Of course it's planned! Social media is a hugely important tool being harnesses for very evil purposes. And sadly it seems the majority of humans aren't capable of seeing this - the biggest true conspiracy of our times.
Watching the anti immigration protests in the city I grew up in I despair at the acceptance of violence against my fellow human. Everyone nowadays seems to have a giant chip on their shoulder but no truths about their real beliefs. As an Australian from convict/settler stock I too am an immigrant from the northern hemisphere and at this very moment watching migrants excelling in this country and trying to make a better life for their families. They like the Italians, Greeks,Polish, English who came after the war in the 50s were my mates as kids. I know it's a different era and time . But love is love. Show a little kindness.
Some talk about the temperature in the pressure cooker having been rising, strangely since 40 years ago in that part of the world. Reaganites (Bush 4 terms) and Tatcherism, and Clinton/Blair (fill in for your country drifting center-left figure head) wallowing on their grooves, sealing the deal of the drift of the center to right since then.
And in that result social stress "trickling" upward, or misery trickling down from the donor classes, or the indentured political classes, with the tête-à-tête unreal with the captured media, feeding us what will make us consent (free loaders etc. Generational fiscal responsibility, government waste being stretched to government public good mission), austerity/tax cut for the rich pendulum (more a ratchet).
And over all those years the optimization of cheap labor based growth economy, both for consumption growth and flexible workforce on a global scale. The problem is that population growth based consumption economy might not mix well with the pressure cooker that cheap labor global optimization leads do, along with that 40 years old ratchet destruction of the FDR socially responsible government structures, of the cold war democracies, while there was a competing labor force narrative (some more equal than others of there, in continuation with the now Russian oligarchs , I would guess).
So, we are facing the stalling of the generational punzee scheme promise of the population growth economy, otherwise known as upward mobility or in the USA gaslighted as the American dream. I have seen big TV news cycle media people restricting upward mobility to multimillionaires and billionaires investors, and trying to fudge it back to the whole population dream. Does that still work? That was in the wake of the Z. Mamdani wake up call.
But then in the pressure cooker we also get downward mobility trickle over 40 years.
Middle class redefinition or flattening and likely being threatened to becoming the new "freeloaders" or joining them in the same housing territorial previous rolling regime partitions, that were well-ordered cultural-economical and separated accordingly, in the hierarchies of good to bad neighborhood.
Only sustainable when people can see themselves while blind about the others, as long as the scheme and the ability to project oneself in the future or for own kids, is on the probable hope range, not the continuously downward one.
And while it was fine for the cheap labor immigration first generations or any generations to not have a safety net anymore, or in general those that are poorer than us, eventually housing and loss of quality or living standard will make those lost safety nets having to be contemplated as well, for those that thought they would never be the "losers", and in that promise system, why should they. But them moving to the same conditions as the "untouchable" of that system, would likely make the people to meet being the problem not the 40 years of ratchet having been consented from election to election, under the illusion that the "economy" of that new political-economy faith, or dogma, was a quantitive science. Math. being used as today geopolitical language would, a smoke show, that became the new rails for our political economies.. and we see how that converges to. Even now, PPP is still being pushed in some disconnect governements, as the savior recipe for an eroded social safety net (which is about all services that keep the upward mobility not a joke or a lolipop, various degrees of "FDR", the USA having been racing the fastest, but all countries of OP did get pulled. center drifting to the right. did i say that already. this is post-editing, I should never do that..
But that is not what we see first. we see the differences in skin color, language, culture or religion. it strands out from previous ignorance of their living conditions, but now we need to find cheaper housing... etc....
warning. this is just me rambling and brainstorming. As with chatbot. Please verify.
Theory of political economy dogma chosen in the past rippling through our "growth" economies. While we might have kept the social temperature high on the cheap labor sources themselves or even collobarted with countries where the low living conditions and enforced flexible work force populations. So we keep the need for the immigration need on one side, and we forgot to keep the generational ponzee (spelling always lost to me) scheme that the first generations are happy to go through for the hope that their kids would integrate upward.
Plus longer histories of culturally partitioned systemic and inherited economic injustices, in quire a few rich countries.
"The Zionist institutions of Australia who’ve been shrieking their lungs out about pro-Palestine protests these last two years seem to be pretty chill about actual Nazis marching through their streets."
Hell, Zionist institutions worldwide are just ducky with the literal direct biological and ideological descendants of the people who served as concentration camp guards - in Ukraine.
That is part of the cognitive dissonance in western societies. There was a lot of Jewish and Wasp millionaire monies that were invested in Germany’s war machine in the 1930’s. It wasn’t exactly a racial preference thing, it definitely wasn’t an anti war thing, it was a return on the dollar thing, and a let-them-kill-each-other thing.
The Russians remembered the historic aggression of the Hun, and knew that the west was led by cold, opportunistic speculators, that crushed blue-collar, communist-inspired demands for work and just laws. The Russian perspective was informed by an acquired wariness that the brown shirts and the money were not strangers.
But, as the war’s end was approaching, the Americans began the pivot. They scrubbed the European rural and urban enclaves for German administrative and scientific experts who waged the war campaigns so effectively, and quietly paid them and gave them standing in the American government and business projects. This reflected a sincere appreciation for the organizational efficiency of the Germans, and their ethno-supremacism was not a dealbreaker. But…the American domestic, propaganda was heavily demonizing the RUSSIANS, with the HUAC hearings that were focused primarily after the war, on Hollywood writers and studios that were churning out anti-Nazi films for mass consumption, and some included anti corporate messages. So the best, most emotionally charged propaganda was movies that fed anti fascist sentiments, but the most imperious and threatening propaganda came via government representatives hammering the insidiousness of the Reds who were coming for us. In that environment, the society was somewhat split where anti fascism was a liberal platform, and anticommunism was a right wing ideology shared by 99% of the social and political elites.
Ukraine is the germination of fierce ideology-driven hatred of brothers for one another. It is an investment by the empire in force escalation on a grand scale. Americans approve of killing that uses stand-ins for them. Dying for ideals is solemn…but that isn’t smart.
The deep anti fascism of the devastated Soviet victors in WWII, is what I think allowed the Russians to regroup following the decade of hell that ensued after Washington raided the former Soviet Union’s treasures. It also necessitated the SMO against NATO’s strategy of death by a thousand cuts. By this late date, the American people have largely lost their collective animus for fascism as they are in its throes. The knee-jerk anti Russian attitudes are still prevalent among baby boomers, but they are dying everyday, and the youth in the west is splintered, but not subject to the tightly meted propaganda that indoctrinated their grandparents and parents.
I think that China, which believes that its global rise is closely related to its deployment of a full-throated capitalization, and has no intention of taking on the West directly, may be an influence on Russia’s restraint. Certainly Russia’s restraint in waging its SMO is an admirable strategy for minimizing Russian casualties, but now that the end is approaching, the peripheral supporters of Ukraine are being exposed and targeted. Displaying an overt determination to destroy the West would be surrendering control of its situation to the uncertainties of continental conflict. BRICS is a non-military support for repelling western aggression economically, and, I think to their credit, Russia and China, are surviving by recognizing that the West will seize any opportunity to exploit military conflict as a means of marshaling its economy. So America’s de-dollarization is a greater self-inflicted blow, and a less incendiary approach to winning than direct military engagement. The world has adopted the values of dead Americans who saw war as a last and costly resort. The morons in charge of the empire don’t want ti hear it.
