#since my other post about Antisemitism is getting some notes let's see if this one gets off the ground too

[theredqueenandthebloodwyrm]

I don't think I've ever really gone to a museum with a metal detector. And other noticeable security. At least, as far as I can recall.

I think it says something that a small Jewish museum needs to have a security guard and metal detector outside.

[tumblingxelian]

Political Discourse - Retrospective

So, regarding some political discourse that happened on my blog earlier, I want to clarify some things.

1: Hyperbole doesn't translate well across text, this applies both to me and those I've spoken/argued with. Hyperbole doesn't translate well when one can't see the associated dramatic body language or tone that would serve to convey that.

2: Context is key, so if one does want to take issue with something its best to have all the pieces in place rather than expecting context clues to create a common frame of reference as it might in a verbal conversation.

3: Its much easier to just not bother and direct one's energy into more helpful and practical goals than arguing online.

On the more political front, I do have some thoughts however:

I am posting this in a good faith effort to not argue or antagonize:

Firstly, I feel that for all Americas horrifically out-sized influence on the world one cannot just dismiss domestic issues as unimportant. Even if we ignore the ripple effects of a right wing VS left wing president on a purely cultural level, the sheer number of queer people, women, and people of color who will be actively targeted if Trump gets back into power is staggering.

There is a marked difference between the parties on these fronts and people will live or die based on that. Let alone stuff like Trumps handling of Covid and how his intransigence basically fucked the rest of the world over, along with killing millions of Americans.

Basically, when the difference between the the parties of the most powerful nation on earth are so drastically different in terms of who even counts as human, being a one issue voter doesn’t really work as an ethical or even practical approach to politics —especially not addressing the kinds of issues making it hard to stomach voting for someone like Biden.

Secondly, I feel a lot of the discourse around the US & Israel's ties are not very helpful or accurate as they often seem to frame it as though they just became allies under Biden or otherwise that this is a new relationship. As it is, ties between the two countries are nearly a century old at this stage and disentangling from that is not easy.

What's more, a politically active American friend said that they feel a lot of Americans, themselves included, often oversimplify foreign policy and that it's never as simple as a good or bad decision.

In this case, America's main focus is trying to keep the war from going regional while not losing what influence they have over a nuclear equipped state in the Middle East.

(It was also notes how the messages of trying to "fight antisemitism" as opposed to just being blunt about the political realities was manipulative and poorly thought out at best.)

But the fact is, as horrific as what Israel is doing is, it's not something Biden just started supporting at random. America's ties are decades long and not easy to divest from without creating more instability and bloodshed in the long run.

So while I of course advocate for pushing for action on these fronts, its integral to both remember that foreign policy is a nightmare and that one will have far better luck using protest to force a Democratic president to change course than a GOP one who will just tell the police to shoot you.

Thirdly, I think its quite reasonable for none Americans to take an interest in these matters. Hell, I have been an activist for years, donating and campaigning on everything from America's forever war, to Palestinian rights, Queer rights both locally and internationally and beyond since childhood.

Add in that, even aside from morality, I've no shortage of friends in other nations who will be impacted by who is president and friends in America who are justly terrified of dying or having to flee the country should Trump get back in.

Put simply, I feel my and other none Americans persistent presence on the matter of who ends up in the White House can be regarded as selfish or coming from a place of privilege. We're asking you to vote because we can't and far more people will die and be hurt if Trump is in power, including yourselves.

We're trying to help.

Finally, I will not see eye to eye with other leftists, they will not see eye to eye with me. That's fine. Ultimately, though we disagree on how best energy should be directed for the common good, I don't think my counterparts, or I have ill intent or selfish motivations.

[odinsblog]

You jew haters love a good token. Norm F or Masha or any white passing ashkie american jew who hasnt been to shul or a secular even in a decade... brb gonna cite thomas sowell and clarence thomas any time you bring up the hotep hasbara about "systemic racism" or ignore black on black crime is more prevalent then cops shooting unarmed trayvons. One day you might feel shame about going all in on jew hate. Probably not.

[re: this series of posts, or this one, or maybe this one?]

I don’t hate Jewish people. So jot that down and let’s get that straight, okay? I dO, however, hate what the state of Israel, Likud and Benjamin Netanyahu are doing (and have been doing for decades) to Palestinians

Note: Jewish people are Jewish whether they’re religious Jews who have been to a synagogue, or not. Non-religious, non-observant Jewish people are still Jewish people. Intentionally conflating “religious Jews” with all Jewish people is antisemitic

And another note: conflating Israel with all Jewish people is also antisemitic, so let’s not do that either, cool?

We could quibble about “white passing” Jewish people, but there most definitely are Jewish people who self-identify as white (just as there are Jewish people who self-identify as Black), but ultimately, I believe that this “argument” is a red-herring, and ultimately, secondary or even tertiary to what’s happening in Palestine

I know you think you’ve made some kind of “gotcha” point, but you really haven’t

We can easily dismantle Clarence Thomas and his hypocritical conservative, anti-Black SCOTUS rulings without ever once mentioning his race. We can prove that structural racism is a real thing simply by looking at lived reality and history. We can show that Black-on-Black crime is roughly the same as white-on-white crime, and is only invoked as a derailment tactic to take the focus away from anti-Black racism. Simple statistics and observations prove that the police routinely Stop-and-Frisk and execute more Black and Brown people than white people, usually without the same consequences that would occur if their victims were white

And we can very easily do the same thing with everything that Israel has been doing to Palestinians for decades; we can look at the definition of war crimes and objectively understand that Israel has been committing war crimes against Palestinians since before October 7th, and we can see that Israel’s reaction to October 7th has been the definition of “disproportionate,” and has been since 1948

And before I continue, I really want to make something clear: you can agree with someone on 80% of what they believe, and vehemently disagree with them in other areas that are not their area of expertise. No one is right about everything, and no one is wrong about everything—even broken clocks are accurate two times a day, right?

Moving on…

Look, there was a time when I used to think as simplistically as you do, anon. As you’ve correctly noted, I am Black, and there was a time when I used to believe that anyone who criticized Barack Obama, for example, was a racist, and if they were Black, then they were a Black person who had internalized anti-Blackness. It was a very insular way of thinking, but it kept me safe in a mental bubble of my own making. A bubble where, as long as I called people racists or self hating Black people, I was always right in my thinking and never had to challenge myself

But then, eventually, something wonderful happened. This thing called nuance happened and I learned that many things could simultaneously be true: yes, there absolutely positively are self-hating Black people like Clarence Thomas; and yes, there are people like Trump who only criticized Obama simply because he was Black and because they were racist white people (or frequently, NBPoC); but the existence of those racists do not magically invalidate all legitimate criticisms of Obama

So I learned how to do two things that proved invaluable: 1) look at the specific critiques, and separate the critiques, and evaluate the critiques on their own, 2) look at the source of the critiques, and their history of criticisms, and evaluate how fairly they applied those exact same critiques to others who were doing the same or similar things. Talk about cutting through all the bullshit!

So I learned that it was possible to be living in the real world that simultaneously had: white supremacists + self-hating Black people + people with legitimate grievances against Obama

You can (and should) apply this same line of reasoning with Hillary Clinton; yes, there definitely are misogynistic people who hate her simply because she is a woman, but that doesn’t nullify the criticisms of those people who have problems with her strictly because of her deeply conservative values

Anon, is Bernie Sanders a token self-hating Jew if he doesn’t side with YOU? (hint: he isn’t and he doesn’t)

Think about what you’re implying anon. You’re saying that Israel has never been wrong? About anything? And consequently, all Zionist Jewish people are right and anyone who disagrees with them is automatically antisemitic and hates all Jewish people?

Does that even sound right to you anon?

