#this is not some random extremist but the actual government | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

puppyluver256 · 7 months ago

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I think it's time I addressed something.

cw: mentions of targeted harassment/online stalking, colonial/religious violence on mass scale, and ongoing genocide as a result of said violence

The names of anyone involved will be anonymized to protect people’s privacy. The only time uncensored usernames will be mentioned are in regards to people who have literally no knowledge of or involvement in this situation, and are not used disparagingly.

Recently, through a total fluke of curious self-googling, I discovered that a random blog I had blocked months ago had in fact posited themself as a """receipts""" (aka harassment) blog and had been actively trying to tear me down based solely on my attempts to keep my own sanity in a time of international turmoil--or rather, a time of international injustice. Even though it seems like the blog in question (which I will refer to simply as H going forward for the sake of their privacy, and if you know who it is do not mention it here or harass them in any way, shape, or form or I will find out and be deeply disappointed in you at the very least) has had a very narrow reach, once I realized that this was even a Thing and had some time to actually think about things after the initial anger and revulsion of such an act had settled a bit, I felt that I couldn't in good conscience let it go unaddressed even if it risked giving the source of the harassment even a marginally wider reach to continue their actions with impunity, especially when it was clear that they hadn’t had enough of trying to torment just me and moved forward with more insidious tactics that felt all too familiar. Because quite frankly, despite them going about it in completely the wrong way, H had a small point with regards to things I had said.

As you can probably gather due to the content warnings, this is about the horrors happening to the people of Palestine. Or rather, it is about my tendency to hide from the horrors of the world while online for the sake of my own sanity, with Palestine being just one of the most recent out of many over the years, and how my venting about being unable to do so consistently (and venting about being harassed for said venting, I will go into that particular issue much later) was twisted into the belief that I either did not care about or genuinely wished for the ongoing harm to an entire people group. The opposite is the case, in fact--I care far too much for my own good.

Let me make this clear upfront: the very first time I was taught about the still-ongoing issues between Israel and Palestine, in my freshman year of high school I might add, I was (and still am) on the side of Palestine. (admittedly the teacher tried to "teach" us about it via a stupid game that she eventually gave up on and just taught us the damn facts, but that's neither here nor there, the point is I learned what was going on a little less than 20 years ago and my opinion on the matter has been relatively the same since) I may be an atheist, but more importantly I am a secular humanist, and before knowing the latter term and taking on that label I was still an atheist even at the time, so the religious argument of "god gave them that land, they own that land" would never have worked on me the way it seems to with so many people. And tbh I don't even know if that's an argument that the Israeli government themselves put forward (it's a terrible argument no matter who put it forward), but I do know that christian fundamentalist extremists say things like that in their push for """god's people"" to return to """their god-ordained homeland""" so they (the christian extremists, I mean, just so we don't get confused here) can try to usher in the end of the world based on the drug trip of a final volume in their bizarre storybook and no I am not kidding that is literally what they believe.

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(timestamp'd to the relevant part, this vid is three years old and while this comes off as a little more neutral, some of this channel's more recent podcasts have expressed support for Palestine specifically when the topic came up)

So as you can imagine, I am absolutely not in favor of innocent people being slaughtered senselessly either for the sake of power/bigotry or for the sake of trying to kickstart a supposedly promised omnicide (as delusional as that belief is, and it's about as delusional as a socially accepted belief can be) because I am A Decent Human Being. I am also vehemently anti-military, in all forms, and have been since at least high school. And in response to a line from the post that spurned this one, "it's a genocide not a religious war", I have never once said or even implied this isn't the case. In fact, it's both at once. It is warfare, waged with religion as one of the motivating factors, against a people group with the goal and/or outcome of genocide. The terms are not mutually exclusive, and both are disgusting on their own, even moreso when one is the result of the other.

Addressing the vent posts/tag rambles directly:

This is something that is not going to surprise anyone who knows me to hear: I have the emotional constitution of an improperly set flan.

Human beings are not equipped to deal with our current 24-hour news cycle and internet rage-pushing algorithms, and I have found over time that I am far less equipped than most. Every single post about it, tweet about it, insertion into a video I was watching that gave no prior indication it would even remotely talk about it, it kept breaking my heart little by little, especially as I could do nothing to help and the charged language of everything was written to basically shame anyone who didn't do anything regardless of whether or not they were actually capable of doing so.

And then there were the pictures of bodies. Gruesome injury and death, over and over and over again. It was all too much to force myself to just helplessly watch, and I can only imagine how hard it is for the people actively experiencing all of it.

All of this on top of my more direct struggles--adjusting to a new house I never wanted to move to in a location I never wanted to even visit again, learning to care for a new dog and never getting enough time to get anything done as a result, constantly getting bitten by said dog, the brand new house constantly falling apart either due to shoddy workmanship or because of Dog, never getting enough sleep anymore (admittedly through no one's fault but my own), pulling my hair out over all this stress and then stressing out over that in a vicious cycle of bald--meant I had to focus on what I could actively take care of, namely myself, my family, and my living space. And when I finally get a moment to myself, you can imagine that it doesn't help in the slightest to go online and see a constant stream of global tragedy when I just wanted to chill for an hour. No one is equipped to handle this sort of thing all the time. And it certainly isn't helping anyone to allow myself to be constantly inundated by the torment of people I cannot do anything to alleviate.

The fandomization of tragedy:

This is another big part of why I had to filter so much. I 100% understand and encourage the making of artworks in the face of an injustice such as what's happening to Palestine, but something about it being intersected with light-hearted media just feels...unsettling? Disrespectful? I get it, people deal with bad stuff in different ways, but I just can't jive with putting the language of The Current Bad Thing That's Been Happening Lately into the mouths of characters for whom those issues would never come up. Like with that one post of modern-ized Disney princesses that included Tiana and Charlotte at a BLM protest, that makes sense as a modern interpretation of Tiana's pre-inciting-event struggles and Charlotte's determination to support her friend because Tiana was dealing with the much stronger systemic racism of the intended time period in the actual source material (albeit in a sanitized, watered-down, "we don't wanna draw attention to the fact that we pulled this sort of crap too irl" sense on Disney's part). But randomly having a character spout off Palestine slogans or flying a Palestine flag when their universe doesn't even have any real-world locations...just does not feel right, even if it is meant in genuine support. It had the same energy of those art pieces where all the fictional characters from different media would be sitting together on the couch, watching TV as the news of nine-eleven plays on screen and they all start crying. More of an unintentional mockery than the poignant piece it's intended to be. Then again, this is the place where getting one's important news items delivered to them via the infamous Destiel screenshots is considered normal, which half the time makes it hard to take said important news as seriously as one should.

This all came to a head for me with "Fakemon for Palestine".

I'm sure you can gather what Fakemon is through context, fan-made Pokemon, something I've heavily gotten into myself via the Cantessy project and at least three planned future Fakemon projects, and have been following plenty of artists and collaborative creators in the field for years now. I think the "Fakemon for Palestine" trend was started by the Fakemon creator PragMagik (if it wasn't then he definitely helped popularize it), and for the record, from what I've seen of the demiguy I believe his heart was absolutely in the right place. And it caught on, and spread like wildfire within the Fakemon community. And it Just. Felt. Wrong. All the cutesy Pokemon-ified takes on Palestine symbology just felt like it was making light of a very serious situation. I'm sure that 90% of those jumping on the trend meant their contribution(s) to be a genuine show of support for the Palestine cause, and let's be real it's probably a lot more preferable for those going through this to see fun and encouraging fanart rather than more of the death and destruction they have to deal with on a daily basis (if they even do get to see the fun and encouraging fanart at all due to spotty internet in what infrastructure remains or was cobbled together through proxies), but I still couldn't shake the feeling that this was inappropriate. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong.

What hasn't been publicized:

As mentioned before, I have felt as though I could not, and still cannot, do anything to help. I'm constantly in a state of decision paralysis when it comes to this sort of thing. Sharing everything that came my way led to the risk of just spreading misinformation, and taking the time to comb through everything would just make me shut down entirely. Donating to any old fundraiser was tricky, both because I don't have the money to spare and because I would have no way of knowing if the money would actually reach the people it needed to, either by way of the money being intercepted before it reached its intended recipient or the fundraiser itself being a malicious scam. Attending a protest would be out of the question, as I live in The Middle Of Goddamn Nowhere where there's likely no protests within 100 miles, and if I did manage to get to one and ended up getting arrested for the "crime" of speaking out in support of oppressed people, not only would no one be home to take care of my dog for way longer than I'm okay leaving him at home alone, but it could get more than just myself into trouble. My mom's a government employee (city gov, but still) in an unfortunately crimson red state, and while I don't know for a fact if me getting arrested as an adult would put her job at risk, I'm not willing to take that chance with her. I'm not putting my loved ones at risk like that.

