbt ppl wanting to move to my hometown and all the straight white people are like "youll be fine its a live and let live kind of place just mind your business and people will mind theirs" and all the non-white and/or lgbt people going "jesus fucking christ please don't move here you WILL be hate crimed by a dude in a trucker hat and the KKK is still active"

[jewreallythinkthat]

One of the reasons I think there has been such a breakdown between the "progressive" left and the Jewish community is actually something that I've watched before fostered in left wing spaces for well over a decade and that is looking for offence.

When someone says something antisemitic, that does not mean they are an antisemite. I remember when the BLM marches took place, people rightly pointed out that there is a lot of unconscious bias against PoC and that being called out for eating something you didn't realise was problematic does not mean you are actually racist, just that you need to think a bit more when talking about a subject which in many cases, doesn't affect you as such. The same principle should apply to antisemitism.

If I say someone has said something antisemitic, their first reaction (on the left wing - because the right will proudly nod that yes, it was antisemitic) is often "you're calling me an antisemite and trying to silence me, Zionist". This is not true. What I am saying is that you are saying something that is discriminatory, invoked blood libel, accused Jews of ruling the world etc etc. I fully believe most people do not realise they are doing this. The point of dog whistles is that you are not supposed to recognise them, that's how they propagate. Anti-jewish racism is one of the oldest forms of hatred and it stretches back multiple millennia so it makes sense that it's literally inside the common vernacular. That doesn't mean everyone using it is an antisemite.

Instead of immidiately jumping to the defensive, I wish people would take a moment to ask, in good faith, "why would a Jewish person find this antisemitic?" Take the opportunity to learn, to better themself. Do not assume every Jew is trying to silence you - assuming the worst every time of Jewish people is a type of antisemitism so please try and put yourself in their shoes and maybe even ask them to explain so you can do better in the future.

Just a general overview, here's a couple of ones to look out for (a non exhaustive list).

1. Replace the word "Zionist" in what has Ben said with "Jew". If it sounds like something leeched out of Nazi Germanh or the Soviet Union, it's probably going to be antisemitism.

2. Saying you don't think any country should exist but focusing exclusively on the destruction of Israel. The only thing that makes Israel unique is that it's a Jewish majority country. So why is that the only county you actively want to get rid of?

2.1 Holding Israel to a higher standard than any other country is antisemitic as laid out above in point 2.

3. Assuming the worst of Jews and Israel every time is antisemitism. It's no different to assuming Black people are always out to get you or all Muslims are terrorists. If it's racist to do this to one minority group, it is racist to do it to any.

4. Tokenizing extremists in a community (Ben Gvir and the West Bank settlers on the right wing in Israel, the Neturi Karta by the progressive left when discussing I/P) is racist. If you only listen to Jews who prove your point, you are actively excluding the majority of a community so you can beat them down, this is racist.

I don't like calling people antisemitic because most people are not actually that, what they are is uneducated on antisemetism because the majority of that education is not being done by Jews - let alone Jews who represent the majority of the community.

But if you refuse to talk to Jews in good faith when they try to explain why what you have said is antisemitic, you are running the risk of moving from "ignorant user of antisemetic language" to "antisemite" (also a note, ignorant not meaning stupid but rather that you do not know something).

[what-even-is-thiss]

People who get mad about poc being included in medieval fiction and fantasy are not only racist but they also have a deep misunderstanding about how their own ideas of race and culture work.

Perhaps, yes. Most people living in Europe in the time period we call the Middle Ages would’ve been what we now consider to be white. But that doesn’t mean poc wouldn’t have been there at all and it doesn’t mean they understood identity in the same way we do.

“Outsiders” could be from within the same city or from a world away. A lot of peoples loyalties and who they saw as being from the same group as them had to do with religious conflicts, politics, and combinations of the two. Maybe just based on what neighborhood or village they lived in.

Historically before the era of colonialism Catholic countries like Portugal have sometimes given aid in various forms to Ethiopia because they’re both christian countries. People in the area we now call Italy would’ve killed neighbors less than a 20 minute walk away over papal politics.

People also traded frequently with people from other continents. Married people from other continents. Early into the so-called age of exploration Portuguese and Spanish explorers were known to sometimes marry women traders from west Africa for their wealth and trade connections. People from all over the Muslim world have also often been traders, enemies, allies, and mercenaries all over Europe and vice versa with Christian and Jewish traders, scholars, mercenaries, traders, crusaders, etc. traveling and living within the Muslim world as well.

Vikings got around. To Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, North America. Many stayed where they went or made deals with the locals. Many brought prisoners, slaves, illegitimate children, and new wives back home.

Not only did the concept of whiteness and any other modern understanding of race not exist yet, people intermingled, intermarried, moved around, converted religions, traded across continents. Sometimes people made it all the way to North America even if that route and the colonies that came out of it faded out of memory eventually. The world was still interconnected even if it did move much slower.

