#leftist stuff

[sephirajo]

Gotta say as a leftist what is really interesting to me is watching people cover trashfires like the Resilient Jenkins family vlogging tiktok and seeing what they focus on. And god, the worst commentator on the list never fails to disappoint. From her framing to her rant about 4:26 in where she angrily lists a bunch of things the Jenkins want for free that ABSOLUTELY should be free! (Housing, Food, healthcare) and then just continues into classist bullshit instead of any of the things you can actually call this family out for doing. It's truly fascinating to me.

[omisspearl]

There's a few works from the progressive left that entered the lexicon in the last decade that I personally avoid, "privilege" and "problematic", both not because I think the underlying/original context for the terms were wrong but because the contexts they appear in now bring in awkward connotations or end up being more of a weapon or a place where ideas go to die.

Privilege is a useful idea to help you examine the human tendency to assume that everyone is starting from the same place and completely acting on their own initiative. Unfortunately it tends to be tied up in our moral suspicions of entitlement and good fortune. For example there's a current discourse about the privilege of reading. It's useful to acknowledge literacy takes more than just willpower and people who don't enjoy the same fluency with the written word are not unvirtuous. Inversely, an important part of broader literacy obtainment is built on allowing that reading for pleasure is an important part of building capacity. Privilege discourse is correct structural and medical things alike can make literacy more than just trying hard. This particular word, however, tends to contain a shamey implication of undeserved things you should not be attached to or work towards.

Problematic, on the other hand, is one of those concepts that is particularly weaponized. It is (ironically) problematic in itself. It goes from acknowledging a particular part of something being flawed and therefore engaging with it means acknowledging flaws and needing to think critically even as you choose to, to a euphemism for something off that allows one not to engage with the why. Other people have already pointed out it is too broad- that people and media alike both get labeled problematic when it can both soften the noxious (eg it's an understatement about something truly hazardous) or vague enough to exaggerate the harm in other things (letting you shame them while not overtly taking a hard stance anyone could argue with). I find in practice problematic is either used as an excuse or an ultimatum.

I suppose as some sort of conclusion, it's also worth noting that both privilege and problematic have the complexity that they can apply to literally anything. For example every single thing in my apartment and the apartment itself are both symptoms of my privilege and problematic in their origin. It's both useful to acknowledge that this is how the world works and also won't get me particularly far past that. But since both term have evolved past "okay, X, but now hear me out about this additional perspective and complexity" and to often meaning "here is some shorthand for why this is some bullshit", I now try to use other words.

At the very least, there are few people who will be able to process the role of their privilege without the whole safe space for learning that knapsack metaphor was incubated in. And very few people tossing the problematic lable around where I have seen it do anything like making space for the extra elements being more labour than they first appear or serving as a sort of wincing hand wave to avoid an unpacking that might deal with it.

[troythecatfish]

[fem-fatalist]

"It helps if enough people fail to turn up to the polls because then they'll reconsider their messaging. Trump getting elected last time was how we got Biden's platform being further left than Hillary."

NO. LMAO NO.

Biden's platform somehow being "more left" than Clinton's (lol how??) likely has much more to do with people organizing and working, of being galvanized and pissed the fuck off and maintaining a loud voice of dissent. Why give any credit to trump at all lmao. Like what a ridiculously dismissive take of the political work being done over the past few years.

I need people to understand that not voting isn't some grand meaningful gesture. It is not revolutionary. You are simply abdicating your vote.

You are slotting yourself in among a percentage of the electorate that is silent. That political parties won't spend time speaking to.

Campaigns for getting out the vote may speak to you, but the democratic party? Won't give a shit about your silence.

I'm not going to tell you how to vote. I understand people not voting on religious or philosophical grounds. I don't agree, but I get it.

However, this reasoning that it'll "send a message" or that it's somehow more ideologically pure is fucking ridiculous.

The US system is perma-fucked in so many ways because it's been coalescing into that for 250 years. It's not going to be magically undone or reshaped just because some folks abstained their vote in one election cycle. Or several cycles for that matter!