Russia has deep roots in war avoidance. The west saw that tendency as weakness, but I think what you call not admitting the truth, is keeping the existential threat, the lynchpin of the SMO, front and center. It has stimulated the Russian economy, while at the same time altering it. Russia has had to make major adjustments and sacrifices to win the war on the ground. The west never expected Russia to endure the breadth of western military and scientific “prowess.”
I do think that Putin, in his personal priorities, has exhibited an acceptance of capital accumulation as an essential part of having a prosperous Russia, but Russia won’t be putting the banking sector in charge of its government. By moving from an industrial economy to a finance economy, which began with Reaganomics, with a strong consolidation from Bill Clinton, the American government migrated from being a crony capitalist republic to a mafia state that answers only to itself.
I think that Russia and China both want to promote nuclear de-escalation, while retaining military readiness to deter aggression that is the calling card of the United States.
I thought that the Iran / Israel war illustrated how nuclear weapons aren’t a useful deterrent when a state’s sovereignty or survival is at stake. Russia certainly doesn’t want to defend itself by deploying nuclear weapons as a choice, but the western morons keep dangling the possibilities of winning a “limited” nuclear conflict. Nobody ever explains how nuclear conflicts are kept within limits.
So what is the truth that Russia should face? The USSR tried to mirror and counter U.S. imperialism, and it couldn’t stand toe to toe with the burgeoning economies of the U.S. and Western European former colonial powers. China has stated that it will not ever be the first to deploy nuclear weapons in any military conflict. I know that Russia holds that as a policy.
I think that I agree with you that the nihilistic empire needs to die, but killing killers is a vote for killing, and I see China leading a path where peace is possible. The U.S. may attempt sabotage and terrorist activities to spoil BRICS and the global south’s advancing economies, but if the latter peoples can construct a real infrastructure for international law, and mutual trade, the empire will lose more reach and American domestic unrest will be exacerbated.
Will the nihilists end the world if they can no longer run it? If so, there’s nothing to be done but hope they have a change of heart.
"China has stated that it will not ever be the first to deploy nuclear weapons in any military conflict. I know that Russia holds that as a policy." Russia changed that policy a few years ago.
This supposed "Russian avoidance of war" flies in the face of Russia's actions since Khalkin Gol in 1939. It's just cope, intended to excuse Russian indecision.
We saw similar excuses in Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere, even as the West ran riot over those countries.
Expecting sociopaths to change is a fool's game. They don't.
Believe me, I have more Russian and Ukrainian experience than just about anyone here, and I heartfully wish I were wrong. But I live in the real world.
RAPE. They rape everything. It’s the ultimate expression of their racism. Raping Palestinan “detaineees”; raping women in Gaza; raping the environment into toxic dust; raping the Biosphere by destroying olive trees, key regional flora (thanks gyp for the reminder). And the ultimate, the pedophilia that appears to pervade the entire ultra-psychotic society— the rape of innocence.
Thank you for pointing out that the sick and perverted IsRealHellis rape the environment as well as human beings, particularly in light of the fact that the Ziofilth recently uprooted TEN THOUSAND olive trees in the West Bank in the space of three days.
We can look at everyone around us and be amazed that there are so many different little worlds walking around us or we can feel afraid that those little worlds somehow want to deprive us of our little world.
1. Thousands protesting ARE protesting against genoicide, so blanket generalizations are false.
"Thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv Saturday in multiple demonstrations demanding an end to their government's genocidal war and engineered famine in Gaza and a deal to free the remaining hostages held by Hamas since October 2023.
Israelis—both Arab and Jewish—rallied in Habima Square holding signs reading "Stop the Genocide" and photos of some of the at least 115 Palestinian children who have starved to death in what the world's leading authority on hunger has officially declared a full-blown famine."
2. Virtually all mass killing is preceded by a campaign of dehumanization. If the enemy is branded an "animal" or subhuman, killing is permitted, because it is ok to kill animals. This will only stop when we stop killing animals, which means that the vegan movement is a core element of the struggle to stop wars that are justified by dehumanization.
I would further suggest our movement to stop the bloodshed would be better served by SEEING those tens of thousands of Israelis protesting against their own countries genocide than the emotionally satisfying but strategically impotent urge to denounce those protesting on behalf of the hostages but ignoring the massacre of Palestinians.
These may not be popular views but as always, change begins under ridicule and disapproval, and we need to change our approach to one that shuns signaling our own virtue and reaches out to praise those who have joined us, along with a recognition that until we understand that opposing the slaughter of animals is essential to ending the normalization of war. If you disagree with me, propose a more effective way to make war unacceptable and a better way to encourage and reenforce anti-war activism.
Gideon Levy lives there and knows the situation far better than those that do not. No doubt he is aware there is a relative small percentage of Israelis that are protesting the genocide. They deserve praise for standing against the majority. Polls clearly show the overwhelming majority of Israelis support the genocide and expulsion of the Palestinians.
Right after 10/7 Levy addressed the Knesset (I may have the group wrong but it was prominent people) and called out Israelis for believing they really were “God’s Chosen People” and pretending all criticism was due to antisemitism because they were superior humans.
I wonder what will happen to this religion—if this will be a dividing line between men like Levi and Chomsky and thousands of Jews who don’t support this in any way (like Medea Benjamin, Max Blumenthal, Jeffery Sachs). Christianity split apart so it’s not far fetched.
I think it’s important to acknowledge the protests of Israeli’s who do care about the genocide. I have seen videos for some time of protesters in Tel Aviv holding photos of dead Palestinian children. This is especially important because we need to organize across national, racial and ethnic lines. As Frantz Fanon wrote, it is not our skin color (or nationality) that defines us, but the master (we choose to) serve. Here in the U.S. there is a lot more focus on our identities than the ideas with which we identify. Thus, we are encouraged to vote for candidates who support genocide regardless of skin color (e.g., Biden, Trump, Kamala Harris, Hakeem Jeffries) all of whom are exhibiting their own racism toward the Palestinians. Our politicians and media are constantly categorizing us, not by what we value, but by age, race, ethnicity, gender. I am not going to align with others based on any of those things. If people are out in the streets with me protesting genocide, pressuring their politicians, writing online, those are the people I connect with and want in my life.
All successful movements begin very small; it is our duty to encourage and renenforce them to help th)em grow. The war against Vietnam (3 million killed) was supported by the vast majority while the tiny band of early protesters were ignored, mocked, denounced....but it grew and grew until most Americans opposed the war and forced the government to withdraw. Protest always begins as a seed and flourishes if nourished with encouragement. It is our duty now to promote the protests in Israel and help them grow. Protests always grow by those who initially opposed them joining them....that is why positive reenforcement works better than condemnation for coming late. I appreciate your comment.
your first point seems to reference "this is why i always dismiss anyone who tries to defend israel by citing its \widespread/ protests". i think it would be a blanket generalization to assume the author would dismiss a quite specific protest as such, but otoh, no one would probably use this one off protest to defend the state of israel except for some sophisticated liberals trying hard to preserve the israel-project.
regarding your second point, i think it is possible and desirable to also mobilize the carnivorous to stop the genocide. i understand it would indeed be nice if we would and could highlight the few actual anti-genocide protests in israel (there's more of them outside israel, it seems), but we're kinda on the defense on that, imo, as we don't have the msm-bullhorn and, as the author points out, most of the time the \widespread/ protests are used specifically to legitimize the israeli 'democratic' project.
i kinda disagree with the jist (going hyperbole here) that we first have to turn everyone vegan before we can do the next palestine action (it kinda reminds me of - again hyperbole here - the struggle to get every cultural minority the equal right to exploit the masses and superexploit other minorities before we can get to actual class struggle). but generally, yes, i do support veganism, but i don't think it's a priority rn.
