faucondesang

[bloglikeanegyptian]

i've said this before but i suppose it bears repeating and clarification. it is arabs and palestinians who have suffered the most under islamist rule. we (middle easterners, revolutionaries, religious minorities, gender and sexual minorities) as people, understand what hamas represents better than israelis do, better than anyone does. we understand what the entire spectrum from political islam to outright jihadist extremism does. we understand dictatorship. we understand theocracy. we understand fascism.

the repression israel has created is so absolute, has destroyed civil, diplomatic, intellectual and peaceful avenues so absolutely, that it leaves no avenues for anyone to condemn hamas anymore. even the representative of hamas's ideological and political opponents, the PLO (which oversees the West Bank), is openly frustrated at the request to condemn hamas. and it's not because he sympathizes with them. he has absolutely no political, personal, ideological or economic reason to.

israel has bombed gaza in 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2021, each and every time with the declared intention of targeting hamas and instead murdering civilians en masse. everyone familiar with israel understands that 'hamas' is meaningless, that israel has no real interest in defeating them (and that defeating militant resistance to an occupation with military force is not possible), that they went so far as to fund them as their choice of preferred enemy. when palestinians hear 'hamas' they correctly understand that israel intends to kill everyone. it is, to use the lingua franca of this period, a dogwhistle. on october 7th, israelis were horrified to see this dogwhistle suddenly become an actual whistle, but nothing else changed except for the intensity and savagery of their attacks on gaza. instead, the more they say hamas, the more they murder civilians en masse, just as they always have. everyone in gaza has said "this is not new, just worse." they have always understood that they are the target. no amount of condemning hamas, being a good palestinian, a good civilian, or even a newborn will change that.

this includes all of hamas's ideological opponents and so-called victims as well. peace activists, intellectuals, palestinian christians, and queer palestinians alike are not condemning hamas right now. they can't because they are busy fighting for their lives and homes against the israeli occupation. if you understood the personal toll this takes on them, if you understood how deeply their trauma runs, you would understand just how evil the israeli narrative on hamas is for all palestinians.

if you want a plurality of palestinian opinion, get rid of the israeli apartheid state. if you want tolerance, get rid of the israeli apartheid state. if you want israelis to be safe in their homes from the threat of hamas militants, get rid of the israeli apartheid state.

the truth is, there is a base and deeply evil racism at the core of asking to condemn hamas, especially by those who would never condemn israel or the violence it requires to maintain itself. it presumes that they have the right to ask for a condemnation of child murder, without ever giving an apology for child murder or the promise to stop murdering children. ghassan kanafani once called this "a conversation between the sword and the neck."

it is absurdity in full display, a macabre delight in impunity disguised as moral superiority. more than treating every palestinian as a terrorist in interrogation, more than its dehumanization and islamophobia, it is at its core asking "do you agree our children are more important than yours?"

and lest you forget, Israel's current minister of national security has already said it directly. as he famously once told arab-israeli reporter mohammad magadli, “Sorry Mohammad, my right to life precedes yours, that is the reality.”

in many ways, that's far more honest than asking "do you condemn hamas?"

[kropotkindersurprise]

November 1, 2023 - Members of anarchist collective Rouvikonas put up a huge Palestinian flag right across the road from the Israeli embassy in Athens, Greece. [video]

[queeranarchism]

If safety in your ideal society is entirely based on care by networks of affinity, and does not provide care for people who are not liked by anybody, then your society is actually even worse than the situation we are in now.

Pissing off people close to you or over-exhausting your social network or isolating yourself is often an inherent part of many mental health problems, addictions, etc. By the time people need care the most, they have often lost all their networks of affinity, and with some bad luck, any of us could find ourselves in that situation.

There has to be unconditional care available for the more unlikable of us, or there isn't really a safety net for any of us.

[queeranarchism]

Too many people on this post going 'yeah mutual aid collectives are terrible'. Nah man, stop projecting your one shitty experience onto all of anarchism. Most mutual aid collectives are kind and forgiving and committed to transformative justice.

Sometimes the person who needs care pushes carers away, which is also a really common thing when you're struggling with your mental health. Sometimes the group that provides care just can't do it all, or they try their very best and burn out. Or sometimes things work out and the group succeeds in providing the care that is needed but it's so hard to do that they fail to take care of themselves.

Mutual aid networks fail sometimes, but state/institutional networks of care fail too, a LOT, and often they fail so much harder. When one door towards institutional care closes, often all the other doors close too, because you've been 'non cooperative' or some bullshit like that.

