My opinion on the IDF
(Because, yes, despite me being Pro-Israel, I still have ✨thoughts✨)
People need to stop comparing the I/P conflict to the Holocaust. It is nothing like the Holocaust and Israel is nothing like Germany. And you making that comparison really shows how little you actually know about WW2. Read any history book. Read Anne Frank, or Night. In fact, the closest thing to the Holocaust that is happening in this war is what is happening to the Israeli hostages. They are under way more of those conditions.
No. If we are to ever compare this to any other war, it is more similar to the Vietnam War.
The IDF is very similar to US soldiers in Vietnam.
Look. We can all agree that US was on the right side of Vietnam. They were helping the Southern Vietnamese from the Northern Vietnamese. So when you hear “They were on the right side/good side” you automatically think they were the good guys. Wonderful heroes. And, yes, Vietnam veterans were heroes. But they did some fucked up shit.
For example, according to one veteran, one time when one of his friends had been murdered, out of anger, they all burned an entire town down. US soldiers took out a lot of their frustrations and anger onto the Vietnamese. So while we all agree that they are on the right side and are the good guys, they did some fucked up shit. Stuff that cannot be excused at all.
Another example is in WW2! We all think of the allies as the good guys! They fought against the terrible Nazis and yadada. America was on the good side, they were one of the main sides that took down Germany! So while we acknowledge that America was the right side the be on, we cannot forget the horrible things they did. For example..
They had Japanese concentration camps.
Bet you didn’t know that.
The reason for this was because the amount of violence they saw and experienced was involved with Japan. They were traumatized but it is no excuse to do something like that!
America was the right side, but they weren’t the perfect military.
No military is perfect!!!!!!!!!!!
That includes the IDF.
But here’s the thing, on the side of the ‘good guys’, usually when there’s extremely violent people in the military, there are usually two reasons for this.
They have experienced horrors beyond comprehension while fighting on the battlefield, causing them to become jaded and bitter
Or
2. They were always a violent person and they joined the war to take that out onto others.
It is the tragic reality that every single military has people like this. It is history. The historical ‘good guys’ did horrible things as well.
That brings me back to the Vietnam War.
The soldiers saw so many horrible things that could actually compare very well to what the IDF has seen.
US soldiers had no way to tell if a citizen was Northern Vietnamese or Southern Vietnamese.
Usually by the time they learned, it was too late.
There are stories of US soldiers having a Vietnamese child come up to them, holding something. About to give them a gift! But when they opened their hand, they were holding a grenade.
That is so similar to what Hamas is doing. They use suicide bombers and child soldiers. Things like that will create an idea of they can’t trust anyone. Anyone could be out to hurt them and there’s the idea of almost animalistic fighting for survival. How can you trust when Hamas could literally send a child out to kill you?!
So, really, if you think about it, the US soldiers of the Vietnam War are very similar to the IDF.
That sense of they can’t trust anyone, violence due to the trauma and being surrounded by enemies trying to do the same fucking thing (hell, Hamas has been committing terrorist attacks on Israel for years now). Even what the two sides fight for are somewhat similar!
The US fought to help the Southern Vietnamese and gain freedom from their Northern neighbors. Israel is fighting for freedom from their neighbors who are constantly attacking them and freeing Palestinians from their oppressive government.
It starts out virtuous and those ideas do carry on for the most part, but it also dissolves into animalistic violence and anger because of the shit they have seen.
Also, the way US Vietnam soldiers were treated in America is actually really similar to how Americans treat the IDF.
Nowadays when we meet a Vietnam veteran, we comment on how brave they are and how they’re a hero. Back then, though? Ohhhhh boy. Americans hated them. When soldiers would come home, Americans would yell at them, spit on them, etc. Now, doesn’t that sound familiar?
So, TLDR;
I support Israel and I support the IDF in the same way I support America in WW2 and the Vietnam War. They’re on the right side and have virtuous intent, but they sure as hell aren’t perfect and have done some fucked up shit. Yknow. Like every other military in the world. The sad reality we live in. Not everything is black and white.
