#anti-european propaganda

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

The head of the Directorate of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP) Maira Roze said that the article is so biased that it is difficult to talk about it, starting with the fact that the sensational story of the deportation of one "Igor Popov, a citizen of Latvia" –  as stated in the article – appears to be completely made up.

"I have no information that there is any deportation camp in Latvia. It is impossible to deport a Latvian citizen from Latvia anyway. This is a completely absurd statement," said the head of the PMLP.

Rihards Bambals, head of the Strategic Communication Department of the Cabinet of Ministers, also assessed that the journalist in question appears to have trouble differentiating between the status of Russian speakers in Latvia (who include many Latvian citizens) and Russian citizens who are, after all, citizens of a third country(..)

P.S. Here is another example of how the arrogance and very superficial work of the Western "objective" media in uncritically spreading Kremlin propaganda lies leads to very negative consequences... for German media. If they lie so brazenly about us, then imagine the utter nonsense and lies these "journalists" write about the rest of Eastern Europe, drawn from Kremlin propaganda pamphlets...

[cavalierzee]

The Forgotten Histories Of Arab Jews

Alone Mizrahi talking with AJ+ about the culturally denied experience of Arab Jews who were brought to Israel and underwent deep identity erasure to make them fit for the needs of Zionism.

"This is how Israel erased the Arab-Jewish identity."

"White Supremacy is deeply embedded into Zionism, even inside the Jewish World."

"Alon Mizrahi, the son of a Palestinian-Jewish father and a Moroccan-Jewish mother.

He spoke to us about the hostility Arab-Jews faced after the creation of israel and the pressure they faced to abandon their culture and even the way they spoke."

"The humiliation Arab-Jews experienced under Zionism, they never experienced in the Arab countries, in Muslim countries. They never experienced White Supremacy in Morocco, in Yemen, in Iraq. They only experienced it here."

"45% of Jews in Israel originate from mostly Arabic speaking countries in North Africa and the Middle East, today they're called Mizrahi."

"They were called uneducated and savage. They were treated as inferior."

"Everything that was good was: European, American and Western."

"Zionism is a lie!"

[capseycartwright]

just a wee reminder that not supporting an apartheid state that’s actively committing war crimes isn’t antisemitism and bringing every discussion about israel - including their continued involvement in the eurovision when russia has rightfully been banned for also committing war crimes - isn’t clever nor does it take away from the fact that israel is an apartheid state.

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

TROOPS OF DOOM WILL SPREAD JUDEO-BOLSHEVISM -- PIECE BY PIECE BY PIECE.

PIC INFO: Spotlight on a postcard first published in 1939 titled "Bolschewismus ohne Maske" ("Bolshevism Unmasked"), with an illustration of a Communist soldier attempting to rule the world with a hammer and sickle against the backdrop of a yellow star of David, implying the Nazi opinion that Jews were behind the Communist phenomenon.

FULL OVERVIEW: "Not everyone who had read "Mein Kampf" took seriously the rabid outpouring of filth and hatred it contained. But in his own words, Hitler described how his eyes had been opened at an early age to the "two menaces" which threatened the existence of the German people: Communists and Jews.

These two objects of his hatred would become, after his seizure of power, subjected unrelentingly to vicious propaganda and heinous persecution. That Marxism, or Bolshevism, was to Hitler a "doctrine of destruction" which itself must be destroyed for the survival of all Germans may be seen plainly in the picture on this official postcard from the Great Anti-Bolshevist Exhibit organized by Goebbels' Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

"Bolshevism unmasked," reads the inscription over a world engulfed in red flame and branded with a hammer-and-sickle in the center of a yellow Jewish Star, recalling Hitler's rant in "Mein Kampf" that "in Russian Bolshevism we must see the attempt undertaken by the Jews in the twentieth century to achieve world domination!" A ghostly image of Death as an armed revolutionary clutches in both hands its weapons of destruction. The exhibition was held in Vienna in 1939. Six years earlier Communists had been among the first of those countless victims rounded up for the concentration camps."

-- UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON

Source: https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AFEMLOIYBU6FPX9A.

[variousqueerthings]

finished the sad war movie from 1959

will watch the full-length “don’t be a sucker” anti-nationalism PSA from 1947

and tomorrow we get to see the 2 hour finale of the anti-war show about the 1950s Korean war, which started airing at the tail-end of the Vietnam war in 1972

[rinzdets]

I HAVE SUCH A COOL IDEA FOR A STORY SET IN A SOVIET DYSTOPIAN FUTURE will i do something with that idea or will i blithely forget it? time will show lol

[thisgingerhasnosoul]

The thing that’s driving me crazy here is that anti-Zionists say they’re not antisemitic, and yet their fundamental claims about Jews are:

That all Jews are white Europeans, even Jews who are inarguably non-white and don’t even live in Israel, because White = privileged and oppressive, and Jews are both, no matter where we live, by virtue of being Jewish.