That’s a very comforting, if not somewhat mentally lazy, self-serving view of the world. One that doesn’t require any additional thought or self-reflection (or growth, tbh) on your part. It’s an adolescent version of reality

What we are talking about here, anon, is weaponized identity politics

anyone who disagrees with my good Black person is racist

anyone who disagrees with my good female is misogynistic

anyone who disagrees with my good Jew is antisemitic

This type of logic really makes “winning” arguments super easy, for people who don’t have any real arguments to defend their ideology

[beardedmrbean]

God the amount of people on here I’ve, not just lost respect for, but become completely repulsed by in the last few days. People I share fandoms with who every so often would reblog those stupid “goblins are Jews so anybody who puts them in stories is antisemetic and should be shunned!!!” Which I usually just rolled my eyes and moved on. Those same damn people are on here justifying Jewish people getting slaughtered and kidnapped. And even if in their minds it’s truly just about “Israel vs Palestine”, not a fucking peep has been heard from any of them about the attacks now occurring to Jews around the world. “Punch Nazis! Listen to Jewish Voices! Be aware of antisemitism!” All goes out the window now I guess?

Gonna be setting everything to do with this situation to 'mature' and tagging "middle east mess" from here on in, this situation is far too much for lots of you and I get that I'm trying to balance things out best I can.

Go into your settings to the "content" filtering as well as "tag" filtering and punch in any terms you can think of to get most of this all off your dash.

Schrödinger's POC.

One thing I've come to realize in my observations over the years is the majority of the different activists, really loud ones at least, don't actually care about the causes they claim to care about, they don't actually want things to improve for people. Having perpetual victims while they themselves are not victims seems to let them look like they're trying to help and stand up for injustice and victimized people while still covertly looking down their noses at them.

Israel is a great example of that since they do a pretty good job mostly on their own surrounded by enemies on all sides, gotten a little less dangerous over the decades but they're still in the danger zone and generally still thriving.

That and they very rarely get involved in a difficult fight, much easier to virtue signal over a video game than it is when there's some fairly complex geopolitical forces at play. And hating Israel is the easier of the two routes to go in this one, you'll also be seeing the folks that say it's not Jews it's "Zionists" even if the overwhelming majority of Jewish people are Zionists.

Which hey, you're all entitled to your opinion but before you go and start bashing Israel on a hourly basis go ahead and look at all the other countries out there and see how you feel about them and decide if you honestly think you're judging them all by the same standard or if you're judging Israel (or any others) more harshly and then ask yourself why that is.

Amnesty went in to Ukraine at one point after several schools had been targeted by russia, amnesty pointed out all of the obvious signs that the ukrainian military had been using those schools as weapons cache's or staging grounds or any of a number of other military purposes and they declared that to be a big no no and properly laid the blame on the ukranian military and government. You made it a military target by putting troops there.

Oddly even though it's widely known that hamass does the same thing, somehow amnesty still goes after Israel who will "knock on the door" of places they're about to level that are legitimate military targets, if they're also civilian buildings. hamass using the roof of a building as a place for a communications array/radio tower they'll get a dummy bomb dropped in their lap and civilians have their 30 min notice to evacuate because it's going down in 30 min one way or the other, but somehow that's not good enough.

and Oh lord I was in the notes of a couple different post and people talking about the Jewish citizens of Israel not actually being the same people that are the indigenous population to that area, which dna tests have proven that wrong, but hey they're out there repeating talking points made up by goebels so remember that next time these people call someone else a nazi, granted they're stupid enough to call actual Jewish people nazis to their faces showing that they've really just turned that word into something that's on par with butthead at this point.

Circling back round, like I said most of these activists they don't want conditions to actually improve for anyone, because they won't be special little guys helping out the poor oppressed people, they'll just be ordinary.

Cancer researchers would be very happy if they got put out of a job, professional activists not so much.

Article link

___________________

This is all beyond very tragic both for the people of Israel and the people of gaza who just want to live their lives free of fear and hate, it is interesting to see people doing 180's on their stances on things like rape and child murder/infanticide and such given who's doing it this time round, if I were Jewish I would be seriously reconsidering my position of I want everyone who wants to and can responsibly do so to own all the guns they like, but having one isn't for me.

I'd cut that last bit out, I'd be armed everywhere I go.

There's lots of issues on both sides of this conflict, but only one side went in to a music festival and murdered 260+ people and dragged off hostages to rape, torture, and maybe attempt to bargain with at some point if the mood strikes.

That's not something the good guys do.

Side note, I'm surprised I haven't seen a specific insult tossed out between members of the Jewish community who are on different sides of this issue, for the curious it's a german word and I'm not going to type it out.

Had someone throw that one at me once which confused me given my lack of being Jewish, loses all it's punch at that point.

[jewish-sideblog]

Hi, Australian Jew here.

Sending this anonymously because I'm not openly Jewish on Tumblr, however I am considering doing so in the short-term.

I'm sorry to bother you but I wanted to ask you a few questions, if you're open to it (feel free to ignore this if so). Just so you know, I'm asking the same questions of the Jewish bloggers I follow who post regularly - both those who blog about the current Israel/Palestine situation, and those who identify as Jewish but post mainly fandom/other content.

Do you or have you receive/d abuse for being Jewish, or for your stance on the war? If so, how often? How do you respond to any hateful messages? Do you post them publicly or answer them privately? How much would you say your mental health is/has been affected by any messages, or by the content you see on your feed? Have you developed any strategies for handling social media during this time?

Thank you for reading. :-)

Shalom, Aussie chaver!

This is a question I've answered privately a couple of times, and I'm kinda surprised I haven't talked about it more publicly before. Thank you for the opportunity!

Before October 7, I mostly received microaggressions for being Jewish-- especially within goyishe queer communities. That sucked, but nothing I couldn't shake off. Since then, as I'm sure you can assume, it's been a completely different beast. This blog alone receives weekly hate mail, and that can increase to multiple daily death threats if a post I make starts to circulate. Some of that abuse is under the guise of anti-Zionism, but a lot of it is pure bare-bones mask-off antisemitism. 95% of the time, I just delete them and move on with my day. It's difficult to read them sometimes, of course. But there has never once been a hateful ask in my inbox that amounted to even a remotely reasonable critique of my character, of my posts, or of my identity. So they get trashed.

My coping skills for mental health on the internet right now boil down to two things. The first is that, for every death threat I get in my inbox, I get more thank-you notes. I hardly have a big following here, but it's clear that the people who follow me appreciate what I do here. Knowing that I bring more hope, strength, and truth to my Jewish community is what gives me the strength to brush off the hate mail.

My one real strategy for handling social media is the Queue. Oh, G-d, I love the Queue. I'm honestly only on tumblr for like an hour twice a week. It keeps me from the despair and the doomscrolling while still letting me post several times daily. I think my Queue is 50 posts long right now so I could stay offline for two weeks and not have to worry. The side effect is that I often reblog posts which are a week or so old, but as long as I remember not to cue breaking news, it's not that big a deal.

[svedupelle]

the random antisemitism on my dash from you fucking blew, that post literally has someone saying death to jews in the notes

Im guessing this is the post ur talking about and that this is the comment u mean

(if not, and someone somewhere in the tags said word for word "death to jews", then i didnt spot it. But more importantly, you understand that i am not responsible for that person writing those words, right? and that i may have reblogged that post not because of what some rando said in the tags that i didnt check beforehand, but because of what the post is actually about? which is the state of Isr*el's continued atrocities against palestinians, and more specifically the morbid humor in some random isr*elian on the internet being blind to the real extent of their nations descent into despotism and violence? Just so we're clear about the subject matter of the post)

Anyway. so if that is indeed the comment ur saying meant to say death to jews, then it would seem ur confused about something. Namely zionism *isn't* the same thing as judaism. let's start with the fucking dictionary:

So merriam-webster agrees with me that being a zionist is not the same as being jewish. And quite frankly, it can't be, since unless if we want to posit that gentiles have an inherent and innate opposition to the jewish people having a nation of their own, then it must be possible and true that gentiles can also support a nation of Isr*el, and therefore, can be zionists. And I don't personally believe that not being jewish inherently makes you hateful of jews and opposed to a peaceful existence alongside and together with them. I doubt you do either, considering.