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I am always thinking TimJay thoughts related to the fact that they have matching scars from getting their throats slit, and not only that, but Jason slit Tim's throat first in an attempt to threaten Bruce, where Tim was nothing more than a pawn for Jason to use to emotionally manipulate Bruce.
batman (1940) #618
And then, just a little while later when Jason is trying to confront Bruce and do his whole dramatic moment with Joker in UTRH, and Bruce slits Jason's throat to stop Jason from killing the Joker.
batman (1940) #650
It makes me so Unwell. They have literal matching scars. When do you think Jason realizes it? When do you think, while running his fingers over the scar he has to always remind himself that Bruce was willing to jeopardize Jason's own life just to save the Joker, Jason realized it was the same scar *he* gave Tim? And does it click for him too, that he and Tim are a lot alike? Being used as pawns in Bruce's game? And for the first time he maybe understands Tim Drake, just another kid trying to get Bruce's attention and approval? And Jason did to Tim exactly what Bruce did to Jason? And that's part of what spurns on Jason's obsession with Tim, trying to "save" Tim from Bruce's ideology?
When they finally get together does it make Jason even more possessive? He put that mark on Tim and now he has his own to match. It's the closest to being understood and loved he's ever felt when Tim runs his fingers over Jason's scar at the same time Jason touches Tim's. Mirrors of each other, in a fun, fucked up little way.
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This is purely speculation on my end, but I've noticed that it seems like people (specifically younger queer people, partially under forty) are so used to queerphobes indignantly saying, "you have the right to marry, what more can you want?! Why do you shove it down our throats?!" that they internalize the idea that gay marriage and other rights were only fought for for queer assimilation.
The push for things like gay marriage wasn't just "to assimilate," and especially after the AIDs crisis, you very well could watch your lover or friend or mentor die in front of you and have no recourse. No protections. No guarantee that you could even say goodbye. Learning that - as a young queer myself - hammered home how important these things can be. To get where we are now didn't happen because of the magical benevolence of the cishets. We fought for that shit. We died for that shit.
Again, this is speculation, but I don't think young queers (even me) will truly understand the scope of queer history. It takes effort to learn about this, but it is an effort worth pursuing every single time. At the least, we owe it to honour the people who came before us who have sacrificed so much. We owe our communities that much, at least.
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Okay, you can “object” to the idea that things have gotten any better for trans women in the last 50-100 years, but I find that deeply offensive to the trans activists in my country that have fought tooth and nail for decades to decriminalize transfem expression, add anti-discrimination laws in fields like housing and employment, further transition access, and set up resources and community support for trans women and fems. You think their progress has all been for nothing? Saying some aspects have gotten better does not imply transmisogyny isn’t as serious or horrific anymore, but it is undeniable that it looks different for many people than in the past. In my perception of things, the hypervisibility of trans women is also much more profound than it was 50, 75, 100 years ago and certain topics are fearmongered about it more than they ever have been—times do change. We can recognize both the bad and the good.
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Thinking about AUs in which Faith comes back to Sunnydale in Season 5. Glory definitely assumes that Faith [rather than Tara] is the Key at some point, right?
Look at the evidence: Faith is a second Vampire Slayer (when everyone knows there's only meant to be one) which conveniently means she trails around in Buffy's shadow all the time. She just came back to town recently (sure, everyone says they remember her; she just fortuitously wasn't around a lot of the time when her presence might have really prevented things from going how they actually did). She has no real roots in town (or anywhere else): no family, no home, no Watcher of her own. She doesn't seem to have any sort of relationship with anyone who doesn't have some deeper connection with Buffy herself. It isn't even clear whether she's older or younger tha Buffy, even though turning eighteen is meant to be a Big Deal for Slayers.
I mean, the monks couldn't even be bothered to give her a last name! It's like they weren't even trying to make her convincing.
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