That the Holocaust wasn’t that bad, people only care because it happened to (again) white Europeans, and now it’s just a propaganda tool used by Israel. Oh, and anyone who says otherwise is a racist Zionist.

There is a certain region of the world in which Jews Should Not Be Allowed to Live (ironically, the region in question is the one Jews have the most cultural ties to). Therefore, any amount of violence and cruelty is acceptable towards Jews who live in the place where Jews Should Not Be Allowed to Live, as well as any other Jews connected to them, because their existence is inherently evil, so inflicting pain and suffering on them is justified and a moral good.

Like. Forget the Blood Libel, the Elders of Zion conspiracy theories, the Rootless Cosmopolitan tropes, the right wing and neonazi slurs. Just forget all of that for a second. Because the end of the day, this is the general belief-set of the anti-Zionist movement. Hell, these beliefs are the basis of the entire movement. And they are inarguably, fundamentally, genocidally anti-Jewish.

So no. Anti-Zionism cannot be separated from antisemitism. Not until the movement unlearns all of these points and starts treating Jews like people instead of a nebulous evil to be eradicated. And so far, I’ve seen no evidence that any of them are willing to do so. They just want us crushed under their boots until we’re all dead or assimilated out of existence.

[hummingbird-hunter]

The thing is, I have nothing against socialism or communism as a political ideology; trust me, I'm as anti-capitalist as they come. The leftism is really not the problem here.

The problem is when in their leftism, people – Americans, really, and western Europeans – use the ussr as this sort of goal, this complete antithesis to the modern capitalist society, this almost-utopian place to live. They use hammer and sickle symbol, the ussr anthem; sometimes, as a joke, sometimes, not so much.

Not only that clearly shows that they know absolutely nothing about the ussr – it's also spreading russian propaganda, whether it's on purpose or not, which is especially insidious now, when russia is literally committing a genocide.

The ussr wasn't a socialist utopia where everyone is equal. It was a totalitarian dictatorship, responsible for colonisation and genocide of multiple people and cultures. Just like the russian Empire before it. Just like modern russia continues to do now.

For many Eastern European and Central Asian people, hammer and sickle is not just a symbol of a political ideology. It's the symbol, under which people were starved to death, imprisoned or executed for daring to write in their own language; in which cultures were erased, people – forcefully assimilated, stripped of their own national identity.

It's the propaganda of being "the same people, the same nation" that russians love to use; that westerners love to believe, for the sole reason of the oppressed daring to look similar to the oppressor; for the sole reason of Americans being unable to look past their own history and realize oppression comes in many shapes and forms.

By using the ussr symbols in your political movement, you're denying the atrocities commited under that symbol and spreading russian propaganda, whether it's on purpose or not.

It's not "progressive" to wave around a hate symbol.

Do your research.

[daegu-based-terrorist]

I think a lot of people misunderstand why we talk about both racism and anti communism when discussing anti north korean sentiment. I do understand why people don’t think the racism aspect is all that important to emphasise, after all Samsung Republic is probably the north’s greatest detractor and the most vile anti North Korean scumbags can all be found on this side of the DMZ.

However I think it’s also a failing to not recognise that alot of the anti North Korean sentiment that comes from outside of Korea utilises anti Korean racism.

(South) Koreans are a great example of the “model minority” * huges swaths of our popular culture has been exported and deliberately changed for the consumption of the white westerner. Koreans in the American diaspora have often taken to becoming members of the petty bourgeois, and for some reason, doing this. South Korea is a hyper capitalist military state and uses Korean culture as a product to be sold to casual enjoyers and fetishists a like. New developments in popular tourist cities may as well cater towards the white expat/tourist’s gaze. Korean Americans have delighted in and actively encouraged the proximity to whiteness they gain by being neither black, native american or one of the “bad asians” (south, west ect.)

The dprk, and by extension, it’s people, destroy the shaky foundations all of these myths are based on. So despite being the same ethnicity, North Koreans aren’t given the privilege of proximity to whiteness, or treated as if they are almost honorary Europeans.

The Korean of the north is still a uncivilised dog eating animal who doesn’t know what is good for them and should either be saved by the benevolent American army or put out of their misery if the first option fails to materialise.

If we were to overthrow the ROK government today and reunite with the DPRK under the current North Korean government, South Koreans would be treated with as much vitriol as those of us from and/or in the north.

