the "aid" the US sent is 9 years expired food MREs that they can't cook because they don't have enough clean drinking water to make it edible. It's expired, by at least nine years. They stopped including the Tabasco sauces in MREs in 2015.
How are Gazans meant to make these? You need water to rehydrate the food. If they get food poisoning from eating nearly a decade old food, what do you think will happen to them? To the people who have been starving for months and are impoverished and malnourished? Who don't have the water and nutrients you need to heal yourself from sickness? And to top it all off, the food is Haram. They sent mostly pork and other haram meals. And halal MREs exist. They knew that most Gazans are Muslim and chose to not send the halal food. it's disgusting, it's horrid. The US and all of its leaders are evil and vile
Do you genuinely believe we can somehow change the hearts and minds of billionaires and politicians in power in for example the USA in a way that will actually result in a radical change in and improvement of conditions for folks currently oppressed under capitalism in the USA and hopefully globally? If so, how?
This is coming from someone who really would like to believe pure nonviolence is possible but who does not see much of an actual way forward for that. That said I do not see those billionaires and politicians as "nonhuman", I don't think that's productive and I think dehumanizing anyone who is factually a human person as a practice is dangerous so I am in agreement with you there. Thanks for your time if you choose to share your thoughts.
What I like about Against the Logic of the Guillotine is that it isn't for pure nonviolence. It breaks down the false binary that our options are "let the streets run red with blood until our every thirst for revenge is slaked" or "punching nazis makes you as bad as them 🥺"
& i think that binary is tempting because it absolves us of a responsibility to think deeply about things. if all revolutionary violence is good and justified, then you don't have to think too hard about the violence, you just see it & condone it. If all violence is bad and morally evil, then you still don't have to think too hard to condemn it. Our options are like, moral baby food.
But if we reject that binary, then there is no easy answer. Its not as easy as "yes leftist violence is always justified" or "any violence ever is always unjustified." You have to ask yourself, what am I doing? Why? What does this accomplish? Who is affected by this? What do they have to say? It makes us look at the actual nature of our violence and pick it apart and see where we have fucked up and where we might fuck up again. Its a lot more messy and also requires that we form relationships with others & genuinely listen to what they have to say. Its much much harder than Violence Good or Violence Bad but its also much more capable of adapting to the needs of people in the complicated situations where we find ourselves.
My opinion is that we will not reach anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism without violence. But more than anything, its because the systems in power will not let us. I think the foundation of the Revolution (in a more abstract sense of the word) must be community. We should focus our efforts most on building local networks of mutual support. If people suddenly find themself in a community that has free public food gardens & a community fridge, where people are already practicing transformative justice, etc. etc. then it will become materially obvious that we don't need to rely on the current system to survive. It will become clear that the current system is more of a hindrance to what we could do if we were not being controlled. And then people will be more likely to support any revolutionary violence that becomes necessary, because they will see their neighbors and know that when the dust settles, they know how to care for each other through shitty situations. Violence should really be the topping on a cake of community & indispensability politics.
Also this line from AtLotG really changed my perspective on "punishing the rich":
The worst punishment anyone could inflict on those who govern and police us today would be to compel them to live in a society in which everything they’ve done is regarded as embarrassing—for them to have to sit in assemblies in which no one listens to them, to go on living among us without any special privileges in full awareness of the harm they have done. If we fantasize about anything, let us fantasize about making our movements so strong that we will hardly have to kill anyone to overthrow the state and abolish capitalism. This is more becoming of our dignity as partisans of liberation.
"If we fantasize about anything, let us fantasize about making our movements so strong that we will hardly have to kill anyone to overthrow the state and abolish capitalism" really sums it up for me.
a simple jonmartin holding hands perhaps? perhaps?
I-
I made it sad, I’m sorry,,
[ID: A drawing of Jonathan sims and Martin Blackwood from the Magnus Archives, sat together. Jon is a brown man with greying hair. He’s wearing a long skirt. Martin is a fat white man with orange hair bleached white at the bangs. He’s wearing a blue sweater. The right side of him is evaporating into clouds as he drifts off with a melancholy expression. Jon, on his left, holds his boyfriends hand in his own, trying to keep him company. \End ID]
Version without fog under cut
[ID: The same drawing as above, but Martin is not obscured by the clouds here. \End ID]
"I, I set up a suggestion box. In Heaven. For me, I mean, not for God, that would be-- uh. Well."
"That would be what?" Say it, angel.
"That... that would fall on deaf ears, I think." I still can't; it's sacrilege.
"Why did you do that?"
"The, the box?"
"Yeah."
"Do you not remember..? Well, I suppose you might not..."
"I do. I think I do."
"Then why do you ask?"
"Because... well, angel, I don't think you need one. Do you?"
"I'm just... trying, Crowley."
"And how's that working out for you? Any suggestions so far?"
"Yeah. Yeah, uh, one."
"What's it say?"
"It said: Resign, Archiraphale."
"Archiraphale, huh?"
"Yeah."
"I have a suggestion."
"You do?"
"Get rid of the suggestion box."
"..."
"You're the best suggestion they have, just by being up there. If they can't see that, see you, which of course they don't, then no suggestion they make will be worth a damn."
"Crowley..."
"Just. Be careful up there, Aziraphale. Pl-- Okay?"
"Yes. I am. Of course. Crowley, I... I miss you."
"Yeah." I miss you too. Angel, you have no idea...
"Is it okay-- Would it be too much to-- Can I contact you? Somehow?"
"...maybe. Yeah. I guess I could-- you could leave a note. I could set up a suggestion box."
"I don't want to make any suggestions. I just want to-- talk. And uh. Apologize. I want to apologize."
"Don't need a suggestion box for that. Just need an... er, an apology box."
"I'm sorry, Crowley. Look at me, please. I am so sorry. Let me explain?"
"I'm sorry, too. Okay. Okay, okay, okay. Don't make me regret this. You can leave a letter. Mailbox."
"Thank you. I will. I... need to go back, now."
"Sure. Archiraphale... wow, I can't believe they developed a sense of humor. Wait, take this."
"A note?"
"Mhm. For the suggestion box."
Insultors will be smitten. -- AZIraphale
"Thank you, Crowley. I don't think 'insultor'... thank you." Protecting me makes him so happy. Still?