The point here isn't to shit on mutual aid. The point is to recognize that dependency on a single source of care doesn't work and creates a dangerous power relationship. The point is to recognize that tying care to close bonds of affinity has its downsides. The point is that we need more mutual aid, more overlapping ways of getting care, and recognition of how fucking rad it is to help complete strangers.

[saathiray]

Never gonna know them, but shoutout to the healthcare workers who are breaking the law to help their patients get life-saving care. I'll never see an article about you because knowing you would risk everything including jail time. Nurses who lie on medical records so their patients can get abortions. Doctors making up shit so their patients can have HRT.

Wherever you are, you are keeping your promise to help your patient.

[antifainternational]

[pupyjpeg]

Can't stress enough that if you think the USA is as bad as it is because not enough people got out to vote in 2016, you have so little idea how things work as to disqualify you from any serious political discussion. Go away.

[pupyjpeg]

2016 has become the defining mythology for liberals in regards to American collapse. It has nothing to do with worsening material conditions, reactionary trends that have been growing for decades, or the reliance of capitalism on ongoing crises. It's your fault. You didn't vote hard enough. You didn't scold hard enough. But if you keep voting, and scolding people for not voting, forever, maybe things will get better. That's the liberal explanation for the state of things. That's their north star. That's all they have.

[saywhat-politics]

NE State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan (R) complains filibusters of anti-trans bills made her miss her grandson's preschool graduation.

Sen. Megan Hunt (I): “You won't come off this bill that hurts my [trans] son. You hate him more than you love your own family. That's why you're here."

[sic-semper-hominibus]

btw that (I) by her name is bc she ditched the dems for not supporting her in this

[queeranarchism]

Another reminder that the Dems absolutely do not have trans people’s backs in the slightest. They’re not even pretending to care about us at this point.

[kawaiimunism]

While the "outside agitator" narrative the Atlanta government is trying to spin about the movement to Stop Cop City isn't true (Atlantans overwhelmingly oppose the project), it wouldn't matter if it was true. There are no outside agitators in defense of our Earth.

[thundergrace]

All fair points:

G.O.P. Bills Target Protesters (and Absolve Motorists Who Hit Them) (Published 2021)

As the nation reacts to the guilty verdict a jury handed to Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd, Republican-led states are introduc

[neshatriumphs]

And this is just recently. They literally always showed up at peaceful events Black people organized and met them with violence. The major difference was that in 2020, everybody who was never there before began to see it on their internet while they were stuck in the house.

So, they took the previous notion of "we weren't there, so we don't know what really happened" and copped out with the idea that violence doesn't help others stop being violent towards you...

TF. If they're being violent, they deserve violent reactions and any other reaction is simply only going to last until they react even more violently. So fuck it, we rage.

[guerrillatech]

[lierdumoa]

"If stuff was just handed to me I'd have no motivation to do anything! That's human nature!" No, babe, that's depression. Psychologically healthy people are still motivated to do things even when their survival isn't being actively threatened.

[dramaticowl]

[Image description: tweet by Roxi Horror @roxiqt on March 30, 2022 at 11:13 AM: “’Oh, so you think everyone should just be handed enough money to live?’ lol. lmao. yeah.”]

[ruinedrainbowpooka]

okay so like, we all know that housekeeping in a hotel is a Shit Job, right?

I worked with a woman who was independently wealthy. But she liked working housekeeping. So she did. And if the manager got bitchy with her, she’d just shrug and be like “Okay, I can quit.”

Like the manager treated her like a human being because she knew she had to because otherwise she’d lose one of her best workers.

Yes, everyone should be just handed the money to live.

[actualaster]

I worked with a lady who’s husband made more than enough to support them both.  She just did the retail to have something to do with herself part-time.

There’s a lot of people who’d happily do the same sort of thing.  Honestly?  A lot of the jobs we consider “shitty” jobs?  Are shitty because the employees are treated like garbage.

If employees weren’t being screwed over by people higher up the chain constantly or being forced to kiss the asses of customers currently shitting all over them, those jobs would by and large be a whole lot more bearable, and appealing to more people!!

[thoughtportal]

[commasameleon-deactivated202510]

Sorry as someone who teaches rhetoric this is a wonderful response to the Paradox of Tolerance. I cannot tell you how many times my students have had debates about this. This is the response. This does indeed fix it. I cannot wait to tell this to my classes now. Philosophically and rhetorically this completely resolved the Paradox of Tolerance and I am floored by its simplicity and angry I never saw it before.