Because as affective as anti communist propaganda is, the fact that white people already viewed Koreans as docile, unintelligent people, really helped in promoting the idea that North Koreans are unable to think for themselves or have any sort of agency/autonomy.

Idk. I’ve been awake for two days straight and feel like I’ve written this weirdly so please as for any clarification. I’m exhausted lol

* (now please correct anything that I say wrong here, I’m not American so I’ve only understood this threw literature and the stories and anecdotes of other Korean comrades)

[still-searching-for-something]

Today was Yom HaShoah, the day that Jews remember the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the industrialized genocide of the European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators from 1941-1945.

This is a really simple opening statement, but bear with me--I think it gets a lot more... 'yeah, buts' than most people may realize. And I think a good way of illuminating that is to break down the difference between how gentiles and Jews commemorate and remember it.

In my experience, gentiles seem to view the Holocaust as the ultimate example of mankind's barbarity to mankind. Like, the distillation of evil, the most obvious example of dehumanization and bigotry brought to its horrifying and extreme conclusion. They emphasize Nazi Germany's responsibility, elevate the instances of non-Jewish Frenchmen and Poles and Germans who made efforts to save Jewish lives, and generally view Nazi oppression as a catastrophe of whom Jews were one of many victims. And they emphasize the Allied Powers' role in ending it by liberating the camps and invading Germany. Hence why International Holocaust Remembrance Day falls on January 27th, the day Auschwitz was liberated.

But Jews have a different perspective.

We view the Holocaust as the most extreme manifestation of--but far from the conclusion to--mankind's barbarity to Jews. Not to his fellow man, per se, not to some universalized insert minority here slot, but to Jews, particularly and deliberately. The Nazis could never have accomplished their genocide were it not for the two millennia of anti-Jewish hatreds and dehumanization embedded deep in the institutions and political structures of European society. They didn't have to persuade Europe that the Jews were incurably evil, the Europeans already believed that. The Nazis had 99% of their work done before they'd even come to power, work that was done by the the Russian Empire, the Romans, Martin Luther, Christian Passion Plays, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the centuries of blood libels, the Fourth Lateran Council, the New Testament, the Spanish Empire, and on and on and on and on. It's as if some people think Hitler just woke up one day, out of the blue, with a total hatred of Jews and managed to use propaganda to convince the previously 100% tolerant Germans to hate Jews, too. Antisemitism did not begin or end with the Holocaust.

The sole responsibility of Nazi Germany in the Holocaust is also just... not true. Vichy France rounded up 13,152 Jews in the Vel' d'Hiv roundup, with not a single German participant, and sent them off to be murdered in Auschwitz. Vichy passed antisemitic legislation without any outside coercion--French Jews were hiding as much from the French police as they were from the Gestapo. France, of course, was the home of the Dreyfus Affair--antisemitism was and is a deep part of French society. And it isn't just France. Ukrainian nationalists participated in the Lviv pogroms, killing maybe around 8,000 Jews, Poles perpetrated the Jedwabne pogrom, and that doesn't even bring in that countries like the US, Switzerland and Ireland and Britain blocked Jewish emigrants, and I could just keep going on, but I think you get the point. Quite simply, six million Jews interspersed throughout Europe don't get murdered if it isn't without the collaboration of--or at minimum, silent assent and indifference--of all of their neighbors. The Nazis were the primary perpetrators of the Holocaust, of course, but almost all of Europe collaborated on some level, too. And this is a history that gets wiped away in favor of the comforting narrative of the Allied Powers bursting into Auschwitz, killing Nazis, and being horrified by what they've found, and then the poor people in the surrounding towns having NO IDEA about what had been going on. I think this narrative is why gentiles have International Holocaust Remembrance Day when Auschwitz was liberated--when they 'came to the rescue'--and why we have Yom HaShoah on the day in the Jewish calendar that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began--when we died on our own terms in spite of our murderers.

Think of the tiny, unwritten, centuries old minhagim of small Jewish shetls and towns like Trochenbrod, which were entirely annihilated. The end of the burgeoning Yiddish cinema. Yiddish going from 13 million speakers to 600,000 today. See how many entries in this list of shetls end with "town/city survived, but all/most Jews exterminated." Imagine for a moment, the potential rabbis and scholars and actors and scientists and artists who could have lived, had they survived or been born of Jews did. Three and a half million Polish Jews, to around 15,000 to 20,000 Polish Jews today. Imagine if Thessaloniki were still a majority Jewish city. How many Jews worldwide would be alive today had the Holocaust never happened? I've heard estimations of 32 million, compared to the real life 16 million. To kill such a massive number of people from an already tiny minority group--that has real consequences. The cultural loss for the Jewish people is staggering and beyond human comprehension.

