#you’re the ones who voted the Nazis in

[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

[socialjusticeinamerica]

If you have an ethnic sounding name Republicans will use it against you. There’s a reason they always at Barrack Hussein Obama instead of President Obama or Barry as he’s known to his friends. They’d never say Rafael Eduardo Cruz but rather just “Ted.” Nimaratta Randhawa Haley always skated by with just the nickname “Nikki.”

Trump is a scorpion however and is not capable of changing his nature so to denigrate Haley within the MAGA moron base he is now going to use her proper first name of Nimaratta. To be honest I feel no sympathy for her as she has made a career by anglicizing herself. She’s never used her proper names and has instructed staff to never use them. Haley has even gone so far as to lighten her skin and hair, put on a fake southern accent, and use common Caucasian hairstyles. The photos are out there. She has even gone so far as to side with the white supremacists that dominate the Republican Party. Recently she refused to cite slavery as the predominant reason for the Civil War for fear of angering the MAGA base. She claims she pulled herself up by her own bootstraps in the American fashion even though her parents were affluent PhDs.

If you’re not honest enough to even present yourself for who you really are how can you be trusted to be honest when working for the American people. Does she loathe herself for being of Indian heritage or is changing herself just a cheesy public relations campaign to grift off the coat tails of MAGA racists. Nikki and Rafael aren’t the only ones doing this and they won’t be the last.

America is sick and tired of RepubliKKKlan hypocrisy, their spin doctors, their focus groups, their image consultants, their chameleon behavior to suit the flavor of the moment, their army of bots (mostly foreign), and their endless propaganda funded by dark money from Neo-Nazi oligarchs.

Nikki Haley, you are a snake trying to hitch a ride on the Trump train but you were just stung by the most toxic scorpion on the right. Even if you weren’t up against Trump you’d never fool us into voting for you. We know you’re a puppet of the oligarchs and only want to make life harder for the poor, middle class, and the marginalized. Have the dignity to stand up for yourself and embrace your heritage instead of being a deceitful grifter.

Go sit in a corner with Ted, Clarence, Lindsey, and all the other useful idiots living a lie so they can share in the RepubliKKKlan grift.

#nimarata randhawa #Rafael Eduardo Cruz #traitor trump #republican hypocrisy #corporate greed #crooked donald #republican party #republican assholes #useful idiots #grifters #career politics #frauds #racists #bigots

[barbiegirldream]

"dream should hold his fanbase more accountable." like what does that mean? seriously what the fuck are you talking about? how is dream supposed to hold his fanbase accountable for things when more often than not: 

A. it never happened you literally made that up 

B. you assume all mcyt fans are his 

C. they are literally antis in collusion with neo nazis that are trying to ruin his life

D. he literally has you just pretend he didn’t 

and i know on your list of reasons to hate dream you're going to add he's too parasocial with his fanbase and 'makes them do things' like doxxing and rigging mob votes. pick a side. is dream brainwashing millions of people to mindlessly do his bidding or is he endorsing the behavior of millions of individuals by not taking personal responsibility for every single one? 

and on the doxxing before any of you try it. there have been two occasions where dream was given the direct blame for his fans supposedly doxxing someone. a black lesbian in 2021 who had a notorious among mutuals ‘boy who cried wolf’ situation going on there with doxxing claims. and this random kid who was being homophobic to dream who confirmed directly they were never doxxed

like not sure how Dream is supposed to condemn his fanbase for things that never happened. and on the things that did happen well 

i can give you a fancam or tweets of him denouncing harassment. i can link you to streams of him denouncing harassment. his list of boundaries discusses this. i can show you tweets of him admonishing racism. i can give you answers to any questions you have. i can give the full story to every single thing you’ve ever heard. but you don’t really care about any of this. it’s not a question. you have taken objective misinformation into your brains as fact and called it a day because it’s easier to hate a man blindly that way you can pat yourself on the back for false virtue.

#discourse

[tomorrowusa]

Even people in red states think that Trump is deranged.

Over the last few months, as his future life of incarceration becomes increasingly more apparent, Donald Trump has lost his grip on whatever fragments of sanity he possessed previously. And he is now firmly in the land of crazy dictator.  Oh, you disagree?  Well, let me remind you that on Veterans’ Day, Trump’s message to the country was not one of gratitude and inspiration for the troops. Instead, it was a promise that, if elected in 2024, he would rid the country of his political opponents, which he referred to as “vermin.”  You know who else called political opponents vermin?  Hitler and Mussolini.  They also denigrated certain groups of people, claiming that their mere existence within their countries tainted bloodlines and made the countries weaker. They painted these groups as enemies and used the vermin rhetoric to reduce them to subhuman species that deserved to be mistreated and killed. 

And here we have a former U.S. president doing the same. As people, including thousands of Bible-thumping, constitution-waving Christians in this state, cheer him on. Buy swag with his face on it. Fly flags with his name on them. 

If you heard somebody on the street screaming about "vermin" and threatening to crush his enemies, you'd rightfully assume that person is bonkers and possibly dangerous. That's what Trump is: deranged and probably dangerous.

Trump's demented threats have been normalized in public discourse and in the media. Sorry, but when a politician starts talking concentration camps and using the government to punish his enemies, that's not normal; and there's plenty of history to show what happens when such people are entrusted with power.

And people who listen to such politicians are themselves lacking in the normalcy department.

Look, if you want to vote for a Republican for president, while I think that’s insane unless you’re ultra-wealthy, go for it. Maybe something will trickle down for you eventually. There are probably a couple of candidates in the ongoing debates who could beat Joe Biden.  But we’ve got to stop this cult-like following of Trump. There’s more than enough evidence at this point that he’s broken dozens of laws, violated the constitution and cares way more about himself and his personal ambitions than he does about this country.  Your continued support of such an individual makes you as crazy as he is.

Trump belongs in a treatment center – not the Oval Office.

Don't let idiot MAGA relatives go unanswered at holiday gatherings when they sympathize with Trump's Nazi-style plans for a second term. Of course you won't change their minds, but it's important to let others hear that such views are unhinged as well as un-American.

#donald trump #maga #dump trump #trump is deranged #trump is crazy #republicans #the trump cult #trump's nazi plans for a second term #josh moon #election 2024

[inkedroplets]

What's this about a lena/peggy fic? PEGGY CARTER?!?!?

I kind of forgot I had this ask and then I thought, oh I'll link the snippet I posted a while back and because it's tumblr I can't find it so I'll post another one but yes, I have a very confusing, very complicated Supercorp/MCU crossover fic that I've been dabbling with while I write other things. Essentially Lena finds herself stranded on Earth-616 and working with Coulson while she tries to find a way back home. Oh, and Kara is freaking out while trying to figure out where it is Lena went. It's set during their rift so its extra angsty. This snippet is Lena volunteering to go and act as the mole to take down a remaining HYDRA cell.

“Feel free to continue discussing it between yourselves,” Lena said as she stood up from the table. “But I think you already know that sending me in as the mole  is the best play.”  She looked around the table and saw the gears turning (however unwillingly) in everyone's head. All except for May who was the only one who would actually meet her gaze. You could give my mother lessons, Lena thought, thinking she had weathered far less intense staredowns from Lillian in the past. She felt everyone’s eyes on her as she turned to leave, half-expecting someone to take another stab at trying to convince her of how foolhardy her plan was, although no one did. 

