#even in spite of the genocides going on right now

[directactionforhope]

A weird reason I'm optimistic about the future/humanity

I keep thinking about making a post about this on reasonsforhope, and then not making a post about it, for what will become obvious reasons, but anyway here's a thought:

I get asked fairly often (relatively often? I don't get a lot of asks these days because I'm terrible at answering them) how I maintain hope and optimism in the face of everything.

Good question! I wonder that sometimes too, honestly, because I try to stay very aware of the world and very self-aware about my optimism and how realistic it is. (Three cheers for evidence-based optimism.)

And honestly, a really, really significant part of the answer is that I think the past - in general and especially during specific eras - was Significantly worse than the vast majority of people realize.

Like, the past kind of sucked, imho! People died all the time of all sorts of things! And then we had a solid 500 years of Big Time Atrocities. (aka 1492 to like. roughly the 1980s.)

In comparison, the 2000s have mostly been a really big improvement in a lot of ways, imho!

Weird argument for optimism, I know, but it is the basis of a lot of my optimism.

Why do I think things will change in the future, given that?

Well, mostly, it turns out that photography/film/the internet/phone cameras/social media/the general democratization of communication/the modern concept of international law all it way harder to get away with doing atrocities! And also, we now have scientifically validated proof that yes, people really can change, and no, no one is innately or hereditarily evil, and no, not even members of that one group you really hate, which personally I think is very reassuring! And a useful thing for society to have proof of!

#me #not an action #dafh not an action post #life #the future #cw genocide #and by the way this is I think true #even in spite of the genocides going on right now #like it feels super fucked up to even say that but we really DID used to commit SO MANY atrocities #btw I'm in no way trying to deny or downplay the severity of genocide or what's going on in gaza right now #it's just. historically. humans really did do so many atrocities. #like idk living in the 2020s sucks in some very real ways #but we also don't live in the early 1940s or say the 1850s or or or #so yeah #that's my two cents hope it's worth something to some ppl or at least not too upsetting

[mylight-png]

If you read nothing else on my blog at least read this:

Jewish survival is beautiful, and amazing.

I know times right now are absolutely awful, and it can feel like the world is against us. We're seeing the Nazi marches, the targeting of Jewish businesses, harassment of religious Jews, and so much more at a much more severe rate than many of us have seen within our lifetimes.

But we've survived this before.

The most dangerous thing right now is to lose hope. To lose hope of a better future, to lose hope of any future. We have survived the pogroms, the Holocaust, the Inquisition, the many Middle Eastern anti-Jewish genocides and attacks, various expulsions and so much more.

I've reblogged someone else's post saying this before but I'm going to say it here again: every single Jew alive right now is a miracle.

So here's one thing I want to ask of you: Live.

Do it out of love for your fellow Jews, do it out of spite towards our enemies, do it so that there will be more miracles in the future.

Living is the greatest form of Jewish rebellion.

Living a proud Jewish life is even more so, but at the very least, please live.

Please please please don't give up on life right now. If you feel alone, reach out. Reach out to your fellow Jews, find non-Jewish allies to stand by your side, seek out supportive communities.

As a Jew, you are never truly alone. You have people who will love you like family if you just reach out, because we are one. One family, one nation, one soul. And we all care for each other.

Am Yisrael Chai 💕

#jumblr #jewish #judaism #jew #israel solidarity #antisemitism #jewish love #ahavat yisrael #mental health

[necronomeconomicism]

Ok gotta talk about it.

As a Jewish historian, I fucking hate Israel in ways most probably will never be able to comprehend. I'm going to try and explain it anyways. The central creation myth of Israel is that it is Jewish, and then consequently, that Israel is a part of Jewishness. Its easy to simply state this is false, but fully comprehending this and putting it into practice in thought and deed seems rare to me.

The evil at the heart of this violence predates the recent acceleration of genocide. Israel is a colony, and more than that, an antisemitic fraud itself. After WW2, when Israel was being founded, the Jews of Europe generally did not wave goodbye to their neighbors and head to the promised land. Many were expelled from their homes. Zionism itself, as an action, was a false choice at the time. A mere excuse to place an ally in the middle east, and an excuse to complete the expulsion and destruction of the European Jew. The Zionist Jew is more than complicit in this, they actively seek the destruction and assimilation of all other Jews.

Many fail to realize, and largely because of Israel, that Jews are not inherently white, Ashkenazi, European-descended people. Our faith and culture has an immense variety that is spread all across the globe. Jewishness, in population and volume of culture, exists more so outside of Israel than within it. Israel is for a very specific kind of Jew. The kind that lets Yiddish die, that attaches themselves to European things, that makes themselves and their practices as white as possible.

And they have the nerve, the fucking belligerent GALL, to frame themselves as the necessary saviors of our people. To the Zionist, questioning Israel is to question Jewishness itself. They bake adoration for the colonial machine into their very prayers, and push them on us even as children. To *not* oppress, to *not* kill, to *not* genocide, is to invite death. This is the core of fascistic thought, of course. "Kill them before they kill us." And they KNOW this too, they really do. The truth of that irony does not matter, because as is true for all fascists, the truth itself does not matter to them. They wanted this, they wanted this even before the British saw it in their best interest to give them the land. Any excuse to RETVRN, as the neo-nazis say of Rome, or the German Empire, or whatever the fuck stupid country they want to poorly animate the corpse of. Some select Zionists even *sided with the fucking Nazis* in agreement they should abandon Europe to colonize Palestine. (Haavara Agreement)

My people have proved time and time and time again you don't need a nation state to have an enduring culture. We have protected ourselves for thousands of years without the help of these spiteful, doom-saying maniacs. I was going to post something like this on Passover, but that would be hypocritical. The state of Israel doesn't actually have shit to do with Jewishness. שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְה Vi tsu derleb ikh im shoyn tsu bagrobn. [my best translation] Hear Israel (beginning of a prayer in Hebrew) I should outlive him long enough to bury him. (an old Yiddish curse)

Free Palestine. Donate what you can, they need it right now.

