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ah yes, my favorite game, the legend of sapphic

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booty shorts that say "I'd rather be in Ankh-Morpork, which is really more of an indictment of the here and now than an endorsement of one's personal safety and happiness in Ankh-Morpork" on the ass in very small font

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I know I was mocking this earlier--and it is still something I find hilarious--but there's something more here that's worth pointing out in a coherent fashion.

Back in 2021, this post made the prediction that "Gen Z is gonna have a big cult boom the way that boomers did in the 70s," and breaking down the risk factors on why Gen Z is primed to fall into cults.

Thing is, though, the cults are already here. QAnon, Wellness cults...

And "Antizionism".

If you look at the Antizionists--like the one above--their behavior makes so much more sense when viewed through the structure of a high-control decentralized cult than from the perspective of a political movement. As a political movement, the "Antizionist" movement is not only useless, it is actively counterproductive to their stated goals of helping Palestinians, and continues to grow worse in that regard.

But as a cult?

As a cult, it is excellent.

It gives people a sense of control, an antagonist to blame for everything bad in their lives and the world, an easy narrative to believe, and a promise of a paradise once the evil is defeated. It appeals to pre-rendered (antisemitic) narratives that were already omnipresent in social and political spaces, there's a massive amount of effort, financial backing, and political pressure being used to promote it--and yet, thanks to those narratives, specifically the ones about "excessive (((Zionist))) control of political, economic, and social institutions", they can feel like the underdogs punching up at the ones in power, which gives them the feeling of being persecuted while in the midst of doing the persecution.

And to quote John Rogers for this beautiful bit:

one of the great secrets of human nature is that the one thing people want more than love, security, sex, chocolate or big-screen TV's is to feel hard done by. Why? Because being hard done by is the shit. Feeling hard done by is the sweetest of drugs. If you're being persecuted -- it must mean you're doing the right thing, right? You get the mellow buzz of the moral high ground, but without arrogantly claiming it as your own. You get an instant, supportive community in a big dark scary world of such scope it may well literally be beyond rational human processing. When you are hard done by, you get purpose in a life where otherwise, you'd have to find your own. And when you ride that high, then no amount of logic, no pointing out that in actuality you and your beliefs are at a high point of popularity and influence for the last hundred years -- is going to pry that sweet crack-pipe of moral indignation from your hands.

And when you look at the actual behaviors and claims of the Antizionist movement in the context of cults...

Well, it's terrifying. They score high on each of the four areas of the BITE model (that's probably a whole post on that later), with the above screenshot being a prime example from the Thought Control area of the model.

Add to the fact that they're backpacking onto and loudly supporting an armed militant terrorist group with an explicitly religious and genocidal ideology, and you've got a recipe for radicalization.

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eat an entire can of sweetened condensed milk. you deserve it.

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People on TikTok (and possibly elsewhere) are saying Jews stole brisket, fucking *brisket* from Texans. Like a brisket is a cut of meat. I’m pretty sure Jews were eating it before Texas was like officially part of the U.S. and even then jewish brisket and Texas brisket are prepared differently!

These people are so fucking stupid

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Saw someone mention the new Boston Dynamics' robot was introduced like a Souls boss. Was not expecting it to come out so creepy.

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A not so secret - I am not nearly so solid on The Israel Thing as a lot of the people who yell at me think.

Mostly, I have been burned so many times by people using "advocacy for Palestine" to cover for antisemitism that I barely have brainpower left to process it; I hear questions and slogans on the topic and my brain is immediately too focused on defensive fight-or-flight and worry for Israeli civilians that, when its said sincerely such as in Jewish company for once, I just sorta draw a blank and can't make my brain go forward.

Do I think there should be one wholly secular state for all, a binational state, a confederation, multiple states? Should nation-states be a thing here or not? What steps, if any, should be taken towards any of the above - what can realistically be achieved, what would go horribly wrong, and is what can be achieved consionable? Who is making proposals and "anything but advocating for at least this is evil" demands that take "how to make it happen in reality" into account?

Should Israel maintain full Law of Return or switch to making it super easy and super low threshold for claiming refugee status there to balance PR with the safe place for Jews to flee when nowhere else is safe or welcoming? What is best compatible with zionism? What DO I consider zionism, besides "far far far to the pro-coexistence left of what activists use the word to mean"?

