#non muslims feel free to share

[edenfenixblogs]

I don’t think most non-Jews understand how disappointed we are in the left right now. How completely abandoned we’ve become. How our contributions to progress for other groups have been erased or disavowed or hidden. How the actual tangible things that Jews have contributed to black rights and civil rights are being ignored. How we’re being told we contribute and have contributed nothing.

How we are being told that the world has been kind to us when it never has. As if my mom didn’t grow up getting called a Kike and getting beat up for being Jewish. How I thought I had friends until I caught them saying “xyz was beautiful until Jews showed up.” How people told me I was pretty “for a Jew.” How I grew up hearing stories about bombs being set off in Israel in buses and markets. How I couldn’t even go two weeks without hearing that and how nobody cared and somehow, every time that happened, the whole world became more hostile to me for some reason.

I just don’t understand. I don’t understand what leftists are doing. Or why. I hate that I have to say—of course, I support a free and self determined Palestine (which I truly do)—in order for you to decide I’m worthy of care and support.

We showed up for you. All of you. And the entire movement is abandoning us at best or targeting us at worst. Celebrating our deaths. Saying we deserved it. How are we supposed to trust you ever again? How are we supposed to feel safe ever again?

A very few select people who are in my life have taken the chance to actually learn about and dismantle their own unconscious antisemitism during this time. And I’m eternally grateful for them. But most people haven’t reached out at all. Most people are still sharing hateful things that could get me hurt and they don’t care. Most people Reblogging my posts are still Jews. Because we are alone. And it sucks. You need to be as loud about antisemitism as you are about Palestine or you’re an antisemite (unless you’re Arab/Muslim/Palestinian—I totally get that these groups are also doing damage control in their own communities just like Jews are).

But we are all in tremendous pain right now.

This moment will pass. And when it does, I will remember how many people let me down. I will remember that when I needed support more than I’ve ever needed it in my life, people fucking vanished. They pretended violence against my people wasn’t happening. They ignored and rewrote the history of Israel to suit their own narratives.

You don’t know what it feels like to be hated this much for opposite things. PoC hate us for being too white. White supremacists hate us for not being white enough. Europeans hate us for being middle eastern. Middle easterners hate us for being western/European. Everyone hates us for being settlers but continually kicks us out of their countries so that we have to settle somewhere else.

I saw a post going around from a Black person who said that the reason he and his fellow black activists go protest for Palestinians instead of fighting antisemitism (as if it’s a binary, which it’s not) is that Jews don’t show up. Muslims and Palestinians do. And honestly? Fuck that guy. Heather Heyer died standing shoulder to shoulder against racism in 2017. [CORRECTION: When I first wrote this post I was under the impression that Heather Heyer was Jewish. I want to correct to avoid spreading misinfo. She was just the first (and incorrect) Jewish civil rights activist I thought of. However there are plenty of other actual Jewish civil rights activists to choose from. If you have reblogged this post from me, please feel free to add a link to the permalink version of this post with my correction to your reblog.]I have devoted substantial time and effort and money that I don’t even get paid a lot of because I don’t get paid a living wage. I have continually reached out to PoC people in my life of all religions to ask how they are doing and what I could be doing to help more—both for them personally and how they would best like me to help their community. I have elevated their voices at every opportunity. And not one person I checked in with has done the same for me or for my community.

And it’s bone chilling. It’s awful. And it’s even worse knowing that when it’s over, people will want to go back to normal. They won’t apologize. They won’t self reflect. They’ll just live their lives, maybe a little more aware of how much they hate us and completely indifferent to the harm they’ve caused us. How disposable they made us feel. And the thing is…it’s not hard for you to know. You just have to ask.

Too many people are cowards. Too many people care about looking good than actually learning something or making the world better. And to those people: you should be ashamed of yourself.

I don’t have any hate in my heart. Truly. Not a drop for any group of people. But I have a tremendous lack of trust that anyone would actually lift a finger to keep me safe.

#antisemitism #leftist antisemitism #anti zionisim #I dare a goy to republic this challenge #goyim ID yourself in the tags if you reblog this #cuz i straight up don’t believe goyisch activists give a shit unless they straight up say they do #i’m not okay #honestly #this is the Nazi stuff I am most scared of #sure the Nazis rounded us up #but you fuckers were the ones who watched and did nothing #you’re the ones who voted the Nazis in #you’re the ones who didn’t stop them #fuck all y’all for real #i/p #israel #palestine #correction issued

[jewish-vents]

first - i just want to say thank you for making this blog. it’s so important to know that we aren’t alone in the many things we’re experiencing and feeling right now, especially when so many of us have become painfully isolated as of late.

i apologize for how long this one is going to be.

i’ve been feeling so, so alone recently. my tumblr dash has been cut down to just a handful of jewish blogs that i can trust to be kind and understanding and nuanced, but it means that the majority of the content i see is about antisemitism and the war. after a while, it becomes draining to scroll through what feels like endless sadness. i turned to looking at fandom tags instead of following fandom blogs, but it makes me feel equally as insane to click on a blog about race cars and immediately see a post with 60k notes calling what’s happening in gaza “the new holocaust”. i started going back on twitter, but fan accounts on there too are only safe for a day or so before the account owner shares some awful antisemitic tweet from an account known to be an anti-jewish extremist. i went back on instagram briefly, but i was soon afraid to look at people’s stories for fear i’d see something terrible and lose yet another trusted person from my life.

in person, i have to walk by signs saying “zionism = genocide” and hastily scribbled palestinian flags with the colors in the wrong spot on my way to class every day. a wall across from my apartment says “BDS” in giant letters. i haven’t opened my curtains in months because of it. a “protest” of about 25 people stood in the center of campus and yelled and waved their fists in passing students’ faces, so jewish students didn’t go to class on any of the days they gathered. i only have one non jewish friend left at school - the rest abandoned me because i either called them out on antisemitic rhetoric or refused to go along with the idea that anyone, palestinian or israeli, muslim or jewish, is less than human. i had taken several of them along to our hillel’s seder in the past. i don’t know who i can safely go with this year. i have a few jewish friends, of course, but i love bringing goyische friends with little connection to judaism along to experience how joyful and loving jewish holidays can be.