 There were moments where Lena forgot she was even onboard a ship, it being too large and herself too busy to realize how small it actually was, but today was not one of those days. She found herself walking in the direction of the lab without really meaning to. She got about halfway there when she heard the patter of hurried footsteps behind her. Nearly quiet enough for her not to notice. “Lena.” “I’m guessing you voted against me,” Lena said, not bothering to slow down for May’s sake, knowing she could easily overtake her if she wanted to. “I did,” May said baldly. She fell into step beside Lena easily and while her gaze was still just as steely, she did at least have the decency to open the lab door for her. “No witnesses,” Lena snarked. “Smart.” “There are cameras,” May replied, perfectly deadpan. She glanced behind her before closing the door as if she expected to see someone wanting to intrude on what May clearly wanted to remain a private conversation. “As noble as your offer was,” she said in a tone that made it perfectly clear she believed it was anything but, “ I don’t think you understand what you’re offering.” “Infiltrate the remnants of a Nazi paramilitary terrorist organization bent on world domination to bring it down from within? No, I got the gist of it,” Lena said coolly.  “Whatever stories Coulson or the others might have told you about Hydra, trust me when I say they’re far worse than you could imagine. You’re not an agent, you’re not trained to deal with the physical or mental toll that this job would entail. Coulson is wrong for even considering it.” “But he is considering it?”

“Against my better judgment,” May replied silkily. “If this is a bid to get into Coulson’s good graces or to cement yourself a position with the others then I can tell you right now that is wholly unnecessary. Coulson trusts you and the team does too.” “But not you,” Lena said, not meaning to sound accusatory but sure that it had to at least sound a little  that way to May.

“No,” May replied without a moment’s hesitation. “I don’t trust you.” 

#asks #how the hell do I tag this? #supercorp #aos #if you haven't watched agents of shield please do it's delightful

[antifainternational]

Why is it impossible that fascism as a system can be used for good?

One enlightened leader who can do what needs to be good for the people - environmental protection, jobs and dismantling countries’ interdependence on globalism and the assets of corporations stripped and handed to the state for the benefit of the collective?

One wise leader who can end corruption and none of the squabbling scraps of progress..

Democracy isn’t worth fighting for.

An interesting question you pose here.  So first off, let us point out that some of what you’re proposing isn’t about fascism per se but rather about authoritarian dictatorships in general.  You’re making a claim that a “benevolent dictator” might be the best system of governance.  There have been a few historical figures described as “benevolent dictators” - leaders who wielded autocratic power to (arguably) benefit their people.  Think Atatürk in Turkey; Tito in Yugoslavia; and Yew in Singapore as three examples. None of those, however, were fascists.  Atatürk, in fact, expanded voting rights in Turkey and Tito led some of the most effective anti-fascist partisan forces that resisted Nazi occupation in WW2. Aside from those three examples there aren’t many others to point to, but there are a LOT more authoritarian dictators that very plainly did not use their power to improve conditions for the people.  Dictators are far more likely to brutally suppress their own people to the benefit of themselves and their cronies.  Also: in what world does it make sense for any people to give up their autonomy and control over their own lives and turn all powers over to a single person?  What person in the world is so “enlightened” that they have the capacity to make reasoned and wise decisions about literally all aspects of society?  Seems to be the stuff of fantasy if we’re being honest. But you don’t want just any run-of-the-mill authoritarian dictatorship, Anon.  You’re advocating for a fascist dictatorship.  So let’s examine some of the issues you’ve pegged as best being resolved by a fascist dictatorship: -Environmental Protection: we’re unaware of any fascist regime in the past that’s made progress on that front and the countries currently heading into fascism (Brazil, Russia, the United States) have been taking massive strides backwards in the direction of environmental degradation at the behest of their quasi-fascist leaders (Bolsonaro, Putin, Trump & his Supreme Court appointees).  Could a fascist leader instead be a champion for the environment?  Possibly.  But it’s more likely that such a leader would use the environment as an excuse to invade other countries to secure environmental resources “for their people.”  Hitler called this lebensraum. -Jobs: historically, fascists have created jobs by starting wars.  Wars are always good for job creation - at least at first. But perhaps that’s not the most desirable way to create employment.   -Dismantling Countries’ Interdependence on Globalism: We don’t think you’ve thought this through or really understand what “globalism” means.  We think you think globalism = international economic/geopolitical/military interconnections between nations, which is called “globalization.”  But the term “globalism” originates from the Nazis’ anti-semitic propaganda, which portrayed Jews as “globalists” who were naturally disloyal to the nations they lived in and part of an evil conspiracy to control the world. So, assuming you mean “globalization,” we need to point out some a priori assumptions you’re making that: a) nation states are natural and desirable ways for societies to be structured; b) cooperation or reliance between nation states is the thing that is undesirable, and; c) the best way to cease international cooperation/interdependence is via a fascist dictatorship.  We see more evidence to argue that nation states are bad; that international cooperation & integration is good; and that there are a multitude of other ways to stop globalization other than fascists taking power than what you’re trying to postulate, so  good luck putting your argument together. (We would also remind you, Anon, that the fascists of WW2 were in a “globalist” alliance called the Axis.)

-Stripping Corporations of Assets Which Are Then Handed to the State to Benefit the Collective:  That, Anon, is called a communist or socialist revolution, not a fascist revolution.  In fascist takeovers (at least in every fascist takeover we’ve seen so far), corporations work alongside the fascists, helping them to secure power precisely in order to prevent communists/socialists from gaining power and stripping corporations of their resources.  What happens after a fascist takeover is that the economy is transformed into what’s called “crony capitalism” - where corporations continue to thrive and even make real gains through things like access to slave labour & seized resources from whatever ethnic group the fascists have been scapegoating. In The Anatomy of Fascism, historian Robert O. Paxton notes that “even at its most radical, however, fascists’ anticapitalist rhetoric was selective.  While they denounced speculative international finance (along with all other forms of internationalism, cosmopolitanism, or globalization - capitalist as well as socialist), they respected the property of national producers, who were to form the social base of the reinvigorated nation…Once in power, fascist regimes confiscated property only from political opponents, foreigners, or Jews…none altered the social hierarchy, except to catapult a few adventurers into high places.”(pg. 10-11)

So if you’re in favour of seizing the means of production for nationalization & turning them over to the people, best put down Mein Kampf and pick up a copy of Das Kapital!