And yet, the Nazis deliberate targeting of us is, in many ways, being pushed aside. Magnus Hirschfeld was gay, yes, and advanced the Institute of Sexology way ahead of its time and yeah, the Nazis were homophobic. But they were homophobic for antisemitic reasons. They viewed his work as Jewish perversions BECAUSE Dr. Hirschfeld was Jewish. In fact, they viewed homosexuality as a creation of the Jews. But so many progressive queer people, especially those who run in antizionist circles, seem to be trying to co-opt the Holocaust as being their trauma, downplaying Hirschfeld's Jewishness and holding the Institute up as proof that queer people were the 'real' victims of the Holocaust, entirely shutting out the millions of Jews, Sinti, Roma, and Slavs who were murdered. You can also see this in anti-mask conservatives comparing masking mandates during the pandemic to anti-Jewish legislation in the Holocaust, or the comparisons of the ongoing war against Hamas as being a 'modern day Holocaust.'

This phenomenon, Holocaust universalization, gets so much pushback from Jews for a reason--it downplays the anti-Jewish character of the Holocaust. It's softcore Holocaust denial. And it's so ridiculous we even have to say that, as the whole point of the Holocaust was to be anti-Jewish, to be the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." It's 'All Lives Mattering' the Holocaust. Holocaust universalization, and Holocaust inversion--the phenomenon of talking about Jews, Zionists, or Israelis as perpetrating a 'new Holocaust'--minimizes and trivializes the astounding damage and traumas and death and destruction wrought by the Holocaust. It's a polemical lie, so incendiary and so insulting--imagine telling a sexual assault survivor that they're morally no better than their rapist--that the only thing it can be is antisemitic. It is beyond reprehensible to talk like that, but it's so mainstream and acceptable to do it. Activists who say these things need to examine their own rhetoric, because it's dangerous, antisemitic, and adjacent to Holocaust denial. Not a place I think anyone should want to be.

The Holocaust is not a lesson Jews should have learned, an educational seminar, a 'card' Jews play, a choose your own adventure novel, a philosophical meditation on the nature of mankind's evils, or an empty slate upon which to project modern politics, warfare, or your ideology onto.

The Holocaust is, quite simply, the industrialized genocide of the European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators from 1941-1945. And today was Yom HaShoah, the day we remember that.

[sayruq]

The Hamas massacres on October 7, 2023 mark a turning point in the history of anti-Semitism and in the development of the Middle East conflict. More than 1,200 Israelis were massacred and more than 200 were taken hostage. Some felt the anti-Jewish atrocities reminded them of the actions of the Einsatzgruppen in the Third Reich. In fact, Hamas' anti-Semitism follows the tradition of the National Socialist will to destroy. Nazi Germany had already discovered the anti-Semitic potential of the Koran in the 1930s and exploited it for its own propaganda in the Arab world. Zeesen, a shortwave transmitter stationed south of Berlin, deliberately spread Islamic anti-Semitism among Muslims. The radio broadcasts were broadcast daily between April 1939 and April 1945 in Arabic, but also in Persian and Turkish. Just as the Nazis radicalized Christian anti-Judaism in Europe, they took Muslim anti-Judaism as a basis in the Middle East in order to link it to the European anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. In his book “Nazis and the Middle East. “How Islamic Anti-Semitism Came About” our speaker sheds light on this previously ignored chapter of Germany’s past and, based on new archive finds, shows how the image of Jews in Islam changed between 1937 and 1948 under the influence of sophisticated Arabic-language radio propaganda and other Nazi activities. The Middle East's encounter with Nazi ideology may have been brief, but it continues to have an impact today. Because while Nazi anti-Semitism was discredited everywhere else in the world, it was able to survive as a worldview in the Arab world. Only when we understand how strongly modern Middle East history is shaped by the after-effects of National Socialism will we be able to correctly interpret the hatred of Jews in this region and its echo among Muslims in Europe and develop adequate countermeasures.

Instagram page of the event

[mesetacadre]

apologies if this isn't really your area of interest, but how would you describe the relationship between fascism and (anti-) imperialism? (asking because my far-right father just watched a video about Kamala Harris right next to me which had very similar points to what I've seen on Tumblr; specifically how liberals/democrats will even ally with their "enemies" if it means they can keep the war machine going)

One way to understand fascism that's very common in the imperial periphery has been to conceptualize it as colonialism/imperialism turned inwards, it ramps up exploitation by any means necessary. This does two things, it curbs worker organization by exerting more violence, and it increases capitalist profits. This last thing is also related to the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, since fascists in power tend to be destructive towards capital, especially to human capital, and the rate of profit can only be increased considerably through the destruction of capital. As for the more specific aspects of fascism in power; forced labor, concentration camps, the trampling of any kind of liberties, mass political repression, etc. were already established in the colonized world well before any fascist you can think of was even born.