Ironically I've probably been "participating" in some of the boycotts people have been calling for longer than they'd even been called for. Of the three I can think of off the top of my head, I've never gone to Starbucks because I don't like the smell of coffee, I can't stand the abusive business practices and environment inside of Walmart so I try my best to never go there unless something I need is literally not available anywhere else within a reasonable distance and/or timeframe, and I've avoided McDonald's for years because let's be honest, when a restaurant chain serves you two bright red burgers on two separate occasions at two completely different locations, you tend not to frequent that restaurant chain ever again for the sake of your own physical health. I know this doesn't quite count, hence the use of quotes above, but it's still less money going into the pockets of bad actors. I'm reminded of that post where someone was all "you people can't even boycott chik-fil-a", and it's just...yeah I can. I did it (and am continuing to do it) without even trying. Just because I didn't announce it to the world didn't mean I didn't do it.

Also, just because I filtered the topic on social media does not mean I was "keeping (my) head in the sand" about everything. I was keeping informed, but only when I was in the right headspace to do so, and with plenty of preparation for what I would be getting into, and I never felt the obligation to announce my attempts to keep informed because it would all be information better obtained from more appropriate sources than Some Random Nerd On The Internet Who Is Not Directly Involved And Thus Does Not Have Proper Perspective Or Any Sort Of Media Sensitivity Training. That's all I was ever upset about wrt the content of the initial vent post: I wanted the chance to prepare myself for what I would be seeing, and people were refusing to let me have that chance and then directly berating anyone else who wanted the same. My only real wrongdoing here was complaining about things in spaces where one can openly complain about things and not being the most tactful about it.

To paraphrase a friend of mine I was discussing this whole with, if we had to turn off our computers to avoid seeing senseless violence as a result of military aggression, the internet would not exist because the world has been in war for practically forever. The world is always in conflict, always messed up, and just not wanting to see it all the time because of how much everything is right now is not a morally incorrect action but a tired one, and one is allowed to be tired. (or more specifically in my case, emotionally overwhelmed)

Misinterpretation:

I'll admit, I was too upset to force myself to read H's posts in too much detail, but in what I could remember I noticed several misinterpretations, whether genuine or intentionally twisted I can't tell. One was stated above, another I remember was criticism of my using the phrase "upsetting event" wrt trying to filter, well, upsetting events. In general. Not just this one, but any upsetting event. I was defending the use of filters for people to keep themselves safe online regardless of what it was they decided to filter. Celebrity deaths, celebrity controversy, widespread diseases, natural disasters, and yes, any form of global injustice. I was being vague for the purposes of letting anyone fit in whatever thing they'd find upsetting and needing to filter, and that was deliberately taken as me dismissing a very specific travesty. I encourage people to educate themselves on such things that they may need to have filtered whenever possible, but no good comes from people forcing themselves to get tragedy-jumpscared at any moment with no warning whatsoever. In my case, I oftentimes forget entirely to clear out my filters when I'm in a mindset to not need them anymore. But make no mistake, just because I need to filter something doesn't mean I don't care about said thing. In fact, I would've just kept it to Xkit filters rather than vanilla Tumblr filters, as from there I at least have the warning button to where I could open it up if I was in the proper headspace, if not for my morning phone scroll not at all being the proper headspace for me in the slightest.

Also, many instances of me venting on the "I can't curate my feed when no one wants to meet anyone halfway" issue? Not even related to something even remotely as serious as what has been claimed is the sole focus of my venting, in so far as I can recall. You wanna know some of the other things that are in my filters? The wizard school book and its author. (bad example tbh, what with the end goal of that bitch's transphobic statements/actions making it just as serious) The show about an undersea kitchen cleaning tool who wears angular clothing. The show about a hotel in hell and its spinoff and also anything its main creator has ever touched. Freaking spíders. And yet no matter how many variations of filters I apply, those too keep leaking through to me, that second one in particular due mostly to its omnipresence in meme culture and no one thinking to use fandom tags for what are considered general purpose memes. And that's not even taking into account the people who think it's even remotely okay to censor serious topics that many people need to blacklist. We've all seen and raged at the growing tendency of people "warning" for "r*pe" or "5u1c1d3" / """unaliveing""" or "dr-ug u-se" or "4l-c0-h0l" or "g*ns", after all. (for those using screenreaders who just got a blast of Absolute Audio Garbidge in their ears, those words were "rape", "suicide", a nonsense word that means nothing, "drug use", "alcohol", and "guns", and I'm sorry if those words/phrases coming at you with no warning was distressing to you)

Conclusion:

TL;DR, I used various social media's moderation features to try and hang on to the last strands of sanity I have after both my life and a far-off part of the world have been turned upside-down last year, and I was """called out""" for publicly being upset that people were actively making that more difficult. I was upset that someone (almost certainly H) sent me aggressive messages berating me for being upset, using the deaths of real innocent people as a weapon to do so. I was told the typical "curate your feed" line when the thing that I was complaining about in the first place was that I could not effectively do that. I was repeatedly attacked for daring to complain about something that was stressing me out, and my complaints were archived and posted in such a manner where they could be dissected, reinterpreted, and attacked some more with no way for me to directly defend myself because I literally could not see them until a random google fluke led me to discovering the harassment campaign that had been going on for months.

If you were hurt by my words, if the interpretation of my statements led you to consider me to be something I very much try not to be, I would not blame you. Quite frankly, you have every right to feel that way. It was very easy to see my wording as callous and cruel, even if from my perspective it was simply tactless and frustrated. I will not be deleting anything that I have said wrt circumvented filters and the messages I've received, partly because I feel it important to take accountability for when I've unknowingly upset someone and partly because I can't be assed to find all of it, especially when someone thought it was a good idea to "preserve" it without my consent anyway to make any such deletion a waste of my time. And to a specific someone, who I will refer to as A, I apologize to you in particular because I had briefly suspected you of being the person behind this. I thought you were understandably upset about everything going on (as you have more direct connections to this than anyone I know) and taking it out on me, so I’d unfollowed you with the mistaken understanding that you didn’t want me around anymore. I now have no reason to believe this was the case, and I’m sorry for ever suspecting you.

In a better world, someone who was upset by my statements would've taken the time to try and have a conversation with me about my lack of tact on the matter, an actual one-to-one conversation and not just yelling at me in my inbox, treating me like a fellow human being to be informed or convinced rather than a monster to be spat upon. But then again, in a better world, none of this would be an issue because everyone would be safe and thus there would be no death and destruction for me to desperately try to hide from. And of course, there's a possibility that maybe someone did try to talk to me in a good-faith manner, and I just never saw their attempts because I was filtering the words they were using.

I'm not asking for forgiveness, only understanding, and I hold no ill will to anyone who saw me venting about my attempts to protect myself from further heartbreak (among other less serious things) being constantly and purposefully circumvented as more than what they were.

Except for You, H.

(note: the rest of this post is referring to H and H alone, if you are not H [and you will know whether or not you are] feel free to keep reading but remember you are not the intended target of the anger contained in the ongoing text)

Yes, I'm talking to you, H, as unlike you I have no intention to "archive" your posts to harass and berate you. Because that’s what you’re doing, you’re harassing me, and that’s why I have called you H: the H is for “harasser”. I have no doubt you will be reading this post, as you're probably still "keeping tabs" on me to find more things to add to your little archive of ire, if recent developments are anything to go by. Who keeps a """receipts""" blog in 2024 anyway, let alone for something as petty as tactless takes on the internet? If I was actively contributing to those perpetuating the genocide it'd be more understandable, but to go through all this effort to smear someone who just wants to take a moment to scroll through social media without getting slapped in the face with Another Dead Fucking Body with no warning or opportunity to prepare for it? This is just cruelty for cruelty's sake, and you know this, and you don’t care.

You claimed I would make "bait posts" to try and do...something, I don't even know where you were going with that. I'll admit I don't remember much of what I wrote, and I don't have the mental fortitude to wade through your blog again to get berated from the past yet again, but the only thing I have ever wanted from you was for you to leave me the hell alone. By your logic, I suppose the Nexgard and Heartgard I give to my dog every month are meant to attract ticks rather than repel them. Or that the bug man comes once a year to line the outside of the house with a chemical that lures spíders and other pestly invertebrates into our living space. I’ve tried everything in my power to get you to go the fuck away and you refuse to leave! You refuse to get out of my life!

You all but explicitly called me a zionist for daring to want to have some peace in my life, when I have never been anything of the sort. Scroll back up if you want a refresher of my feelings on the matter, the tl;dr being that I am against ethnostates regardless of who the attempted "ethno" of that "state" is and I condemn any and all forms of genocide, religiously motivated or otherwise. But I know you won’t have bothered to absorb any of that, as you not only seem to be the premier of “piss on the poor”, but the king (gender neutral) of “I think Coolsville sucks”.

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(for those who don’t know what I’m talking about, tried to find the screencaps with added context but I couldn’t so you get the clip)

You carefully made sure there was no way I would find your blog and your targeted harassment under normal circumstances--even with that one instance of you commenting directly on my post that led to me blocking you, you'd tagged all of your posts with tags you either knew or suspected I would have filtered via vanilla Tumblr so that I could not see it while logged in even if I unblocked you or told Tumblr to show me your blog despite my block, or perhaps you blocked me on that blog and Tumblr finally fixed the issue of blocked users being able to view the blogs of those that blocked them (I doubt it, given what you've been doing). Hell, I only found out about this in the first place from a mere google fluke, trying to make sure my own inattentiveness on a completely unrelated issue didn't lead to someone doing exactly what you've done on that issue and just so happening to be on an incognito window while doing so.