I take your criticism of my phrasing to heart and have revised my comment to make my point clear. Thank you. I point about veganism and anti-war as part of the same struggle might be stated like this: compassion does not have walls but builds bridges.
It is absurd to claim that recognizing those protesting the war crimes of Israel, within Israel, is defending Israel: it is defending the truth, that while all protests begin with a small group, that protest is the way to change the government and correct course. To claim that those Israelis risking harm to call out state genocide are defending Israel is a contradiction that defies reason.
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And veganism is not cited as a priority but as integral to the movement to end war based on an ethics of compassion and non-violence: the same principles that govern veganism govern anti-war activity and other movements to end suffering. We are not promoting hierarchies but holistic views of how to end the suffering, whether of animals, the environment, oppressed populations, or any other preventable suffering. I am suggesting that by viewing this holistically, we see how our personal habits and our collective struggles share the same value, which I would summarize as compassion. Compassion does not recognize hierarchies or build walls or ladders but rather constructs bridges to connect our struggle for justice in all spheres of life. And the main point is that when we no longer accept killing animals, the way that we rationalize killing humans in wars by dehumanizing them will evaporate, so it is all part of the same process.....the expansion of compassion to all spheres of life.
it is indeed absurd to claim that, but i don't see anybody making that claim. as i read it, the author is making the claim that pointing at the \widespread/ protest (those that are a lot more frequent and larger in number) to contend that israel is still an 'enlightened' and 'democratic' project is not correct.
yes, i sympathize with veganism, but i'm afraid bringing this up in the middle of resisting a genocide might scare away meat-eaters, who, despite their acquired taste, are already very much prepared to oppose the ongoing genocide. (personally i think eliminating capitalism would contribute more to peaceful co-existence than global veganism, but both probably will require a multi-generational effort).
I respect your position, and see much of value in it, but, and this is not a joke question: why is killing plants, and fungi, viruses and bacteria OK, but just not the living things that more recognizably like us?
I'm looking for a principled basis, and "pain," is not it. We do not have the ability to assess if those other forms suffer, so we pretend our not knowing means they don't, but taking life is the same in each case, and very few, if any, forms of life exist that don't do that.
When you harvest a squash or an apple, you do not kill the plant, which makes the harvested fruit attractive precisely to attract eaters, for seed dispersal as part of the plant's evolutionary method of survival. The principle that unites vegan with anti-war is the principle of compassion, of doing the least harm, and until we understand the underlying unifyiing principle, our efforts will be fragmented and therefore less effective. If you do not belief animals suffer, feel, and love their offspring, I assess you as dumb as a rock, something that in fact feels no pain as do the animals you consume. BTW, 1/3 of all species are herbivores, so that is 3 or 4 million species, which you call "very few." The unifying principle is compassion, the desire to end unnecessary pain, whether in our diet or our struggle to end wars.
I asked for a principle, and I thought it was clear, that I was looking for a principle that is not based within the exclusive province of animal life.
Of course animals feel pain, I did not say they didn't, so that's just a strawman argument. I, however, am not willing to make the determination that other forms of life don't also suffer, even if perhaps not what we call pain, and that therefore we can permit it on principle. If they feel pain, they do it in a way we can't identify with, but why should we find it acceptable? The Jains are much better on this issue than the Westerners who are vegans.
You may have mistaken my point as herbivores also exist by consuming life. This argument excluds the other forms of life, which was my point. To say that eating some vegetables, such as fruit, is not killing the plant, is true, but potato-eaters are killing the whole plant, same for those root-digging, ring-barking, elephants who kill not just a tree but entire ecosystems and all much dwell within them. And who can count the number of insects killed when herbivores eat leaves? You seem to be saying those forms of life are unworthy of being taken account of in setting up when determing you first principles.
I understand not wanting to cause pain and suffering in those like us, and I agree. And I am sure that is what many vegans believe in, although not all. I do think there is a real possibility that the actual amount of pain and suffering is not limited to the animal kingdom, and especially not only mammals, and the concern often stops there, or with only a few exceptions for other creatures, now acknowledged to be more like "us."
Saying some forms of life are not worthy of our concern, is uncomfortably close to how many humans are currently treating other humans.
Plants, lacking a brain and nervous system, cannot feel pain as we understand it. They do react to stress, drought, etc but it is not suffering as only creatures with a nervous system and a brain do, according to the science
Also, when you pick an apple or a tomato, it is not stressful to the plant as the fruit is grown in order to attract an eater for reproductive seed dispersal, as I noted.
And as for crop deaths, they are not deliberate killing but accidental, or in the case of pesticides, necessary sometimes, and nothing like the deliberate breeding to slaughter trillions of animals each year.....and as for the vegan mandate to do the least harm (no harm is not required as that is impossible), it can be noted that half of crop are for livestock feed for animals that will be deliberately slaughtered, and about 98% is for non vegans who consume meat or dairy/eggs, with vegans consuming about 2% of all crops. So if you are concerned about the crop deaths, the most effective way to reduce them is to go vegan, doing thus the least harming and living a life of compassion.
I agree with you, though I still eat some animal protein, alas. I dislike the word "dehumanization' or calling Palestinians "animals" because to me that means not only is it OK to kill species other than human beings, but also OK to be psychopathic torturers of other species of animals. I think a better though awkward word would be the de-individualization of human beings, but that is what racism is. Furthermore, war is ECOCIDE. It does not distinguish between humans and other species and poisons the environment. Gaza is on the route of and stopover for migrating birds. see https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/1/134169/Israeli-occupation-destroys-Gaza-s-biodiversity .
I’ve seen videos of IsRealHelli tanks firing at horses. HORSES!
And there’s no doubt in my mind that not only have hundreds of thousands of pets been annihilated in Gaza along with their caretakers, but that the IGF employs pets for target practice when no actual human beings are available.
Dehumanization is the precise term to describe the process of calling our "enemies" animals or subhuman or vermin. We have an evolutionary revulsion to killing other humans and so it is by denying their humanity that we justify killing them. I urge you to examine your diet as part of the problem as it rationalizes slaughtering "animals" and reinforces the idea that is is ok to kill animals, which is what dehumanization enables. Please consider it.
It is taking a very long time for humans to realise that killing animals and eating them is the root cause of war. People whose digestive systems are full of the rotting remains of tortured and fearful animals are prone to feelings of rage, vengeance and indifference to the suffering of others. A society that kills and eats animals is a society of warriors who worship war.
Gonna cut and paste chatgpt on one of the great minds that recognized how kiling animals desensitizes us to killing humans: "The quote “As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will always be battlefields” is attributed to Russian author and philosopher Leo Tolstoy. It appears in his essay What I Believe, written in 1885. Tolstoy, known for his advocacy of nonviolence and vegetarianism, drew a direct link between the violence inflicted upon animals and the propensity for human conflict.