Take a look at this map:

This is a propaganda piece [the title says "Portugal is not a small country"] from 1934 during Portugal's Salazar dictatorship, one of the forgotten fascist states of Europe during this time, along with Austria and Spain. When fascists do have colonies and would be considered an empire, they do not really differ from non-fascist imperialism. This integralist notion shown by the poster really isn't that far from the integration attempted by France on Algeria, and Italy had similar rhetoric when it came to Libya and East Africa. What I mean to say is that fascists do not have that special a relationship when it comes to "normal" imperialism (apart from that internal imperialism I mentioned), and it therefore does not have that special a relationship with anti-imperialism. Nazi-fascists did not inherit any colonies from the Weimar Republic, but their ambitions in the east (look up generalplan-ost) and for the Balkans were also extremely similar to most colonial projects you can find for Africa and Asia in the 19th and early 20th century.

Fascism is an imperialist ideology, not because of any inherent quality, but because it is the most destructive and exploitative elements of liberal democracy emphasized and expanded. It was, after all, birthed by the moribund corpse of European imperialism, as it entered a general crisis that spelled its end (in the form imperialism took at this time, of course imperialism mutated and transformed to a system that doesn't require a direct administrative control of colonies), and this crisis was only delayed by WW2.

Fascists nowadays protect imperialism insofar as they protect capitalism. Fascists are only really enemies with liberalism when it comes to parliamentarism and its socially progressive elements, but we can't forget that any liberal party, whether it's republican or democrat or third party, ultimately only serves to manage capitalism in the country they administer. I'm not really sure what's the point that that video was making, but I don't think it's this. Fascists are not the enemies of a capitalist state, imperialist or otherwise, they're the most extreme, violent and repressive expression of what's already present in liberal democracy. If usamerican fascists take the position of a "great america" and support the continuation of its interference worldwide, and the democrats or republicans also do, this is a case of fascism reflecting liberalism, not the other way around. Fascism is not an evil entity one candidate chooses to ally with or not. It always represent the most extreme needs of capital, and in every case that it has taken power, it has happened once those necessities were widespread enough and they recieved ample support from those capitalists.

[northern-passage]

No Pride with Genocide!

You have probably seen the grotesque images of jubilant Israeli soldiers holding the pride flag on top of our scorched Gazan lands infiltrating social media feeds last week. The Israel State cynically publishes on its Twitter account, “The first ever pride flag raised in Gaza,” as it proceeds with its genocidal crusade and its concomitant Zionist propaganda campaign. We view these images with immense feelings of frustration and uttermost disgust, and we see through their despicable tactics of weaponizing homophobia and queer violence for colonial means. The following are notes from Queers in Palestine, elaborating on what such imagery tries to accomplish and what underpins their production:

1. Zionist Colonization is Anti-Civilization 

Colonial and Imperial powers have long used their fabricated lies of “civilization,” “rights,” and “democracy” to justify their plunder, military rule, and capitalist accumulation. We learn this from global histories of European colonization across Abya Yala, Asia, Africa, Turtle Island, Aotearoa, and Australia. The Zionist colonization of Palestine is no different. Oftentimes, the pretext of all of these bloodied invasions is that the “civilized” world is invading racialized communities to bring culture, education, and liberalism and instill it in societies it deems barbaric, immoral, and uncivilized. The images of the LGBT flag supposedly claim to bring rights and liberties to Gaza, but unironically, the soldier stands on top of the debris of hopes, dreams, and human remains of Palestinians he himself and the army he serves bombed moments before. The flag merely stands to reaffirm the simulacrum of colonization, death, white supremacy, and destruction. 

2. Israel Erases Palestinian Queerness

The images of the Israel Pride Flag and the other with the text, “In the name of love” send a clear message: Israel will not allow queer liberation unless it’s through its settler-colonial genocidal project. To that, we say No! We queer Palestinians have a vibrant, diverse liberation movement that is part of the Palestinian anti-colonial movement. For decades, we have been tirelessly working on carving up and maintaining a space for Palestinian queer life amongst our communities and not despite them. We are everywhere: in schools, streets, prisons, hospitals, and at the forefront of every confrontation in every corner of Palestine, from the river to the sea. What we are working towards is a Palestine liberated from colonialism, patriarchy, and capitalist exploitation.