Also when talking about fantasy and not historical fiction, it’s fantasy. There’s dragon. And wizard. Why are you worried about your racist ideas about “realism”? Besides the racism I mean.

[edenfenixblogs]

How do you know if you’re antisemitic?

Well, if a Jew telling you you’re antisemitic won’t make you believe it, here is a guide to help you figure it out yourself.

1. Do you think Jews, en masse, are ACTIVELY REPLACING/ATTEMPTING TO REPLACE some other group — especially a somehow more deserving group? (For example, White people, Black people, African people, Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, indigenous people, etc.) Do you feel there are JUST TOO MANY JEWS IN A GIVEN LOCATION?

2. Do you think Jews are PRETENDING TO BE SOMETHING THAT THEY ARE NOT? (For example, White, PoC, “Real” Jews, Indigenous/Native, an Ethnic Minority, Devoted Citizens of [YOUR COUNTRY] etc.)?

3. Do you think Jews are CONTROLLING OR ATTEMPTING TO CONTROL SOME INTEGRAL ASPECT OF SOCIETY? (For example, the government, media, banks, business, medicine, etc.)

4. Do you think Jews that you criticize are UNIQUELY BLOODTHIRSTY OR GENOCIDAL — especially when hoping for personal achievement or cultural supremacy? (For example, trying to stage a global war so they can control the world; using/consuming blood of Christians and babies to do satanic rituals; sexually seducing non-Jews in order to contaminate bloodlines and erase other pre-existing identities; immigrating to a new location with the intention of murdering those who already exist there; desiring to murder Arabs, Muslims, or Palestinians in their homelands by means of genocide in order to control a region at the exclusion of other ethnicities, etc.)

5. Do you think Jews are APPROPRIATING A PRIVILEGE THAT THEY DO NOT DESERVE AND THAT DOES NOT BELONG TO THEM? (For example, freedom, wealth, power, whiteness, G-d’s favor, a safe home in the Levant, Arab land, colonial power, representation as a minority group, etc.)

6. Do you think Jews at large or the specific Jews you disagree with and who wield power in a way you disapprove of CAN BE COLLECTIVELY LABELED? (For example, might you call them slaves, vermin, insects, dirty, scheming, communists, fascists, Nazis, satanic, Zionists, scum, etc.)

IF YOU ANSWERED YES TO ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS YOU ARE AN ANTISEMITE. This is literally textbook antisemitism. If you answered, well yeah but only “the Jews in Israel” or “the ones who vote for Bibi” or the “ones who moved to my town/country/region” or if you saw something on one of the lists and think “well no fair! That one is actually true,” your exception isn’t exceptional. You haven’t found the one true bad thing that Jews ACTUALLY are. It’s not some conspiratorial propaganda to equate reasonable beliefs with hate. You’re just hateful. Some part of you hates Jews. And you have to confront what that part of you is and you have to destroy it if you want to engage in any conversations that impact Jewish welfare anywhere in the world.

One way to start deconstructing is to ask yourself “Why do I feel this way?” “From whom did I learn to think this way?” “Who in my life approves and supports me thinking this way?” “Am I comfortable telling a Jewish person I feel this way in person?” “How do I think a Jewish person will feel/What do I think a Jewish person will think if I tell them this?” “Do I care what they feel or think? Why or why not?” “How would I feel/what would I think if someone felt this way or thought this way about me or an identity I value deeply?”

[unamazing-sheep21]

The Daroga is actually an extremely important character to the themes of Phantom of the Opera

Many people might not know this but living as a Muslim/brown person in the west ( especially France… see: burqab ban, burkini ban, hijab ban, etc) is extremely difficult for some. Not to mention in a world post 9/11. Not to mention ( probably) in the 1890’s like in Phantom of the Opera where orientalist art and inaccurate and often dehumanising portrayals of the Middle East and it’s people ( muslims, arabs, Persians etc) were common and were used to justify colonialism.

In classic literature there’s only like, ONE character who is brown and is treated like an actual human being by the narrative and is presented as a central cast member to boot: and that’s the Daroga/ The Persian in Phantom of the Opera. And even then, every adaptation after either replaces him with a white person or has an incredibly disingenuous and inaccurate portrayal of him and his ethnicity/religion. Heck, in the Phantom Susan Kay book he’s given the surname “Khan” which isn’t even Persian it’s a PAKISTANI name.

Every other presumably brown/POC character are written animalistically and antagonistically. E.g Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights and Bertha from Jane Eyre. Bertha especially who is just used as an obstical/metaphor instead of an actual genuine character who deserves her own nuance and voice.

