#but was also a socialist terrorist for a while

[bobsayshallo]

Me reading about all the wild shit Northstar was up to in his past: I can't wait to figuer out what kind of mental illness you have <3

[jewish-sideblog]

Clearly, y'all don't care about Jews, and the fact that Hamas is violently antisemitic doesn't seem matter to any of you. So let me go with a new approach, of equal truth and value. Hamas is violently anti-Palestinian.

This past week, Hamas attacked evacuation routes and prevented Gazan citizens from fleeing an active warzone. [1]

They did that because they routinely use Gazan civilians as human shields. Hamas intentionally builds military targets close to schools, hospitals, and mosques, putting soft targets in the way of both incoming and outgoing fire. Hamas encourages Gazan civilians and children to stand on the roofs of buildings they know the IDF is targeting. [2]

Hamas has refused to allow elections in Gaza since 2006. Not just Palestinian National Authority elections, mind you. No open elections for any office have been held in seventeen years. Palestinian rights to free elections and self-determination have been denied by Hamas. [3] (And good luck to anyone who tries to blame that on Israel, because elections were held by the PNA in the West Bank in 2012, 2017, 2021 and 2022. It's Hamas's intention alone to purge democracy.)

Hamas's track record on human rights is appalling. Palestinian prisoners in Gaza face unfair trials and death sentences after being tortured by police. Palestinian women are prevented from accessing the legal systems to escape domestic abuse situations. Political dissidents in Hamas, even ones who merely support the other half of the Palestinian government, have been summarily executed. [4] [5]

Peaceful organizers in Palestine protested Hamas's massive tax hikes in 2019. Hamas security forces responded by assaulting demonstrators, tracking them down, raiding their homes, and detaining them. And, as previously mentioned, prisoners in Gaza are not treated well by Hamas. [6]

Edit Nov.5, 10:30 PM: I forgot to add arguably the most important thing-- Hamas manipulates the humanitarian aid they receive away from helping Gazans and toward killing Jews. 5% of Hamas's budget actually gets used for humanitarian aid, while 55% goes to military use. Construction equipment intended to rebuild Gaza's crumbling infrastructure is used to build a complex series of underground tunnels. Those tunnels in turn are used to smuggle Iranian military equipment into the country. They were also used for human trafficking in the October 7th attacks. [7]

If you actually want Palestinians to be free, you can't just replace Israel with Hamas. But it's not like they're the only option for supporting Palestinian liberation. While Fatah doesn't have an immaculate historical track record, it now operates as a leftist, democratic socialist, secular Palestinian government that fights for a two-state solution. Similarly, Arab-Israeli political parties like the Hadash-Ta'al coalition support leftist, anti-Zionist, and two-state solutions from within the Israeli parliament.

You can and should support Palestinian liberation movements that abuse neither Jewish nor Arab human rights and dignities. Plenty of them exist out there. But if y'all continue to throw your weight behind an antisemitic and anti-democratic terrorist regime, Palestinians and Jews will both take note of exactly where you stand.

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

Well wouldn't you know it activist organizations and leftist specifically communist and socialist lying about things to get more government regulation pushed while also indulging in capitalistic gains.

Yes these people do hate you, they do exist only to scare you, and they want to see this and every Western country burn. All the while profiting from it the entire ride.

By the way if you ever hear about any groups organizations or information sponsored by Greenpeace it's probably a lie; they're terrorist organization and they damn well know it.

[lnsfawwi]

Heroism in TFATWS

Let's establish one thing which is that the show operates in a superhero trope, which means there are good guys and bad guys, and the good guys always win. This is not to say that characters are morally clean-cut between good/bad. The Flag Smashers acted out of good intentions; Walker did want to do good things when he took over the mantle. But that doesn't mean they aren't the bad guys in the story, because a person is not only judged by their intentions but also the means and the ends of those intentions.

Sam and Bucky are the heroes in the story, they beat the bad guys (the Flag Smashers) and saved the world. That's how the story ends. That's how all the superhero stories end.

But the show isn't quite that simple, not in the sense that it deals with moral greys, no. Rather, the show really fucks up the boundaries between good/bad, right/wrong, and by extension, the heroism of the show.

Let's say Karli has some vague cosmopolitan worldview, and let's say that's better than the state system so Sam is justified to sympathize with her cause, and sam is rightfully asking the governments to be better. What's the actual, feasible way to achieve Karli's vision? Nice speeches notwithstanding, Sam isn't offering a solution. States aren't going to abandon the system that made them a state just because some hero dressed in an American flag descends from the sky and tells them to. Forced displacement and/or re-settlement happen because the population distribution is screwed, especially in Western Europe where Karli is from. Those states simply do not have the capacity, spatially and financially, to accommodate all the people while the others would be faced with devastating labour shortages. Statecraft is not just about morals, some IR scholars would even argue it's never about morals, you have to do the rationalist calculation. (also sam's speech to the politicians is so.........wrong. it sounds like a 16-year-old wanna-be socialist who spends too much time on leftist tiktok)

Here's the thing, you can agree with the political ideology or not, because it's not about whether it's right or wrong. It's about Sam being a hero who comes from a heavy political background, who represents a set of values that is meant to transcend a single country, advocating that ideology whilst being completely naive about it.

Steve embodies a similar idealism that makes him a hero, but not a leader. He's a leader because he can lead, he assesses the situation, sets a goal, and gives out tasks to achieve that goal. In the show, Sam is not demonstrating effective leadership, although not entirely his fault.

When you have the 'hero' indiscriminatorily endorsing the villain's philosophy, it doesn't mean the hero is empathetic, it means the hero is fucking bullshit. What makes a hero isn't merely stopping bad guys, it's also offering a better alternative even when the villain kinda makes sense. Superheroes are supposed to offer moral lessons through their heroism, which often takes place as they defeat evil. Without that, they're just dudes stopping fights, not heroes fighting for causes. The only moral lesson Sam offers is 'hey maybe radicalization is bad', which is completely ignored by both Karli and Zemo.