3. Queer Opacity in Times of Hypervisibility

In a time when Palestinians are being prosecuted without trial, student movements shut-down and students in universities suspended and detained, and solidarity with Palestine and Palestinians at large are attacked and criminalized, visibility has proven itself to be a frontline of resistance against the erasure of Palestinians worldwide. In Palestine, Israel’s surveillance apparatuses hunt any expression for Palestine’s right to exist as grounds to attack, incarcerate, and murder Palestinian life. This over-fixation on the supposed lack of Palestinian queer visibility steers the attention from Israel’s campaign against all Palestinians – workers, activists, students, feminists, queers, and otherwise. Israel and its allies dangerously decontextualize the violence queers suffer from its historical colonial roots, and dissociate it from the impacts of current settler-colonial violence. This is an attempt to portray Palestinian society as unsafe for queers to legitimize the annihilation of our people, and in turn our annihilation as queers. Under Israel’s surveillance & police state, visibility, opacity and invisibility are survival and resistance tactics we use interchangeably, and aren’t always a matter of choice. None of us is safe under settler-colonization.

4. These Images Endanger Queer People Worldwide

The Pride Flag has long been hijacked and homonationalised. It represents a narrow and limited understanding of gender and sexuality and excludes the myriad of sexualities in the colonized world. This homonationalism renders colonized sexual and gender attitudes illegible to the liberal gaze and forces us to speak a language that compromises our experiences. Under nationalist and colonial regimes, our bodies and sexualities will always be regulated. What the pride flag has come now to represent is a commercial, imperialist, and white supremacist sexual ideologies, and this, in turn, puts us queer people in danger. This homonationalist project hinders our fight against anti-queer violence within our communities because our identities and sexualities are constantly being hijacked by the empires and colonies that brought destruction upon us. We need to reject such associations that only strengthen queerphobia in colonized societies, especially during this time in Arab and Muslim communities, when the soldiers and armies that are destroying our homes and killing our parents, siblings, friends, and children are doing so in the name of LGBT rights. 

5. Colonialism & Empire are Anti-Queerness

In the past, colonial projects sought to eliminate any sex-gender organization systems that fell outside of the European binary patriarchal model of man-woman. We learn this from the British criminalization of the Hijra in South Asia, or British and French social organizing efforts to enforce a binary sex-gender system in Yoruba Land, or Portuguese and Spanish efforts to eliminate “two-spirit” indigenous North Americans – deeming all uncivilized in need of external civilization. This was also the case in Palestine under British-Zionist military occupation, as same-sex relations and other diverse gender practices became criminalized and demonized. All the current laws in Gaza that criminalize queerness are, in fact, British and are upheld by Zionism. However, it becomes evermore absurd that rhetorics of bringing queer liberation to Palestine have been now hijacked by Zionists and, for the most brutal reasons, in service of annihilation of Palestinian life and mass destruction. We, Palestinian queers, position our movement for liberation alongside anti-colonial and anti-racist movements globally, and we stand firmly in objection to any attempt to hijack our movements, or exploit our bodies.

In the name of revolutionary love, a love which fuels our struggle for liberation and yearning for freedom, rooted in our love for our communities and our land; we tell you, there is no pride with genocide, and there is no pride in settler-colonialism.

Our pride can only come through true liberation for all, for us and for all the peoples fighting worldwide.

A Liberatory Demand from Queers in Palestine | Pinkwashing - Decolonize Palestine

[ohsalome]

the intention of comparing the reaction to Palestine vs Ukraine is typically not to criticize Ukrainian victims of war. The criticism is directed at American spectators, because the people in power here are insanely anti Palestinian but have made overtures to help Ukraines resistance efforts despite comparable situations. Regular citizens also mostly support Ukraine but many hate Palestinians. People are just comparing palestine to Ukraine as a point of reference to try to make those people understand.

As kindly as possible, I do not think you can educate people out of islamophobia by appealing to their conscience, at the very least because if they had one they wouldn't be islamophobic in the first place.

And when it comes to people in power, appealing to their empathy in the case with Palestine is fruitless because the help Ukraine got wasn't motivated by emotion either. I do not expect you to know the history of current russo-ukrainian war well, so you probably don't know that the western world was perfectly happy to watch russia roll all over us punishment-free as long as they felt that other "properly european countries" won't be involved. Russia has been butchering us since 2014, and nobody gave a fuck about it. Even during the first few weeks of the full-scale invasion NATO refused to send us any military help, because they expected us to fall and were okay with it.

The current support we have did not fall on us from the sky by the graceful kindness of "our american overlords" - it is a consequence of the cumulative effort of our diplomats, pre-existing agreements with NATO countries, and the economical ripples the full-scale war caused (Ukraine being one of the major world exporters of grain being one of the most relevant).