And don't think for a second I didn't notice all the "she"s and "her"s in your main post about me. Anyone who looks at my blog can see that I go exclusively by they/them pronouns, and I have been exclusively using they/them pronouns for years. There's literally no excuse for she/her-ing me throughout all of the insults and jabs, just the perfect slathering of piss icing on that turd cake you baked. You do know that correctly gendering people is something you need to do even if you don't respect them, yes? Like no decent trans-supporting person would call Caitlyn Jenner or Blair White by anything other than their chosen names and correct pronouns, we'd just call them awful people while still calling them women and using their current names, because that's what and who they are. It's no different here--even if you feel I've done too much wrong to be deserving of your respect as a person, that's no excuse to disrespect my identity as a nonbinary individual. My right to be correctly addressed is not conditional based on whether or not you personally like me.

But here's the kicker in this whole thing: I don't believe for a second that you actually give two shits about the plight of the Palestinian people beyond some vague sense of "clout". I can't even bring myself to call you a slacktivist, as slacktivists at least tend to spread helpful information about things they care about. I looked at your blog, its layout themed around the symbols of Palestinian liberation, and as far as I can tell it's all just window dressing. One would think you'd have links to aid for the victims, news posts, anything remotely helpful, but searching "aid" or "donate" or anything similar on your blog brings up a blank page. Hell, with the vindictive nature of your blog, you'd think you'd’ve even had posts targeting other peoples who are at best trying to get on with their lives through the 24-hour news cycle of death and destruction or at worst actively supporting the deaths of innocents. (I still wouldn't encourage such things, but it'd at least make sense given your general vibe) But no, I went through the entirety of your blog's posts and up until recently (we will get to that) it's only posts focused on me. Berating me. Taking screenshots of my posts and my tags on said posts and/or reblogs, even those that are completely unrelated to this issue which you decided to interpret in the least generous way possible, misgendering me all the while. No one else, no-thing else. Just me.

This isn't about Palestine to you, not really. Palestine is just a convenient cudgel to use in your true goal: tearing me down as some sort of personal grudge. And the worst thing is, despite recent actions all but confirming my suspicions, I can’t definitively prove who you are or why you would be motivated to do this before any of this happened, you've made damn well sure of that. There's no way that blog isn't a sideblog, it's too devoid of anything Personal not to be. And I wouldn't be surprised if every single one of the hateful anonymous asks I've ever gotten over the past few years had been sent from one person, and I believe that person is and has always been none other than you.

I would say you should be ashamed of yourself, but let's be real, someone who runs a blog dedicated to a smear campaign against one single person is almost entirely immune to the concept of shame, especially when they're so far up their own ass so as to convince themself that doing so is somehow the good and noble thing to do. Clearly someone who thinks it's in any way appropriate to tell someone, and I'm quoting mostly from memory as it's been months, "I'm sure all those dead kids are glad you're protecting your mental health" has NO sense of shame whatsoever. If I were to stoop to your level, I’d tell you that those same dead kids are probably really proud of you for harassing someone who has, at worst, made some tactless statements out of frustration. But I’m not you. Those dead kids are dead, and needlessly so. They’re not glad for my mental health (even sarcastically as you meant it) nor proud of you for harassing people online, nor are they scared or sad or angry or at peace or anything. They are dead. Murdered. And you dared to use their deaths for your own selfish purpose of furthering your pathetic grudge.

What do you even hope to gain from doing this? The knowledge that you've deeply hurt me? My complete and total isolation from anyone I care about online, perhaps culminating in my disappearance from the internet altogether? My inability to fully engage in the fandom of any media I enjoy or any multifandom art events, seeing as how you tried to attack my potential participation in Art Fight too? The ruination of my only ability to make any small semblance of an income? The right to dictate what I see and post online? A reaction of any kind? Because you've certainly gotten that last one now, if nothing else. Whatever the case, I know nothing I do will ever satisfy you or get you off my back, and you've made it so that I can't even force you out of my life--I'd already blocked the blog you were using to do this, and yet you kept stalking me to find any scrap you could use to make me look worse than what I'd ever said or believed (that's what we call "block evading", btw, and it's against tos on basically every major social media platform), and I can't figure out what Twitter account you'd been using to stalk my Twitter page since some loser who thinks he has any right to the place decided to make Twitter visible only to people who are currently logged into Twitter, meaning you have to have one too.

You don’t intend to make the world a better place by doing this, not in the slightest. No, instead you've just berated the "snowflake trigglypuff" for trying to keep their "safe space" intact, while painting that sentiment in the language of the social justice warrior you believe yourself to be rather than that of the crazy altright loser I believe (or at least hope) you'd find as repulsive as I do so that no one would clue in that that is in fact what you were doing.

And then you had the nerve to go after two of my friends, M and C. Maybe you’ve gone after more than just them, but these are the two I know of for certain. M told me directly, and I saw C’s post about getting an anon “warning” her about someone with an “anti-religion agenda”, and because I’m not a complete moron I could put two and two together because that’s the kind of bullshit religious people spread about atheists all the damn time. And while I admit I don’t see religion in the best light, I don’t have an “””agenda””” to take the comforting aspects of religion away from people. I counter the harm of genuinely dangerous beliefs and stand against fundamentalists and their goal of getting everyone to follow their exact belief system and theirs alone, but if someone donates to charity (and I mean actual charity, not just giving money to their religious organization) or gets involved in beneficial activism because that’s what their religious belief encourages, I have no problem with it. Like I’ve said numerous times, I’d take a dozen progressive theists over one asshole atheist. But more to the point, what makes you think you have the right to bring in people who have literally nothing to do with any of this? Whatever your goal was with that, it was your final mistake, because now I know exactly who you are.

This has happened before, H.

You’ve likely done this before, H, and I know someone exactly like you has.

Because this is all too reminiscent of something that went down four years ago with one of my friends during a time when they were suffering, and just as I stood by their side back then, I refuse to stand by and let you target me and my friends like that now. It saddens me that in four years time people still haven't learned to try and be better than this, and while that person was an angry teenager back then and didn’t have the tools to appropriately deal with their personal problems with others, you are presumably an adult. You need to start acting like it and find a better way to deal with your interpersonal problems, and using the pain and suffering of others is NOT the way to do it.

My problem was that I had no choice but to temporarily close off my heart in order to keep it from breaking every time I opened social media for five minutes, protecting myself from my own tendency to care too much while unintentionally making it seem like I didn't care at all. Your problem is that you used the deaths of real, innocent people to try and turn an unemployed queer nd artist into an emotionally broken persona non grata and make yourself look like a big damn hero, hiding your personal grudge under the veneer of giving a shit about people desperately hanging on through atrocities directed toward them, and also try to bring down said artist’s completely uninvolved friends in the process in order to further salt the wound. But you are no hero, nor am I a villain, and I would not be so gauche as to claim the reverse is true either. We're just a couple of randos on the internet, one who has an unhealthy level of vitriol toward the until-recently clueless other. And I have no doubt that you will not listen to a damn thing in this post, and perhaps you will purposefully twist this into some "(they) only wrote this because (they) got caught!!" nonsense or claim that I'm lying about everything in this post that doesn't 100% accept your interpretation of things since I don't remember every single thing I've ever said in any given vent post/tag ramble or I don't address every single point you made (spoiler alert, most people don't have the patience or energy to read in-depth A Wall Of Insults Based Solely On Malicious Misinterpretation, so "forgive" me for merely skimming your blog and not allowing you to take up any more of my time than you already have, except don’t because I’m not apologizing to you for having been an until-recently unaware victim of ongoing harassment), because someone like you can't stand the thought of someone you don't like learning from their mistakes and improving themself. But on the slight chance that this actually does get through to you and make you think for two goddamn seconds and realize the true nature of what you've been doing, here's my final message to you:

Get some help, H. Stop obsessing over me. Learn to try and have an actual conversation with someone you have an issue with instead of immediately going into a tirade of insults and accusations. And if you really do care about Palestine and aren't just using their hardships as an excuse to tear down someone you hate, go do something actually useful for the cause. You don't even have to publicly announce it if you don't want to, though if you had done anything useful by now you seem like the type who would absolutely shout from the rooftops about it for the internet brownie points. Just stop wasting your time with a small potato like myself and focus on the big picture.

Now then, I'm going to keep doing what I do with the addition of trying to improve myself wrt complaining about serious stuff in public like I have been, y'all can keep doing what you think is best for yourselves, and as for H...please, for your own sake if not for any other reason, channel that anger into something productive. It's what I try to do when I'm upset with something or someone, and it usually helps. Harassing randos on the internet isn't helping anyone, not even yourself.

EDIT: Altered an admittedly accusatory part to be less directly so, just on the off-chance that I am wrong about this person's identity. I'm still fairly confident, but I don't want to be THAT guy, especially with someone like the person that spurned me on to make this post in the first place. As you can understand, I was and still am very angry that I had to make this post at all, and I historically don't make very good decisions when I'm angry. Especially when my friends are roped into this.