#free palestine #israel #jews for palestine #jews against israel #jewish history #antisemitism #jews against genocide

[directdogman]

Hey there's someone trying to say you said you were pro Israel on discord? They're anonymous and say you blocked them before they could get screenshots so I don't really believe them, but still :[

Mhm. Nice bit of news to wake up to, this.

Yeah, so this person's a troll and they're more than likely lying on purpose in order to try to me look bad because I blocked them on Twitter for being unpleasant, something I rarely even do and they're still seething about it. The block had nothing to do with Gaza, the person was just being annoying and I thought it'd be healthier to block and move on. I'd really prefer not to have to give this person energy, but if there's a rumor going around, I'd like to nip it in the bud, since it's very easy to disprove in this case.

To explain what this person's blathering about: Earlier this week, on a Phonegingi plush advert, this random user that doesn't follow me (and actually instructs fans of mine not to interact with them in their bio) made a dramatic QRT decrying me for posting a DT advert during a strike week, which I honestly had no clue it was, especially since my own timeline was (and still is) full of accounts posting normally.

Given that the person seemingly encountered one of my posts in the wild and ended up seething because of it + likely didn't want anything to do with me on their timeline (as their bio indicated), after thinking it over briefly, I did the healthy thing and just blocked the person + moved on. Makes sense, right? I'll admit: Even if the way the person approached me was regrettable, if I'd known it was a strike week, I'd have participated (as I'd participated in the last one), so I stopped posting teasers for the week anyway, only resuming again yesterday.

I'll also say: I checked my own timeline btw and looked at the accounts posting, and nobody else had anyone acting like this in their replies, even the much larger accounts. Nor did anyone else contact/reply to me in any way stating any disapproval.

Given that I've only blocked one account recently that isn't a replybot (and ofc, given the subject matter of that tweet), I'd have to assume that this is the anonymous person spreading stuff.

I'd understand where this person was coming from if maybe I'd stayed completely silent about Gaza, (which a lot of accounts I follow have) but I haven't. I had a Palestinian aid post pinned on my Twitter for weeks, I've talked about Gaza's child population and my support for South Africa's Hague suit in my discord server, I've engaged in the boycotts, wound down posting during strikes, donated a pretty substantial amount of Dialtown revenue towards sending money/esims... I have 4 bucks in my bank account right now and when my next DT check comes in, you'd better believe I'll be giving more. That's my right as a private citizen and one I'll continue to exercise.

I feel pretty uncomfortable having to put this stuff in front of me to 'prove' myself, even if some of it is public anyway. Charity should be something you do because you CARE and if it wasn't for this person, I'd have been far happier keeping a lower profile and not explicitly calling attention to my own aid, but given this ask, I feel it'd be stupid not to nip this in the bud. The majority of this information could be easily found with the tiniest amount of digging, btw, so it's not like the user couldn't have known any of this. This is the part of having a fandom that creators seldom talk about. You block one person for being a lil annoying, next thing you know, there's rumors that you support genocides! Fun.

So yeah, I'd like you to tell this person to just move on like a normal person (send them this post if you have to) and to stop spreading incorrect rumors about me out of spite. If they insist, I'm happy to pull up receipts to prove everything I've said. If they actually thought I was pro-Israel, they wouldn't be spreading it anonymously, they'd be writing another public post about the subject matter. Also if you see anyone repeating the rumor, please correct them. Thanks.

[joseline-woodhouse]

Okay I have to say it.

Will, Ada and Montresor did something way worse than Annabel Lee.

Why? Because motive matters. Now don't get me wrong, a good motive cannot justify an inherently evil action, it however matters more and more when going deeper into more morally grey areas.

Annabel has made it very clear she understands these people, including Duke to be damned regardless of her actions and basically sees herself confronted with a trolley problem that goes: "You, your wife and like X other people are bound to rails. A trolly will run over all but one of you. However if you pull just the right levers, both you end your wife will survive. The first lever you must pull is on Duke." While this doesn't make her actions noble, it gives them a noble cause and one could argue in several ways that she's acting within a moral grey area if we take the situation to be as unshakable as it seems. To make to examples, one could argue in an utalitarian way (this saves more lives than the other option) or in a very human way (this saves a loved one at the cost of a soon to be dead man, who could blame her?). There are also concepts of morality that would condemn her, like for example the categoric imperative or Jewish or Christian (and I think Muslim) religion, in which it is inherently bad to kill a single person even to safe thousands of others.

Annabel considers killing Duke a necessary evil.

Montresor however is acting out of pure sadism and spite and he puts on quite a show to make this clear. He had done so even if he believed everyone would get a happy end and he is having the time of his life killing Duke. That is picture book chaotic evil behaviour right there and by no means redeemable.

Will and Ada? Arguably worse than Montresor, at least not a bit better. This is the kind of stuff that makes large scale modern genocides possible. Hannah Ahrendt (great woman, you should look her up) argues in her book "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" that evil at its worst is not some kind of demonic evil like it has been preached in medieval times, but lays within the sheer banality of an office worker casually doing the phone calls and paper work necessary to send thousands to their certain death, while the office worker goes back home, eats dinner with his family and thinks "I'm just doing my job. It's my supervisors moral responsibility, not mine."

Ada and Will tried to kill for no other reason than because they have been told to do so and the lack of willingness to accept responsibility really shows in their actions afterwards. So I am a bit confused when I see people arguing how terrible Annabel Lee is while defending the "poor boy Will".

So, controversial opinion: in this very specific case, even though Annabel Lee either started this or at the very least didn't stop it when she clearly could have, she hasn't committed anything as immoral as her henchmen committed, who did not even need a motive to kill.

Also I would every day prefer an Annabel Lee willing to kill Duke to safe her wife in the long run over an Annabel Lee that prefers to not be a controversial female character. Let's not forget these people don't actually exist.

#nevermore webtoon #annabel lee whitlock #montresor nevermore #will nevermore #ada nevermore #annabel lee #annabel lee nevermore #annabel nevermore #nevermore

[fanfic-obsessed]

Well Technically...

It is not often that I get an idea that includes Vader (with the genocide and horror that is implied) that makes me giggle.  This however made me giggle. 

