an unaccustomed shape

fig. she/it. over 21. ⚢ ✡ || gaming • art • language • personal • woodland aesthetic • catblogging • insects and snakes are the cutest animals. || header image: "SKRWL," james jean || layout by hopefulrefrain

[sacred-portal]

[xeemaee]

It doesn’t feel like they’ve all got an equal footing if tenna has fanart on the poll and the other two don’t (especially with grace bc people keep saying “thats just Ryan gosling” and mayhaps they wouldn’t if he was fanart but oh well) so here’s links to fanart of the other two that I like and then what canon tenna actually looks like.

Post by @buniix3 · 2 images

💬 12  🔁 3338  ❤️ 8909 · Reblog by @mimosa-sexypeople-contests-2026 · 1 poll · Got some Grade A Senshi propaganda right he- OH GOD OH NO Sen

Post by @thefriendlypigeon · 2 images

💬 182  🔁 21024  ❤️ 67671 · ❤️💙💛GRACEFUL💛💙❤️ · ⭐[my social media links]

Post by @vi050iv · 2 images

💬 2  🔁 42  ❤️ 181 · Oh Senshi, I love you to bits I am the world’s slowest reader….i don’t know what the hell I was on when I finished dung

Tumblr is a place to express yourself, discover yourself, and bond over the stuff you love. It's where your interests connect you with your

[rosieandthemoon]

ruins of St Andrews Cathedral in Fife, Scotland

[onedayabridge]

“To be touched by you, to explore the ruins of your wanting, left long ago by some careless succession of failed caretakers…”

[mod2amaryllis]

parts 1-2

[mod2amaryllis]

part 3

and this is the true story of my monday afternoon

[mod2amaryllis]

it frew up :'(

[heart-sprout]

I'd like to thank op because I have been using these as reaction images since I first saw this post in 2022 and I had lost track of their origin but now I am grateful to the universe for the chance to say bless u

[mod2amaryllis]

imagining someone in the world making use of my 4pm on a monday doodles is sick as hell

[andhumanslovedstories]

I miss when everyone on my dash listened to Welcome to Night Vale so there’s be a good chance that on any ole day someone would reblog a quote that would grab me by the throat and forcibly ascend me to a higher plane where I understood myself and the universe better and with more kindness but also a little spook

[andhumanslovedstories]

“The past is gone, and cannot harm you anymore. And while the future is fast coming for you, it always flinches first and settles in as the gentle present” are you kidding me this quote has propelled me through at least three emotional crises

[willkill4pudding]

“The desert seems vast, even endless. And yet scientists tell us that somewhere, even now, there is snow.” That quote literally got me through grieving my brother like WTNV goes HARD

[barebitchinbodkin]

A List of Some of My Favorite Quotes From This Insane Podcast:

"You are beautiful when you do beautiful things."

"The present tense of regret is indecision."

"We understand so much, but the sky behind those lights-- mostly void, partially stars-- that sky reminds us we don't understand even more."

"Be proud of your place in the Cosmos. It is small and yet it is."

"Believe in yourself. You are an ancient, absent god, discussed only rarely by literary scholars. So if you don't believe, no one will."

"Death is only the end if you assume the story is about you."

“Whisper a dangerous secret to someone you care about. Now they have the power to destroy you, but they won’t. That’s what love is.”

"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not. We never are. But that’s not the right question. The question is are we living a life that is worth the harm?"

"When we talk about teenagers, we adults often talk with an air of scorn, of expectation for disappointment. And this can make people who are presently teenagers feel very defensive. But what everyone should understand is that none of us are talking to the teenagers that exist now, but talking back to the teenager we ourselves once were – all stupid mistakes and lack of fear, and bodies that hadn’t yet begun to slump into a lasting nothing. Any teenager who exists now is incidental to the potent mix of nostalgia and shame with which we speak to our younger selves."

"We are not history yet. We are happening now. How miraculous is that?"

"Wednesday has been cancelled due to a scheduling error."

"We have nothing to fear except ourselves. We are unholy, awful people."

"A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A basilisk."

"There's nothing under your bed. There's nothing in your closet. Nothing waits in every darkness. Nothing is the most terrifying thing of all."

"The night sky is ten miles wide, eight miles deep, and floats three miles up. Its favourite food is grape jelly. It wants to be a drummer."

"Look to the sky. You will not find answers there, but you will certainly see what everyone is screaming about."