#jess rambles #long post #like very long #like ''maybe go get a snack and a drink if you wanna sit through this whole thing'' long #knock knock get the door it's religion #and how it leads people to do terrible things #(no i don't think my harassment is religiously motivated I'm Talking About The Big Thing)#cw:#harassment #genocide mention #death mention #child death mention #war mention

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sizablelad · 1 year ago

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i used to be dogmatically opposed to a two-state solution primarily because i perceived it through a (probably north american liberal democracy) inspired fear of nationalism=bad, therefore a two-state solution, which inherently endorses BOTH israeli and palestinian nationalism means more nationalism in the world, so according to a utilitarian framework, two-state=bad.

but something i've learned a lot during this era of the conflict by listening to a lot of grassroots peace activists/movements is to kind of abandon that framework because it's simply not that simple. i feel like the root of a lot of the political disagreements (actual political disagreements, not "hummus is israeli, no hummus is arab" dumbass discourse) i have at this point is with people who view political polities, whether it be people or governments themselves, as immutable, as fixed. a two-state solution doesn't need to be a final goal (though maybe it is, i'm not a policy expert and this post is more about recognizing a flaw in my own political worldview), but it is a viable solution (like a GODDAMN CEASEFIRE) that could potentially address security concerns and extreme national sentiments that exist and just can't be ignored. like. they are there. there's no point in pretending that they don't, that far-right israeli nationalists aren't going to say BUT HAMAS every time you critique the israeli government response, that hamas isn't powerful because of decades of subjugation and trauma. solutions that have been discredited as non-viable in some hypothetical future because they aren't "the perfect solution" or whatever can and SHOULD be a method of triage in the current absolutely devastating human rights abuses that are occurring.

the issue though, once the triage has been completed and there's room for more nuanced political discussion, is when we as a people decide our work is done, look away, and allow propaganda from ruling powers to convince us that "actually...... no more change is necessary, the system is okay as it is" and allow what is supposed to be a temporary framework for peace and the alleviation of human suffering become the norm instead of constantly working to better the system. the people that allow this are those that benefit from the current system, and then as the distance widens between those that benefit and those that don't it allows for extremists to take advantage of polarization, sticking their feet in the door and stoking extremist sentiments. i don't know the history as well as many and i'm not a political commentator so take this with a grain of salt, but this appears to be what happened with the oslo accords. they have their flaws (BOY do they have their flaws), but it was a start at triaging the conflict in a less extreme time. but the negotiations were allowed to stagnate with no followup to address the structural and nationalist concerns that were still VERY REAL. and look how that worked out.

so on another note, THIS is what activists from that region mean when they say you're exporting politics from another region that is just different than yours, THIS is what they mean when people say the conflict is complicated. layering USAmerican racial tensions over a region that literally isn't the US, doesn't have US socio-political history, is just inaccurate and is gonna lead to misinformation when you try to force a conflict that is fundamentally not North American into a North American narrative. it's honestly kind of imperialist in it of itself. you're just being naive at that point and it's going to lead to dangerous conclusions.

this epiphany was inspired by palestinian activist Khalil Sayegh's episode on Babel: Translating the Middle East. his interview is really insightful and important, so go listen to it (it's very accessible). and, as always, extremism=/=radicalism, there are always 50 caveats that i'm not mentioning so don't think you Know Me based on this one random essay, peace and coexistence should be our ultimate goal, and secondary to everything is prioritizing the sanctity of human life. none of us are free until all of us are free.

#if there's an inaccuracy in here then i'm actually really interested in constructive criticism. something hard to find these days.#tho i also have like no mutuals who i actually talk to on here so that's unlikely

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officialtayley · 1 year ago

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Ash, you don’t have to publicly respond to this cause I don’t want to cause drama on the timeline but just wanna say that I’m sorry that you have to deal with that anon that’s saying shit like “Muslims as well as right wing extremists are actively spreading propaganda. Nazi symbols are everywhere.”.

The fact that your blog went from tayley and fandom discussions to now a random anon saying false statements like “today‘s Israelis are not responsible for the founding of Israel 75 years ago. And Israel as a state is not responsible for the attack of the Hamas.” must be exhausting for you. If that person ever comes back and starts shit again then I suggest linking them The Intercept’s “BLOWBACK: HOW ISRAEL WENT FROM HELPING CREATE HAMAS TO BOMBING IT” 2018 article and the 2021 The Tribune article titled “How and why Israel helped create Hamas?”.

We cannot condemn Hamas without calling out the Israeli government for playing a part in their creation in the first place. I’m scared that there’s a person within this fandom who’s so comfortable being mad at you and I don’t know how many other paramore fans by using false facts and hyperbolic language that is so Islamophobic whether they realise it or not

i'll answer because i think you put this better than i can. like i've said before, i feel i struggle with wording things, and those articles will be helpful in the future if they come back or anyone else shares the same sentiment, so thank you!

it's very islamophobic. it has me struggle for words because it's like......... how are you saying that so confidently and not seeing a problem? but also i guess this has opened my eyes to how some fans actually are and it makes me very much not love this fanbase the way i used to if people like that are around. hayley wants us to consider each other family yet it's showing that muslim and arab fans cannot do that actually. it's showing you do not care about them at all.

#anon #answered

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weemietime · 4 months ago

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@prismatic-bell this is the standard mindset of most liberal pro-Palestinians and anti-Zionists and it drives me absolutely ballistic.

And it sucks, because being pro-Palestinian has been co-opted by virulent antisemite who make actual Tik Toks reading out Osama Bin Laden's Letter to America whilst cheering on the actually, literally genocidal Houthis for blocking a cargo ship. Then they'll turn around and accuse random Israeli civilians and of being genocidal colonialists in their own homeland. Accuse us of being genocidal for killing less than a quarter of the total civilian population the USA murdered in Iraq (without ever calling the Iraq war a genocide) and in the very next post?

A bunch of red triangle and watermelon emojis praising the Houthis, who expelled the entire Jewish population of Yemen (every last Jew but one, who was recently jailed) and presided over an actual genocide killing more than 200,000 people. Again, the death toll in Gaza is not even a quarter of this.

It sucks. Because you know what? I consider myself to be a pro-Palestinian Zionist. I believe the West Bank (in some areas) is an occupation according to international law. I disagree with the extremist Kahanist settler violence against Palestinians living in places like Hebron where they had to build a net above their streets so they could catch all the trash and piss and shit Israelis literally throw onto them.

I support Palestinian sovereignty in Gaza and the West Bank and I believe that Palestine should be a country as much as Israel should be a country. I deeply oppose Netanyahu, Ben Gvir, Smotrich and all the other Irgun terrorist fuck-head war criminals in power. The use of Lavender without human verification is a war crime. I believe they've killed lots of Palestinian civilians and are holding Palestinian kids in prison without a trial.

There is a lot that we can actually criticize the Israeli government for doing that we have real evidence and legal precedent to support.

But I can't call myself pro-Palestinian because I believe Israel should be a country and that Jews have a right to live there. But I can't call myself pro-Palestinian because I will be immediately associated to terrorist sympathizers who want to annihilate Jews in Israel "from the River to the Sea," often without even being able to name from what river to what mother-fucking sea.

I will never forgive goyim for taking the word for the group that was literally all about mass murdering 6 million jews in the most horrific genocide in history that wasn't even 100 year ago, and twisting the meaning to be "evil person that is so fascist and evil they're not human anymore" and then turn around and call Jews that.

the Nazi belief is literally that JEWS ARE SUBHUMAN. Jews literally CANNOT be Nazis unless they genuinely see their people and themselves as subhuman and deserving of death.

#holocaust inversion #leftist antisemitism #antisemitism #icj case #icj genocide case #icj ruling #icj hearing #international humanitarian law #international criminal court #ICC #israel #palestine #gaza #gaza genocide #weemie #politics #zionism #anti indigenous racism

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disteal · 3 years ago

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Why you shouldn’t donate to the military/militias

In my honest opinion the most helpful thing you can do as a foreigner on the internet when a war starts is keep your head down and not clog up feeds with unnecessary chatter, but the sheer scale of panicked hand-wringing and random spending has reached a level where it’s dangerous.

You should, under no circumstances, donate to orgs who work in tandem with a foreign military. YOU SHOULD NEVER, EVER DIRECTLY DONATE TO A FOREIGN MILITARY. IMO, you increase your likelihood of pissing that money down the toilet 100% by sending it to any outreach org instead of dropping it directly into a wallet, but if youre going to send it to programs or NFPs you need to research where it’s going.

There are many, many reasons why, but in order of least severe to most a few of them are;

1. War breeds grifters. People panic; you know that instinct when you heard the news that told you to do something, anything? It’s adrenaline, it’s a common response and con artists know it. People are overwhelmingly more likely to fall for scams when they feel unsafe; they are more likely to take random strangers at their word and you need to recognise when that is happening to you.

2. You will be put on a list. If you donate to a foreign, armed political power you will be put on a list so hard and so fast it’s not even funny. You will signal to every government and every corporation watching the internet that you are politically unsavvy, vulnerable to propaganda and willing to part with cash for it. You do not want to be on a list like this.