Now, back to the tittle, why do I think The Persian’s mere existence and especially with him being Persian/Muslim is inexplicably tied to the themes of POTO? Because he’s just like Erik and completely unlike Erik at the same time. In the book he’s constantly described as wearing as astrakhan cap/ a fez. Something quintessentially Middle Eastern and exposes him as ethnic right away to the eyes of the then European public. Both Erik and The Persian have sides of them that the society they live in at large shuns/dehumanises/condemns. For Erik it’s his face, and for The Persian it’s his culture/ religion/ race. But unlike Erik, The Persian has the choice to “ take it off” or assimilate more into society. He can, and it was better for him if he wore, a top hat but he CHOOSES to wear a fez. And he never takes it off. While he CAN and he has the chance to be more accepted in society than he already is.

But Erik can’t “take it off”, he can’t take off his face.

Though we don’t know much about the Persians’ beliefs, it’s safe to assume he was probably Muslim since Persia has been a Muslim country for a long time ( ignore the one we have now lmao). And I like to think that even in France he doesn’t give up this one part of him. He could just convert to whatever the majority religion in France was at the time and he would be more assimilated into French society, but he doesn’t . He actively chooses to keep parts of who he is even though they put him at a disadvantage. In contrast, Erik would give anything and does try everything ( even to phycotic lengths ) to be considered “ Normal” in society.

And throughout all of Erik’s efforts the only one who was ever really there for him was The Persian. But Erik dismisses him constantly.

I like to think that The Persian stayed because he understands Erik to a certain degree, and I like to think that Erik resents him because he doesn’t use every chance he gets to assimilate into society. To be considered normal. Sometimes Erik quite literally would kill for. Instead hanging onto every part that makes him who he is even when it only isolates him further.

[iswearbyalltheflowers]

Woah that's so interesting.

I have so many questions because I really do love your account and how you think. You are very wise!

Why do you think anti Zionist Jews fail so terribly at creating a better alternative to Zionism? Would you say part of the reason is because they tend to be completely assimilated therefore lacking any sort of Jewishness and depth of knowledge about Judaism? Do you think the Left requires that Leftist Jews do not have a Jewish identity?

2. Has there been any interesting approaches to anti Zionism that has caught your eye? Do you know of any Zionists who wrote critiques of Zionism in a "I want this to be better and improve" type of way? You mentioned Bundism and how it failed while Zionism is still here. Why do you think Zionism survived? Are there any leftist/progressive/communist Zionist pieces you can recommend in general?

3. This is off topic but do you know any books articles etc that talk extensively about the theft of Jewishness especially through the two major world religions Christianity and Islam?

4. What makes Zionism so different from the Black Power Movements and Pan Arabism? People are fine with the latter but obsessively hate Zionism. Why? I mean, yes antisemitism but why is Jewish pride such a threat to people especially communists and the like? Why do the most intelligent POC and queers etc hate Zionism while supporting Islamism and Muslim extremist groups? Why are we such a threat to other marginalized groups?

1) I do think assimilation as well as lack of knowledge as to how assimilation is both infeasible and anti-jewish as a solution to jewish oppression leads many anti-zionist jews to erroneously believe assimilation is a viable alternative to Zionism, yes. When I said anti-zionist jews currently have no real remaining credible alternative to zionism though I meant that even anti-zionists who aren't assimilationists don't really have an answer to it and this isn't through any unique failing of theirs so much as there simply aren't good alternatives to nationalism generally at this point in time. Anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism largely mean nationalism in practice. When Russia launches a war to conquer Ukraine, the only meaningful way to protect Ukrainians from that oppression is to support the continued existence of their sovereignty.

I don't think it's remotely leftist to require that jews sacrifice their jewish identity. When I criticize leftists for essentially requiring this of us, this is a criticism I am making from the left, of the left, as a leftist jew.

2) I'm primarily interested in anti-zionism as an iteration of antisemitism, namely identifying the reasons why it's politically useful across various contexts, because the functions it serves are relevant to being able to understand and combat it. These for instance.

As for the second question really that's every zionist's critique of zionism. Sometimes they're even right.

As for zionism's survival, prior to Israel's establishment jews being a tiny, fractured people meant our political movements were largely impotent in the face of any opposition from non jews. Then as now, non jews hostile to us are far more numerous, far more electorally and politically significant, and far better resourced than we can ever be, let alone the non jews indifferent to us. Being unable to simply impose ourselves, anything we sought to accomplish politically required sufficient non-jewish buy-in. Zionism was the only political solution of ours that due to its being possible to align with their own interests could garner meaningful support from even antisemitic non jews. A good book on this subject.

As for leftist zionist recommendations, there's no more comprehensive treatment I know of than Albert Memmi's trilogy on the subject:

Portrait of a Jew

The Liberation of the Jew

Jews and Arabs

For something shorter here's a collection prepared in the wake of 10/7:

Additional piece I feel should be included on account of I think the failure to recognize the dynamic described is the source of a lot of confusion:

And I am not an ideological leftist so for socialist perspectives I will defer to others I know:

3) Check out Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition and Islamic Imperialism: A History.