"Ignorance might not actually be bliss, but it is certainly less work."

"And now, a special report. Crocodiles: Can they eat your children? *YES.*"

"Lie down and look up at the ceiling and breathe with those curiously fragile lungs of yours and remind yourself: Don’t worry. Don’t worry. All is as it was meant to be. It was meant to be lonely and terrifying and unfair and fleeting. Don’t worry."

"As long as I’m reminding myself things, I’m a good person, worthy of love – both from myself and others."

"Guns don't kill people! It's impossible to be killed by a gun. We are all invincible to bullets and it's a miracle!"

"Everything is exciting! Particularly existence. Existence is the most thrilling fact of all."

"There is a monster under your bed. A monster at your window. A monster any place you imagine one. You project your monsters on the world."

"You miss 100% of the bank robberies you don't commit."

"I like my coffee like I like my nights. Dark, endless, and impossible to sleep through. "

"A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep. Welcome to Night Vale."

"And now, the weather."

I discovered this podcast at the beginning of high school, and let me tell you, it rewired my synapses.

Not only was it my first experience with positive LGBT representation, it was the show I clung to when everything else went to shit. Whatever was going on in my life, I knew I had this show in my corner, making me laugh, making me cry, making me feel okay about my place in the universe.

I owe the creators of this podcast more than I could express.

[nightlight-dot-exe]

"the lights over the Arby's" is such an intrinsically queer piece of writing that it hits me *hard* every time.

[avocadosmitty]

"We will never be the same again. But here's a little secret for you: no one is ever the same thing again after anything. You are never the same twice, and much of your unhappiness comes from trying to pretend that you are. Accept that you are different each day, and do so joyfully, recognizing it for the gift it is. Work within the desires and goals of the person you are currently, until you aren't that person anymore, and everything changes once again." (from Episode 75)

[roach-works]

"The universe is vast. You are also vast. So is an ant. There are different sizes of infinity."

[tlirsgender]

We need more women characters who are Male Protagonists. You know. Slightly haggard. She's splashing cold water on her face and gripping the edge of the sink staring in the mirror for a minute. She's coping badly with her deadwife

[tlirsgender]

My favorite genre of female character is when they're male protagonists. Especially potent when the script was literally originally written with a man in mind and then they just made him a woman. Examples:

Carol Sturka from pluribus

Ellen Ripley from alien

[thequeeninyellowlace]

Jessica Jones looks directly into the camera and chugs half a cup of vodka out of the bottle.

[tlirsgender]

Exactly. We need this

[pmamtraveller]

Jean-Michel Folon: The Return of the Two Snails, 1979.

[goatfactsofficial]

RB to give prev a fresh and warm loaf of challah

[sarthathrace]

me to the accursed whispering amulet: hey can you speak up please i have an audio processing disorder

[queer-here-and-in-fear]

(via @cuunos)

[iswearbyalltheflowers]

Why Germans Protested T4 but Not the Holocaust

The Scapegoat 2.1: European Antisemitism as Structural Infrastructure

[ravabiye]

never, not once, have I heard of the Germans protesting Aktion T4 before.

I can't shake the feeling that this piece's conclusion is why.

"the Shoah was not an example of man's inhumanity to man. it was an example of man's inhumanity to Jews."

[brainscrems]

Ewwww imagine being a zionist in 2026

Lmaooooooo. Check out the antisemite calling the Jew who has talked at length about their opposition to zionism a zionist. Great example of how most non-Jewish “antizionists” just mean “Jew who won’t be my mouthpiece and token to deflect accusations of antisemitism”. Anyways, I’m out here actually trying to work to convince Jews who’ve run out of hope that there’s a better way than nationalism. Ur harassing random Jews, seemingly trying to encourage my community’s suspicion of outsiders after ~2000 years of persecution. Doesn’t exactly scream, “I want to fight Jewish separatism” to me.