3. YOU ARE NOT MADE OF MONEY. Think about this; is there something you can do to help, financially? Probably. But why do you need to donate right now? The thing about sending money to a cause is you have a budget, even if you feel like you don’t. And war is not the same as protest. You freak out, you send money to some random Ukrainian org you didn’t know existed until yesterday, and then in a month when a Ukrainian person starts a fundraiser for a bus ticket for their parents when the actual effects of this conflict start to hit, your brain will remind you that you already helped! You gave up money to this group even though you have no idea where it went, or who it helped, or if it even helped at all. Wanna donate? Put aside some savings in a fund so you can actually assist someone, not just when it’ll feel good.

4. You are donating to European fascists. When you donate to militias or a government that financially supports militias right now you are putting that money in the pockets of violent, armed N@zis. This has already happened; the Azov battallion has notoriously rebranded themselves in the last few days to soak up as much funding from foreign liberals as possible. I could spend hours outlining how right-wing extremists use imperial invasions as a vehicle for securing power, I could point out how this happened in Iraq, and Syria, and Afghanistan, I could say that almost all the money they recieve will not go towards the aid or guns they already have or at least are recieving funding for, but instead recruitment and spreading fascist propaganda. I could gruesomely outline the history of antisemetic war crimes in that region, I could even post screenshots of terrified Ukrainian users desperately defending n@zis because they want someone to protect them through all this but I won’t. If you send these motherfuckers a dime, you are directly putting jewish, gay and trans Ukrainians at even more risk.

Talking points I constantly see:

Helping any defense force right now is a net good

A) The pennies you send will not be piped via antibiotics into the mouths of brave soldiers like your brain movie is playing out for you. B) It WILL go to recruitment, propaganda, and towards building a political climate that secures their power in the decades to come.

But I should listen to Ukrainians and they say to donate

Brother they are so fucking scared. They are experiencing a nationwide terror that we do not have the experience to reckon with. This is worse than 9/11 for them, and they are going to throw their hat in with anyone who can make them feel more secure. This is not BLM, who asked you to listen to them BECAUSE they were actively ignored before it was too late, and the message BLM wanted you to listen to never involved donating money to fascists. (edit) Realised I should point out that there are a LOT of Jewish Ukrainians actively pleading with people not to donate to Azov.

Youre saying this because you’re a heartless nihilist who doesn’t want to help

HELP!! By god if you’ve got the cash for it, you can help!!!!! SEND IT TO UKRAINIAN PEOPLE YOU KNOW. DIRECTLY. If you have a mutual or a mutual has friends they can get the money to, or someone you trust from Ukraine starts a fundraiser for their apartment building, or gets hurt and needs aid then that’s where your money should go. There’s a rhetoric on online left-leaning communities that any skepticism towards donations is a cold-hearted unwillingness to provide mutual aid and it is not very helpful right now. Question these donation links, don’t use paypal for Ukrainian sources, think before spending, be realistic about how much you can spend and what you imagine that money can do. You cannot fix Ukraine with your paypal, even a little. In moments like these we are all worms under a boot and we cannot change what is going to happen, but you can help someone who needs it when they ask for it.

#long post #psa #ukraine #fuck i woke up mad about this

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simonalkenmayer · 3 years ago

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One thing that is interesting to discuss is the overlap between violent extremist or abusive behavior and belief in conspiracy theories. That is not to say people who believe in conspiracies are violent or hurtful, but to say that the opposite seems to be mostly true in extremist circles and amongst abusive peoples. I have theories as to why, based on what I’ve seen.

First let’s talk about how people believe in conspiracies, and there’s a few things in play. Now, for reference, I’m not talking about “oh what if it was true!” I’m talking about actual belief such that you join groups dedicated to it and participate in its culture.

The first thing that must exist is cognitive dissonance. This is the ability to maintain two opposing beliefs at the same time. A good example would be something like an evolutionary biologist being a member of a creationist church. To an outsider, those two ideas seem opposed, and one might be tempted to think it would sort itself out. The education one has will cancel out the nonsense, but this isn’t actually the case. What actually occurs, is that the holder of the idea, through a series of logical movements, remakes the world. What do I mean? Well, let’s invoke the old pattern of abuser, just for the hell of it: I didn’t abuse you. I’m a good person. You just deserve it.” In one movement they warped the world to for their thoughts, holding two ideas that are opposed in one space. You cannot be a good person whilst also hurting someone, unless the thought process includes consequences. It’s the mental glue that holds those two ideas together. Same thing for moon landing deniers. It’s possible for a person to use the advanced satellite technology of smart phones and global internet to deny that man had the technology to walk on the moon—two opposing ideas, held together by the glue of “there must have been a conspiracy to cover it up.”

But why? Right now I’ve just told you that people can hold these ideas together, but I haven’t said why anyone would do it. What desire is being satisfied?

Let’s get into that.

Proportionality bias—the tendency to want to think that something momentous must have a momentous explanation. Something pivotal for you must be for everyone, the need to believe that if these things happen, there is intention or meaning. That drives people. It lights up their hippocampus and makes them see patterns where none exist. It needs to be explained. Good things are turned into intentional rewards from the universe, of course accounted for by your excellent merit and good deeds. Bad things that happen, that crush, must have a reason. A villain must exist to do those things. It must be the government, or an ex, or the aliens, or the Jews, or all of them together. They don’t want the random to exist.

There’s also the need to be special. This is crucial. There have been studies done on this and the data is amusing. All conspiracies focus on the knower. The knower Knows The Secrets and the rest of the world is blind. This is self-focused reasoning. It’s not rational.

But I think you can see how it overlaps the mindset of an abuser, yes?

The self-focus of needing to be in control, in the know, superior enough to have the license granted by the universe to dominate/handle/educate/gatekeep/use etc their victim. The proportionality bias of believing that there must be some kind of explanation for why they are powerless or feel out of control. It must have an explanation as momentous as this defeat is, so of course, it must be someone’s doing. And because it’s someone’s doing, they are hurting the knower. The knower has a right to defend themself/take them to task/attack or harass them.

Terrorists take it one step farther, because you see, anything that views a political or societal issue as responsible for their oppression, and feels their actions of terror will cause change in the way they wish, is a terrorist instead of a bully or abuser. Once they use politics, religion, economics as a justification for violence, they become terrorists. I’m not talking simple hate crimes (as if there are any). I’m speaking of acts of violence designed to rebel against a system- real or invented. That’s terrorism, often the last step of abusive people.

Look at any of the groups that have been responsible for violence of an extremist type: white supremicists who believe their country is being ruined and their kind wiped out, incel groups that believe women are impressing them, extreme Christianity that believes the world is turning against god, and on and on. All these extremist groups have become terrorists through acts of mass violence or theft done in an effort to create change . They feel they are oppressed by some conspiracy against them.

But let’s look at the mass shooters who weren’t part of formed group cultures. They too communicate beliefs that place them as having a right to do as they did, not as a reaction to their behavior, but as a prelude to it. They wouldn’t have done what they did without the belief in place beforehand, that they were justified.

Then look at possessive abusers, who are so paranoid of betrayal that they create massive conspiracies by their lovers as excuses for their behavior.

What I am saying is that there is massive overlap and correlation between the types of behaviors we see in those who adamantly believe in conspiracies, to those who become abusers. Now as I said, that is not to say that every person who believes the government knows about aliens is abusive. I am saying that when a person is an abuser or violent individual, their mind goes through the exact same thought process to forgive them their faults and make them blameless, the knower of secrets, the vigilante, the great mover within the cause, the rightful center of existence. And the trouble is that the more this cycle goes on, the worse it will get. Why?

Well think about it: this thought loop begins with their own feeling of lack. They have failed, or something bad has happened, or their partner is doing better than them in something, or so on. They feel this must have a large importance. They seek it out. They look until they can find who is to blame. Then they act on it, because they are the person to fix this injustice. Only beating their spouse or child is horrible, causes pain, is not accepted by society, ruins their relationships. They know this. They have failed. The cycle recommences. And each time, the incremental steps toward greater violence continue.

Now this is not all abuse. I’m saying that if you speak to an abusive person who has not accepted their responsibility, this is the loop their reasoning will usually travel. And it’s very very similar to the mental loop a conspiracy theorist makes.

I’m not the first to notice this. Not even close. There’s much behavioral research on this topic. There’s a deep intersection between abuse/conspiracy/cultism/and even extreme religious devotion to specific sects that also embrace violence.

The mind has to make sense of bad things, and so it creates more of them. Strange. Fascinating. Dangerous in the extreme. Human ego will kill everything when it’s tied inextricably to the processor you have between your ears, but indeed, it wouldn’t exist without that either.

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kelvintimeline · 4 years ago

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Hey, I get where you’re coming from with some of the issues with episode one of FATWS, but honestly, I think you’re looking way too into it. As far as Unique and Yuri, I think they just cast some random person and it had nothing to do with him being a black man. As far as Bucky killing an Asian as the Winter Soldier, I don’t think that’s racially motivated as well. I think that fans take little details and run with them when it’s honestly nothing. As far as it being pro military and anti leftist... you’re kidding right? I didn’t see that anywhere in the episode. Also, it’s the follow up to CAPTAIN AMERICA. The military is going to be involved. Especially since both men are vets...