Sam's sympathy towards Karli is even more absurd. Even if he agrees with her cause, she's an unrepentant killer. 'Don't call them terrorists.' really, Sam? What would you call them? Just bc the Soviets fought the N@zis doesn't mean they were the good guys.

Furthermore, we see the contrast between her and the other flag smashers. They were invisible victims while her body was gently carried by Sam as phones and cameras were recording. In a show where they tried to make sense of racism, the stark contrast between Karli and the rest of the group happens to be mostly PoC is kinda hilarious.

The problem isn't Sam. It's the terrible horrible writing. You can't take a Watsonian take when it's so obviously a Doylist problem. The show claims to be a lot of things it got wrong is just pathetic.

What about Bucky? His arc is pretty detached from the main storyline and he basically did nothing significant in the show so I don't even know what they want to convey about his heroism. He was literally just running around punching people (not even very good at it too) while being blamed for things he wasn't responsible for. He only told Karli that killing was bad. What a novel lesson. Again, there is nothing from the good guy.

Who is the hero then?

Zemo is the true anti-hero of the show. Throughout the show, Sam and Bucky - the good guys - oppose killing in general, but their method is proven ineffectual and in the end, all Flag Smashers are killed with a majority of them killed after they were lawfully arrested. The Flag Smashers were terrorists, they were the villains, therefore narratively, this makes Zemo's end goal - killing all supersoldiers, in this case, the Flag Smashers - right. His ideology - the desire to become superhuman cannot be separated from supremacist ideas; supersoldiers cannot be allowed to exist - is positively reflected in the story. His success inevitably justifies his ideology, which stands in contrast to both Sam and Karli. I'm not saying what he did was heroic, but from a storytelling perspective, Zemo is the 'hero' who ultimately eliminated the evil in this superhero trope.

The result is that Sam, the supposed hero of the show, has done nothing. He didn't stop the bad guys, he didn't offer an effective alternative to Karli (or Zemo) practically and ideologically, while Zemo did all that. What does it say about heroism and the idealism that comes with it? That it's nice to talk about but useless when a real battle takes place? That end does justify means? Because that's not what Cap trilogy conveys.

[eretzyisrael]

by joshua klein

Within hours of the post, Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) appeared to come to the terrorist group’s defense while assuming a victim stance.

“It is appalling that AIPAC is targeting women members of Congress who have survived sexual assault with this horrific rhetoric,” she wrote. “Each and every day, their role in US politics becomes a greater scandal.”

“They are the NRA of foreign policy,” she added. “Of course they don’t want a ceasefire.”

Her post was followed by that of Rep. Cori Bush, who charged on Thursday that “[a]s a survivor of rape, AIPAC’s tactic of exploiting rape is outright vile and appalling.”

“Their playbook relies on bullying, lying, harassing, belittling & intimidation to try to manipulate the public & force those calling for a ceasefire into submission,” she wrote. “It won’t stop us.”

In response, AIPAC called it “appalling” that Ocasio-Cortez “will spread toxic lies about pro-Israel Americans but won’t condemn Hamas’ systematic rape of Israeli women,” accusing her of “[p]ure anti-Israel hypocrisy and hate.”

Others also took to social media to call out the radical Squad members.

“You don’t get to speak for the rest of us, and the squad aren’t the only members of Congress who have experienced sexual violence,” wrote Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX). “Stop playing the victim. Hamas is using rape as a weapon of war and it’s wrong.” 

“For God’s sake, call it out!” she added.

[strangeauthor]

Another worldbuilding post because i haven't done one in a while and also this is my account i am god i can do whatever the hell i want lol

so the last time i did worldbuilding it...well it didnt go BADLY per say but it could've done some work. im still keeping the stuff i wrote but for a totally different story if i even make a different story. or maybe a tabletop campaign

so here's one thats kind of more grounded lol

B'trayed takes place in an Alternate United States, specifically the South. It's in the cusp of a new technology revloution--there are no flying cars, but we do have high speed trains, bus stops in most neighborhoods, free healthcare, cleaner oceans, and basically everything our socialist hearts could dream of.

Of course, that's not to say there aren't any problems; specifically, the titular group B'trayed has been striking fear in the hearts of the US for nine years since the vanishing of three prominent scientists--Thomas Riverson, Vincent Maroon, and Andrea Maroon. At first, when people started dying/disappearing, the media barely reported on it. After all, they weren't considered important enough to be care about. It wasn't until more well known and wealthier people were being targeted did people started taking this more seriously. But rather than use their power to smash this terrorist group, the government instead started to enforcing curfews. Each time differs in each state, but it feels like time gets shorter and shorter. For Atlanta, where the story starts, it started off as curfew starting at 11. Then it went 10. Now it's at 8.

Why won't they do anything to stop this obvious threat? Is there blackmail involved? Someone on the inside? Or is there a bigger conspiracy going on than the public realize? There are many theories but no one knows the true answer.

At least, not yet.

[azhdakha]

These last weeks have brought out a lot to evaluate for me, observing, listening and learning. Sometimes drowning in the pain and horror.

I realize that I cannot fully support and join the pro-palestinian leftist community because of their cold-heartedness in normalizing cruelty as decolonization. The videos I have seen won't let me say "this is normal and justified". Yet, I understand that no rebellion is bloodless. You cannot label every Palestinian who grew up seeing suffering and suffering himself and then picked up a weapon to stand up against this oppression asl terrorist. Still, I hold the principle that there is a difference between giving a full permit to any violence and trying to be as humane as possible. I think as revolutionary leftists we should always understand this.

I cannot say that I'm a zionist anymore. I thinj and genuinely want Jewish people around the world to have a safe home to live in without opression and discrimination with constantly hoping for the mercy of the landowners that are native and the majority of the place. But can a country be a safe home if it is built and exists on the non-stop blood, displacement and dehumanizing someone who happened to exist there before? Wouldn't such place be unsafe by default? I'm convinced that Jewish people deserve to have a home to call their own without constantly being involved in war and oppression, without someone constantly questioning their right to live there.

What's simple and what you always have to keep in mind - human suffering and death is not normal. Not excusable. Not justified. Bot collateral damage. Not revenge. Not retaliation. It's wrong. It's not allowed. Point blank.