It's taken 250 years to become this shitshow, it's going to take some time to undo it.

[couldoneimagine]

this might be a bit of an unpopular opinion but. some leftists really need to go outside and stop being annoying.

telling people that things that make them feel sentimental or make them happy are all propaganda or problematic or too lib is fucking annoying. if you wanna have that conversation with them, approach it with kindness. acknowledge their feelings. denying them makes them feel nothing but like they're being antagonized for having interests. come on now bro. yes Marvel movies are propaganda, but it's not helping our cause to screech that at your well-meaning democrat cousin. it just kind of alienates you and makes YOU feel like an asshole. I don't think you want to have that feeling either

[kosher-toasty]

Honestly what pisses me off about the Wikipedia "can't say they're Jewish" thing is how insidiously one-sided it is.

Take, for example, these three famous Jews: Zsa Zsa Gabor, Kirk Douglas, and Danny Kaye. Excerpts from their Wikipedia pages are below.

Notice: "of Jewish ancestry," "embraced his Jewish heritage," "born... to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants." Jewish, but not directly Jewish.

Compare now to right wing bigots Ben Shapiro, Laura Loomer, and Jacob Wohl. See if you can spot it.

"Is Jewish." "Is Jewish." "Is Jewish."

Why are the worst of us proudly labeled as Jews but the best of us begrudgingly associated with Jews, Wikipedia? What agenda do you have?

[thesnadger]

You ever see a take so bad that years later you're still having arguments with yourself about it in the shower?

[dioptasesystem]

Among other things, obviously.

[xmimikyuusx]

"Transandrophobia isn't real because that implies trans women oppress trans men" it doesn't, but do you think this way because you think transmisogyny means trans men oppress trans women?

"Transandrophobia is reactionary to transmisogyny and is just a way to make trans men feel special and more important" it isn't, but do you think that way because you think Transmisogyny is more "special and important" than other forms of oppression?

"Androphobia and misandry aren't real, so transandrophobia can't be" because you're basing your viewpoint on transmisogyny, and misogyny is the ultimate victimhood for you, right? Because we can't have a conversation separate from transmisogyny, because transmisogyny is the worst form of victimization, and everything stems from misogyny, especially transmisogyny. If you're not talking about misogyny, you might as well shut up.

And we can't have issues that aren't shared with cis people, because otherwise we aren't "really" men and women. Because white cishet people are the ones we should be looking to when we "prove" our identity through our suffering, right?

To be a woman, you have to suffer. To be a man, you can never suffer. You can never just be. You have guilt and shame and violence and self sacrifice to be doing if you dare to transition into power.

Because if you, a trans man, don't have male privilege, that must mean that trans women do, because we all live in opposite to eachother, even though the framework of male privilege is something made by and for cis people. If trans women are suffering, that must mean that you aren't.

You can't talk about your own life or struggles or else you're indirectly talking about trans women, and cis men, and cis women, and everyone else except you.

(And fuck non-binary and intersex people and whatever they have going on with their identities that shits just not important to our oppositional viewpoint, right? We can make them fit in this box based off of their genitals, anyway. Dont bring racism into this either, you're just being misogynistic if you do.)

[troythecatfish]

A prime example of how the profit motive and innovation can be antithetical

[still-searching-for-something]

As we enter the holiday of Shavuot, a terrorist in Boulder, Colorado, firebombed a peaceful walk for the hostages in Gaza. Lobbing molotovs at people for walking on a goddamn street. Utterly insane.

Coming so soon after the brutal slaughter of a couple for being Jews in the vicinity of a Jewish museum in the nation's capital? Increasingly, the last week and a half is feeling like a turning point in the history of American Jewry, and our sense of belonging and safety in the United States.

Jews helped build this country from the ground up. George Washington himself gave us his express support to live freely as Jews in this land. I myself have ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War, one of whom was a Founding Father who signed the Declaration of Independence! We have as much right to live in this country as anyone else. All of the civil rights movements, the foundations of American liberalism and leftism, labor movements, law firms, academia, media—they would not exist as they do now were it not for the American Jewish giants of the 20th century who built them.