So, we've basically already established that being a zionist does not automatically make one jewish, which means that calling for the death of all zionists does not mean you are calling for the death of all jews.

On the other hand, it would make sense for a lot of zionists to *be* jewish, thus meaning that you are calling for the death of, if not all, then at a least a lot of jews. Now i hate pedophiles. IF we were to imagine a world where 60% of pedophiles were jewish, and i said i think pedophiles should die, i do not believe it would be antisemitic, because i would arguing for the death of pedophiles *regardless* of a majority of them being jewish. Similiarly, the person calling for the death of all zionists is probably doing so independantly of a lot of zionists being jews (maybe, i didnt check to see if there are any statistics on that and im not about to, because this is mostly hypothetical anyway).

"But 'zionist' is just a dogwhistle for jewish, so they do mean death to all jews!"

Then let's take a look at the first part of their comment: "death to the illegal settler colonial state of Isr*el"

now im no expert. but i do believe they may be referring to the aforementioned atrocities and the current apartheid that palestinians endure under the rule of Isr*el. Personally i find it reasonable and to some degree expected of people to condemn these acts. Maybe calling for the death of living people is extreme, but either way, i dont think this person is calling for the death of jews, specifically.

Or maybe they are. Maybe the person in the notes is a big antisemite. I dont know. I dont feel like digging through their blog to check. What I do feel more strongly about is the fact that you worded your ask in a way that suggests you know me, since you expect better from me. Whether ur a follower or a mutual, it makes me incredibly sad that you felt the need to send this through anon instead of a dm. maybe its intimidating or something, but getting this ask doesnt feel like a dialogue, it just feels rude. u didnt even greet me first

i'll make it clear: i have no ill will towards jews. at all. i very much want for all jews across the world and especially in my country to be able to live their lives free from the prejudice, hatred and trauma that they may suffer as a result of antisemitism at the hands of people like myself. i dont know how to make this clearer

i do not support the nation of isr*el. i dont like its actions, i dont like its leaders. i am a firm believer in the fact that until the nakba ends, there will never be a worthy argument for the nation's continued existence. and i do not like how people intentionally misconstrue criticisms of it as antisemitic to condemn the critic, such as what you are doing.

The fact that you seem to be familiar with me annoys me. i despise letting people down. i always do my best not to do so, and always wish to be reliable. but you're annoying. so either dm me if you want to have a real discussion, or block me. read this before you go though, its somewhat interesting. now fuck off

[melodraca]

~ Introduction Post ~

(Via: Outofcontextanimash)

Hello there, and welcome to my blog! My name is Gabriel, and I've been on this site for way too long

Mutuals, new followers, etc. feel free to reply to this post and tell me about yourself, infodump, talk about ocs, etc. I'm always happy to chat!

One like on this post = one high-five

———

Don't forget to kiss the mezuzah on your way in!

(Via: Frankfontainecalloutpost)

———

Check out the links below to see my about, and to find me on other sites!

About Me

Linktr.ee

DeviantArt

Art Fight

Toyhou.se

Flight Rising

Twitter

Warriors Sideblog

(Mobile-friendly "About Me" under the cut)

———

ABOUT

Hello, I’m Gabe! I’m a queer, Jewish hobbyist artist/writer with a ceaseless obsession for character creation. I’m a trans man, and I exclusively use he/him pronouns :)

I live in Canada with my roommate/best friend/RP partner/guy I bother, and my rancid little budgie Genji, whom I love terribly. I have a nasty habit of creating tons of characters and then never doing anything with them, kind of like a dead-beat father

Outside of art and character creation, I love dragons, video games, hiking, literature, film, paleontology, and animals/zoology. I’m currently in university, double majoring in English and biology!

Autism/ADHD/OCD/anxiety and physically disabled as well. I’m terrible at messaging people first, but I am always delighted to get messages <3 I’m awkward, but I love chatting. Also feel free to ask me to tag things!

On testosterone since July 25th, 2015

Post top surgery since October 26th, 2017

Post hysterectomy since August 6th, 2020

Currently on the wait-list for phalloplasty!

———

HEADS-UP

This isn’t really a DNI or a BYF, but more of a heads-up about the kind of content I reblog and my general takes on things. I don’t engage in discourse on here, like ever, but I figured I should include this anyway

This is probably a given, but I block conservatives/terfs/bigots/etc. on sight

I identify as queer and I use the (reclaimed) f-slur pretty frequently. I don’t tag reclaimed slurs

I do tag triggers as thoroughly as I can (nsfw/nsft, blood, transphobia, etc.) Please let me know if I ever forget to tag a trigger!

On that note, I’m an adult, and I frequently reblog/discuss things with mature themes (mostly jokes tbh). I also swear a lot. This isn’t an nsfw blog or anything, but y'know

I’m a furry, and I reblog (sfw) furry art. I may be cringe, but at least I’m free :3

I love the horror genre, and I sometimes reblog horror stuff. I tag anything with blood, gore, injuries, or body horror, but I don’t ever reblog legitimate/intense gore

My general political take on things is that every human deserves basic human rights, and violence or bigotry of any kind (transphobia, racism, antisemitism, ableism, misogyny, homophobia, etc. etc. etc.) is bad, actually

For my own mental health, I don’t answer inflammatory asks, or asks about topics I’m not comfortable with

Ask games are totally okay! I don’t really do “send this to 5 other people” type ask games, but I appreciate the sentiment nonetheless ^_^

Oh yeah. I should mention that I love MCYT (Minecraft YouTube), specifically Hermitcraft and the LifeSMP, and I post about it a lot, including shipping content. I feel like I need to clarify that I’m shipping the characters, not the Real Human Guys playing them. This is a super minor note, but like, y'know, just in case

———

INTERESTS

Feel free to check out my top tags to see the topics and fandoms I enjoy! I’m trying to tag things more comprehensively, but sometimes I forget so please, like, bear with me <3 I frequently post…

Animals (birds, dogs, bugs, etc.)

Dragons :D

Photography and nature

Paleontology and biology

OCs and art

Jewish stuff

Whatever I find funny or interesting on my dash

Posts that give me an excuse to info-dump or ramble

Occasionally politics/social justice/current events

In terms of fandom, some of my favourite things are…

The Magnus Archives/Protocol

Minecraft and MCYT (Third Life / Hermitcraft mostly)

Pokemon

Fallout

The Elder Scrolls

Flight Rising

Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul

Dungeon Meshi

Severance

Baldur’s Gate 3

Fullmetal Alchemist

Jurassic Park/World

Nope (2022)

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Invincible

Fire Emblem (mostly Three Houses)

Infinity Train

Steven Universe

Definitely more I’m forgetting right now

[smores100]

hey.

so. haven't been around for quite some time, mostly due to my health issues (the usual + muscle aches and joint pains, i'm having a great time), but also in part due to The Situation. it's hard to care about anything with everything that's been going on, it all seems so pointless and meaningless, i'm living in a completely different universe from everyone else here. wish i could be that privileged, but alas. it's also hard being around here, and on other social media platforms for that matter, and seeing the raging antisemitism and sheer hate everywhere. i haven't checked my dash in almost 2 months, haven't checked specific blogs like i used to either, and have no plans on doing so anytime soon. i know what i'll find, i don't want it.

i was gonna stay quiet like i ususally do, especially since i genuinely don't have energy for anything rn, but it's been 2 months and i've been biting my tongue and screaming and crying into my pillow daily and i just need to get some of it out before i implode. there's only so much ignorance and hate that one person can take before snapping, so. here i am.