1. Literally no one is saying his murder of an Asian Man was racially motivated. Just that using an Asian man’s death as a vehicle to explore Bucky’s mental health and character arc is irresponsible and ends up contributing to racist tropes where people of color live and die for white character development

2. Flag Smashers represent leftist ideals. The fact that the “terrorists” and extremists chosen as the potential villain for this season are anti-borders is extremely tone deaf considering the modern climate in which ACTUAL terrorism is being fueled by right wing white supremacists

3. You can explore the military and what it’s like to be a vet without glorifying the military. You can explore disillusionment and realizing what you did in service was morally wrong, explore the trauma of realizing you killed for the wrong reasons, and condemn the military. You can humanize the victims of America’s own terrorism. You could contrast Steve and Bucky fighting to end the fucking holocaust with recent American “involvement” in other countries being solely based on selfish motives at the expense of innocent lives and how Sam never actually wanted that. You can show the military preying on the poor and vulnerable. You can show how nationalism is a form of brainwashing and what it’s like to disengage from that.

Instead we got “Heres the US government sneaking around another country’s borders for military reasons, we promise we have the best intentions and it’s worth it! We swear our military is the good guy and even when we break the rules, we’re in the right. Look! Your hero agrees with what we’re doing. We’re just a scrappy team of underdogs, not the largest, most well funded terrorist organization in the world.”

#falcon and the winter soldier #fatws #fatws spoilers

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87dvhnk · 3 months ago

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Look how this whore leaves out the worse accusation, jumping around like a child on a chalk outline of little squares!

"-google it.

I’ve made several posts about this as well. Literally made one yesterday about this week’s casualties."

"Oh, no, I've been found out!"

"- * I * didn’t kill anyone . I do not represent my government. I am a human being."

You, being a citizen of Israel and presumably an adult, are requisitely conscripted into the Israeli army. Israelis, more than Palestinians, can more rationally be claimed to be all combatants, considering their military training. You also support and vote for the parties in charge. You are, in fact, personally responsible.

"-Most of the Palestinian casualties are literal terrorists and their enablers/ close environment. Obviously I don’t support the death of civilians."

Pure psychosis. The overwhelming majority of casualties have been women and children. By "literal terrorists and their enablers/ close environment," you mean random men and their families as well as most of their apartment complex when they are targeted by your AI software which your army refers to as "Where's Daddy"? Or journalists exposing your genocide, whom you consciously target. Or doctors treating the children your soldiers consciously shoot in the head. Or medical teams on their way to save a little girl trapped in a car bombarded by an Israeli tank that has just murdered all her family and will murder her as well as all the medics? Or doctors who have just given birth who committed the sin of broadcasting your genocide on a popular Instagram.

"-besides the several precise attacks of terrorists’ facilities, deaths in Syria have nothing to with Israel . They have their own bloody civil war nobody cares about."

Then why can't you stay the fuck out of their country? Why do you send your planes over to slaughter Syrians, to attack the armies and slaughtering generals fighting AGAINST Islamic extremists? Seems like you do in fact care. For fucks sake, some of the only "Israelis citizens" killed by missiles were actually Syrian refugees in Israeli-captured territory aka Lebanon.

"Stop blaming Jews for everything happening in the Middle East."

Not everything, just an overwhelming majority of it. The rest would be the US, whose teet if you couldn't suck it you would have long since been destroyed by your neighbors had you even been able to set up (not likely), of course.

I don't think people realize the number of rockets that have been fired at Israeli civilians daily for the past year: over 23,000!

These rockets were fired from over 5 countries, sometimes simultaneously. Over 150 rockers were fired today alone, and it's only 3PM here. People die almost every day from these rockets, let alone the daily terror attacks. Western & Arabic media outlets simply don't cover most of this.

#reblog #they cry out in pain as they strike you

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awed-frog · 4 years ago

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Hey, I saw your post about unschooling and have a question. I'm training to be a teacher and enjoy it an awful lot. I have a great deal of respect for the profession and think it's an important job but have seen a number of Americans share horror stories about school- how they wake up in cold sweat in the middle of the summer holidays 17 years after leaving school thinking they'd forgotten to do their homework, talking about how school has no merits but to prepare children for a life of /1

work under capitalism and that fear is the underlying mechanism which makes the whole operation work and the school to prison pipeline. Now, I don't dispute that there are things we could do differently. (I also have no affiliation to the US and think of it mostly as a failed state but that's a separate issue.) But? am I insane to think that free and compulsory schooling is a good thing? Cause it's the only way to get mass literacy and therefore... access to art, critical thinking, history....

Hi, first of all kudos for training as a teacher! What a great job, congrats!

As for your question, yeah - it’s a complicated issue, and the one system I know well is my own, so I can only offer a half-assed opinion here, but if you’re insane, then so am I, because compulsory education for a number of years (ideally up to sixteen)? Yeah, that’s definitely the way forward.

Now, obviously there are some parents out there who want to (or need to) homeschool and do a great job, but I believe that’s a very small minority, and that homeschooling should still be monitored in some way to check that kids are okay and are actually learning something.

Beyond the obvious, which is access to basic literacy, I believe there are two big reasons why good, free and compulsory education is absolutely fundamental:

It shows kids their family is not the entire world and the way they do things at home is not universal. For lucky kids, this ‘simply’ means learning more about others, discovering other point of views, and learning to relate to different people; but for unlucky kids, it’s 100% necessary to get them in contact with the outside world so they can see what their parents do is not normal and hopefully teachers can also realize those kids need help. The idea a random adult (because if you have biological children, you’re literally that: a random adult, nobody ever checked to see if you’re fit to raise kids, and in some countries nobody asks if you need help either) can keep a child at home for eighteen years or more, strictly control their access to the outside world, and tell them whatever about anything...that’s terrifying, tbh, and 99% of the time people who actively want to do this do not have their child’s wellbeing in mind.

Another thing is that even in superficially non-abusive situations, the decision not to follow a normal curriculum can have devastating consequences. As flawed as it can be, school is meant to give you an idea of all the things you can possibly learn and help you understand what it is you’re good at and interested in. But as an unsupervised parent/teacher, or - even worse - an unsupervised faith-based school, you get to decide from the start what matters and what doesn’t, what a kid should be learning and what should be ignored. In the long run, what this means is that you’re making it more difficult for your child to leave you - and I mean, this is difficult for any parent but something every child must at some point do. So a homeschooled kid, or someone who grew up in a strict religious or ideological web, ends up being 100% dependent on his family or community for a job. If you’re taught no literature, no math, no basic science (and if you’re told universities are sinful, or government propaganda, or not for the likes of you) - how the hell are you going to survive in the world without your family? So this is a subtler form of abuse, but abuse nonetheless. And public school, for all its faults, gives a fighting chance to every kid to have the life he actually wants, and not the one his parents chose for him.

So, yeah, I would change a lot about schools and as a hormonal new mom I’m daydreaming about homeschooling my kid in a darling little home-made classroom full of kittens and terraria (and hopefully move to the country and raise goats and forget about society entirely, because look at this mess), but I still believe compulsory education protects children and helps children to develop their full potential. This is why it’s so infuriating to see American Manichaeism at work on this issue - how the reaction to a bad system is homeschooling, unschooling, religious schools, and not teaching kids at all (I know I mention this, like, once a week, but I’m still shocked by this new idea Black kids shouldn’t learn math because math is now violence or something). Bad systems need fixing, but the very opposite of a bad system is not necessarily a good system. And what’s dangerous rn is that social media are connecting all sort of extremists to one another, so a common response to those unschooling problems I keep seeing are more insane parents chirping ‘Oh, don’t worry, my son is 14 and doesn’t know the days of the week! Just plays COD 24/7, but it’s fine! He will learn the alphabet when he’s ready!’ and that’s terrifying, it’s honestly so easy to fall into a hole these days and just keep falling, I was talking about this the other day with my partner and how I truly miss the days we had facts, you know?, real facts you could base an opinion on and have an argument about, whereas now 90% of the heated discussions I have with people is just us throwing links at each other and if you want to believe kids are better off living upside down inside a giant teacup, I’m sure you can find an ‘expert’ who’ll support that view and statistics you can use and entire communities offering tips on how to build giant teacups and ‘My toddler loves his teacup! Here is how to customize it so it won’t look girly!’ and my God.

(Man I hope we’ll all be alright, what a dystopic timeline this is turning out to be.)

Anyway never mind all this noise, you’re doing the Lord’s work doing something you’re passionate about and helps people to boot - my only advice would be, remember to listen to kids who have trouble with school because very often teachers are people who loved school, so it’s important to understand what ‘bad students’ go through and take the time to help them as much as possible. But really, that’s it. Getting rid of formal education helps no one but billionaires and profiteers and bad, bad people.

