#it feels like the least i can do to make a space for the palestinian community in nyc

[lwcina]

i feel like im having a lot of delayed realizations on account of being suicidal for the majority of my life and now not being suicidal like. idk thinking about what life is now that im actively choosing to be alive. i used to be like scared of everyone i love dying but its like. death and grief are a part of life... and grief is like hard but also to even have something to grieve is worth something.

[heartburstings]

i saw a post a while ago about how it's Okay to Ignore Palestine Posts because of mental health and how internet is escapism and blah blah blah. and it's like, okay. sure. mental health is important, but somehow i feel this is actually willful ignorance wrapped up in pretty language to feel more comfortable and justified in staying comfortable.

gonna copypaste some notes i took a while ago, bc it resonated w me and i feel is relevant to this kind of behavior, so i hope it resonates with u as well:

"The experience of being abandoned by humanity and then not being heard occurs when stories of resilience takes precedence over tales of inhumanity."

"Our responsibility is to change our narrative or 'internal working model'; to recognize vulnerability and revision a way to sensitize ourselves to hardship that our own coping and privileged experience allow us to avoid."

"And basically what that means is when we think about the stories of others, when we hear things that we don't necessarily like to hear, we have a choice. We go with it, we move forward in it, and we continue to in some ways enter the people's lives with whom we work, or we retreat. We go back to our privilege, and we think about their stories as something that we're not able to relate to or connect with."

[flokali]

𓂆 | Write for Gaza

. . . . .

𓄷 Note: As a member of the Palestinian diaspora, I feel like this is the least I could do to help my people back in our beloved homeland. After 76 years of silence from the world, please do not look away and do not keep quiet – you can make a difference, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Due to the nature of the blog, I ask that you be at least 18 years old before requesting or interacting.

You can use the following links to pick a fundraiser of your choice to donate to: palestinescharitycomissionassoc, palestinian-fundraising, Hussein’s Masterpost and GazaFunds.

𓄷 Rules:

i. Take the time to read the post carefully and decide if you wish to participate. Pick a fundraiser from the list and make a donation considering the prices mentioned below, you are tasked with calculating the donation cost and what it translates to. For requests, make sure to check if there are slots available as I will only be able to take a small number at a time.

ii. Once you have made a donation to a vetted fundraiser, take a screenshot and blur out any identifiable/private information. The screenshot will be necessary for verification.

iii. Reach out to me via ask or DM with the screenshot of your donation, you can specify what it is you want to either [Sponsor a WIP] or [Make a Request] – slots can be reserved for MaR for up to five business days, please tell me if you wish to remain anonymous or not.

iv. I am not making any money from this, the money is to be donated to a vetted fundraiser directly. I am not an intermediary but serve as an added bonus to donating.

v. Donations made to “Khaled and His Family” will be prioritised.

𓄷 Sponsor a WIP:

𓂃 $1 USD equals to 100-150 words; therefore, 500 words is $5 USD and so on.

𓂃 If you want to ask for smut to be added to a fic (all the included WIP have space for smut) , that’s an additional $10 USD and will be asked for only once; if the “Smut Fee” is paid, the word count will increase by default of 500-1000 words, additional words by the original donator will be added to the $10. If the SF has been paid, it will be noted in the post and won’t be required to be paid for the same WIP again.

[If the SF is paid and the donor wants 1.5k words added, they’ll have to add $5, making the total $15].

𓂃 All WIPs have a goal of a minimum of 3k words, the word count will be updated as well as an estimate for the final count – however, it may increase if necessary.

. . .

𓄷 Make a request:

𓂃 $1 USD equals to 100-150 words; therefore, 500 words is $5 USD and so on.

𓂃 For reactions: each additional character is $0.25 USD (¢25) maximum amount of characters is 6 ($1.25 USD). The first character is not charged.

[A request for three characters and 1k words would total $11 USD ; Example: “How would Kaeya, Diluc and Albedo react to a Reader who is cold?” + “1k words” *A request for a one shot does not have the “Additional Character Fee”]

— Available slots for requests: 4*

More information down below;

𓄷 WIP

—#๋࣭. I love you, I Own you ; Part 3

Final part to the “ILYIOY” series, meant to tie up the story and finish telling what happens to Reader’s family, Reader herself, and Childe’s feelings about what he’s done.

Current word count: 600~ words • Estimated word count: 9k words

Sponsored:

—#๋࣭. Deus Vult ; Reworked (Part 1)

A complete rewriting and restructuring of my first fic on the blog, it’ll be longer and more thorough; after almost 2 years on the blog, if not more, I have mulled over the concept many times and wished to redo it and give it a proper setting.

Current word count: 500~ words • Estimated word count: 6-9k words

—#๋࣭. Love Virus

Boothill fic where a pesky USB with a “love code” gets mistakenly used on him, as the doctor/programmer in charge with overseeing this mess – you find yourself the target of his newfound affection.

Current word count: 1,700~ words • Estimated word count: 6k words

Sponsored:

—#๋࣭. 777

You’re one of the last remaining people of your species, now seen as a luxury to be passed around to the highest bidder. In a twist of fate, Aventurine finds himself with the key – or price – to your freedom, although he never fancied himself a hero he doesn’t mind the way you look at him as your saviour.

Current word count: 1200~ words • Estimated word count: 6k word.

Sponsored: NSFW paid + 1k (700 left) words — Remaining 4k~ words ; estimated.

𓄷 Make a Requests :

—#๋࣭. I will write: yandere, non/dub con, most kinks, death, cnc, gore, cheating, peggings, dom/sub, etc. We can discuss more through message but I’m not open to debating on anything that is specified below;

—#๋࣭. I won’t write: Underage characters, bodily fluids (mainly piss nd scat), cxc, necrophilia, beastiality, unhygienic, vore, ddlg, etc.

. . .

—#๋࣭. Fandoms: Genshin Impact, Star Rail, DoL, Spy x Family, Tears of Themis, Enstars, Love and Deepspace, Wuthering Heights, Twisted Wonderland, Persona 5, Fire Emblem 3 Houses, Ikemen Villains, Identity V, A Date with Death, Chainsaw Man, Haikyuu!!, and What in Hell is bad?

