Joining the real world

Adventures of another college nerd.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Animorphs #1: The Invasion thoughts (pt. 3):

Tobias moved here from "the other coast"? (p. 50) Never noticed that detail before. So much for my theory that he's from Michigan because he mentions liking hockey. New headcanon: he's from Maine.

Also, the narration mentions Tobias having "a sliced finger" from where he scared Dude by turning into a cat, after he morphed and demorphed (p. 51). Goes back to the theory that morph-healing doesn't exist yet as of #1.

Will never ever ever be over the visual pun of Tom holding a game controller in his hands during the scene where Marco figures out there's a yeerk in his head.

It takes Tobias "about three minutes" to demorph from hawk to human, the first time he does it (p. 88). We know that's going to get faster later on, but we also know that Tobias keeps hesitating every time someone asks him to turn from a hawk back to a human. Not to worry, buddy, that isn't a problem you'll have for much longer!

Which is interesting, because Jake notes "I hadn't ever seen Tobias so happy. I mean, Tobias has a pretty lousy home life..." and then feels the need to go "'No more than two hours in any morph, right?'" (p. 89). Pretty sure Jake only thinks Jake is bad at understanding people.

Animorphs books can be read here | Book Club schedule is here

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

@miniaturecatmentality

Tobias did live in Michigan, he just didn't know where he was and assumed it was a coast because they were by the Great lakes

Hell yes. Add it to the tradition of Tobias not having a clue about geography.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

The Animorphs becoming less politically aware as the series progresses is very funny. Rachel knows in 6 that their governor is preparing to run for president. Jake recognizes that a mask is supposed to be Newt Gingrich in 27. But by 51, not one of them even knows the governor's name or gender. Talk about tunnel vision.

It's true. That said, I feel like this is also down to personality. Rachel is more connected to politics because of her mom, whereas Tobias is like "is the governor a bird and/or a hork-bajir? No? Then I don't give a shit."

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

@twilight0wanderer

Given that the governor mission was given to bird-boy, alien-boy, and Marco, it's lucky they even knew where the capital was

Tobias: We can't tell you where we're from. No really. I can't. I kinda... missed what state my aunt said she was sending me to? And, look, a lot has happened since then, and anyway...

Tobias: I keep hoping Ax will ask someone else what state we're in within my earshot, but so far he appears unaware that states exist. So that one's probably a bust.

[matt-lock]

tags from prev:

#emohawk#''my name is Tobias. just Tobias. no last name. none that I can tell you anyway.#cause. uh. my mom and my dad and my stepdad and my uncle and my bio dad's human morph (don't ask)#all had different last names and now i'm super unclear on which one's legally mine''#this kid canonically doesn't know his own birthday#200 miles north? he can find no problem#sacramento? never heard of it

[soviet-union-deactivated19911226]

u ever see someone with extremely fucked up views (or actions) and think wowww if a couple of things in my life went the tiniest bit differently that would have been me

[max1461]

I think most people would benefit from reflecting on how this might be true for them

[vacuously-true]

Sometimes people bitch about media, both fiction and nonfiction, that they think "humanizes" bad people, especially bigots fascists Nazis et cetera. And I'm just like. Hey. Hey. The problem is. They ARE human. HUMANS did that. Your next door neighbor could do that. Your grandma could do that. You could do that.

"No I'm a good person" why? Because you've gotten lucky and not seen propaganda yet that perfectly hit your buttons? Because you had people to correct you when you fucked up? Idk man I don't think we're all so different from the bad people. We're all just people.

Reminding ourselves of our shared humanity with terrible people does NOT serve to justify their actions. It serves to remind us that the seeds of what happened to them could get into us as well, or might already have. It reminds us to be vigilant and interrogate the hatred inside us.

If you convince yourself that you're just an Inherently Good Person who would never believe hateful things well. Now any little hateful thing that makes its way inside you undetected is never going to be interrogated. It will be left to grow undisturbed.

If you remember that those things can get into anyone, you know to look out for them, and weed them out when they appear, and take the criticism when others point them out in you. So remember, that could have been you. If you forget, maybe it will be.