But, I also kinda suspect that nationalism isn’t your problem. You just dislike it when it’s Jewish. The integration of nationhood into state power (i.e. the core principle of nationalism) fundamentally draws a line in the sand on who’s worthy of protection and who is not. That’s also the fundamental element of fascism. Having a set of people you can exploit for the benefit of those considered part of the nation. Some variations on nationalism are less prone to fascism than others, but ultimately predicating state protection on national membership will always breed fascism. I can’t say for sure, but I’d hazard a guess that your issue w zionism (aside from it being the Scary Jew Word TM) is that it’s Jewish nationalism and you have no problem with, say, French, Polish, Irish, Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Syrian, Turkish, whoever else. Cause that’s what nationalism is. Support of the existence of nation-states. I highly doubt you take issue with the fact that all these ethnic groups each have a state which protect them because the state’s associated national identity is structured heavily around their ethnic group. And, well, since you called me a zionist and not a nationalist, seems you only have a problem when Jews are involved. Frankly, I think no one should have that, because we only get out of this mess if we stop drawing these fucking lines and come to the decision that we have a duty of care towards everyone, without exception. The master’s tools will not dismantle the master’s house. But, as Israel has shown, they’re certainly capable of building a new one with a new master and the same rotten foundation.

I have no problem condemning the genocide and apartheid committed by Israel. But I sense that you have an obsession with the Jewish case seeing as, I feel quite certain, you don’t go into the inboxes of every Canadian or American who isn’t sufficiently self-flagellating over their nation-states who’ve committed genocide. And I don’t even live in Israel lmao, so I got WAY less skin in the game than they do. And you certainly don’t go haranguing every nationalist you find or you’d never have time to do anything but. Which, of course, leads to only one reasonable conclusion. You just hate Jews lol.

So to sum it up. I’m not a zionist. I think Netanyahu should be tried at the Hague. I make active efforts to convince zionists in my community to turn away from nationalism and its false promises of liberation. You’re just a tool who thinks harassing Jews who don’t fall in line with your beliefs makes a positive difference in the world. Eat shit my guy ❤️

EDIT: In all fairness (what little is due) it wasn’t technically a random Jew they harassed. I looked at my follow list after writing this and saw he was at the top, meaning I’d accidentally followed him recently. Doesn’t really change much though lol.

[brainscrems]

Reblogging this from myself bc I think it’s important for my goyische followers to understand what’s happening here and how this works. You will often hear non-Jews going on about how “Zionism and Judaism aren’t the same thing,” and this is true. Like I said, I’ve loudly and often voiced my qualms with both the actuality of the zionist movement, and with the more abstract political theory of it. But when non-Jews say this, they are normally doing so with the intention of obfuscating the fact that they DO mean Jews, even if they don’t consciously realize this.

Take this tumblr user for example. I highly doubt he thinks he hates Jews. In fact, I’m reasonably certain he doesn’t think about us all that much. In his head he just hates the filthy zionists. But, clearly, when faced with a non-zionist Jew advocating against antisemitism, I’m close enough for him. Zionist gives people like him a word to claim it is not our Jewishness that, but, conveniently, all these Jews just happen to be (((zionists))). What’s actually happening is the reverse of what these people say. Their issue is with Jews, especially Jews who are willing to stand up and call out antisemitism. Zionist is the label that gets slapped on AFTER they’ve stepped out of line as a means of discrediting what they have to say.

If you’re not convinced, let’s break down the practicalities of the situation. Some Jews are zionists is a true statement. Zionism, as a nationalist philosophy of a persecuted ethnic group, exists in a response to generations of trauma. Much of this trauma results from being unable to flee persecution as an unwelcome minority group perpetually seen as an interloper. Our most recent major collective trauma (at the time of the founding of Israel) was the holocaust. People teach the holocaust as if it was a moral lapse. That a bunch of otherwise good people lost their minds and committed horrific acts against other human beings. That is a lie. Like racism, Jew hate is built into the fundamental ideological underpinnings of the vast majority of the world. Those places in which it is not homegrown almost always have acquired it anyways due to cultural imperialism and colonialism. Ultimately, Jews were not seen as a part of society for which support and protection were owed, and this attitude was consistent throughout Europe for well over a millennium by that point. The Nazis simply took advantage of that pre-existing hatred and apathy to mobilize people against us.

That brings us to another flaw in how the Holocaust is taught. It wasn’t just the Germans. When the nazis started rounding up Jews, other nations PAID the nazis to come and take us from them. When the nazis conquered places like Poland, they gave our neighbors permission to beat us, rape us, kill us, and steal our homes and belongings. And they did. With relish. And, when it became apparent something unprecedentedly horrific was going to happen to the Jews of Europe, the Evian conference took place. 32 nation-states sent representatives. Only one agreed to take any Jews. Everyone was perfectly fine to condemn the actions of the Nazis when it was just words. But to actually suffer Jews to live amongst them? Never.