But if we want to get to an actual solution, we shouldn't take into account all the factors and nuances, which requires complexity. We cannot ignore that a lot Jewish people came as refugees and aren't able to just "go back", that many of them were expulsed from Islamic countries. We cannot ignore that when it comes to the peace pacts, Palestinians we're promised to get a full control over the West Bank in 1995 by Oslo accords and by now it didn't happen. They still live in ghetto reservations and the majority of West Bank is under Israeli control while every day we see armed settlers or idf take away someone's house. We cannot ignore that terrorism doesn't come out of nowhere. Having a difficult childhood and a poor background doesn't save one from being accountable for a crime, but if you want to reduce crime rates in a society, you have to do something about the conditions people live in and don't be delusional that it's only their personal attitude that is a problem. Going back to the subject, we also cannot ignore that 7 millions of Jewish Israelis exist and we cannot just blatantly force them to go somewhere else. We have to take all into account. If want a free secular Palestine where all the citizens are equal, we have to think about how to transform the populations of two countries from their current state to the one we want.

As an anarchist I drive a conclusion: if your free Palestine requires killing and displacing Jews, fuck your free Palestine. If your safe Israel requires oppressing and genociding Palestinians, fuck your safe Israel. But don't get delusional and forget that it's Palestinians who have an x10 times bigger death toll, who are locked without food, water, shelter and medication, and its Israel that has disproportionately more power.

Support Palestinians. Show your authorities that their genocide will never be forgiven and forgotten. Show the society that there is never excuse to loose humanity. Support Israelis that are genuinely against the genocidal government, this is important to solve the issue(contact Israeli anarchists, socialists and leftists in general). Support Arabs and Jews in your place, don't let hate have an inch of it.

P. S. Please, follow @wearenotjustnumbers2 and read what they post.

[simply-ivanka]

Victor Davis Hanson

“The almost immediate posting after October 7 of the BLM poster glorifying the hang-gliding murderous entry into Israel only confirmed what most of us knew anyway. Black lives matter and the entire diversity/equity/inclusion conglomerate rabidly hate Jews. Their response to October 7 revealed their pseudo-education in “anti-colonialism”, “white supremacy”, and “settler” oppression.

It is hard to find a major university where an academic on news of October 7 has not vented hatred for Jews. And that loathing is growing, as we witnessed the recent mobbing of a Jewish restaurant in Philadelphia (“Goldie, Goldie, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.”)

So much also for the leftwing myth that being anti-Israeli is not anti-Semitic, as if a Stanford instructor first asked Jews whether they were pro-Israel before separating them out in his class, or as if UCLA students who hit a pinata screaming “Beat that f---ing Jew” forgot to say, “that f---ing Israeli”.

Most recently, Christine Blasey Ford-era feminist Rep. Pramila Jayapal called for balance in contextualizing the mass rape of Israeli women (“However, I think we have to be balanced about bringing in the outrages against Palestinians ”) and claimed stuff just happens in war (“I think we always talk about the impact of war on women in particular”).

But Israeli women were not just raped in a time of war by soldiers, horrific as that would have been. They were mass raped, mutilated, executed, and desecrated by Hamas thugs who broke into Israel at a time of holiday and peace and deliberately fixated on the unarmed, the elderly, children, infants, and women to do their precivilizational worst, from sexual torture and mutilation to decapitation and necrophilia.

Only a moral monster would seek to equate all that to the collateral damage to civilians. Gazans are deliberately used as shields by Hamas, while warned, with leaflets and texts, to vacate the war zone by uniformed soldiers responding to a mass, unprovoked killing spree by invading terrorists.

All the UN’s feminist groups, the architects of #Metoo , and the university gender studies crowd are mostly silent about this daily mounting evidence that one of many sick terrorist strategies of Hamas has been to sexually torture and injure Jewish women to incite fear and promote terror.

Now we learn that one reason why Hamas broke the ceasefire and stopped the terrorists-for-hostages-exchanges was fear of discovery that younger Israeli female captives in their custody have been sexually assaulted.

Given that Hamas survives mostly by its international propaganda machine, it apparently feared such disclosures might incite a smidgeon of doubt from its Western leftist useful idiots (it likely would not) and thereby lessen pressure to call off the IDF.

The one common denominator to all this anti-Semitic hatred expressed by BLM, the international socialists, the Middle-East student organizations, and the DEI university faculties is freedom to spread venom as protected classes of victims, despite their own privilege, tenured careers, subsidized education, and elitism.

That special exemption is best exemplified by cowardly college administrators. In response to overt anti-Semitism on their campuses, they on spec retreat to the notion that, while they would like to stop it, they just cannot, given their principled devotion to free speech.

In fact, most of them long ago made sure there was no free speech at all on their campuses. And we all know that if any unhinged group substituted gay/trans/black/Latino for Jews in their venomous demonstrations they would have been long ago expelled with the tag-along boilerplate “this is not who we are” letter to the faculty from a careerist dean or upwardly mobile provost.”

[beardedmrbean]

France's interior minister has banned all pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the country.

In a statement, Gérald Darmanin ordered foreign nationals who break the rules to be "systematically" deported.

The move comes as European governments fear a rise in antisemitism triggered by the Israel-Hamas war.

On Thursday, German police broke up a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin.

France has a Jewish community of almost 500,000, the biggest in Europe. France's Muslim community is also among Europe's largest - an estimated five million.

Mr Darmanin told regional prefects that Jewish schools and synagogues should be protected by a visible police presence.

He earlier told French radio that 100 antisemitic acts had been recorded since Saturday. Most involved graffiti showing "swastikas, 'death to Jews,' calls to intifadas against Israel". However, some incidents included people being arrested attempting to carry knives into schools and synagogues, he added.

French police are already guarding the homes of leading MPs. National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet and MP Meyer Habib have been offered further protection.

In a separate move, Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared "zero tolerance" for antisemitism.

He told parliament a pro-Palestinian group that had celebrated the murders of Israeli civilians on Saturday would be banned.