[bunjywunjy]

[notaplaceofhonour]

See, this is what I’m talking about with hyperbolic & totalizing rhetoric both obscuring the actual problems and inevitably falling back on antisemitic libel.

At no point have I said the destruction or loss of life in any war isn’t excessive. But when war isn’t enough for you to criticize it, and it has to be “genocide” for you to care, you become more susceptible to filling the holes with hyperbole and misinformation. And more often than not, the hyperbole & conspiracy theories that are closest in reach rely on antisemitic tropes.

It isn’t enough that bombs are inherently destructive to human life & infrastructure, and that even “precision bombs” are not actually that precise; it has to be the worst, most total version of that thing—it has to be “carpet bombing”.

It isn’t enough to criticize the concept of civilian casualties as acceptable “collateral damage” in war; Israel has to be especially evil, so they have to be intentionally targeting civilians for the sake of it—thus the long and well-documented history of Hamas using civilians as “human shields” (even openly literally bragging about it), preventing civilians from escaping, and building military bases under civilian infrastructure, as well as the status quo of accepting civilian casualties in warfare, both remain unaddressed.

It isn’t enough that the destruction of war causes food and water scarcity, it has to be intentionally engineered. It has to be Israel poisoning wells.

And there it is: well-poisoning, an antisemitic libel nearly as old as—one could argue, an offshoot of—blood libel.

The claim that Israel is poisoning Palestinian wells is so baseless that even the source of that claim, Mahmoud Abbas, admitted his accusations were entirely baseless the very next day:

I’m pointing out that specific claim because it’s the easiest to illustrate just how baseless & bigoted it is. But it goes deeper than that: the same totalizing rhetoric and thought process that led this person to believe that antisemitic lie is also responsible for their willingness to attribute Hamas blocking escape routes to the IDF, to describe the bombing of military targets under civilian infrastructure as ”carpet bombing”, and that Israel is trying to exterminate the Palestinian people, despite so much evidence to the contrary.

I am not downplaying the loss of life & tragedy of this conflict or “mincing words” when I say this; I am not even denying the possibility that at some point more information may surface that suggests extermination was actually Netanyahu’s goal (though we are not there).

I am pointing out how this totalizing rhetoric, and the eagerness to believe Israelis are evil, genocidal monsters is impeding the left’s ability to accurately assess & address the root causes of that loss of life. I am pointing out how this goes deeper than just avoiding a checklist of antisemitic tropes. I am asking you to ask yourself, “What is making me so susceptible to believing Jews would poison wells or commit genocide?” “What bad habits am I engaging in with regard to my thought processes & rhetorical habits that makes me more prone to believing this?“

[mylight-png]

The "Free Palestine" movement is genocidal. Straight up. It's not just a few select slogans they use or some fringe members.

The very name of the movement is genocidal.

I had a conversation with my former roommates last semester where they refused to understand why "Free Palestine" in and of itself as a statement is a problem.

To them, it's a liberation movement. But the first issue arises when we ask who or what is being liberated.

What, in modern geographical terms, is Palestine? Where is Palestine? Who is the ruling party of Palestine?

Anyone with even a bit of knowledge would realize that this is a trick question. There isn't any country actually called Palestine.

When people refer to Palestinians, they typically talk about the people either in Gaza or the West Bank, which are two separate entities with two separate governments.

So who are we supposed to be freeing? Gaza, which has its own government in the form of Hamas? Or the West Bank, which has the PA as its governing group? (By the way, the PA has this little thing called pay-for-slay I suggest you look into, but that'd be a post for another time.)

The actual term "Palestine" most commonly is used to refer to the entire area of where Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank are located.

Which brings me to my main point. When people call to "Free Palestine" they aren't calling for a two-state solution. Identically to their call for "from the river to the sea", this slogan calls for the complete destruction of Israel.

A lot of people have already spoken on the issue of why "from the river to the sea" is genocidal in nature, so I won't be going too in depth on that. My point is more so that those two phrases are equivalently malevolent in nature.

There's also the people who call themselves "pro-Palestine". If we take into consideration what "Palestine" as a term means, we're left with two interpretations.

First, they just use that instead of "Free Palestine", making their use of it still equivalent for wanting the entirety of Israel gone.

Second, they want Palestine to "win" in the war.