[dykecostanza-deactivated2024112]

posting this after a train carrying toxic chemicals de-railed in a residential area thanks to deteriorating safety conditions you forcibly prevented railroad workers from striking over is just beyond words to me

[beekeep]

Saw this post floating around, don’t wanna target anyone or argue with Zionists, but it is my duty (especially as an actually indigenous Jew) to educate well-meaning gentiles who might see this and think they have no right to speak on the matter. I’ll go point by point.

1) “Is it so terrible for a Jew to be a Zionist?”

If we were living in any other era, where the genocidal crimes of Israel were not as widely known (though they were very well documented), you could perhaps ask this question in sincerity. Many Jews (such as myself) grow up in religious educational settings which either fail to mention the human rights violations of the state or claim they’re justified because “they want to kill us!” Past a certain point, though, one can’t continue to claim ignorance of what Zionism actually does. Short answer: yes, it is terrible for anyone to claim to be a Zionist, but this will be more evident as I continue to analyze these arguments.

2) “Zionism is the belief in the inherent right of the Jewish people to return to their homeland”

First of all, Palestine is not the “homeland” of the Jewish people any more than Siberia is the homeland of indigenous american tribes. Is there a historical connection? Yes, but though assimilation and migration Jews have found homes across the world. For me, my homeland is Mexico, because my family has lived there for generations, partly through migration but mostly through having cultivated the land for millennia. Even biblically speaking, Palestine does not “belong” to the Jewish people, it belongs to G-d. Furthermore, there is no shortage of Jewish scholarship and activism that asserts that wherever we live, that is our homeland. Frankly, I’m more interested in fighting to stay where I am than fighting to force people out of their homes to accommodate me.

3) “Zionism is the belief in the Jewish right not to be murdered”

By murdering others instead? Once again, there is no shortage of Jewish scholarship and activism in favor of Jewish self defense where we live. Jewish resistance fighters lived and died fighting the nazis in Europe under the third reich. If Zionism was actually interested in preventing Jewish death, it would fight antisemitism where it is. “Preventing murder” is not an excuse to commit genocide.

4) “there are so many definitions of Zionism”

Sorry but I just think of this tweet from @jewdas on Twitter when I read this: “There’s a actual existing Zionism which practices apartheid and denial of human rights. But there’s another Zionism inside my head which is all rainbows and kosher marshmallows, so who can say which is the real Zionism?” In other words, the actual, material consequences of Zionist beliefs are more important than what any individual thinks their Zionism is. Once again, we live in the Information Age, where anyone can easily learn about the damage that Zionism has done in Palestine and abroad. There is no excuse to continue using the label that doesn’t presuppose complete ignorance of Israeli violence.

5) “zionists just want to be safe from antisemitism in the diaspora”

See points 3 & 4.

6) “and this is different from evangelical zionists”

Materially speaking, not really. Once again, see point 4. Until you pull all US/european colonial support for Israel, this claim falls flat.

7) “zionists just want to live peacefully with other indigenous people in the area”

That’s not what indigeneity is, it doesn’t mean “from there,” it’s a specific relationship to the land and to its cultivation. (On a side note, even biblically and historically speaking, Jews are not “from” Palestine.) See point 2. Zionism has proven it is not a peaceful ideology. See point 4.

8) “people refuse to see the difference in types of Zionism because they hate the Jews”

No, it’s because there are no material differences. See point 4. Evangelical Zionism and Jewish Zionism actually share quite a bit in common. The “Jewish state” would not exist without evangelical Zionists. See point 6. And the original Jewish Zionist thinkers had a vested interest in tying the two together.

tl;dr, Zionism is a violent ideology in practice, and no amount of making excuses can hide the fact that it is genocidal and serves European/American interests. Additionally, just because one is not Jewish does not mean one does not have a duty and an obligation to eliminate Zionism wherever it crops up. Zionism has had disastrous consequences for Palestinians, and as western citizens, we benefit from their suffering. It must end now. May Palestine be freed in our lifetimes.

[ayin-me-yesh]

I want to add that Modern Jewish culture was forged where we are. The Babylonian Talmud would not exist without the diaspora. All of our minhagim, and even our languages would not exist without the diaspora.

For Ashkenazim, Yiddish is the mame-loshn. Sephardim have for centuries yearned for al-Andalus. Romaniote Jews have lived in Greece since Alexander the Great. Persian and Iraqi Jews have their origins in the Babylonian exile. Maghrebi Jews have been in North Africa since pre-Roman times. Yemenite Jews and Beta Israel have been in their homelands since the time of Solomon.