So, after the murder of 6 million of our people, not just by a single nation-state, but by the bloodlust of our fellow countrymen across Europe, and the apathy of the entire world, the prevailing sentiment amongst Jews became that we would only ever be safe if we had somewhere to flee. And the only way we could ensure that would be to have our own nation-state for which we controlled immigration and could ensure we would accept any and all Jewish refugees.

So, to my non-Jewish readers, with that understanding of what zionism is, I ask you this question: What practical things could you do to dissuade Jews from thinking that nationalism represents the only means by which they can assure their safety? Do you think discussing zionism, a white nationalist dogwhistle for decades, as some nefarious evil is going to reach the Jews already skeptical of you? Do you think harassing them or using an ideology they believe to be the only thing keeping them safe is going to make them trust that they don’t need it? Or, will perhaps calling them zios, a slur popularized by the former head of the KKK, will convince them to trust their safety in the diaspora? What if you isolate them from all their community spaces because they’re zionists and, thus, undeserving of support? I think you know what the end result is.

Now, I want to clarify a few things. PLEASE keep advocating for the Palestinian cause. Fight for the US and other nations to stop funding Israel’s military. But understand that you, as a non-Jewish, non-Israeli, aren’t actually fighting zionism when you do this. The nation-states which use Israel as an imperial outpost have no stake in Jewish nationalism. They don’t give two shits about what Israel does internally or how it treats Palestinians, within its borders or outside. It serves no purpose. What Israel, does provide for them is an important strategic military outpost and an allied nation-state which can apply soft and hard pressure on its neighbors in the region. As long as it does that, they truly don’t give a shit. And Israel is not unique in this role. Think of all the democratically elected governments overthrown by the US with the purpose of installing a politically convenient despot. What the US and other nations do with Israel isn’t zionism. It’s just plain old imperialism. The only practical effect of using zionism instead is to scare people into agreement by your use of the Scary Jew Word, as well as to imply that this imperialist action is WORSE because it’s Jewish. And, given its longstanding use as a dogwhistle, all you really gain in the process of using it is to prime more people into falling for antisemitic conspiracies.

Now there is one more thing you may be asking. “But what about the evangelical/christian zionism I see?” Simple answer. It’s not actually zionism. As I discussed, zionism is a Jewish nationalist philosophy. Christian zionism isn’t that. It simply stole the word. Christian zionism is a doomsday cult which thinks the end of the world will only happen when all the Jews move to Israel and, so, they want to send us all there. It has nothing to do with Jewish zionism and isn’t remotely the same thing. However, hard right elements like to collude with each other, so u’ll see some people like Netanyahu or Ben Shapiro buddy up to them for practical purposes.

The point of this is, if you want to fight for the Palestinian cause from abroad, pressure your governments and the people in power. Those individuals are almost never Jews, and it’s never diaspora Jewish organizations. This is because Jews are ~.25% of the total world’s population and nearly half live in Israel, and most of the other half live in the US at 2% of the US population. Despite what people tell you, we utterly lack systemic power EVERYWHERE but Israel. So, understand as you do this advocacy you’re not actually fighting against Jewish nationalism, you’re fighting against regular old imperialism. If you’re actually, interested in working against nationalist ideology in the Jewish community the best thing you can do is make the diaspora a safe place to live. Educate yourself on antisemitism and Jewish history. Show up for the Jewish community when we need support. And, above all, keep your mouth shut. You’re not going to have the credibility to make change in this arena. That’s for people like myself to do. The best thing you can do is to show your support and help convince Jews with your actions that there is a place for them in the broader communities they live in. If you’re really antizionist, that’s the best thing you can do.

[starlight-shadowbanned]

Also, Zionism sprang up and was embraced in the context of a world that was already being taking over by nationalism. The nationalism of European countries who committed or aided and abetted the Holocaust. The nationalism of the US and other countries who would not let Jewish refugees in. And, later, the nationalism of Middle Eastern countries who expelled them.

Because, nationalism in most of its 20th-century iterations (especially in Europe and the Middle East), meant defining nationality such that Jews were not included. In Germany this looked like Nazism; defining Jews out of Jewish nationality. In Poland this looked like defining Jews out of Polish nationality. In Syria this looked like defining Jews out of Syrian nationality.

So essentially, Jews looked at this and said "well, if we can't beat 'em, join 'em. If everyone has a nationalism and their nationalisms don't include us, we need our own."