So Vader returns to the light right before he dies and comes back as Anakin the Force ghost.  Now despite what it appears this is not a kindness.  Anakin spends decades following his kids and the galaxy at large watching how little his existence mattered (galactically Anakin Skywalker was barely more than a recognizable name, and even that was diminishing as the people who knew of the ‘hero without fear’ died off; Vader would be forgotten even more quickly because no one wanted to remember him) even as he saw the long term consequences of his life (Luke’s struggle with his own identity-both as a man and a Jedi-, Leia’s struggle with her ancestry-finding out that your blood father killed all your other available parents was not a good feeling, Reva healing from the trauma he directly caused, all the ways that Ahsoka had to reshape her own soul to patch the holes Anakin put there, the echoes of the clones that died at his hand and command and the horror of the ones that survived). He has to watch his grandson not only make his mistakes but somehow make them worse, which was something that he did not know was possible. We get all the way through the the sequels, with a heavy emphasis on Anakin watching how the consequences of his actions (particularly the slaughter of the Jedi but many of the the things he did both during the empire and during the war) while acknowledging that he is not even remembered enough to be cursed, how the galaxy has spun on, not just without him but in spite of him and he is not even a footnote. 

After Palpatine’s final, for now, death, Anakin is approached (for lack of a better term) by something shaped like Obi Wan Kenobi, circa the beginning of the clone wars. When this being speaks, it speaks with two voices at once, the Daughter and the Son. It asks if he could go back to before his Fall and change things, would he.

Anakin is sure he would, there are so many things he would do differently. 

The being says that it can send him back to just before his tipping point, where his Fall and all the evil he did became inevitable, but cannot send him back further than that.  Anakin agrees. Just before he sent back the being tells him that should his Fall become inevitable again, they would shred his mind and soul and it would be more excruciating than any pain he had ever experienced. 

Anakin, who had spent 20 years in agony, now had one(1) fear. 

Anakin “closed” his eyes in the Force, wondering when he would be sent back to (Killing Padme, Marching on the Temple, Believing Palpatine over Fives) only to open his eyes as his mother took her last breath. He was back on Tatooine, in the Tusken camp. 

Anakin was confused, this was the point of no return? He had not even thought about the Tusken camp in decades, had not truly considered them at all since Padme absolved him of their slaughter.

But this was also an Anakin that had spent decades in pain, and then decades observing. He was much more patient, by necessity if  not choice, less likely to act on violent impulse then the last time. Also the majority of his rage died in a cloud of lightning with the Emperor.  Instead of killing the Tuskens in a rage, he wept over his mother’s body in the grief he denied himself the first time. The reaction surprises the Tuskens so much (due both to the nature of Tatooine and the animosity between them and the moisture farmers they had not seen human tears of grief before) that they let Anakin take the body and leave. 

They still bury Shmi and go to rescue Obi Wan (though it does not end in a marriage this time). The War still starts but Anakin is also running around trying to fix things, including himself (and actually doing all the actual emotional work on figuring out and fixing his own issues), meditating (Frankly Obi Wan is starting to be concerned that anakin is possessed), trying to not kill anyone (because he really isn't sure what the tipping point about the Tuskens was and does not want to risk it), get the chips discovered in such a way that they do not tip off the Sith (He brings a few clones, including Fives to the temple to Spar and 'accidentally' hits Fives hard enough to knock him out and pracitcally forces Master Che do a deep enough scan), make a list of the people he killed to try and do something nice for them. At some point he decides his ‘penance’ for his life as Vader was that he would somehow bring all the currently known Sith back to the Light (including Palpatine).

In the Force, the Daughter is watching all this, her head in her hand repeating over and over ‘The point of no return was murdering children, you moron. All you have to do is not murder children’. And everything he is doing works towards that goal, but she doesn’t expect him to fix the universe (in my head it is a bit akin to asking someone to tell you an equation that use 2 and equals 4, expecting 2+2 or 2*2 but instead them confidently saying((2xSqRt(100))-40+36)/4)

The Son is watching this all with Force popcorn, this is the most entertaining thing to happen in ages. 

It is important to note that the Dark in this does not mean Evil. It means selfish, which is not the same thing.  You can be a selfish dick and still not be evil.  Mostly in this case it means that for those that inhabit the dark their priority is 1)Their own wants and needs; 2)The needs of the people they like, as long as it doesn’t inconvenience them; 3) The wants or needs of others if it benefits them in some way.  The Son was bored by what the Empire did to the Force, and he found having the Light there (and everything Anakin was doing) entertaining. 

I just keep picturing the Daughter, in the Force, exasperated with Anakin because, yes everything he is doing is good for him and the galaxy but his ONLY job is ‘don’t murder children’ and it never even occurs to Anakin that that was the only act he needed to avoid. 

#star wars the clone wars #anakin skywalker #fanfiction prompt #star wars au #sheev palpatine #darth vader #star wars #star wars sequals #the clone wars

[ms-scarletwings]

Honest truth, with every episode of this messed up show I finish rewatching I’m more are more sure that Dib is just as incompetent and short-sighted when it comes to his “mission” as Zim is. But it’s so funny to me that while Zim just makes bad plans, has awful priorities, and improvises a lot by the seat of his pants, Dib’s incompetent in the classical bumbling villain sense. Like, he’s doing the right thing, he generally has clever approaches and insights, makes full use of his resources, yet,

He’s still aesthetically and narratively such an antihero, the poor dweeb.

Observe, my magnificent Venn diagram

Only thing I didn’t want to tack on that because it bears worth of some more elaboration: Both of these two are horrible about recklessly arming their nemesis with tons of free information and striking opportunity that can only be used against them.

And Dib is worse at this, like, so… so much worse. Zim will do the classic ‘Muahahaha, now that I have you right where I want you, here’s a detailed presentation of my entire insidious plan, Batman!’ routine while at least having the class to wait until the hero is being lowered over the acid vat or tied to the train tracks. Dib, as a villain? Would start reciting that same speech while in the middle of trying to kidnap the hero, about 3 and a half steps way too early. It’s actually crazy how fast he will telegraph his next move even when he’s not in a position of having a real advantage yet.

