#rationalization

[spaceshipsandpurpledrank]

[unsolicited-opinions]

Do you believe that zionist paramilitaries were justified in using terrorist tactics in support of their cause?

More generally, what tools are "valid" for non-state actors in pursuit of becoming a state?

(these are genuine questions im curious to hear your answers to, not a gotcha attempt)

Here's how Haviv Rettig Gur answers this question:

You want to know if Zionist paramilitaries were justified using terrorism against the British.

The implication is clear: if they were justified, then is Hamas justified now?

But discussion of "justification" misses what actually matters and is a strategic reframing of the comparison you're suggesting.

Here's what we should compare:

1. Could the British leave?

Yes. They had England. They were occupiers by choice.

Can Israelis leave?

No. They literally have No Other Land. (Yes, that's where the line comes from - it was appropriated by the makers of the propaganda film)

This isn't "colonial power vs natives." It's two peoples, both with national claims, with nowhere else to go.

2. What did Zionist groups want?

To expel the British and create a state.

What does Hamas want?

To eliminate Israel. Not "end occupation," but to eliminate the state. Read the Hamas charter.

These are very different goals.

People keep reaching for "justification" because it's simple and clean. It gives you a good guy and a bad guy. You pick your side, you're done. You get to feel moral clarity. That's what the Free Palestine movement is about: emotional resonance.

The actual situation offers no clarity. You can argue about who's more wrong or who started it, but justification framing skips past the harder question: what do you actually do when neither of these two peoples is going anywhere?

Justification turns a political problem into a morality play. It lets you have an opinion without needing a solution.

"Justification" is what Hamas supporters rely on to rationalize, then excuse any Hamas atrocity.

"Justification" is a fundamentally broken way to evaluate terrorism.

Targeting civilians is always wrong, and never, ever justifiable.

The identity of the attacked doesn't matter. The identity of the attacker doesn't matter. The goals being pursued by the attack don't matter.

No attacks targeting civilians are ever justified.

[philosophybits]

Dispelling rationalizations becomes itself rationalization. Instead of working to gain self-awareness, the initiates become adept at subsuming all instinctual conflicts under such concepts as inferiority complex, mother-fixation, extroversion and introversion, to which they are in reality inaccessible. Terror before the abyss of the self is removed by the consciousness of being concerned with nothing so very different from arthritis or sinus trouble. Thus conflicts lose their menace. They are accepted, but by no means cured, being merely fitted as an unavoidable component into the surface of standardized life.

Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 40

[mactiir]

U don't have to rationalize everything babes... sometimes there's no deep 5-paragraph analysis reason why u feel bad, u just do (or it's as simple as hungry/tired/overstimulated). sometimes that person isn't a toxic narcissistic abuser, u just don't like them (not everyone is gonna like u, either). sometimes that book/show/movie/game isn't evil and deeply problematic, u just don't enjoy it (and not enjoying it is making u feel isolated and left out). this isn't school yall, you don't have to defend your answer. you don't need 10,000 reasons u feel the way u do. just let yourself exist babes.

[happydazy82]

Coffee Hour

RATIONALIZATION, 02/25/2025

"Every time I close the door on Reality, it comes in through the window." Ashleigh Brilliant

I am an alcoholic. That is a reality against which I had slammed the door for years. She crept in through the window and slapped me upside the head. Facing Reality head-on, I accepted the truth of it and began the long road to recovery. I'm still an alcoholic, but my drink of choice these days is coffee, for the most part. It is still a chemical addiction, but at least I can drive. The only down side is I have to pull over to pee more often, but that's a tale for another day. Really! © keefderpoet, 2025

[the-healing-mindset]

View this post on Instagram

Do not allow their attempts to control the narrative blind you from what is really going on. People who want to avoid accountability will try their best to undermine what you are thinking and feeling regarding their behavior, and will make your response or reaction to their misbehavior the problem.

If it applies, they will pry into your journals, messages, or social media just to find something that may potentially resonate with you having a response to what they are doing so that they can call you out on it, shifting the focus from their mistreatment of you to your processing of the mistreatment. In their mind, you aren't supposed to have any issue with what they are doing because they are doing so many things for you that you wouldn't have otherwise.

You do not have to project positivity onto them. The reality is that they do not deserve to have access to you if they cannot take accountability for what they are doing wrong.

[side-shuffling-hyperfixations]

I Can Take It: Flow

(Prev)

~

Bruising wasn’t just a pain at best, it was an inconvenience to the family at worst. Thanks to the swelling, the spatter pattern across Blobboid’s ribs was a lot bubblier now, each throb of pain creating a new leak for the towels and ice packs to catch before it made a mess of the kitchen floor.

C’mon, pull yourself together…This is exactly what Dad was talking about. Everybody’ll be itching to get their hands on you if they know a few lucky punches are all it takes for you to spill your guts.

Well, a few dozen lucky punches. But Dad was only so gung-ho about literally wiping the floor with him because Blob had such big gaps in his defense. He had to shape up, get serious like his brothers—like Grav’s expression as he stopped in the doorway. He stared at the sodden towels against his side for several seconds.

“Training?” he spat.

Uh-oh. Was Grav already mad at him for his embarrassing performance too? Had Dad already complained about him to the others?

“Uh…yeah…Probably best if you don’t ask to see my report card. Talk about a training dummy.” His halfhearted chuckle shook self-consciously with the stitch in his side and sludge promptly pitter-pattered onto the floor. “Ugh, sorry! Sorry, I-I’ll get that once I can—agh, actually bend down without busting a gut!”

“No, you go lie down, settle your stomach. I’ll deal with it.”

“You shouldn’t have to, bro. I’m the mess, it’s not your job to—”

“You’re not, it is, and I will. I’ll deal with it.”

“Okay! Okay, okay, if you—feel that strongly about it.” Blob swallowed thickly, another leak springing as his insides somersaulted. “I-I am sorry, though.”

“Don’t be. You’re not the one who should be apologizing.”

~

(Next)