* I’ll also accept unique OC’s made just for the request that you will be able to request for again in the future.

[genderkoolaid]

Cw: "Aaron" Bushnell https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/bushnell-gaza-immolation-protest-trans-identity

I thought I should let you know if you didn't already. Rip Lilly

While there is evidence pointing to Lilly/Aaron being trans, I still think we should be careful in how we talk about it. I don't really have a problem agreeing that the username and the reddit history does feel like someone who, at least, is exploring their gender identity. A person who says they knew him/her in life is very insistent that s/he could not have been a trans woman based on private information. However, others who have said they spoke with him/her online frequently insist s/he went by Lilly and used she/her and he/him. Although I don't think there's any reason necessarily for those folks to be lying, I do wish there were actual screenshots of the pronoun use in discord servers? Given that rn the conversation is just People Online Making Claims.

I'm still unsure of how I feel we should talk about this tbh. Lilly/Aaron was very deliberate in how s/he presented his/her gender to the public. As the person interviewed says, I don't think Bushnell would be upset by being seen as trans if s/he was a cis man. But even if s/he was trans, I am hesitant to make assumptions about what is best for a trans person's legacy. The issue of trans recognition in death is very sensitive for most of us, so I understand why people are so invested in this. But it should be kept in mind that the discussion around Bushnell's gender should not overshadow support for Palestinians. That was his/her goal and its clear that s/he cared more about that than making a statement about his/her own gender. It is fully possible for a trans person to make the decision to let themselves be assumed cis, and be comfortable in that decision, and its not up to other trans people to decide whether they made the wrong decision with their own legacy.

Its possible s/he made that decision solely because s/he wanted to prevent his/her message from being derailed by transmisogyny. But again, that shows to me that s/he wanted more than anything for his/her death to be focused entirely on raising support for Palestine. I don't want to be patronizing about Lilly/Aarons's decisions and I definitely don't want any Discourse on this to do exactly what s/he was trying to avoid. Additionally, Bushnell is reported as having used he/she pronouns. The person who claims s/he used both uses both Aaron and Lilly. Its very easy for genderqueer and nonbinary people to have their identities reduced to binaries in death, even by other trans people. If s/he was trans, why are we making assumptions about if s/he was fine with being called a woman, or that s/he wasn't okay with being called a man? There is too much grey space and too much exorsexism that goes unchallenged in our community for me to not feel the need to point this out.

Anyways. I guess my Take on this is that both trans and suicidal people tend to have our choices undermined, and have people on all sides debate over what we Really mean and what we Really want. We are rarely seen as being the experts on ourselves, or having our autonomy respected even when it makes others confused or uncomfortable. I don't think anyone online discussing this can have a full picture of The Truth. Like I said, I don't think there's any reason to assume people claiming they knew Lilly and that s/he used she/her and he/him pronouns are lying right now. But more than anything I'm concerned that the debate over this could end up doing exactly what Lilly/Aaron was trying to avoid. And I don't think its my place to insist any trans person has to be out. I want to respect what s/he wanted for his/her legacy. I don't want him/her to be a trans hero if that results in detracting from his/her goals.

I think this is part of larger moral issue trans activists have to deal with when it comes to trans history: when is it okay for us to correct the language someone used for themselves? When is it illuminating and respectful, and when is it whitewashing someone's own self-perspective to fit our goals? Bushnell was extremely purposeful in everything s/he did as a part of his/her suicide, and that includes how s/he presented his/her gender. I don't want to disrespect those decisions.

[baby-girl-aaron-dessner]

Hi, I’m glad you’re bringing this topic up without it feeling like you’re going to be rude—in fact you’re being kind about it.

I do wish she’d speak up on a lot of topics. I live in the south, but am not a “typical southerner”. I’m a queer liberal. I would’ve loved for her to say something about the reproductive rights that were taken away from my state the very week she played multiple shows here, but she didn’t. Or to have voter registration available at the venue.

But back to Palestine, which is an absolute genocide. I’ve been torn wondering if I’m simply wanting her to speak up on it because it’s what I believe is right—or do I think it would effect change? I don’t know the answer to that, but you seem better versed than I am, and I guess I’m hoping this is a safe space to ask that. What would we hope comes from Taylor speaking out about this? I am trying to think critically about this, so I hope you won’t see this as me disagreeing. I really do wish she would. I just don’t if what we’re asking of her would end up being performative for the public, or would it effect real change to save lives in Palestine?

Hi anon, firstly, I’m so sorry to hear that your reproductive rights were stripped from you and your fellow citizens. If there’s anything I can do to help – whether that be signing a petition or donating to women in need – please let me know.

Secondly, I do want to make sure this is a safe space for swifties (especially those of us who are minorities and often feel overlooked in the fandom) to express their thoughts because its important that we use our critical thinking skills as opposed to following someone blindly and without question (we’re not sheep, after all).  

To answer your questions, “What would we hope comes from Taylor speaking out about this?” and “would it effect real change to save lives in Palestine?” there are 2 main points worth discussing.

Firstly, the most obvious point is that Taylor herself believes in activism and has stated that "I need to be on the right side of history". For reference, please see her Miss Americana documentary, her Rolling Stone interview on discussing white privilege as well as a bunch of other times she has made her stance clear (Tweets about Trump, interviews in her Lover era, her speech during Pride Month etc.).

Unfortunately, because she no longer participates in activism and hasn’t for a long time now during the peak of her career, it’s fair to criticise her previous activism during her Lover era as performative or selective.

It begs the question, “Does she no longer care about standing up for what is right?”

Secondly, to answer your question: yes, speaking out and doing the right thing matters and makes a difference. And there are three reasons for this:

The principle: to be on the right side of history

Safety of the oppressed (recently, Swifties have been caught committing hate crimes against minorities and doxing Palestinians)

It makes a difference (e.g. donations feed the hungry and poor, awareness leads to better voting outcomes which in turn leads to better policy decisions).

I’ve already spoken about the first point.

The second point is especially relevant following recent events where Swifties have harmed minorities (see below). In this case, it’s important for an influential leader of a powerful fandom to make their stance clear on a genocide so that innocent people don’t get harmed.