And now, from so many people, the demand is "no, you don't -- and maybe no one else does either, but we're starting with you, because you're the most evil."

Maybe for once start somewhere else. Work on continuing to dismantle the nationalisms that ripped almost the entirety of world Jewry out at the roots during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Listen to the stories of those displaced Jews -- many are still alive today! This isn't ancient history! And stop using that very displacement as evidence of our "crimes." Also, maybe reflect on why you're so driven to focus on the Jewish iteration and why you think we're the most evil.

Zionism will exist as long as the conditions of the world make Jews unsafe without it. The demand is, in essence, "make yourselves unsafe if you want to be seen as human." Maybe first see us as human, and keep us safe.

[brainscrems]

I also glossed over this, expecting people to use wikipedia. But I generally think a lot of people just straight up don’t understand the difference between states, nations, and nation-states, with most thinking the first is the same as the latter two. So I’m linking their wikipedia pages. The point isn’t about opposition to Israel. The point is that zionism isn’t the heart of that issue. Zionism is simply a form of nationalism that has all the same flaws and benefits as any other type. For all those who try and claim it’s an ethnostate because the national identity is based on an ethnicity, you should be thinking long and hard why the term for [citizen of nation-state] is almost always the same term for [member of dominant ethnicity of nation-state]. That’s not a denial of Israel’s racism, but to point out that its flaws are inherent to the global system.

This is not a request for people to stay their criticism of Israel or its actions. It is asking people to understand that labeling your critique of what is, ultimately, extremely ordinary imperialism or nationalism as critique of zionism, rather than either of the two other terms adds nothing to your critique except stress the Jewish character of the particular situation and shift the focus, intentionally or not, onto the Jewish nature of Israel, rather than its actions or those of its allies. If your critique is about the actions of Israel, say what its actions are. If your critique is of the external military support of Israel by Europe and America, say imperialism. If your critique is of the driving ideology, say fascism or racism. If your critique is of the nationalist philosophy which enabled the rise of the former, say nationalism. If your critique is of specific elements which have made Jewish nationalism act differently than other forms of nationalist thought, only then is your critique actually of zionism and not a broader category. And if you think Jewish nationalism is fundamentally different than any other form, you’re just an antisemite.

If you’re using the word zionism in cases other than what I laid out, it really sounds like ur issue is just Jews and Scary Jew Word because there are other terms which encompass those same problems and AREN’T nazi dogwhistles. And, bc of how dogwhistles work, your normalization of the usage is what provides cover for nazis who’ve been using that word far longer than you have. There’s a wide genre of post which goes, “Why do I keep finding nazis, I hate zionists not jews?” And the reason is that talking about zionism the way that is presently popular to do came out of nazi spaces and no one listened to us Jews when we told you. If you wanna avoid that, this is how. So. Yk. Talk like the company you actually wanna keep.

[brainscrems]

No shade prev, but this is something I wanna push back on a little bc it’s a really common fallacy. Israel’s actions don’t really cause antisemitism, it just provides an excuse for antisemites to be more open. We saw a huge rise in Islamaphobia after 9/11, but it’s not accurate nor fair to say that bin ladin was responsible for the resulting rise. Racist people rushed to collectively blame Muslims and Arabs and voice their pre-existing semi-conscious bigotry now that there was a socially acceptable excuse. It’s the same deal here. Claiming it’s Israel’s fault serves to deflect from the responsibility of individuals to not be prejudiced or rush to collectively holding ethnic groups responsible for the actions of a few. It also serves to obscure how, like racism, antisemitism is a foundational aspect of our society that underpins much of our philosophy and outlooks on the world. The problem is that Jew hate is foundational to most of the world’s societies, and has been exported via cultural imperialism to everywhere it isn’t. Everyone needs to take active steps to address anti-Jewish bias just as people need to take active steps to address racial bias. The vast majority of people don’t, and so when some Jews do bad things, it confirms their unconscious worldview and they jump to blame us collectively and act in manner consistent with their unconscious beliefs. Israel is an excuse, not a cause.

[standwithdaanes]

as much as everyone loves "the power of love won't save us, we need the power of incredible violence" i'm sorry to rain on your parade but we've actually tried that about ten million times as a species, and you'll be shocked to hear the power of incredible violence, without the power of love behind it, is just brutality. the power of incredible violence has been ruling (various parts of, and then the entire) world for the past 5,000 years. ours is not that damn special.

like yes use that gun you found but WHY are you using it? on who are you using it? what would make you stop using it? is your goal to live in a world where every problem is solved by violence, or is your goal to do the violence necessary to live in a world where that necessity is unthinkable?