it feels like there is no escape from this fucking war. it sickens me that it’s the only thing people pretend to care about - where is the attention for sudan, ukraine, armenia, uyghurs in china, syria, guyana? how is putting an emoji in your twitter bio or putting a translucent overlay of the palestinian flag on your tumblr icon any sort of real activism? how have we gone from “antisemitism is wrong” to “(((zionists))) control the world media”? it seems like the war is a fandom to these people. it seems like nobody cares enough to fully read and think critically about what they share, let alone do real research beyond looking at an infographic somebody shared on their instagram story. they’ll add on “don’t forget your click today!” to an unrelated twitter thread that went viral, flip the bird at the local starbucks, and put “won’t you free my palestine” on their instagram stories. they’ll anonymously tell a jew online to commit suicide. they’ll feel secure in the knowledge that they’re the perfect leftist, that this is somehow “good trouble”. all this praxis, and nothing to show for it but massive surges in hate crimes against jews. good job, guys! you singlehandedly saved every innocent person in gaza!

it’s isolating. it’s scary. jews can’t mourn. jews can’t be angry. jews can’t disagree. jews can’t suffer. jews can’t be whole, complex people with diverse beliefs and experiences. suffering is a game, and the goal is to hurt the most, scream the most, die the most, all to appease western leftists whose closest connection to war and violence was reading the hunger games in middle school.

i’m tired of it all. i want a peaceful and just resolution to the war. i want the mindless hatred everywhere to stop. i want to be able to scroll through social media and see nothing but fandom. i want to walk through campus with my magen david showing and all the friends i lost by my side on the way to the hillel seder. i want to open my curtains again. i know the experience of one diaspora jew is nothing compared to what people living in israel and palestine are currently going through, yet i still need this all to end. i don’t think any of us can go on like this, but we must, because we have. for thousands of years, we’ve gone on. that still doesn’t mean it has to be this hard all the time.

all i can think is “now we are slaves. next year may we be free.” now we are slaves to hatred and violence and suffering. next year may we all be free. next year may we all be in jerusalem.

.

#jewish vents #antisemitism #leftist antisemitism #antisemitism on tumblr #i/p

[apollos-olives]

wow thank you again for the great reply. i honestly never knew gender dysphoria could be like that so please forgive my ignorance. i was aware of it's existence but like we both said, my not being trans will never truly understand your being trans. i also appreciate the analogies because that does put it into perspective as well. Suicide of course should be prevented, and if transitioning is truly the only way to prevent it, then Allah knows best.

religious trauma is something i greatly identify with - having attended a Muslim school and being subjected to blatant misogyny as well as being the daughter of a revert who married into a culturally Muslim family, and growing up in a household that didn't really practice either - i totally understand why queer Muslims may feel distant from Islam and I do not judge them whatsoever because someone leaving the folds of Islam truly says more about their community. However, what I learnt from my own trauma and healing from that is that at the end of the day, we do have our own choices and we can choose whether to open our hearts back to the religion or not. ofc this statement is easier said than done.

Regarding queerness and children - I did not word myself correctly and forgot to mention what you have mentioned. I don't believe that being queer is inherently sexual and I apologize if it came out that way. You are right in saying people don't have a problem when heterosexual people make assumptions but will immediately have a problem when someone who is non-hetero does. It is hypocrisy and I admit that, I am not against children learning about people who are queer or even what queer means, my concerns are merely with people who hypersexualise under the guise of being lgbtq+ activists and in the same breath I will say that I feel the same way about heterosexual people who sexualise kids.

Where I stand, as long as Bi'dah is not committed, for example, free mixing in salah or roles of men and women interchanging when it comes to the practices of Islam, I genuinely have no qualms with anyone.

I have honestly learnt so much more in these two replies than I have learnt through media and discussions with people who identify as part of the community and for that i am truly grateful. many of your points allowed me to question my own perspective of queerness as well as to challenge myself regarding how I actually view people who are different than myself.

All in all, my stance on lgbtq+ hasn't changed much in the sense that I can agree with anything and everything that the community preaches but I have become more aware that not everyone who belongs to it shares the same opinions and not every Muslim who is queer/non-hetero hates or blatantly chooses to reject Islam. I do think that this discussion has been fruitful and it's a conversation I'm glad to have had, especially since it's civil, hopefully from both our perspectives.

Allah truly knows best, regardless of my view or your view and we all are Muslim and hopefully striving towards the end goal in the Hereafter. We should focus on the issues on hand and spread Islam through its meaning and not on our own prejudice because you as a queer Muslim may be doing much more good than I, a heterosexual Muslim, am currently.

Thank you for the discussion and may Allah bless you ♥️

no worries thank you so much for being so respectful and understanding! most muslims i meet aren't willing to listen to people they don't agree with so it's very refreshing that you're being so open to trying to listen to me. it's very heartwarming :)

alhamdulillah i'm glad you understand the struggles of being trans and how queer muslims may stray away from islam because of religious trauma. and you're absolutely right that at the end of the day, allah knows best and it is always up to the person to choose the right path for them.

and thank you for clarifying your stance on the whole children situation. and yes you are correct that people do use the lgbtq+ community to try to get away with stuff that is deemed unacceptable! unfortunately the community is facing hardship because people are abusing the openness and acceptance of the community and sometimes are using it as an excuse to do bad things, which most people in the queer community condemn and are actively trying to fight against! and even then, those situations are kept to a minimum and are handled as best as possible, and the occurrence of those problems are not as common as people think, actually. but i do understand how you may be concerned and that's totally fine, but i want to assure you that it's not common at all and most of the lgbtq+ community want to protect kids as much as possible!

i don't have much of an opinion on bi'dah and whatnot, but your beliefs are very valid and i totally respect them as well :)

i'm so happy that i could help educate you and give you insight about how queerness affects me and other muslims. i'm so glad that you were open to listening. it's totally okay if my insight hasn't changed your opinions very much, i'm just glad to have been able to be given an opportunity to share my perspective as a queer muslim. and you are right that the muslim community as a whole must drop their prejudices and all reach to strive for jannah in the afterlife. inshallah we can all have good discussions like we did in jannah as well :)

[chaiaurchaandni]

is hamas = isis?

i've been seeing zionists say that 'anti-zionist and pro-palestine jews who oppose israel are not real jews' and ... first of all. who are you to decide who is and isnt a real jew?

and secondly!!! guess what this is a disturbing parallel to? ISIS.

because when the islamic state declared a caliphate, they also said smth similar: that any muslim who opposes the caliphate of the islamic state, is an apostate.

