originalleftist

[originalleftist]

THANK YOU for refuting the "overpopulation" narrative.

Always, ALWAYS be deeply suspicious of someone who argues that the Earth is "overpopulated". Because the moment the argument becomes "there are too many people", it opens the door for the question "Which people should be subtracted?" Now consider that the countries with the highest populations and population growth don't tend to be wealthy "developed" Western nations (which consume the most), but poorer "developing" non-Western nations... can you see where this argument is going?

Blaming environmental crises on "overpopulation" allows the rich and powerful to shift the blame onto the poor, powerless, and "foreign"/non-white. And is opening the door for eugenics, eco-fascism, and ultimately genocide to be the "solution", rather than the rich having to give up some of their wealth.

#Environment #Climate #Climate Crisis #Extinction #Mass Extinction #Overpopulation #Eugenics #Eco-Fascism #Genocide #Capitalism #Abolish Capitalism #Tax The Rich #Regulate Business #Abolish Billionaires

[originalleftist]

[originalleftist]

inspired by this post, more options here. and here for low energy options.

[originalleftist]

lets appreciate geese ok? i love geese

#Geese #Birds

[originalleftist]

I don't want to have to be strong and stand up to antisemites. I'm so fucking exhausted countering the tsunami of misinformation trying to destroy us. I know I will never stand down and shut up but for god's sake, can people be normal about the Jews for a bit? Like just a week??? I'd love to be able to just go out and about and not have to be on edge the whole time because it's open season on assaulting Jews for existing.

[originalleftist]

(source unknown)

[originalleftist]

The extent to which wannabe Leftist revolutionaries fetishize the guillotine reveals either a profound stupidity, a profound ignorance of history, a lack of sincerity in their desire for revolution in favour of simply sating their bloodlust, or a combination of the preceding.

And, for the record, I am 100% in accord with the basic goals of the French Revolution, ie, the abolish of the monarchy and aristocracy. It's where I took my user name from- the original use of the term "Left" in politics was for those who sat on the left side of the Assembly in revolutionary France, who opposed the monarchy, while those on the right supported it. "Left" as a political identity is literally rooted in opposition to monarchy and hereditary aristocracy (and I would like to think, by logical extension, hereditary privilege in general).

But it bears repeating that the orgy of beheadings that followed the overthrow of the monarchy did not, in fact, sweep away the aristocratic classes and lead to a more egalitarian society. No, what followed was a series of revolutions and counter revolutions, with the revolutionaries eating their own, and a few decades of Napoleon trying to conquer Europe in the middle. A lasting French Republic didn't emerge until nearly a century later, when Emperor Napoleon the Third lost the Franco-Prussian war. Then THAT Republic (which was still a colonial empire) got conquered by the Nazis 70 years later, and replaced by Occupied/Vichy France. The current, longest stretch of a somewhat democratic French Republic, free of either monarchist or fascist rule, did not begin until 1946, more than a century and a half after the first French Revolution.

The guillotine, beloved of Leftist advocates of violent revolution, did not free France from the tyranny of the upper classes. It did not eat the rich. But an argument can be made that it ate the Revolution.

#French Revolution #Guillotine #Political Violence #Left #Right #Monarchy #Nazis

[originalleftist]

Okay today in: Things I never thought I'd have to explain to alleged leftists

There is literally never an excuse for rape. There just isn't.

Like torture, it is a crime with absolutely no valid purpose whatsoever; it is simply a way to cause extreme suffering to another human being. Rape is effectively a type of torture, especially when paired with physical abuse or other sadistic acts.

With most other kinds of violence (not all) there are at least some circumstances that might (regrettably) call for them. Hitting someone? Injuring them? Even killing them? In a life or death scenario, you might have to defend yourself or someone else, even to the death.

But rape and torture require a lot more intentionality and are never necessary. Torture is known to produce bad information. And rape? Well, rape is specifically and only a way to humiliate and dominate someone. There are no circumstances under which rape is the correct answer.

No personal trauma, no collective trauma, no cause — nothing is a valid justification for rape.

