I'll say it over and over: the far right has gotten its shit together and is rising. Corporate neoliberalism is not offering solutions. An organized, populist left is the only solution that is going to push back the tide of fascism, and Biden and the DNC are not equipped to foster this. We have to do it ourselves.
I see this stuff all the time, and I still don't quite know what to say.
I grew up on the same taking points as you. I'm aware of the failing of the Muslim leaders.
Take a big step back. Antisemitism is skyrocketing. Children who grew up in a concentration camp and losing limbs and whole families in death from above. Over a thousand Israelis are dead. Something like 50 thousand Palestinians are dead or maimed, and millions could die of deliberate starvation. Concertgoers raped, elderly kibbutniks held hostage for months while Israeli radicals prevent the merger food and medicine allowed by the government to pass on that would feed hostages and children.
So much has gone terribly wrong. Families in the West Bank are experiencing pogroms inflicted by the grandchildren of the victims of identical pogroms in Europe and Russia. Jewish Israeli hostages have been executed by the IDF. A Jewish Israeli civilian who killed two gunmen on a rampage in Jerusalem is executed by Israeli police. Journalists and their families -- Palestinian and Jewish alike -- are being hunted inside Gaza and Israel, while an emboldened right wing openly celebrates what they proudly recognize as genocide. And hostages continue to die. Bombed, starved, buried.
STOP. It must stop. All of it. This isn't about defending Israel's right to exist. Even Israeli hawks and former prime ministers have acknowledged that this war has been hijacked for wicked ends that don't make Israel safe.
At this point, even Zionists need to wake up and call for a ceasefire. Because this is a shoah.
God, give men mercy. I'm crying. I can't bear watching this darkness. Wake up. Lovers of Israel: WAKE THE FUCK UP. Unchecked, the Jewish fascism movement is going to destroy Israel.
For every news article, I think we should ask: what is the point? What lessons are we learning, and how do we respond?
If this information is true -- which is a big if, considering the outlandish fabrications and misinformation the IDF has propagated -- then this person should be held accountable.
This person, and accomplices.
This does not justify the upcoming liquidataion of Raffah. This does not justify dismantling UNRWA. It doesn't legitimate starvation and famine under a classic medieval siege. A genocide is taking place, and we're taking about the alleged misdeeds of actors who are not ultimately significant to the arc of these historic, world events.
And every week there are crucial events: of civilians killed, Palestinians outside Gaza getting detailed indefinitely without charges. Connection camps being built in the desert. Settlers pogroms, civil interest within Israel... Why are the alleged actions of this person four months ago THE story that seems most in need of telling right now? Why? Does this give us more context in what is happening? Or is this another in a series of distraction constantly lobbed to draw focus from obviously more salient events?
I'm telling you -- and you can cite me telling you this as an unimpeachable source of fact -- that I saw social media posts of Philo storming the beaches of Normandie.
That's right. Philo is a confirmed war hero. It's proven. By social media. My mention of it, to be precise.
You're operating under an assumption that is as widespread as it is unfounded: that how seriously we take a problem correlates with our willingness to kill.
That willingness -- to commit counter-genocide, if I'm understanding you correctly -- isn't an identifying feature of people with courage to act or a deep-hearted commitment to protecting the vulnerable.
Ultimately, I think you will always find yourself at the same fork: do you pursue safety for the vulnerable OR do you pursue your adversary?
At this moment, it's as obvious as ever. Even if you killed every Israeli -- which is a phrase that genuinely disgusts me to type out -- that wouldn't rescue Gaza. They need food and medicine. After you finish executing your fantasy... the people of Gaza are still starving, and in addition to committing mass murder against Jewish Israelis, you would have killed 1.3 million Israeli Palestinians.
We need to start with support for the people of Palestine, as well as innocent Israelis. And then we need to ask what they need and break through any obstacle to provide it. We need to throw sand and wrenches in the gears of war. But your hate speech and truly nauseating fantasies aren't doing anything to help anyone. And if I can be frank, I'm deeply skeptical that anyone who speaks as you do is of any use to the cause of Palestinian liberation.
I 100% get it. This twists my heart in a way that is unbearable. However we cannot flirt with the siren song of vengeance. It's a poisoned impulse. That whisper calling to dehumanize those who dehumanize is a devil that plays all sides, and when we listen to it it takes us away from the mission to protect life.
We need to save the children of Palestine. We need to bring PEACE and SECURITY to Gaza. Wishing for genocide against Israel is not only unproductive, it's deeply counterproductive and wrong. Channel your anger towards love of the vulnerable, NOT hate.