4) Pretty much all of that originates in the 1960's and derives from the soviet anti-zionist campaign in conjunction with the ascending political power of postcolonial states in Asia and Africa. The chief concern of the African states was anti-colonialism, epitomized by the fight against apartheid, and the arab states seized on the opportunity to broker an alliance: in exchange for the support of the arab states on fighting apartheid, African diplomats would accede to arab demands that Israel be treated like a western colonial power in UN human rights matters.

[olderthannetfic]

Seeing my fandom fight with each other regarding if a Turkish character described as "dark, rich bronze-brown" in skintone is or is not a POC kind of shows how flawed fandom's understanding of race is. He's discriminated against within the story in a way that his coworker, a white Muslim, is not, so it's plainly obvious to me that he is being impacted by racism and is not intended by the text to solely be impacted by Islamophobia, as some people in fandom have claimed. Regardless of whether or not people online think he's white or not, think Turkey is a white or nonwhite nation, etc., in reality, people don't stop and ask you about your ethnicity, nationality, etc. before they decide how to treat you. A man with dark bronze skin is not going to be treated as white by the world. Racists do not pause and ask themselves if he might be X, Y or Z. They see his skin and react.

Fandom doesn't understand that race is a construct and racists will rearrange the construct. You can argue Turkey is in Europe all you want, they'll just change the construct's rules from 'European' to 'European and not brown'. In a discord I'm in right now, I had to explain to some well-meaning and otherwise not unintelligent Gen Z kids about how segregation worked. One of them asked, quite earnestly, what would happen to him, someone who is mixed race, and I had to explain that it very much boiled down to if you were light skinned and capable of passing for white or not. Multiple people brought up blood quantums because USAmericans love us some fractions, but no bus driver, I explained, had ever asked for a person's stats before making a decision. The decision was made purely on a visual basis, usually coming down to skin color. (Although even if you were light enough that you could bullshit your way into saying "I'm Italian!" like my dad's boyfriend managed to do growing up, that only worked when my dad's boyfriend had his hair chemically relaxed and treated to make it the texture of a white person's hair, and it worked best when he was nicely dressed. It was still visuals based. Being 3/4ths white by the math meant nothing.)

Honestly the issue we have underneath it all isn't the terms POC, BIPOC, non-white, etc. The problem we have is that people don't understand what race is. Race is not math and race is not determined by where you're from on a map. It's a social construct. It's not real geographically, biologically or mathematically. To look at it from this very detached psuedo-science POV is to not understand the reality that social constructs are enforced by society via individual experiences.

If a brown man is experiencing bigotry from racists due to his skin color, he isn't white. It doesn't matter where he's from.

--

This is tumblr, so you know what I'm going to reply:

[birdsareblooming]

im so tired of having to defend myself on both sides

like. ok. i'm queer right. bi, demigender, aro, etc. also you know a girl, demi or not. all the time i have to defend myself from american christians who via mistranslations and misinterpretations spread by horrible leaders for generations have been led into a cult-like hierarchy that tells them to hate me when hate for us isn't in their book or supposed to be in their ways.

i'm also "christian". i hesitate to use the full term because of how bad american christianity has gotten. but i believe in the same god nontheless. every day i feel i have to defend myself from queer people as well

like. i so get it. as i have just established american and european christianity has gotten so fucked up and literally off-script that i'm shocked we haven't gotten another 95 thesis and a completely new branch. it's awful horrible and people who believe in such ideas should not be in power. to the point where calling myself a christian feels wrong. at least in america.

i need ya'll to have some nuance.

firstly the understanding that those who hate queer people, non-white people in any form, women, whatever else. isn't even in the text they follow. people have misused it since it was written. preaching just the verse saying wives should care for their husbands and not the one right after saying husbands should love their wives. taking out verses referring to god's "womb." about adam might not even being a man, as in, more likely nonbinary, the verse about david getting an errection when hugging johnathan. changing verses about cleanliness into women and men not wearing the same cloths. changing verses about cultural codes and allowing a world where people have to resort to prositution into verses condemning homosexuality. [X]

like. you know the matrix. was written as a trans metaphor. then a bunch of alpha sigma grindset rich white boys took it and appropriated it, misinterpreted it, used it to boost themselves and hurt women. it's like that. those people don't make the matrix a bad movie, they just don't know it's a trans metaphor. and trans people who enjoy the matrix are like. normal and cool.

as you can see i am passionate about this. i have all this stuff memorized not only to defend my queerness but my christianity as im doing now.

there are queer christians. there are certainly poc christians as right now, south america and south africa have the highest christian populations, to the point where they're sending missionaries to america.