Think Differently About Sheep
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Choose Compassion
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Fifth Estate
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Facebook
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Fifth Estate
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Goodreads
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This statement suggests that the moral desensitization stemming from the exploitation and killing of animals can extend to human interactions, fostering a culture of violence and disregard for life. Tolstoy's perspective aligns with the idea that ethical treatment of animals is foundational to broader societal peace and compassion."
And here is one of the greatest minds and souls of all time, Pythagoras: "“As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other.”
Then perhaps this is just the group you need to be supporting:
"As Palestinians and Israelis who have chosen to walk the path of nonviolence - even in a time of war - we call on all people of conscience, within our societies and beyond them, to speak out. To act. To refuse complicity, and to reject the lies that tell us there is no other way.
I have to take issue with Levy. He seems to have failed to account for the 20% of Israelis who are Arabs and who lack the same citizenship rights as Israeli Jews. Humanity for a majority of Jewish Israeli does not stop at national borders, it stops at ethnic and religious borders. They don't care anymore about Israeli Arabs than they do about Palestinian Arabs. In fact many Israeli Jews want to purge the 48 Lands of the Arabs who live there now.
I am so fucking tired of “one land where Jews and Arabs can live in peace”. It’s not fucking possible. Perhaps Gideon Levy could “live in peace” among Palestinian people but the overwhelming majority of IsRealHelli Jews aren’t anywhere near capable. ONE LAND: PALESTINE for the PALESTINIAN PEOPLE and send the Jews back to Russia, Germany and Brooklyn.
I am waiting for Caitlin to at least look at what is happening in Cyprus. Demetius Lascaris is doing a brilliant job of showing us all what is happening in Cyprus (overtaken by Israelis). Take note Caitlin.
On 25 August 2025, Israel struck Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis twice, killing 22 civilians — including journalists, doctors, rescue workers, and a 14-year-old child. Today, the Hind Rajab Foundation and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights filed a complaint to the International Criminal Court, exposing the full chain of command behind the massacre. Our investigation proves that the Golani Brigade engineered and coordinated the attack under continuous drone surveillance, the 188th Armored Brigade executed it with guided missiles, and senior commanders up to Prime Minister Netanyahu authorized and enabled it. This was not crossfire, but deliberate killing with genocidal intent. Justice demands accountability.
Also most heinous--as it was a " double tap strike" namely "the practice of following a strike with a second strike several minutes later, hitting emergency responders and medical personnel rushing to the site. A Florida Law Review article argued that the practice likely is a war crime since it grossly violates the Geneva Conventions of 1949, which prohibit targeting civilians, the wounded, and those no longer able to continue fighting." Wikipedia
Hi Caitlin. Hope you’re well and thank you for your consistent insight.
I believe that one’s upbringing has a huge influence on their capability to accept “others not like themselves”. I grew up in racially diverse Flint, Michigan (first major city in Amerikkka to elect a Black mayor). I always had Black friends at the schools I attended.
Funny thing though: although we Arab-Americans once considered ourselves “white”, the majority of us no longer do (rejecting guilt by association I suppose.)
The US Supreme Court once agreed with that idea, that one could be Caucasian, but not legally recognized as white under the law. The case is United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, 261 U.S. 204 (1923) and set a very ugly precedent that was only ended in 1946.
This: "Funny thing though: although we Arab-Americans once considered ourselves 'white.' the majority of us no longer do.
And here is the 'rub.' Which you just brought up gypsy.
I am white (born in Sri Lanka) to white colonial parents. The first people I saw as I was born were 'brown' people NOT white. The LOVE I got was not from my 'white' parents but from our servants (brown people).
In my life I have lived in different Societies in 4 different countries.........there is compassion in brown people NOT white people! This is called being naive.
The English/Americans/French//Europeans: If you have pain they ignore it. There are many sentences that I could add here: Get over it Jenny/stop making a fuss/live with it and the ultimate is 'get it together meaning pull yourself up! Oh I forgot the worst: Drama Queen!
Agree with your analysis of racism but more importantly- these isrealis are cloaking their theft and their greed and criminality behind their racism- a justification to steal land and history and culture to create an artificial state where low lives get free housing , healthcare and education by claiming to be Jewish and living off American and western taxpayer money. A bonus of being part of the Isreal cult is that these shallow- as you characterized them - cloak again their theft in a Zionism meaning. These are lowlifes - racist and otherwise
I feel intuitively that this period of insanity can’t last long. Things like this: “Beverly Hills hopes to fight antisemitism by flying the Israeli flag on all campuses and district facilities.”, can only result in rejection for Israel, and increase the tiny amount of antisemitism in America. They’re flat out psychotic, and that’s not a stable condition.
I've wondered whether racism and sexism are a sign that someone has little to take pride in, as an individual--not smart, not rich, not an appealing personality, not pretty--but by God, I'm white, so I'm better than everyone who isn't white (and maybe I'm male, so I'm better than women). So they hate it when, by more or less universal decree, we drop the notions of racial and gender hierarchy. I keep noticing that in images of Trump rallies, virtually every woman is blonde. Why is that?
I'm convinced that racism and sexism are signs of being the bottom of the heap for a white man. Racist men are typically poor, poorly educated, unattractive and with obnoxious personalities. If they confronted who they really are, they would have to admit to having nothing going for them, so they have to convince themselves that "at least I'm not black!". Same goes for sexism "well at least I am not a woman!". It is their psychological defence against admitting that they have no redeeming characteristics at all.
The Bibas family were not killed by Hamas, but were bombed to death by the Zionists when they enacted their Hannibal Directive.
The Zionist freak who claimed that Hamas killed the Bibas hostages is the same scumbag who claimed to have personally seen non-existent beheaded babies on October 7th.
Doesn’t it seem strange that the anti-migrant protests instigated by far right groups are taking place all over the western world.
Exactly the same rhetoric is being used in U.S, U.K, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Germany etc.
Almost as if it’s been deliberately planned and is being coordinated!!
Of course it's planned! Social media is a hugely important tool being harnesses for very evil purposes. And sadly it seems the majority of humans aren't capable of seeing this - the biggest true conspiracy of our times.
Watching the anti immigration protests in the city I grew up in I despair at the acceptance of violence against my fellow human. Everyone nowadays seems to have a giant chip on their shoulder but no truths about their real beliefs. As an Australian from convict/settler stock I too am an immigrant from the northern hemisphere and at this very moment watching migrants excelling in this country and trying to make a better life for their families. They like the Italians, Greeks,Polish, English who came after the war in the 50s were my mates as kids. I know it's a different era and time . But love is love. Show a little kindness.
Remember! Trump doesn't like immigrants so how is it that he brought S. African (white) immigrants to the USA with offers of housing etc.
Trump doesn’t like non-white immigrants
Although, in the last few days, he's taken a liking to Chinese students. Free free Palestine 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇸
He doesn’t really like Chinese students. He doesn’t want to aggravate the government of China.
The political and corporate business leaders of these countries do communicate with each other. They often do business with each other.
Some talk about the temperature in the pressure cooker having been rising, strangely since 40 years ago in that part of the world. Reaganites (Bush 4 terms) and Tatcherism, and Clinton/Blair (fill in for your country drifting center-left figure head) wallowing on their grooves, sealing the deal of the drift of the center to right since then.