The first time the two met and Dib stood there loudly showing himself as the most perceptive and hostile human in range? And then stood there explaining alien sleep cuffs and what he was going to do with them? And then stood there declaring war and that he’d identified Zim’s base location, swinging said cuffs around in front of the gnome brigade? Granted, he wasn’t aware of Zim’s security at the time, but the essence of that sequence was a pattern that he was more than happy to keep repeating for the next couple seasons.

Also, Zim’s brutalism, while it went to some shudder inducing places, is more expected from a genocidal maniac born from a race of colonial supremacists. It’s part of his theatrics and it’s fun for him in the same way it’s fun for his leaders to blow up innocent ice cream space-trucks and unlucky planets. Dib gets mean with their face offs in a way that’s just dripping with spite. All the time spite. Trivial, personal, petulant spite. Even more than Tak and her grudge, which, should be a lot more surprising to me. But it’s really not.

What it did do instead was remind me of a very interesting quote I once heard, from a Cracked video about online gaming behavior, of all places,

#invader zim #dib membrane #iz #iz dib #iz analysis #my memes #adorkable jerkass #Only real thing separating their brands of idiocy is Zim’s blissful denial lmao #he infodumps about his plans like me rambling about my dnd campaigns lmfao #dib slander #scarlet talks about things

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

I can see the inconsistency of Felix character is because he actually a character for there "Fans demand" :

Sooo you prefer 2D-Catnoir/Felix rather than our angel Adrien ? Here Felix ! He official debut in "Felix" ! He is Adrien cousin and a big jerk ! Hate him just like how I hate him too !

Wh- What ? You like him ? Fuck ! So you feel he is more competent that our pure evulz bitch teenagers ? Fine ! Here's Felix who manage to trick Gabriel in "Gabriel Agreste" ! Now He is as dangerous as Gabe

Oh Fuck ! You still like him and feel he is more "relevant" than our angel Adrien and my sweetie Marinette ? Here's I present YOU Felix join Miracuclass as "Dog Hero" and then sell all the Miraclouses to Gabe ! He is Evil ! EVil ! EVIIIIL !

What ? You asking me why he want Peacock Miraculous so much ?! Here I present you Felix as Argos ! He wiped humanity out-of-spite and try to create the Utopia for his own freedom ! He is misanthrope !

What A second ? Why... You... STILL.... EXPECTED... CHLOE... TO BE REDEEMED.... why she already... has many traits... to be put in "Complete Monster" territory ? Why YOU keep want her to be redeem like Zuzu and Pacifica just because having shitty parents ? FINE ! Here's Felix to be our Zuzu ! He is tragic little peacock... has tragic backstory.... shitty dad... and a handsome teenager.... pretty much like Zuzu right ? Now shut up and Go simp on him and Feligami already !

Proper redemption arc ? Who hell need redemption arc as long as he is "tragic and handsome" ? Don't worry... we will make Kagami as "senti" out-of-nowhere aside she wear different ring as excuse and a "horny possessive girl" who still can't move on from Adrien and make her Simp felix because he smell and looks like Adrien RIIIIIIIIIIIGHHT LOL

Honestly, it is pretty hilarious that Felix was meant to be seen as the actual character who went through a serious redemption arc compared to Chloe, when the writers pretty much speedran through every major part of it in time for the finale.

Like, say what you will about Chloe and whether or not you think she deserved to be redeemed, but at least the arc leading to her betrayal was spread across three seasons. Felix's redemption arc only lasted three episodes.

Because of the poor pacing, this is the character journey Felix goes through during the latter half of Season 5.

Emotion: "I'm going to wipe out all of humanity and create a better world! Wait, you think I'm insane for erasing your friends and family from existance while essentially committing mass genocide? WHAT HAVE I DONE?!"

Pretension: "Even though I've spent almost no time with you, I think I'm falling in love with you because you may be a Sentimonster person with strict parents like me. Of course, I don't love you enough to break my new moral code against using Sentimonsters or even answering for my betrayal of Ladybug."

Representation: "I'm finally going to do something to help Ladybug because her arch-enemy is getting in the way with my week-old relationship, and that moral code against Sentimonsters? I don't want to use Sentimonsters to fight, but using Sentimonsters to put on a play to convey information I could easily tell Ladybug myself, since my new girlfriend conviently learned her identity over ten episodes ago? Perfectly okay. And since I have a personal stake by wanting to protect both my cousin and girlfriend, surely, this means I'll get to play a big part in the season finale instead of just letting Ladybug do all the work, right?"

Conformation and Re-Creation:

#immaturity of thomas astruc #iota #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug salt #felix graham de vanily #argos #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #chloe bourgeois #queen bee #queen b

[palestinegenocide]

Biden ‘quietly’ gives massive bombs to Israel — even as establishment voices say, Stop the genocide

The devastating news from Washington this week was that in spite of lip service against Israel’s war on the people of Gaza, the Biden administration “quietly” approved the transfer of more massive bombs to Israel.

Biden is sending along more than 2000 one-ton bombs and 500-pound bombs, the Washington Post reported (per Common Dreams).

“This is cowardly,” Yousef Munayyer wrote. “If you are going to be full backers of genocide, own it. We see you and history sees you as well.”

“This is obscene,” Bernie Sanders wrote. “We must end our complicity: No more bombs to Israel. The U.S. cannot beg Netanyahu to stop bombing civilians one day and the next send him thousands more 2,000 lb. bombs that can level entire city blocks.”

We can only imagine how horrifying such armaments are here in the West. Gazans don’t have to imagine. These instruments of annihilation have generated a neverending nightmare. Even the Washington Post says these bombs “are almost never used any more by Western militaries in densely populated locations due to the risk of civilian casualties.” But Israel has used them extensively.

Which is why more than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed, the vast majority women and children. Israel justifies the slaughter of civilians by arguing that a majority of Palestinians approve of Hamas’s attack of last October. So, collective punishment is policy.

At least Biden’s hypocrisy is being reported in the Washington Post. And we are seeing a broad movement in progressive circles to end Israel’s immunity to international law.

