Starstruck

Welcome to the place where time stops and stars collide.

[this-is-not-jewish]

How to Criticize Israel Without Being Anti-Semitic

If you’ve spent any time discussing or reading about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I guarantee you’ve heard some variation of this statement:

OMG, Jews think any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic! 

In the interests of this post, I’m going to assume that the people who express such sentiments are acting in good faith and really don’t mean to cause pain to or problems for Diaspora Jewry.  For those good-faith people, I present some guidelines for staying on the good side of that admittedly murky line, along with the reasoning why the actions I list are problematic.  (And bad-faith people, you can no longer plead ignorance if you engage in any of these no-nos.  Consider yourselves warned.)  In no particular order:

Don’t use the terms “bloodthirsty,” “lust for Palestinian blood,” or similar.  Historically, Jews have been massacred in the belief that we use the blood of non-Jews (particularly of children) in our religious rituals.  This belief still persists in large portions of the Arab world (largely because white Europeans deliberately spread the belief among Arabs) and even in parts of the Western world.  Murderous, inhumane, cruel, vicious–fine.  But blood…just don’t go there.  Depicting Israel/Israelis/Israeli leaders eating children is also a no-no, for the same reason.

Don’t use crucifixion imagery. Another huge, driving motivation behind anti-Semitism historically has been the belief that the Jews, rather than the Romans, crucified Jesus.  As in #1, this belief still persists.  There are plenty of other ways to depict suffering that don’t call back to ancient libels.

Don’t demand that Jews publicly repudiate the actions of settlers and extremists.  People who make this demand are assuming that Jews are terrible people or undeserving of being heard out unless they “prove” themselves acceptable by non-Jews’ standards.  (It’s not okay to demand Palestinians publicly repudiate the actions of Hamas in order to be accepted/trusted, either.)

Don’t say “the Jews” when you mean Israel.  I think this should be pretty clear.  The people in power in Israel are Jews, but not all Jews are Israelis (let alone Israeli leaders).

Don’t say “Zionists” when you mean Israel. Zionism is no more a dirty word than feminism.  It is simply the belief that the Jews should have a country in part of their ancestral homeland where they can take refuge from the anti-Semitism and persecution they face everywhere else.  It does not mean a belief that Jews have a right to grab land from others, a belief that Jews are superior to non-Jews, or any other such tripe, any more than feminism means hating men.  Unless you believe that Israel should entirely cease to exist, you are yourself Zionist.  Furthermore, using “Zionists” in place of “Israelis” is inaccurate and harmful.  The word “Zionists” includes Diasporan Jews as well (most of whom support a two-state solution and pretty much none of whom have any influence on Israel’s policies) and is used to justify anti-Semitic attacks outside Israel (i.e., they brought it on themselves by being Zionists).  And many of the Jews IN Israel who are most violent against Palestinians are actually anti-Zionist–they believe that the modern state of Israel is an offense against God because it isn’t governed by halakha (traditional Jewish religious law).  Be careful with the labels you use.

Don’t call Jews you agree with “the good Jews.”  Imposing your values on another group is not okay.  Tokenizing is not okay.  Appointing yourself the judge of what other groups can or should believe is not okay.

Don’t use your Jewish friends or Jews who agree with you as shields.  (AKA, “I can’t be anti-Semitic, I have Jewish friends!” or “Well, Jew X agrees with me, so you’re wrong.”)  Again, this behavior is tokenizing and essentially amounts to you as a non-Jew appointing yourself arbiter over what Jews can/should feel or believe.  You don’t get to do that.

Don’t claim that Jews are ethnically European.  Jews come in many colors–white is only one.  Besides, the fact that many of us have some genetic mixing with the peoples who tried to force us to assimilate (be they German, Indian, Ethiopian, Italian…) doesn’t change the fact that all our common ancestral roots go back to Israel.

Don’t claim that Jews “aren’t the TRUE/REAL Jews.“  Enough said.

Don’t claim that Jews have no real historical connection to Israel/the Temple Mount.  Archaeology and the historical record both establish that this is false.

Don’t accuse Diasporan Jews of dual loyalties or treason.  This is another charge that historically has been used to justify persecution and murder of Jews.  Having a connection to our ancestral homeland is natural.  Having a connection to our co-religionists who live there is natural.  It is no more treasonous for a Jew to consider the well-being of Israel when casting a vote than for a Muslim to consider the well-being of Islamic countries when voting.  (Tangent: fuck drone strikes.  End tangent.)

