#the world is only helping you so that they can remove jewish ppl from their own populations

[odysseys-blood]

the zionist idea of absolutely needing to have a "home country" to "return" to has always baffled me as a black person.

[ruffboijuliaburnsides]

I'm starting to believe Derek Hook was correct when he said the only truly antiracist act is suicide. We're so immersed in whiteness, in this inherently-harmful state of being, that the only way to stop hurting poc in our environment is to stop existing in said environment. We can do all the self-reflection and unlearning and community-building we like but at the end of the day it isn't enough and it will never *be* enough. I say 'we' here because I very much include myself in this.

Ok this is a lot, babe, so let me say this to start: Derek Hook sounds like a self-important TWAT.

So no, that is fully not that answer, because killing yourself is not the answer to ANY harm you could possibly cause, especially not to systemic harm caused by a demographic you happen to be part of.

It's cowardly. Not to say you specifically are a coward, I very much understand why you might come to this conclusion given everything, but Derek Hook certainly is and I'll tell you why:

If you (general you) were to kill yourself bc of harm you've done, the only thing you've really chosen is to actively avoid doing anything to help fix it.

We don't cause active harm simply by existing. No. False. Period. But yeah we have privilege afforded to us by systemic issues rooted in choices taken over centuries by other ppl and we (broadly meaning living ppl) are the only ppl around who can try to fix it.

So we do our best to undo what we can. To give reparations where we can. To lift up voices where we can. To listen and learn and do better. To do our best to dismantle systems and to try to undermine them when we can't. That's how we fight racism, not by removing ourselves from the equation, especially since even if every white person decided they agreed with Derek Douche over there, the only white people left would be THE RACISTS WHO DON'T CARE. And that's clearly not an ideal solution.

There's a quote, the latter part from Rabbi Tarfon in the Talmud and the former part from modern commentary, about tikkun olam, the Jewish mandate to repair the world, that I really love and that I cling to when everything seems too big for me to make a difference, and I think it applies well here:

"Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. 'You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it'."

We are not obligated to completely dismantle racism in our lifetime. That's insane to think about, it's so ingrained, we'd need to dismantle the systems that encourage it and then give it a generation or two, y'know? But we have to do what we can to try to make less work for the next generation that comes along. And we might not succeed because there are people actively working against that goal, but it still means something that we're trying.

Are you going to make mistakes and not be perfectly anti-racist in every way? Well... Yeah, I mean that's a given. You're human. We all are. We will all make mistakes no matter how hard we try. The important part is how you respond when you realize you made the mistake. You acknowledge it, you apologize, and you do your best to do better next time.

Any person that tells you or agrees that killing yourself is a solution to anything, especially anything systemic no matter how you benefit from it, is lying or a piece of shit. Period, full stop. You are not making the world a worse place for others to live in simply by existing. Yes, systemic racism is a huge problem, and yes we as white people are all going to have shit to unpack and grapple with about it, and yes it's hard and yes you'll have to listen and learn and grow and you won't be perfect and you will mess up.

But do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

Do your best. It won't be enough, but it is still enough that you try.

[blackscenesolidarity]

Housekeeping in Industrial

Hoo boy, it has been a day in the scene. I want to try and get this down as soon as I can, because it is a lot and it is messy. A DJ known in the NYC scene that goes by DJ Eisdriver was shown to be an out and proud White Supremacist. I will copy and paste the conversation he had with someone within the scene, but I will remove their name for privacy reasons: 

"There’s nothing wrong with being White and there’s nothing wrong with being a Nationalist so therefore there’s nothing wrong w being a White Nationalist...I fulfill both those requirements and I’m not about to apologize to you for it.

You SJWs are fucking insane and the behavior you’ve shown on this thread is appalling...you have been belligerent and abusive from second one you have called people baseless slurs simply because you don’t have the logic to form an argument. You poke fun at the Constitution which you misunderstand and the Law both elements which govern this situation but you’d rather invest in emotions and not the facts of this case. I’m really going to remember that jag of yours about if an angry mob says it’s racism then it’s racism! Haaaa! Yeah because Mobs are such rational actors!!!