And the third point is that activism matters because it creates a real impact. For example, The Weeknd recently donated millions of dollars to families in Gaza which means people who are starving and are victims of genocide can at least be fed. Because Taylor is a billionaire, she has the capacity to spare a few dollars to feed those who are starving like her celebrity peers – Gigi Hadid, The Weeknd, Dua Lipa etc.

This is especially important for Taylor because the IDF and the State of Israel use her and her music in their PR strategies (see their post about her bodyguard on the social media account of Israel). This is similar to when Trump and the Republicans actively used her in their PR strategies and spoke about how much they liked her and so she became a darling of the extreme Right. That was until she came out and said she was against white supremacy and showed public support for the Dems.

Finally, as @placeinthisworld so eloquently put it, “friendly reminder you can love taylor swift but still be critical about her silence about politics and current events because tbh it’s pretty obvious where her values lie now”.  Here are other Swiftie’s who are more articulate than me:

Anyway, I hope this answers the question of why her fans (including me) are disappointed in her decision to remain deathly silent on genocide.

[jewishconvertthings]

This isn’t a conversion question but I hope it’s okay to ask here. Is there anything I can do to support people living in Israel during this terrifying time?

Hi anon,

I wrestled with how/if to respond to this, because I try very hard to keep I/P politics off of this blog and have since I started this blog in 2017 or so. It is not relevant to this blog what my opinions are on this, and it's hard to talk about the topic at all (even in a neutral way) without people accusing you of being Zionist or Anti-Zionist if what you say does not perfectly line up with their viewpoint.

But in the end, I think that this transcends politics. It has to. Condemning the slaughter, torture, and sexual abuse of human beings, whoever they are, is the correct opinion. I don't care who is doing it, and I don't care why. This isn't a political debate; this is basic human decency.

As for what you can do right now? If you have Israeli or Palestinian friends (whether they are in your community or in Israel/Palestine, reach out to them. They may b'ezrat Hashem be safe, but they are not ok, so instead of asking, just let them know you are thinking of them, that you are praying for their continued safety and for peace to come swiftly and justly. They may not feel like talking, but if they do, hold space for them.

There are a lot of excellent organizations collecting funds to help with the great need that has been created by these atrocities. Find ones whose mission and goals align with your own, double check their validity, and then donate what you can.

Many Jewish communities (most, I assume) are currently organizing or have already set up community events to address the issues and to pray as a community. Look at your email - my inbox had no less than twelve different events (online and in person) within the next few days - and check the websites for Jewish organizations that you affiliate with for opportunities to gather and debrief.

And, perhaps, the most important thing from a social media standpoint: make sure that you vet *all* information before deciding to accept it as true and cross-check it with other sources, especially if you plan on sharing that information. Both Hamas and the Israeli government are masters of propaganda, and the Western media really likes to lean into this for a better story. Since Western media thrives on conflict and hyped up emotions to keep people interested and scrolling, there is a strong incentive to publish as much as quickly as possible, the more sensational the better. Use reputable sources, but don't rely on them to get it right 100% of the time. I would suggest looking at reputable sources that have a clear, known bias in each direction and comparing them both to media that at least attempts to be neutral. So far, it doesn't seem like too too many facts have been in dispute (most of the information about the atrocities committed by Hamas has been posted by Hamas as propaganda) but it's early. If you have the emotional bandwidth and have done the research, please correct the misinformation you see from friends, family, and followers. Do **not** jump in with assumptions or non-researched opinions, because that will only fuel the chaos and not help anyone.

Above all, be smart, be wary of disinformation, be compassionate, and (to the extent you are able) be generous. Remember that civilians are civilians, that neither group of civilians chose this, that plenty of them dream of a peaceful and just coexistence, and that intentionally hurting non-combatants is always wrong no matter the justification.

As for me, I will turn to Tehillim and to the words of the Prayer for Peace:

May we see the day when war and bloodshed cease, When a great peace will embrace the whole world. Then nation will not threaten nation, and the human family will not again know war. For all who live on earth shall realize we have not come into being to hate or to destroy. We have come into being to praise, to labor, and to love. Compassionate God, bless the leaders of all nations with the power of compassion. Fulfill the promise conveyed in Scripture: I will bring peace to the land and you shall lie down and no one shall terrify you. I will rid the land of vicious beasts and it shall not be ravaged by war. Let justice and righteousness flow like a mighty stream. Let God’s peace fill the earth as the waters fill the sea. And let us say: Amen

[scarlet--wiccan]

Hello! I wanted to ask a potentially hardish question. How do you feel about non-Romani engaging with Tarot, doing paid reads, and such? Do you think it's okay for everyone to partake in it? Would you at least want people to be more informed of its origins?

My general attitude, when it comes to anything related to magic, fortunetelling, etc, is that we should be focusing more on cultural restitution and historical authenticity than trying to make a list of who can do what. When it comes to tarot, there's a lot to learn, and a lot to unpack in both of those areas. The short answer is that I don't believe that tarot is, or should be, a closed practice. There is, however, is a deep legacy of racism in the evolution of tarot as a fixture of mainstream culture, and the fortunetelling industry is rife with Romani exploitation. I believe that understanding this, and integrating it into your actions and conduct, is key to developing an ethically and spiritually holistic practice. And I think that applies to all forms of magic and spirituality-- racism and colonialism are very common in magical spaces where historical understanding is not encouraged.

If this is something you'd like to learn more about, I would highly encourage you to pre-order Secrets of Romani Fortuntelling, which is an upcoming book written by my friend Jezmina von Thiele and their Romanistan cohost, Paulina Stevens. Preorders make a huge difference for small publishers and new authors.This book is an authentic new look at fortunetelling practices in Romani culture and I, personally, think everybody who reads tarot needs to buy a copy.

If you'd like to receive a reading from a Romani practictioner, I am running a donation drive for Palestinian families and offering online tarot readings with personalized writeups and graphics as rewards.

My understanding is that tarot, and cartomancy in general, are closely tied to Romani culture and history because they were trades that Romani families developed and practiced as a form of survival work*. The same is true for several other types of fortunetelling and folk magic practices. There is an element of cultural preservation and ancestral custom in a lot of these skills, but ultimately, this is something that was meant to be shared with non-Roma, so it's not a closed practice, in that regard. And it's worth mentioning, of course, that many of these skills and devices were adapted from existing aspects of Western culture. The original tarot deck was, after all, just a set of European playing cards.