Don’t claim that the Jews control the media/banks/country that isn’t Israel.  Yet another historical anti-Semitic claim is that Jews as a group intend to control the world and try to achieve this aim through shadowy, sinister channels.  There are many prominent Jews in the media and in the banking industry, yes, but they aren’t engaged in any kind of organized conspiracy to take over those industries, they simply work in those industries.  The phrase “the Jews control” should never be heard in a debate/discussion of Israel.

Don’t depict the Magen David (Star of David) as an equivalent to the Nazi swastika.  The Magen David represents all Jews–not just Israelis, not just people who are violent against Palestinians, ALL JEWS.  When you do this, you are painting all Jews as violent, genocidal racists.  DON’T.

Don’t use the Holocaust/Nazism/Hitler as a rhetorical prop.  The Jews who were murdered didn’t set foot in what was then Palestine, let alone take part in Israeli politics or policies.  It is wrong and appropriative to try to use their deaths to score political points.  Genocide, racism, occupation, murder, extermination–go ahead and use those terms, but leave the Holocaust out of it.

In visual depictions (i.e., political cartoons and such), don’t depict Israel/Israelis as Jewish stereotypes.  Don’t show them in Chassidic, black-hat garb.  Don’t show them with exaggerated noses or frizzled red hair or payus (earlocks).  Don’t show them with horns or depict them as the Devil.  Don’t show them cackling over/hoarding money.  Don’t show them drinking blood or eating children (see #1).  Don’t show them raping non-Jewish women.  The Nazis didn’t invent the tropes they used in their propaganda–all of these have been anti-Semitic tropes going back centuries.  (The red hair trope, for instance, goes back to early depictions of Judas Iscariot as a redhead, and the horns trope stems from the belief that Jews are the Devil’s children, sent to destroy the world as best we can for our “father.”)

Don’t use the phrase “the chosen people” to deride or as proof of Jewish racism.  When Jews say we are the chosen people, we don’t mean that we are biologically superior to others or that God loves us more than other groups.  Judaism in fact teaches that everyone is capable of being a righteous, Godly person, that Jews have obligations to be ethical and decent to “the stranger in our midst,” and that non-Jews don’t get sent to some kind of damnation for believing in another faith.  When we say we’re the chosen people, we mean that, according to our faith, God gave us extra responsibilities and codes of behavior that other groups aren’t burdened with, in the form of the Torah.  That’s all it means.

Don’t claim that anti-Semitism is eradicated or negligible.  It isn’t.  In fact, according to international watchdog groups, it’s sharply on the rise.  (Which sadly isn’t surprising–anti-Semitism historically surges during economic downturns, thanks to the belief that Jews control the banks.)  This sort of statement is extremely dismissive and accuses us of lying about our own experiences.

Don’t say that since Palestinians are Semites, Jews/Israelis are anti-Semitic, too.  You do not get to redefine the oppressions of others, nor do you get to police how they refer to that oppression.  This also often ties into #8.  Don’t do it.  Anti-Semitism has exclusively meant anti-Jewish bigotry for a good century plus now.  Coin your own word for anti-Palestinian oppression, or just call it what it is: racism mixed with Islamophobia.

Don’t blow off Jews telling you that what you’re saying is anti-Semitic with some variant of the statement at the top of this post.  Not all anti-Israel speech is anti-Semitic (a lot of it is valid, much-deserved criticism), but some certainly is.  Actually give the accusation your consideration and hear the accuser out.  If they fail to convince you, that’s fine.  But at least hear them out (without talking over them) before you decide that.

I’m sure this isn’t a comprehensive list, but it covers all the hard-and-fast rules I can think of.  (I welcome input for improving it.)

But wait!  Why should I care about any of this?  I’m standing up for people who are suffering!

You should care because nonsense like the above makes Jews sympathetic to the Palestinian plight wary and afraid of joining your cause.  You should care because, unfortunately, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has correlated to an uptick in anti-Semitic attacks around the world, attacks on Jews who have no say in Israeli politics, and this kind of behavior merely aggravates that, whether you intend it to or not. 

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a real minefield in that it’s a clash between oppressed people of color and an ethnoreligious group that is dominant in Israel but marginalized and brutalized elsewhere (often nowadays on the exact grounds that they share ethnoreligious ties with the people of Israel), so it’s damned hard to toe the line of being socially aware and sensitive to both groups.  I get that.  But I think it is possible to toe that line, and I hope this post helps with that.  (And if a Palestinian makes a similar list of problematic arguments they hear targeted at them, I’d be happy to reblog it, too.)

So, TL;DR version:

Do go ahead and criticize Israel.

Don’t use anti-Semitic stereotypes or tropes.

Don’t use overly expansive language that covers Jews as a whole and not just Israel.

Don’t use lies to boost your claims.