again i'm asking for some nuance. when i see posts basically saying "the christian god is dumb" or "satan was right actually" and blantent misinformation about what the bible says. like those kind of posts hurt my heart. my god made me queer and loves me for it, i believe in a kind god, most good christians do. i feel like other religions don't get this treatment and it's just to spiritually piss off your catholic parents.

speaking of, in doing so you seem to forget about other abrahamic religions.

i once saw a post criticizing something directly from the old testament, out of context of course. saying god was cruel and the belives were flawed and all this due to one verse. people tend to forget, or not know, that the "old testament" is the tenoch. slightly different book order, same writings.

christians, muslims, jewish people, worship the same god. different names for god, some god, same base. if you make jokes about christianty willy-nilly, you're going to accidentally hit someone else. and even if you don't, you may hurt someone still.

it doesn't hurt because i think it's "sacrilegious" or i think you're going to hell. it hurts because my community doesn't care. my community doesn't see the nuance in people and decided a specific religion is the enemy. a specific group of people is the enemy. ive been marked as the enemy

it's casual jokes to you, to me it's making fun of my god

listen, by all means make fun of the assholes. i make fun of them every day. millionaires who use privet jets than preach and love to overlook the many verses condemning the rich and saying rich people don't go to heaven. people saying that as a woman of god you shouldn't enjoy sex. weirdos online and irl that seem to think patorizing random people will get them to church. dumb white people. it's great. fuckn. mormons and jehovah's witness leaders who are straight up running a cult based on a thread of the original intention. and it's funny because they're the assholes.

but don't attack the base religion itself. understand that the religion isn't inherently harmful, certain branches, beliefs, misinterpretations, and leaders certainly are. but please be kind to the people who are normal

before you make a post saying you're gonna. i dont know 'kill the uncaring god' that you're hurting people like me, any abrahamic religion, anyone who believes in a god possibly. also that's basically my parent, it's like you're insulting my awesome mom to my face bc my older sibling sucks. like thats just mean to her for no reason.

i'm just. tired. im stuck in the middle and i hate that i have to make this post because like. this is my home and my people and im tired of seeing this shit from my peers and family. just. have nuance. care about people. don't just say shit about a religion if you don't know its true.

im tired.

[jedi-enthusiast]

Honestly I’m so confused why people are so upset that Israel was included in Eurovision, like…my dude it’s literally a music contest for a bunch of countries---that Israel has already been included in before---not an actual political statement.

It’s literally insane to me, especially with how people were treating the Israeli contestant---protesting her, forcing her to change her song, other contestants saying shit like “talking to her doesn’t mean I support Israel,” etc. etc.

And I feel like that’s a reoccurring thing with all this mainstream pro-Palestine bullshit: y’all don’t actually care about Palestine or want to help anyone, you just want “good person points” socially, but don’t actually care about your impact.

You'll post shit like "stan Hamas" and ignore the fact that they're literally a terrorist organization dedicated to killing Jews, and that they're literally hurting Palestinians too, as well as the fact that the conflict between Israel and Palestine is only ongoing because Hamas keeps breaking the ceasefire and won't give back hostages.

But you'll ignore all of the organizations that actually help Palestine because they're run by Jews/Israelis, or even just supported by Jews and Israelis.

(And how much do you want to bet that the same people who cry- "Hamas is only doing this because of Israel's actions regarding Palestine, so it's justified/reasonable/understandable, etc." -would never say that if it was a group like, say, ISIS that was kidnapping/killing/waging war on Americans because of the US's actions in the Middle East?)

You'll harass random people on college campuses just because they're Jewish, even though they clearly have no fucking say in what a country on the other side of the world does, and barricade yourselves inside a building and be shocked when you're suspended or expelled for property damage/harassment/etc.

But you won't volunteer at any organizations that are dedicated to helping Palestine, or donate money to those organizations, or donate food/clothes/etc., or actually do anything besides whine and cry because you helped destroy a campus building and your college doesn't want you there anymore.

(Hell, 99% of y'all don't even bother volunteering for your own communities, so I know you're sure as hell not volunteering to help anyone else's---again, you just want the "good person points")

Everyone that was so gung-ho about "oh yeah, let's punch Nazis!" a few years ago are now spouting Nazi rhetoric.

Everyone that preached that bigotry is never ok, even if someone from a minority does something bad, are now the same people chanting- "Jews are shit!" -and spreading blood libel.

Everyone that was calling for solidarity between minorities and oppressed groups are now the same people ostracizing Jews because they won't condemn the only country that will actually protect them- (or rather, they'll condemn the Israeli governments actions, but won't stand side-by-side with antisemites or say that Israel should be destroyed).