Over the centuries, tarot has really taken on a life of its own outside of Romani society, as both a popular practice and object of cultural fascination. There are other cultures who practice divination and fortunetelling for very similar reasons, and because tarot is so universally known, it's become a tool that is shared by many, and I think it informs the way folks approach cartomancy even when they're using other devices. And I think that's really beautiful! Unfortunately, there is also a more painful part of this history that also needs to be acknowledged.

Most modern tarot decks, and much of the basis for how we read them, are the products of 19th & 20th century occult and esoteric movements in the West, which often held an Orientalist fixation on Romani, Jewish, Middle Eastern and East Asian cultures. When you look at the works of Levi, Crowley, Waite, and so forth, you'll find a lot of fabricated histories and colonial fantasies about these cultures, and that informed the symbology with which they designed the formative modern decks we know today as the Thoth and Waite-Smith tarot. In my opinion, Jewish and Romani peoples were the most heavily exploited by this movement. It just goes to show how deeply our histories a diasporic people are connected.

Here in America, many states have legislation intended to police or even outlaw the fortunetelling trade, and you will often find that these laws are based in anti-Romani racism. Furthermore police are known to profile Romani citizens and families as scammers, and a lot of the language used to describe these "scams" in both police documents and the media employs racist language and stereotypes. Despite this, non-Roma, particularly white people, are often able to turn fortunetelling into a lucrative business by using their privilege to safely navigate the legal system's impositions-- and many of these white people love nothing more than to dress up in an approximation of Romani costume in order to give themselves an exotic, mystical air-- just like Levi and Crowley before them.

So, it's my opinion that the modern fortunetelling industry and the last several generations of tarot knowledge were built, both directly and indirectly on Romani oppression. People need to understand this history, and their place in it, in order to understand how they, personally, have arrived at their own relationship with tarot. Once you do understand that, you can begin to incorporate anti-racist intention and action into your practice. If you want suggestions, providing historical acknowledgement and Romani resources to your clients is a great place to start. Being an ally and being in community with us in our fight for human rights is even better. If you own a business or a shop, you can divest yourself from problematic suppliers, or learn how to identify racist books and decks, and stop selling them. Make sure you're not exploiting or perpetuating Romani stereotypes and call other people out on it, too. And if it's possible, really reevaluate the way you have arrived at your understanding of the cards, and how you communicate with them. Look past information that has been sold to you and seek personal authenticity. You'll be a better reader for it.

*What I am describing here is not a universal experience. Some people and some families practice these trades, not all. Romani people are not a monolith, and this is not a defining aspect or Romani culture.

[drdemonprince]

Many times at this protest, I notice Arab men filming or livestreaming the proceedings, or Facetiming relatives so they can watch the action too, a stunned look of gratitude on their face. I’m not normally good at interpreting facial expressions, but even this registers to me: they’ve never had so many people caring about them before. 

Two generations ago they were driven off their lands, robbed of their homes, had their legal citizenship revoked, watched their olive trees burn. For decades they have been battered, bombed, and demonized, and now suddenly a great number of people care, and they never expected to live to see it. I see multiple grown men cry just taking it in. This is a sight that I will soon get used to.   Hundreds of us gather in the freezing cold at the Buckingham Fountain, just a few yards from the highway and the lake. We are wearing layers, leggings under pants, long sleeves tucked into sweaters buried under coats, the rows of our bodies blocking the worst of the wind but also making the speakers leading the chants impossible to see. It does not matter, we are hear for one another. Together we are the event. 

For a long time we are there, repeating and repeating the phrases we’ve all come to know so well. End the Siege on Gaza Now. There is Only One Solution, Intifada Revolution. Long Live the Intifada. Israel Bombs, the USA Pays. Palestine is Our Demand, No Peace on Stolen Land. 

In the past, at protests, I used to be highly neurotic, too aware of the unique nasality of my voice, afraid of being the last voice to call out or the one that kept a statement repeating for too long, wondering needlessly whether I should be repeating phrases like “I can’t breathe” when people like me obviously can, or “Whose Streets? Our Streets!” when perhaps the streets should not be mine. 

These actions have freed me of my navel gazing, which was always purposeless and entirely too self-involved. I am one body among hundreds that helps make the crowd, I am to be a megaphone. I am echoing the collective will of the people, my own mewlings of support subsumed within the growing wave of everyone else’s. I don’t need to think about everything, I can just be a part of the great resistance all around me. 

I’m a solitary white person and a writer, and it took me far too long to welcome the modesty of my place. Suddenly though, I’m incredibly moved by the chanting, and feel a shared power in our all getting to amplify it together. This must be what people feel at church, I think, or at synagogue or the mosque. This must be how people who haven’t been poisoned with individualism feel. This is how it is to really be a part of something, not for how it looks or because you think you should, but because you have no choice, it is simply what you do. 

We are asked to lay down for a twelve-minute “die in,” representing the (at least) twelve thousand people whom Israel has killed. But there are so many of us, pushed togethering in spaces so cramped, so we have to collaborate to arrange this arm and that leg so we don’t get in one another’s way. I am filled with peace as we all lay there, staring into a pristinely clear sky. I think of the silence between the dropping of bombs, how the Palestinians never know rest and how we cannot either. 

Then, perhaps only four minutes in, the organizer takes to the megaphone and lets us all in on the secret: Get up now, get up now, we are taking Lakeshore Drive! This was never meant to be a die-in, that was all a ruse, but it only worked as one because so many of us were able to be pawns and had no inside knowledge for the police to steal from our private messages. 

We dash down the plaza and into the street, a few of us sitting down in the road with banners while the cops try to block the rest of us off with their barricades and bikes. What ensues is terribly exciting, the organizers leading us by the dozens over the fences and into the barricades, elderly people and children pushing up against the cops just as doggedly as teens and twenty-somethings. Cups fly, bodies launch themselves over barriers, and we scream and scream LET US IN. 