also interesting to note that, according to isis, hamas would also be apostates + isis also opposed hamas bec isis believed that nobody besides the caliphate of islamic state had the right to declare jihad -> so isis declared war on hamas

on the other hand, israel has provided free treatment to isis and other syrian militants in israeli hospitals

obv the tactic of equating hamas with isis is pure hasbara done for the sake of creating mass hysteria against hamas and convincing the usa/nato to sanction the mass killing of palestinians (in the name of eliminating hamas). macron even said the same coalition fighting isis should also fight hamas

some more differences + links mentioned below the cut:

some other differences:

isis is a salafi/wahabi org (look into islamic statism) /// hamas is a sunni org

isis is a transnational org /// hamas is a palestinian nationalist org

the aim of isis is to eradicate all 'bad' muslims+non-muslims & establish their rule all over the world /// the aim of hamas is to secure complete liberation of palestine

isis has conducted militant operations in different countries beyond its territories /// hamas does not conduct operations beyond historic palestine

isis kills anyone who does not adhere to its extremist interpretation of islam (including yazidis, jews, christians, shia & sufi muslims) /// hamas has been tolerant to different sects (alliance with shia hezbollah org) + different religions (palestinian christians/foreign aid workers)

isis literally legalized slavery which afaik no other islamic militant org has done (besides boko haram i think?)

isis is extremely anti-shia and opposes hamas for having links with iran and hezbollah

isis also feels obligated to kill any other muslim that does not pledge loyalty to the caliphate (even attacked some of their own previous allies) /// hamas has an alliance with several other palestinian resistance organizations regardless of different ideologies as long as they share a common goal of liberating palestine (palestinian joint operations room)

pls lmk if any info here is incorrect/needs editing!

links:

What Effect ISIS' Declaration Of War Against Hamas Could Have In The Middle East : NPR

Hamas Is Not ISIS. Here's Why That Matters | TIME

UN Report: Israel in Regular Contact with Syrian Rebels including ISIS - IBTimes India

Ideology of the Islamic State - Wikipedia

Why Islamic State has no sympathy for Hamas - Al-Monitor: Independent, trusted coverage of the Middle East

France’s Macron says anti-ISIL coalition should fight Hamas | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

Salafist ideological challenge to Hamas in Gaza - BBC News

#to all those saying hamas is isis #this is just a way of generating mass hysteria so it can be weaponized to drop even more bombs on palestinians #the point is . idk if ppl who are peddling this hamas=isis stuff even understand just how awful isis was #isis killed so many muslims that even some isis members were disturbed and even defected #and most muslims everywhere do not support isis at all they r literally khawarijites and some muslims believe that we are obligated to #kill all isis members and followers of their ideology #isis was so batshit crazy and unlike other islamic militant groups that that they had to invent the term islamic stateism just to define #their twisted ideology #so its not rlly just some fancy term u can throw around bec isis was a menace to p much the entire world #hamas uses violence as a form of armed resistance to an illegal military occupation and a siege longer than a decade #if anything isis should be compared to america lmao that would be a fair comparison since teyre both responsible for insane amounts of dama #altho in that case the united states of america is actually worse than isis lmao #anyways #israeli propaganda #free palestine #palestine #gaza #long live palestine #glory to the martyrs #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #long live the resistance #death to israel #zionists in their takfirism era

[girlactionfigure]

Lee Kern on Hamas #1

FIRST IN A SERIES OF SUBSTACKS THAT CONTAIN EVERYTHING I’VE WRITTEN ON THE ATROCITIES PERPETRATED AGAINST ISRAEL (AND THE CIVILISED WORLD) BY HAMAS

INTRO

On October 7th 2023 the Palestinian Islamic Fundamentalist Terror Organisation HAMAS committed an atrocity in Israel. Their crimes against humanity included rape, torture and the murder of over 1400 people including babies. They live streamed their crimes to the internet in a move to designed to add degradation to the victims and to instill fear and terror in Jews and the civilised world. 

Since this war on Jews and civilisation began I’ve been devoting huge amounts of time trying to provide simple, no-nonsense analysis that offers humour, Jewish pride and morally just aggression. The latter is important. You can be equipped with the best information in the world, but if you don’t have the courage to go out there and say it, what’s the point. 

It also communicates our need to stop being defensive and playing into the hands of Hamas. Their tactic is to throw all manner of accusations at Israel so that so we’re constantly being prosecuted and having to justify ourselves. We are not on trial. They are the guilty ones. They committed this atrocity. There needs to be less explaining and more attacking. Go on the offensive. Every time they pull us into rebuffing some absurd lie they are distracting the world from what they did to Jewish men, women and children and why people are now suffering in a legitimate war of self-defence. Keep the spotlight on them always. They are Islamic fundamentalist, muslim supremacists - racist terrorists who kill babies and non-Muslims. They are sadists and torturers. They are killers of gays and rapists of women. An ISIS style gang of criminals. Britain and America gave no ceasefire for the Nazis and there can be no ceasefire for Hamas - villains who have picked up the torch of Nazism. There is no prospect for peace for anyone in the Middle East until the world eradicates them. This is the only thing that can create conditions for some kind of future to be discussed.

As this content has proven popular, I am collating it here in a series of articles titled LEE KERN ON HAMAS. The articles will be numbered. This is the first.

These are resources for everyone. The vocabulary, language and ideas are yours to use. Feel free to screengrab and share the tweets if that’s easiest. Share this resource to your friends, family, followers, the uninformed, the hostile - anyone you think needs to see it.

Finally, whilst some of the content is entertaining, this isn’t entertainment. There is a war against us. It’s end goal is extermination. Those of you who haven’t lost family have had time to absorb the initial raw pangs of horror. It’s now time to bounce back and act. It’s up to you to pick up the slack and fight for those who have died, those who are still kidnapped, and the immediate family of victims who may be too traumatised.

Let’s win this war for them.

We are an incredible people and none of us will let each other down.

Lee

#Israel #October 7 #Hamas Massacre

[qqueenofhades]

Feeling confused, why slavjan people = etymologically slaves. Why would people accept that as their identity, to be slaves? Back in linguistics i remember reading that there two words while similar do not share the same origin.

Okay, buckle in, kiddos. We're about to go on a long and VERY nerdy tangent about historiography, linguistics, imperialism, and how categories and identities are constructed, perceived, and perpetuated both by formal historic narrative and by the people themselves. I'll try to make this as clear (and, uh, succinct) as I can, but yes.

First off: yes, there is debate about this, as there is debate about literally everything (especially on a topic as contentious as this). However, the most generally accepted hypothesis is that the word "slave" entered English as a series of evolutions and mutations deriving from the Latin word "sclavus." This word, as Anna Kłosowska puts it in her recent exploration of medieval slavery, has connotations both of "unfree person" and "person of Slavic origin," and this isn't necessarily a "family" of separate but closely related words, but just the same word in different contexts. All of the following cites are from her book chapter (Anna Kłosowska, "The Etymology of "Slave", in Disturbing Times: Medieval Pasts, Reimagined Futures, ed. Catherine E. Karkov, Anna Kłosowska, and Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei, Punctum Books, 2020. You can read the whole book -- online for free, as a PDF! -- here. This chapter starts on page 151).