i have so much i want to say, i've written a million posts in my mind in the past 2 months, but i'm too Tired to actually write them down, and it'll just be one big messy ramble anyway, so i'm just gonna reblog a couple of other people's posts and make do with that. just a couple, don't worry, i know these are issues most either want to avoid dealing with or the opinions shared in those posts are a complete 180 degrees from what's trendy to believe in today. but i have to share it anyway. for 2 months i've been terrified, frustrated, bitter, angry and absolutely heartbroken, but there's one thing i haven't been, and that is ashamed. i'm proud of who i am. i'm proud of my people and their spirit. you will never understand what it's been like for us, what it still is like for us, but let me just say this: they wanted to break us, they wanted to break our spirit. they failed. we've never been more united. they just made us stronger.

so i'm gonna reblog some stuff so i can get it out of my system and move on. at worst i hope you just ignore and scroll past it; at best i hope you keep an open mind and maybe for the first time read things from a different pov instead of just the one sided propaganda everyone is continuously exposed to. maybe you'll see it isn't all black and white, maybe you'll see there are nuances you're not even aware of, maybe you'll realize you've been fed a lot of misinformation, half truths and even lies over the years. maybe. if you have questions or want to have a mature and civil conversation about it, feel free to msg me and i'll try and reply when my health allows me to, i'm open to discussion. if you want to unfollow me after this, feel free to do so. i'm not gonna force my truth on anyone, but i'm also not gonna change who i am for anyone either.

and on a more personal note, i wanna say thank you again for the msgs i've received last time and haven't replied to (due to health, Situation etc), and for the ones i've gotten since (will get to those soon i hope). i do feel the need to say this tho - i did have a peek or two at my dash and on twitter earlier on and saw some things. i was in a super sensitive state at the time and it was pretty disheartening ngl. it's hard nowadays, with all the hate going on and public opinion being what it is, to know whether or not you're still welcome in these spaces, whether or not people still like you and care about you, or if you've officially become persona non grata. most days it feels like the latter tbh. i just don't know where i stand. i said i'm not gonna force myself on anyone and i'm not, so if you're still ok with me…i guess the ball's in your court? 🌻

thanks for reading. thanks for sticking around, to those who decide to do so. take care y'all. never again is now. am yisrael chai. 💙

[pi-kin-ic]

welcome to tha picnic !!

sit down on our gingham blanket and help yourself to some sunshine , refreshments , and good company !! :o)

this picnic themed kin blog is a small project run by one mod , who wont be active 24/7 !! that being said , i think doing stuff liek this is rad and fun , and im always happy to fulfill requests wen i have tha tiem . learn moar abt tha mod here !!

small edit : requests dont have to be for kins / fictives necessarily !! i enjoy making these things ( stimboards , buy packs , etc ) so i will take requests for general themes , like " pink mouse stimboard " or " kidcore / lovecore buy pack " ♡

requests : open !! :D

inbox : 0

what's offered at tha picnic :

stimboards

moodboards

buy packs ( basically a collection of items + links to buy those items that fit tha criteria you give me !! )

a listening ear !! feel free to just gush about your fave characters in my inbox , or talk about yourself / your canon :o)

when requesting . . .

mandatory : give me a character + source ( if wanting something related to a piece of media , but im open foar general requests now too !! :3 )

optional : give me a theme , colour scheme , price range ( if applicable ) , anything you DONT want included , any other helpful details

note that i may have other comments / resources when i answer your ask , so do check back please !! for example i may have an overflow of items for a buy pack and will post them in the answer . if youve asked anonymously ( and therefore wont get notified when i answer ) , you can go through my #anons tag or sort by asks in my archive !! :o)

i reserve tha right to refuse any requests for any reason at all !! you can see a list of blacklisted sources / characters here , and a list of whitelisted sources / characters here !! :D

other rules to be aware of :

no bigotry allowed . this includes ( but is not limited to ) racism , antisemitism , LGBTphobia , abelism , zionism , etc

fictive =/= kin , i know this , im literally a system . but systems are welcome to request things as well if they wish , and i use fictive tags as well since posts are often applicable for fictives as well ( an aesthetic board doesnt necessarily have to be for one or the other ) . please let me know if you rather i use or not use either tags , as i will default to both !!

those who refer to themselves as " pr.oshipp.ers " / " an.ti anti.s " are not welcome here . please do not interact

ñsfw / k!nk / d.dl.g / c.gl.(re) ppl are not welcome here . i am extremely uncomfortable with this . i am also uncomfortable with non-systems who use the terms " l!ttle " and " l!ttles.pace " . please do not interact

sfw age regressors who are not in any way associated with c.gl(re) are welcome

you can be uncomfortable with doubles , but invalidating others on my posts / in my ask box is not allowed and will get you blocked . how you feel on your own blog is your prerogative , but this blog is a doubles friendly space , to avoid drama and to avoid hurting others feelings

i preemptively block people who fit my dni . i also block people who dont source their gifs !!

thats all i can think of for now !! pinned will be updated as needed . i hope everyone has a good tiem !! ^^ 💖🌈🍀

[medicinemane]

Anyway, you know I don't make banners or edit my bio or anything to put this stuff in there, cause it kind of feels empty to just do that, but instead what happens is I periodically feel the need to state my support for certain groups

I'm tired, so I'll just keep it quick, but a while ago I'd see a lot of hate on here for bi and ace people, and I still can't understand a single reason for it

Seems to have died down, or maybe I've just got less people getting into discourse on my dash, but I in no uncertain terms support bi and ace people

Similarly, when I was young my school had a massive Jewish population. We'd do both Christmas and Hannukah stuff. Most of my friends were Jewish. I categorically condemn all antisemitism no matter where it's coming from. Like while I lost touch with a lot of these people, there's too many people I like a great deal to ever tolerate them being hated

(Plus I'm in the general vicinity to some Jewish people on here who I like a great deal)

Like I said in that post the other day, I support Ukraine, Hong Kong, and the people of Iran. Said plenty there, so I want go into detail

This isn't an exhaustive list of people who matter to me, generally if someone's a decent person that's all that matters in my book

This is just people who for one reason or another I feel particularly strongly about, and ask I can say is if you don't like them you're missing out on incredible people

Anyway, just leave people alone and let them live their lives, that's my stance

I'd hope that all this stuff is just obvious to everyone. I'd hope none of my followers are doing something like being bothered by someone being ace, and you all seem like cool people, so hopefully this is all like "yeah duh"

But like I said, I just periodically get in a mood where I need to say this stuff, and I'd rather make my occasional post like this than just toss it in a bio no one's likely to read

So that's that, that's where I stand. Noting eloquent since I'm tired, but there it is

[matan4il]

Saw your old post on Jewish rep. Curious as to your thoughts on crazy ex girlfriend?

Hi lovely Nonnie!

Oh wow. First off, thank you for reading my thoughts on Jewish representation! As for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, I actually didn't know it had a Jewish angle? Which I feel says something about Tumblr. I have seen A LOT of CEG gifsets on my dash at one point and they were ALL about the bisexual man singing and dancing and having a cute younger bf. I guess, the whole thing about Tumblr is we're all in our own little fandom bubble, and then suddenly something blows up (presumably because it's SO outstanding) to a degree that it makes it into the bubble. And apparently if CEG had good Jewish rep, that was not seen as outstanding enough to blow up and cross into different bubbles.