And in that result social stress "trickling" upward, or misery trickling down from the donor classes, or the indentured political classes, with the tête-à-tête unreal with the captured media, feeding us what will make us consent (free loaders etc. Generational fiscal responsibility, government waste being stretched to government public good mission), austerity/tax cut for the rich pendulum (more a ratchet).
And over all those years the optimization of cheap labor based growth economy, both for consumption growth and flexible workforce on a global scale. The problem is that population growth based consumption economy might not mix well with the pressure cooker that cheap labor global optimization leads do, along with that 40 years old ratchet destruction of the FDR socially responsible government structures, of the cold war democracies, while there was a competing labor force narrative (some more equal than others of there, in continuation with the now Russian oligarchs , I would guess).
So, we are facing the stalling of the generational punzee scheme promise of the population growth economy, otherwise known as upward mobility or in the USA gaslighted as the American dream. I have seen big TV news cycle media people restricting upward mobility to multimillionaires and billionaires investors, and trying to fudge it back to the whole population dream. Does that still work? That was in the wake of the Z. Mamdani wake up call.
But then in the pressure cooker we also get downward mobility trickle over 40 years.
Middle class redefinition or flattening and likely being threatened to becoming the new "freeloaders" or joining them in the same housing territorial previous rolling regime partitions, that were well-ordered cultural-economical and separated accordingly, in the hierarchies of good to bad neighborhood.
Only sustainable when people can see themselves while blind about the others, as long as the scheme and the ability to project oneself in the future or for own kids, is on the probable hope range, not the continuously downward one.
And while it was fine for the cheap labor immigration first generations or any generations to not have a safety net anymore, or in general those that are poorer than us, eventually housing and loss of quality or living standard will make those lost safety nets having to be contemplated as well, for those that thought they would never be the "losers", and in that promise system, why should they. But them moving to the same conditions as the "untouchable" of that system, would likely make the people to meet being the problem not the 40 years of ratchet having been consented from election to election, under the illusion that the "economy" of that new political-economy faith, or dogma, was a quantitive science. Math. being used as today geopolitical language would, a smoke show, that became the new rails for our political economies.. and we see how that converges to. Even now, PPP is still being pushed in some disconnect governements, as the savior recipe for an eroded social safety net (which is about all services that keep the upward mobility not a joke or a lolipop, various degrees of "FDR", the USA having been racing the fastest, but all countries of OP did get pulled. center drifting to the right. did i say that already. this is post-editing, I should never do that..
But that is not what we see first. we see the differences in skin color, language, culture or religion. it strands out from previous ignorance of their living conditions, but now we need to find cheaper housing... etc....
warning. this is just me rambling and brainstorming. As with chatbot. Please verify.
Theory of political economy dogma chosen in the past rippling through our "growth" economies. While we might have kept the social temperature high on the cheap labor sources themselves or even collobarted with countries where the low living conditions and enforced flexible work force populations. So we keep the need for the immigration need on one side, and we forgot to keep the generational ponzee (spelling always lost to me) scheme that the first generations are happy to go through for the hope that their kids would integrate upward.
Plus longer histories of culturally partitioned systemic and inherited economic injustices, in quire a few rich countries.
"The Zionist institutions of Australia who’ve been shrieking their lungs out about pro-Palestine protests these last two years seem to be pretty chill about actual Nazis marching through their streets."
Hell, Zionist institutions worldwide are just ducky with the literal direct biological and ideological descendants of the people who served as concentration camp guards - in Ukraine.
Greenies for YOU Feral.
That is part of the cognitive dissonance in western societies. There was a lot of Jewish and Wasp millionaire monies that were invested in Germany’s war machine in the 1930’s. It wasn’t exactly a racial preference thing, it definitely wasn’t an anti war thing, it was a return on the dollar thing, and a let-them-kill-each-other thing.
The Russians remembered the historic aggression of the Hun, and knew that the west was led by cold, opportunistic speculators, that crushed blue-collar, communist-inspired demands for work and just laws. The Russian perspective was informed by an acquired wariness that the brown shirts and the money were not strangers.
But, as the war’s end was approaching, the Americans began the pivot. They scrubbed the European rural and urban enclaves for German administrative and scientific experts who waged the war campaigns so effectively, and quietly paid them and gave them standing in the American government and business projects. This reflected a sincere appreciation for the organizational efficiency of the Germans, and their ethno-supremacism was not a dealbreaker. But…the American domestic, propaganda was heavily demonizing the RUSSIANS, with the HUAC hearings that were focused primarily after the war, on Hollywood writers and studios that were churning out anti-Nazi films for mass consumption, and some included anti corporate messages. So the best, most emotionally charged propaganda was movies that fed anti fascist sentiments, but the most imperious and threatening propaganda came via government representatives hammering the insidiousness of the Reds who were coming for us. In that environment, the society was somewhat split where anti fascism was a liberal platform, and anticommunism was a right wing ideology shared by 99% of the social and political elites.
Ukraine is the germination of fierce ideology-driven hatred of brothers for one another. It is an investment by the empire in force escalation on a grand scale. Americans approve of killing that uses stand-ins for them. Dying for ideals is solemn…but that isn’t smart.
The deep anti fascism of the devastated Soviet victors in WWII, is what I think allowed the Russians to regroup following the decade of hell that ensued after Washington raided the former Soviet Union’s treasures. It also necessitated the SMO against NATO’s strategy of death by a thousand cuts. By this late date, the American people have largely lost their collective animus for fascism as they are in its throes. The knee-jerk anti Russian attitudes are still prevalent among baby boomers, but they are dying everyday, and the youth in the west is splintered, but not subject to the tightly meted propaganda that indoctrinated their grandparents and parents.
The problem is that Russia does not seek to destroy the West but to join it albeit not as a supplicant.
The West of course, sees Russian hesitance as contemptible weakness. They have no comparable qualms.
I think that China, which believes that its global rise is closely related to its deployment of a full-throated capitalization, and has no intention of taking on the West directly, may be an influence on Russia’s restraint. Certainly Russia’s restraint in waging its SMO is an admirable strategy for minimizing Russian casualties, but now that the end is approaching, the peripheral supporters of Ukraine are being exposed and targeted. Displaying an overt determination to destroy the West would be surrendering control of its situation to the uncertainties of continental conflict. BRICS is a non-military support for repelling western aggression economically, and, I think to their credit, Russia and China, are surviving by recognizing that the West will seize any opportunity to exploit military conflict as a means of marshaling its economy. So America’s de-dollarization is a greater self-inflicted blow, and a less incendiary approach to winning than direct military engagement. The world has adopted the values of dead Americans who saw war as a last and costly resort. The morons in charge of the empire don’t want ti hear it.
A much simpler explanation- the Russian leadership does not want to admit the truth to itself.
China simply wants to make money, oblivious to the fact that the West can bottleneck Chuna and smash its works.
Nobody of influence and authority cares what normie Americans think or want.
Russia has deep roots in war avoidance. The west saw that tendency as weakness, but I think what you call not admitting the truth, is keeping the existential threat, the lynchpin of the SMO, front and center. It has stimulated the Russian economy, while at the same time altering it. Russia has had to make major adjustments and sacrifices to win the war on the ground. The west never expected Russia to endure the breadth of western military and scientific “prowess.”