#ask #school #education #the us is one weird country #i mean there would be a point 3 #about nation building #but americans aren't ready for that #so we'll just need to keep it a secret

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loominggaia · 3 years ago

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How is religious freedom in each of the great kingdoms?

Good question!

Folkvar: You're free to practice any religion you want, but your religious doctrines never trump Folkvaran law. No exceptions will be made for you in the name of your faith.

Matuzu: Same as Folkvar, except your religious doctrines might actually trump Matuzan law depending on what hold you're in. In other words, sometimes you can break national law in the name of religion and the local govt will protect you from consequences.

Lamai: Lamai Nation is a theocracy that officially endorses Serpentism, although some other religions are allowed to operate here as well (only a handful though). The thing is, Serpentism is largely an ethnicity-based religion that's practiced almost exclusively by gorgons. But Lamai Nation itself isn't populated only by gorgons, there are many other species there and almost none of them are Serpentists. Most other species practice Solarism--or worship of the sun. There's also Vermism, the worship of worms and fungus. These three religions are the only ones endorsed by the Lamaish government, meaning their doctrines can override the law and their churches receive tax breaks. Everything else is considered unlawful heathenry.

Yerim-Mor: There was once a time when Yerim-Mor had "religious freedom", but that has since devolved into "religious anarchy". The kingdom is overrun with extremist cults that cause chaos and destruction in the name of religion. Granted, most of these cults are related to Mankind's Disgrace in some way, but despite their similar roots, there's still tons of infighting between them.

Zareen Empire: The government claims no religious affiliation. You're free to practice whatever you want, as long as you obey Zareenite law. If your religion is big enough and brings in enough dosh, you might get some tax breaks and other govt benefits. Otherwise whatever, you do you. Just keep the capitalism train rolling.

Aquarian Alliance: No official religious affiliation, but due to the size and diversity of this "kingdom", there are tons of different religions being practiced here and tons of civil wars due to their differences.

Evangeline: Legally, you're not required to be a Lindist. But socially, life is going to be difficult for you if you're not. For the record, humans aren't the only ones to practice Lindism in this kingdom. Most other commoners--and even fae and gaian slaves--actively practice it too. Lindism is the only religion allowed to officially operate in this kingdom, meaning it's the only one that gets tax breaks and special rights.

Mogdir: Claims no official religious affiliation, but no one can deny that the govt favors Arcanism--the worship of magic. It's the most popular religion in this land and its churches are given the most benefits, but there are also a huge number of Sylvanists here too. Thing is, Sylvanism isn't really an "organized" religion, so it has no official church. They just have small, separated communities at most.

Etios: Most of the population consider themselves Sylvanists, with some random, obscure little tribal faiths peppered in between. The Etiosi government doesn't care what you practice, just obey the law. You're not getting tax breaks or special rights either way.

Seelie: The Seelie Court officially endorses a variant of Arcanism called "Bright Arcanism". It's just a branch of the original with some tweaked doctrines, which make it more politically convenient. If you practice Bright Arcanism, you may be given special rights and exceptions based on your religion. Otherwise, go eff yourself.

Unseelie: A godless government with largely godless people. Those that do practice religion tend to lean into a weird branch of Vermism called "Necrom", which has a specific focus on the decay of all living things.

Damijana: All religious worship is outlawed here unless you’re involved with the Communion of The One. This religion is endorsed by the government, everything else is straight up illegal.

#ask #askreligion

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old-memoria · 3 years ago

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Hey, I just wanted to tell you I am so sorry for your situation right now! as a Belgian-Latvian living in Belgium, I want to say that it must be the case that there are people living across europe who are prejudiced against Russians, but honestly, I never met a Russian-hater of any kind, I actually think there are quite a lot of people who quite like Russia.. of course this conflict, especially if it escalates a lot further, will make public opinion worse, but in Belgian media there are a lot of reports as well on how Russians are being prohibited from protesting and those who do are getting arrested, there were also reports from independent Russian newspapers etc., and a few months ago Navalny e.g. had a lot of support all across the West, there are many reports on random people being declared enemies of the state, So I hope there is a public opinion of the average Russian not being some dangerous person, but rather a victim of their government. Of course not everything the Western media reports on is true or nuanced enough or keeps in mind the entire history of a certain debate, but I think a lot of people really are on the side of the Russian people and know that the elections are rigged too and protest is smothered... Wishing you all the best and I hope people will be able to think critically. Sorry too if this message sounds a bit stupid in some way..

Hey! Thank you for your support 💗

I don’t think there is any agressive hate towards the ordinary Russian ppl either. There might be some extremist groups, but it’s a tiny minority + unfortunately they exist in any nation. The common perception of Russian people will get worse soon ig and it really saddens me. It comes from ignorance and brainwashing, but take my word we are not bloodthirsty drunk degenerates 😂 our government? That’s another story...

It’s true. Yesterday there were protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but as you could have guessed they were recognized as ‘illegal’ and more that 600 (or 1000 according to some) people were detained by the police. Most likely, they’ll throw them behind the bars. It’s just tragic. The most tragic thing about it is that no one was really surprised. Also, I think the protestors were quite cautious with their signs and statement. Most of them carried anti-war and pro-peace paintings/ signs/ pictures... it wasn’t like ‘Putin go away’ or smth. Those people were marching for peace, but obviously the government doesn’t give a fuck neither about it’s citizens, nor the Ukrainian civilians they swore to protect (the hypocrisy, yeah).

#thank you for your message 💖#sending you love and flower power

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tisfan · 5 years ago

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Copied from Facebook; verified by a friend

From Joe Morice, daughters in 8th & 10th grade in Fairfax County Public Schools' Centreville Pyramid:

To our fellow FCPS families—this is it gang: 5 days until the 2 days in school vs. 100% virtual decision. Let’s talk it out, in my traditional mammoth TL/DR form.

Like all of you, I’ve seen my feed become a flood of anxiety and faux expertise. You’ll get no presumption of expertise here. This is how I am looking at and considering this issue and the positions people have taken in my feed and in the hundred or so FCPS discussion groups that have popped up. The lead comments in quotes are taken directly from my feed and those boards. Sometimes I try to rationalize them. Sometimes I’m just punching back at the void.

Full disclosure, we initially chose the 2 days option and are now having serious reservations. As I consider the positions and arguments I see in my feed, these are where my mind goes. Of note, when I started working on this piece at 12:19 PM today the COVID death tally in the United States stood at 133,420.

“My kids want to go back to school.”

I challenge that position. I believe what the kids desire is more abstract. I believe what they want is a return to normalcy. They want their idea of yesterday. And yesterday isn’t on the menu.

“I want my child in school so they can socialize.”

This was the principle reason for our 2 days decision. As I think more on it though, what do we think ‘social’ will look like? There aren’t going to be any lunch table groups, any lockers, any recess games, any study halls, any sitting next to friends, any talking to people in the hallway, any dances. All of that is off the menu. So, when we say that we want the kids to benefit from the social experience, what are we deluding ourselves into thinking in-building socialization will actually look like in the Fall?

“My kid is going to be left behind.”

Left behind who? The entire country is grappling with the same issue, leaving all children in the same quagmire. Who exactly would they be behind? I believe the rhetorical answer to that is “They’ll be behind where they should be,” to which I’ll counter that “where they should be” is a fictional goal post that we as a society have taken as gospel because it maps to standardized tests which are used to grade schools and counties as they chase funding.

“Classrooms are safe.”

At the current distancing guidelines from FCPS middle and high schools would have no more than 12 people (teachers + students) in a classroom (I acknowledge this number may change as FCPS considers the Commonwealth’s 3 ft with a mask vs. 6 ft position, noting that FCPS is all mask regardless of the distance). For the purpose of this discussion we’ll say classes run 45 minutes.

I posed the following question to 40 people today, representing professional and management roles in corporations, government agencies, and military commands: “Would your company or command have a 12 person, 45 minute meeting in a conference room?”

100% of them said no, they would not. These are some of their answers:

“No. Until further notice we are on Zoom.”

“(Our company) doesn’t allow us in (company space).”

“Oh hell no.”

“No absolutely not.”

“Is there a percentage lower than zero?”

“Something of that size would be virtual.”

We do not even consider putting our office employees into the same situation we are contemplating putting our children into. And let’s drive this point home: there are instances here when commanding officers will not put soldiers, ACTUAL SOLDIERS, into the kind of indoor environment we’re contemplating for our children. For me this is as close to a ‘kill shot’ argument as there is in this entire debate. How do we work from home because buildings with recycled air are not safe, because we don’t trust other people to not spread the virus, and then with the same breath send our children into buildings?

“Children only die .0016 of the time.”

First, conceding we’re an increasingly morally bankrupt society, but when did we start talking about children’s lives, or anyone’s lives, like this? This how the villain in movies talks about mortality, usually 10-15 minutes before the good guy kills him.

If you’re in this camp, and I acknowledge that many, many people are, I’m asking you to consider that number from a slightly different angle.