I'm not saying anything for sure, maybe the Jewish rep on that show really didn’t deserve to blow up, and one thing is def not enough to form a bigger conclusion, but it’s not just one thing. I'm sometimes very frustrated by my Tumblr experience, precisely because this is supposedly a much more open, tolerant and accepting space than other social media sites. Yet, the first ask I ever got? Was from a Holocaust denier. May of 2021? Was hell for a lot of Jewish blogs on this site, I saw way too many getting bullied, some of them to the point where they had to delete completely. I see some blogs reblogging a post with an antisemitic libel one day and the next they reblog a "Happy Hanukkah!" post. Maybe they don’t even understand they’re helping to spread antisemitism, or maybe they’re using the congratulatory post to avoid accusations of being antisemitic, either way it’s a reminder that just because a blog shares one seemingly Jew-friendly post doesn’t actually make that blog a Jew-safe space. I see people going out of their way to love and hold up minority characters, and then leave out the Jewish ones. Posts about all kinds of global crises that affect minorities go viral regularly, but I will never forget the silence on Tumblr as the hostage situation in Texas was going on for 11 hours, and Jews were blogging about it, and some incredible non-Jews were amplifying our voices by reblogging those posts (including some amazing followers of mine), but not a single of these posts went viral, not a single one that I’ve seen made it to even 300 notes, let alone the tens and even hundreds of thousands of notes I’ve seen on other similar posts. It just tells me that something about the way western society educates on the subject of Jews as a minority and of antisemitism has failed. And I don't think it's exclusively about the inadequacies of most Jewish representation, but it's probably linked to (both shaping and being influenced by) it.

Now back to CEG... as you can gather, I have not watched it, but I will thanks to you. IDK when I'll start or how long it will take me, especially since I also just learned the other day that Hunters' s2 is going to air soon and I would like to try and express something about the Jewish representation there before this new (and final) season, which might include doing a quick binge-watch of s1. IDK if you'd like me to write about it when I do watch CEG? If so, just please be patient with me! Thank you in advance for your understanding.

Hope you have a great day and if you celebrate, have a very Happy Hanukkah! As always, here's my ask tag. xoxox

[violenceenthusiast]

im curious why people are saying supernatural is jewish like idk if jewish writers makes an inherently jewish story especially when things like following out the christian apocalypse from revelations and showing a real physical g-d who is just some guy i think is super jarring since though christians claim to be against idolatry they seem totally fine showing depictions of gd or whatever i dont get jesus honestly but jews are far more strict and the idea of showing gds appearance is pretty wrong

WOOF okay um. Maybe this is one of those Tone Doesn’t Come Thru Well Online things but to me this is soo fucking rude… I’m half way between John Mulaney we don't have time to unpack all of that & Ben Wyatt wait it’s gonna bother me if I don’t explain why you’re wrong. 

This turned into all my thoughts. 

So like. First off, it’s all fun and games. We’re all just joking and joshing and projecting here on destiel dot tumblr dot com and Jupernatural is not an exception in a lot of ways. And so when someone shits on what we’re doing here (yes, even unintentionally) what you get is what happened: oh you think you’re funny well I’m about to be hilarious!!! aka I’m gonna do it even more now out of spite specifically because you said not to. Like it really is all jokes but also you know what’s not a joke? Antisemitism in all its forms, even the casual shit! It’s really draining and it builds up in your veins!! Just. Yeah. You saw a lot of people talking about it today in particular because much like other topics of the day, one thing kicks off a whole other turn of events. So like. one misguided comment that’s playfully antisemitic and then one more little one, and then one big/obvious one launched us (Jewish spn fans) into a whole bigger discussion about antisemitism and erasure of Jews in the spn fandom writ large. It’s one thing to be descriptive, offer a headcanon/what if, or employ a certain mode of analysis. It’s another thing to definitively say This Is The Truth, specifically when to do so overrides something else, especially in this case when what’s being overridden is Jews, an ethnoreligious minority. It’s also another thing to talk over Jews. And mind this has been building for days. Not in a bad way just like, it’s been topical for days and then today one big thing pushed it over the edge to us actually posting abt it (partially bc at that point it’s a pattern, which feels like it needs to be addressed). Like, destiel tumblr is small we pretty much all see all the same posts, and then Jewish spn fans… we’re friends, we chat about life? We joke around together, y’know? If you’re being antisemitic (yes, even unintentionally) we’re all gonna hear abt it. It’s how we stay safe or in this case, curate the online exp.

That being said tho projecting on fiction is like fun and even a good thing at times, and def opens up new modes of analysis. But! the other big thing here is that there IS a LOT of evidence for a Jewish reading of spn, in a lot of ways, and particularly if you know what to look for. Like there’s lots of niche Jewish slang (non-Jews just don’t know these things, and that is a reflection primarily of the writers but once you put it in the script it implies things about the characters too of course), the theology of the early seasons (I’ll get to that in a second), main character motivations (hold on), “Moishe Campbell” implying Mary is (and therefore Sam and Dean are) Jewish, etc. 

It’s not surprising to me or anything that non-Jews don’t catch anything/everything Jewish about spn but that Jews catch both sides of it, because that’s just how being part of a marginalized group works. You learn about your own stuff AND the dominant culture’s stuff because that’s how you survive (socially, psychologically, literally). Members of the dominant culture don’t need to learn the marginalized one, are never confronted with it, and so they just.. don’t. I don’t even mean that in a normative or accusatory way, that’s just an observation on the state of things. Non-Jews who aren’t part of another marginalized religion, aka expressed xtians and cultural xtians, have a ton of misconceptions about Judaism, for example, “Jesus was Jewish” and not, “Jesus was an asshole of an apostate who made life harder for Jews at the time in a myriad of ways and whose movement has had a lasting negative impact on world Jewry (and other peoples) for the ensuing millenia”. I truly Don’t Have Time right now to get into the varied and intense history of antisemitism in all its forms but. the point I’m making here is that I’m not shocked I need to explain that life experience shapes your worldview?? So if you’re Jewish you’re always gonna be living life through that version of the world and it does impact you?? Same as anything else?? As unwell as they may be, spn writers aren’t exempt from that. Jewish people writing about xtianity are doing so thru a primarily Jewish understanding and vice versa. Jews can (and did!) write about xtian lore but in a Jewish way! Some core Jewish themes: wrestling with angels/G-d, questioning G-d, IF there’s a G-d they will have to beg MY forgiveness, the afterlife isn’t really a big thing so all that matters is your time on earth, make amends to others directly and thru your actions rather than seeking absolution with G-d, you are not obligated to complete the work nor may you abandon it, etc… So that’s the other reasoning why we say “spn is Jewish” based solely on it being written by Jews. Rather than Death of The Author, let’s look at what the author has imbued the story with, both intentionally and unintentionally. And re: Chuck and idolatry… I don’t even know where to start with the way you phrased this but. the Jewish Spn Writers of Note are apparently Kripke, Gamble, and Edlund. All of whom stopped writing for the show years before the Chuck Is God plot! 

Like yes it feels very stupid to be writing a thousand words on antisemitism and supernatural but like. this is a spn blog run by a Jew so. This whole thing is also just the same every time. This is very representative of typical casual antisemitism.

[cbr-95]

So… since I just finished the game, I could finally go search art about it, theories, rooms of requirements, news on it, easter eggs, you know nice stuff that can be found along with spoilers (hence the waiting until I finished it) and so whenever I want something that involves creativity and gets lots of points of view I can’t usually get to by myself I come to tumblr, because it rarely dissapoints to provide what I like.

That said, and knowing that many of the offended won’t care either way, I loved HP universe growing up, it’s a cool world and I also love videogames and I’ve been waiting for a game where I could do many of the things I wanted to do for many years. Then the author showed her colours, and I’m told that I’m supposed to hate that awesome world because she’s an idiot.

Well, I knew about those twitter comments, I didn’t look further into them but my plain reaction was that JKRowling was Salazar Slytherin basically, right? Founded it, was an absolute dick about acceptance later on, so go f**k yourself and off he went never to be seen again near the school.

So now, and I mean literally right now,I find out about the antisemitism. While searching the hogwarts legacy tag, I came across a lot of hate towards the game for the transphobia, to be expected I guess, being tumblr the place for allies of the lgtbq community it’s always been, even though, and I know it’s not enough, I kinda expected someone to be a tiny bit happy about transgender character representation in the game, as a character you can make and as an npc. Again, I know, not enough if the author is a dick.