-One Wise Leader Who Can End Corruption: Many have tried; all have failed, Anon.  We can’t think of any examples of One Great Man single-handedly rooting out corruption in governance but we can think of many, many examples of One Corrupt Man (or One Man Corrupted By Power) that increased corruption or merely turned it to the advantage of himself & his inner circle. This study found that the longer a dictator is in power, the greater the extent of corruption in the country, not the reverse. This seems to happen in any kind of dictatorship, but fascist dictatorships are particularly vulnerable to corruption because of the cult of personality that is endemic in fascism, which produces a leader unaccountable to anyone who will also use violence without any hesitation to eliminate any opponents.  Fascist regimes reinforce existing hierarchies and corrupt systems because they rely on key players high up in the existing hierarchy to help them rise to power, rewarding those who help them with assets seized from the outgroups they demonize.  It was no accident that Donald Trump replaced key senior diplomats with his completely inexperienced and unqualified daughter and son-in-law, for example. Finally Anon, your assertion that fascism > democracy underlies your willingness to surrender what little power you have presently to a charismatic leader who would operate with zero accountability and no real incentive to rule to anyone's benefit but their own.  We’re going to suggest that you would be much unhappier in that situation and that your real dissatisfaction with the present “democratic” system is that it isn’t very democratic at all.  What we think would be preferable is not less freedom and more violence but rather more opportunities to increase your autonomy by participating directly in the decisions that affect your life - whether you’d call that direct democracy, democratic confederalism, anarchism, or something else.  You’re right that getting to choose between a minute handful of viable leaders/parties every four years who are in lockstep agreement on 90% of things anyway doesn’t feel like democracy at all.  There are certainly better alternatives to how we are ruled now.  Fascism is certainly not one of those alternatives.  

[usarmytrooper]

Why all the comic strips lately? They’re not funny especially the Dilbert ones. Scott Adams is a racist.

Racist? I assume that in this context, you’re using “racist” in the democrap “I don’t have much of an argument so I’ll smear my opponent instead” context. The exact quote that Scott Adams gave that raised the controversy is as follows:

“If nearly half of all Blacks are not okay with white people—according to this poll, not according to me, according to this poll—that’s a hate group.”

He was discussing a Rasmussen poll on his show. The plain fact of the matter is that he is correct, at least in the context of the 53% of blacks who are not okay with white people. This is no different than it is for any ethnic or racial group. Had this poll said that a majority of white people had a problem with blacks, I suspect you’d be apoplectic with rage (and rightfully so). However, the notion that blacks…or Asians, or Latinos, or any other group cannot also be racist is utterly absurd. There are far fewer white racists than you would like to have others believe because acknowledging that would deprive you of your go-to political weapon. However, there will be no coming to terms on the issue of race in this country until you, and all those like you, stop using these labels as a political weapon to secure minority votes and to bludgeon your political opponents. This is because no one wants to attempt to have a dialogue only to be smeared by people like you and your ilk.

I have some hope simply because you and people like you have tried to smear so many people as racist, that it’s lost its meaning and most people tune you out. This also is true of “white nationalist” or “white supremacist” or whatever term democraps are using now because people aren’t buying the ‘racist’ rant as much. You and all those like you have so marginalized the term that you could call David Duke or Sen. Robert Byrd (both were muckety-mucks in the KKK) racists and a good portion of people wouldn’t believe you because you have smeared opponents to the point that the term has lost its impact. You are the real racist, because instead of focusing on actual problems, you create media circuses. Meanwhile, the people you claim to care about suffer the same problems that they have since the Great Society. Of course, to keep these people voting for you, you have to give them an enemy to focus their anger on. Herr Goebbels would be proud of you (even more so now that so many people on the left are openly voicing hatred for Jews).

The same is true of all of the left’s other stand-by political smears… “Nazi,” “fascist,” etc. I don’t know whether Scott Adams is a racist or not. Unlike leftists, I don’t claim to know the inner workings of a man’s heart or brain. I do know, however, that Dilbert is a cartoon character drawn on paper. I’m reasonably sure that he has never attended a Klan rally (unlike Democratic Senator Robert Byrd, who apparently organized such meetings).

As far as why I post comics—I post them because I like them and because I can. If you don’t like the cartoons I post, feel free to go somewhere else.

USArmyTrooper

P.S. And don’t think I didn’t notice that you had such courage of your convictions that you sent that screed anonymously.

#user comments #anonymous comment #loonie leftists #scott adams #dilbert #racism

[exoid-the-locomotive-monarch]

Thanks for you page for more Palestine news because goddamn I need to blow off some opinions on the situation.

So wild to me the idea that Jews “repatriating” to the Canaanite lands NEEDED a Jewish ethnostate, or for the Liberal Zionist, a Volkstaat where you can technically vote and live in the country as in independent citizen, but only to the government assigned zones of living where the neighborhoods coincidentally compromise entirely of Arabs, you can leave these zones if you need, we just need your ID to check if you’re Hamas. It’s not segregation because the water fountains aren’t labeled “Arab only” and “Jew only” that’s too obvious.

Like so much of the conversation for Israel is an apocalyptic narrative of “if Hamas wins it’ll be a genocide eligible to be called the second shoah”

BITCH IF WE WANNA CRITICIZE HAMAS WE GOTTA TALK ABOUT WHERE THEY CAME FROM but Zionists only wanna talk about the hostile collapse of Fatah in 2007 to propagate the idea that Palestinians have become too radical to live in their own homeland. If you want a peaceful revolutionary movement, you would have to react to dissent nonviolently.

Unfortunately, the enforcement of the state of Israel started with violence, and even existed under the British Palestinian mandate.

Speaking of which that time in history is usually bright up by Zionists to point out Palestinians that collaborated with the Nazis to prove some way that the Palestinian ethnicity is an epigenetically anti-semitic people who need to be constantly opposed by “the west” to save the Jews from the fascist Arab and… the European ild fashioned racist.

Cause fuck returning the displaced Jews of East Europe and France and the lowlands to rebuilt houses and reconstructed neighborhoods. Dump them in the desert as described in the good book, can’t argue with God, who’s always right and can’t do anything wrong and if you question it you’re misguided at best and hellbound at worst.

Yeah man return an ethnicity displaced for thousands of years to their ancestral homeland I’m sure the people already living there would be okay with influx of a population the size of a small nation’s capital every year, even better when you literally move into their preexisting houses instead of moving in as a neighbor.

It is an international shame the UN and it’s leaders of Britain, the USA, France, and the USSR support this.

Yeah man we should deport the Spanish back to Italy (because they’re actually Roman) and import half the population to Iberia to reclaim the true ancestral population of Al-Andalus.

“But didn’t you point out an example of Arab Colonialism”

First off Moors are not Arab, second if you’re against Arab Colonialism I’d expect you to be against Israel which literally started as a project by the British to fulfill biblical prophecy.

So, all in all. The Jews can live in the Levant, no one ethnicity “owns” land, and no God will say otherwise. So what will happen if Israel goes? Where will the Jews go?

Nowhere, they will stop being Israelis, they instead would be “Jewish Palestinians” or “Hebrew Palestinians” and Palestine does not necessarily have to be run by Hamas. Hamas isn’t the only political movement for Palestinian independence. Even then hot take: most Palestinians who join Hamas just join the movement because it’s the biggest most effective movement of the current age against Israeli force. Certainly it has its anti-semites, that mist be addressed and condemned, but for the most part the movement has evolved to a revolutionary movement with goals of national independence than ISIS 2 (the wikipedia article on Hamas cites ISIS as an enemy of Hamas, with 2 sources cited)

I forgot to mention that Israel has been accused of founding Hamas to intensify conflict between secular and islamist Palestinian liberation forces.