Berlin police have also banned planned pro-Palestinian demonstrations, citing the risk of antisemitic statements and glorification of violence. Authorities said around 60 demonstrators complied with an order to leave Berlin's Potsdamer Platz on Thursday.

French President Emmanuel Macron was due to give a TV address on Wednesday in a bid to prevent the war from escalating tensions.

Twelve French citizens are known to have died in the Hamas attack and Mr Macron told party leaders that of the 17 others missing, four were children.

It has also emerged that Assembly President Braun-Pivet has received death threats.

A member of President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party, she had parliament lit this week in the colours of the Israeli flag in response to the Hamas attack on Israel and called a minute's silence before an Assembly session on Tuesday.

Ms Braun-Pivet also announced that Maryam Abu Daqqa, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), would be banned from attending a documentary screening in parliament next month. The militant organisation is recognised as a terrorist organisation by the EU.

Meyer Habib has also been given protection. He represents a constituency for overseas French citizens which includes Israel and the Palestinian Territories and is a vocal supporter of Israel. After the Hamas attack he said "we are witnessing the return of pogroms".

French politics has been riven by the Hamas attack and its aftermath.

While most parties have condemned Saturday's "terrorist attack" and expressed support for Israel's right to respond, the initial response from Jean-Luc Mélenchon's far-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party was more equivocal.

A statement by the party referred to the Hamas attack as "an armed offensive of Palestinian forces", prompting fierce criticism from other parties, including left-wing allies such as the Socialist and Communist parties.

In Germany, Chancellor Scholz told MPs in the Bundestag that Israel's security was German state policy. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is due to travel to Israel on Friday in a gesture of solidarity.

Mr Scholz also announced that pro-Palestinian group Samidoun, which was pictured handing out sweets in the Neukölln area of Berlin to celebrate the Hamas attack, would be banned. "We do not tolerate antisemitism," he added.

According to German authorities, in several towns across the country including Mainz, Braunschweig and Heilbronn, Israeli flags raised in solidarity with the country were torn down and destroyed, sometimes in just a few hours.

"The act disrespects and mocks the victims" of Hamas's attack, Braunschweig's mayor, Thorsten Kornblum, said.

Mr Scholz added that "without Iranian support, Hamas would not have been able to carry out these unprecedented attacks".

[valcaira]

About me

Hello folks! you can call me Cyrus or Cy. I'm 20 years old and I blog about many kind of things including disability, queerness, jewishness, art, fandom and politics.

I'm transmasc bigender nonbinary butch demiboy faggot dude and use he/him pronouns. I'm also german-belarusian and practice witchcraft.

I am vehemently kink positive and will tag posts where i'm lusting over blood, cannibalism and guts as #bloodthirst so filter out that tag if it makes you uncomfortable.

If you use Zionist as an insult, to categotize Jews into "good" and "bad", only get your sources from antizionists and refuse to listen to Jewish people who keep telling you it's a complex ideology with many facets and doesn't mean what you think it does - you are both wrong and stupid.

I also make image and video descriptions when I'm able to.

Further information under the cut:

Other Socials:

Twitter: @/sweetcarotid

Instagram: @/valcaira_art

AO3: valcaira

BYF:

My blog is a MOGAI friendly space.

I'm disabled and chronically ill. I have rheumatoid arthritis, POTS, FND with hemiparesis, a tic disorder, BPD, NPD, dpdr, psychosis and CPTSD. I'm also autistic.

In terms of political stances I consider myself left wing and a democratic socialist. Democracy is non-negotiable. I'm pro-European Union. Anti-authoritarianism. The lives and wellbeing of humans stand above all else, especially capitalism. If you're a western tankie or Russia lover don't even attempt trying to "convince" me of your ideology. I'm Belarusian. I know more than you.

If your support for minorities stops at Jewish and Romani people you might as well hurl yourself into the sun while you're at it.

I'm also an artist and have tons of OCs. If you want to talk about them and yours go ahead!

While I do allow minors to interact with my blog, I wouldn't call it strictly SFW since I make sexual jokes and make the occasional "hell yeah penis" post. I have a sideblog for hornyposting, although visit it with care as it can be very distressing to a lot of people due to it being gore centered. @bleeding-aorta

If I'm on your dni and you interact/follow me first I'm going to ignore it. I'm still open to chill with people who have different stances.

Stances:

- anti TERF, anti TIRF, anti radfem, anti bioessentialism

- pro democracy, pro european union, anti facist, anti tankie

- "narcissistic abuse" isn't a real thing and just reinforces ableism

- Transandrophobia exists

- pro mpec lesbians and gays + contradictory labels, radinclus

- professional transmed/truscum hater

- anti radqueer, anti transid

- pro para anti contact paraphile

- pro fiction. Don't harass people over what they consume in fiction. Thought crimes are not a thing and you don't automatically endorse in reality what you enjoy in fiction. Antis are free to interact but do behave please. I have horrible experiences with your group (including being sent death and rape threats).

- fuck off if you follow/support/reblog from heritageposts, brendanicus or lesbianchemicalplant. I won't tolerate tankies, NK apologists or antisemities.

- neutral on Zionism

- pro Jewish self-determination

- If you identify with the term "Asperger's" I am very likely to block you.

- attacking people for creating Harry Potter fanworks isn't helping anyone. Don't give money to JKR, enjoy your fanfic and ships. I still like reading Snarry fanfic despite not engaging with the source material anymore.

Wiccans are on thin ice.

My stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict is quite clear: Palestinians deserve their own independent state, homeland and the atrocities need to stop. Netanyahu and his Likud party is a colonizing piece of shit that needs to go. Hamas are terrorists, not "freedom fighters" and are utterly despicable. If you support Hamas in any way, shape or form stay the fuck away from me. October 7th happened and this atrocity from Hamas must not be denied. I believe in a two-state solution, as Israel deserves to exist. Jews and Palestinians are indigenous to the Levant and not a single one deserves to be hounded out of their homes. If you're ignorant about the history of Judea, Arab colonialism and the creation of Palestine by the Romans you should shut up and educate yourself. Zionism is a complicated ideology with a complicated history and I do not trust Zionist or anti-Zionist goyim. My stance on Zionism is a deeply personal thing. The atrocities and needless killing of human beings need to stop, no matter what "side" they're on. This makes me both Pro Palestine and Pro Israel. People aren't their governments. Everyone deserves to live together in peace.

