One of the most uncomfortable things for me about the last almost-year is realising that loud people equating anti-zionism to antisemitism has undermined my ability to spot genuine antisemitism within the left; through organising, I got to know some Jewish pro-palestine student organisers and it was grim to see how they were a lightning rod for bigot’s hatred, and how used to it they were.

One friend had studied in Israel and said that the propaganda that’s directed towards Israelis, especially young Israelis, was horrifying to her because as well as demonising Palestinians, they leveraged generational trauma around the Holocaust. She said that it hurt to see one genocide being used to fuel another because it felt like the Holocaust was still ongoing, still claiming lives. She said that it also felt like genuine antisemitism was also platformed often with the propaganda, because it helps to reinforce the idea that Jewish people will never be safe without a Jewish state.

She also said that buying into this rhetoric is why she used to be pro-zionism. What really sticks with me is when she explained how her position on the matter changed, she described it as a mounting sense of cognitive dissonance that begin to morph into dread as she realised how the cycle of violence perpetuates: “we were told that Palestinians wanted to exterminate and that it was necessary to fight back. Realising the lie in this came with the horrifying thought of ‘oh God, if they didn’t want to kill us all before, they surely must now’. This was so scary that I almost rebounded back into being Zionist, but the truth of it is that Palestinians, like Jews, just want to live and be safe”.

This struck me because I hadn’t realised how much Israel’s genocide of Palestine depended on constructing Jewish people as an “other”. Another person in that discussion commented that even if they only cared for the lives of Jews, they would still be anti-Zionist, because under such rhetoric of hate, the cycle of genocidal violence will continue, and no-one will be safe — Jews, Palestinians or otherwise

Have you tried not using twitter anymore? /s

I totally get you, sometimes nazis co-opt the palestine issue to spout some racist shit about jewish people, and some of the real pro-palestine protestors I think are being/becoming anti-semitic because of their anger about the genocide Israel is currently conducting/ has been conducting since it’s inception. (Not trying to justify the anti-semitism here btw.)

From what my limited reading about it has shown me, is that this is a bigger issue online than in real-life protests.

Yeah, there’s a reason why the main people ranting about Zionism this time last year were neo nazis. It’s a term which is commonly understood to suggest the dismantlement of the Jewish state, and all the violence that would surely entail. Even in the most linguistically favorable scenario, it’s just not a position any honest geopolitical observer could really put forward as a realistic solution, which causes many to assume it is a dog whistle.

The palestine liberation movement would really do well to avoid some of the more problematic language they seem to have given a home. I honestly believe the reason this is happening is because a lot of this is being put forward by well intentioned young people who may not fully understand the implications of this linguistic history. The movement doesn’t need it, and would be stronger without it.

You’re revealing more than you suspect. Imagine showing that you’re not very engaged yet still have an opinion.

It feels like cancelling someone for not understanding the political leanings of a porn star is kinda dumb. I guess I’ve never thought of him more than someone who was used in memes.

I wish people knew more about Lou Sullivan and Alan Hart. We’ve got the U2 guys kid, Elliot Page (who is pretty cool), and a weird transmedicalist who simultaneously thinks that bottom surgery is mutilation (and did porn).

Because these people actively develop a parasocial relationship with their audiences.

Well, they can ask anything they want, that’s fine.

But why should anyone waste their time searching for some random term?

Any given post that’s asking a question is a request for a person to spend their time doing something for the poster. There are some people willing to go the extra mile and look up things they have no interest in at all. There’s others that won’t go that far, but would look into the subject with a little groundwork already done.

In this case OP is asking about not the person themselves, but the response to that person. There’s no mention of where those responses are, and no information to help with that.

Now, there may still be people willing to look up the person, then track down whatever it is OP is talking about regarding that person catching heat, then come back and cobble together an answer. But there’s less of those than there are that would follow links and then expand a search.

I’m not asking for more information for myself to do this. IDGAF. I’m trying to guide OP to getting the answer they want, faster.

It isn’t about a magic threshold to ask. It’s about helping the crowd come up with a useful answer.

On a personal level, why the fuck would I want to search for some random person by user name? Anybody out there that’s publicly known by a user name instead of an actual name isn’t worth the time of looking up, which is extra true if the platform the user name is on isn’t known. Again, that’s for me personally; anyone else is perfectly free to do whatever they like.

That would explain a right wing whining binge for sure.

Is she any good? I tend not to enjoy video essays, which means me trying to evaluate that would be pointless.

Yeah, anti-zionists are pretty infamous for hating trans people.

Dude, what the heck are you thinking, saying that?

Take a chill pill