Also to mention was Hamas was unpopular until after the first Intifada. It was a reaction to Israeli violence.

I certainly want people to criticize Hamas, mainly its use of suicide bombing from the 90s, but the issue is framing Hamas as an action and not a reaction, as I said before, to prevent violent revolution you must approach dissent without violence.

A lot has changed since the founder of Hamas (Ahmed Yassin) died. Mainly the situation in Palestine got worse. I want criticism of revolutionary movement to come after the revolution, as no criticism of a revolutionary movement can exist without some appeal to the status quo, and as it exists the status quo now is irreconcilable. I’m afraid the disarming of a terrorist group is not going to work with the elimination of the group by violence, but the required disarmament of the state committing atrocities on a national scale.

I am an American, we didn’t stop the Taliban by bombing Afghanistan, we didn’t stop Al-Qaeda by bombing Iraq in 2003. We didn’t stop ISIS by bombing Syria in 2016, (it was the Syrian army and Kurdish revolutionary forces that did the elbow grease)

Unironically, you want to end Hamas? You need to end Israel first. I’m not kidding.

#palestine #Israel #world politics

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Four More Years

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 22, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 23, 2024

With the passage of the national security supplemental bill through the House of Representatives on Saturday, Punchbowl News noted today, President Joe Biden became the winner of this Congress. When the Republicans took control of the House in January 2023, they vowed to impeach Biden and members of his Cabinet, overturn the signature legislation the Democrats had passed in 2021 and 2022, and force the Democrats to accept draconian  immigration policies. 

Instead, the impeachment effort against Biden collapsed into ridiculousness as, after months of hearings by the Committee on Oversight, Democrat Jared Moskowitz of Florida moved to impeach Biden and asked committee chair James Comer (R-KY) to second the motion. Comer refused. That admission that the point of the investigation into Biden was to create media soundbites against him was widely assumed to be the end of that project. Last week, on April 17, the top Democrat on the committee, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, called it “a propaganda experiment” and asked Comer: “What is the crime that you want to impeach Joe Biden for and keep this nonsense going?... Tell America right now.” Comer answered: “You’re about to find out very soon.”  

The House did, in fact, vote to impeach Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas—the first time that a cabinet secretary has been impeached in almost 150 years—but senators refused even to hold a trial, saying that Mayorkas’s implementation of Biden’s policies in the absence of congressional legislation to provide more security at the border was not a high crime or misdemeanor. 

House Republicans did not get the deep cuts they wanted to funding for the Internal Revenue Service, measures to address climate change, social welfare measures, or the budget in general. Instead, leaders have had to rely on Democrats to carry the weight of keeping the government funded, while Republicans have repeatedly been caught touting the internal improvements they voted against. Republicans demanded a strong border security measure, forced senators to spend months hammering one out, and then killed it in an astonishing own goal, at Trump’s demand. And the extremists did not succeed in abandoning Ukraine. 

Instead, they have had a bruising fight in which they threw out their own speaker, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and had trouble replacing him. Shortly thereafter, he left Congress, leading the way for more than 20 Republican representatives, including five committee chairs, who have said they will not seek reelection. They had to expel one of their own members, George Santos (R-NY), a serial liar who is under indictment for crimes associated with campaign financing—only the sixth time in U.S. history the House has expelled a member. 

In November 2023, extremist representative Chip Roy (R-TX) charged his colleagues with throwing away their shot at changing the country. He demanded one of them “explain to me one material, meaningful, significant thing the Republican majority has done.” 

Now those opposed to the extremists are firing back, publicly charging them with killing border security. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) went further, telling Dana Bash of CNN on Sunday: “It’s my absolute honor to be in Congress, but I serve with some real scumbags. Matt Gaetz [R-FL], he paid minors to have sex with him at drug parties. Bob Good [R-VA] endorsed my opponent, a known neo-Nazi. These people used to walk around with white hoods at night. Now they’re walking around with white hoods in the daytime.”

The chaos of the House has shifted the weight of governance toward the White House, and Biden has taken advantage of that shift to put in place measures popular with the majority of Americans. Today, on Earth Day, Biden also honored the idea of a government that works for the people when he spoke at the Prince William Forest Park in Triangle, Virginia, a national park developed in the 1930s by the government’s Works Progress Administration under the New Deal.

Biden called attention to the country’s historic investment in addressing climate change under his administration. He noted that that investment has created a clean-energy manufacturing boom that has attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in private-sector investment and created more than 270,000 new jobs. 

In Virginia, Biden announced $7 billion in federal grants for solar projects for more than 900,000 low- and middle-income households, saying those projects would save those households about $400 a year annually, more than $350 million total. The projects will also create nearly 200,000 jobs. 

Biden also announced the launch of the website to apply to join the American Climate Corps (ACC), an initiative modeled after New Deal president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Over its nine-year existence, the CCC employed more than three million young men improving the nation’s public lands, forests, and parks, many of whom earned their high school diplomas thanks to the educational opportunities connected to the program. 

When the administration unveiled the American Climate Corps program last year, more than 42,000 young people expressed interest within weeks. The first ACC jobs will start in June. Beginning this summer, ACC members will have access to training in trades, thanks to a partnership between the program and the North America’s Building Trades Unions’ nonprofit partner TradesFutures. 

This national shift toward a government focused on the good of ordinary Americans is facing a backlash.

As right-wing voices have lost control in Congress, they have worked aggressively to take over states. There, they have pushed extreme abortion bans, gutted labor laws including for child labor, restricted voting, banned books from public schools, worked to privatize education, and so on—precisely the sort of reactionary state movements the U.S. Supreme Court used the Fourteenth Amendment to undermine from the 1950s to the 1970s. 

Today, on Earth Day, The Guardian reported that Louisiana’s flagship state university, Louisiana State University (LSU), has permitted oil and chemical companies to influence research and teaching activities concerning climate change in exchange for donations to the university. 

The attempt to cement right-wing dominance in the states in opposition to a more liberal national government is a political tradition almost as old as this country, but in 2024 it is being challenged. On Friday, April 19, Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers (UAW), despite a letter from the Republican governors of six southern states—Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas—warning the workers that unionization would stop auto manufacturers from expanding in their states.

Similar votes, with similar opposition from Republican leaders and business interests, failed in 2014 and 2019. This time, 73% of the workers voted to join the UAW, which has just negotiated strong contracts with the Big Three U.S. automakers. In a statement, Biden said: “Let me be clear to the Republican governors that tried to undermine this vote: there is nothing to fear from American workers using their voice and their legal right to form a union if they so choose. In fact, the growing strength of unions over the last year has gone hand-in-hand with record small business and jobs growth alongside the longest stretch of low unemployment in more than 50 years. I will continue to stand with American workers and stand against [Republicans’] effort to weaken workers’ voice.”  

Tennessee reporter Phil Williams noted that the Beacon Center, a right-wing think tank in the state, tried to tell Tennesseans that the UAW has a “radical political agenda,” but its own latest poll shows that the people of Tennessee view the UAW’s unionization efforts in the state favorably. (The research also shows that only 12% of likely voters in Tennessee believe the current U.S. tax system is “fair and effectively supports public services.”) 