FCPS has 189,000 children. .0016 of that is 302. 302 dead children are the Calvary Hill you’re erecting your argument on. So, let’s agree to do this: stop presenting this as a data point. If this is your argument, I challenge you to have courage equal to your conviction. Go ahead, plant a flag on the internet and say, “Only 302 children will die.” No one will. That’s the kind action on social media that gets you fired from your job. And I trust our social media enclave isn’t so careless and irresponsible with life that it would even, for even a millisecond, enter any of your minds to make such an argument.

Considered another way: You’re presented with a bag with 189,000 $1 bills. You’re told that in the bag are 302 random bills, they look and feel just like all the others, but each one of those bills will kill you. Do you take the money out of the bag?

Same argument, applied to the 12,487 teachers in FCPS (per Wikipedia), using the ‘children’s multiplier’ of .0016 (all of us understanding the adult mortality rate is higher). That’s 20 teachers. That’s the number you’re talking about. It’s very easy to sit behind a keyboard and diminish and dismiss the risk you’re advocating other people assume. Take a breath and think about that.

If you want to advocate for 2 days a week, look, I’m looking for someone to convince me. But please, for the love of God, drop things like this from your argument. Because the people I know who’ve said things like this, I know they’re better people than this. They’re good people under incredible stress who let things slip out as their frustration boils over. So, please do the right thing and move on from this, because one potential outcome is that one day, you’re going to have to stand in front of St. Peter and answer for this, and that’s not going to be conversation you enjoy.

“Hardly any kids get COVID.”

(Deep sigh) Yes, that is statistically true as of this writing. But it is a cherry-picked argument because you’re leaving out an important piece.

One can reasonably argue that, due to the school closures in March, children have had the least EXPOSURE to COVID. In other words, closing schools was the one pandemic mitigation action we took that worked. There can be no discussion of the rate of diagnosis within children without also acknowledging they were among our fastest and most quarantined people. Put another way, you cannot cite the effect without acknowledging the cause.

“The flu kills more people every year.”

(Deep sigh). First of all, no, it doesn’t. Per the CDC, United States flu deaths average 20,000 annually. COVID, when I start writing here today, has killed 133,420 in six months.

And when you mention the flu, do you mean the disease that, if you’re suspected of having it, everyone, literally everyone in the country tells you stay the f- away from other people? You mean the one where parents are pretty sure their kids have it but send them to school anyway because they have a meeting that day, the one that every year causes massive f-ing outbreaks in schools because schools are petri dishes and it causes kids to miss weeks of school and leaves them out of sports and band for a month? That one? Because you’re right - the flu kills people every year. It does, but you’re ignoring the why. It’s because there are people who are a--holes who don’t care about infecting other people. In that regard it’s a perfect comparison to COVID.

“Almost everyone recovers.”

You’re confusing “release from the hospital” and “no longer infected” with “recovered.” I’m fortunate to only know two people who have had COVID. One my age and one my dad’s age. The one my age described it as “absolute hell” and although no longer infected cannot breathe right. The one my dad’s age was in the hospital for 13 weeks, had to have a trach ring put in because she could no longer be on a ventilator, and upon finally getting home and being faced with incalculable time in rehab told my mother, “I wish I had died.”

While I’m making every effort to reach objectivity, on this particular point, you don’t know what the f- you’re talking about.

“If people get sick, they get sick.”

First, you mistyped. What you intended to say was “If OTHER people get sick, they get sick.” And shame on you.

“I’m not going to live my life in fear.”

You already live your life in fear. For your health, your family’s health, your job, your retirement, terrorists, extremists, one political party or the other being in power, the new neighbors, an unexpected home repair, the next sunrise. What you meant to say was, “I’m not prepared to add ANOTHER fear,” and I’ve got news for you: that ship has sailed. It’s too late. There are two kinds of people, and only two: those that admit they’re afraid, and those that are lying to themselves about it.

As to the fear argument, fear is the reason you wait up when your kids stay out late, it’s the reason you tell your kids not to dive in the shallow water, to look both ways before crossing the road. Fear is the respect for the wide world that we teach our children. Except in this instance, for reasons no one has been able to explain to me yet.

“FCPS leadership sucks.”

I will summarize my view of the School Board thusly: if the 12 of you aren’t getting into a room together because it represents a risk, don’t tell me it’s OK for our kids. I understand your arguments, that we need the 2 days option for parents who can’t work from home, kids who don’t have internet or computer access, kids who needs meals from the school system, kids who need extra support to learn, and most tragically for kids who are at greater risk of abuse by being home. All very serious, all very real issues, all heartbreaking. No argument.

But you must first lead by example. Because you’re failing when it comes to optics. All your meetings are online. What our children see is all of you on a Zoom telling them it’s OK for them to be exactly where you aren’t. I understand you’re not PR people, but you really should think about hiring some.

“I talked it over with my kids.”

Let’s put aside for a moment the concept of adults effectively deferring this decision to children, the same children who will continue to stuff things into a full trash can rather than change it out. Yes, those hygienic children.

Listen, my 15 year old daughter wants a sport car, which she’s not getting next year because it would be dangerous to her and to others. Those kinds of decisions are our job. We step in and decide as parents, we don’t let them expose themselves to risks because their still developing and screen addicted brains narrow their understanding of cause and effect.

We as parents and adults serve to make difficult decisions. Sometimes those are in the form of lessons, where we try to steer kids towards the right answer and are willing to let them make a mistake in the hopes of teaching better decision making the next time around. This is not one of those moments. The stakes are too high for that. This is a “the adults are talking” moment. Kids are not mature enough for this moment. That is not an attack on your child. It is a broad statement about all children. It is true of your children and it was true when we were children. We need to be doing that thinking here, and “Johnny wants to see Bobby at school” cannot be the prevailing element in the equation.

“The teachers need to do their job.”

How is it that the same society which abruptly shifted to virtual students only three months ago, and offered glowing endorsements of teachers stating, “we finally understand how difficult your job is,” has now shifted to “screw you, do your job.” There are myriad problems with that position but for the purposes of this piece let’s simply go with, “You’re not looking for a teacher, you’re looking for the babysitter you feel your property tax payment entitles you to.”

“Teachers have a greater chance to being killed by a car than they do of dying from COVID.”

(Eye roll) Per the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the U.S. see approximately 36,000 auto fatalities a year. Again, there have been 133,420 COVID deaths in the United States through 12:09 July 10, 2020. So no, they do not have a great chance of being killed in a car accident.

And, if you want to take the actual environment into consideration, the odds of a teacher being killed in a car accident in their classroom, you know, the environment we’re actually talking about, that’s right around 0%.

“If the grocery store workers can be onsite what are the teachers afraid of?”

(Deep breath) A grocery store worker, who absolutely risks exposure, has either six feet of space or a plexiglass shield between them and individual adult customers who can grasp their own mortality whose transactions can be completed in moments, in a 40,000 SF space.

A teacher is with 11 ‘customers’ who have not an inkling what mortality is, for 45 minutes, in a 675 SF space, six times a day.

Just stop.

“Teachers are choosing remote because they don’t want to work.”

(Deep breaths) Many teachers are opting to be remote. That is not a vacation. They’re requesting to do their job at a safer site. Just like many, many people who work in buildings with recycled air have done. And likely the building you’re not going into has a newer and better serviced air system than our schools.

Of greater interest to me is the number of teachers choosing the 100% virtual option for their children. The people who spend the most time in the buildings are the same ones electing not to send their children into those buildings. That’s something I pay attention to.

“I wasn’t prepared to be a parent 24/7” and “I just need a break.”

I truly, deeply respect that honesty. Truth be told, both arguments have crossed my mind. Pre COVID, I routinely worked from home 1 – 2 days a week. The solace was nice. When I was in the office, I had an actual office, a room with a door I could close, where I could focus. During the quarantine that hasn’t always been the case. I’ve been frustrated, I’ve been short, I’ve gone to just take a drive and get the hell away for a moment and been disgusted when one of the kids sees me and asks me to come for a ride, robbing me of those minutes of silence. You want to hear silence. I get it. I really, really do.

Here’s another version of that, admittedly extreme. What if one of our kids becomes one of the 302? What’s that silence going to sound like? What if you have one of those matted frames where you add the kid’s school picture every year? What if you don’t get to finish the pictures?

“What does your gut tell you to do?”

Shawn and I have talked ad infinitum about all of these and other points. Two days ago, at mid-discussion I said, “Stop, right now, gut answer, what is it,” and we both said, “virtual.”

A lot of the arguments I hear people making for the 2 days sound like we’re trying to talk ourselves into ignoring our instincts, they are almost exclusively, “We’re doing 2 days, but…”. There’s a fantastic book by Gavin de Becker, The Gift of Fear, which I’ll minimize for you thusly: your gut instinct is a hardwired part of your brain and you should listen to it. In the introduction he talks about elevators, and how, of all living things, humans are the only ones that would voluntarily get into a soundproof steel box with a potential predator just so they could skip a flight of stairs.

I keep thinking that the 2 days option is the soundproof steel box. I welcome, damn, beg, anyone to convince me otherwise.

At the time I started writing at 12:09 PM, 133,420 Americans had died from COVID. Upon completing this draft at 7:04 PM, that number rose to 133,940.

520 Americans died of COVID while I was working on this. In seven hours.

The length of a school day.

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