Am Yisrael Chai

[mightyflamethrower]

Bill Maher Brutally Eviscerates Palestinian Grievances in Less Than 10 Minutes

I’m waiting for Bill Maher to roll out an inaccurate commentary that rips conservatives, but he hasn’t done that lately. The liberal HBO host has been chiefly directing his firepower toward those on his side of the aisle for their historically illiterate and illiberal tendencies. The HBO host has been riding an asphalt roller over the far left for their pro-Hamas advocacy that’s now infested the highest echelons of American academia. He rightfully torched the college presidents who couldn’t condemn or say that chants for Jewish genocide constitute harassment. The comedian also noted that these institutions are factories for breeding a “bunch of f**king idiots,” along with brainwashing its student bodies into thinking that antisemitism is a requirement for leftist activism.

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Maybe we should have seen this coming from the 2012 Democratic National Convention, where, yes, the Democratic delegates booed God, but also the resolution recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The warning signs were there, but Hamas’ October 7 attacks and Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip to eliminate the terror group have ignited a wave of antisemitism not seen since the National Socialist German Workers’ Party rose to power. Maher has had enough of these people who chant “from the river to the sea” and used simple history lessons to shut down this narrative, along with this message to the pro-terrorist TikTok crowd: grow up. 

Maher noted that after World War II, Germans in Poland, Russia, and Czechoslovakia were purged and driven back to Germany proper for reasons that don’t need mentioning. In North America, Mexico lost most of the Southwestern United States, including California, in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. And Jews across the Arab world have been ethnically cleansed. The HBO host's point was that the Palestinians aren’t unique. They’re not the only people who’ve been displaced, and they should quit their whining and grow up. 

Israel has nuclear weapons, the largest tech sector besides Silicon Valley, and a thriving economy. They’re not going anywhere, so get over it. And this isn’t about land either. The Palestinians had a chance for a homeland in 1947, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2000, and 2008. They turned down all the offers because the Palestinian Authority and Hamas agreed on one action item: destroying Israel. There can be no peace or negotiations when one side views killing everyone sitting at the opposite end of the table as their central bargaining position.

Later, in his New Rules commentary, Maher said that Arabs tried to destroy Israel in 1947, 1967, and 1973—they all lost. While Palestinians whine, they could take lessons from those who’ve been displaced. Mexico doesn’t chant from the Rio Grande to Portland, Oregon. They “got real” and built the 14th largest economy because they knew the United States wouldn’t return Phoenix. As for the colonizer argument, well, read about the first Muslim empire that exploded out of Saudi Arabia following the death of the Prophet Mohammed. As Maher noted, there’s a reason why a sword is on their national flag. 

In less than ten minutes, Maher expertly dissects almost every central talking point peddled by Palestinian activists and their bountiful allies on America’s college campuses. It doesn’t take a seasoned academic to do this—just read any history book. And that’s the funny part. Maher isn’t a historian by trade. He’s a stand-up comic and was able to torch the most common pro-Hamas nonsense we’ve seen splashed on the front pages of newspapers. 

And when you do read about the history of any civilization at any period, you’ll know that it’s riddled with pervasive brutality and filled with misdeeds and past injustices. Get over it. History is violent, with numerous accounts of what we would now call ethnic cleansing. The irony is the pro-Palestinian crowd is too stupid to know that’s what they’re promoting with their rallies against Israel: a complete genocide.

[mariacallous]

The upcoming local elections in Turkey on March 31 offer Turkey’s progressives—the social democratic main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party—the opportunity to challenge the hegemony of the ruling conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP). A win would also bolster the chances of Istanbul’s incumbent CHP mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, to succeed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan when his term expires in 2028, provided that they display a unity of purpose.

The outcome of the March 31 election in Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city, will—as has been the case before—be decisive in shaping the course of Turkish politics. Erdogan himself rose to national prominence after serving as mayor of Istanbul in the 1990s.

Imamoglu was prepared to challenge Erdogan in the presidential election last year and enjoyed broad support not only in the CHP but among the opposition in general, but the CHP’s then-leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, imposed his own candidacy. Today, Imamoglu is the only credible opposition candidate. The CHP’s new leader, Ozgur Ozel, who unseated Kilicdaroglu as party leader last November, has said his party will not hesitate to field Imamoglu as its presidential candidate if he is reelected on March 31.

Imamoglu will be a strong contender to succeed Erdogan. He is a centrist social democrat and appeals to both conservatives and progressives. But the polls predict that the race between Imamoglu and his challenger from the AKP, Murat Kurum, is going to be close—and a loss would undermine Imamoglu’s future presidential prospects. Some analysts suggest that the incumbent could be facing defeat, given the loss of support from a key constituency, the Kurds.

Critically, in 2019, Imamoglu enjoyed the endorsement of the Kurdish political movement. The Kurdish voters were the key to his election. Istanbul is home to the largest Kurdish population in Turkey, approximately 2 million or 12 percent of the city’s population. This time, the pro-Kurdish DEM Party has fielded its own, co-mayoral candidates, Meral Danis Bestas and Murat Cepni.

The right-wing nationalist Good Party that supported Imamoglu in 2019 and was allied with the CHP in the presidential and parliamentary elections last year has also broken ranks with the CHP that has made a turn to the left under Ozel and is running an independent campaign. Yet while the defection of Turkish nationalists can prove as costly, the Kurdish defection from Imamoglu has a deeper significance beyond electoral politics. It bespeaks—the CHP’s leftward turn on social and economic issues notwithstanding—the impasse of progressive politics in Turkey.

Imamoglu needs to bring divergent political and ethnic constituencies together to win Istanbul—and would have to do the same to succeed Erdogan. A failure by Imamoglu to sway the Kurdish voters and align the constituency of the DEM Party with the CHP base will demonstrate that progressive unity is beyond reach. Imamoglu needs the Kurdish vote not only to win, but moreover to embody democratic change.

