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Susan T's avatar

I have a few "non political" friends who only listen the mainstream news. When Israel bombed the Iranian embassy in Damascus and Iran retaliated, Israel's bombing was reported, but way way down in the report. One of my apolitical friends, upset about Iran's action, did not realize that Israel had bombed the Iranian embassy killing 16 people. There was a resignation from Pride Toronto because of their unwillingness to work with Queer Palestine. I have a trans friend who didn't know about any of this. As you have said previously, the media is not reporting truthfully about what is happening in Gaza. The mainstream news contains nothing about organizations like this: canarymission.org, that keeps track of anyone who speaks out against genocide and puts them at risk of losing their jobs and reputations. They never talk about how much money is being made from the continuation of wars. They never talk about all the people who are dying in Gaza or in Ukraine. They sometimes mention "casualties" but just in passing. I have a Jewish friend who did not go see the film "Israelism", www.israelismfilm.com, made by young American Jews, because she said it promoted antisemitism. At least she is still talking to me. I have another Jewish friend who won't talk to me because she said I "love Palestinians". The mainstream news never talks about how Israel itself is causing more antisemitism and it promotes the idea that criticizing Israel is antisemitic. I have days when I feel as if the world is falling apart. I think it is possible that it is.

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Feral Finster's avatar

This is not surprising, given how the current rules of polite educated discourse focus entirely on the complainant's subjective state of mind ("I felt unsafe!") and not on whether that the accused did is in fact offensive.

Not only that, but once a member of an approved victim class makes an accusation, the burden of proof falls to the accused to prove they didn't do anything wrong, in other words, to prove a negative. This is a game that the accused can rarely win, which is why the Zionist lobby choose to play it.

That said, those who rule over us care nothing for our clever word games, our cute memes, our tightly reasoned arguments or close readings of texts. They know full well that they are hypocrites. They do not care, any more than the schoolyard bully cares about your witty insults, as long as he still can smash your face in.

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