Harvard Law School’s student government voted for the university to divest from Israel. The global activist network Avaaz has got half a million signatures calling for a cutoff of U.S. aid to Israel.

America is Israel’s biggest arms dealer. You are giving American weapons to a government that is blocking life-saving aid and violating international law. This will only stop when you demand it stops.“

Public opinion is also horrified. A Gallup poll finds that 55 percent of Americans oppose Israel’s months-long military campaign (while 36 percent approve). “A mere 18% of Democratic voters approve of Israel’s effort.” And 75 percent disapprove.

Gallup poll published March 27 shows that American Democrats’ support for Israeli actions is plummeting over three months.

Biden is not only defying his base. The liberal political establishment has now turned against Israel’s war. The head of the Democratic party think tank, the Center for American Progress, called for a cutoff of aid.

The United States, by its own imposed standards, cannot heedlessly deliver offensive weapons as the Israeli government continues to bombard and starve innocents on a mass scale. These actions have nothing to do with self defense; they are clearly intended as collective punishment and are resulting in the complete devastation of Palestinians as a people.

The former top State Department human rights officer told NPR that it is time to apply the same rules to Israel as other countries. Charles Blaha:

[T]he State Department has said publicly that the same policy applies to Israel as apply to every other country. In practice, Israel gets special treatment…. You may recall the Biden administration suspended items that could be used in offensive air-to-ground operations for Saudi Arabia because they were causing civilian casualties. Those civilian casualties are nowhere near the civilian casualties that Israeli air-to-ground operations have caused so far. Yet unconditional transfers of air-to-ground munitions continue.

Joe Rogan called it “genocide” and a “holocaust” this week. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Israel was going too far. Atlantic Editor Jeffrey Goldberg, trying to run from his own past, ran a piece saying, “U.S. Support for Israel’s War Has Become Indefensible.”

And at the Stimson Center this week, when Barbara Slavin said it’s not genocide because it’s not equivalent to the Hutus and the Tutsis in Rwanda or the Nazis killing 6 million Jews, Lara Friedman of the Foundation for Middle East Peace shot down that defense.

The definition of genocide under international law does not require it to meet that bar… It does not have to rise to, Trying to kill every member of a race in the world [to be a genocide. The idea that] ‘it can’t be genocide if it doesn’t kill everybody.’ That isn’t what it means under international law.

So the genocide is having consequences, even in the cowardly seat of empire.

#free gaza #israel #gaza strip #gazaunderattack #israel is a terrorist state #genocide #free palestine #palestine #jerusalem #gaza #news #palestine news #rafah #tel aviv #yemen #Lebanon #west bank #idf #iof #fuck the idf #iof terrorists #iof terrorism #this is genocide #middle east #benjamin netanyahu #joe biden #genocide joe

[fate-motif]

can i just say, one of the things that prodigy unexpectedly did for me was remind me why it’s important to dream about making it to the federation.

ds9, disco, snw, picard, all these shows that aren’t afraid to show the dark side of the federation. that’s a good thing. i’m completely fine with the federation being both a dream of better things to come and an allegory for how we still have a long way to go right now at the same time. i don’t mind that. but the fact that none of these dark shows know exactly what their answer is to “our institutions can and will do terrible things for greed and control” has made me a bit jaded as to the dream of the federation… up until prodigy.

because when you meet these child refugees, you’re reminded why it’s important to keep dreaming about becoming utopian in the first place. and that’s for the safety of those in need. those who are looking for a place to go where the people say “we will be better. we will leave bigotry behind. we will protect the people that come to us and our own. we will be better.”

in spite of section 31 or even people like picard that go “oh it’s no big deal that we did a little genocide if we then gave them the cure”, the federation is filled with people who believe in these ideals and rushed to give the kids everything they needed: healthcare, accessibility, education, comprehension, a home.

#star trek #pro #star trek prodigy #fandom

[tired-reader-writer]

Arslan Senki Reread

Arslan is such a good bean. If he did have the raw power backing him to railroad the conflict into a mediation, I wonder what the result would've been.

I think it's more than just Arslan lacking the power, I don't see Andragoras and Hilmes accepting to lay their hands away from each other. Worst case scenario, Arslan dies in the middle anyways bc Assassination™. Both Narsus and Daryun are right here, Arslan himself lacks power, but also at this point neither Hilmes nor Andragoras are capable of backing off.

Farangis' dialogue here is making me feel things, dammit. Do what you can. Do what's in your power. (It's very relevant to my Wolfpack AU.)

Farangis comforting/gently advising Arslan, and then steps up to keep the project on track. She makes for a good sister-mentor figure. I love Narsus and Farangis' dynamic, her atrocious love advice aside.

I see Alfarīd as someone who ultimately values life, who fights for life even as she is a bandit. Perhaps even because she is a bandit. Rather than having your life be snuffed out for/by an ungrateful liege or king (the Zott laugh at both country and king, they answer to no one but their own, as Merlaine said) so Estelle's stubborn loyalty must baffle her a lot. It's alien to her. (Arslan is different, he's a friend, as she says.) Rather than dying for the convenience of the ruling class who would never appreciate them, perhaps to her, staying alive in spite of their best efforts to snuff them out is a form of resistance. So she doesn't understand why, why Estelle is so willing to lay their life down for a tyrannical, genocidal maniac.

The head jars.

Why yes, I cropped out the Bastard's face because I'm petty if nothing else.

The sorcerers evading death from a blow that would've, should've, killed a human being.

Saam is shaken. This is the first he's hearing of it, and he fears what this implies. What this implies for Hilmes. What's going on? What does he mean by benefactor? How is his prince tied to these unnatural beings? This can mean nothing good.

Saam's speech bubble trembles with fear for Hilmes. And Hilmes, oh Hilmes, the red flags are so vivid they're a sea of blaring neon signs now. Nay, they're neon billboards. You say so yourself, the sorcerer here is doing something morally repugnant. Open your fucking eyes, this ain't good!

Also, does Hilmes' hair seem quite long here?