The cops’ large metal barricades rise up in the air, and some police press them outward into us, trying to knock us back, but then one man hurls himself between the joints, injuring himself as he hits the pavement but creating a gap, and then we all rush in like a flood, taking the highway, yelling and gesturing backward to welcome more down the hill and into the road with us. 

We hold the highway for hours, much of the traffic through the city’s main artery having to be redirected to avoid us. I watch young people scale traffic light poles to hang Palestinian flags and keffiyehs from the lights. I see Muslim men lined up on the sidelines, buffeted by us, kneeling to pray facing Mecca. I march with my comrades down the length of the street, tiny toddlers just as precious as the ones whose lives as been stolen, young adults with futures as promising as Moaz and Bisan, and elderly folk like those who still remember the united and free Palestine. 

Plastic buckets clap out a rhythm while street performers join us too, singing Free Free Palestine in a honeyed harmony. We are proving to be quite the hassle for the city to deal with, together, but they’re having to get used to it. 

The full essay is free to read or to have narrated to you at drdevonprice.substack.com.

[whentherewerebicycles]

ugh I am really struggling with a thing with a former student/mentee of mine. in the week or two of the post-hamas attack aftermath I posted something on instagram that was basically like, i feel an obligation to be an informed global citizen and believe me I read/think about/despair over the news every day but I also think it’s ok to really viscerally hate “doing politics” on social media, where complex, centuries-old geopolitical and cultural conflicts get reduced to a sensationalized infographic some teenager designed on canva last night. at the time I was watching people spread rampant misinformation about the hospital explosion when we had zero conclusive information, and had also just heard jon favreau talking about research indicating that something like 80% of the images and videos people were sharing on social media weren’t actually FROM the current conflict or couldn’t be verified as real. and idk I also have some private thoughts about how american leftists in particular really glom onto this issue because we perceive israelis as ‘white people’ and palestinians as people of color and we get to feel like we are exorcising our own country’s racial demons by advocating for the expulsion of the israeli people from land that many of them actually have deep historical ties to and at least a semi-legitimate cultural and religious claim to inhabiting.

to be clear I think the current israeli government is pretty much your trump-inspired shitty/evil right-wing militaristic populist movement and I feel like their response has squandered every single ounce of empathy garnered by the hamas attacks!! but idk I guess what I want to carve out space for is like, the right to say I AM NOT AN EXPERT HERE. I DO NOT HAVE DEEP ENOUGH KNOWLEDGE TO FULLY UNDERSTAND THE ROOTS OF THIS CONFLICT. I WORRY ABOUT SPREADING DANGEROUS MISINFORMATION IN BOTH DIRECTIONS IF I SHARE UNVERIFIED SOURCES OR REDUCTIVE TAKES. ALSO I AM A PRIVATE CITIZEN AND I DO NOT HAVE A “PLATFORM” JUST BECAUSE I HAVE A SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT. I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO BE CONFUSED, TO NOT PASS SNAP JUDGMENTS ON RAPIDLY EVOLVING INTERNATIONAL INCIDENTS, AND TO ENGAGE IN POLITICS BY MEANS OTHER THAN SOCIAL MEDIA POSTING. but idk this former student, who I had a really good relationship with for many years, has just come after me in my DMs and keeps sending me posts implying that anyone who is not furiously posting right now is pro-Palestinian genocide, etc etc, and meanwhile she is posting hundreds of unverified stories a day from Arabic-language sources that aren’t just like, anti-Zionist but are actively pro-Hamas, actively denying that the attacks on Israel happened, and actively calling for the immediate and violent expulsion of all Jews from the area. dude idk she’s not my student anymore so I think I’m just going to disengage/not respond and continue staying off insta because it sucks out there!! but it sucks!

I also just refuse to experience a war via unfiltered social media posts again. I did that for a month or two at the start of the ukraine invasion and I can’t unsee some of the stuff I saw on telegram. I don’t actually think any of us have a moral obligation to watch or share a 24/7 feed of graphic images of maimed corpses and crying children. I can’t make the violence STOP by watching that content and I also don’t believe that ravenously consuming the most terrible moments of people’s lives is a form of meaningful political solidarity. WHATEVER as you can see I still feel super conflicted about how to feel about all of this but I also have to remind myself that IT’S NOT NORMAL to click through my stories or scroll down my feed alternating between liking people’s cat photos and watching people dying half a world away. we were NOT BUILT to process world-historical events this way and it is OKAY to opt out of watching a livestream of human suffering you are personally powerless to do anything about.

[colored-tr-panels]

I have always considered Tumblr to be a space separate from my personal opinions, beliefs and values - cultural, social or political. But the fact is that I feel most free while expressing myself here, rather than on Twitter or Instagram or other social media platforms, so I’d like to use this space to urge everyone to learn about what’s happening in Palestine right now.

Words do not suffice to cover the expanse of suffering, injustice and cruelty that Palestinians are facing at the hands of the Israeli government right now. The horrifying truth about seeing a genocide unfold before our eyes is blanketed through social media posts - we could not even fathom the reality of what is happening right now.

Except, that it is happening.

I have questioned myself many times these past few weeks about my own contribution in this situation - what can I do that’ll actually make a difference, or help someone? How much should I donate? Who should I speak to? What should I post?

But the fact is, that donating anything, speaking the truth, and posting facts about what is currently unfolding is the bare minimum of what we can do from the comfort of our houses, and so, this we must do, regardless of how much it contributes in reality - this is not something we can measure right now.

Friends, please play your part in raising awareness for Palestinians. I have never seen a people so strong, so resilient, so brave, and so kind. They deserve justice, they deserve safety, they deserve to live in peace and comfort. This is the least we can do for them, and for the sake of humanity.

[blazehedgehog]

Thoughts on the Mike Pollocks Pro Israeli stance?

I have mostly kept my nose out of the Palestine struggles. Now, to be clear, I am against the obvious lies and attempts to cover up the real, actual, awful things going on over there. Like, for example, the sentiment over the recent threat to ban Tiktok, where people suggest it's because it is making it too easy for people to learn about what's going on over there? I agree with the theory that's probably just a suppression tactic.

I have also made a couple small contributions to Palestine relief charities, but I'm obviously not in a great place financially to do much more than very small amounts (but I did, for example, buy the Itch.io bundle a few weeks ago).