Worse — rape is often not even intended as a punishment for the person (most commonly a woman or girl) being raped, but actually as a proxy to wound the men in their lives, the fathers, the husbands, the brothers, the sons who aren't able to protect "their" women.

Not only does this line of thinking reject the pain of the actual survivor in favor of her relatives, but it actually totally dehumanizes her and reduces her to an object that the rapist has damaged to get back at the man he actually wants to hurt.

Justifying rape as a tool for any reason whatsoever makes you a cesspool, I don't care what your internal justification is.

[originalleftist]

This should be obvious, it shouldn't need to be said- but it really does.

Some thoughts:

What I see more and more is that many, perhaps most people still have, at their core, a very simplistic worldview. One in which morality, right and wrong, true and false are not ultimately based a consistent principles, or upon facts and reason, or even on shear utility, but upon which side you're on. There are Good People (my side), and there are Bad People (the other side/sides), and if you're one of the Bad People, then you forfeit all rights and personhood and deserve anything that happens to you. It evokes the Medieval concept to the Outlaw- which IIRC meant, literally, someone outside the law, and it's protection.

And if you dare speak up and say, maybe all people deserve rights, then you're one of the Bad People, and you deserve it too. So even if one is not primarily driven by sadism and the shear pleasure of getting to be cruel to a socially sanctioned legitimate target to make yourself feel powerful (and many people are and do), there is a very strong incentive to go along with the mob, or at least to stay silent and let it do as it will, so as not to become one of it's targets.

There is also a large component of simple sadism and bullying, and also self-interest/clout chasing, of course.

You see it at all levels of society, on a whole range of issues. I became increasingly and painfully aware of this first on social media, particularly in fandom, where gatekeeping and in-group bullying is often the norm. The point was driven home a couple years ago, watching supposed "progressives" fall in line to join an incel hate mob against Amber Heard. I have also observed it from many so-called "Leftists" who's view of international politics seems to amount to "The US/the West is bad, Putin/Xi/Assad/etc are against the West, therefore they are good"- even though those people and their regimes are as brutal, regressive, bigoted, and imperialist as any in the West*. Team-based morality, rather than principles. And it's no surprise to see it again now with Israel and Gaza. You can see it in any war, probably, where the norm quickly becomes to demonize the entire population of the enemy country, down to the last child, as innately evil and undeserving of rights- even people descended from that nationality who were born in other countries (see Japanese Americans "interred" during World War II for just one example).

It's a twisted way to view the world, but it is still very much the norm. And even people who see it and understand it's injustice in one case, will turn around and perpetrate it in another (I think of some "feminists" I've encountered who fully grasp the injustice of witch-hunting women and disbelieving or blaming r*pe survivors- right up until they're Jews).

*Some of the more superficially intelligent ones might counter that the West has more power and is therefore the oppressor, and that this makes its actions less defensible than those "resisting" it. I've seen this same argument employed to defend Hamas's atrocities against Israel. Of course, power dynamics are a tricky thing. Russia has less power than the United States, but far more than the Ukrainian nation it is trying to destroy (Kremlin apologists try to sidestep this by simply treating Ukraine as an extension of NATO/the US, which does double duty by serving their agenda of erasing Ukraine as a sovereign country and cultural identity). Israel wields more military and economic might than Hamas, but it is hard to see how that power disparity advantages some random Israeli civilian who falls into the hands of a Hamas gunman. And of course worldwide, Jewish people are still a tiny and highly marginalized, frequently-targeted group.

It is also possible for a person to be privileged in some respects and to be disadvantaged in others- indeed this is probably true of just about every single person on the planet, to one degree or another. People are comprised of many different identities with many different ramifications for how society interacts with them. I can't help but feel that a lot of this idiocy might be mitigated if the average person had even the slightest grasp of intersectionality (I admit I have only a superficial grasp of it myself, but enough to grasp this point).

#Israel #Gaza #Palestine #Both Sides #Morality #Mob mentality #Propaganda #Intersectionality

[originalleftist]

i’m willing to believe some people are genuinely idiots who don’t know that 90%+ of polish jews were killed in the holocaust (and made up half of all poles killed in wwii), but. it’s almost like this shit helps nothing and no one

[originalleftist]

Zionism this, Ashkenazi normativity that.