Therefore, the words that sound like the word slave in Latin vs. French, Occitan, and Italian are less a family of words than a similar word in dramatically different contexts. (p. 155) [...] This section focuses on various words used to describe enslaved people, presents some summary facts on slavery, discussed in detail in a later section concerning who was enslaved where and in what proportion to the general population, and comments on the indistinctions between the medieval words slave and serf, and slave and Slav. Indeed, one of the challenges of the topic is that in Latin servus means a free person, an unfree person, or both. Similarly, Latin sclavus and related words in other languages (French, Italian, Greek, Arabic, etc.) means an enslaved person, a person of Slavic origin, or both. And, servus often designates an enslaved person of Slavic origin as well. (p. 160).

Medieval Latin did this on several levels, not just with "Slav/slave." It also began to use the name of other ethnic groups as words meaning "unfree person," "slave," or "other":

In medieval Latin vocabulary, various words now translated as slave, including sclavus, sarracenus, maurus, denote the origin or appearance of the enslaved person. (p. 162)

"Sarracenus," or "Saracen," was one of the most common words used to describe someone of non-Christian, non-European identity; it had some correlates with "sodomite [homosexual]", which it is often found in company with. Eventually, however, "Saracen" came to mean most commonly "Muslim." But since it was also used as a word for "slave," in this case it would denote an enslaved person of Muslim origin, rather than an enslaved person of Slavic origin. The same with "maurus," or "Moor," which would probably signify an enslaved person from Iberia. This chapter explores the broad variety of words used for "slave" in medieval Latin, and the semantic shifts that all of them underwent to get there, so it's worth checking out. However, the linguistic association of "slave" and "Slav" was not confined to medieval Latin, as it was also present in Arabic. See mention of:

tens of thousands of sqâliba (the word is synonymous with enslaved person, a Slav, and a eunuch, and may have signified any one or any combination of them). (p.158)

So in other words, yes: the medieval association of "Slav = slave" was well established in both the Christian (Latin) and Islamic (Arabic) historiographical narrative traditions. But there were many other words that also meant "slave" and which referred to enslaved people of different backgrounds; there was, in fact, a whole family of words used to describe slaves from various parts of the world. However, because Latin "sclavus" was imported into French as "esclave," and from there into Middle/Modern English as "slave," we only have one remaining word for "slave" from that entire grouping, and it happens to be the one that also meant "Slav." Etc. etc., linguistic change and transformation retains the original stems long past when people actually know where the words come from or what they refer to.

So, okay, if "slave" in modern English does derive from a Latinate root also used for "Slavic," why do people still call themselves Slavs, and why do we talk about "Slavic" people and "Slavic" history? Isn't that equivalent to calling them slaves? Well, once again, the answer is complicated. Let's think of it this way. The word "Russian" comes from the word "Rus'". This name for the lands that are now generally part of modern-day Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine was given by the Viking rulers of early Rus’, and is generally believed to derive from the old Swedish word ‘Ruotsi’, or ‘men who row’.[1] The word "Rus'" originally applied only to the Scandinavian ruling princes, but eventually acquired a broader semantic connotation, expanding to first the people and then the land where they lived. In the eleventh century, it also became interchangeable with ‘Slav’.

So... the name that Russians call themselves is actually Swedish, originally given by Vikings, and referred only to the ruling class of men who rowed (i.e. were seafarers who traveled on ships) and weren't ACTUALLY Russian (in the modern sense of the word) at all. Yet nobody thinks about this original connotation or thinks that they're also calling Russians sea-faring Vikings, even if that's where the word originally came from. So people who call themselves "Slavs" aren't necessarily (or even at all) also calling themselves "people from eastern and southern Europe who became slaves in the medieval era," since "sclavus" referred to both "Slav" AND "slave." It just so happens that it became imported as one word into English, and indeed, we've now semantically re-distinguished it, since the modern English words "Slav" and "slave" are spelled differently, capitalized differently, and obviously have different meanings, despite deriving from the same word and once being essentially interchangeable. That's no longer the case, but that process is still preserved in how the word got here, and how it was selected out of a number of others.

[1] Serhii Plokhy, The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine, 2nd ed. (New York: Basic Books, 2021), p. 25.

#anonymous #ask #history #medieval history #historiography #history of slavery #history of racism #history of empire #lord this may be one of my nerdiest posts yet

[pseudowho]

As a woman with no male genitalia whatsoever and who was raised in a Muslim household, I’ve been pretty unaware of circumcision being an unethical practice. It took me a while to realize that it might not be as unproblematic as I had thought.

I think circumcision should be fine as long as the person who is going to get the procedure done is aware of what happens to his body and agrees to it - without invasive persuasion from his family, friends, etc., of course. So, I agree that it’s not okay to be done to a baby, a child, or someone who is not able to form his own opinion on this matter. But I don’t see a problem with it when these circumstances are in place. Same thing with piercings, no permanent changes until the person is fully able to comprehend and able to agree to what is going to happen. But that’s just my personal opinion on the matter. Never in my life would I have thought that I’d have a discussion about circumcision when I joined this app but here I am 🤡

Anyways, simply ignore the ask if you don’t want this subject to be dragged on further on your blog. Kinda wanted to share my thoughts though.

I try to keep this Tumblr relatively 'controversy free' as it's a relaxed space for me.

However, I don't usually stand for non medically necessary procedures on minors, for religious or aesthetic purposes, or because of 'research' which suggests the procedure is healthier for them, as if evolution hasn't been working out what's healthier for us for millions of years 🤷‍♀️

There's no excuse for it, in my books. I understand people feel *personally* about it, because if they acknowledge that it's wrong on a moral and ethical level, they'd have to acknowledge hundreds of prior years of assault against infants. Or, assault against themselves.

Anyway...the last I'll say, is this:

MY PAGE IS NOT FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE SO CHILDISH, THEY CANNOT APPRECIATE DISCUSSION AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PERSONAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT. IF YOU VIEW ANY CONTRARY VIEW TO YOUR OWN, AS A PERSONAL ATTACK, I ADVISE YOU UNFOLLOW OR BLOCK ME.

I don't stand for people masquerading as adults.

OP, acknowledging the gaps in your own knowledge and seeking to address them, is a serious strength, and you should be incredibly proud. It's truly incredible how many adults are unable or unwilling to do this.

Mwah,

-- Haitch xxx

#pseudowho #pseudowho answers you

[queer-muslim-culture-is]

Welcome to queer-muslim-culture-is !