This is why, sadly Palestine cannot follow the Ukrainian scenario of foreign support. The surrounding circumstances of both of our wars are way to different, and while it is easy to ignore them while making simplistic quick-dopamine-hit posts on hellbr dot com, they do influence the real-world situation on the ground. Which is what posts like the one I replied to do - they create a no-nuance misinformed image of the war in Ukraine. Which amplifies the problem even more, because even though "most americans" can agree on a generic "war in Ukraine bad", their idea of what is going on here is hugely misinformed as it is. And this has harmful real-life consequences on which our very survival depends.

Look. I understand that the war between Palestine and Israel has been going on for decades. I understand that there are many contexts that are obvious to the people in the respective countries that I am oblivious to by the virtue of never being there and not speaking arabic nor hebrew. I understand that there is a lot of propaganda that I may accidentally spread out of my ignorance, and therefore I try to be careful to avoid doing so, out of respect to the people living there. So why is it too much to ask you to give the same respect to us?

Like I have said before, the biggest issue with that infographic post is that it spreads misinformation. In the simplest of terms, misinformation is bad. People are trying to do any smallest thing to help Palestinians - who are currently barely surviving in inhumanely horrifying conditions - and out of ignorance they are spreading anti-ukrainian propaganda. Downplaying the number of ukrainian victims (and, as a result, making russian war crimes look "not as bad") is anti-ukrainian propaganda. Making it seem as we are getting "too much american help" is anti-ukrainian propaganda, because USA is our biggest military exporter, and getting less ammo/vehicles/etc will have catastrophic effect on the amount of death.

Which is why am not staying silent on this, even if your collective intentions are noble and good. Because, I will repeat myself again, your intentions do not matter if the consequences of your actions are harmful. And if (a) comparing Ukraine and Palestine is uneffective; (b) it portrays your ignorance of either one or both of the wars; and (c) simultaneously with spreading support for the palestinian cause you are spreading harmful anti-ukrainian pro-russian propaganda, I do not think it is too much to ask you to stop.

[suratan-zir]

Hi. I wanted to ask how you have those among Ukrainians who believe in russian propaganda. I just met one refugee from Kharkov, and he told me that Putin is fighting for the Russian world, and it was the United States that started the war. He reasons that since he speaks Russian, he should support Russia's actions. And this despite the fact that his city was bombed, and he and his family were on the verge of life and death.

Hi. I can't really answer this. I mean, I can try, but I'm not good at answering vague questions. I'm not well-spoken enough.

How come so many USAmericans worship Trump and see him as a savior of the poor when he's the exact opposite? How come far-right parties all across Europe gain more and more popularity, with people believing that fascists in power will resolve all their problems? Hell, we can take it a step further and ask how come people become anti-vaxxers and flat Earth believers? The answer is only one - propaganda. People fall under the harmful influence.

Russian propaganda has been extremely active in the southeast of Ukraine basically since we gained independence. Russia has been spending millions upon millions on brainwashing Ukrainians. The propaganda became more and more aggressive since the Orange Revolution. It was everywhere in the Donbas, you couldn't even wear a piece of orange clothing without risking being beaten up.

I was only a middle-schooler, but I remember it in detail. Propaganda materials such as leaflets were distributed everywhere. I remember one with Viktor Yushchenko (pro-European presidential candidate) against the background of the US flag and Uncle Sam who's saying, "Yushchenko is our pResident." I remember asking my mother what it meant, and she said it means that Yushchenko is a very bad person. This stuff was wild. And it only got wilder.

Russian propaganda claims over the years varied from the statement that "Donbas feeds the entire Ukraine" to "pro-European politicians and the US will make concentration camps in the Donbas for the Russian-speakers and will populate the territory with people from the West instead." I don't know how, but people believed in this purely artificial conflict. Not only were there never any persecutions against the Russian-speakers, but you would actually feel more comfortable speaking Russian in Ukraine. In most regions, the Ukrainian language was considered a "redneck" language and would get you nowhere. Of course, the Ukrainian government is also to blame for letting Russia control the narrative. But for most of these independent years, Ukraine was basically externally managed by Russia. During Yanukovych's presidency, we were like Belarus is now - a false "president" taking instructions straight from the Kremlin. So the brainwashing was getting worse and worse.