Do engage Jews in conversation on the issues of Israel and of anti-Semitism, rather than simply shutting them down for disagreeing.

Do try to be sensitive to the fact that, fair or not, many people take verbal or violent revenge for the actions of Israelis on Diasporan Jews, and Diasporan Jews are understandably frightened and upset by this.

May there be peace in our days.

[jewish-rock]

2012. great job guys.

[mamoru]

https://www.weather.gov/

march 10, 2026

if you live in mainland united states or know people who do and vaguelywhere they are, PLEASE click this link. please look at this weather map. I do not habe the strength to transcribe it or give better information because of a medical treatment today

if you are in the yellow (tornado watch) you likely need to seek shelter NOW. illinois just apparently recorded the biggest hail stone in the state's history

if you know anyone in the yellow or in the path of the yellow (tornado watch) or pink (severe thunderstorm watch) or orange (severe thunderstorm warning) or red dots (tornado warnings, try not to mistake them for the blizzard warning) you need to inform them that this storm cell is extremely dangerous and in many cases is a 4/5 tornado danger like the area centered around chicago

there is an extremely long line of tornado watches (tornado may soon exist here) and tornado warnings (tornado currently exists here) almost the entire height of mainland US, hundreds of miles wide

depending on where you are and what your local conditions ar, put on sturdy shoes (steel toed if you can) and a coat, grab a flashlight, find whatever helmet you can. or whatever you need to do to prepare for a flood ± tornado ± really bad storm. this is the highest tornado risk this year so far

please stay safe

live coverage nationwide:

Official home of Ryan Hall, Y'all — live severe weather coverage, expert forecasts, radar tools, preparedness tips, and community updates.

this live video stream will likely eventually go down and be replaced with another live stream from ryan hall

in many places in the united states, tornado watches and warnings are NOT being issued in time to save lives due to burget cuts and people are dying because they cannot seek adequate shelter in time. ryan hall issues hyper local tornado watches and warnings and alerts in many case many minutes sooner than the national weather service (if they ever catch up) while giving hyper local reference areas such as "the tornado is headed towards the church on church hill road street, which is also close to the best buy in electronics plaza"

very helpful and no ad breaks

[unsolicited-opinions]

Why Antizionism = Antisemitism

Got an Ask containing this:

I wanted to know your thoughts on if antizionism could be not antisemitic? Most of what I see touted as antizionism reads antisemitic to me and I was curious to know if antizionism is inherently antisemetic?

Antizionism = Antisemitism?

A friendly guide for the perplexed, the curious, and the quietly concerned

Terms:

Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people should have the right of national self-determination in a portion of their indigenous homeland.

Antizionism is the belief that there should never have been a Jewish state and that the existing Jewish state must be dismantled.

Once you strip that belief down to its real-world consequences, rhetoric, and historical baggage, antizionism is always antisemitism in disguise.

Let's look at the seven most common online arguments for why antizionism isn't necessarily antisemitic and see how they hold up to scrutiny.

1. Antizionism isn't antisemitism because criticizing a government isn’t antisemitic.

"I criticize governments all the time - the U.S., China, Iran, Israel. Criticizing a government is a political act, not a racial or religious one. Equating antizionism with antisemitism is just a way to silence dissent and avoid accountability."

This sounds reasonable, but antizionism isn't the same thing as criticizing Israel. You're allowed to criticize Israel. Everyone does - especially Israelis.

If Israelis were allergic to criticism, the Knesset would implode and Haaretz would spontaneously combust.

Antizionism doesn't insist "Israel should change its policies." To describe yourself as antizionist is to say you believe that Israel shouldn’t exist.

That's not political criticism - that's rejection of Jewish self-determination. No one says "China shouldn’t exist" because they oppose Xi Jinping or are rightly uset about China's treatment of the Uyghurs. No one says "Abolish France" because of Macron’s pension reforms. Yet somehow, when Jews have a nation-state - suddenly that is illegitimate.

If you recognize Israeli's right to exist and loathe many practices of it's government, congratulations: You're a Zionist the exact same way I am.

But if you apply standards to the world's only Jewish state that you don't apply to any other state, that's not activism. That’s bias. And if that bias tracks with centuries of Jewish exclusion from the public sphere? That's antisemitism.

2. Antizionism isn’t antisemitism because Zionism is political, and Judaism is religious.

"Judaism is a religion. Zionism is a modern nationalist movement. Opposing Zionism doesn’t mean hating Jews; it just means opposing a specific political ideology."

This argument is like saying, "I love the Irish - I just hate Irish independence and the Republic of Ireland." Or, "I respect Greek people, I just think Greece shouldn't exist."