[PT: Welcome to queer-muslim-culture-is !]

My goal here is to foster a sense of community and to share queer muslim experiences, struggles, and joy. This blog is largely run on your asks, so dont be shy sending them in. I'll also routinely reblog art, resources, and general positivity

While the blog is run mainly in english, I'm fluent in arabic and will translate some posts I really like or for anons if necessary :]

MOD INFO

[PT: Mod Info]

Hiya ! You can call me Mod Amber (Anbar / 3anbar / عنبر) or Mod Ilyas (إلياس), it all works. My pronouns are he/she, ze/hir, and it/its. I'm a queer (mithliya), trans (3abir), and polyamorous north african

WHO'S WELCOME ON THIS BLOG ?

[PT: Who's welcome on this blog ?]

You don't have to be a queer muslim to follow, interact, ask questions, etc as long as you're respectful

I am a radical inclusionist (supportive of all good faith queer identities including the "contradictory" ones) and do not tolerate queerphobia, racism, ableism, pluralphobia or bigotry against any religions. I'm liberal with the block button and won't engage with blatant hatred

Blank blogs (no rbs, default pfp, etc) and fully nsfw blogs will be blocked. This is to try and reduce bot spam

*** Under the cut is accessibility info and the tagging system

[PT: Under the cut is accessibility info and the tagging system]

ACCESSIBILITY

[PT: Accessibility]

I greatly value accessibility, so on this blog I'll be :

Ensuring images and videos have descriptions (they might not always be perfect, but I'll try to have *some* kind of description for everything)

Adding plain text for colorful and non standard sized text

Adding appropriate trigger warnings to posts (including flashing lights if it ever comes up)

If you have suggestions on how to make this blog a more accessible place, please feel free to send me an ask or dm :]

TAGGING SYSTEM -- will be updated as necessary

[PT: Tagging System -- will be updated as necessary]

Main tags :

#queer muslim culture -- the regular asks

#not queer muslim culture -- everything else

#arabic -- anything that contains arabic writing, all posts include translations

Trigger tags :

#[trigger] -- e.g. #homophobia

#tw [trigger] -- e.g. #tw homophobia

"Queer muslim culture" includes :

#qmc pos -- for more positive asks

#qmc neg -- for more negative asks

*** Note : Not every ask will be sorted into one of these two tags. This tagging system is purely for filtering purposes and not meant to shame anyone. Im fully ok with asks about the painful parts of being a queer muslim, we're all in this together :]

"Not queer muslim culture" includes :

#blog update -- announcements, blog upkeep, etc

#art -- visual, written, etc

#media -- movies, shows, books, etc

#queer muslim experiences -- public personalities, pictures from events and protests, life stories, etc

#resources

#blog appreciation -- y'all sending me really sweet messages :']

#activism -- currently mostly palestine related, but possibly other stuff too

#positivity

#will add links to the tags hopefully soon #not queer muslim culture #blog update #queer muslim #trans muslim #muslim #queer #lgbt muslim #lgbtq muslim #queer islam

[clinicsharmartia]

FOOTBALL AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH

I've tried my best so far on this page to repost, like and share as many links, documents and posts about the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, although I've never actually put out an official statement like this. Maybe it's for selfish reasons that I'm doing it now, and I will take it on the chin, but as a sports blog, and more specifically, a football blog, I feel that my time has now come.

Today (3/11/23), Dutch-Moroccan footballer Anwar El Ghazi's contract has been terminated with the German football club Mainz 05. This is due to the simple fact that he is against genocide. On his Instagram he has been posting statements on his page and his stories to not only bring awareness but explain what you can do to help. The club initially suspended him and he was reintroduced into the team on Tuesday, where he mentioned that he "doesn't regret showing support for Palestine". Now, the club has cut him off completely.

Germany recently has had an abundance of anti-Palestine laws and regulations such as police being allowed to arrest people who wave the flag or attend protests, and now (apparently) to speak out when you know you have a position of power and influence. It's very strange to me how when it was Ukraine FIFA was doing everything in its power to show their support for them. Having the flags in multiple areas on screen throughout the game, allowing people to bring it into stadiums and wave it, holding press conferences, charities etc. But now when it's Palestine, a middle eastern country, they won't do anything. They will allow clubs to suspend and fire their players, they will allow their players to be threatened and abused, they will allow their players to be degraded and humiliated on the internet.

Two weeks ago, French footballer Karim Benzema was accused by a French Minister of having links to the "Muslim Brotherhood" (????) while other French Ministers and politicians called for the removal of his citizenship. All because he posted one thing about Gaza. One tweet can revoke your citizenship in France. Again, France over the past decade has become notorious for its Islamophobic and racist laws such as it being made a crime to wear a hijab/niqab/abaya etc in school or public settings, making it (basically) illegal to attend protests about Palestine, wave the flag or in some places even wear the colours. We can see both examples portrayed perfectly here, because what exactly is the "muslim brotherhood"? Do you mean terrorist? Are you calling him a terrorist for supporting people who are trapped in a cement box being carpet bombed? What about Hector Bellerin, a white Spanish footballer who is speaking out about Palestine on his page? Or Jules Kounde, a non-muslim French footballer who is speaking about Palestine on his page?

FIFA you are scum, you are wretched, you feed off pain and money, you are horrid. You dare make it a law that people who stream illegally can be jailed for 30 years when you are dictating the lives and careers of people who are trying to use their fame and platform for good.

They will never win, we will always fight back. Thank you Ghazi, Benzema, Kounde, Bellerin and the countless others who have the courage to speak up. You do too. It's not too late. Fuck FIFA. Free Palestine.

#gaza #gaza strip #free gaza #free palestine #palestine #war on gaza #west bank #palestinian genocide #genocide #football #anwar el ghazi #karim benzema

[bringmemyrocks]

“this blog” has fucking exposed themself as a fake Jew claiming to be Jewish for diversity points! like holy shit, if you don’t know the fucking basics behind “am yisrael chai” there’s no way you’re Jewish. like at all. you should be ashamed of yourself for trying to lie about your ethnicity and religion to support hate crimes against Jews.

First, this is a distraction from the genocide that is ongoing in Gaza.

Any dumb jumblr discourse rn is a smoke screen to hide mass-murder and should be treated as such and ignored.

However, I thought anon raised some points some followers may not have heard before, so I summarized some info below. The only non-Jewish source I site is Amnesty International.

Am Yisrael Chai absolutely has been turned into a Zionist slogan.

Even a liberal Zionist would admit this to you readily.