Today also saw the opening statements of The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump. The prosecution outlined a 2015 meeting in Trump Tower in which Trump, his then-fixer Michael Cohen, and David Pecker, the chief executive officer of American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, struck an agreement to influence the 2016 election by finding negative information about Trump and hiding it, publishing flattering stories about Trump, and attacking Trump’s political opponents. 

The defense said Trump is innocent and called Cohen a liar, pointing out that he is a convicted felon (without noting that he committed crimes in Trump’s service). 

Pecker took the stand for about 20 minutes before court ended for the day. He is expected to testify again tomorrow. 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Biden #Harris #Biden Administration #accomplishments #4 more years #history #Labor unions #Inflation Reduction act #GOP failures #GOP propaganda

[edenfenixblogs]

How do you know if you’re antisemitic?

Well, if a Jew telling you you’re antisemitic won’t make you believe it, here is a guide to help you figure it out yourself.

1. Do you think Jews, en masse, are ACTIVELY REPLACING/ATTEMPTING TO REPLACE some other group — especially a somehow more deserving group? (For example, White people, Black people, African people, Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, indigenous people, etc.) Do you feel there are JUST TOO MANY JEWS IN A GIVEN LOCATION?

2. Do you think Jews are PRETENDING TO BE SOMETHING THAT THEY ARE NOT? (For example, White, PoC, “Real” Jews, Indigenous/Native, an Ethnic Minority, Devoted Citizens of [YOUR COUNTRY] etc.)?

3. Do you think Jews are CONTROLLING OR ATTEMPTING TO CONTROL SOME INTEGRAL ASPECT OF SOCIETY? (For example, the government, media, banks, business, medicine, etc.)

4. Do you think Jews that you criticize are UNIQUELY BLOODTHIRSTY OR GENOCIDAL — especially when hoping for personal achievement or cultural supremacy? (For example, trying to stage a global war so they can control the world; using/consuming blood of Christians and babies to do satanic rituals; sexually seducing non-Jews in order to contaminate bloodlines and erase other pre-existing identities; immigrating to a new location with the intention of murdering those who already exist there; desiring to murder Arabs, Muslims, or Palestinians in their homelands by means of genocide in order to control a region at the exclusion of other ethnicities, etc.)

5. Do you think Jews are APPROPRIATING A PRIVILEGE THAT THEY DO NOT DESERVE AND THAT DOES NOT BELONG TO THEM? (For example, freedom, wealth, power, whiteness, G-d’s favor, a safe home in the Levant, Arab land, colonial power, representation as a minority group, etc.)

6. Do you think Jews at large or the specific Jews you disagree with and who wield power in a way you disapprove of CAN BE COLLECTIVELY LABELED? (For example, might you call them slaves, vermin, insects, dirty, scheming, communists, fascists, Nazis, satanic, Zionists, scum, etc.)

IF YOU ANSWERED YES TO ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS YOU ARE AN ANTISEMITE. This is literally textbook antisemitism. If you answered, well yeah but only “the Jews in Israel” or “the ones who vote for Bibi” or the “ones who moved to my town/country/region” or if you saw something on one of the lists and think “well no fair! That one is actually true,” your exception isn’t exceptional. You haven’t found the one true bad thing that Jews ACTUALLY are. It’s not some conspiratorial propaganda to equate reasonable beliefs with hate. You’re just hateful. Some part of you hates Jews. And you have to confront what that part of you is and you have to destroy it if you want to engage in any conversations that impact Jewish welfare anywhere in the world.

One way to start deconstructing is to ask yourself “Why do I feel this way?” “From whom did I learn to think this way?” “Who in my life approves and supports me thinking this way?” “Am I comfortable telling a Jewish person I feel this way in person?” “How do I think a Jewish person will feel/What do I think a Jewish person will think if I tell them this?” “Do I care what they feel or think? Why or why not?” “How would I feel/what would I think if someone felt this way or thought this way about me or an identity I value deeply?”

#antisemitism #self reflection #deconstruction #bias #i/p #the situation #anti zionisim #Zionism #communism #fascism #I dare a goy to reblog this challenge #for the goys #leftist antisemitism #conspiracy theories #conspiracy #genocide

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

On July 7, 2023, the hosts of the Fresh & Fit Podcast had white nationalist Nick Fuentes as a guest on a pair of livestreams. During these livestreams, Fuentes engaged in his usual displays of bigotry: calling for a majority white country, condemning interracial relationships and women’s rights, praising Adolf Hitler, denying the Holocaust and, at one point, using the N-word.

The hosts of the show, Myron Gaines and Walter Weekes, often encouraged and agreed with Fuentes, and would play a sound effect of a cash register whenever Jewish people were mentioned.

During the first Fresh & Fit Podcast livestream, which was three hours long and aired on both YouTube and Rumble, Fuentes said that “women shouldn’t be getting educated” and shouldn’t have the right to vote. Myron Gaines said that women should be able to vote, but added that a “female’s vote should be half of a man’s vote” because men register for selective service.

When asked for his thoughts on “mass immigration,” Fuentes said he was “totally against it,” claiming that America was “founded, built, inhabited by white people” and “should remain that way.” Fuentes asked where white people will be “evacuated to” in the event that America is “taken over” and “they’re killin’ white people and we’re 30% of the population.”

Gaines also asked Fuentes if he’s actually an anti-semite for criticizing Israel or Jewish people since, in his opinion, a “small group of” Jews are “overrepresented” in certain careers or industries. Fuentes complained that if you suggest the Holocaust was “exaggerated,” or accuse Jewish people of dual loyalty, or suggest that Jews are part of a global conspiracy you’re considered anti-semitic.

“The FBI, the State Department says you’re an anti-semite if: Holocaust exaggerated, you think Jews are loyal to Israel, if you think Jews conspire in the world — which they do!” he exclaimed. “I mean what’s the World Jewish Congress? I mean what is that other than a global conspiracy?”

Fuentes blamed Jewish people for the murder of Jesus Christ (a belief renounced by the Catholic Church in 1962), and voiced support for the Judeo-Bolshevik conspiracy theory which posits that Jewish people carried out the Russian Revolution of 1917. “So it’s not just any group that’s running the society, it’s not just any group that wields its influence,” he said. “It’s a group that hates God. It’s a group that hates Christians. It’s a group that, historically, has hated Europeans.”

Co-host Walter Weekes chimed in to say that Jews “will inevitably bring about the end of the world,” and cited the Book of Revelation. “So what did the Devil do? Everything opposite [of what God wants],” Weekes added. “What are the Jews doing? The opposite.” Myron Gaines said he looked at the issue from a “geopolitical angle” and claimed that there is “100% proof that there was Israeli intelligence involved in” 9/11.

In a second livestream that lasted four hours and is now set to private on the Fresh & Fit Podcast YouTube channel, which has over 1.4 million subscribers, Gaines and Weekes included Fuentes on a panel alongside several Black women.

Early on in the show, Fuentes told the other panelists that he “support[s] most of” what Adolf Hitler did, and that he doesn’t believe that the Holocaust happened. Later on when they revisited these comments, Fuentes called Hitler a “good guy” and cited the work of David Irving, a notorious racist and Holocaust denier, to suggest that the Nazis did not carry out a genocide.