Judaism has never been just a religion. It's a civilization - a people with a shared language, culture, history, and, yes, a connection to a specific land - the land they are indigenous to. That land is not Brooklyn. It's not Berlin. It's Judea. That's why they're called "Jews."

Jewish identity has always been one of peoplehood. The modern political Zionism of the late 1800s didn't invent that - it just updated it for an era of nation-states. If you believe that Kurds, Tibetans, and Palestinians have the right to national self-determination - but Jews don’t - then you're not making a political distinction. You're just excluding Jews from the club of peoples allowed to govern themselves.

That's not political theory. That's antisemitic exceptionalism.

3. Antizionism isn’t antisemitism because you can support Jews, just not a Jewish state.

"Supporting Jews doesn’t mean supporting nationalism. I support Jewish safety and rights - I just don’t think there should be an ethno-religious state. That's not bigotry; that's universalism."

If you claim to support Jews...but deny them the one mechanism they've used to escape persecution (sovereignty), then your support is purely theoretical. Jews don't need (and don't have) cheerleaders. They need borders, passports, and an air force.

No one told Rwandans after the genocide, "Hey, I support your survival, just not your statehood." No one tells Armenians they shouldn’t have a homeland because nation-states are passé. This idea only shows up when Jews are involved.

If your vision of equality requires dismantling the one Jewish safe haven on Earth, that's not universalism. That’s putting Jews back in the stateless category - the one that got Jews regularly massacred for two millennia.

And if the Jews are the only people for whom you believe national self-determination is illegitimate....perhaps your definition of legitimacy is antisemitic.

4. Antizionism isn't antisemitism because Jews are settler-colonizers, not natives.

"Zionism is a European colonial project. It displaced an indigenous Palestinian population to create a state for a foreign people. That’s not antisemitism - it’s anti-colonialism."

This one wins the gold medal for historical gymnastics.

Jews are from the Land of Israel. The name "Judea" literally means "land of the Jews." Jewish kingdoms existed there at least a thousand years before the birth of Islam. Jews didn’t colonize the land - they were expelled from it...and many never left.

Zionism wasn't about conquest - it was about return. You can't colonize your own ancestral home. That's like saying the Lakota returning to the Black Hills would be settler-colonialism.

Also worth noting is that more than half of Israel’s Jews are Mizrahi - Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, kicked out of Arab lands after 1948. So even if you believe in post-colonial bingo, Israel isn't some European outpost - it’s the world's only decolonization success story...that happens to be Jewish. If it is the only decolonization success story constantly criticized as illegitimate and the difference is that the people are Jews? That's antisemitism.

For more detail on why Israel does not have the defining characteristics of a settler-colonialist state, see this post.

5. Antizionism isn’t antisemitism because Palestinians are oppressed.

"Palestinians live under occupation and siege. Calling criticism of Israel antisemitic is a way to deflect from human rights abuses and silence solidarity movements."

Again, criticizing Israeli policy is fine. Israelis do it daily, loudly, and in at least three languages. But antizionism doesn’t just criticize policy - it erases the legitimacy of the state itself.

You can advocate for Palestinian rights without demanding the end of Israel. You can push for two states, equal rights, end to occupation, you name it. But if your "solidarity" includes maps with Israel wiped off, chants like "From the River to the Sea," or the demand that five million descendants of refugees flood the Jewish state out of existence - that's not activism. That's a call for eliminationism and ethnic cleansing - and possibly a call for genocide. Of nearly half the remaining Jews on earth. That's...pretty obviously antisemitism.

Related: if your concern for human rights only kicks in when Jews are involved, maybe ask yourself why. Genocide in Syria? Yawn. Uyghurs in camps? Shrug.

Why does only the Jewish state evoke eliminationist views when there are horrible atrocities of enormous magnitude taking place right now which are ignored? How else can one explain the double standard except through Antisemitism?

6. Antizionism isn’t antisemitism because plenty of Jews are antizionist.

"How can it be antisemitic if Jews say it too? Groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, Neturei Karta, and others oppose Zionism. Are they antisemitic?"

There have always been Jews willing to affirm antisemitic ideas. Jews know this because our literature and history has been documenting them for millennia. That doesn’t make the ideas kosher.

There were Jews who converted to Christianity during the Inquisition and helped denounce their communities. There were Jews who served in Stalin's propaganda machine while purging other Jews. There are always people eager to become the "good Jew" in hostile environments - especially if it wins applause, tenure, safety, or Twitter followers.

Neturei Karta represents a fringe within a fringe of ultra-Orthodox anti-modernists who also think the Internet is heresy and women should stay invisible. They don’t speak for Jews - they barely speak for their own cousins.