Promisingly, the new CHP leadership has charted a social democratic course, embracing the labor movement and calling for reforms that address poverty and inequality. This is in sharp contrast to his predecessor, Kilicdaroglu, who disastrously distanced himself from the left and embraced right-wing policies and partners. Kilicdaroglu struck a deal with the far-right Victory Party in the run-up to the presidential election last year and vowed to keep removed Kurdish elected officials (accused of “terrorist” links) out of office.

Ozel has condemned the suppression of the Kurds’ democratic rights. While Kilicdaroglu forged an alliance with five right-wing parties that excluded Kurds and socialists, Ozel has initiated an electoral alliance with the socialist Labor Party of Turkey (TIP) and unsuccessfully sought a similar agreement with the DEM Party.

But Ozel has failed to establish his authority over his party, and his colleagues across the country are openly defying him. On March 6, the CHP’s mayoral candidate in the province of Afyonkarahisar, Burcu Koksal, vowed that if she is elected, the doors of the municipality would be open to all parties except the pro-Kurdish DEM Party. Ozel, who was present when Koksal—who is also CHP deputy group chairperson in the parliament—delivered her anti-Kurdish remarks, called them “a minor slip of the tongue.”

But Imamoglu recognized that Koksal had effectively torpedoed his chances to secure the Kurdish vote and demanded that she “either look for a new job or a new party.” The polls pointed to a close race in Istanbul already before the statement, and it elicited a strong reaction from the DEM Party’s Bestas, who said that it amounts to “fascism.”

The persistence of Turkish supremacist nationalism in the CHP’s ranks is undermining the party’s credibility as a progressive force and disabling the left-wing unity that should otherwise have been within reach. The DEM Party insists that it seeks not just to secure the political and cultural rights of Turkey’s Kurds, but that it equally aspires to bring about a broader democratic and progressive change of Turkish society. The DEM Party’s local election manifesto for Istanbul lays out a progressive agenda, including promises of participatory democracy through the establishment of neighborhood and city assemblies, promotion of women’s participation in urban planning, and the rule of labor.

Selahattin Demirtas, the former co-chair of the previous iteration of the pro-Kurdish party, known as the HDP, who has been imprisoned since 2016, in 2021 called on Turkey’s left-wing forces to form a “strong left bloc” to build democracy after the rule of the AKP. Demirtas argued that democracy was going to elude Turkey in the absence of the left and “the voice of the labor.” “A strong left bloc can be built without considering personal and party interests,” Demirtas insisted. Yet Demirtas, who remains a powerful voice in Kurdish politics, has not expressed any interest in the left turn of the CHP.

Indeed, Demirtas no longer proposes that the party join a left bloc with social democrats and socialists. Instead, he recommends that the DEM Party position itself as a third force, equidistant to the AKP and the CHP, and urges it to engage in talks with the AKP to solve the Kurdish issue and to democratize Turkey. “I don’t know if there is meeting traffic between the DEM Party and the AKP, but if there is not, this is a great deficiency for both parties,” he recently said.

Presumably to endear himself to Erdogan, Demirtas paid homage to the Islamic identity of Turkey, saying, “What defines us in these lands is Islamic civilization.” “A part of Turkey’s socialists are unaware of this, and due to their ignorance, they cannot reach out to society,” he professed when he delivered his defense at the last hearing at his trial in December 2023.

It is indeed true that the Turkish left has historically been hampered by its overzealous commitment to secularism, which has alienated the popular masses from it. But Demirtas’s statements about Islam suggest that he seeks something else than a reinvention of the left to broaden its popular appeal. He is not calling for a Muslim left. Instead, he seems to have given up on the left and concluded that Kurdish interests can only be furthered by aligning with Islamic conservatism.

It’s reasonable to assume that Demirtas’s shift is prompted by a recognition that the AKP seems to be entrenched in power and that the Kurds consequently have no alternative but to seek an understanding with Erdogan. It may also be that the deal that Kilicdaroglu struck with the far right last year convinced Demirtas that the CHP cannot be trusted.

In a similar vein, Ahmet Turk, a veteran of the Kurdish movement in Turkey, earlier this year said that Erdogan is the only leader who can solve the Kurdish question, because he “has taken control of all state institutions.”

“But if the CHP were to attempt such a thing, its project would be shattered,” Turk said. Indeed, this was what happened the last time the CHP attempted to challenge authoritarian right-wing power. When a CHP government in the 1970s tried to promote economic equality and expand labor rights, forces in the Turkish state struck back violently and ended the attempt. However, Erdogan is not omnipotent. His attempt between 2013 and 2015 to solve the Kurdish issue met with stiff resistance from within the state establishment, which may in turn explain why the attempt was aborted.

Yet it is increasingly clear that a strong current in the Kurdish political movement is pinning its hopes on a revival of some version of the old feudal deal between the Turkish state and Kurdish tribal leaders. Under it, from the 1950s to the late 1970s, Kurdish tribal leaders were by and large left socially and economically in control of the country’s Kurdish region in return for delivering the votes of their tribes to the ruling conservative parties, the AKP’s predecessors. That was the reason the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) began as a Marxist revolutionary movement in opposition both to Kurdish feudalism and the Turkish state in the 1970s.

Today, the Kurds legitimately demand that election results are respected and elected Kurdish mayors are not thrown out of office and into prison—as Turk was after he was reelected mayor of the province of Mardin in 2019. Turk was dismissed but not arrested, as he was in 2016. Of 65 mayors elected in 2019,  59 were removed from office or imprisoned, or both.In return, the Kurdish political movement is not offering Erdogan its votes, but nonetheless its services by depriving his main challenger of votes.

Yet it is unlikely that the Kurds will be rewarded. Erdogan and his ally Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party, are unlikely to acquiesce to Kurdish party rule in the Kurdish region as long as the challenge posed by the PKK continues to haunt the Turkish state. As PKK affiliates—armed and protected by the United States—have established a de facto state in Rojava across the border in northern Syria, Turkey will remain intransigent on the Kurdish issue.