I told this story several times, and I'll tell it again. Before the "referendum" in Donetsk, most people laughed at the idea of the "republic." It was supported by some local lunatics, but mostly the whole thing was done by russian mercenaries and russian military. During this time, my aunt told me that those who support this are crazy and they're calling war into our homes. She was a reasonable person. She had a job, a nice apartment of her own, a happy family, and a bright future ahead. In 2015 they fled from Donetsk to russia, along with my grandmother. Why to russia? Propaganda. Then they got russian citizenship and used it to vote for putin. I asked how they could vote for him after what he did to them, after they lost it all. "We're thankful he gave us a home, gave us citizenship," was the answer. At first, he took everything from you, ruined your life, then let you restore a tiny bit of it - and you're grateful. I don't know how this works. It's not like they were welcomed in russia, they faced a lot of prejudice and oppression for being from Donetsk. To the point that my cousin was bullied at school for being from the Donbas, not only by kids but by teachers, despite being an excellent student and graduating with honors. Russians are outraged that their state "rescues" and "helps" those Donbas khokhols instead of helping "true" russians.

In the second month of the full-scale invasion, my grandmother proposed that I move to them, to the moscow region of russia. "This is the country that is trying to kill us all, how can you ask me to move there?" "What difference does it make which country to live in? It's safe here." So along with pro-putin brainrot comes also apoliticalness, passivity.

I'm rambling at this point. I don't want to go on about this forever, like I know I can. Let's leave it at this.

[mariacallous]

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has condemned the “horrifying murder” of transgender woman Kesaria Abramidze, who died from multiple stab wounds in her home on Wednesday.

Abramidze, a well-known 37-year-old model, was found dead by her neighbors, who were alerted by screams coming from her apartment. A 26-year-old man, allegedly her ex-partner, was arrested after CCTV footage showed him fleeing the building 15 minutes after his arrival.

“Horrifying murder! Rejection of humanity! This should be a sobering call … Hatred drenched in hatred, which weakens and divides us and gives a hand to an enemy to manipulate us,” Zourabichvili wrote on her personal Facebook page. “I hope the death of this beautiful young woman will make us more humane, more Christian. I hope this tragedy will not be in vain.”

Abramidze’s killing comes just a day after the Georgian parliament passed its anti-LGBTQ+ law, despite strong warnings from the European Union that it would harm Georgia’s EU accession. Zourabichvili had opposed the legislation, dubbing it a “Russian law” designed to “divide society.”

Adopted under the guise of protecting family values and minors, the legislation, among other things, bans medical treatments for changing gender, “LGBT propaganda” and same-sex marriages.

The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, had warned that the law “undermines the fundamental rights of the Georgian people.”

“I call on Georgia to withdraw this legislation, which further derails the country from its EU path,” he wrote on X on Wednesday.

However, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze defended the bill, describing it as a tool to improve the perception of Europe among Georgians as a place of “traditional and Christian values,” rather than one of “LGBT propaganda.”

“This law ensures that a man should be called a man and a woman should be called a woman,” Kobakhidze said on Wednesday.

Double pressure

Gender and gender identity intolerance remain the leading motives of hate crimes in Georgia, according to the Georgian Prosecutor’s 2023 report. Out of 1,218 persons charged with hate crimes last year, 1,164 were charged on the ground of gender-based hate crimes.

“The majority of defendants charged with hate crimes are adult men and the majority of the victims of hate crimes are adult women,” says the report.

After Abramidze’s death made headlines, Temida, an organization that helps Georgia’s LGBTQ+ community with shelter, psychological and other health services, launched a hotline to offer psychological aid.

“We have received up to 16 calls since yesterday,” said Beka Gabadadze, the chairperson of Temida, adding that callers had asked: “If she was killed, someone so successful and well-off, what will happen to us?”

There have been three other high-profile murders of transgender women in Georgia in the past decade.

Temida, along with other service providers for the LGBTQ+ community, is facing a two-fold threat to its work in Georgia.

The Russian-leaning Georgian Dream government recently adopted its “foreign agent bill,” requiring organizations receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as “serving the interests of a foreign power.”

Civil society groups have argued that the law allows the government to disclose an unjustified amount of information about their staff and beneficiaries.

Gabadadze fears Temida won’t be able to operate under this double pressure and the organization will be forced to close down if the government demands it share its beneficiaries’ personal information.

“This would mean I’d need to out people. It’s better for us to close down than disclose this information,” he said.

He elaborated that the adoption of the anti-LGBTQ+ law may contribute to the prevalence of HIV in the country, as their awareness-raising campaigns could be interpreted as “LGBT propaganda” under the new law.

“Our services aimed at HIV prevention require outreach. We won’t be able to do this efficiently, which could lead to a rise of HIV cases,” he said.

Last year Georgia’s annual LGBTQ+ Pride event was evacuated by the police after hundreds of counterprotesters stormed the site.