Everyone that said that it wasn't okay for people to be racist towards poc because some of the BLM protests were getting out of hand/violent are now the same ones going- "oh, it's fine to be antisemitic because these disgusting Jews Zionists aren't agreeing with me on everything."

Everyone that was posting shit about being aware of misinformation and doing your research before posting something are now the ones that have no idea what Zionism actually is, don't even know which river and sea their chant means, has no clue what Israel has actually done to Palestine and is just calling it a "genocide" as a buzzword despite all the evidence stating otherwise, etc.

Like...you guys are really just proving that you don't actually have morals beyond what's socially acceptable.

"Never harass random Muslim/gay/trans/black/etc. people just for a cause or because they did something you didn't like...unless they're Jewish, then you can stalk them on campus and be physically violent towards them."

"Bigotry is never okay, even if someone from a minority does something you don't agree with or something awful...unless they're Jewish, then spread blood libel and call for the "final solution" all you want."

"Not everyone from the US/Republican states/Christian churches/etc. agrees with what their government/state/religious leaders are doing, so it's not fair to blame and ostracize them for it...unless it's Jewish people or Israelis or, G-d forbid, Jewish Israelis, then you can hate them and blame them for everything!"

Like, genuinely, fuck off.

You aren't good people, you aren't "making a difference" or "on the right side of history," you don't give a shit about morality or justice or doing any good for anyone---all you care about is your fucking popularity and the social norm.

So keep your stupid, hateful, misinformed hands off of the I/P conflict---you've proven that y'all clearly can't handle having opinions on it.

[antisemitism-eu]

Looking at the pictures of the Hezbollah fighters and honestly my first thought is "look at all those white men" because like... what the fuck? It's so insane that leftists are now all calling jews 'white colonizers' when most israelis (tbh even most ashkenazim and members of the diaspora) have darker skin and features than most of these these caucasian-ass male terrorists do. I'm not even saying it's a contest or it matters, just that the double standard here is insane.

I just... how has everyone been so easily propagandized into believing that people who look like Gigi Hadid, Ahed Tamimi, Simi and Haze Khadra, etc are all "oppressed brown Palestinians" while simultaneously claiming that people who look like Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Jeff Goldblum, Jenny Slate, Eden Yerushalmi, etc are "white colonizers"? I feel like part of the problem is most westerners have never even visited the Middle East and have no clue that the image in their head of what Israelis (and the populations of neighboring countries) look like is basically totally false.

That's a very good point, and I wrote about that in the past.

Nazis and antisemitic progressive don't hate Jews because they're white or not white.

They hate Jews.

And they use their self-logic to explain why.

Nazis hate non-whites, so for them - Jews are the essence of non-whiteness. They're super non-white.

Antisemitic Progressives hate whites, so for them - Jews are the essence of whiteness. They're super-white.

Everything else comes from that:

People from all over western Asia are "white" in appearance, but they're considered POC because they're not "European"

But there's only one group who will never be considered white - the Jews.

Notice who's missing?

Logically, Jews are non-white. The more you look Jewish and religious, the more you'll look "other". There is nothing that will make Haredi men and women anything but the "other".

But that doesn't fit in with antisemitic logic.

If you put on a Muslim hijab - that makes you a POC.

If you put on a Jewish tichel - you're still super-white

If you're north-African, Middle-Eastern, Iranian or Afghani AND JEWISH - then Jewish wins out, and you're suddenly a white colonizer.

That's why Linda Sarsour can say that before putting on a hijab she was "just some ordinary white girl from New York City" and now she's headlining POC conferences.

And nobody sees a problem with that.

It's not about how you look.

It's not whether you're really part of the white and Christian community.

It's about hating Jews.

[elumish]

There's an idea I see a lot that's basically like, it's important to humanize fascists when we write about them so people understand that regular people can be fascists and that it's not just an amorphous evil, etc.

And I always have this knee-jerk negative reaction to seeing that. And it's not because I don't want people to understand fascism or people who commit right-wing violence or whatever (literally part of my field of study), but that it always seems to sort of be prioritizing the wrong thing.

I've written about this some before on my substack, but it keeps eating at my brain and I am incapable of letting go of stuff, so here we are.

The thing about fascism and about right-wing (esp far-right) ideologies in general is that one of the core tenants of them is that there are inate hierarchies of people, and at the extremes, it's essentially that the people at the top (white cis/het Christian men, in American/European right-wing ideology) are the most human, and the people at the bottom (Black people, in a lot of American right-wing ideology) are the least human.

And we as a society have no trouble humanizing white cis/het Christian men, by whatever definition we're using of humanize. And you need to look no further than how mainstream news organizations cover politics to see that this is true--it's almost a trope at this point that they will cover the opinion of every individual Trump voter at a gas station in Ohio before they talk to anyone else. News organizations show family photos of white murderers and mugshots of Black murder victims. People care about what every sobbing white woman thinks about POC she finds scary but often don't care about getting the other side of the story.