Irving denies the existence of Nazi gas chambers and once remarked that “I don’t think there was any overall Reich policy to kill the Jews. If there was, they would have been killed and there would not be now so many millions of survivors.”

Fuentes referred to Irving, who unsuccessfully sued historian Deborah Lipstadt for libel after she called him a Holocaust denier, as “one of the preeminent World War II historians in the history of the world.” Fuentes cited Irving’s false claims that Nazi concentration camps were not, in fact, “death camps,” and that Jewish prisoners mainly died of disease and starvation.

“And so when you see these pictures of people being shoveled in and the mass graves and things like that, maybe it’s not gas chambers. Maybe it’s not an extermination. Maybe these were people who still, unfairly and in a discriminatory way, were locked up for being Jewish. But maybe these technological horrors are exaggerated. Maybe the numbers are exaggerated,” he said, summarizing Irving’s position.

Fuentes concluded that “it’s a lot more plausible that this is being used to bully people into not talking about certain topics.”

Three hours into the livestream, in response to a viewer question about whether Fuentes had “support from a black / hispanic [sic] audience,” Fuentes replied that “Blacks love me because I’m honest.” When other panelists reacted to his use of the word “Blacks,” Fuentes said that they didn’t “want to hear my second choice.” After being egged on by other panelists, Fuentes then said the N-word into his mic.

#us politics #news #angry white men #blog #fresh and fit podcast #nick fuentes #alt right #bigotry #bigots be like #racists #2023 #white nationalist #white nationalism #Adolf Hitler #nazis #nazi germany #neo nazis #holocaust #holocaust denial #Myron Gaines #Walter Weekes #antisemtism #antisemites #racial slurs #David Irving

[countkunt]

We don't fucking like Biden or support his genocide, we're trying not to get slaughtered ourselves by the violent fascist regime looking to seize power here. And unfortunately the only fucking option to prevent them from gaining more power is to vote for Genocide Joe.

It's not a good solution. But it is a means of self preservation. I can't fight for Palestine to be free if nazi trumpers have locked me up or murdered me for being queer and disabled.

Quit punching down on the people who are trying to prioritize their own lives over being a perfect ally in an imperfect world. Only ever supporting perfect people isn't going to make the world perfect. It will just make it easier for the worst bastards to enact their wills on the less fortunate.

keep enabling one wing of the same bird that hates you in the name of “self preservation” and you will have nothing left to preserve. biden is as much a fascist as trump. if the past 2 months haven’t made that clear to you i’m not sure anything will. in fact, looking at his career, he’s actually had a decades long track record of radical support for the zionist project. your final hope against fascism is to the far right of ronald reagan on israeli violations of international law. guess what that effectively makes him and his supporters?

libs have bought into a perverse and frankly racist ideology that anything can happen over there as long as it doesn’t happen here. but even if we convince ourselves our “safety” is more important, let me assure you we are more interconnected than that. if in the year of 2023 joe biden can explicitly and zealously (as he’s done throughout his career) endorse, fund, and arm the second Nakba, and fucking win the next term, what message does that send the Democratic Party? what lines are left to cross? do you actually understand the type of world neoliberalism is and has been building?

if both parties are coming together to censor dissent across the country, if the House is proposing a bill legally redefining anti-zionsim as anti-semetism, if what’s left of Gaza is destroyed with our tax dollars and arms dealers, and voters don’t even fucking flinch in the face of it, exactly what kind of future do you think you’re preserving for us? Cop City and the surveilance state are being championed just as hard by dems, and of course they're learning plenty from israel on how to go about it. biden is continuing the border wall after promising not to and waiving any environmental and indigenous protections in his way. the kids in cages libs used to be crying over are still being put in them. families are still being separated. biden continues the muslim ban. hate crimes against arabs and muslims are drastically on the rise thanks in large part to his administration's abhorrent leadership.

lie after lie, attack after attack against the most vulnerable of the domestic minority and global majority. the House just voted for H. Res. 894 that will legally censor anyone who’s against apartheid israel-finally finding a way to legally redefine anti-zionsim as anti-semitism. 311-14. the US has long dictatied what politcal movments youre allowed to support, but now Congress is bipartisanly deciding which politcal movements you're allowed to be opposed to. even those among the 14 reps who voted against H. Res. 894 have voted for aid to israel in the past or cowardly abstained, and that includes members of the beloved squad ilhan omar and aoc (.). this is the exact shit that got us to this point. and you still think you’re safer under fascists and enablers in blue. giving our government a bright green flag to act upon anyone they don't like with impunity is what liberals are working with conservatives towards.

i want to say more about how as we worry about ourselves a generation of Palestinians are being permanently disabled, how netanyahu is speaking with our congressional leaders of both parties about “thinning” a population of 2.5 million as we try to convince ourselves biden’s ghouls are any better than trump’s. but what can i say that hasn’t already been better said? it’s long past time americans admit that you can’t claim to be against something and then vote for it every election day. the capitalist system is irredeemable. neoliberalism is unsustainable. all our politicians are bought and sold by the ruling class and therefore only serve the ruling class. not disabled people. not the lgbtq community. the ruling class. you couldn’t change that in a voting booth if you tried and this system is not going to get better in any meaningful way. that is not punching down, this is the reality we have to work with. every time a liberal chooses their (ever right-shifting) status quo over human life, that’s punching down on all of us, hardest on the "third world." no one is free until Palestine is free because no one is free until we all are free.

or else, human life is worthless and we in the US will spend the rest of our lives (more time for some than others) watching BOTH parties chip our rights away as they condition the population to accept that this or that minority is merely collateral. or a nuisance that must be disposed of. or it's just the way of the world. fuck that fuck Joe biden and fuck everyone who tries to shame people into playing their games.

#i love you not voting #free palestine #fuck biden #i had more to say and link but i feel awful and tumblr anons are not my priority rn #fuck voting

[kinocomix]

Untitled project Devlog #3: The crab effect

Today we’re going to talk about how art and politics are inherently inseparable on a conceptual level, but first: let’s talk about boots.

If you google Doc Martens you’ll be taken to their website where you have the option of buying an assortment of very overpriced shoes that a lesbian on tiktok assured me are made less good than classic ones from the 90’s and 80’s. When I was in class one day our professor mentioned how nowadays a lot of companies adopt an ideology put forth by Ford (the car manufacturer) where if you have a very sturdy part of a machine that’s expensive to make but the rest of the machine isn’t, the “smarter” idea is to make this part cheaper and less sturdy than to spend a bunch of money to make the whole machine better- supposedly this is better for the consumer somehow but that’s not the point. Setting aside how that raises the question of planned obsolescence and potential consumer exploitation, part of the reason that people say old Doc Marten shoes are better… is probably because they actually are. 

from how to geek: https://www.howtogeek.com/731791/what-is-planned-obsolescence-and-how-does-it-affect-my-devices/

This sentiment, the idea that companies aren’t worth your respect because they optimize their products to make more money and not to actually sell you a good product is part of what a lot of punk subcultures are about. Those same boots were likely part of the original fashion focused subculture, skinheads, that assisted in the creation of the punk genre. 