Should the US work harder to sanction Israel's military and cut off non-defensive aid despite the Camp David agreement with Egypt, or full support to try to get SOME leverage? Should aid be increased out of pragmatism vis-a-vis smart bombs vs dumb and the Iran issue, or decreased over Gaza and the West Bank war crimes, or left where it is?

Is a boycott of goods made in West Bank settlements possible, or would it just be giving people like BDS who oppose coexistence to the point of condemning Standing Together a foot in the door?

What DO I consider settlements, the Oslo definition or the "anything past '48 lines other than the old city"?

Are the 48 borders even meaningful in any sense beyond international understanding of the situation? Is that reason enough for them to be a goal?

Is Oslo still worth pursuing, or was it wasted effort negotiating with people who didn't meaningfully have consent of the governed and that actions like recognition violating Oslo don't mean anything and that the international community Oslo was meant to be enforced by seem to have forgotten it entirely?

War crimes or "genocide"? Would my answer be different if I hadn't been trained to see the latter as a form of psychological attack rather than a claim to be examined? Would the latter claim exist if that wasn't a factor?

Too what degree is antisemitism in the diaspora exacerbated by Israel, Israeli goverment actions and claims, and anti-antisemitism organizations focusing on it, and to what extent is that an excuse people give themselves?

To what extent is the antisemitism disguised as Palestinian advocacy genuine good intent misled, ill intent disguised, and actual serious discussion using the same words that have been used to attack me for the crime of being who I was born in public?

How can Hamas be pressured to ease up their side of this clusterfuck when Israel's military takes their bait every damn time digging itself further down and nobody else acknowledges their culpability in the mess everybody is trapped in?

...what future do I have politically, when as somebody raised in Amerixa's democratic party I'm far too egalitarian and pro-coexistence than most Israelis, but as somebody raised Jewish I'm far too much a scapegoat for younger generations of American activists and politicians? Will I be forced to flee to Israel for my own safety, and how hated would I be there for whatever choices I make? If I am not forced to flee, how hated will I be for those same choices?

What present do I have when I'm under attack by my own government and half the opposition whose solidarity I need and who everything I was raised with says I need to show solidarity for sounds like it either wants me dead or wants my 2nd cousins dead?

Do I have all the facts or am I misunderstanding things? Who do I believe?

How can I be consistent with what I believe when there are so many mutually exclusive demands placed by reality and I barely even know what's happening or the history? How can I balance that consistency with not getting set on fire?

Will my new nephew grow up to hate me for the choices I make like articles talking about generational divides in American Jews make me worry?

I have no answers, only further panicked questions circling back to themselves for almost two years now

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https://www.yadvashem.org/from-our-collections/hannah-szenes.html

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This just sums up the insanity of our world so perfectly...

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"Upstate NY" including most of Southern and Western NY as per usual 😭

Hey so I see folks with alot of the same issues, and alot of other people going "hey man its not like that" and the first group going "man your crazy". And from personal experiance it became very suddenly Not Like That once I moved 2000 miles away from my hometown so i gotta ask

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This is exactly why I preferred "lashon hara lamed hey, you belong in pre-1A" 😂

jewish culture is everyone saying “lashon hara lamed hay spell it backwards go that way” in middle school even though you don’t actually believe in hell

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Jennifer L Mohr aka Jennifer L Mueller (Canadian, b. 1980, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, based Airdrie, Alberta, Canada) - Sometimes I Pretend, Paintings: Acrylic on cradled Wood Panel

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Extrapolating backwards, we can conclude that Moash's criteria for a good king are a) hot and b) hasn't killed his grandparents

the funniest part of moash's whole deal is that his plan worked. he killed the king, a weak ruler, and elhokar was replaced by someone willing to enact genuine political change. moash's whole "divine right of kings, just not that guy" plan worked. i mean alethkar itself got overrun by crabs but in terms of its representation in urithiru moash was literally right. somehow

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Hmmmmmmmmmm

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Pokémon TCG SV 151 (2023) Dragonair illustration by rika (removed card text)