If you think that Biden is doing such a terrible job handling the Israel-Hamas war that you would protest-vote for Trump to lead US instead, you don’t love your neighbor; I don’t care what religion you are or are not.
A vote for Trump is a rejection of the sanctity of life.
I might post about the shameful lack of empathy for Israelis that I have seen from leftist commentators on mastodon. The abusive narrative that a traumatized people group, with deep historical ties to Palestine, pushed out of Europe by the Holocaust and unwelcome in Russia according to their pogroms, must be perfect victims, is disturbing.
Furthermore, Palestinians didn’t ask for any of this. The Holocaust impacted on them, too. We are seeing the results of trauma and generations of injustice.1/
It is not easy, when people are shocked and grieving, to address issues of nuance. But it is eye-opening, when atrocities and tragedy are committed in our social media age, to discover how dangerously vile many people-YES ON BOTH SIDES politically are-when it comes to lives they don’t value.
It all came out on mastodon how awful some of you really are; how little you really care for lives; how ignorant you are of what you are prepared to defend.
We cannot solve the problems of this world if we assume intentions of people we don’t know online. When you are coming at me with clear intent to abuse or control, I will understand that at face value. You are not superior to me. I am not going to say everything right all the time. But I have as much right as any to have an opinion, and in my space, I expect respect for the complexity.
I do watch what you say and decide whether you are a moral person accordingly.
We have a right to discern.
9/
I hope this will be a learning opportunity, but I honestly doubt it will for several.
As we speak, children are being bombed in multiple places around the world.
We should weep with Israel and Gaza.
And you want to fight me for pointing out Hamas are a vile religious terror org whose initial docs IN MY LIFETIME referred to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a legit source, and who in all of our lifetimes mass murdered families in front of each other and young people at a dance party.10/
We are vulnerable to undue influence if we don’t take a step back and think from a moral core that rejects mass murder and rape and hatred and abuse of kids.
And it’s not just thinking that we need.
It’s a commitment to hearing the victims rather than talking over them with our binary armchair perspectives.
It’s critical thinking, comparing sources, admitting we don’t know if everything we are seeing can be proven true rn.
It’s having basic humanity, and that core element for all: love.
12/
This is a time for grief, but people on #Mastodon broke my heart, so I don’t want to imagine the damage their kind of dumb comments have done to traumatized people.
We just heard two Israeli parents were murdered and the babies were found much later still hidden.
These kinds of stories.
Remember, Jews in Israel have a profound traumatic memory of Holocaust and pogroms.
But some of you on here couldn’t hold that pain alongside the pain of innocents being bombed.
@timo21 Appreciate your understanding of my intent here. I would add that the issue I’m addressing is not limited to the USA. I’ve seen this callousness in people on mastodon from places such as the UK on here, as well.💔
@tobie1 There is never any excuse for acts of genocide rooted in hate. There is no place for Hamas ideology in a free world. Such revolting evil cannot ever be justified or excused. It is not freedom nor justice. Hamas is evil, and they do not care for Palestinians. Evil just wants to win.
It is tragic that modern states have to establish boundaries which, when violated, they must commit atrocities. But that apparently is necessary in the face of brazen enemies. For example, NATO. Russia needs to know that if they attack a single square foot of NATO soil, NATO has no choice but to retaliate with devastating force. The policy has to be automatic. It has to be "you wouldn't dare do something so stupid and self-destructive, would you?"
@escarpment Hamas members do not think like people from democratic perspectives, with any attention to rights or responsibilities; they are prepared to sacrifice even their own for their extremist religious opposition to the nation of Israel. They play on the trauma of Palestinians for power, and they do not care who they kill. People in free countries often expect everyone to think and act as they would, but this is not reality. Hamas does not have a moral code that values life.
Middle Eastern politics are complex, contradictory, and painful. These hot takes that equate mid-20th century zionism and the founding of the Israeli state with, e.g., the genocidal violence against Native Americans, without any thought to the Shoah or, you know, fundamental historical differences and contexts, are really beyond the pale, though. If Hamas really is your idea of emancipatory decolonization, miss me with that and unfollow (and block) me to save me some time, please.