The original meaning of “skinhead” referred to some working class young people who had some extra cash to spend on clothing. Because history is always very messy, some racists saw that and thought “oh wow young people who can vote” and then neo nazis happened. in reaction to that you had people still calling themselves skinheads now taking an anti racist anti fascist approach. to note: it’s not clear cut, you still had people in the middle not caring.

This is how the ideology of punk was born. It’s this whole messy history lesson spanning continents, politics, fashion, a distaste for what was then the way too polished mirror sheen of rock. they wanted something tangible, something of the people by the people. so take the urban fashion of the original reggae/soul/ska influenced skinhead movement born in the UK, combine it with the now beginning to be unique sound of american punk just trying to sound different, the image of the working class “bastard” that deconstructed and challenged the idea of what a musician was and you get a socio-politically motivated genre of music that wants the best for the people.

sidenote: in case you’re wondering- yes there were neonazi punk musicians, but it’s not called punk, it’s called hatecore, which is… a fitting name. Genres are not only defined by sound, but themes as well.

Remember when I mentioned that music changes based off of the social fabric it’s built on? there you go. Punk as we know it would not exist the way it does today had it not been for that messy history. Now with that in mind, you can hopefully see why there’s an overlap with metal. If I were to vaguely state “loud music that actually wants to say something very important” you might have a hard time telling me which genre I’m talking about. This overlap is vaguely similar to how nature keeps evolving crabs independently from each other:

“Carcinization is of interest to carcinologists and evolutionary biologists for several reasons and at different levels. First of all it is an instance of astonishing convergence, concerning a whole set of structures.”

Scholtz, G. (2014). Evolution of crabs – history and deconstruction of a prime example of convergence, Contributions to Zoology, 83 (2) 87-105. https://brill.com/view/journals/ctoz/83/2/article-p87_1.xml

And… it’s weird right? how these people trying to do different things ended up in the same place. to note, I’m aware that both of these genres are not exclusively worried about social and political issues, no genre is. Metal is first and foremost fun, and punk music is first and foremost that: MUSIC. But it’s hard to deny that both genres are intense in their messaging. 

Remember the time System of a Down set aside years of creative differences to talk about the war happening in Armenia?

Literally any Russ Russel song will be talking about some variation of politics/the man/religion

Napalm Death, Metaphorically screw you

Here’s a fun fact, Rage against the machine got the N-word pass (I would presume) to sing their cover of Fuck the police

You know the meme of Gojira being all like “come here bb girl” and then it’s just like a tree? I mean that’s not based on nothing either…

On the lesser known end of the spectrum, you have artists like 3teeth which raise an interesting question:

3teeth, president X

“It’s all kind of… tongue in cheek?” you might say. There’s the song “God hates us all” by Slayer, when the lead singer Tom Araya was asked if he actually believes that he simply said the following:

Tom Araya in in Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, directed by Sam Dunn

Metal Musicians aren’t dumb. They know what they’re doing. Sometimes they’re Genuinely convinced of what they’re talking about. Other times They’re just trying to be outrageous. 

Dee Snider, Lead singer of twisted Sister

A lot of the gender norm defying things the metal scene did in the 70’s was because they were just trying to look cool and outrageous. But let’s forget about that for a moment. I can hear someone giving the arguments “What about Nu metal?”, “What about Rob zombie?”, “what about Ghost”, “what about [insert commenter’s band here]?”. Are those political? no, neither is most music in general. No one listens to Feiruz and thinks “ah yes, you can clearly hear the Palestinian struggle represented through the lyrics” but you might just look up Feiruz, learn she’s from Lebanon and then learn about the part of the world glued to Lebanon called Palestine. This is called tangential learning, so in that same sense, maybe you’ll be listening to Bodies by Drowning pool–which is about moshing by the way– and for a moment you’ll think of something else more serious for example. Again, you might not, and that’s fine… but you can’t deny that the path is there. 

Setting that aside for a moment, let’s consider the argument that music is a form of escapism. Leaning on this as your sole argument is very narrow minded and forgets the idea that escapist fiction is inherently anti-escapist. When you read Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (which is great by the way go read Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson) sure you’re immersed in the world of the book and the intricacies of this nigh-impossible magical bank heist. But once you put down the book, you’re always reminded of the world you’re escaping from. Escapist fiction offers a temporary relief from reality, there is always a thread that tethers that fiction to the real world it pushes against. 

Craig Thompson, Blankets

If you're still reading at this point you’re probably wondering how any of this is relevant to a comic book, let alone one that I'm making. The project I'm working on is going to feature a band that we’re going to be eventually making characters for. but in order to do that and do it properly, it’s important to understand the motivations behind the music. If I don’t then you end up with cliche characters like “angry rebellious metalhead” and “overly verbose activist punk” which no one wants and that would make the whole thing a shit fest at worst, and a boring comic at best. It’s important for me that i don’t rely on the events taking place in the story to hold it up, the world and people in it need to be just as interesting and complex as the contrivances of my narrative, otherwise I’m just writing a less good bandslam or a very uninspired rip off of inception that completely misses the point.

Anyways!I would be remiss to not specifically point out that I actually have a goal I’m working towards, I have a plot outline that’s been figured out for a while. All the work I’m doing fits into that skeleton in one way or another, but that’s it for now.

Devlog updates on tuesdays

#comic #kinocomix #devlog #graphic novel #metal #webcomic #craig thompson #twisted sister #slayer #punk rock #Youtube

[mallowmaenad]

my new political ideaology is that I get a device called the dipshit detector that removes self-important white people’s ability to use cellphones for 1 month and I don’t fucking care if this is a fascist dictatorshit i actually would turn joe biden into joe woke and donald trump into pronoun trump if i see one more loud mouthed straighty act like their opinion fucking matters im introducing their shy 9 year old son to my little pony i cant fucking take this shit yes fuck it throw republicans in concentration camps they’re practically begging for it they wont shut the fuck up about how theyre gonna be hunted down and killed wish granted bitch blam blam its wabbit season bitch im sick of liberals im sick of voting im sick of norway if youre even slightly uncomfortable around gay people you should be set on fire black power asian power jewish power latino power and i fucking mean it im not just buying the stupid 30$ tshirt on fckhate.com the worst thing to ever happen in american history is abraham lincoln not publicly executing every confederate general and outlawing slavery full stop we literally live in starship troopers we are trapped in a shitty gmod half life dark rp server yeah I do think you’re basically a terrorist if you go to disney land and i also think that if the first words out of your mouth when the rustbelt gets set on fire is “those dirty rednecks deserve it” ill show you a fucking redneck you fucking yank prick you fucking racist i wish hilary clinton would explode on live tv charitys are fucking fake theyre as fake as those cardboard towns in north korea oppenheimer was a limpdick pussy and fallout is becoming a game franchise that fetishizes the mass genocide of asians and i want todd howard pinned under a large rock for it spec ops the line wasn’t ugly enough there is a conspiracy started by the cosmetics, nutrition and fashion industry in collaboration with the upper class descendants of fucking typhoid “moneybags” marys to fool the masses that fat people aren’t hot as fuck. My body and mind and soul degrade with the week because of yhe shit ass menial labor yhey made me do and the fucking lead in gasoline and world war 1 started a chain reaction of fathers beating their kids and wives because it’s cheaper to buy a gun than go to therapy because we’re fucking warhammer orks without any of the endearing mental stupidity we live in mordor. we live in fucking mordor. it literally does not matter who is president our two political parties are Nazis and Neo-Nazis bernie sanders was the closest thing to a centrist this country has ever seen. capitalism grinds up joy into a paste to divvy out on 500$ gucci toothpicks public urination should be legal rent is theft corporations are agents of satan who is jesus christ who is not jesus of nazareth jesus christ is the poster boy of white supremacy i fucking hate Hamilton white people should listen to MORE rap i want to get my dick sucked at a death grips concert. Laundromats and burger joints where you can get a meal for 5$ are far more important than police stations and walmart. pop anarchists want to personally confiscate your wheelchair uou fuckers treat yhis like a game fuckin e girls with hammers and sickles in their icons arguing about what form of communism or socialism or whateverism is right when bitch that is a pipe dream you are going to die in captivity arguing about which dragon ball z character is the strongest (girl broly) at least go punch a hole in your wall and fuck it to prove you’re human you facebook fetishist jesus christ every other day i want a biblical death just so my fucked up thouhhts mean something i need a fuckingjason vorhees bitch wheres the yandere tea party this is all so fucked up its not fucking real the christian god hates you whoever says otherwise is trying to make you a fucking slave. Mormonism and scientology should be wiped off the map any religion formed after the invention of the gun is a fucking pyramid scheme i wish i was a 9 foot toll shark lady with hugebrealssta so i could fucking knock over thechrystler building