And now the left has the audacity to decry us as colonizers? To slander us in that media and to make us unwelcome in those academic spaces? To murder us outside museums and firebomb us on the street? To incite intifada against Jews in America?

People are being killed. People are being set on fucking fire! For—just to be clear—walking down a street.

Tell me again about how this is a movement for peace with no violent antisemitism?

[kosher-toasty]

I thought the general consensus of the left was "white savior narratives are inherently racist and infantilizing/demeaning of native experiences" but I guess that viewpoint got thrown out a window the moment a bunch of European names and less that 100kg of "aid" tried to take a yacht to Palestine

[generation-of-vipers]

the decline of human creativity in the form of the uprise in AI generated writing is baffling to me. In my opinion, writing is one of the easiest art forms. You just have to learn a couple of very basic things (that are mostly taught in school, i.e; sentence structure and grammar amongst other things like comprehension and reading) and then expand upon that already-foundational knowledge. You can look up words for free— there’s resources upon resources for those who may not be able to afford books, whether physical or non physical. AI has never made art more accessible, it has only ever made production of art (whether it be sonically, visual, written—) cheap and nasty, and it’s taken away the most important thing about art (arguably)— the self expression and the humanity of art. Ai will never replace real artists, musicians, writers because the main point of music and drawing and poetry is to evoke human emotion. How is a robot meant to simulate that? It can’t. Robots don’t experience human emotions. They experience nothing. They’re only destroying our planet— the average 100-word chat-gpt response consumes 519 millilitres of water— that’s 2.1625 United States customary cups. Which, no, on the scale of one person, doesn’t seem like a lot. But according to OpenAI's chief operating officer , chatgpt has 400 million weekly users and plans on hitting 1 billion users by the end of this year (2025). If everyone of those 400 million people received a 100 word response from chat gpt, that would mean 800 MILLION (if not more) cups of water have gone to waste to cool down the delicate circulatory system that powers these ai machines. With the current climate crisis? That’s only going to impact our already fragile and heating-up earth.

but no one wants to talk about those stats. But it is the reality of the situation— A 1 MW data centre can and most likely uses up to 25.5 MILLION litres of water for annual cooling maintenance. Google alone with its data centre used over 21 BILLION litres of fresh water in 2022. God only knows how that number has likely risen. There are projections of predictions saying that 6.6 BILLION cubic meters could be being used up by AI centres by 2027.

not only is AI making you stupid, but it’s killing you and your planet. Be AI conscious and avoid it as much as humanly possible.

[nonbinary-vents]

thinking about how recently I went to King’s Cross with my family, and saw graffiti of ‘viva Hamas’, and like whatever that’s really common, but I told my mum because it is still kind of freaky. And she didn’t have any other response except ‘ugh don’t pay attention to the idiots’ (Hebrew edition so a little ruder obviously lol). And in the moment I was just kind of mad at her for brushing it off so much, but now I’m just…

It’s so normal. It is so so normal to go outside and see stickers or graffiti or posters explicitly calling for me and people like me to be slaughtered. I see it all the time. And it’s become normal. It used to be scary, it used to be overwhelming and completely drowning me. But now it just feels like, idk— I guess just a part of daily life. It has the same effect of someone behind you brushing against your shoe or something. A little annoying in the moment, it might hurt for a split second, but you get over it as soon as you take another step.

this specific graffiti only really affected me as much as it did because we were supposed to be having a nice day, and it had been before that, and I had been nervous about King’s Cross beforehand but hadn’t seen anything weird. It hit me the way it did because before then there wasn’t anything and I was pleasantly surprised, so almost a new normal had been set for the day. Even in this post my first instinct after writing what I saw was to add on a ‘but it’s whatever lol’. Huh?????? Explicit celebration of Hamas is just ‘whatever’ to me at this point???? Seriously????

