#if you have any sympathy for folks in palestine but don't have the means to actually help out in any tangible way

[biaswreckmepls]

Gentle reminder - reblog!

Hi everyone!

Not sure if you've been keeping up with all the changes that keep happening on tumblr, but every single time this website and company is acquired by someone new, they try their best to turn it into another facebook, or instagram, or tiktok, or whatever the cool new social media platform is. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of how this platform works and the benefit of the anonymity and workings of the unique algorithm. But every single time, they've tried. First when yahoo got it, then when it went to verizon, and then when they sold it to automattic. Now with the death of tumblr live, they're trying to do another rebrand.

Tumblr is one of the few remaining online spaces where we get the opportunity to truly curate our online space, and share and experience things in a way that can't be capitalised on. The concept of a tumblr influencer doesn't exist, because there's no advantage of it, there's no benefit of being an 'influencer'. But the only way we can keep this website around, is to keep using it as the way it was originally intended, in the way that other websites have not worked.

Likes on tumblr are not the same as likes on instagram or youtube, they don't really do anything! They don't help the creator, they don't help promote the post itself in any meaningful way, it's just a way to safekeep it for yourself later. And while that's a totally valid reason to want to like something, just as a reminder of something and a way to revisit a post later in the future, I would highly encourage everyone to try and reblog things as well!! Whether it's art of your favourite ship, whether it's a gifset of your favourite onscreen couple, whether it's a meta around a certain show, or whether it's discussions of the latest major current news event, the only way to truly circulate it and create a positive impact is by reblogging! The more people that get to see any given post, the better.

As an example, KOSA is becoming a thing again, and we're all being encouraged to act against it. I wouldn't have found out about KOSA if someone I follow hadn't reblogged it first, and then i reblogged it again. KOSA is one thing that could impact our online experience DRASTICALLY, and it's imperative that we spread the word about it - forewarned is forearmed, and only when we know about it can we take action against it, right?

I'm not saying this to try and promote this blog at all. I won't lie and say a few more reblogs on this blog here and there wouldn't be nice, but frankly at the end of the day my blog contributes little to nothing to the larger fandom discourse in the grand scheme of things. I'm saying this for everyone else out there. If you want tumblr to survive and thrive as our internet experience continues to evolve in the coming decade, keep using it as much as you can! Reblog anything and everything you can! Your one singular reblog can have a butterfly effect on a post. When you just like, the movement of the post stops there.

And tying into my blog (sorry lads, i'm only human and have to make it a little relevant for me as well 😭), if there's one type of post on the website you encounter anywhere that I strongly recommend you reblog, it's a poll. A poll only serves it's function if it reaches people who can actually vote on it, and we can only get a true reflection of the views of the masses when the most number of people get to participate in it. That's democracy, babey!

Anyways, that's my biannual rant. Back to your regularly scheduled programming, and see you in 6 months for the next big rant!

[hero-israel]

Perhaps it's selfish of me, but as a non-Jewish person I really hate how the I/P conflict has invaded fandom spaces the past two months. People have been calling out celebrities left and right for so much as daring to express sympathy for the Israeli victims. I'll be going through a blog, after three fandom posts there will be a post like 'calling death to all (zionists)'. Insane conspiracy theories get thousands of notes (black friday??? spotify wrapped??? are they aware that the world does not revolve around america).

I wouldn't even be upset if it was posts passing around the links to donate aid or if it gave info on the statistics. Instead it's like suddenly everybody is an expert in Israeli history, suddenly their eyes have opened to the evil of the zionists, and suddenly they're all 'yaaaasss revolution kill the oppressor'.

All of these make me so angry because it's all fucking performative. Do they care about the earthquakes that have happened in the past two months? Do they care about the conflicts going on in other Middle-Eastern countries, some which have been going on for years? Do they care about the Palestinians being treated as second-class citizens in these countries?

'But they're not America's concern', well then neither is the I/P conflict. These people have zero connection to the conflict. Nothing they do or say will make the problem *disappear*. Yet they engage in useless 'activism' by harassing 'zionist'(mostly who are Jewish) blogs and sending them death threats.

It's horrible. Blogs which did not give two shits about Palestine before are suddenly cheering for Israeli deaths. Folks who have never opened a history textbook are using words like genocide and apartheid without knowing what they mean, and are doing blatant historical revisionism that even I, a person who has never lived on those lands, know is a lie (like Jews and Muslims apparently lived in harmony before the Europeans attacked??? Just say you don't know about religious conflicts that don't involve Christianity.).

I know I can curate my experiences, but it has been really disheartening to see so many otherwise rational people call out for blood everywhere on Tumblr. I can't even begin to fathom how much it has affected the people who are directly involved.

It feels useless to hope, but I genuinely wish there will be a day when people put all this effort in establishing peace rather than harassing random strangers.

We are at a terrible intersection. 20+ years of fake "joined struggle" newspeak has been absorbed by a rising generation that sees only despair in their socioeconomic and environmental future. It is all too easy for them to see their problems as unsolvable and inescapable - and also for those problems to be caused by Jews. What does one do when certain that their life is ruined, that it is the Jews' fault (bc "shared struggle"), and that voting is pointless? They will curate their daily life to attack and exclude Jews - in any space they can influence, including their fan blogs. It will feel like a counterattack - like punching up. As usual.