Now, since we've established that there isn't actually a country called Palestine right now, they're either rooting for the PA or Hamas to win.

As I recommended before, it'd be fantastic if you could just take time to read up on what pay-for-slay is. As a quick summary, that's exactly what it sounds like. The PA pays people money for killing Israelis/Jews. (That's the very vague version, since this isn't the point of the post.)

Therefore, you can probably imagine what would happen to Israelis if the PA were to take over Israel (G-d forbid).

If, G-d forbid, Hamas were to take over Israel, we'd end up with a series of atrocities akin to the horrors of Oct 7th. How do I know? Hamas leaders have repeatedly promised to repeat Oct 7th again and again and again.

Both the PA and Hamas have killed their own people for suspected collaboration with Israel, in rather cruel ways. So you can probably imagine what'd happen to Israelis in both scenarios.

I have seen very very few people who align themselves with either phrasing of the movement actually calling for two states, or for any viable solution. (And no, a ceasefire that leaves Hamas in power is not a viable solution. We had a ceasefire until the moment they attacked on Oct 7th.)

(I say "very few" as an allowance that some may exist, but in reality I haven't seen any.)

If your solution involves the dissolution of Israel and giving power to either the PA or Hamas, congratulations. You are actively backing a genocidal "solution".

And much like a previous "solution", most of the victims of this proposed genocide would be Jewish.

[chutzpahchesed]

(x)

“punch Nazis” so easily became “Hitler had good points,” and what these people don’t even understand is that this is nothing new or revelatory - his persuasive oratory skills are a significant part of why so many fell in line behind him as he took power. they’re doing exactly the same thing and have convinced themselves they’re just in it. it is terrifying.

[laneichy]

Grumble grumble…

[weirdtranssexual]

it is literally so easy to talk about what’s happening to palestinians without being antisemitic i don’t know how so many of you are failing so badly at it

[asra-null]

It's really easy to not spout shit like this

And really fucking obvious what you mean when you do

[still-searching-for-something]

If the left is curious why it’s lost the support of so many Jews, this is why. Even Jews who have their problems with the war will stay far, far away from movements that very obviously long to kill and dehumanize them. Engaging in extremism, radicalization, and hate is not going to win hearts and minds.

[spot-the-antisemitism]

I think it bears emphasizing that it’s not just about the individuals who say things like in that screenshot. It’s also about the way the rest of the movement doesn’t do anything about it. At best, and only if confronted about it, they will say, “Oh, this person is not with us — no true leftist blah blah blah.” And then proceed to do nothing to actually exclude people like that from the movement, much less try to untangle the reason why people like that felt at home in your movement in the first place.

[fromchaostocosmos]

any other Jews super duper nervous for Pesach due to the history of Blood Libel and Pesach and the amount of Blood Libel and overall antisemitism that we have been seeing increasing exponentially lately. And being seen in both Right and Left extreme fringes as well in main stream.

Also super duper nervous for Easter because again the antisemitism and Blood Libel that we would happen in the past around Easter and how much we are seeing it the same things now.

Just very nervous and nerve wracking time. I really am worried on top the worry that I already have about the safety for Jews and communities.

I just have a terrible feeling that something bad will happen on Pesach.

[prismatic-bell]

Not just you.

[multifander-is-writing]

Elijah, come and join us at the Seder this year challenge. God level impossible mode.

No, but seriously. This year has me on edge.

[partyinvalhalla]

I'm concerned about deicide libel this year.

There's gonna be an influx of "Jesus was Palestinian and (((they're))) crucifying him again" kind of shit going on.

[hero-israel]

While we are spilling out our wine because we cannot fully enjoy ourselves knowing that the innocent were killed, they will be saying none of us are innocent and we all deserve it.

[leonardo-nierman]

U of British Columbia student union rejects vote to boot Hillel from campus after Jewish groups sound alarm - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

The resolution would have called for the Vancouver university to “end Hillel BC’s lease.”