We know that (cis/het not-disabled Christian male) white people are human, because that has basically never been in question in the history of the world (or at least the history of the U.S.), and you can write someone as human without humanizing them--because humanizing is not just about literally writing someone as human (as opposed to, say, a squid), but about showing their individuality in a way that makes them more sympathetic.

Spending your time and energy worrying about humanizing fascists is a little bit like the AP announcing recently that their style guide now says to avoid the term TERF and to focus instead on the specific objections. What you'll end up with is not objectively incorrect, but it gives the microphone to the people who least need or deserve it.

The whole goal of fascists is to dehumanize other people--so if you're so opposed to the fascist ideology, why don't you focus your attention on humanizing those people? Give us the viewpoints and intricacies and individual meaningful human lives of your Black characters, your indigenous characters, your Jewish characters, your Muslim characters, your characters of color, your queer characters, your disabled characters, your female characters.

And this isn't to say that fascists should be presented as amorphous blobs, because that's silly and meaningless. But in a story, you only have limited space and reader attention to spend on building characters out. Why do you want to spend that on the fascists?

[themechisatenttheghostisagirl]

Just as a heads up, American Christian Nationalism is born in Evangelical Christianity. The people who wrote Project 2025 are predominantly Evangelical, or writing from an Evangelical point of view. ORTHODOXY IS NOT IN THEIR DEFINITIONS OF CHRISTIANITY

Fascists are Not Your Friend

They are iconoclasts. When they're done eliminating or enslaving the Communists, Socialists, Pagans, Queers, Satanists, Jews, Muslims, bipoc, etc. they will come for your icons. To them, you are foreign and Catholic, and they will never see you as a true Christian. They will require you to pray and worship as they see fit. No more beautiful churches, no more chants, no more Eucharist. If you're Orthodox and you voted Republican, your train stop is coming up, and you can kiss your thousands of years of tradition and faith goodbye. If you're Orthodox and you voted Republican, you permanently blew out the Pascal candles.

Also, if you're Greek, you'll never be white enough for them. You've been trying to claim whiteness ever since you got off the boat instead of standing in solidarity with other poc who have more in common with you than whiteness ever will. We will always be too white for poc but not white enough for white people.

[sumarmz]

Hi heres a list of all the genocides/countries at risk etc (im bad at wording things) so you can speak on those rather than claim your not educated enough!!

-The Rohingya people, persecuted by Myanmar

-The Uyghur Muslims, persecuted by China

-Sudan

-Congo

-Palestine, persecuted by Israel

-Syria, I believe its a civil war with foreign powers who are intervening but please search it up before taking my words

-Lebanon, Israel has dropped white phosphorus on southern lebanon

Ones that have ended but must be remembered + details I can recall (may not be accurate)

-The Bangladesh genocide, occured during the liberation war and was done by Pakistan. Ethnic cleansing done by mass rape and murder

-The Rwandan genocide

-The comfort women, these were women forced into sexual slavery to 'comfort' Japanese troops. Mostly Korean and Filipino women but there were other countries. Japan has committed many other horrific crimes, don't let it be forgotten

-The holocaust, which I hope most people know of. While Jews were the primary target there were also others who were persecuted such as the disabled, those in the lgbt+ community, other faiths, and poc. ❗️❗️I AM NOT DISMISSING THE GENOCIDE OF JEWISH PEOPLE ❗️❗️

-The ethnic cleansing of the native Americans, much of my knowledge is stuff I've learnt in history when I was 12 so I'd listen to native American voices on this

Tell me if there's any I've missed out so I can add to it!!

[slut4sugu]

As I keep saying to writers, writing any sort of description for a black reader like ‘thick’, ‘double d’s’ makes it not an x reader anymore. It’s now an OC.

before I say anything this is solely my opinion as a black writer.

as a black women, most fan fictions in any fandom are based around the readers body or race usually following that of white/European standards. The phrase “running her/his fingers through her locks.” Is a perfect example. Nothing is wrong with this!! I want that to be known, I have nothing against writers who write this way, all work is equally beautiful engaging and descriptive. I know the time that can go into stuff like this.

However as a black women who enjoys anime I have come to realize there are not many works that are poc friendly. As I have friends who enjoy fanction as well who have voiced this complaint to me. As have I to them. So I made it my goal to make works that have readers as black women.

Now adresssing the oc thing. Oc stands for original character, black women are not characters obviously. I’m not sure if that’s what you thought my work was but it isn’t, it is what I said before. It’s writing friendly for all black women alike. Which means, using words like melanin/ melanated, thick, curvy and etc. Some black women have big breast, I myself do. Some black women are thicker than others, others are skinny, tall, short, plus sized and so forth. Black women are beautiful and as such we deserved to have our part in fanfics.