DEM Party mayors who are elected on March 31 risk being removed from office just as their predecessors were after the local elections in 2019. The strategy of relying on Erdogan is bound to end in yet another disappointment for the Kurdish political movement, shattering its core political project.

A democratic solution to the Kurdish issue—without which full democracy in Turkey will remain elusive—depends on Turkish and Kurdish progressives making common cause. Yet the DEM Party cannot reasonably be expected to withdraw its co-mayoral candidates from the Istanbul race and endorse the CHP’s presidential front-runner unless the CHP lives up to its social democratic pledges and purges anti-Kurdish nationalism from its ranks.

At stake is not only the outcome of the Istanbul election, as important as it is. If narrow-minded nationalism prevails among Turkish progressives, the authoritarian AKP regime—which has run the country for more than 20 years—will become entrenched and outlast Erdogan.

[alephskoteinos]

OK, there is something about this sort of line that irks me and I feel the need to address this idea right now, especially because the Tumblr comment sections won't let me explore my issue in full.

The pop cultural representation of Satan and Hitler being talked about is based on a lot of bad ideas. It has nothing to do with Hitler being a kind of evil archetype (he wasn't, he was just an asshole antisemitic failson who committed genocide), and everything to do with our society's attempts to try and understand how the horrors of the Holocaust, the Third Reich, and World War 2 could all be possible.

One of the ways people tried to explain that is through the idea that the Nazis were ontologically evil because they were spiritually evil. This means the idea that the Nazis were evil because they practiced "black magic", were into the occult, and opposed Christianity. Some people even tried to claim that Hitler was possessed by demons. This would be one way how popular culture in Christian capitalist democracies receives the notion of Hitler as some sort of archetypal evil. But of course it's all nonsense. The overwhelming majority of the Nazis, including Hitler himself, were Christians, and some form of Christianity was enshrined as the religious basis of National Socialist ideology.

Let's say it for everyone in the back: Nazism is a Christian fascist ideology!

Of course there were exceptions, a handful of Nazis who ostensibly did not consider themselves pagans despite this fact. But these were often ridiculed or ultimately pushed out. Even Heinrich Himmler's ostensible rejection of Christianity was really quite superficial: on the one hand he was ostensibly a non-Christian "God-believer", but on the other hand he was only really anti-clericalist rather than anti-Christian, having more issue with the church as it existed than the teachings of Christianity themselves.

So using this trope to talk about the relationship between Satanism and Nazism is simply wrong-headed. There are people who do make the connection between Hitler and a general idea of "evil" in that they seem opposed to Christian society, and that probably does animate certain Nazi Satanist trends and also things like NSBM (shit like Nazi black metal does exist after all), but that whole thread is made possible by the cultural zeitgeist of Christian capitalist societies and their attempt to separate Nazism from the continuum of capitalist statecraft in which it emerged and from which it drew life. Christianity and capitalism can't ever accept their role in ultimately generating Nazism, because it will always taint them, so it must externalise Nazism in every possible respect until it appears as some kind of demonic outside emerging from the abyss to tear society apart, and not the folkist Christian ideology and logical extension of capitalist hegemony that it actually is.

Besides, we all know Nazism is not entirely transgressive. The law is illustrative in this regard, because even though you will be arrested if you get involved in neo-Nazi terrorist activities, the police still tend to protect you if you rally in support of neo-Nazism. Fascism itself tends to appear as an element of social heterogeneity, which explains its appearance in certain subcultures, while actually always appearing in the employ of social homogeneity. And if you've been paying attention to the Right for long enough, you've probably already seen Nazism by another name emerge as a disturbingly respectable ideology served up by the bourgeoisie and right-wing think tanks in the media. In many respects, Nazism as a kind of evil outside in relationship to society remains a facade. That Satanists may fall for the idea shows only their failure as Satanists and nothing else.

The same ultimately goes for the Order of Nine Angles, some of whose members, strangely enough, do not even claim to be Satanists. Nazism is a core component of their ideology, which means some of their racial Christianity without the name. True, a certain form of ritual moral transgression is part of their belief system, that much is well documented, but I think the author of the comment understands this as being for its own sake, which is ultimately only an appearance. They do everything that they do in the hopes of bringing their gods into the world, and in turn spiritually transforming themselves into fascist godmen and bringing about their "Galactic Imperium" (btw, that's also pretty much a spin on fascism by way of Francis Parker Yockey).

To couch opposition to "pure opposition" in this setting is ultimately very meaningless. For one thing, nothing really changes the fact that Satan is, among other things, opposition. I mean come on, that's in the name! The difference between all of us Satanists comes down to what that opposition means. For another, even the O9A has some definite parameters with opposition, and if you scratch beneath the surface of their occult transgression you will find that their rejection of morality is actually just couched in a fascist rejection of "decadence", which of course, being the Nazi antisemites that they are, they blame on Jews.

"Pure opposition" is a concept that begs elaboration in this context. If by this we mean the total opposition to society and the moral basis thereof, then, taken seriously, that's just anarchism. And before fascists ever got their hands on Satanism, it was, even if as a romantic literary device, embraced by the anarchists of the past precisely because it meant uncompromising rebellion and opposition to the state and its web of values. For this reason anarchists and Satanists both recognise themselves as fundamentally opposed to the moral basis of society. That idea has nothing to do with fascism.

[neverinsignificant]

Be on the lookout for this

While I was on Hulu, an ad came on. And Immediately, the ad started off by saying “Hamas is a terrorist group.” The ad then continued to show pictures of bombing aftermaths and said that we should support the movement to help Israel and Palestine be freed from them. The message of this ad is painted as though Palestinians and Israeli’s are (or should be) banding together for this “greater cause.” But the message did not feel as though they were truly advocating for Palestinians, so once I saw that the ad was paid for and sponsored by the Urban Empowerment Action PAC, I decided to do some Googling.

my findings:

The actual founder of UEA is unknown, but the group was launched by more than 40 Black businesses and civic leaders.

They get their fundings by Republicans and Democrats alike, but their main contributor is billionaire hedge fund investor, Daniel Loeb.