There’s lots more I can set you straight on but the one thing I’ve learned in dealing with your perpetually butthurt kind is that I’d only be wasting my breath and I can’t see the point to keep having circular fruitless arguments with you while you insult my friends so you’re done here. I think its hilarious how much you seemingly forgot about who I am when you thought Id ban ppl on your instruction...just WOW!

You can walk away and tell your similarly thinkskinned friends the [REDACTED]  that you just busted up some alt-right hive of villainy when all that’s really happened here is that I’ve tired of your refusal to listen and your SJW histrionics.

And PLEASE know you read like a fool when you write Y’ALL...you’re a Jewish girl fro NY you’re not fooling anyone."

 So, there’s that. People have stepped up and said there is no room for this type of hatred in a scene that prides themselves on being inclusive. And I applaud that sentiment; I truly do. However, for many that decry it, there are some who are, for lack of a better term, immobile on certain things regarding the scene. In another group, that for the moment shall remain nameless, another white guy thought the backlash against the white supremacist was blown out of proportion. Spoiler: it isn’t. The guy in question was ranting about ‘lefties ruining the industrial scene’. Now, here’s where his argument breaks down. The industrial scene is comprised of people of color and all people within the LGBTQIA+ spectrum with the idea of standing up for what’s right and protecting their own. Which means being expressly against racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. Which again, means being better than the society that treats them as outcasts. Industrial itself is a statement of radical leftism. Just the incarnation of what we know as industrial seemingly no longer embodies that.

Back to dude’s failed and flawed argument: he argues that leftist politics are ruining the scene, and music should be apolitical. Again, that is disingenuous. The personal is political, especially when it can affect you, people you care for, and the world at large. To say it isn’t is being disingenuous about the world at large and believing you to be the exception to the rule. Life doesn’t work that way. Opting out of scene policing because you want to foster the ‘I want to get along with everyone’ ideal is white privilege. Let me try to frame my issue with the scene by an example. Imagine the scene as a house. It’s a nice house, serviceable and comfy. You invite people over and they police themselves, keep it clean and in order. Now one day, you decide to leave the door open for roaches. The door is wide open and they flood in. The folks who frequent the house suddenly notice and ask why you have roaches in the house. And you respond, “why do you want to kick them out? They’ve always been cool to me! You’re just being divisive!”

You can’t act surprised about a dirty house when you’re letting disruptors in. Just because someone was cool to you and you feel that their politics shouldn’t figure in to things is aiding and abetting your idea for a dirty ass house. Again, likening the scene to a house, you’d want the house to grow, expand and flourish, right?

You can’t have folks over if you’re not willing to clean your dirty ass house. You can’t bemoan scene death if you willingly court misogynists, racists, homophobes, transphobes and the like. People that want to come in won’t because they won’t feel safe. And I don’t blame them. There are definitely people interested and want to get in, but you have to make it clear that you welcome them. You can’t have your arms outstretched to embrace them while you’re holding on to someone who has detrimental ideas.

I’d like to thank my friend Aedra for reviewing this with me, talking it over and helping me to refine points.

[kendrixtermina]

I'm growing irritated with people saying the concept of Rhea is antisemitic because, uh, if people see a shapeshifting lizard/dragon lady who is (at least to some extent) the shadow ruler of the continent and think "oh, must be a metaphor for Jews"... maybe the problem is with them? Like, I always thought the Church of Seiros was meant to be the medieval Catholic Church, if we absolutely must make comparisons to real life. Even their past persecution fits with that.

I’m not Jewish so I’m not the best person to talk to about this, so big caveat first that I’m not in any way an authority and not in any position to tell people not to be mad especially ppl who have no shortage of legit reasons. 