I do not want innocent Palestinians to suffer. I do not want war and death and what is almost certainly attempted genocide.

But, in general, I do not and have not dove head first into this topic. A lot of things in this world are very bad right now, including things local to me in my own life. For my own mental health I have limited the amount of bummers that I allow myself to ingest right now. I feel like it's important to set that up. I am not speaking authoritatively or with a complete picture of every little nuance.

It is a bummer about Mike Pollock. But, from the little bits I did see, it did not look like he was calling for bloodshed. I don't think he's in favor of genocide. He is, however, jewish, so you can maybe see why he'd align with Israel on a basic level. I think he specifically said in the Twitter Spaces, before he got frustrated and logged off, that he wishes for peace.

It's easy to get up in arms about pro-Israel people because of all of the awful, horrendous stuff happening over there. But just like how the actions of the American Military do not necessarily represent the thoughts and feelings of you or me, I imagine there are pro-Israel people that do not necessarily endorse Israel's methods of handling this issue. People who do it for heritage reasons rather than political ones.

It is very easy to turn this whole thing into a campaign against jewish people, which is definitely something a certain sect of people on the internet (if you know what I mean) would absolutely love to capitalize on. So I think it's important to keep a level head, or at least as much as is possible in a situation like this.

So while it sucks, I also think to some degree there are cases like this that must be considered.

I would also like to say that I've kept my distance from Mike Pollock. I've never entirely known what to make of that guy, because while I can respect his desire to not be pestered with fans with memes and whatever else, he also seems like he gets right up to the edge of being kind of rude about it. He gets a very specific kind of "condescending-lite" tone when it comes to pushing back on fans who act a little too friendly with him. It's always felt kind of weird, but I figured if he didn't want to be bothered, then don't bother him.

So that means I'm not going to bat for him, I'm not trying to make excuses for what he's doing, or anything like that. I'm just saying he probably doesn't deserve a lynch mob. I'd like to believe in the goodness of a person than just assume the worst case scenario.

[readingsquotes]

"All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present – not to say, ‘Look what they did then’; rather, ‘Look what we do now,’” Glazer said, quickly dispatching with the notion that comparing present-day horrors to Nazi crimes is inherently minimizing or relativizing, and leaving no doubt that his explicit intention was to draw out continuities between the monstrous past and our monstrous present.

And he went further: “We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of 7 October in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza.” For Glazer, Israel does not get a pass, nor is it ethical to use intergenerational Jewish trauma from the Holocaust as justification or cover for atrocities committed by the Israeli state today.

....

“Genocide becomes ambient to their lives”: that is how Glazer has described the atmosphere he attempted to capture in his film, in which his characters attend to their daily dramas – sleepless kids, a hard-to-please mother, casual infidelities – in the shadow of smokestacks belching out human remains. It’s not that these people don’t know that an industrial-scale killing machine whirs just beyond their garden wall. They have simply learned to lead contented lives with ambient genocide.

It is this that feels most contemporary, most of this terrible moment, about Glazer’s staggering film. More than five months into the daily slaughter in Gaza, and with Israel brazenly ignoring the orders of the international court of justice, and western governments gently scolding Israel while shipping it more arms, genocide is becoming ambient once more – at least for those of us fortunate enough to live on the safe sides of the many walls that carve up our world. We face the risk of it grinding on, becoming the soundtrack of modern life. Not even the main event.

Glazer has repeatedly stressed that his film’s subject is not the Holocaust, with its well-known horrors and historical particularities, but something more enduring and pervasive: the human capacity to live with holocausts and other atrocities, to make peace with them, draw benefit from them.

....

One of the film’s most memorable scenes comes when a package filled with clothing and lingerie stolen from the camp’s prisoners arrives at the Höss home. The commandant’s wife, Hedwig (played almost too convincingly by Sandra Hüller), decrees that everyone, including the servants, can choose one item. She keeps a fur coat for herself, even trying on the lipstick she finds in a pocket.

It is the intimacy of the entanglements with the dead that are so chilling. And I have no idea how anyone can watch that scene and not think of the Israeli soldiers who have filmed themselves rifling through the lingerie of Palestinians whose homes they are occupying in Gaza, or boasting of stealing shoes and jewelry for their fiances and girlfriends, or taking group selfies with Gaza’s rubble as the backdrop. (One such photo went viral after the writer Benjamin Kunkel added the caption “The Zone of Pinterest”.)

There are so many such echoes that, today, Glazer’s masterpiece feels more like a documentary than a metaphor.

...

Zone offers an extreme portrait of a family whose placid and pretty life flows directly from the machinery devouring human life next door. This is most emphatically not a portrait of people in denial: they know what is happening on the other side of the wall, and even the kids play with scavenged human teeth. The concentration camp and the family home are not separate entities; they are conjoined. The wall of the family’s garden – creating an enclosed space for the children to play, and shade for the pool – is the same wall that, on the other side, encloses the camp.

Everyone I know who has seen the film can think of little but Gaza.

[naranjapetrificada]

I'm also a queer black adult. There's a difference between spending money for sources of comfort vs needlessly spending stuff to flex status in very childish ways. We definitely see that as we boycott all these companies. Would the latest iPhone be nice? I guess, but it ain't that impressive to support Congo's genocide. Is that Stanley cup cool? Honestly not really, and it definitely ain't worth supporting another genocide for. Even ofmd, it really wasn't that important for queer media or even black queer media, which a lot of Black shows were also canceled at the same time. No one talks about how important black rep is here though. Despite this, however, you are not seeing black people gather funds for a billboard for a show unless we talking about blm. Because that's more important than getting a show back on the air as a flex. So we as adults can recognize the bizarre message we see when people are out here begging for help, and dismissed as scammers. But the moment a donation post for a billboard gets put up to get a show back to production, it meets its up almost instantaneously. As an adult I literally study these kinds of phenomenons in our capitalist society. I'm not sending this message to come at you because you are not the only one who does this, and I certainly am forced to partake in capitalism. But I do want to share that these are the "adult" conversations people are going to have and question. For as many "we can support both ofmd and Palenstine" I read here, I see the same bloggers attacking Palestinians and Black people for rightfully being upset that they certainly do not "do both" with the same amount of passion

Thing is? I don't disagree with almost anything you said, and the frustration is real. The disparities are real. I've been on the other side of that and needed support and seen whose fundraisers met their goals quicker than mine did. All of that is real and under ideal circumstances, yeah, the billboard people could have handled all this better.