When are goyim going to actually learn the true definition of Jewish words and respect the origins?

Ashkenazi normativity is not a word for goyim to use. It's part of a inter-community discussion amongst jews.

Zionism doesn't mean genocidal, it is a terms which simply means wanting Israel as a modern day state to exist. A peaceful two state solution is zionism.

The fact that yall can't leave jewish terms with their jewish definitions and intended uses is antisemitism. You are taking jewish words and giving them western definitions and acting like those new western definitions have either been the definitions all along or succeed the original jewish definitions.

If you are not wanting to use the jewish definition of jewish words, simply don't use them. Come up with your own words or use words which already fit the definition you are looking for.

Otherwise you are participating in erasure of jewish culture.

[originalleftist]

Texts From Superheroes

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[originalleftist]

Me messaging a guy on a dating app after we've been chatting for a bit:

Btw is that a Magen David in your second picture?

Him, understandably wary: yes.....

Me, realising the implication of just straight up being like "are you a Jew?" and frantically taking a selfie where you can see mine so as to prove I'm not about to be a massive racist: SNAP

[originalleftist]

The way that like 90+ percent of the true crime cases featured on shows like Dateline and forensic files involve a man murdering a woman, most often his wife or girlfriend (or a woman he had sexual contact with like a prostitute) and we’re just supposed to accept the fact that we live in a world where men kill the women they love sometimes, and no this obviously isn’t about misogyny these are isolated crimes of passion, and shouldn’t you be grateful that your husband only screams at you or hits you instead of killing you?

[originalleftist]

The Jewish definition of Zionism is very different than the popular definition of Zionism. For Jews, Zionism has its roots in a 3,000 year old tradition of wishing to return to our homeland. I would argue that while the political Zionist movement is not integral to Judaism, Zionism, by its Jewish definition is. You do not have Judaism without Israel. Jews traditionally call themselves and the land they come from Israel.

To be a Jew and call yourself antizionist, you must necessarily isolate yourself from your community. You believe that your community has been brainwashed en masse by “Zionism.” You stop going to community events because they’re too “Zionist.” You try to create your own way to mark Judaism without Israel but it falls flat and meaningless, breaking from the tradition of thousands of years of ancestors who yearned for Zion and who each slowly helped create Judaism as we know it today. You either have to be in denial about harm to your community or you have to accept it on some level. You have to be okay with throwing the majority of your own people under the bus, and definitely at least all Israelis. You have to deal with people who tell you your own history with half truths, who know nothing about your culture and have no respect for it.

I called myself antizionist for several years as a teenager, and this coincided with a complete removal from my community and a stark stop to my education about Jewish history and peoplehood. When I re-engaged, the more I learned about Judaism and Jewish history the more “Zionist” (in the Jewish sense not the popular political sense) I became. Within a few months of actually dealing with antizionist activists, I stopped calling myself an antizionist, because I realized very quickly that I was being tokenized and that for all the people around me claimed to know, they were deeply ignorant about anything to do with my culture and people. When I left my on campus group they replaced me with another token Jew almost immediately. When he fucked off they found another one, whom they weaponized against my campus Jewish community to try and evict our Jewish student centre.

So don’t you dare talk to me about the Jews in the encampment protests. Just don’t.

[originalleftist]

While transphobes are vile and must be opposed, a lot of misogynists in progressive spaces realized they can get away with anti-feminism by falsely claiming all feminism is trans-exclusionary. It is not, and people in these progressive spaces apparently need to be reminded that nothing exempts them from having their views on women and feminism affected by the patriarchy. If you immediately view women talking about men oppressing them with suspicion and scorn (especially when there’s no mention of trans people in the woman’s post), you’re just sexist

[originalleftist]

most people interpreted the "go back to poland" as being directed at israeli jews, which it often is, but i think it is important to mention that it was yelled at a Jewish student in America. They don't want us to be anywhere except for the place where the death camps were. Funny that.