I frequently see antizionists citing the Satmar Hasidim as antizionist and while it's true that they have a theological objection to the modern nation state of Israel, they don't seek its destruction and they don't collaborate with its enemies and those who seek its destruction. Neturei Karta does these things, and the Satmars mostly despise them.

And Jewish Voice for Peace? It's an organization with a tiny majority which identifies as Jewish, and it's about as representative of Jewish opinion as RFK Jr. is of the American Medical Association.

About 90% of Jews identify as Zionists.

Meanwhile, Candace Owens criticizes Black Lives Matter, denies the existence of systemic racism, and defends white nationalist ideologies. She's been accused of trafficking in talking points that echo white supremacist rhetoric.

Jesse Lee Peterson frequently denounces Black culture, claims racism doesn't exist, and has said things like, "Thank God for slavery."

If we can agree that neither Candace Owens not Jesse Lee Peterson legitimize racism against black people, follow the logic to how we should regard Neturei Karta and JVP.

You don't get to decide whether something is antisemitic by checking if some Jew agrees. Antisemitism isn't negated by individual consent. That's...not how bigotry works.

7. Antizionism isn't antisemitism because it's anti-racism.

"Zionism creates a hierarchy of rights based on ethnicity and religion. Opposing that system is part of anti-racist struggle. It’s not hatred - it’s justice."

You know what’s racist? Singling out the only Jewish country on Earth and accusing it of racism for doing what dozens of other countries do - offer a home for its own people.

The Law of Return - which gives Jews automatic citizenship - is modeled on similar laws in places like Ireland, Finland, and Armenia. No one calls those countries supremacist. Here's a list of countries with Right of Return laws.

Only in the case of Israel is this called "supremacist." What do we call it when there's one standard for everyone else and another standard for Jews? That's called antisemitism.

But while we're on the topic, let's talk about diversity. Israel has Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Druze, and Baha’i citizens. Its parliament includes Arab parties. Its Supreme Court has Arab justices. An Arab Israeli Supreme Court Justice, George Karra, served as presiding judge in the case that convicted former Israeli President Moshe Katsav to prison.

The claim is also factually false: There is no hierarchy of human or civil rights in Israel.

The 21% of Israeli citizens who are not Jewish enjoy all the same human and civil rights enjoyed by Jewish Israelis and are fully equal under the law. Israel has and enforces laws against discrimination.

It's not perfect (no country, no democracy is), but it is comparable with most of the developed world and dramatically more protective of human and civil rights than other other state in the region.

It's the only state in the region which recognizes and legally protects same-sex marriages, but now that I've brought that up, I'll expect to see shitty replies screeching about "pinkwashing" as though it is impossible that a nation of Jews doesn't think it's okay to persecute their LGBTQ+ loved ones...and that they just passed laws protecting LGBTQ+ rights...as a smokescreen.

Don't believe me about pluralism and equality in Israel.

Ask gay Yemeni Muslim Luai Ahmed:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by כוּלנו | חדשות/מדיה (@kulanu.official)

Ask Israeli Bedouin Tamer Masudin:

Ask Israeli Arab Yoseph Haddad:

Take a taxi ride with Israeli Druze Mansur Ashkar and his Mom:

Meanwhile, the would-be replacement - a Palestine "from the river to the sea" - would be judenrein. Explicitly. Hamas has been very clear about that.

If your anti-racism includes eliminating the only place where Jews are a majority and replacing it with a state that would exclude them, that's not anti-racism. That's rationalized bigotry...and antisemitism.

Wrapping up

Do you see what I mean, Anon? All of these arguments boil down to treating the Jewish State differently from other states...because it is Jewish.

You don’t have to love everything Israel does. Israelis don't.

You don't have to silence your concerns about Palestinians. Israelis don't.

But when you start from the premise that the world would be better off if Jews didn’t have a state - and then reverse-engineer every fact and slogan to support that - you've crossed a line. A real, historically bloody, ideologically precise line which is all too familiar to Jews.

Antizionism isn't the same as antisemitism in theory, but in practice it always ends up in the same place:

Blaming Jews

Demonizing Jews

Excluding Jews - and, whenever it is successful,

Endangering Jews

The shooting in DC which killed two people exiting the Jewish Museum? The shooter was targeting "Zionists."

The guy in Boulder Colorado who chucked Molotov cocktails at senior citizens (including a holocaust survivor) who were quietly walking to raise awareness for the hostages in Gaza? He wanted to attack "Zionists." It's on video. You can hear him screaming about Zionists.

Meanwhile, a segment of the US left is praising both of these attacks on Jews...because they were framed as attacks on Zionists.