That’s what I knew like an hour ago,and then I also came across the antisemitism, which I knew nothing of.

Again, not excusing myself but I would like to point out, I never made any association between the goblins and jewish people. I never cared to look at the nazi propaganda, because well, they’re nazis, so whatever representation of anything they made was stupid and clearly no representation at all, just hate. I knew about the images of hooked noses and greedy behaviour, but never even saw a person with a nose like that and assumed they were jewish or anything the nazis intended me to see.

I have been called innocent many times, because hateful intentions in things really fly over my head, and maybe, like me there are a lot of other people oblivious to this hate and just saw and awesome world as a child and wanted to go back to it, and after going to the internet to share the experience with others just got insulted, questioned and shut down for a game about a magical world that was created by what’s clearly and idiot and didn’t even exist.

The reason I’m spouting all this here, is because the post I’m reblogging is the one I agree with the most, and posts like this are very rare in this hogwarts legacy tag. Too much hate here in tumblr, this ain’t twiter, jeez

That said, I liked the game, I had fun with it, some things could be improved, no doubt about it, kinda expected some sort of peaceful solution with the goblins, ‘cause I felt they kinda had a point, but I guess they can’t undo the canon or something. (I mean, let them have wands, and basic decent treatment, they’re not asking for that much I think) same goes for domestic elfs, if they want something deliverately being taken away from them, don’t take it away?

Btw, I’m not trans, so I know I understand next to nothing about what they go through, I try to understand what it feels like, as much as I can, but I usually try to understand people by observing behaviours in real life, tv and such, (I’m really bad at human interaction) and since they don’t get much representation, and I don’t know anyone in person it’s taking me a bit (I got a little bit closer interacting with Sirona I hope)

As a side note, I’m student of ancients civilizacions and it basically feels like the offended ones would make me cancel literally everything I’ve studied. Every author in history had issues with at least one community, I’m sure that if we brought back form the dead Hesiod, Homer, or Cicero they would be even worse, not excusing for JKRowling’s dumbass s**t, but have some perspective on this.

Tbh I don’t understand the point of paying more attention to her, or insulting people that like hogwarts’ world, even if they don’t like her,what’s the achievement here? I get the ones not wanting to go back to hogwarts for those reasons, maybe feeling better with themselves and their choices, I get that, I respect that, is the insulting I don’t get. They’re the ones chasing people off now, I mean… This rage people have will eventually fade, so calm down now, before you hurt someone you care about, because of a differing opinion on the ownership of a FU**ING VIDEOGAME

Sorry for the long and emotional post here’s a cute snidget

My Thoughts on Hogwarts Legacy

This is something that has been on my mind recently as more discourse about the topic is coming to the forefrunt of the internet. Hogwarts Legacy and, honestly, the Harry Potter franchise as a whole.

As I see things, there are 5 groups of people when it comes to "THAT wizard game."

"Hey, I don't want to play it because of my own personal reasons. But if you want to play it, I hope you have fun."

"Hey, I do want to play this game because of my own, personal reasons, but I understand that you're not interested. That's cool."

"This game gives money to a transphobe?! Awesome! I just bought two copies."

"You want to play this game for your own reasons? You're a transphobe piece of shit. I won't stop until you know you're a piece of shit."

"Harry Potter? Hogwarts Legacy? I haven't played video games since I lost 2 weeks of my life to Banjo Kazooie in 1998."

If you fall into either category 1, 2, or 5, then right on. You're doing the right thing. Keep it up.

However, if you fall into either category 3 or 4, you are a fucking problem and you need to cut the shit and grow up.

Personally, I fall into category 1. I feel I have made my views on the game and franchise fairly clear. But also, I have a good friend who learned to read because of Harry Potter. I grew up with the franchise and it was a huge part of my childhood, and recognizing that I no longer want to engage in the franchise felt like a huge loss to me, and took some time to reconcile with myself. But, again, I have made that decision based on the larger franchise and not simply this one game. And, also again, these are my OWN PERSONAL REASONS. If you're interested, I will gladly share my thoughts in a civil manner, and only ask that you understand my thinking, not that you agree with me, or try to convince me to change my mind.

Now, to address category 3. Deep breath, here.

If you are doing anything at all because you know it will make the lives of people worse, then fuck you right to hell. Yes, this group of people also generally goes hand in hand with a specific red hat and an orange demagogue. If you find yourself in this category, get help. Go to therapy and ask about this concept called "empathy."

Category 4.

I will repeat: if you are doing anything at all because you know it will make the lives of people worse, then fuck you right to hell. Setting up websites to track Twitch streamers to see who is playing Hogwarts Legacy? Going to channels and harrassing the streamers for wanting to play the game? I would argue that people in this category or worse than those in category 3 because while those in 3 as assholes, they are blowing money on something they don't actually care about to try triggering someone while people in this group are going out and actively attacking people for engaging something that they want to experience for, and repeat after me, THEIR OWN PERSONAL REASONS. I saw in one chat that someone mentioned they wished executions were legal because people were doing something they didn't like. Sounds an awful lot like some people who built some gallows outside of a notable large building in the US back in the beginning of January 2021, doesn't it?

Here's where things really boil down on Hogwarts Legacy. The game is made. It's done. Rowling has been paid or will be getting paid. You attacking people for enjoying the game isn't going to stop that. But there's a lot more people than just her in the mix, here. Think about all the hundreds of people who have spent YEARS working on making this game, and trying to make it the best game possible. They have also been paid and are continuing to get paid. Controversy has surrounded Hogwarts Legacy pretty much since it was announced. And it wasn't cancelled.

Here's where I see things going with the game: it is the outrage of the day. Somewhat surprisingly, the outrage of Hogwarts Legacy's release is overshadowing the much more recent information about Justin Roiland. People will continue to be upset by this game for a while, and eventually that will fade, as all outrage does.

But you know what won't pass? The hurt caused by people to other people over this game. Your friend, who you disagree with about the game, sitting in their home, playing the game, is not going to hurt you. Streamer playing the game and you don't want to watch it? THEN FUCKING DON'T. Full stop. For fuck's sake, people were buying subs to a twitch stream just so they could continue harrassing the streamers after they made the chat sub-only. Fuck you. Grow up. And like I told the people in group 3, get therapy.

Actually, everyone should go to therapy, but that isn't the point of this.

Here's what my point of view boils down to: let people enjoy what they enjoy and stop shitting on things just because people enjoy them. Yes, the situation here is more complex and nuanced than that, but every situation is. And if any part of this rambling has made you angry or upset for any reason, I'd like you to think about why that is. I am not advocating for people to play the game or not play the game. Honestly, I just couldn't give a fuck what you want to play in the privacy of your own home. I just want people to be better. Treat people better. Be better people. Recognize that everyone on this planet is, at the very least, deserving of being treated like a person and deserving of love. And if you can't understand that fact, did you really understand Harry Potter at all?

[tarnished-angelcoric]

INTRO

Hello! You can refer to us as Angel, and our collective pronouns are they/them. I am a DID system just trying to find healing and community, and to feel a little bit less like a freak in a world that’s already hurt us so deeply. Our body is 23 years old; we are employed and not in school. We are physically disabled and have mental illnesses other than DID; you may see me talk about how these different factors interact. I am professionally diagnosed and in therapy; educated self-DX is welcome and supported here!

For privacy reasons, we will not tag our posts with which alter is fronting. If we do mention our alters by name, it will be with an emoji or a nickname. If we are talking one-on-one, you’re free to ask who you’re speaking to, but do remember that we are not obligated to disclose that. If you don’t know who specifically is fronting, just refer to us as Angel.

This is a side blog; we interact from d******b (censored for privacy). If you’re not sure if we’re following you, feel free to ask!

BYF:

I will frequently alternate between I and we when talking about the system. Apologies if it gets confusing.