That does not mean it has never been used in any other context. It predates the Nakba by a few years (not something centuries old), but it became popularized in the 20th century as a nationalist slogan, and today it remains a nationalist slogan. The earliest recording of it comes from 1945, in which the singer shouted it right after singing Hatikvah, the zionist anthem. The meaning of words and phrases can change over time, but "Am Yisrael Chai" has only ever been a nationalist rallying cry at any time in which it was actually popular. (And Hatikvah has always been a Zionist song.)

There's more I can say about mealy-mouthed use of the phrase "The Jewish People" as opposed to "Jews" or just "Jewish people" to not-quite-but-basically equate Judaism with Israeli national identity, but that's another post.

The phrase "Am Yisrael" refers to the world's Jews the same way "the Ummah" refers to world Muslims and "The Body of Christ" refers to world Christians. However, just because there is a non-nationalistic interpretation of "Am Yisrael" does not mean that "Am Yisrael Chai" is anything but a Zionist slogan to any meaningful degree right now.

On a similar note, there are also plenty of Zionists who will try and convince you "Am Yisrael" means that Jews have always had a nationalistic self-concept, always wanted to start up an apartheid ethnostate, etc. etc. it's all lies. (The best source for this is the intro and first few chapters of The Hundred Years War on Palestine, but if anyone has other comprehensive sources that aren't behind a paywall lmk.)

If you get all your information from Jumblr, I am not surprised that they had convinced you otherwise.

Check out https://decolonizepalestine.com/ while you're at it.

p.s. "this blog" shows you've read my about page several times. Thanks. I'm a gay guy who did years of orthodox conversion before going conservative. The years of homophobia taught me not to care what assholes think about my religion or my sexuality.

You're correct on one thing, though, Judaism is not my ethnicity because it's not anyone's ethnicity; it's a religion which has many Jewish cultures and ethnicities both historically and now. And even if we were an ethnic group like the Rromani, it doesn't give us a right to set up an apartheid ethnostate. Look up Elmer Berger--it's not just orthodox Jews who argue against Zionism from a religious point of view :)

(Judaism not being an ethnicity does not mean antisemitism does not exist or that it should not be fought against.)

Comments are on and I will respond to good-faith replies. As usual, feel free to plagiarize in whole or in part if you want to share for whatever reason--just don't include my username.

rbs are off for now bc I don't want the libs arguing "Judaism is an ethnicity because I want to feel oppressed" but if you really wanna rb it I can turn them back on for a short time. Please consider copying and pasting my part and making that into its own post tho.

#i #using anon hate as a chance to educate #antizionism

[inqilabi]

It’s interesting you said you’d raise your kids as muslim for community. As an ex muslim myself, I never felt community, if anything I’ve always felt like an outsider and really hate interacting with my muslim community so I’m excited to finally move out and live away from this community and find free thinkers etc. I really wish I could feel some community with other muslims but our values and lifestyle is too different for me to feel anything of the sort, even with the chill muslims. It’s come to the point I dont even wanna be friends with religious muslims cos we’re just too strikingly different - I have no respect for their religion etc. This is why Im gonna build my own community and really, i dont think community should be based on your race, religion etc anyway, like just because you share that in common, doesnt mean youre gonna get along or feel like you belong

Yea I use to hate it too. It was the type of Muslims that I interacted with, the proselytizing kind which I mentioned in that reply. But I have come across more non-judgemental Muslims more recently. But I do like certain aspects of community. Both the south asian and Islam. I mean south asian community itself was a huge headache for me. Community can be based on anything. I have one with muay thai. But different communities offer you different things. Muay Thai community is not the same as religious ones as south asian ones etc. I definitely don't like the ex-muslim community, I've interacted with the north american ex muslim association etc. I didn’t really find one with liberals, folks in philosophy, marxists, may be a bit more with communists but even then - it’s not really a “community”. Same thing with atheists/new atheists etc.

[maybeamultiverse]

@wafflingchemist Thank you for sharing your opinion. I hope you are doing well during this time, and I hope you take care of yourself. I just want to firstly reply to what you have said to me, both as an 'anon' and from your account, as well as re-address some of the names you have called me from the presumed safety of anonymous, so we don't forget before I address your other points, which I know were made non-anonymously and in a clearer state of mind.

You have quite literally claimed a hate anon, so I feel I have a right to reply. I have no real interest in arguing extensively with anyone online, but I think this can be an opportunity to learn ways NOT to communicate if you are an ally to Palestine, Palestinians, etc. And no, I will not apologize, because I don't have anything to apologize for. If I was too 'harsh' or hurt someone's feelings because I talked about the cognitive dissonance from the sci-fi/fantasy/Star Trek community on contemporary issues of social justice, genocide and oppression, then fine. It will never compare to my close Palestinian friends whose family members are being killed now, as I write this from the safety of my home in the US.

To review. You have called me...

an "anti-semite" multiple times (I am pro-Palestine, Muslim and a hijabi but of partial Jewish descent from my grandfather)

my post had "nothing to do with current events" (I shared 3-4 essential infographics from Palestinian organizations working on the ground in Palestine and Gaza today.

that I used "slurs" (you claimed this was a 'mistranslation' which is fine, but that is a seriously big accusation to make).

that I am being abusive and an "abusive bully" towards my community, without knowing ANYTHING about the non-stop passive, racially-motivated private convos I've experienced with many, many white Americans (the majority demographic) on this Tumblr and in other related fandoms for YEARS. Please consider that people might have experiences that are beyond the realm of your knowledge and experience (that's a good sentence to use against me later, I'm sure, only if you want though, just a recommendation). If you felt 'called out' maybe think about why you jumped to the defensive.

claimed that I had written a "shitpost" (because information about the Gaza Strip's lack of clean water and the discrimination we as Muslims are experiencing in the US as a result of the occupation is a "shitpost"... news to me...).

"as soon as it is anything else than 'Free Palestine' you'd bully them" This is advocacy. This isn't bullying, it just makes you uncomfortable.

"you didn't even care to include a line that you condemn what [x] hamas did" As I said earlier, we shouldn't have to declare that we don't support all forms of resistance, even if it is violent and religiously militant. Palestinians have been called 'human animals' by the Israeli Minister of Defense very recently. They are presumed to be automatically violent, barbaric, etc. without question-- I am a loud and abusive bully, after all, right? Please, please reconsider the way you talk to pro-Palestinian advocates/people, because this approach especially de-centers Palestinian voices. If you are an ally as you sort of claim, you simply need to know better than this.