I do think that Putin, in his personal priorities, has exhibited an acceptance of capital accumulation as an essential part of having a prosperous Russia, but Russia won’t be putting the banking sector in charge of its government. By moving from an industrial economy to a finance economy, which began with Reaganomics, with a strong consolidation from Bill Clinton, the American government migrated from being a crony capitalist republic to a mafia state that answers only to itself.
I think that Russia and China both want to promote nuclear de-escalation, while retaining military readiness to deter aggression that is the calling card of the United States.
I thought that the Iran / Israel war illustrated how nuclear weapons aren’t a useful deterrent when a state’s sovereignty or survival is at stake. Russia certainly doesn’t want to defend itself by deploying nuclear weapons as a choice, but the western morons keep dangling the possibilities of winning a “limited” nuclear conflict. Nobody ever explains how nuclear conflicts are kept within limits.
So what is the truth that Russia should face? The USSR tried to mirror and counter U.S. imperialism, and it couldn’t stand toe to toe with the burgeoning economies of the U.S. and Western European former colonial powers. China has stated that it will not ever be the first to deploy nuclear weapons in any military conflict. I know that Russia holds that as a policy.
I think that I agree with you that the nihilistic empire needs to die, but killing killers is a vote for killing, and I see China leading a path where peace is possible. The U.S. may attempt sabotage and terrorist activities to spoil BRICS and the global south’s advancing economies, but if the latter peoples can construct a real infrastructure for international law, and mutual trade, the empire will lose more reach and American domestic unrest will be exacerbated.
Will the nihilists end the world if they can no longer run it? If so, there’s nothing to be done but hope they have a change of heart.
"China has stated that it will not ever be the first to deploy nuclear weapons in any military conflict. I know that Russia holds that as a policy." Russia changed that policy a few years ago.
This supposed "Russian avoidance of war" flies in the face of Russia's actions since Khalkin Gol in 1939. It's just cope, intended to excuse Russian indecision.
We saw similar excuses in Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere, even as the West ran riot over those countries.
Expecting sociopaths to change is a fool's game. They don't.
Believe me, I have more Russian and Ukrainian experience than just about anyone here, and I heartfully wish I were wrong. But I live in the real world.
100% agree.
Israel is a Racist State.
RAPE. They rape everything. It’s the ultimate expression of their racism. Raping Palestinan “detaineees”; raping women in Gaza; raping the environment into toxic dust; raping the Biosphere by destroying olive trees, key regional flora (thanks gyp for the reminder). And the ultimate, the pedophilia that appears to pervade the entire ultra-psychotic society— the rape of innocence.
Dear Vin
Thank you for pointing out that the sick and perverted IsRealHellis rape the environment as well as human beings, particularly in light of the fact that the Ziofilth recently uprooted TEN THOUSAND olive trees in the West Bank in the space of three days.
What the fuck. Tree can incite “terror”?
Thanks for reminding me and us about the olive trees, dear gyp. Knew my brain was farting something too early this morning.
We can look at everyone around us and be amazed that there are so many different little worlds walking around us or we can feel afraid that those little worlds somehow want to deprive us of our little world.
I WOULD like to make two points:
1. Thousands protesting ARE protesting against genoicide, so blanket generalizations are false.
"Thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv Saturday in multiple demonstrations demanding an end to their government's genocidal war and engineered famine in Gaza and a deal to free the remaining hostages held by Hamas since October 2023.
Israelis—both Arab and Jewish—rallied in Habima Square holding signs reading "Stop the Genocide" and photos of some of the at least 115 Palestinian children who have starved to death in what the world's leading authority on hunger has officially declared a full-blown famine."
2. Virtually all mass killing is preceded by a campaign of dehumanization. If the enemy is branded an "animal" or subhuman, killing is permitted, because it is ok to kill animals. This will only stop when we stop killing animals, which means that the vegan movement is a core element of the struggle to stop wars that are justified by dehumanization.
I would further suggest our movement to stop the bloodshed would be better served by SEEING those tens of thousands of Israelis protesting against their own countries genocide than the emotionally satisfying but strategically impotent urge to denounce those protesting on behalf of the hostages but ignoring the massacre of Palestinians.
These may not be popular views but as always, change begins under ridicule and disapproval, and we need to change our approach to one that shuns signaling our own virtue and reaches out to praise those who have joined us, along with a recognition that until we understand that opposing the slaughter of animals is essential to ending the normalization of war. If you disagree with me, propose a more effective way to make war unacceptable and a better way to encourage and reenforce anti-war activism.
Gideon Levy lives there and knows the situation far better than those that do not. No doubt he is aware there is a relative small percentage of Israelis that are protesting the genocide. They deserve praise for standing against the majority. Polls clearly show the overwhelming majority of Israelis support the genocide and expulsion of the Palestinians.
Right after 10/7 Levy addressed the Knesset (I may have the group wrong but it was prominent people) and called out Israelis for believing they really were “God’s Chosen People” and pretending all criticism was due to antisemitism because they were superior humans.
I wonder what will happen to this religion—if this will be a dividing line between men like Levi and Chomsky and thousands of Jews who don’t support this in any way (like Medea Benjamin, Max Blumenthal, Jeffery Sachs). Christianity split apart so it’s not far fetched.
I think it’s important to acknowledge the protests of Israeli’s who do care about the genocide. I have seen videos for some time of protesters in Tel Aviv holding photos of dead Palestinian children. This is especially important because we need to organize across national, racial and ethnic lines. As Frantz Fanon wrote, it is not our skin color (or nationality) that defines us, but the master (we choose to) serve. Here in the U.S. there is a lot more focus on our identities than the ideas with which we identify. Thus, we are encouraged to vote for candidates who support genocide regardless of skin color (e.g., Biden, Trump, Kamala Harris, Hakeem Jeffries) all of whom are exhibiting their own racism toward the Palestinians. Our politicians and media are constantly categorizing us, not by what we value, but by age, race, ethnicity, gender. I am not going to align with others based on any of those things. If people are out in the streets with me protesting genocide, pressuring their politicians, writing online, those are the people I connect with and want in my life.
All successful movements begin very small; it is our duty to encourage and renenforce them to help th)em grow. The war against Vietnam (3 million killed) was supported by the vast majority while the tiny band of early protesters were ignored, mocked, denounced....but it grew and grew until most Americans opposed the war and forced the government to withdraw. Protest always begins as a seed and flourishes if nourished with encouragement. It is our duty now to promote the protests in Israel and help them grow. Protests always grow by those who initially opposed them joining them....that is why positive reenforcement works better than condemnation for coming late. I appreciate your comment.
I think I will take Levy’s word over yours. He lives there, I am guessing you do not.
your first point seems to reference "this is why i always dismiss anyone who tries to defend israel by citing its \widespread/ protests". i think it would be a blanket generalization to assume the author would dismiss a quite specific protest as such, but otoh, no one would probably use this one off protest to defend the state of israel except for some sophisticated liberals trying hard to preserve the israel-project.
regarding your second point, i think it is possible and desirable to also mobilize the carnivorous to stop the genocide. i understand it would indeed be nice if we would and could highlight the few actual anti-genocide protests in israel (there's more of them outside israel, it seems), but we're kinda on the defense on that, imo, as we don't have the msm-bullhorn and, as the author points out, most of the time the \widespread/ protests are used specifically to legitimize the israeli 'democratic' project.
i kinda disagree with the jist (going hyperbole here) that we first have to turn everyone vegan before we can do the next palestine action (it kinda reminds me of - again hyperbole here - the struggle to get every cultural minority the equal right to exploit the masses and superexploit other minorities before we can get to actual class struggle). but generally, yes, i do support veganism, but i don't think it's a priority rn.