When I go outside I see that people want me dead. And it’s nothing more than a slight annoyance, ‘just don’t pay attention to them’. It really is such a mindfuck

[ch4liz4rd-jpeg]

my biggest gripe with the pro palestinian movement is the lying. you can have empathy and feel remorse for gazans without lying and peddling every antisemetic trope in the book

you can realise that palestinian arabs did not kindly welcome jews who made aliyah before and after the shoah, they are not indigenous or the canaanites, they have been violent against israelis and jews, a lot of them do support hamas, the nakba was a war started by palestinians that they lost to israel, the palestinian national identity is reactionary to the israeli national identity, palestinians are not genetically distinct grom other arabs in the middle east, palestine is literally a colonial name given to the land by the romans to mock the jews living there to sever our connection to the land and STILL have empathy for palestinians. you can realise that they arent a perfect innocent victim and still have empathy for them. the source of their suffering isnt israel or jews, its the antisemitic and imperialistic goals of islamist leaders AND STILL. FEEL. REMORSE

if you need to distort the history of this land and its people and use antisemitic tropes in order to support palestine, you are the fucking problem!!!!! arabs are to the middle east what white people are to the west, and they are not victims just be they face oppression if they live in the west. go speak to any person from the indigenous populations of the middle east and levant and they can tell u all abt what islamism and arabs have done to them snd their families if u refuse to believe us sneaky lying je- i mean zionists. oh wait, its gonna be so hard to do that bc the arab world is doing everything in its power to kill them all

tl dr, you dont need to lie to have empathy for palestinians. you can accept the dirty past of palestinians (just as many israelis still love this country despite it flaws, less then pretty history and incompetent, corrupt government) and still empathise and believe in their self determination alongside jewish and israeli self determination. the need to lie, distort and discredit the jewish and israeli story shows your true (antisemetic) colors

(this is a rant from feb that u put on my insta story, thought it should be seen here)

[edenfenixblogs]

I was having a rough night so I went to my favorite funny website IsMercuryInRetrograde.com

I’m not a huge believer in astrology, but the website only has two pages:

If it’s in retrograde it says yes, which feels weirdly validating.

If it’s not in retrograde it just says “No, something else must be bumming you out,” which always gives me a little chuckle.

Fun silly website. Yay.

Except this time

YES. SOMETHING ELSE IS BUMMING ME OUT.

The fact that unless I lock myself in a room with only pre-written or pre-recorded material that I’ve already read or watched and know is safe I CANNOT GO TWELVE FUCKING HOURS WITHOUT HEARING ABOUT THIS FUCKING WAR.

It’s killing me. There are no breaks. I open any website or social media app and it’s an immediate bombardment of info about the war. I go watch a YouTube video and then there’s a fundraiser at the end.

I flip through channels and see news about an antisemitic attack or a bombing in Gaza or Rafah.

I leave notifications on and get a text from a friend who sees a “rape is resistance” sticker on her walk home from school.

I go to look for pride merch and see watermelon merch mixed in as if war is some kind of gay accessory. I look through a fandom tag and see cartoon characters in a kids cartoon drawn with Palestinian flags.

It’s fucking endless. It’s insane. I just wanted a few days without having to think about all of it so I could recharge and I haven’t even been able to go a continuous 12 hour stretch without something or someone shoving the whole thing in my face.

It’s not healthy to live like this. I already have PTSD. And I’m trying with all my might not to retreat fully within myself but this is fucking killing me.

And I am someone who is pro peace and pro ceasefire and pro Palestinian welfare and anti-Likud but also anti-antisemitism. I do nothing but promote interfaith and intercultural organizations devoted to fostering peace. I want this war over.

And yet I’m fucking stuck in this perpetual hellhole of awful news and constant imagery about war and death and antisemitism and Palestinian suffering. And it’s too much. Why can’t I even go 12 hours. It’s killing me.

The fucking mercury in retrograde website‽ YES. SOMETHING ELSE IS BUMMING ME OUT AND ITS YOU.