[im-in-your-mind]

now if youll excuse me i have to curl around my clutch of eggs so sweetly

[drhoz]

#3832 - Azolla rubra - Red Azolla

AKA returetu, roturotu, kārearea and kārerarera, and Pacific azolla.

A floating aquatic fern native to Australia and New Zealand, and possibly as far afield as Japan. It rapidly multiplies to form mats on still or slow-moving water, and gets redder as it ages.

Azolla enjoys an obligate symbiosis with the cyanobacterium Anabaena azollae, which fixes atmospheric oxygen for the plant and can no longer survive away from the fern.

During the Eocene, when the Arctic Ocean was mostly freshwater for roughly 800,000 years, Azolla grew in such gigantic quantities that it sucked enough carbon dioxide out of the air to cause global cooling.

Duntroon, Aotearoa New Zealand.

[headspace-hotel]

Might need to recruit these guys for climate change mitigation...

[whithr]

Appointment in Samarra

A merchant of Baghdad was sipping tea in his garden when his servant ran up to him, breathless and trembling. “Master,” he cried. “I have just seen Death in your garden. She pointed at me with such a ghastly stare that I knew she had come for me.” “So you have seen Death,” the merchant replied, “as each man must. I understand your alarm.” “I must leave Baghdad and go far away from Death. I have a brother in Samarra. I will go there tonight, Master, and escape my fate.” “Then take my swiftest horse, and go with my blessing.” As the hoofbeats of the fleeing servant faded in his ears, the merchant, curious, walked through his gardens to confront Death. “My servant has done no harm. Why do you disturb him with your ghastly stare?” Death smiled. “I did not mean to. I was merely surprised to see him in Baghdad when I have an appointment with him this evening, at his brother’s house in Samarra.”

old illustration from last year published in Cricket magazine

[thelawfulchaotic]

jsyk the op of the post about jewish music you reblogged is a zionist

Okay, sure, let's have it out. I imagine I'll pretty much piss off everyone with this.

First: the only confidence I have in my understanding of the political situation of the Middle East is that I have no fucking understanding whatsoever of the political situation in the Middle East. Sure, I've read plenty. I have friends of many many stripes. But I'm not a victim of the Dunning-Kruger effect here, folks: I know enough to know how much I don't know, and how much I know is tons.

Second, you say that person is a "zionist." There are three things I find pretty annoying about this as a defense attorney. One is that the term is not defined, and the other is that there is a complete lack of evidence. The third is the implicit assumption that being a "zionist" is enough to wholeheartedly condemn anyone.

Let's tackle these one by one. And, once again, I am neither a scholar of Jewish history nor Middle Eastern history nor anything except American criminal law.

First: definition. There are many possible meanings of zionist that I see people use. One potential meaning of "zionist" seems to be "is Jewish, but fails to disavow Israel as fast and loud as I personally want them to." Sometimes the meaning of "zionist" is just "is Jewish." Sometimes it's "a Jewish person who wishes for a return to a very distant ancestral homeland." Sometimes it's "wholehearted supporter of Israel's war crimes." A lot of pointless arguing, it seems to me, is centered around someone saying they are zionist, i.e., they would like Jewish people to someday have a nice homeland where they don't feel like a strange political chunk in another country, and another person hears that they are zionist, i.e. they enjoy wholesale slaughter of civilians.

Second: No evidence. Self-explanatory. You are an anon. I don't know why I'm supposed to trust your word. I read police reports for a living and I am supposed to be able to trust them, and let me tell you how many lies they contain.

Third: the assumption of condemnation. I literally defend the human rights of sex criminals in court. I defend murderers. What we are talking about, right now, at best, is a human person expressing an opinion, however potentially damaging and offensive (depending on definition of zionism and truth of accusation). Do you think I'm gonna say that Jewish people who express an opinion are inhuman and deserve segregation from the rest of us?

Do you think I'm ever going to stop reaching out my hand to people who use violence? Do you think I'm ever going to lose the hope that someday they will lose the fear that makes them resort to violence?

Finally, now that I've spent some time listing my problems with your case, so what.