I take your criticism of my phrasing to heart and have revised my comment to make my point clear. Thank you. I point about veganism and anti-war as part of the same struggle might be stated like this: compassion does not have walls but builds bridges.
It is absurd to claim that recognizing those protesting the war crimes of Israel, within Israel, is defending Israel: it is defending the truth, that while all protests begin with a small group, that protest is the way to change the government and correct course. To claim that those Israelis risking harm to call out state genocide are defending Israel is a contradiction that defies reason.
,
And veganism is not cited as a priority but as integral to the movement to end war based on an ethics of compassion and non-violence: the same principles that govern veganism govern anti-war activity and other movements to end suffering. We are not promoting hierarchies but holistic views of how to end the suffering, whether of animals, the environment, oppressed populations, or any other preventable suffering. I am suggesting that by viewing this holistically, we see how our personal habits and our collective struggles share the same value, which I would summarize as compassion. Compassion does not recognize hierarchies or build walls or ladders but rather constructs bridges to connect our struggle for justice in all spheres of life. And the main point is that when we no longer accept killing animals, the way that we rationalize killing humans in wars by dehumanizing them will evaporate, so it is all part of the same process.....the expansion of compassion to all spheres of life.
it is indeed absurd to claim that, but i don't see anybody making that claim. as i read it, the author is making the claim that pointing at the \widespread/ protest (those that are a lot more frequent and larger in number) to contend that israel is still an 'enlightened' and 'democratic' project is not correct.
yes, i sympathize with veganism, but i'm afraid bringing this up in the middle of resisting a genocide might scare away meat-eaters, who, despite their acquired taste, are already very much prepared to oppose the ongoing genocide. (personally i think eliminating capitalism would contribute more to peaceful co-existence than global veganism, but both probably will require a multi-generational effort).
I respect your position, and see much of value in it, but, and this is not a joke question: why is killing plants, and fungi, viruses and bacteria OK, but just not the living things that more recognizably like us?
I'm looking for a principled basis, and "pain," is not it. We do not have the ability to assess if those other forms suffer, so we pretend our not knowing means they don't, but taking life is the same in each case, and very few, if any, forms of life exist that don't do that.
When you harvest a squash or an apple, you do not kill the plant, which makes the harvested fruit attractive precisely to attract eaters, for seed dispersal as part of the plant's evolutionary method of survival. The principle that unites vegan with anti-war is the principle of compassion, of doing the least harm, and until we understand the underlying unifyiing principle, our efforts will be fragmented and therefore less effective. If you do not belief animals suffer, feel, and love their offspring, I assess you as dumb as a rock, something that in fact feels no pain as do the animals you consume. BTW, 1/3 of all species are herbivores, so that is 3 or 4 million species, which you call "very few." The unifying principle is compassion, the desire to end unnecessary pain, whether in our diet or our struggle to end wars.
I asked for a principle, and I thought it was clear, that I was looking for a principle that is not based within the exclusive province of animal life.
Of course animals feel pain, I did not say they didn't, so that's just a strawman argument. I, however, am not willing to make the determination that other forms of life don't also suffer, even if perhaps not what we call pain, and that therefore we can permit it on principle. If they feel pain, they do it in a way we can't identify with, but why should we find it acceptable? The Jains are much better on this issue than the Westerners who are vegans.
You may have mistaken my point as herbivores also exist by consuming life. This argument excluds the other forms of life, which was my point. To say that eating some vegetables, such as fruit, is not killing the plant, is true, but potato-eaters are killing the whole plant, same for those root-digging, ring-barking, elephants who kill not just a tree but entire ecosystems and all much dwell within them. And who can count the number of insects killed when herbivores eat leaves? You seem to be saying those forms of life are unworthy of being taken account of in setting up when determing you first principles.
I understand not wanting to cause pain and suffering in those like us, and I agree. And I am sure that is what many vegans believe in, although not all. I do think there is a real possibility that the actual amount of pain and suffering is not limited to the animal kingdom, and especially not only mammals, and the concern often stops there, or with only a few exceptions for other creatures, now acknowledged to be more like "us."
Saying some forms of life are not worthy of our concern, is uncomfortably close to how many humans are currently treating other humans.
Plants, lacking a brain and nervous system, cannot feel pain as we understand it. They do react to stress, drought, etc but it is not suffering as only creatures with a nervous system and a brain do, according to the science
Also, when you pick an apple or a tomato, it is not stressful to the plant as the fruit is grown in order to attract an eater for reproductive seed dispersal, as I noted.
And as for crop deaths, they are not deliberate killing but accidental, or in the case of pesticides, necessary sometimes, and nothing like the deliberate breeding to slaughter trillions of animals each year.....and as for the vegan mandate to do the least harm (no harm is not required as that is impossible), it can be noted that half of crop are for livestock feed for animals that will be deliberately slaughtered, and about 98% is for non vegans who consume meat or dairy/eggs, with vegans consuming about 2% of all crops. So if you are concerned about the crop deaths, the most effective way to reduce them is to go vegan, doing thus the least harming and living a life of compassion.
I agree with you, though I still eat some animal protein, alas. I dislike the word "dehumanization' or calling Palestinians "animals" because to me that means not only is it OK to kill species other than human beings, but also OK to be psychopathic torturers of other species of animals. I think a better though awkward word would be the de-individualization of human beings, but that is what racism is. Furthermore, war is ECOCIDE. It does not distinguish between humans and other species and poisons the environment. Gaza is on the route of and stopover for migrating birds. see https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/1/134169/Israeli-occupation-destroys-Gaza-s-biodiversity .
Hi Dr. Helen
Agree 100%.
I’ve seen videos of IsRealHelli tanks firing at horses. HORSES!
And there’s no doubt in my mind that not only have hundreds of thousands of pets been annihilated in Gaza along with their caretakers, but that the IGF employs pets for target practice when no actual human beings are available.
Hi Gypsy 33, Brings tears to my eyes.
Dehumanization is the precise term to describe the process of calling our "enemies" animals or subhuman or vermin. We have an evolutionary revulsion to killing other humans and so it is by denying their humanity that we justify killing them. I urge you to examine your diet as part of the problem as it rationalizes slaughtering "animals" and reinforces the idea that is is ok to kill animals, which is what dehumanization enables. Please consider it.
It is taking a very long time for humans to realise that killing animals and eating them is the root cause of war. People whose digestive systems are full of the rotting remains of tortured and fearful animals are prone to feelings of rage, vengeance and indifference to the suffering of others. A society that kills and eats animals is a society of warriors who worship war.
Gonna cut and paste chatgpt on one of the great minds that recognized how kiling animals desensitizes us to killing humans: "The quote “As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will always be battlefields” is attributed to Russian author and philosopher Leo Tolstoy. It appears in his essay What I Believe, written in 1885. Tolstoy, known for his advocacy of nonviolence and vegetarianism, drew a direct link between the violence inflicted upon animals and the propensity for human conflict.