Objectively I agree that there’s a very blatant very obvious  “corrupt medieval pope” thing going on (it’s actually really fascinating to see this refracted through the lens of someone to whom it is simply foreign myth/ historical aesthetic. Much like Bleach had a villain vaguely based on the christian god.) and that you’re right but this isn’t something I feel comfortable going off on a rant about. 

I mean there are literal, non-metaphorical persecuted minorities in the game no need to grab the fantasy creatures for that. Though really the argument I’ve seen is not so much that “the concept is antisemitic” as that “Edelgard is a fascist cause she’s enemies with ppl from this group thsat was massacred once upon a time” - She doesn’t actually want to kill em all she just doesn’t want an individual she knows to be inept and tyrannical to be an unaccountable government(and while she’ll use force to remove them she has no issue letting them go if they surrender),  she’s dealing with like, three people whom she mistakenly believes to be in cahoots. 

I wouldn’t make too many assumptious about the ppl saying such things because no group is monolithic and few opinions are tied to particular groups except for those defined by opinions. Some of the ppl complaining might be trying to be upstanding but oversimplistic in their understanding; some might actually be jewish, others might just dislike the game or certain characters in it and be willing to use whatever rhetoric gets ppl to shut up. 

But something that imho gets lost in political discussions about “oversensitivity” is that Hypervigilance is a legit symptom of trauma. you encounter some insidious prejudice often enough you start seeing it everywhere. Many such prejudices really are… not everywhere but in alot of places.  Enough places that it is reasonable to start expecting it. Little things innocuous looking things will set you off because some real examples look exactly like that. See facists coming up with deliberately confusing secret symbols or how being asked to make your co-worker a coffee can be an instrument of sexist oppression in certain contexts.  You wouldn’t believe how many surprisingly specific antisemitic conspiracies and dehumanizing slander there is. I probably wouldn’t believe it if I had to live the life of someone who’s affected. 

I mean this isn’t just a smear talking point to insult each other with it’s a legit issue because of which people have to fear being shot. My town’s got a Synagogue, one of my sister’s been inside once for a school excursion, and she tells me they got armed guards. I’d rather people ring the alarms once too often than once too few and this should not be treated as a frivolous complaint

So when I see ppl calling every possible little detail sexist or racist or whatever my thoughts are neither “they are frivollously complaining about everything” or “They must be right because they’re the only ones who’re allowed to have an opinion” but that for all that the person might actually be being touchy, that touchyness is a symptom of the constant bombardment of crap they had to live with - not to mention that there’s a gradation here and that in many situations nuanced problem solving oriented discourse is more helpful that morally loaded labels. 

But imagine having a target painted on your back that makes the very worst 5% of humanity come seek you out and ruin your life for no reason, legit want you dead since you were a child. You’d think the world is very full of terrible people out to get you and you wouldn’t be wrong.

And often enough there might turn out to be an actual specific issue that might be too subtle for the uninitiated to perceive but makes perfect sense once explained. For example to a non-American like me it would be completely confusing at first how watermelons and chicken could be a racist trope but thers a history behind it. 

i dont think it remotely applies in this specific case but this is very much a discourse that needs to be had precisely because this stuff can be so subtle or specific the unaffected dont get it

There’s ppl saying the very concept of any sort of greedy fantasy creatures is immediately antisemitic when it strikes me as very obvious that it’s just a reflection of human nature which contains greed. Same with shadow rulers - it’s an universal human fear to not be in control of your destiny. A pretty basic thought that “Maan some of those corrupt leaders seem really damn inhuman”. 

The prejudice is rather in painting persecuted ppl as such bogeymen same as other minorities get painted as different sorts of bogeymen. Obviously basic universal tropes can still be made antisemitic if it’s strewn with actual dog-whistles or specific preexisting caricatures.

To summarize, this is a FAR too serious topic for casual video game discourse it ruins the lives of generations.