DO 9/11 AGAIN

#vent #rant #cw politics

[emptymanuscript]

The thing I feel gets missed about the Leopards Eating Peoples Faces Party is in the punch line.

“We won’t eat YOUR face!”

And then, when a Leopard does eat their face, we say:

Essentially: why would you think they wouldn’t eat YOUR face, too, if they eat people’s faces.

But that stance comes from the point of view of us sitting here thinking of ourselves as people vs these face eating Leopards. And that’s not their point of view.

“We won’t eat YOUR face,” is our bitter joke. No one votes for this:

That’s not the pitch. 

People who vote for Leopards Eating Peoples Faces Party think they’re Leopards.

If you think you’re a Leopard, and the Party says, “Hey, you’re a Leopard, you should vote for Leopards,” then it makes total sense to vote for the Leopards Eating Peoples Faces Party. 100%. At worst it is a neutral action.

The lie is not: “We won’t eat YOUR face.”

The lie is: “We’re Leopards and they’re not.”

That’s why people fall for it because it is a much more insidious lie. No one falls for “I’m a face eater but I’d never eat yours.” Nearly everyone falls for, “We’re different from THEM.”

I’m a good person. They’re a bad person. Because they are bad, they deserve it when bad things happen to them. Bad things won’t happen to me because I am a good person so I deserve good things to happen to me.

That’s the real Leopards Eating Peoples Faces Party pitch.

The second you assume there’s a difference, that some of us are Leopards or some of us are Deer, whether you’re a Leopard or a Deer, they’ve got a claw in your soul and they’ll use it against you.

From my point of view, that’s how they got far too many of my people. There are an appalling number of Jews who vote Republican because Republicans act for the Israeli government against the Palestinians and other “Arab threats.” They’ve bought into the narrative that we Jews are good and they Arabians are bad. We phrase it to ourselves that we’re the good guys, the Deer, who have to band together to save ourselves from the evil face eating sub-human Leopards. And so vote Republican because someone needs to eat their Faces in order to protect us (as we clutch our pearls). Even though if we scrubbed the numbers off and just described policies without that big red R attached, we’d clutch our pearls even tighter and scream Nazi!

It just doesn’t count as fascism when it is our fascism, when we’re enforcing an apartheid state and ethnically exterminating Palestinians. And so many of us can’t see it because we bought in to the first lie, the lie that always gets people because it is easy and convincing.

And then we’re shocked by the Proud Boys marching and screaming, “The Jews will not replace us,” and can’t understand how Republicans, the current clear and present Leopards Eating Peoples Faces Party seems to support them. Because we’re all supposed to be good people opposed to bad people instead of all just being people.

#off topic #politics

[swordandboardllc]

Introducing: The Sword & Board Book Club

Hello Readers, 

Life has been a little all over the place for the past couple months. I had surgery, my sister had surgery, my husband was let go from Twitch, and now we're in the middle of moving! So with all that excitement, the newsletter and Book of the Month went to the wayside. 

I want a way to continue Book of the Month, but in a way that lets me get to know you all better, and lets you see what an author looks for when analyzing and learning from a novel. That means, Book Club Time!

HOW TO JOIN

1. Sign up for a Fable.co Account 2. Join the Sword & Board Discord   3. Click on the Fable Link pinned in #Book-Club 4. Follow the Fable instructions on how to pick up the book. 

It's fairly straight forward and I'm extremely excited to get started with all of you in September. If you follow those instructions presently, you'll see there isn't a link yet for the book club in the discord channel. That's because I want your help choosing our discussion book!

Vote here on Patreon

Let me know which book you're excited to read with me. Multiple choice is allowed, so feel free to vote for your top two.

Your options are: 

 A Poison Steeped in Magic: I used to look at my hands with pride. Now all I can think is, "These are the hands that buried my mother." For Ning, the only thing worse than losing her mother is knowing that it's her own fault. She was the one who unknowingly brewed the poison tea that killed her—the poison tea that now threatens to also take her sister, Shu. When Ning hears of a competition to find the kingdom's greatest shennong-shi—masters of the ancient and magical art of tea-making—she travels to the imperial city to compete. The winner will receive a favor from the princess, which may be Ning's only chance to save her sister's life. But between the backstabbing competitors, bloody court politics, and a mysterious (and handsome) boy with a shocking secret, Ning might actually be the one in more danger.

The Sun and the Void: Two women embark on a unforgettable quest into a world of dark gods and ancient magic in this sweeping fantasy debut inspired by the history and folklore of colonial South America.  Reina is desperate. Stuck on the edges of society, Reina’s only hope lies in an invitation from a grandmother she’s never met. But the journey to her is dangerous, and prayer can’t always avert disaster. Attacked by creatures that stalk the mountains, Reina is on the verge of death until her grandmother, a dark sorceress, intervenes. Now dependent on the Doña’s magic for her life, Reina will do anything to earn—and keep—her favor. Even the bidding of an ancient god who whispers to her at night. Eva Kesaré is unwanted. Illegitimate and of mixed heritage, Eva is her family’s shame. She tries to be the perfect daughter, but Eva is hiding a secret: Magic calls to her.  Eva knows she should fight the temptation. Magic is the sign of the dark god, and using it is punishable by death. Yet it’s hard to ignore power when it has always been denied you. Eva is walking a dangerous path. And in the end, she’ll become something she never imagined. 

Silver Nitrate: Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood. Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed. Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend. As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.

Fourth Wing: Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them. With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise. Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise.  Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret. Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die. 

#book club #fantasy book club #fable book club #voting #patreon #silver nitrate #fourth wing #the sun and the void #a poison steeped in magic