And here’s my final thing, the important distinction is x reader and x black!femreader. It’s not black oc reader, it’s black female reader. when it is just stated as x reader it could be any race and gender or anything like that. But usually it is not like that, which is why have descriptive tags help distinguish what exactly the reader is.

gender neutral!reader . muslim! Reader . male!reader. oc reader. black!reader.

These things are important.

If my work was oc I would state it as such, but once again it isn’t. It is for black women as a whole, I try to diverse my work even when it comes to that. Because there are different types of black women and all are beautiful.

I hope my point was clear to understand, and in saying this my goal here was to not “roast” you or “be rude” this was just my stance on what you said. I hope you have a good day or night 🤍

-KAM <3

[jack-bytez-genuine-corner]

List of warnings and then a little rant at the end

* Last time Trump was in office his COVID response killed over 1 million Americans and infected millions more. If even 10% of that got Long COVID even in minor cases there's an exceptionally high probability that whoever oversees our pandemic response and health care agencies could very well refuse to treat the currently affected and those who will continue to get disabled by any virus as legitimate. It is no exaggeration that you will likely know someone who will now die due to an incompetent federal health system.

* Insurance for health care and any federal safety net is likely gone. I can't stress enough how this has been said for the last decade to be coming.

* Republicans will replace the oldest justices on the SCOTUS with people who are worse than those sitting currently. It is again no exaggeration that Alito and Thomas will be replaced by far more extreme versions of themselves and we're very likely going to see that court decide cases about Abortion even in Blue states, about social safety nets in all states, voting in all states, gerrymandering, guns, and queer rights nationwide. Even in a Blue State people who feel fear, should. All you can hope for is that national trends change before that happens.

* Republicans can and have promised to cut federal safety nets in extreme measures in exchange for rich people's taxes. People, including children will starve and die, they will not get the insulin they need and die, etc. These are things they directly promised for the last 4 years or more and no, I really don't have any hopeful messaging on this one. I recommend looking into your state resources if you're relying on federal ones.

* Women can and will continue to die due to a lack of reproductive care and all I can recommend is that you save up money for any life saving procedure up to having to fly out of country. This is an incredibly high bar I know but local fundraise, family savings, just anything for that extra safety net cause a nation wide abortion ban is exceptionally likely.

* Ukraine and Gaza are guaranteed fucked and Thailand is likely on that list too. I don't even want to think about South Korea or any number of other countries that we finance the defense of.

* If you're Palestinian and in America please make sure you have an up to date passport. House Republicans floated a bill to remove Palestinian Americans from the US alongside "Illegals" which will inevitably include legal citizens being forcefully deported to countries they have never even lived in. Same warning for any DACA recipents, Muslim Americans and other foreigners, there's an incredibly high chance that this is not good.

* Political violence will honestly just get worse. If the mass deportations and incarcerations weren't hint enough as is I'm just going to preach extreme caution about being out in public.

* If you voted for Trump I really really really don't like you and I truly hope you suffer as much under his policies as everyone will and I'm not kidding. I truly hope you finally learn, but this country is a god damn shithole and I was wrong to believe that a majority of people are good people, and for that I apologize: A majority of people are idiotic morons who can have keys jingled in front of their eyes while being punched repetitively and not notice. It truly feels like Trump voters would be ok with going in a gas chamber as long as a random gay or woman or POC was forced in there with them, and that Nazi metaphor is not misplaced given we just elected a god damn Nazi, who he himself all but says in broad daylight and is openly supported by Neo Nazis.

* If you chose not to vote or otherwise encouraged that, the up above applies to you. The blood will absolutely be on your hands and we literally know how this is going to be.

* We won't know the makeup of the house for a while but it's safe to say that if you were hoping for any type of federal aid or relief that we're out of luck.

I don't think I'll ever view America or Americans positively and I live here. I'm disabled cause of Trump's response to COVID. I'm constantly afraid to leave my house due to the potential for mass shootings and political violence. I was 100% wrong to think most people are good, cause there is a substantial portion of our population who isn't just viewing hurting innocent people as acceptable but actively want to further that as much as humanly possible. Republican politicians are some of the worst human beings in the US and the only thing preventing me from labeling their supporters as such is the potential that they are honestly just too ignorant to know better. The fact that basic human rights will be reigned back is revolting. I don't have any hopeful message to close out on or any call to action cause I'm honestly done. Every election I've contributed to as an adult has just lowered my faith in society into non-existence, all I can hope for is that people actually start giving a damn about their neighbors but honestly it's more likely a meteorite kills everyone on Earth than for America to do the right thing.

I hope everyone who supported Republicans in the past fucking choke on it. Cause this is all the same thing Republicans promised to do for decades now and if they do even a 10th of it we will all feel it.