UBC’s campus is embroiled in a tug of war between its Hillel chapter and the alliance between its BDS and Social Justice Centre. Last autumn, a contractor affiliated with Hillel distributed “I Heart Hamas” stickers on campus and attributed them to the SJC; Hillel has since fired the contractor and disavowed them. The Hillel itself has also been a target of frequent pro Palestine protests since last October, especially since it invited an IDF soldier and UBC alum as a guest speaker. The two incidents have been cited by the SJP in their decision to sue Hillel and call for it to be booted from campus, though the referendum has been rejected. I would like to note that, hilariously, the BDS-SJP union called the plot the Hillel building is located on “unceded indigenous land,” which begs the question of what about literally the rest of the campus and university itself:

[mariacallous]

[amaditalks]

The far right justices in question are Clarence Thomas (75) and Samuel Alito (73). The likelihood that both will be able to remain on the bench until 2029, at the earliest, is small, especially with the growing ethics concerns around Thomas’ financial improprieties and his wife’s association with January 6 that may push his retirement even though he is currently (very) resistant. Thomas and Alito are the oldest members of the Court.

Re-electing Biden substantially increases the chances of the loaded 6-3 court shifting to 5-4, moving control away from the far right bloc, by 2029.

But it also has to be considered that Sonia Sotomayor, even though she is only 68, may not be able to remain on the bench through the next presidential term due to health concerns.

The first Trump presidency and Mitch McConnell’s scheming loaded the court with three right wing ideologues who barely qualify to teach law at Regent University, let alone have lifetime appointments to our highest court.

It is crucial to remember that the impact of a presidency on the courts outlasts any other presidential legacy and can change the entire course of American life for decades.

[stuckinapril]

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

Jewish Song of the Day #51: We Rise

Comments:

I haven't posted many songs in English because I mostly prefer to listen to music in other languages, but this one is compelling. Partially because it's Batya Levine and partially because of the message. I also love that it is non-denominational in a way in which you could easily use it at an interfaith gathering as well.

Honestly I almost always listen to it when I'm sad and I almost always tear up. But it gives me chizuk and makes me feel better.

Here's hoping it gives you strength, too!

[germiyahu]

It's clear to me that there is no number of Jews who can be attacked, brutalized, slaughtered, that is so big that Jews can't shut up about it, get over it, let everyone move on, stop hogging the attention, stop mining sympathy, stop crying wolf about antisemitism, stop playing the victim, etc.

And there is also no number of Palestinians who can be targeted and killed, both deliberately and indirectly, that is so small that it's not total ethnic cleansing, a genocide of horrific proportions, the next Holocaust (and in fact according to how they feel about Jewish death, worse than the Holocaust).

And yet the Tankies snicker about how Jews think Jewish lives are inherently more valuable than everyone else's. What's that thing they like to parrot? That it's official policy that 1 Jew is worth 3 Palestinians or something like that? Interesting.

[jewreallythinkthat]

Ok so ... Today's absolutely fucking batshit post that I had to read with my own two eyes

We all know Mohamed Hadid is a foaming at the mouth antisemite but this is a new level.

Let's start with the caption:

1. The implication all Jews are American? Insane, untrue, erasing all Jewish history in Israel which dates back to before the Arabization of the middle east.

2. No one has a single percent of Semite in them because Semite is not a race, it's an obsolete term for a family of languages (including both Hebrew and Arabic) however I need to specify that "Antisemitism" was coined as a term specifically about Jew hate. That's what it means, it's actually nothing to do with the language Hebrew at all, it was an attempt to sciencify "judenhass" and make it sound acceptable.

Now to the post itself:

3. If you demand an end to colonialism, boy have I got something to explain about why the official language of Morocco, a country the width of a continent away from the Arabian Peninsula is Moroccan Arabic... Or to be honest, the reason that Arabs are the main demographic anywhere outside the Arabian Peninsula where they originally came from. I understand that peoples migrate but that involves moving from one place to another, not expanding our and literally colonising everything around you. The Arab conquests of the MENA region are a well documented part of history...

4. Demanding a ceasefire is all well and good but we are all aware that we will never be going back to the status quo of before - which frankly is all a ceasefire with no actual work done to rebuild and move towards peace will do. A ceasefire neccestiates thought on what happens next. This is not to say people shouldn't be advocating for an cease to the fighting, they should, this all needs to end. What people have to also do is also be discussing what happens next. The old status quo was unsustainable, and with the mounting evidence that Gazans who worked in Israel helped with the planning of Black Saturday, we will never again see the relations between the people in southern Israel and those in Gaza go "back to normal".