Think Differently About Sheep
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Choose Compassion
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Fifth Estate
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Fifth Estate
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Goodreads
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This statement suggests that the moral desensitization stemming from the exploitation and killing of animals can extend to human interactions, fostering a culture of violence and disregard for life. Tolstoy's perspective aligns with the idea that ethical treatment of animals is foundational to broader societal peace and compassion."
And here is one of the greatest minds and souls of all time, Pythagoras: "“As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other.”
Step, definitely food for thought….
Then perhaps this is just the group you need to be supporting:
"As Palestinians and Israelis who have chosen to walk the path of nonviolence - even in a time of war - we call on all people of conscience, within our societies and beyond them, to speak out. To act. To refuse complicity, and to reject the lies that tell us there is no other way.
In solidarity and hope,
Combatants for Peace"
Please support them, if you can.
https://secure.everyaction.com/26HDytmld0yga5moZgt6OQ2?am=20&amtOpts=&recurringAm=20&recurringAmtOpts=&is_optimized_ask=true&contactdata=fLFNBxaqp60caO2Mc5rLJr799lFP6A2Xt9IGHBWlbzi7Pdr+2T04u+DsjZY6t2EVRB4kDY39dWlKhd4H6HkjZspe6cVE56ln8VEBkBe5y6c%3d&emci=8e730776-9d6c-f011-8dc9-6045bda9d96b&emdi=00d1bae6-a26c-f011-8dc9-6045bda9d96b&ceid=13999075
The Gaza Flotilla is launched. Be safe facing the terrorist state.
Chuck 💪💪💪
I have to take issue with Levy. He seems to have failed to account for the 20% of Israelis who are Arabs and who lack the same citizenship rights as Israeli Jews. Humanity for a majority of Jewish Israeli does not stop at national borders, it stops at ethnic and religious borders. They don't care anymore about Israeli Arabs than they do about Palestinian Arabs. In fact many Israeli Jews want to purge the 48 Lands of the Arabs who live there now.
Excellent point Cara.
I am so fucking tired of “one land where Jews and Arabs can live in peace”. It’s not fucking possible. Perhaps Gideon Levy could “live in peace” among Palestinian people but the overwhelming majority of IsRealHelli Jews aren’t anywhere near capable. ONE LAND: PALESTINE for the PALESTINIAN PEOPLE and send the Jews back to Russia, Germany and Brooklyn.
Many from Ukraine and Poland.
I am waiting for Caitlin to at least look at what is happening in Cyprus. Demetius Lascaris is doing a brilliant job of showing us all what is happening in Cyprus (overtaken by Israelis). Take note Caitlin.
This is the next "Palestine."
Support the Hind Rajab Foundation
https://donate.stripe.com/cN228hbY5g7jaM84gg
On 25 August 2025, Israel struck Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis twice, killing 22 civilians — including journalists, doctors, rescue workers, and a 14-year-old child. Today, the Hind Rajab Foundation and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights filed a complaint to the International Criminal Court, exposing the full chain of command behind the massacre. Our investigation proves that the Golani Brigade engineered and coordinated the attack under continuous drone surveillance, the 188th Armored Brigade executed it with guided missiles, and senior commanders up to Prime Minister Netanyahu authorized and enabled it. This was not crossfire, but deliberate killing with genocidal intent. Justice demands accountability.
Also most heinous--as it was a " double tap strike" namely "the practice of following a strike with a second strike several minutes later, hitting emergency responders and medical personnel rushing to the site. A Florida Law Review article argued that the practice likely is a war crime since it grossly violates the Geneva Conventions of 1949, which prohibit targeting civilians, the wounded, and those no longer able to continue fighting." Wikipedia
Take action today
Tell FIFA, ban Israel from playing in the 2026 World Cup
https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/ban_israel_from_the_world_cup_2_0/?bezdetb&v=169237&cl=22311971612&_checksum=6d83a36799686c95d03116e8c556125ab456e12a3f0eebd7c7cf7b35a91a2184&utm_source=email&utm_medium=blast_email&utm_campaign=169237
Done! THX!
Hi Caitlin. Hope you’re well and thank you for your consistent insight.
I believe that one’s upbringing has a huge influence on their capability to accept “others not like themselves”. I grew up in racially diverse Flint, Michigan (first major city in Amerikkka to elect a Black mayor). I always had Black friends at the schools I attended.
Funny thing though: although we Arab-Americans once considered ourselves “white”, the majority of us no longer do (rejecting guilt by association I suppose.)
Technically Caucasian, but NOT WHITE.
The US Supreme Court once agreed with that idea, that one could be Caucasian, but not legally recognized as white under the law. The case is United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, 261 U.S. 204 (1923) and set a very ugly precedent that was only ended in 1946.
Hi Joy
I personally reject “white” as my identity. I am West Asian and consider myself a “tan” person.
This: "Funny thing though: although we Arab-Americans once considered ourselves 'white.' the majority of us no longer do.
And here is the 'rub.' Which you just brought up gypsy.
I am white (born in Sri Lanka) to white colonial parents. The first people I saw as I was born were 'brown' people NOT white. The LOVE I got was not from my 'white' parents but from our servants (brown people).
In my life I have lived in different Societies in 4 different countries.........there is compassion in brown people NOT white people! This is called being naive.
The English/Americans/French//Europeans: If you have pain they ignore it. There are many sentences that I could add here: Get over it Jenny/stop making a fuss/live with it and the ultimate is 'get it together meaning pull yourself up! Oh I forgot the worst: Drama Queen!
Jenny, I still think you should write a book about your life!
Agree with your analysis of racism but more importantly- these isrealis are cloaking their theft and their greed and criminality behind their racism- a justification to steal land and history and culture to create an artificial state where low lives get free housing , healthcare and education by claiming to be Jewish and living off American and western taxpayer money. A bonus of being part of the Isreal cult is that these shallow- as you characterized them - cloak again their theft in a Zionism meaning. These are lowlifes - racist and otherwise
I feel intuitively that this period of insanity can’t last long. Things like this: “Beverly Hills hopes to fight antisemitism by flying the Israeli flag on all campuses and district facilities.”, can only result in rejection for Israel, and increase the tiny amount of antisemitism in America. They’re flat out psychotic, and that’s not a stable condition.
I have learned that delusion is the natural state of Man.
I've wondered whether racism and sexism are a sign that someone has little to take pride in, as an individual--not smart, not rich, not an appealing personality, not pretty--but by God, I'm white, so I'm better than everyone who isn't white (and maybe I'm male, so I'm better than women). So they hate it when, by more or less universal decree, we drop the notions of racial and gender hierarchy. I keep noticing that in images of Trump rallies, virtually every woman is blonde. Why is that?
I'm convinced that racism and sexism are signs of being the bottom of the heap for a white man. Racist men are typically poor, poorly educated, unattractive and with obnoxious personalities. If they confronted who they really are, they would have to admit to having nothing going for them, so they have to convince themselves that "at least I'm not black!". Same goes for sexism "well at least I am not a woman!". It is their psychological defence against admitting that they have no redeeming characteristics at all.
The Bibas family were not killed by Hamas, but were bombed to death by the Zionists when they enacted their Hannibal Directive.
The Zionist freak who claimed that Hamas killed the Bibas hostages is the same scumbag who claimed to have personally seen non-existent beheaded babies on October 7th.
1 State Palestine has been banned forever from X. Deport Blockade Boycott Divest and Ban Israel from the world.
Don't be on "X" in the first place...