The discourse about Sarah J Maas being called a Zionist is giving witch hunt vibes at this point. Nothing I've seen has been conclusive at all. Just because she's a Jewish woman who went on birthright doesn't mean you should loudly denounce her as supporting genocide.
I am a Jewish woman who is pro-Palestine — so, not a Zionist — but who loves her Jewish diaspora culture. I have anti-zionist and non-zionist Jewish friends who went on Birthright because it's a free trip abroad. I know Jewish people who are staunch Israel supporters and I have Jewish friends going to pro-Palestine protests. Jews are not all one thing, and in fact it's ingrained in our culture that we have NEVER been one thing. There are Jews of all races, of all levels of religious belief, across the political and socioeconomic spectrum, scattered across the world.
If I were a semi-public figure (I say semi because Sarah has been clear that she is not the one posting on her public accounts and she doesn't have much interaction with fans outside of tours) people would probably have loud assumptions about me being a Zionist because I am publicly Jewish, I was a Jewish Studies minor in college, and I used to work at a synagogue. Guess what? I'm not a Zionist. I donate to UNWRA monthly, I do my clicks for Palestine, and I do my best to support with what I have. As a multi-disabled person that's all I can handle right now. If I were a semi-public figure I don't know if I would feel comfortable posting anything publicly either, because people are vicious and terrifying creatures. Sarah has a husband and child. She had gotten threats about fucking ship wars. This is so much more intense than ship wars.
Making these loud assumptions and calling for boycotting SJM, commenting on her social posts even though she isn't the one reading those comments — this is what antisemitism looks like. I know those of you who are angry at Sarah won't want to hear that, or will say that 'everything is antisemitic now' — which is a refrain that should raise red flags since it's the same argument other people use about transphobia, homophobia, racism, etc. You're the good guys, you support Palestine and you're anti-genocide and so on. But using stereotypes about an ethnic group to make assumptions and harass an individual of that ethnic group is not a good look even if you're convinced you're doing it for a good reason. Take that energy and put it toward spreading awareness, contacting politicians, attending protests, maybe even sharing messages from public figures who have posted publicly.
I understand that a lot of non-Jews (and a small number of Jews) are saying that it "has nothing to do" with Sarah being Jewish, it's just that she hasn't "used her platform." I implore you to consider why you are seeing and sharing such anger toward this one (fairly private) Jewish woman and not toward other prominent authors, especially those who are more active online, who have also not spoken out. Do some soul-searching and many of you may find that because Sarah is Jewish, you feel that she owes you a public stance more than other people. Because she is Jewish you feel confident enough to make an assumption about her views and post publicly about these assumptions. That is antisemitism at work. That is why this feels like a witch hunt to me, and why it is upsetting to watch.
As a reminder, I am pro-Palestine. I am not posting this to defend anyone. I am posting this to remind everyone that Jews are not all Zionists. Jews are not all one thing, ever. And deciding you get to hand down judgement on a Jewish person who has not shared their views publicly is antisemitism. It is deciding that you can assume negative things about Jewish people from afar. It is deciding that some antisemitism is actually okay — good, even, if you think it's warranted. I understand that people have other qualms with her writing, but those are not tied to her Jewishness, they're tied to her doing things like using the name Illyria and Illyrians for her ACOTAR series, etc, which is the kind of thing other fantasy authors have done over the years. Doesn't make it good or right but it certainly doesn't have anything to do with Palestine or Zionism.
If you disagree with me, please do not send hatred into my inbox. I am asking you to interact with this post thoughtfully. If your disagreement is going to be an explanation of how Jewish people owe the world every ounce of our energy, health, safety and lives, please step away and take a breath. I do not share your opinion. I have great admiration for those risking life and limb, risking jobs, risking arrest, to support Palestine. However, not everyone should be *required* to do all of those things, especially if you're disproportionately expecting those larger actions from Jews, thinking we "owe" it to the world.
Also, I want to be clear: This is not really about whether Sarah is a Zionist. It's about the fact that we don't know, and you cannot pretend to know. Most of the arguments I'm seeing are making a lot of assumptions, and that is the part that makes me uncomfortable.
If Sarah ends up being a Zionist, I still stand by this post, because it isn't about defending Sarah, it's about my hurt and disappointment in seeing people make assumptions rooted in antisemitism, assuming someone's views based on Jewishness and little else.
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reminder: it actually does not matter if you have a friend whos a poc who tells you that "race transitioning" is fine. it doesnt matter if youre a poc yourself and you think its fine. guess what? people can be wrong!
even outside of this, people can be wrong.
if a scientist with a phd tells you the earth is flat, do you just immediately believe that with no question? you may think "someone with a phd would never believe that", but there are several scientists who do! there are modern scientists with phds and careers who believe in shit like phrenology or ancient astronaut theory or other bullshit like that.
there are poc who are nazis, who believe in white supremacy and believe that poc are inferior or subhuman. if a poc like myself tells you that all poc are inferior to white people, do you just automatically believe that? there are very famous poc who hold these ideals, such as kanye west.
you are seeking out specific people in your community who agree with all of your ideals. you are finding one or two or ten or however many people who agree with you and ignoring the tens of thousands of people who dont agree. you are doing exactly what conspiracy theorists and racists do: finding one professional or seemingly trustworthy source and basing your entire logic around that one source.
racists will find one scientist who believes in phrenology and use that one scientist to say "look! a real scientist with a phd agrees with me! you shouldnt listen to the wider scientific community, theyre all biased and wrong and this guy is the only one whos correct!"
radqueers will find one poc who supports "race transitioning" and use that one person to say "look! a real poc agrees with me! you shouldnt listen to the wider poc community, theyre all biased and wrong and this guy is the only one whos correct!"
do you understand what im saying here? you cant pick and choose who to believe based on whether or not you agree with them. listen to as many poc as you can, outside of radqueer communities. listen to ones who dont even know what radqueer means. the vast majority of poc say that "transitioning races" is inherently racist (and impossible, considering you cant just transition to have been born somewhere else or have different biological ancestors, which is what determines race because race and ethnicity are inherited unlike gender), dont just choose 20 poc who say its good and ignore the 20000 who say it isnt.