Zionism demands that we give up hundred, sometimes thousands of years, of history and connection and love for all corners of the world to displace and oppress the Palestinian people.

The fight for our right to exist in all of our homelands in which we’ve been oppressed and expelled, and to be able to stand in solidarity with Indigenous people in all other places where we may live, is intimately tied with the fight for the Palestinian peoples’ right to live free from oppression and with full autonomy in all of Palestine.

Palestine will be free, and we won’t even begin to be free ourselves until it is.

[metalheadsagainstfascism]

"Walkable city" is not "City where to have to walk everywhere."

"Walkable city" is.

Sidewalks big enough to fit you, your stroller, your wheelchair, your guide dog, or anything else you need when you're getting from one place to another.

Safe crosswalks frequent enough so you don't need to walk in traffic.

Bike lanes to keep bikes out of foot traffic and car traffic.

Accessible and affordable public transit.

Cities where the essentials are close enough you can travel on foot (or in wheelchair)

Cities where it's reasonable to be able to get from point a to point b without requiring you, yourself, to drive

People get so caught up in the "Walkable" part of the term and like to spout "Walkable cities are abelist because not everyone can walk".

Bitch. The modern city structure is abelist because not everyone can drive. And classist because not everyone can afford a car and it's pretty damn impossible to get a job if you don't have a car.

Walkable cities are cities where people can reasonably get from pointA to pointB without requiring a motor vehicle.

"But fae. Disabled people have issues using the paths in modern cities." Bitch abled people can barely use the paths in modern cities. That's kind of the fucking problem.

Also walkable cities have fucking benches. Not only for disabled people. But sometimes you just twist your ankle and need to sit for a moment.

"Put fae. If you have benches, homeless people will sleep on them."

Then get fucking housing for the homeless. Problem solved. They'll sleep in their nice warm homes instead of on the benches.

-fae

[elf-kid2]

Additional things I’d like for the Walkable Cities:

-Water-Fountains. Just, free, public water-fountains. Maybe also get the kind that has the “for dogs” lower spigot/bowl thing? But definitely water-fountains.

-Public Parks (at least those that reach a certain size) should have Public Restrooms. Again, this just makes life better for everyone.

[queeranarchism]

It is wild to me that this is so hard to imagine for some people. Like, to me, all of this is just... a basic description of what normal cities are like. There has been some backpeddling. Like, in the last decade public transport has gotten less affordable and some public restrooms and benches have been removed and those are real issues, but other than that, every city that I travel in has all of these things kind of everywhere.

If people tell you that cities just can’t be like this, they’re lying. Cities designed around cars are the weird ones.

[anarchapella]

Any law written to repress fascist gatherings and riots will only be used to repress leftist gatherings and riots because the state is fascist. Look at anti-masking laws originally written to criminalize KKK rallies, have never been used to repress a KKK rally, have only been used to repress antifascist protestors.

[bloodraven55]

i’ve probably said this before but personally i feel like judging queer stories/characters/relationships only by whether they’re “good representation” or not and nothing else is extremely…. stifling

[bloodraven55]

sure it’s definitely useful to ask ourselves “does this narrative play into harmful stereotypes about queer people?” or “are these writers treating their queer characters with respect?” but….. maybe it’s also worth just asking “is this an interesting and enjoyable story?”

[bloodraven55]

like idk but imo queer content tends to be most compelling when it’s created with thoughtfulness and care but not as an exercise in box-checking with the hyperspecific goal of being the Best Representation Ever™ which is impossible to achieve anyway bc nothing’s perfect

[genderkoolaid]

fr young transmascs if you come out or start transitioning (esp medically), and people start expecting you to do things to "make up" for being a man/"gaining male privilege", if they start accusing you of mansplaining out of nowhere, if they start viewing you as "gross" and "dirty", if they start treating you like you are uncontrollably angry or sexually predatory, if they belittle manhood as a gender and treat men as lesser beings even if you tell them it makes you uncomfortable, in general if they start treating you like a different human being for being noticeably male, run.

the same goes for if they try to avoid using masculine pronouns or words for you, discouraging you from dressing masculine, trying to get you to doubt your own understanding of your gender, run. Kick them in the teeth. You do not deserve this abusive behavior. Drop them if you can, and try to find a better circle- ideally one that has some other transmascs in it.