Ohhh fuck you. Fuck you fuck you all the way to hell and never back. Saam was trying to protect Hilmes. And there's just something that hits so hard about that last panel. “Please believe me.” We know it wasn't Saam who said it out loud, of course, but the backdrop being a pitch black with no speaker, taken out of context it sounds like a plea and y'know, I'll bet Saam was pleading for Hilmes' faith in the deeps of his mind even if he doesn't speak it aloud. A tug-o-war, each needing Hilmes to believe in him.

I want to punt Hilmes in the sun for which side he chooses here.

#arslan senki reread #arslan senki #the heroic legend of arslan #heroic legend of arslan #arslan #narsus #farangis #daryun #estelle #etoile #alfarīd #alfarid #alfreed #I'm not tagging The Bastard #saam #sam #hilmes #team zahhak

[purpleisnotacolor]

I just had an idea for the saddest, funniest Star Wars AU.

Padmé actually does get resurrected!

It would suck!

it will also take a lot of text to explain...

The Setup

from her perspective, ROTS happens, she gives her kids to Bail and Obi-wan for safety, dies, then wakes up in her gosh darn burial clothes in front of THAT SLEEMO, SHEEV PALPATINE and this ominous dark cyborg who IS HER HUSBAND, who explains to her that he needed to genocide the Jedi to bring her back to life, and also nobody can find Obi-wan, and also Obi-wan and Palpatine mutilated your husband.

so she'd obviously have a breakdown, and fall into mourning for... basically everything she's ever loved or known.

Palpatine is of course aware of the threat Padmé poses, so she'd be watched like a hawk. Just in general she'd live in a gilded cage, because she has access to pretty much all of the Empire's resources, but can't say what she believes openly with the Emperor always watching.

What she'd do about it

As horrible as all of this was, she deals with it like she does any other tragedy, with calculated determination and faith. She absolutely, 90000%, would support the rebels, not in spite of being married to Darth Vader, but more because she wants his path of evil to be as rough as possible, and for his evil boss who regularly tortures him to die.

she's also not going to hide that she's married to "Darth Vader", and probably would also be very openly affectionate because:

after going through all that, nobody can tell her she has to also keep their marriage secret still.

he's not yours Palpatine, he's mine. He's not your slave, he is my husband, who I am married to, don't you forget it you Sith sack of slime.

to remind herself, him, and any onlookers that this tall dark brooding monster does still have a heart locked inside there.

while she would hate to admit it, there is a rush that comes from being the only person who's allowed to act that way with "Darth Vader".

the only thing she'd keep from the public is his true name, because of the threats she gets from Palpatine if she does. She'd absolutely still use it in private though, even if her husband hates it, because she's not dignifying any this Sith nonsense.

she would have to keep her marriage secret in the rebellion, except from Mon and Bail, because aside from those two, nobody is going to trust "Darth Vader's Wife", regardless of how good her intel is.

As for her kids.... she'd have to leave them. she trusts Bail and Obi-wan (wherever he is) to take care of them way better than she and "Vader" can with the Emperor breathing down their necks. It would be hard to keep that secret from Anakin, but fortunately he'd recognize a "miscarriage" as a sore subject she wouldn't want to talk about.

What Anakin would do about it

mostly feel like hot garbage.

In his anger he murdered his own wife, so from now on he'll act as if she were made of glass. He can't afford to loose her again.

He can tell she's hiding something from him, but every time he asks about it, he gets the same response of "remember how you did unspeakable things for me? I might have to do some for you, don't worry about it", which he supposes is fair, but Palpatine does not trust her intentions.

oh right... Palpatine.

He doesn't want to have to choose between Palpatine and her, but they both quietly fight over him all the time. Palpatine will ask him to kneel, Padmé will immediately do something sugary to reclaim him as her husband, Palpatine counters, she counters, on and on and on and it's exhausting, even without the threat of him and her getting electrocuted. At times he might even hide Padmé from the Emperor, both to protect her, and to save the headache.

while she still shows affection towards him, their marriage is obviously not doing well. so dang it he'll give her whatever he can, time, attention, gifts, political power, her children (once he discovers they exist), whatever he can get his cybernetic hands on.

How everyone else would react/the funny part

The general public: it would be the hottest drama in the galaxy. Padmé dies, people hold a massive funeral, and then she comes back. there's a lot of confusion, and she's of course changed, but it verifiably is her. And now she's married to some Imperial higher-up called "Lord Vader", and claims they've been secretly married for years but are finally coming out with it. Nobody would shut up about this or stop speculating, except under threat of criminal punishment.

Mon Mothma: revulsion honestly. the first time everyone saw Padmé and Vader making out at Padmé's anti-funeral, she downs her champagne flute like a shot. but eventually she finds out Padmé wants to join the Rebellion, and any allies are welcome at a time like this.

Bail Organa: Happy to see her alive! but also confused, as he's pretty sure he saw her die. She's also now married to this "Vader" fellow, despite the fact that he's pretty sure she was married to Anakin... and there is no good resolution to that snag. she explains the situation to him, and that she wants to join the Rebellion, and he accepts.

her children are another issue, but she thankfully doesn't ask for Leia back, so he'll do the best he can to raise her, occasionally including Padmé in Leia's life when it's safe to.

Vader's underlings and other Imps: in a word, pissed. Vader is known for being violent, except around his wife. here is walking proof he can be gentle, he just chooses not to be, because you're all beneath him.

Obi-Wan: honestly not much different than canon, he can't help Anakin, he can't help Padmé, he's just going to do the best he can with Luke.

Palpatine: has made a grave mistake. this was a bad idea, this was such a bad idea, she keeps getting in the way, he can't just kill her again, why did he do this? it doesn't matter now, he can still work with this, he can bend it to his favor, he just needs to be clever.

Ahsoka: that bastard murdered her master and stole his wife. She's going to kill him. Might end up on an awkward rescue mission that ends with her learning some things she'd rather not know.

Thrawn: morbid curiosity and respectful suspicion. given that this "Lord Vader" shows up out of nowhere with the only known fact about him being that he's married to the senator of Naboo, he honestly suspects some form of identity fraud is at play. Finding Vader's identity becomes one of his research projects, and his marriage becomes his favorite soap opera to look into when he's bored.