If you need to message us, you are always welcome to. Whether you have a question, need a safe adult to talk to, or just want some cat pictures to cheer you up, we’ll do our best to help. We try to be a friend, but do note that we will have certain boundaries with you if you are a minor, for obvious reasons.

Due to the nature of being a system, there will be discussions of trauma and abuse. Things will be tagged as needed (usually as just “[trigger]” or “[trigger] tw”). If you need anything tagged, anything at all, just let us know.

I try to always add image descriptions to my posts, but reblogs are hit or miss. If there is anything else I can incorporate to make my blog more accessible, please let me know!

I am always, always open to answering questions about having DID. Don’t worry about being too nosy - if I’m not comfortable answering it, I’ll let you know. The only hard limit is this: do not ask about details of our trauma.

Please do not use typing quirks with us - if you do, please provide a translation. Asks/messages with no translation will be ignored and likely deleted. They’re very difficult for us to read, and cause many issues for us.

In a similar vein, please use tone tags with us! We struggle a LOT with reading tone over text, and tone tags are what we use to prevent miscommunication. Just sticking with the basics (/j, /s, /lh, /gen) is totally fine, but you’re welcome to use other ones (I don’t have all of them memorised, so I may have to ask what they mean).

I’m always open to a civil discussion. Every system is different, and therefore has different opinions; as long as yours are not harming anybody or being intentionally aggressive, I’m always open to chat. On that note, please remember that we’re working on our own issues as well, including aggression. If we’re overstepping or being needlessly rude, please let us know.

Note that since I am employed and self-sufficient, I cannot always be online. On top of that, memory issues tend to interfere with socializing. It may take some time for us to respond to messages. If it’s been more than a day or two, feel free to shoot us another one; we may have forgotten!

DNI:

Bigot (racist, trans/homophobe, antisemite, etc)

Porn/NSFW/kink blog

Ana/mia/ED blog

Anti-BLM, “all lives matter” supporter

TERF/”gender critical”/radfem, anti-neopronoun/xenogender

Pro-ship/”anti-anti”/think fiction doesn’t affect reality, support incest/unhealthy ages gaps/etc. or are neutral on the matter

Harry Potter/Hetalia/Attack on Titan/Vivziepop fans/supporters

DSMP/jschlatt/related fans/supporters

[NO]MAP aka pedophile

Endo/tulpa/non-traumagenic system or supporter

Support/believe in the idea of “narcissistic abuse”

We will block people at our own discretion, and no we do not owe you an explanation.

This DNI may be subject to change whenever. If you’re curious about why something is on the list, or need clarification, feel free to ask.

This blog used to be very syscourse-heavy, but we are stepping away from posting that content. Still, it may appear occasionally as educational posts. If you need that (or anything else) tagged, please let us know.

[dvar-trek]

lmaooooooo love to see that the playbook for antisemites hasn't changed much in the last... two thousand years? Someone added this to my post about antisemitism and then preemptively blocked me

Cherry-picking single lines that are so poorly translated as to change their meaning, or so far removed from their context as to change their meaning, or just.... claiming that something is about Jesus or Mary when... it very clearly isn't, etc. Plus the fact that they don't seem to understand the structure and purpose of the Talmud.

I'm not a Talmudic scholar, but I'll do my best. The Talmud contains a lot of disagreements and discussions and commentary on commentary on the Torah. A Rabbi might say "what does this verse in Exodus mean? I think that from this verse we can extrapolate x." And then other Rabbis discuss, and disagree on what x means, and bring up a multitude of increasingly specific scenarios and discuss whether x applies or what other understandings we can bring to this, or whether in fact we should consider the situation differently based on different Torah verses and different Rabbinic statements (because these discussions and analyses are taking place through time, so a Rabbi who made a certain statement may not be there to explain himself).

As an example, let's take an easy one from the top of the list—the first example is overly complicated, but suffice it to say that the talmud does not say that a goy who hits a Jew 'must' be put to death; the rabbis are specifically arguing about the situation in Exodus 2:12 in which Moses killed the Egyptian who was beating a Jewish slave, and then from what I can tell, move on to more general issues of Jewish men who are wicked, are prone to habitually striking others, and mistreating their own slaves, and the dilemma of what should be done.

But let's look at their second example, in which they claim we live by the rule that "if a Jew finds an object lost by a goy it does not have to be returned" from Baba Mezia 24a.

This entire section is dealing with the issue of returning lost objects, and what to do in increasingly specific scenarios, until we get to a statement from Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar, where he basically says that there are some situations where it's probably okay to not go to great lengths to find the owner, if the owner has no reason to think it could ever be found, like if it was taken away by the flooding of a river, or the tides, or bears, or lions, or if it's lost in a main thoroughfare where the multitudes are found.

And then there is lots of discussion and disagreement on the specifics of objects being lost in main thoroughfares such that the owner has no expectation of them being found, and what we mean by multitudes—does this specifically mean unmarked objects, like scattered coins, such that there's no way of the finder knowing whose coins they are? what about something that's concealed? maybe it depends how it's concealed, like if we think it's been hidden on purpose because the owner wants to come back for it. and does a main thoroughfare mean specifically something outside the community where it was probably a gentile you don't know? or does it include lost objects inside the community where it's reasonable to think you might know the person and even be able to find out who the original owner was? And they argue many contradictory points, and end the section on a disagreement for which "no proof can be cited to resolve the dilemma".

Obviously I'm not explaining all this for the benefit of the person who made this addition to my.... post with... 4 whole notes.... and who already blocked me, and is a TERF, and a covid-denialist, and illuminati-believer besides. But I think it's inch resting to see how much these Classic, Textbook Antisemitic Tropes literally have not changed since the invention of xtianity, and how easy it is to pick out individual lines to make any text look bad.

[tog-resources-archive]

Hello fellow fan who has been here since the beginning! I come from the “other side” I suppose, in that I do think the top/bottom discourse is worth talking about. It has to do with the elephant in the room which I haven’t seen anyone touch on – self-identified top!joe fans (in contrast to simply fans who enjoy or prefer content where joe tops). I remember the original top/bottom discourse coming out of a more general conversation about trends in fic (1)

Thank you fan!anon for sending me such a long, detailed message! Never apologize for writing me an essay since I always seem to be writing essays for other people in return lol. Also sorry it took a while to get to! This required a bit of preparation. You’ve given me a lot to respond to. I’m going to be putting the entirety of the ask under the cut and the tl;dr because this one is very, verrrryyyy long. 

Tl;dr- fan!anon talks about the history of top/bottom discourse in TOG and the issues of racism in our fandom. My response: my own feelings on the history of the top/bottom discourse in TOG and the current state of it. General issues I’ve observed in this fandom and the current discourse. Also, we shouldn’t ignore fandom racism, but I don’t think we should be looking at it through the lens of top/bottom, AND I think we should be focusing on misogyny, homophobia, etc. in addition to racism. Not ignore one for the other. 

Bottom line though, don’t harrass people, block people if you need to, focus on what you love, support fan creation and let’s try to be a better fandom. 

Okay, time to dig in!