You have claimed to typically respect people who are pro-Palestine, but not me... because you feel that I 'insulted' you specifically as a Star Trek/fantasy/sci-fi fan and as a Jewish person. That my discussion and my language was too impassioned.

I would just really like you to sit for a moment and consider why this was upsetting you ONLY when I mentioned the fandom community being unkind and discriminatory, and why, when someone is sharing about Palestinian oppression, you then share your own family's trauma, which is real and valid and I am sorry your family experienced that, assume that I don't condemn Hamas (which, to me, at the very least feels like I'm being accused of terrorism, or at least sympathizing with terrorists, which, in the US, is a legitimately dangerous claim to make on the internet), and, finally, when I said that someone who doesn't fight openly and proudly against oppression isn't a 'main character' (feel free to go back and read my earlier post).

Haven't we all complained for YEARS in the fiction/fantasy/sci-fi community about the excess of white protagonists? Of stories that overly center whiteness, that use stories of uprising against dominant powers without the critical understanding of contemporary global issues or culture? That's such a tremendous complaint from many in the fan fiction/book/fantasy/sci-fi world. My framing of a narrative that addresses this is an intentional means to garner attention and reach out to people. If you were hurt by this, just consider how Palestinians especially are hurting in REAL LIFE. This is my point.

Lastly, I do want to say that I don't think this conversation will be valuable or productive if we keep bringing up Star Trek and Bajor, eek!!! I kind of wish I never brought that up as a particular point-- the narratives around it, the Jewish creators involved in it, and accusations of anti-semitic character designs and stories in some spaces (now is probs not the time to get into that, it's a whole other discussion, but one worth having for sure) just dilutes the essential aspects of the Free Palestine movement. So, if I were to revise my point, I'd probably not bring that up again because I think it detracted from my overarching argument. BUT I do still think Bajor's struggle for liberation undoubtedly possesses meaningful parallels to Palestine. That's specifically why I got into the show years ago :)

Look, I think it's clear that we both fundamentally care about similar things, and I don't have any personal ill will against you.

I just think you really need to examine your language and your reactions towards me and others. If I have insulted you and your safe space because I wanted to approach this issue from a specific angle, which is my fandom/writing blog on Tumblr, just realize that I am not speaking to your family members who survived the Holocaust and calling them 'nobodies.' That's an incredibly huge reach to make about my assumptions and my audience here.

What you are implementing is a common rhetorical tactic used to deflect from conversations about Palestine, forcing advocates to (and I've done this here, just above) defend their humanity and assure you that we are not evil people who don't have an understanding of what the Holocaust was and that we have an innate dislike or disrespect of Jewish people. This argument is so overused that it has even been applied to anti-Zionist Jews and those with Jewish heritage whose families ALSO faced horrible oppression (hi there, it's me!).

I'm talking to people living comfortably in the first world who, unlike those in Gaza, have stable internet access, (you said you live in Germany-- don't even get me started on how many Muslim immigrants are treated there, that's another can of worms) who are currently turning a blind eye to what's going on and whose internalized racism is, whether they realize or not, which, in turn, has a profound effect on their perceptions of Palestinians as brutish and inherently violent.

I won't be making more posts addressing you, but I will occasionally share posts supporting Palestine when I get the chance or see them. Again, please take care of yourself during this time. My best friend in the whole world, an anti-Zionist Ashkenazi Jew, feels so unsafe at home right now because his pro-Palestinian advocacy work, so it's hard for everyone out there.

I hope I have clarified my stance.

#free palestine #anon #asks #palestine #freepalestine #savepalestine #boycottisrael #westbank #palestinewillbefree #bds #savegaza #palestinian #savesheikhjarrah #gazaunderattack #palestinianlivesmatter #alaqsa

[jekyll-doodles]

So after waking up, Albedo became a muslim woman?☪️

She looks incredibly good with the Hijab tho🩵

As far as I could assess after some research: non muslim women can wear a hijab (*if done so in good faith/intention.)

Albedo, in this case, is continuing their practices of dress and modesty in a similar modern equivalent, just as they are continuing their studies of various religions and philosophies. Even after The Everything, their faith in the merit of religions wasn't broken.

However, of course, I am no expert nor do I have personal experience in regards to Muslim practices. If anyone with more accurate or in-depth knowledge on that subject would like to share, feel free to do so in the replies/reblogs. I can only state that when researching, the overall answer seemed to be that non muslim women can wear a hijab*.

For context, this is the character (Albedo) in question: (the past) - (the present)

#headcanon #scp white lord #scp wakey wakey #scp alagadda #ask #anon #greenghostlyjekyll

[apollos-olives]

https://www.tumblr.com/apollos-olives/736835865619365888/hello-if-this-question-is-too-personal-please?source=share

Hello! I’m the anon who asked for this information for my English final. I just wanted to thank you and every Palestinian and non Palestinian SWANA who provided insight into what it is like being under constant threat of Israel (or in the Palestinian’s case, constant occupation). It is unfortunate that this is the situation and it is unfair that the world does not care enough to help. Your stories actually brought me to tears because while my experience cannot even compare to what you’ve experienced in your lives, it reminded me of my family back home in Algeria. My grandparents grew up in an Algeria that was occupied by the French, and the pain inflicted upon them had lasting consequences on my family, one being the hyper vigilance instilled in my parents and to a lesser extent, my siblings and I, to be increasingly alert of westerners, particularly the French.

In high school, my school was going to France for a school trip (I lived in England at the time) and my grandfather refused to even entertain the idea of me entering France as an Algerian Muslim. He was always very paranoid about the French, and looking at the way France treats Muslims and POC… rightfully so.

I’m not sharing this with you because I feel that my family’s experience compares with those of the Palestinians, I guess I just wanted to say that its honestly really disgusting how deep the trauma of being occupied or colonised goes. How much the pain inflicted upon oppressed people affects them. It’s disgusting that this is happening in general.

Anyway, thank you so much to you and to every Palestinian who responded. Your words struck me deeply.

oh i completely understand how you can relate to how palestinians are suffering right now. generational trauma affects so many people, and i'm sorry that your family has gone through so much under the occupation of the french. your grandpa was very rightfully concerned, and there really isn't very many things that can heal trauma like that. i'm very glad that algeria is free now though, alhamdulillah.

thank you for asking earlier as well!! it was a great question and i'm glad i could help :)

[qpoc-culture-is]

Welcome!

qpoc-culture-is is an account for queer people of colour to share their experiences and overall hang out! 

Start your culture-is asks with "QPOC/Queer POC culture is. . ." or feel free to specify, for example, "Black queer culture is. . .", "POC lesbian culture is. . ." , "QPOC system culture is. . ."