Leia: really mad that her mother was right there this whole time, and she never got to know until she was older. also very very mad that their marriage was across political factions, meaning their marital issues literally got millions of people killed. very very much wants Padmé to just dump him.

Luke: gosh darn it he's going to patch this hot mess of a family up with duct-tape if he has too. he hates every inch of this drama as much as everyone else, but he's going to do something about it.

#star wars #padmé resurrection AU #my blorbo #I won't tag every character in this because it'd get too long

[lord-squiggletits]

Actually re: the last post about IDW Optimus and politics and moral grayness, if anyone here has read The Wheel of Time series, I actually compare IDW OP to Rand al'Thor in my head a lot. They have sort of the same background of "normal guy gets singled out by a person of Great Authority and put on a path to saving people" followed by a path to leadership hinging on "I became the Chosen One so even though I just wanted to save people, now I have to get involved in these bullshit politics where people are more concerned about securing their own power or spiting their enemies instead of uniting against evil."

Then there's a part of WOT where Rand becomes way darker and edgier, where basically as a result of a severe incident of betrayal and trauma, he goes "You know what, fuck you people, I tried to be nice and you just stabbed me in the back and tried to literally use me as a tool for your own ends" and he basically became a major hardass. To the point where I think there was at least one point (if not multiple) where after Rand extended some sort of diplomatic solution and got rejected, he was basically like "fuck you," fought an entire city on his own and won, then made himself the ruler and went "your armies belong to me and you're going to prepare to fight the Dark One like you SHOULD BE DOING." That phase is sort of comparable to Orion working under Zeta (OP flashbacks, Autocracy trilogy), in which OP's ideals are buried under disappointment and he's seeing these complicated, shitty political realities playing out where it seems like nothing is getting better and his attempts to work with the Decepticons only end in (from his perspective) being blatantly lied to and having his goodwill taken advantage of.

That's really what my ideal phase 2/3 story for Optimus would've been lmao. Still with the same idea of "gee you ARE fighting for the greater good but aren't you going a little far," but balanced out with a rightful dose of "I tried to be diplomatic and nice but no one listened, what else can I do but use force/politics/manipulation to make people see reason if they won't stop backstabbing and betraying each other in time to fight the Actual Evil Force who's going to kill us all."

WOT Rand even had a part of his character arc where he went so far into "humanity sucks, they would literally rather get slaughtered by the ultimate evil than set aside their petty bullshit long enough to work together" where he almost committed murder-suicide in a fit of despair that maybe humanity wasn't even worth saving at all. Only for him to be saved from the edge of despair by realizing "Wait, the world SHOULD be saved, because even though humanity sucks and so many people are evil, good still exists in the world and we can still fight to make the world a better place than it is."

LIKE IN A WAY RAND AL THOR IS BASICALLY IDW OPTIMUS in terms of the general shape of his character arc. Just the difference is that Rand got written as just a character with flaws and virtues coping the best he can under immense pressure and trauma. Whereas IDW OP got written more as "God the world fucking sucks and Cybertronians might just deserve to die bc we colonized people" and also everyone is constantly calling him a fascist and even the titles of his story are comparing him to an actual genocidal tyrant who killed 100 billion+ people. No joy or humanity just a scapegoat for evil living in a shitty world where everyone is miserable and "maybe our entire race IS doomed and we DO deserve to die" is like, a repeated motif of the entire story all the way to Unicron. As opposed to being treated as an obviously shitty worldview that the characters grapple with and go "no actually the world can be a good place and our society can recover from war and we don't deserve oblivion because of the cycle of violence we're trying to escape."

#squiggposting #like in theory i dont have a problem w what barber wrote. IN THEORY #i do enjoy depressing angst stories where the moral weight of war and shit is measured #and ppl ask questions about if the world can ever improve or if we're just doomed to repeat history #my problem is just that barber went too hard on the 'maybe we all deserve to die' #and not hard enough on 'actually we can improve and overcome our history' #i guess making OP some white guilt and fascism allegory was more important #like literally the depressing worldview wasnt some story arc the characters were trying to overcome #literally all the way through unicron it kept coming up #and literally not till OP 25 did the narrative finally go 'actually trying is enough' #so like the ending was fucking great and OP defeating unicron by the power of love was even greater #the rest of the story leading up to it not so much #idw op love

[returntothewilderness]

SWANA/MENA people defending themselves from ethnic cleansing and settler-occupation violence are called "terrorists. So are their neighboring countries trying to help stop the violence. So are those in the diaspora. So are those who speak out against the violence

The narrative never changes, just the SWANA countries being bombed at any given time

The intensity of post 9/11 Islamophobia and the racism towards the SWANA community was so bad that even *today* Muslims and Arabs are seen as untrustworthy, violent, traitors when speaking out against the western violence in their region. Their own lived experiences viewed with hesitance and suspicion

The SWANA community, especially Palestinians, have lived through constant surveillance, hate crimes, discrimination, censorship, defamation, and profiling. Right now, the west is hoping those last 20+ years spent villainizing the region will majorly pay off as they attack additional Arab countries

In spite of spending 20+ years of going through this scrutiny and violence, Muslims and Arabs are loudly and angrily protesting the ONE HUNDRED DAYS of an ongoing genocide in Palestine with still no ceasefire. They're doing this even if it significantly increases the harm aimed at them

They have to, their homelands, family, loved ones, and culture all depend on it regardless of the consequences

So when the white upper-middle class refuses to do something as simple as boycotting starbucks while vaguely claiming to be against genocide - what does that mean for the rest of our rights? If you don't have an accessibility need, or live in a food desert, there's no reason to not be getting coffee literally anywhere else. It's not an essential item no matter how much you like it

And if you won't give up a specific brand of coffee when *genocide* is at stake, what happens as more rights are stripped away state side? By the same politicians being paid by these massive corporations? The bar is devastatingly and shockingly low

Being seen as inherently "more trustworthy" in society due to their well-mannered approach to discussing genocide and other devastating system oppressions, the white upper-middle class & upper class can have big sway on public opinion here. Their actions and words are assumed rational and trustworthy. That's why we see white anti-zionist Jewish people being given more credibility on Gaza than Palestinians living through it and the diaspora. It's wrong, but this is the world we live in

This is the main reason why the white economically comfortable class are being asked to risk something and take a principled stance against the genocide in Gaza. The risks faced are smaller yet yield much larger gains

It's been infuriating seeing people with platforms and sway refuse to do something as simple as not ordering a starbucks coffee. I don't care if you have no tie to the region, that you didn't make biden use your taxes like this, or that you think it's just a cup of coffee with no impact. Palestinians have clearly stated why BDS works

It's one brand, it's such a small and insignificant thing

And yet, 100 days later we still haven't gotten a ceasefire. tens of thousands are dead. But, yknow, enjoy your genocide-funding coffee.