I think the differences in where I come at all this from is that:

I watched the live feed of the billboard for a minute, and people put all kinds of less-than-important shit on it. So when I see people talking about how wrong the billboard is I just remember the like, graduation-announcement-level other stuff that was on it for the same price. I'm not saying the idea still didn't rub me wrong but I am saying that put it into perspective for me at least.

This show has changed lives, which may sound silly, but that's art sometimes. There are people whose lives are better and bigger and more authentic than ever before because of this weird mix of kindness and space to be queer that isn't like anything I've ever seen before. I understand that not everyone had such an impactful experience with it but I've found that incredibly moving and valuable and worth the fight for a 3rd season.

More than anything else, I value the efforts to get the show renewed because it feels like a watershed moment in the TV and streaming industries, and things will only get worse from here. I'm aware of all the Black shows that got canceled before OFMD did but a lot of the time people only care when something comes for their shows, and now we've got a a bunch of agitated white gays (who to be clear to everyone except the asker, are NOT the show's sole audience so please stop talking about it that way) who we can and should be pushing to include Rap Sh!t and Love Life etc. when talking about all this. Because it does represent a trend that's coming for everybody, it just started with going after POC and queers first. FWIW I actually did make a post the other day aimed at OFMD people to try to get them talking about the Black shows that were canceled first. (I deleted the original post because my notifications were killing me but reblogs of it should still be floating around out there)

I'm not out here trying to say that people's perfectly understandable frustrations are invalid, it just has felt inconsistent the way a lot of (almost entirely white) self-styled leftists have been coming after OFMD as if it's uniquely horrible.

When BIPOC object to the disparities Asker pointed out, I lift that up and value it. There are things I might say in other forms of this conversation that I would have with other BIPOC away from prying eyes that might surprise you. But right now there's too much noise in this conversation from people who don't actually give a fuck about any of their talking points, they just see an opportunity to dunk on a cringe fandom or they're operating with incomplete/incorrect information about things or in the least surprising/most transparent move of all, they're projecting a bunch of inaccurate shit onto Taika and using it to criticize him in as pattern that's familiar and obvious to every POC watching it happen. That's not what I think you're doing or anything Asker, but it's important context for the conversation we could/should be having and something that keeps getting left out of the conversation.

[andypantsx3]

Hi Andie, I've been reading your fics since your first one savvy 3 years ago. Your fics have been a great source of comfort for me and I'd like to thank you for that. I'm writing to you anonymously so I know you can't answer me privately, you don't need to answer or publish this ask at all as I don't wish to stir discourse on your blog or put you in an uncomfortable situation. I've really been debating on sending this to you because I don't want you to feel like I'm guilt tripping you or expecting something from you, because I'm really not.

A lot of people at this time are posting about the situation right now in Israel with Gaza. They are doing it out of empathy and I'm sure you are too. I live in Israel and in the past 2 weeks I've been in and out of our bomb shelter with rockets falling in our area every day. 4 people I know have been murdered by Hamas, I went to their funerals. 2 of them were my classmates - one was at the music festival, she was hiding in a bomb shelter that the murderers threw a grenade into. She was supposed to get married this week. One was guarding one of the towns that were infiltrated. One was my schoolmate's father who was biking in the area. And one was my neighbor's 19 year old cousin. I just want you to know that we've been hurt too. 1300 people have died and 200 are still kidnapped within Gaza. Women were raped and children were killed. This is not propaganda, I know those people. It IS a war, and I really wish it was over. I wish none of it ever happened. I've been reading your fics and following your blog in this nightmare situation, just trying to distract myself. Israeli people are not cartoon villains, not even the ones who are 'zionists'. We're all just afraid of being hurt. I'm just a normal woman, around your age... I guess it just made my heart sink to think that if you knew I was reading your fics you would think of me, my friends and my family as murderers or something. Everyone I know is scared out of their minds. Almost all reservists were conscripted and nobody wants them to go because we know some of them won't come back. Everyone just wants their loved ones to be safe and healthy. I just wish people saw us too. I've been on the left leaning side of the political map my whole life and I still am, the entire country is so livid with our government because we know this is their fault. But I just feel so torn between what I see online and my lived experience in this moment. I don't want anymore people to be hurt anymore anywhere.

I will continue to silently follow your wonderful writing and blog, and I wish you well.

Hey! I appreciate you looking out for me and saying I don't need to publish this but after reading, I wanted to make sure there was space for your voice on my blog too.

I think at least I personally am appalled at the generational, systematic genocide of the Palestinian people and I become more livid the more I learn about it. But at the same time, I have a fair few Israeli friends and know that the hard right Israeli government does not represent all, or even most, of Israeli citizens, and that you guys are hurting too, beyond imagination.

I am sorry if any of my posting has given that impression; I would absolutely never think that of Israelis on an individual level.

One thing I have not at all liked about the discourse I have seen in leftist spaces is the flattening of this war. You can hold two ideas in your head at the same time, the idea that Israel has oppressed Palestine for generations (with the full unwavering support and military funding of my American government, might I add) and the idea that the people who were hurt in the Hamas terrorist attacks, many of them children, deserved absolutely none of what happened to them. You are right to be shaken and hurt and terrified. I am so so sorry for your losses too.

I have been posting what I have because I am particularly terrified for Palestinian citizens, as I see how neatly Israel's response mirrors the US's outsized response after the 9/11 attacks. We were responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people who had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, just as Israel has been killing Palestinians who had nothing to do with Hamas. So as an American, this aspect has been particularly haunting for me.

But my thoughts are with you and your family and your friends too, and if you ever want to talk about anything with me you are absolutely welcome to do so. I want you and your loved ones safe and healthy as much as I want that for the people of Palestine. Please, please, please stay safe.