Disclaimer: you must be bodily POC to talk about your experiences as POC, this means headmates in white-bodied systems who have memories of being another race cannot make QPOC culture is asks, as they haven't lived life as QPOC in reality

We welcome all kinds of people, including but not limited to:

Any good-faith queer identity

White-passing POC

Transracial and transethnic adoptees, they are free to discuss their experiences here too

Alterhumans

People with stigmatised disabilities, mental disorders, and neurodivergencies

Systems and plurals of all origins

People who use xenogenders, neopronouns, MOGAI/LIOM labels, and more specific identities

People who are both queer and queern't

DNI

Please do not interact if you are:

Homophobic, transphobic, racist, anything similar

Queer exclusionist, bigot, and/or gatekeeper

Anti-MOGAI, anti-xenogender, anti-neopronoun

Anyone who uses the terms transracial/transethnic to describe identifying as or transitioning to a race they're bodily not, or otherwise in a non-adoptee context

Anyone who isn't bodily POC but 'identifies as' POC

Inspired primarily by @non-bi-nary-culture-is @xenogender-culture-is @queer-muslim-culture-is @lgbtqcultureis @plural-culture-is and @trans-culture-is , boosts are appreciated from anyone!

About the Owner

We are @spirimogai, a queer plural system who is biracial (black and white mixed) and a transracial/transethnic adoptee

Names: The Galactic Hemisphere / Eris / Solaris / Cosmos / Crescent Age: 16 Pronouns: they/them and space neos Race: biracial - black (afro-caribbean) + white (welsh) Religion: celtic pagan buddhist

Gender: non-binary, kenic + xenic Sexuality: abrosexual, gay/cinthean, demisexual, hyperromantic Other: twinkby, aldernic, transvestite, drag queen/king/thing Alterhumanity: spiritual and psychological alterhuman

#queer #mogai #culture is #liom #qpoc #queer poc #lgbtq #poc lgbtq #lesbian #gay #bi #pride #mogai safe #liom safe #poc

[dojae-huh]

Different anon but thank you so much for such detailed and thoroughly written post Huh-nim! I read every words and your inside pov from a country that having war are really eye-opening. Wars are always a complicated matter with a lot of aspects to consider, I wish people who're irrationally jumping on the hate train can read this post to open their world view, sadly I don't think they want to listen to other perspective from their so call moral-highground.

I've been really upset since yesterday, I expect this is a good opportunity for antis to throw hate at him, but it's even worse that people call them self fans also refuse to acknowlegde the facts Korean fans already point out in detail about how this campaign only run in Korea, and have nothing to do with the war. They can't buy the meal if they're not in Korea, so it's not even boycotting, they just want to throw the word around thoughtlessly. Being fans I thought they would actually more interested in finding out if the informations that're harmful to him true or not but they instead keep spreading misinfo like wild fire, ignoring the fact it's a huge contact and not like he can get out of it just bc they want him to. Now some even threaten his safety at upcoming concert and fansign, how irony huh. Online attack is one thing but I really worry about his wellbeing. Hopefully SM can make sure the security will be good enough to protect him.

Yes, MD is a franchise, what the branch in one country does isn't connected to what other branch is doing. I've looked quickly into it (I wasn't aware of the thing with the company, apparently the boycott has been going on since early October). So the Israel branch (owned by some Israely businessmen, probably) donated free meals to soldiers and hospitals (hm, helping injured civilians, maybe even those attacked by terrorists in the border villages (?) is a bad deed indeed, as for the soldiers, from their POV they are fighting to rescue hostages, and in Isralian's eyes they are their protectors). Soon after, many branches in other countries (mostly majority muslim) donated to Palestine. And Korean campaign is about helping Korean children (another bad deed).

The behaviour of these fans simply speaks for their immaturity and lack of proper education (even Cambridge and Oxford fail people nowadays, I hear). Idols are low on the totem pole, they are entertainment, not human beings with feelings even. They and their image can be smeared with mud at any perceived "danger" to a fan's "higher morality". Just remember Jaehyun and his covid and bar scandal.

I doubt those who threated Do's wellbeing are his fans. Most ptobably they are the solo-stans of other members, and they just attack him "protected by the righteousness", knowing other fans will be hesitant to fight them off, that they have the stage to themselves. It's no different from Putin preaching "we fight to protect our (religious) values and (slavic) traditions". Even a dictator uses excuses before the masses, painting himself the good one.

People, who are quick to jumping on hate vagons shouldn't read me, I fear, I'm a Russian afterall. A common age nazi. So my wise words won't rich them.

I heard a comparison recently of the world with a gladiator arena. I liked it. It gives no excuse for self-pitying or for naivette. If you want to live, you must learn how to think for yourself and how to navigate the bloodbath happenning around you.

People are weird monkeys. We are non-agressive to our kin, which allows us to cooperate, share food, shelter, etc, but highly agressive to the others, the rival tribes who potentially can take our food and other resources. We progressed technologically, but not biologically. We are still primitive animals with a grenade in hand. Civility, refinement, culturedness are all just a thin layer of late addition software atop of older software and hardware. We are stripped of them in a blink of an eye unless we learn true morals and acquire integrity.

When an idol is labeled as good, he is "ours", "belonging to my tribe of good people". Once someone says that the idol is bad, he is ousted from "friends" to "enemies" category right away. And the rules of attitude change in an instant. You can't like him anymore, you can't protect him anymore, he is "our enemy", and if you think otherwise "you are like him, you are the enemy as well". A mob is formed and starts to live by the herd rules.

Researchers from Hebrew University, NYU, and MIT explored herd mentality in online spaces, specifically in the context of "digitized, aggregated opinions."[7] Online comments were given an initial positive or negative vote (up or down) on an undisclosed website over five months.[8] The control group comments were left alone.

The researchers found that "the first person reading the comment was 32% more likely to upvote it if it had been already given a fake positive score."[8] Over the five months, comments artificially rated positively showed a 25% higher average score than the control group, with the initial negative vote ending up with no statistical significance in comparison to the control group.[7] The researchers found that "prior ratings created significant bias in individual rating behavior, and positive and negative social influences created asymmetric herding effects."[7]

"That is a significant change," Dr. Aral, one of the researchers involved in the experiment, stated. "We saw how these very small signals of social influence snowballed into behaviors like herding."[8]

Doyoung wanted to help the children of his country but in return for his kindness gets bashed by virtue-signalling people.

What can you do? Grow your own head, have a proper moral compass, gather as much information as possible before taking a stance or making decisions, and understand that people be people - easily manipulated and swayed emotional and aggressive beings.

#ask me away #food all around chips all around