It may be too late to change what history says about the first four months of these atrocities, but tomorrow remains unwritten.
It's not too late to save millions of people. It's not too late to turn this into a moment when demands for peace finally won out, and a long overdue healing began.
No, I'm dead serious. This reputation is long dead, but back in the last century, before Jack Welch came along in the Reagan years and skull-f*cked the corporate world, it was a totally different time.
In the post-war years, IBM was famous as a company where the workers were treated like actual family. That's not necessarily a great thing, it's kind of creepy and patriarchal. But if you got a job there and did your work, after a decade or two, they'd keep you around even if your job became expendable or they knew they could hire a younger person to do it for less. It was just part of the corporate culture. Once you'd put in your time, you became a plant grandpa, and who fires grandpa when he's just trying to finish building up his pension?A heartless monster, that's who.
Those days are long gone, though. But from what I've heard and read, that used to actually be how this worked.
I wish the patient, scientists, and doctors success. I'm very concerned about the safety record for Neuralink, but I desperately hope they turned things around and that this patient responds well.
Yeah. My first thought was 'Surely this means the US will stop arming the IDF. After all, they defunded the UN Palestinian refugee agency that supplies all food in the territory last week over allegations that five people among their thousands of staff engaged in terrorism. No choice but to cut off the IDF too, zero tolerance policy and all.' /s
I think everyone's still trying to get some handle on this, but it seems like it's mostly an issue with scale.
People have been making and sharing photo manips of celebrities naked for about 20 years. This is just noteworthy because there's so much of it, so quickly produced, so publicly present.
I think we should all have the right to create images -- including sexual ones -- freely. And I think the subjects of those images (especially Emma Watson and Natalie Portman, I don't think anyone has been photoshopped into porn as much as those two) deserve to live their lives without having to see it or thick about it.
I don't think it's necessary a problem that has an easy legal solution, but a good start might be just recognizing this social contact. If you want to fantasize about anyone -- whether it's a celebrity or someone you take classes with -- understand how gross it is for them to have two know about it, and keep it discrete.
Look, I'm going to suggest sidestepping the fact that an article about what Gazaans want cites IDF spokespeople and "Reports from Palestinian media" without actually citing any and ask a question I don't see enough.
What instructive lessons does the article provide? What should we do based on this?
If we assume the article is 100% true, we should be demanding a ceasefire and the establishment of a peace process. If this article is true, then the IDF campaign is a horrific humanitarian disaster that is punishing Gazaans and establishing a condition in which Hamas' power is unshakable within Gaza. There's no room for a political challenger, and there's no safe space to criticize Hamas. There's no possibility of revolution or political protest, because everyone is starving and there is no social or communication infrastructure.
I'm now going to address the elephant in the room: the article is useless as a piece of journalism, because it consists of an unreliable media outlet relying entirely on unreliable sources. I'm not saying it's wrong, just that it has no credibility or facts. From what I've read, Hamas was highly unpopular before the war, but has become far more popular as they've established themselves as the only group willing and able to challenge what looks to Palestinians like Netanyahu's attempt at genocide. You can read about this in the AP, which is an actual news source citing an actual poll:
But guess what? If Gazaans want to overthrow Hamas, we need a ceasefire. If the war has made Hamas more popular, then we need a ceasefire.
The war is a disaster. It is a failure in every measure except the intended ones: it's an exercise in vengence, an attempt for the humiliated generals to massage their bruised egos, and an ongoing attempt by Netanyahu to keep his only remaining supporters -- Jewish supremacists -- happy while he tries to stay out of jail.
In every other measure -- rescuing hostages, securing Israeli safety, defeating Hamas -- this is an unmitigated disaster that we need to stop.
yawn it’s “art” primarily made for people who take daily shits on art being for pussies or pansies or worthless
Look, I don't want to bicker, because you seem kind of sensitive about all this, but I just want to point out for anyone unaware, pro wresting is popular with a lot of queer and counterculture folks.
There's this misconception that it's for people with confederate flags on the back of pickup trucks. In reality, women consistently make up about 40% of the audience for pro wrestling. They only make up 25% of the audience for MMA.
Also, viewership is about 25% black. That's a huge over representation compared to national demographics. And it's popular from Mexico to Japan!
It's flamboyant musclemen and women hamming it up. If you think that's all for people who don't like art and theater, you're sorely mistaken.
I feel like this is an Onion article.
Why would anyone expect otherwise? I'm pretty sure the official cause of death was listed as "Disrespecting Wise Dear Leader".