In the West right now, "antizionism" creates a permission structure to rationalize, excuse, or disguise antisemitism.

If you care about justice, equality, and truth, Anon - don't be fooled by the disguise.

Antizionism = Antisemitism.

More resources:

Defining antisemitism: Why anti-Zionism is a form of antisemitism - World Jewish Congress

Representing Jewish Communities In 100 Countries Across Six Continents

Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism

High schools and colleges across the country have seen concerning increases in anti-Zionist activity in recent years. This resource delves i

https://www.adl.org/resources/article/anti-zionism-antisemitism-how-anti-zionist-language-left-and-right-vilifies-jews

[unsolicited-opinions]

"Antizionism is not Antisemitism," huh?

By all means, please point out any factual, logical, or rhetorical failings in this post - but bring receipts. Moral judgments without moral arguments will not be accepted.

[solarpunkfool]

What if we win?

What if the children go to schools unafraid of tear gas and bullets?

What if the birds come back, and the bees are healed, and every species moves from endangered, to threatened, to thriving?

What if the rainforest ADVANCES?

What if every parking lot had solar panels? What if every structure had solar panels? What if we built climbing gyms and terraced gardens in the skeletons of old coal power plants?

What if you baked your neighbor bread, and they shared their home-grown blackberries?

What if every person who needed a home, had one? What if every person who needed healing was healed?

What if every body was treasured for what it was, not what it should be?

What if every trans child's parents attended their graduation, their wedding, their new-name-day?

What if every warehouse became a closed-circle repair station? Goods flowing out, and back, and out again? What if landfills started to SHRINK?

What if the water and air were clean? What if there was enough public transit that the cars dwindled, leaving the streets safe for kids on bikes, evening deer, midnight cats and foxes?

What if we win?

How would you win?

[aetherograph]

And we've won a lot already, mind you.

The condors are back. The whales are saved. The sea turtles are no longer endangered. The cranes are back. The bees are recovering. The air in LA and Tokyo and London is clean again. The aquifers in the LA Basin are refilling.

Children are kinder than previous generations. Parents are stopping the abuse cycle. Being trans and queer is more acceptable than ever on a ground level.

It's hard to see if you're young, if you don't know how to step back from social media and the news. But remember--bad news sells, and the algorithm knows despair keeps you scrolling. It's a skewed lens.

We are fighting and we are winning against this adminstration's bullying. We are coming together against the bullies and they are running away scared because they don't understand that we will do that.

People are working hard every day to find ways to make sure fewer animals get hit by cars and planes and rockets.

Maker spaces are more common than ever. Solar and wind are more common than ever. Coal plants are shutting down every day.

Unprecedented numbers of acres are being bought back or given back to their rightful stewards, and the world heals because of it. People are working hard every day to learn how to help a forest recover faster.

We are not at zero. We are at decades of effort to heal the world. We've come SO far.

In 1982 there were only 22 California Condors left in the world. In 1992, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), with its public and private partners, began reintroducing captive-bred condors to the wild. In 2001 the first wild nesting occurred in Grand Canyon National Park since re-introduction. In 2002 there were only 8 pairs of wild nesting birds population-wide. In 2008, for the first time since the program began, more California condors were flying free in the wild than in captivity. Today there are nearly 500 – more than half of them flying free in Arizona, Utah, California, and Baja Mexico.

When I was born, there were no condors in the wild. I'm 37 now, and there are over 250 condors flying free.

When my mom was born in 1955, there were days when she wasn't allowed to go outside to play, because of the air pollution. When I was born, that never happened anymore.

When I was born, humpback whales were critically endangered, and people thought they were going to go extinct. Today, they've recovered to exceed their recorded numbers. Other whales too!

We fixed it.

We CAN fix it and we ARE fixing it and we DID fix it.

[overmocha1068]

There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

It's still far from our reach.

But it's there.

[hope-for-the-planet]

Believing that things can get better is not blind hope or optimism--it is based on hard data that many things have consistently gotten better over the arc of history.

In addition to all that was mentioned above:

The likelihood of dying in infancy or childhood--or losing a child--has plummeted just in my lifetime. The likelihood of dying in a natural disaster is the lowest in recorded human history. Yes, even with the uptick in natural disaster intensity from climate change!

Humans alive right now are more likely to have access to healthcare, electricity, education, birth control, clean water, and nutritious food than at any other point in human history. There are so many diseases we can treat now that were a death sentence for 90% of human history.

This is not by accident. This is because generations of humans put in work to make life better for their communities.