#free palestine #palestine #text post #save palestine #jews for palestine #bds #boycott israel #boycott starbucks #keep boycotting #fuck starbucks #anti zionism #anti zionist jews

[cult-of-the-placeholder]

I'm loving this au! I can't help but IMAGINE the emotions Lamb is going through rn. Like, in this time, the world might as well be another planet with how different everything is.

For instance, there's SHEEP! There's so many sheep! They're a whole, thriving species! Lamb has no memories of their kind. Even their parent's faces were a blur.

And seeing so many now? Seeing how things used to be? It really, truly hits Lamb with just how devastating the genocide was. The weight of the bishop's bloodlust. How senseless and cruel they were... or will be...

But... the haven't done that yet

The bishops now dont have anything against the sheep. They have no reason to want the whole species gone. They welcome Lamb with open arms and accept them into their odd family.

To make things harder for Lamb, they cant relate to any of the sheep in this time. They know nothing about their culture. Plus, they're an imortal god with all the powers the title holds.

For the first time Lamb is surrounded by members of his own kind. But the only ones he can relate to are those who would hunt them to extinction.

Yeah, the lamb is so emotionally wrung out lol. They're having a heck of a time

The bishops are so.......... normal. It's beyond strange, and feels like an impossibility. Yet here it is, undeniable proof right before their eyes. Leshy is full of boundless energy and is always pestering them to play, grabbing lamb by the hands and dragging them into games of tag or to show them some new flowers he found. Heket hasn't started her metamorphosis yet, so she's confined to the holy pools due to needing water to breathe, but she's just. A normal little girl. Rather spunky and so very spirited. Competitive too: she loves to race back and forth in the water, and dive to the bottom and pick up especially nice pebbles to show them.

Even Narinder, the god of death himself, no longer burdened by millenia of spite and anger and isolation, is a perfectly normal child. Whereas Leshy and Heket are still preschool age, he's probably like. The godly equivalent of 10-12. He's rather sullen and kinda grumpy, but he's nowhere near anything resembling wicked. And the older two? Once Kallamar gets used to them, the lamb sees an entirely different side to him: he's actually rather sweet and mellow when anxiety isn't making him jumpy, and Shamura's like a super-parent, always on top of everything with an endless fountain of love and patience for their siblings

The lamb is just... so overwhelmed. So conflicted. It's impossible to think of these people, these children, as bloodthirsty monsters. They're genuinely a nice little family. How can they look at them and equate them to the distant future, where fear and grief drive them to commit such atrocities?

#cult of the lamb #heket #narinder #kallamar #shamura #leshy #what should i call this au? #like?? twin of the red crown??? no clue

[arliedraws]

Just some personal thoughts under the cut…

I was feeling a bit weird about veering slightly into torture porn with my recent writing, and then I reflected on why I’m so invested in putting my favorite character through hell when he does not at all deserve it. I think it’s a way to cope with helplessness. I don’t talk a lot about my feelings about the current genocide and the crushing feeling of not doing enough as one small person in the world—at least, I don’t talk about it here (I am more vocal and active outside of my presence on tumblr/online world), but there’s just so much shit right now that feels like a losing battle, and it’s easy to get sucked into numb apathy when everything you do seems to do nothing.

Of course, this is such a privileged place to be because my home is safe and I have my health and the freedom to go where I want and say the things I want, and I try to leverage that privilege where I can but it’s not enough and it’ll never be enough, and I feel guilty that I don’t do more. Teaching is wonderful and great, but I’m underpaid and overworked, and so much of my life is devoted to making sure kids not only learn to read but to think critically and care about other people even when we are all numbing ourselves to pain and the suffering of others because our brains are so limited in what we can absorb when there are so many terrible things that are happening in the world.

March is also the time of year where I start having suicide ideation. Something about winter lingering in the upper plains with that sort of suffocating grayness gets to me, especially this year following a practically snowless winter. This is also when most of the traumatic things that have shaped my life have happened, and even when I’m not actively thinking about those things, I can still feel them. (Don’t worry, I’m in therapy and I have a very good support system and my mental health is now very well-managed.)

That part of the fic where it says “Suffering was life but life was not only suffering, and once there had been joy and delight between the gasps of sorrow and hurt” is just me talking through my own feelings. Maybe I am sinking into the misery of this fic with a bit of zest, but it’s been really cathartic to make a character realize he wants to live in spite of the horrible things that have happened to him.

The first part of the second chapter was weirdly one of the most important things I’ve written for myself in a long time. Sirius realizes that yes, maybe he does want to live for Harry, but he wants to live for himself too, and even when you’ve been beaten and broken, it doesn’t mean that life can’t go one or that it isn’t worth trying. And you don’t really know if it’ll get worse when you come out of the thing you thought was the worst thing that could happen, but there is so much else that can and will happen too. Life swings like a pendulum, and it has to come back the other way because everything ends at some point even if it doesn’t end the way you wanted or hoped.

Anyway, this has been a very strange spring break, and I can’t believe I’m thinking this deeply about Sirius Black getting tortured and why it matters to me. So I guess, enjoy the whump/torture fic written by a formerly suicidal author if that helps you. Enjoy without guilt because exploring human suffering and cruelty and recovery through the safety of fiction is okay and probably good. Fiction isn’t real, but human emotion and our need for catharsis IS real.

And don’t worry because nobody dies in my fic. And yes, he will be rescued in the end.

#tw: suicide mention #potentially triggering thoughts!