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i was rereading the story dialog for the sephirah while ago (upper layer so far considering i have a doc to contain all of my ramblings and thoughts once looking it over and getting actual lines to be able to know exactly what was said to base my feelings off of rather than the pure unfiltered pain or i suppose somewhat shock at first and those garbled memories of what happened) and after reading tiphereth's and then going to netzach's again it's just.
imagine you have to see what is deemed your other half, the person keeping you sane, your only companion you actually love and like, your literal ‘twin’ have to get crushed but some bum that never does his job and can easily be seen as 'not meeting standards' does get the same treatment at all when your own brother had been destroyed for less like spiraling into some dangerous stains of thoughts (thought be fair he did end up not as respondent and at that point already had what i'll inadequately describe as 'memory leakage' . But from the general idea of the side of tiphereth). he'll be more better than that drug addict ever will be in her eyes, someone who can't even do a report on time and even then is half assed to where at that point they'd just do it themself in the first place. he'll be way better, someone who is quite literally her family. yet why is her brother the only one that needs to suffer through that constant degradation of the soul? the constant wiping of the self? the memories made and lost? why the hell is someone that should deserve it in her eyes, someone so unmotivated and lazy, someone who she deems as a person not able to do a single thing right, not having that happen to them? why is it the person she loves so dearly, so close to her that she wishes would've stayed instead of some now hollow husk and imitation of imprinted memories when that hasn't happened to Any One Else? why does she have to go through all of that, having to see someone that she used to know and adore turn into a hollow husk and imitation of what once was - having to feel as if shes already looking at a walking corpse with memories shoved inside - just for someone like Netzach to not end up crushed to pieces.
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Am I the only one who doesn't really like the new Mother Mother song? Ever since Inside Deluxe version came out with Hayloft 2 (and even a bit before that) there's been a change to their music that I'm not a big fan of. I feel like they've gone the Weezer route, the lyrics themselves used to portray how quirky, charming, and different they were but in their current songs they just spell that sentiment out for you instead of letting you infer it from the lyrics. ESPECIALLY with a new song thats basically just "look at how abnormal and out of the box we are", what made O My Heart so great was the same sentiment but it wasn't spelled out explicitly, the entirety of Eureka does the same exact thing as Normalize but way more effectively.
This isn't to say that the song is bad! Musically it's great but the lyrics on their newer songs and albums leave something to be desired that their past songs accomplished. The bridge or hook or whatever you want to call it is so grating on me, a word shouldn't lose its meaning because it gets repeated so many times in one song. Musically the song is great but it's also overproduced, I can hardly hear what they're even singing in the verses because of the mixing of audio and all the effects put over their voices. The music is good as I keep saying but it also sounds like 3 different songs smashed together and sometimes it works but other times it's like "what are you guys even doing here?" It goes from alt pop rock to horror soundtrack, I like the horror soundtrack vibes, I wished they leaned into that more.
And the part at 2:28 when Jasmin screams "Die!" sounds so awkward, it picks up pace so suddenly like it's going from a 25 all the way up to 100. I wouldn't mind that if it wasn't such a sharp jump from one part of the song to the other, it just doesn't really work. (Don't even get me started on the fact that they used the word "unalive" in this song. Tell me you're writing for a tiktok audience without telling me you are) It just feels like they went from writing songs for themselves, or people their age, to writing songs for teenagers going through puberty. They used to sound so real and relatable but it doesn't feel natural anymore. It feels to me like they're trying to capture the resurgence of success O My Heart had in 2020 with their new albums. We will never have another OMH because it already exists and they made it! I really liked the use of violins and horns in OMH because you don't hear that in many rock songs, I just wish their use of it in this song didn't sound like they were trying to make OMH 2 (like they did with a certain song off of OMH.....)
It feels to me like MM is trying to capture the past and live it differently this time rather than moving on with the future. One of their older albums that reminds me of OMH a lot is The Sticks and that still sounds different! A lot darker and more mysterious, I wish they'd reinvent themselves rather than reinvent the past. I'm still a fan of them and I always will be but I'll be a fan of them the way Weezer fans still like Weezer: I'll listen to stuff past Pinkerton but the first two albums are the best. Which album of MM's is their Pinkerton? That's debatable but most tracks off Dance and Cry are still a hit for me, Inside and beyond has me cringing a bit
If you disagree then please feel free to have a convo with me about it! I'd love to talk about MM in depth with someone else! I don't mean to say these things in a needlessly pessimistic way, when MCR came back from their hiatus they managed to make a song that sounded like their old songs while feeling fresh, creative, and new. I know MM could do that too, I'm not opposed to bands changing up their sound from album to album either, The Sticks, Eureka, and Touch Up are some of my favorite albums by them and they all sound so different from each other, the newer songs and albums just sound like most of the alt pop stuff playing on the radio. I don't want them to make a radio hit, I just want them to make songs I like again
Who knows, maybe the new album will come out and I'll change my mind but I have a feeling this will be like the release of Inside for me: all the good songs will be put out as singles
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Hey a friendly reminder that I have this cool thing called a block button, if you don't like what I post the appropriate response isn't to complain in the tags or talk about me behind my back, just block me and move on, thanks!
Reblog to let people know about the Hellsite's block feature!
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