Some of our solutions had the side effect of creating other problems--better access to electricity that ultimately made people's lives easier and safer led to pollution and climate change, for example--but we are tackling those knock on problems too. Our generation's solutions to our current problems will probably create their own less-bad side effects for the humans after us to deal with.

Is it silly and naive to believe we might actually be able to make things better? Not at all. We have many times before. We are doing it right now.

[idiomagic]

I am 56 years old. When I was a child, pollution was so bad there were days we could not go outside. Acid rain was a huge problem. We had nuclear apocalypse drills in school every week. There was a massive hole in the ozone layer. The whales were going extinct. Women could not get bank accounts or credit cards without their husband's approval. Hundreds of thousands of people were dying of AIDS. We were told, over and over, that there was no hope. There is always hope. The arc of change is slow, incremental, and sometimes it swings backwards for a bit, but there is always, always hope. But if you want change, you have to do the work. You have to stop scrolling, stop the discourse, get out in your community and make that change happen. You have to vote, every election, for the only party that is trying to swing that arc forward. You have to kill your inner puritan, kill the discourse, kill the voices that say 'they haven't earned my vote' and 'they're not perfect' and 'they're not progressive enough.' You have to destroy the idea that 'both sides are the same' and 'we need to teach the dems a lesson' and 'we're all going to die anyway so it doesn't matter.' It matters. It always matters. Incremental progress is better than the alternative. When we vote, we win. When we register others to vote, we win. When we fight, we win. When we demand change and do the work, we win. Doomscrolling won't save you. Apathy won't save you. Burning it down won't save you. No one else will save you. You have to save yourself. You have to work to make the future bright. You have to ask for help, offer help. You have to do the work. The future is bright. If you want it to be.

[pipermca]

I got another spam comment today on AO3, and I want to share it as a PSA. But before I do, I want you to understand that you SHOULD NOT DO what this comment is asking. Ok? Ok.

See that bit at the bottom? Don't do that. Insert ParamedicGuy.gif going "Don't."

Other malicious spam comments I've gotten seemed designed to make an author question their writing, or outright encourage them to delete their stories from AO3. This one is different, in that it tries to get you to destroy the work on your own computer.

If you ran that command, it basically locates your Documents folder, then deletes everything in it, including all subfolders. It also does it without any prompt, so you have no chance to second guess your actions.

This is just fucking trolling.

Coincidentally, we just did training on a cyberattack similar to this, called a ClickFix attack. You can read about how that works here.

As a general rule, if ANYONE or ANY WEBSITE tells you unsolicited* to do anything in Powershell, CMD RUN, command prompt, shell command, or something similar, DON'T.

*There are legit reasons for running commands in PowerShell or the command prompt, but in those cases you are likely seeking out a solution to a problem you are already experiencing. Don't just run random commands on your computer as recommended by some unlogged-in guest on a fan fiction site.

Always think and consider before taking action, and get a second opinion from a trusted source. When I got this comment I was pretty sure what the command would do, and it took me about three seconds of googling to confirm it.

Be safe out there!

[fowo]

as an IT guy I can confirm that this command WILL delete all your shit. DO NOT DO IT.

Here's a bit of a further breakdown for the ones curious about what the hell this command does.

What you're basically telling your PC if you ran this is "go into this folder (Documents) and then Recursively (for all sub-folders) Remove (delete) all files therein Forcefully (without any user input and also if a file was locked)."

The little "Exclude *.archiveofourown" they tack in there is just honestly absolutely diabolical if you don't know what you're looking at.

As an inexperienced user, you'll think "oh of course, exclude ao3, that's what I want!"

*.archiveofourown is a file ending, including any file title.

There are not archiveofourown files.

This is telling your PC to ignore files that don't exist.

Honestly, the gall of these trolls is astounding.

DO NOT DO THIS.

And as a further alarm bell, even if a well-meaning anon came to your comments to warn you:

why has ao3 not put out this warning officially?

this command is for Windows users. WHAT ABOUT ALL THE PEOPLE WHO USE MAC OR LINUX?

Hope my humble knowledge was informative to someone. Stay safe, everyone.

[amuseoffyre]

Any post that is hostile or panic-inducing like this seem to go for the "username (guest)" naming style. Don't trust them.

[corantus]

locked the fuck in get my money up

[skoomabong]

[beardedmrbean]

[ftmtftm]

I simply do not care about a stupid Tumblr girls vs boys who has it worst pity party over trans people when ALL trans people in Kansas are being denied their legal fucking IDs right now. Like can we buckle down and be so serious.

Can we acknowledge the fact that we are ALL under attack on both state and federal levels now? Please? Fucking please? I'm begging on my hands and knees the tangible evidence is right fucking there.