Let's use an example closer to home. I'm an American, and I do in fact believe that America is a nation and will continue to be so, and that tearing down all government to give it back to indigenous people (something that is, to be clear, to my understanding, not comparable with any kind of political situation in Israel) is not possible as things stand. And yet nobody's here interrogating me about Donald Trump and his bombing of Iran or whether I support ICE's jackbooted thuggery.

A little further from home? If I met a Russian person, my first ask would not be "Tell me in detail your thoughts on Ukraine and Putin."

And in those two examples, I myself and this hypothetical Russian person are actually members of the country in question that is doing the thing. A Jewish person who is not Israeli isn't even that.

Listen. I think there's a lot to be unpacked about how the insularity of Jewish culture and the separateness of it from the countries where it lives is both in the interest of continuing the Jewish ethnicity and in the interest of the people who want Jewish people exterminated, and how the double-pull of those two interests maintain a tension that otherwise might dissipate. I think there's something real to be analyzed about how modern anti-semitism isn't a recurrence of medieval anti-semitism but a different thing, a sign of fascist thinking.

I think there is a horrific tragedy for everyone involved that the group who was decimated beyond belief in the blackest events in human history now has a very loud and visible nation channeling their survival into rage and violence.

I think that there are lots of Arab nations around Israel that would gladly see every person in it subject to that same rage and violence, and I'm not down with that shit either.

I think the history of who colonized who and when and what pogroms did what and how violence and why are all too fucking complicated to untangle.

I think the only way truly forward for Israel and Palestine is some kind of truth and reconciliation type thing and that Israel as it stands is too scared to see all their atrocities come to light.

I was raised atheist with college professor parents, so you can bet Jewish people in academia were part of my life from an early age. I don't understand antisemitism literally at all. It's completely incomprehensible to me. I also think Arab culture is gorgeous and studied Arabic in college. I don't discount the idea that I have subconscious biases; I've done my best to unpick them, but it's lifelong work.

The whole goddamn clusterfuck is a great example of why violence begets violence begets violence. I reject the idea that One Final Ass-Kicking on anyone's part will solve any one of these problems. The only thing that ends violence is not choosing violence. And that can't happen until enough people in and out of power want the violence to stop. There. Not here. There. It can't be imposed from outside. It has to come from within.

And that's a decision -- I must add -- that I seriously could not have less to do with. White Americans should not be making any of the related decisions.

Here endeth the essay, with one final note.

My Jewish friends are safe on this blog. My Arab friends are safe on this blog. That's all.

[rose-in-a-fisted-glove]

Okay you might not be a scholar on the conflict, but this is unironically the best take that someone not a party to the conflict itself can take right now. To call for peace and stability and not be an accelerant to the conflict.

It is best for the civilians caught in the middle to not encourage the continuatiin of violence. And it is best for those of us drowning in the splash effect as the whole world (minus you and a few others) have gleefully turned on Jews.

You are also giving a sign of hope, which has been rapidly disapearing, about the possibility of being able to safely live in the US.

As a Jewish American, and a Jewish woman I can't emphasize enough how reassuring this response was and how grateful I am to see it.

[thelawfulchaotic]

My attitude is definitely not unique. Always remember: idiots who have the certainty of being right are always the loudest, and those whose first response is curiosity and grace are much harder to hear. In fact, mostly the people who are genuinely kind don't feel the need to display that at all unless asked.

Unless they have chronic can't-shut-the-fuck-up disease, like me.

I hope that... helps? A little? It seems to me there's generations of pain yet to go in this conflict, one way or another, even if healing started right now. No one can carry all that. I think all we can do is bring what light we can.

[rose-in-a-fisted-glove]

Your attitude is not unique but it is the very small minority of who we see.

The US Golden Age of Jewry is over. It is something us American Jews are acutely aware of.

In a time where we have to worry about attacks on our synagogues, being beaten in the streets, being gunned down at our festivals, and our homes and schools being burned down, someone speaking aloud that the mentality that leads that violence is wrong is both a rare and valuable thing.

[hiitspussyhands]

You know when there's like, a straight show and everyone's like "it's full of queer subtext between the main straight dudes, and this character is obviously autistic and they really meant to say trans rights"? And then there's a queer show and all of a sudden it's "no but they weren't sensitive about this character's trauma and the queer sex scenes are too short and they're all problematic as fuck, i can't even watch"? And then our shit doesn't get renewed, and we hated on it the whole way for not embodying the perfection we'd never dream of demanding from the straight show?

Yeah, something like that