Hello fellow fan who has been here since the beginning! I come from the “other side” I suppose, in that I do think the top/bottom discourse is worth talking about. It has to do with the elephant in the room which I haven’t seen anyone touch on – self-identified top!joe fans (in contrast to simply fans who enjoy or prefer content where joe tops). I remember the original top/bottom discourse coming out of a more general conversation about trends in fic (1) wherein Joe was more violent, less empathetic, often not religious, more aggressive in sexual scenarios, and also most often topping. People asked the fandom in general to simply consider, if that is how they perceive Joe, to reflect for themselves about implicit biases that could be colouring that interpretation. The self-identified top!joes used that conversation as a starting point to argue that the above interpretation of Joe, (2) and writing/drawing Nicky as smaller, almost twink-like, demure, more feminine (or writing fic where he was de-aged) was justified by canon (if you recall the multi-day argument about the approximately 1 inch height difference between Marwan and Luca) and connecting those ideas to top!joe just “making more sense” to them. In the hands of a good writer (of which we are blessed to have many in this fandom!), which character tops in an explicit fic is of no consequence to me. (3) But the concept of top!joe has, in my mind, become so closely tied with those fans who, a) interpret these characters and actions in a way that seems influenced by racial stereotypes and tropes and b) use that characterization as “justification” for top!joe. All this when I thought we all agreed that position preference has nothing to do with personality? (4) If someone sees Joe as a very masculine, aggressive, dom-type character (which is a bit of a one-note characterization to start, but I digress), that shouldn’t be related to him being a “top”, correct? Yet that is the interpretation and connection that the top!joes themselves make. So that’s why to me, the top/bottom framework continues to have some value, eve though in an ideal world it wouldn’t: (5) because some fans connect what should be a neutral sexual position preference to an interpretation of Joe’s character, an interpretation which I think doesn’t do him justice. I understand if you don’t want to publish this but I’m hesitant to talk off anon due to how heated this whole conversation is. I also don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or make them feel bad about how they are participating in the fandom, but I do think self-reflection in terms of how we engage is valuable. (6) And just to fully reiterate in case it wasn’t clear, my above points are specifically referring to who I think of as “top!joe only” fans as opposed to fans who enjoy or prefer content in which joe tops – only the former of which I am wary of. Anyways, sorry for this long message, and I hope I've been able to explain my reasoning. If we continue to disagree, thanks for reading this anyways and continuing the dialogue. Thank you also for promoting femslash events and content! (7)

So....I did say in a previous post that I’m not a big fan of hearsay, and I’m sorry but… that’s kind of what you’ve given me. A lot of “this is what Top!Joe Only people have said” and “this is what the rest of the fandom has said back.” I have to ask, who are these “Top!Joe Only” people that are on the other side of this fandom war? Who are the people representing the “rest of the fandom”?  The only names I could really come up with myself are the Top!Joe Server mods as top!Joe only fans, and they haven’t exactly been active recently. Not to mention the Top!Joe server mod @karanoidandroid was the focus of the Art Theft and Bullying debacle a while back (here) which even if you disagree with her… that’s not the way you treat people. Full stop. 

But anyway, to break this down, you’ve said that top!joe only fans wanted to interpret Joe in a way that was “more violent, less empathetic, less religious, more sexually aggressive, and topping (most of the time)” and that Nicky is “smaller, more twink-like, more demure and feminine” and that the hardcore top!joe stans are using this interpretation as a reasoning for liking top!joe explicit fics (and for underage fic?)

Er, honestly, I’ll have to disregard the “less religious” comment in this one. Lucyclairedelune has talked about it very eloquently here. As for the rest, let’s say these opinions were expressed on tumblr in July, just when the fandom was getting started. However, after personally going through all the Explicit July fics, I gotta say, the overwhelming majority of writers are focused on romantic Malta sex vacations lol. 

From my personal observations (I started reading fic on ao3 in August), I’ve seen some stories that cater to very… specific tastes (mostly kinkmeme fics so I’m not going to touch that) and some that have…. been written in poor taste perhaps. But, honestly, the majority of fics (aka G, T, M rated) that I’ve seen? I would say that they were written with care and concern for the character’s portrayal. 

Now, some fans (usually older fans) are very focused on “your kink is not my kink” and other fans feel this is an inappropriate way to view “racist, homophobic, islamophobic, etc” fics. And I agree with that. If people are using kink to excuse racism, homophobia, islamophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, misogyny, etc, in fics: Fuck that. But I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding flying around when people react to ‘ykinmk”. This fandom likes to assume the worst of their fellow fans imo, and I honestly don’t think that when a person defends kink that they’re trying to defend racism. They’re trying to defend their kink community which, historically, has been attacked and misunderstood by the purity police. Look into the Livejournal, ffnet, and even the Tumblr purges if you don’t believe me. 

For the record, I don’t know anyone on tumblr personally. We’re all effectively strangers talking to each other on the internet, so I’m not going to make assumptions about people from stories they’ve posted on AO3 or the kinkmeme. If you want to talk about the issues those fics represent, that’s cool, but don’t harass people whose life stories you don’t know (and don’t vagueblog about them). (This is just a general statement, not saying this about you anon! I feel really strongly about this.)

Now you say, “some fans connect what should be a neutral sexual position preference to an interpretation of Joe’s character” and I hate to say it, but there are ALWAYS going to be some people who have awful opinions. Ones that are either truly terrible, or kind of in poor taste, or maybe you just don’t vibe with them. Personally, I don’t have enough time in the day to address every weird thing that a person spews on the internet. I won’t judge if you want to take them on, but, personally, I haven’t seen any recent militant top!joe only posts that are calling for racist portrayals. I see people referring to past conversations, for sure, but again, I can’t do anything with hearsay. 

And honestly, we keep bringing up the top/bottom discourse of early TOG fandom, and we’re just not the same fandom we were then. SO MANY people have left the fandom in that time-- a lot of big name (or simply well known) fans and a lot of MENA fans. Regardless of what “side” you’re on in this, we all lose by focusing on the positions, by dividing everyone by “top” or “bottom” or “switch” fans, and by bringing up what people said in July, or August, or September.  It’s exhausting, especially because I think a lot of people have done exactly what you said. Many authors HAVE self-reflected, they’ve thought about trends, the implications, and are contributing/interacting with the fandom as best as they can. Do I think we should stop focusing on self-reflection? That we should stop being careful about writing potentially damaging portrayals of our favorite characters? NO. Let’s keep at it! Let’s encourage others to do the same… but not with top/bottom discourse.

Let it be known that I don’t think racism is a topic we should disregard to focus on other things. Honestly, I would be happy if people gave some of the energy they have for “top/bottom” discourse to talk about the portrayal of Nile Freeman or Lykon or Copley or Quynh… the other POC representation in TOG that usually gets ignored. You may interpret this as me going “but what about??” and that’s fair. I just think that we talk about Joe ALL THE TIME in this fandom. There is an avalanche of conversation and content for this man (who I love, don’t get me wrong) and it just feels really disingenuous (to me) to talk ad nauseum about racist portrayals of Joe, but then to ignore Nile Freeman and wlw fics when Nile is the rare Black Female Action Protagonist and Andy/Quynh is an extremely rare interracial canon lesbian couple. And I’ve been trying to use my blog here to bring attention to this, think of me what you will because of that. (Again just a general statement anon! Not directed to you XD)

And from what I’ve seen in this fandom (and many others to be fair) is that we care about racism SO MUCH…but only when talking about how a man has sex.  It speaks of a lack of intersectional understanding of these topics, disregarding the misogyny that IS ALSO inherent in fandom, and disregarding the homophobia of overfocusing on the top/bottom dynamics. BUT I’m not asking you to ignore racism; all I’m asking is for you to focus on the other issues too. 

Bottom line though… the discourse is not what it once was.  A lot of people, on whatever side, have left the fandom, or have taken a break, or are vocally tired of “top/bottom” discourse. Personally, I think we should talk about racism… but not through the lens of explicit mlm fic sex positions. Let’s talk more about race, gender, sex and sexual orientation, but not in a way that divides the fandom, in a way that makes people sick of being here, in a way that kills our content creator’s passion. Honestly, I think it can be done! But only if we work toward that goal together. 

I would like to focus on encouraging events in our community, such as the ongoing Old Guard Big Bang 2021 event and the upcoming Femslash Fortnight Spring Solstice Edition event. If anyone is organizing other events, let me know and I’ll hype you up! But as for the rest, I’m tired, you’re tired, we’re all tired. Let’s try and work harder to be a kinder, more inclusive fandom in the future, for everyone’s sake.