[allbollocks-deactivated20220819]

reblog this if you’re jewish or your blog is a safe space for jewish people

in light of recent events as well as a new rise in creating nazi ocs I think this post is an important one to have on your blog if you stand behind your jewish followers or are jewish yourself.

[kittysboba]

my blogs are safe for Jews :)

[shhhimnothereiswear]

MY BLOG IS SAFE FOR JEWS TOO >:3

[queer-scots-geordie-dyke]

I will always be a safe space 💙

[raindropssys]

my friend Britt needs help securing shelter for them and their cat! 🐈‍⬛💗

"$1582 needed before 2/27 10am PST‼️

Survival funds also needed! W/e comes in automatically goes towards shelter‼️

Tyvm for sharing to other platforms, boosts, affirmations, sends! 🕯️🍀"

[infectiouspiss]

violence and death and dying and blood and guts and gore and violence and viscera and fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you

[thelaughingserpent]

The courage to slay a god.

[kawuli]

random PSA, I know a lot of people use duckduckgo as a Google alternative search engine, but it always kind of annoyed me when I was using it because it felt like No Name Brand Google

I have switched to using Startpage.com and vastly prefer it. for one thing, instead of displaying an "AI summary" at the top of the search results (unless you turn it off, yes I know), it displays the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article, with link, whenever it finds one that's relevant.

also a waaayyyyy better sense of design than duckduckgo

also private, European based, least annoying search I've used lately (RIP old "don't be evil" Google)

[yomikoreadsbooks]

Keeping a list of Google alternatives just in case…

[saxifraga-x-urbium]

i have one of those, scraped from multiple different rec posts:

Search Engines

Infinity Search is an alternative search engine with a special focus on privacy

DuckDuckGo is a popular search engine for those who value their privacy and are put off by the thought of their every query being tracked and logged. Uses bangs, ![site] for in-page search (sells your data to microsoft and draws from fucking bing)

WolframAlpha is a privately owned search engine that allows you to “compute expert-level answers using Wolfram’s breakthrough algorithms, knowledgebase, and AI technology.” A data search engine.

Boardreader is a search engine for forums and message boards. It allows you to search forums and then filter down results by date and language.

Based in France, Qwant is a privacy-based search engine that won’t record your searches or use your personal details for advertising. Uses “&” as a bang search.

Another privacy-based search engine is Search Encrypt, which uses local encryption to ensure that users’ identifiable information cannot be tracked. Metasearch across multiple engines. 

Offering unbiased results from several sources, SearX is a metasearch engine that aims to present a free, decentralized view of the internet. Can be self-hosted. 

Gibiru’s tagline is “Unfiltered private search” and that’s exactly what it offers. Requires AnonymoX Firefox add-on for privacy. 

Disconnect allows you to conduct anonymous searches through a search engine of your choice.

Swisscows provides fully encrypted searches to protect your privacy and security. Built-in violence/porn filter cannot be overridden. 

MetaGer offers “Privacy Protected Search & Find” through its anonymised search. A plugin will allow it to be made a default.

Gigablast is a private search engine that indexes millions of websites and servers real-time information without tracking your data, keeping you hidden from marketers and spammers. Variety of filtration and refinement options for searching. 

Oscobo is a search engine that protects your privacy while you search the web. By not using any third-party tools or scripts, your data is protected from hacking and misuse. Has a Chrome extension to allow use in toolbar. 

https://search.marginalia.nu/ an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed. Use old-school searching rather than query-based for the best results. 

https://www.mojeek.com/ 

https://wiby.me/ - It’s goal is to index as many personalized websites as possible, and NOT commercial sites. 

https://4get.ca/ it works a lot like SearX, but honestly better. It doesn’t have its own index, but pulls from many others. I think it’s the best for research, since it allows you to search for answers from different indexes, is easy to configure, add free, and avoids censorship as much as it can.

https://www.searchenginemap.com/ for more on how search engines relate to each other.

https://yep.com/ is a crawler

https://www.etools.ch/ retrieves from Google, Mojeek, Bing, and Yandex, like Searx

https://www.dogpile.com/ 

https://searxng.org/ (next gen Searx)

https://luxxle.com/ - possibly conservative?

https://presearch.com/ - good for academic?

https://kagi.com/smallweb - free/randomised Kagi.

Other Searchers

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free.https://cosine.club/ is an electronic music similarity search engine

[cuicuisausage]

Painting process

[bugthingsdaily]

Today's bug thing are these bee cufflinks!

[veryluckyclovers]

[raindropssys]

@starstrucksymphonies

[loaffab]

Flight of the bumblebees 🐝🐝🐝

[dreamsinthyme]