This group is currently spending $1 million to unseat Rep. Rashida Tlaib because they dislike her for voting against the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure package and her critiques of U.S. military funding to Israel.

UEA is backed by former South Carolina state Rep. Bakari Sellers who is very much an ally to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Pro-Israel America who endorses Detroit’s city clerk Janice Winfrey who is also backed by UEA.

The UEA is said to have been created to narrow the wealth gap between Black and white Americans in urban communities and their current challenge against Tlaib is that they want Detroit to have a Black representative. Their spokesperson Henry Greenidge says its “aim is to get Black candidates in office who will champion common-sense solutions that uplift Black people.”

Now, why does a group that was supposedly created for the betterment of Black people sound so fckin conservative? Well, that’s because they are. The ad doesn’t tell us what they’re doing to support Palestine’s end of Israel’s occupation over them because they do not care for Palestinians. The UEA PAC consists of conservative democrats who endorse likeminded people and are all against anyone who has socialist viewpoints. This wasn’t an ad to convince Americans to care for Palestine and the people of Gaza, this was an ad to promote their pro-Israeli viewpoints as all of their backers are in support of them.

Sources:

[alientitty]

some of this shit is so crazy people r like "2 million deserve to die cuz hamas is fundamentalist" as if you've never been to a town kept alive by conservative christian orgs doing food and school and medicine. except in this case they're also literally the elected government of gaza. and the people are like "well there's no excuse for having hostages" except hamas has been trying to return people and israel keeps refusing cuz they can just bomb their own civilians and then blame palestinians. and that's not to mention the pogroms in the west bank, WHERE HAMAS DOES NOT OPERATE, where settlers are being given assault rifles by THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT. and the fact that there are mutliple organizations including secular and even socialist ones fighting. while every single hospital, refuge, shelter, and evacuation route is a target, including and especially the very zones israel TELLS CIVILIANS TO EVACUATE TO...and people are still like "no its sooooo complicated, you see, they're all terrorists cuz they're middle eastern" like jesus christ i don't even know what to say at this point

[studentofetherium]

Hello. I am the person who sent you and your friends several messages earlier today that I was worried I was becoming a nazi and was begging you folks to kill me before I did. I want to explain why I did so, both as an admittedly very inadequate apology, and as an attempt at helping you and your friends find closure. I understand there is no excuse for how I bullied, retraumatized and terrorized all of you.

It is great if you consider me an antisemite and hate me forever, for indeed someone like me deserves such treatment. I have seen your posts describing me as a gross, pathetic loser, and I understand that you are completely right.

A few months ago, I became addicted to Arknights and spent 1000s of dollars on it, only stopping when my parents took away my bank account access. As such I began to view the game and Hypergryph and Yostar as evil, fascist, ableist, and antisemitic.

I became somewhat obsessed with trying to tell other people how bad it was, and convinced that Reunion was heroic, but the first two times I published essays about this I had to delete them because people called me a terrorist and braindead for supporting Reunion and not liking the game. This initially hardened my conviction that Arknights was ableist antisemitic pro-slavery propaganda.

Coincidentally, I have severe autism and ADHD, and due to being bullied by teachers in elementary school I have had severe anxiety, depression, and self-loathing ever since, considerably aggravated when I was beaten by a police officer following my first suicide attempt at the age of 15 and institutionalized for 4 days following my second attempt at the age of 16.

I say this not as an excuse, for there can be no forgiveness for my heinous actions, merely to help give context.

Last night I had nightmares about my daddy attacking me and couldn’t sleep very well, so I forgot to take my antipsychotic medications in the morning. I also had a somewhat stressful doctor appointment in the morning. When my third attempt at criticizing Arknights was somewhat poorly received, mommy says I had a self-loathing psychotic episode.

As I read in your essay that you mentioned you were Jewish, and I figured that the worst possible way to treat a Jewish person is the way a nazi would, and I misinterpreted you as defending Rhodes Island, I figured that Reunion, and by extension myself, must be nazis, and Rhodes Island, Hypergryph, Yostar, and the gacha gambling companies I had previously hated must be antifascist good guys.

This does not make much sense to me, since I was previously a socialist and thought that corporations and capitalism supported bad things like fascism and antisemitism, but I now understand I was wrong. By sympathizing with Reunion, I accidentally set myself on the path to becoming a nazi.

Since I have seen lots of memes that nazis deserve death, and I agree with those memes, I tried to start searching for ways to kill myself. Unfortunately I am too cowardly to jump out the window again, and could not break my skin with a kitchen knife, so I felt I had no choice but to ask people on the internet to come shoot me.

I attempted to apologize profusely in these posts, but I understand now that this was merely attention-seeking. Again, I am sincerely sorry, although I understand these words ring hollow, and indeed are an abuse tactic, unless I actually make good on them and kill myself. Please rest assured that I will continue trying to do so beneath my parents’ notice.

While my mommy has insisted over and over again that I am not a nazi or an antisemite because I do not hate Jewish people, I now understand that even calling myself those words permanently and irrevocably turns me into them. And nazis, of course, a category which I unwittingly have become part of, are hateful antisemitic genocidal monsters.

While I have never been very religious, I will now dedicate the rest of my life to finding redemption for my sins by committing suicide or finding someone willing to kill me, in hopes that God will forgive me for the crimes I have committed against an innocent ethnoreligious group. I am not currently aware of any methods I could use to successfully commit suicide, or any ways I could get someone to kill me, but I will at least continue to search for them until I either succeed or die of old age.

As long as I search, I hope I will no longer pose a threat to the safety of you or any other Jewish people.

Though I know it is asking far too much, I must try to humbly request that you post this to share with your followers. I have seen them making memes about me being an example of the alt-right pipeline, and since I suspect they are correct in this, I would like them to understand why I became trapped as a Reunion nazi so that you and your friends may more effectively protect yourself from me and nazis and Reunion members like me.

Please wish me luck as I embark on this final journey to atone for my unforgivable sins. Oh, and my mom doesn’t want me to die, so please don’t tell her either. Thank you for your time.