I would love a ceasefire but we need to talk about what happens next in the same conversation. To ignore that is at best naïve and at worst, willfully ignorant because just stopping and Israel withdrawing will do nothing to help rebuild because we all know that everyone will lose interest if that happens, as has happened over and over again.

5. It's well known that Jews are indigenous to Israel and the ancient kingdom of Judea. It's literally in the etymology of the world. Now, obviously multiple groups can be indiginous to one area, but length of time residing there is not a marker of indiginunity, it's literally a childlike playground tactic. Straight up rewriting history... We all know how bad that is.

Mohamed Hadid has over a million followers. His daughters have a total of 130 million. They can post misinformation and almost ten times the number of Jews who exist in the world will see it. This is so dangerous and frankly this level of deranged lying on the internet does not nothing to help end the war, it just puts Jews outside of Israel more at risk. We are being murdered in the streets, in our places of work and everyone is cheering it on.

The irony of people applauding the murder of Jews calling us neo-nazis is not lost on me and it's unreal that we aren't even allowed to stand up to it. Let's be very blunt here, if you are justifying the slaughter of Jews, who's the real nazi?

An additional Edit:

There will never be a ceasefire without release of the hostages and bodies kidnapped into Gaza. Like it's so stupid to think otherwise. Especially with Hamas currently refusing to give a list of who is still alive (they said they couldn't give a list until they knew the terms of a ceasefire which clearly means they COULD do it, but they are choosing not to)

[prismatic-bell]

I've got a question (as per your post saying questions are welcome.) I hope you'll forgive me if I word things wrong and feel free to let me know so I can avoid doing it again.

So, I never really knew what Zionism was and I feel like I still barely know. Before I looked into it, all I had ever heard was people saying it with venom. From the way they spoke, I just assumed it meant something very aggressive and violent. To my knowledge SOME are violent but it doesn't seem accurate to say that Zionism is inherently violent or evil. I'm sure there's more I should know; It feels like I only barely, barely know the basics. In addition to any insights you might have in general, I guess I'd like to know: Is the Two-State solution technically Zionist, since Israel would continue to be a self-governing state? Am I Zionist or Zionist-ish if I believe in Jewish Indigeneity (while also believing in the indigeneity of the Palestinian people because more than one population can be indigenous to the same place.)

Also, and I apologize if it's inappropriate to make comparisons like this, it feels like the term "Zionist" is sort of used how "Communist" was used in Red Scare USA? It feels like it doesn't even mean anything other than "enemy" and is used to elicit a strong emotional reaction.

I want to learn more so that I don't perpetuate any stereotypes or continue in my ignorance. I'd also love any recommendations on books about Jewish History or the Levant! edenfenixblogs inspired me to read more about Jewish history with the recommendation of Night by Elie Wiesel, and I'd like to continue learning history beyond the Holocaust, too.

So first, your comparison of “Zionist” to “Communist re 1950s” is so spot-on I can’t believe I haven’t heard it before now. I just want to get that out front so I don’t forget later (ADHD goes whee).

So “Zionism” is sort of like “queer” in that it means a lot of different things to different people, but has core things that will always be true. Those things are thus:

1) the Jewish people are indigenous to the Levant;

2) many (though not all) Jews were forced to leave historic Israel and Judea due to Greek and Roman conquest and colonization, and this has gone poorly enough for us over the last two millennia that it’s clear we will not be safe until we have self-determination in our own country;

3) by virtue of being our ancestral and indigenous homeland, that country should be in the Levant.

That’s it, that’s Zionism.

I do want to point out there are Zionists who twist the word into pretzels in order to justify being horrible to others, particularly Palestinians. While I won’t no-true-Scotsman these people into not being Zionists, I will say they’re Zionists the same way the Taliban are technically Muslim. They’ve latched onto an otherwise-neutral label in order to have a bludgeon. That is not what Zionism should be, and for the majority of Zionists, it’s not.

[kick-a-long]

We’re sort of in a “blue scare” right now. People are basically seeing the Israeli flag in their cheerios.

[mariacallous]