[givemearmstopraywith]

hey tthank you so much for being vocal about palestine! it's been so offputting seeing other theologians and the vague jesus side of tumblr be so quiet about this. i know Everyone should be talking about this but i feel it especially disappointing in their cases

hey!! this is really kind of you- i honestly feel like i haven't been saying enough (there isn't actually an "enough" as long as palestine is not free). i can't speak to the experiences and feelings of other bloggers in whatever jesus community we've created on this website but at least in my own experience up until i was in my late teens i had been in christian communities where you weren't given a choice on how to feel about palestine. i don't think there's an excuse for silence, or for passive compliance, but i do empathize with the difficulty of undoing your thinking on a topic that you've been essentially brainwashed into believing, especially when that is tied up with your religious beliefs and convictions (i have a very militantly zionist mother, unfortunately, so i think about this a lot). when i was growing up, and i'm sure it's worse now, it was just a given that as a christian, or someone in a christian space you would be pro-israel. this was the early to mid 2000s, so that came automatically with certain implications about islam, palestine, and the arab world in general that was anchored in fearmongering and very islamophobic. it's basically brainwashing. western christianity and zionism are deeply and inherently bound up- they historically always have been, with christian zionism directly precluding the emergence of fundamentalist evangelical movements in the 19th century. it's as equally bound up in antisemitism, and now with islamophobia, because christianity lends itself to the propagation of political goals and therefore with genocide (there's a reason why part of nazism's platform was the concept that hitler was "finishing" martin luther's reformation). erich fromm writes about this in his paper "the dogma of christ" which i highly recommend- how the messianic movement of jesus became warped by hellenistic greeks and romans so that rather than empowering the working class, it disempowered them to become compliant in their own domination by bonding earthly and heavenly authorities as singular. christianity as a religious ideology could never be used to justify being pro-israel or being quiet about genocide, but as a political ideology it's actually really malleable to support both of those things, and to staying quiet about them.

i think people have a hard time a) wrapping their minds around the idea that christianity is compliant in something that in theory it should be against, like genocide, and b) that a genocide is happening at all. but ultimately, having a hard time with intellectualizing something is a privilege that only the privileged can have: intellectualizing is a privilege. but ultimately this isn't a commentary on the community on tumblr so much as it is on conversations i've had with christians over the last few months, and the point is that none of this matters, because the experience of westerners doesn't matter in the scheme of palestinian genocide, or any genocide. we love to make conversations about ourselves and how hard it is for us to watch, and it does not fucking matter. being vocal is not even the bare minimum, it's just being a decent person. the bar is on the floor and every time i see footage of parents mourning their children i think about my own family who lost children during the holocaust and i feel so enraged because we already went through this once, in living memory, and people were incredibly passive then too, and it frustrates me because over and over agendas and politics and personal feelings wind up mattering more than the most vulnerable people, the people who are actively suffering. the fact that there are sides to take is baffling to me. anyway thank you for this skdfhgdfg

[onetimetwotimesthreetimess]

The post you reblog has so much misinformation in it, Israel is not an apartheid state, check it!!

And yes you should free Palestine from Hamas! They are to blame for what happening in Gaza right now, don't take my word for it listen to the brave people in Gaza that dare to speak:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0jfi3GIuQD/?igshid=NzBmMjdhZWRiYQ==

Oh and pls check Yoseph Haddad an Israeli arab who explained the complicit amazingly! (and proved you wrong about all the apartheid nonsense)

Pls don't spread misinformation, I know you won't apologize or anything, and many have already seen it, but at least take it down because it's really irresponsible, it spreads hatred towards Jews in the world, and in the end they can't go to their university because they're threatened and yes this is the reality of jew right now.

And if you can admitted the yes Israel was a victim to Hamas terrorism on October 7, that hundreds of Innocent civilians were murdered with inhuman cruelty, that entire families were burned in their homes, that women and young girls were raped and murdered, that the atrocities in Israel on October 7th were too horrible to describe you are simply anti-Semitic (I really hope you are not because I do love you writing but I am not sure I can enjoy it anymore…)

Btw It's really cynical to compare Israel to the Nazis, so if you're already at it, please also read about the Holocaust

I do not get on discourses on tumblr because my real life involves a lot of activism so I avoid that in online spaces. But the cause of Palestine is too important for me to not reply to this. But like I said yesterday, this is the final time I would be commenting on this, here on tumblr.

1. Israel is an apartheid state. It always have been. Apartheid stands for racial, cultural or gender segregation leading to political, economic org social discrimination of a specific community. Israel has been segregating the entirety of Palestine since the Nabka in 1948.

Source: Amnesty International’s 212 page report.

2. Hamas is not a terrorist organisation. Hamas is a militant resistance group. Every country/group that has been oppressed, has the right to self defence under the International Human Rights Law. Israel has absolutely no right to self defence as it is the settler colony not the other way around.

2.1: there is no actual proof of any babies being beheaded. None whatsoever. When someone uses the word ‘decapicated’ it plants a very specific picture in one’s mind, and this picture is what Israel government is using to fuel fire to something that’s not true. That’s propaganda. But there are hundreds and hundreds of proof of bombing of hospitals, children being killed, others being stripped, tortured, etc.

3. USA vetoed for a second time against the call for a ceasefire. And Israel thanked them for that. If you think that is them trying to protect the world, then I hope against hope that I never have to be a part of the world that you want to create.

4. I feel absolutely no shame in comparing Israel to Nazi Germany because a genocide is a genocide be it against Jews or the Palestinians. A genocide is a genocide.

5. I will not stop talking about the Israeli apartheid but if you believe it to be an attack against the Jews, that is your issue. Anti-Zionism is not and never will be Anti-Semitism.

6. The oppressed have the right to mobilise, to self-defence, to resistance. The settler colony does not.

7. I am quite okay with losing a few readers if it means I stand up to what is right. It is not a loss.

Here is a list of all the human rights violations Israel’s committed against the Palestinians.

Please check this page, they have the resources for all the mentioned violations. Past and present.

I can understand that being born in Israel, being raised and indoctrinated can make it difficult for you. But you have access to all the resources, access to everything that can help you find out the truth. For you to question your government. Do that. It is difficult but not impossible. It is your duty and responsibility to do that.

Do not come into my inbox until you do that.

Thank you.

From The River To The Sea, Palestine Will Be Free