This is rare and unlike me, but I am going to preface this by saying it will take some resilience for you to read this weeks post. I touch on a few of uncomfortable topics so read it to your own capacity. If this rouses a reaction in you, please respond from a compassionate and kind place. Social media has taught us that all opinions are valid and that is simply not true. All opinions are solely opinions.
Your truth does not anger me. that is a projection on your part. I will say that I am triggered when people think that they can compartmentalize themselves from their role as American citizens in the horrors that are being done in our name overseas (and that our tax dollars are directly contributing to). I guess I will say, enjoy the privilege of being able to be "hypersensitive," because there are a lot of people who don't have that privilege. Being an adult is being able to be brave enough to confront this ugliness and it is a fantasy to think one can escape it.
This is a subject near and dear to me because I believe that America is a participatory democracy and the American public is largely ignorant about war and geopolitics and our perpetual role in it. I'm only on Instagram and typically post anything political or controversial there, but I think I can answer why people are posting these images about the current conflict (I'm thinking in particular of the activist Shaun King, who I follow). Those people are desperately trying to get people to care about war and to use their voices to help stop it. In the case of King, he specifically is trying to bring awareness to the plight of the Palestinians (who until this moment were hardly on the world's radar and who the US media largely ignore). The Palestinians in Gaza have been living in what amounts to the world's largest open air prison since 2006 (and before that, starting in 1947, have been displaced from their land and their homes so that Israeli Jews can move in). Gaza is home to around 2 million Palestinians, half of whom are children (who cannot vote and so did not vote for Hamas). They are continually food, medicine and income insecure (and 90% of the water is not potable). Israel controls everything that goes into Gaza and everything that comes out, and although there has been some primitive military resistance to this state of affairs (which they are allowed to do under International law as residents of an "occupied" land), Gazans have been carpet bombed by the Israelis on the regular for most of my lifetime. Now, due to the Hamas terrorist attack, the far-right wing Israeli government has pretext to go beyond fighting Hamas and to collectively punish and eliminate all Palestinians from Gaza (this is considered a war crime under International law).
The reason why all Americans should care about this (besides the obvious) is that our tax dollars are directly funding this horror. Israel is basically our proxy in the region, and we give them unconditional monetary and military support. The major human rights organizations consider Israel's actions a genocide and much of the rest of the world is turning against us. All UN members (except US and Israel and Ukraine) have voted for a ceasefire. Iran (who many think are funding Hamas), Russia (who we are fighting by proxy in Ukraine) and China (who would like to usurp us geopolitically) are aligning against us geopolitically, as are many South American countries (many of which we upended politically with coups during the 70s and 80s and beyond and so have many reasons to dislike and distrust us). These things do not make us safe and we are now losing our position as the world's hegemon (basically squandered, in my opinion, with greed and lust for war and power, facilitated by a distracted and ignorant population. Many think we are on the brink of WWIII (perhaps involving nuclear weapons), at which point we will all be affected, in one way or another. Who will fight that war? I doubt we have enough enlisted personnel. We most certainly will need to bring back the draft and then maybe people will care about war. At the very least, our job as Americans is to be informed about these things and let our government representatives know that we find them intolerable. There are massive protests going on right now (including blocking of weapons-carrying ships carrying at the major West coast port) and there will be political consequences to the Democrats, who are some of the warmongeringest MTFRs out there (including Joe Biden, who has never met a war he didn't love). The Republicans are no better, as they all get contributions from the weapons and reconstruction industries. Hedge funds, such as Blackrock, love to invest in war. To be clear, I don't blame Jewish people for the actions of the Israeli government (the conflation of Jews with Israel is a propaganda trick to suppress dissent on this topic). I don't personally know any Palestinians but I have had plenty of Jewish friends and coworkers (and a Jewish "godmother") who I care about deeply. Hope this clears things up.
Your truth does not anger me. that is a projection on your part. I will say that I am triggered when people think that they can compartmentalize themselves from their role as American citizens in the horrors that are being done in our name overseas (and that our tax dollars are directly contributing to). I guess I will say, enjoy the privilege of being able to be "hypersensitive," because there are a lot of people who don't have that privilege. Being an adult is being able to be brave enough to confront this ugliness and it is a fantasy to think one can escape it.
This is a subject near and dear to me because I believe that America is a participatory democracy and the American public is largely ignorant about war and geopolitics and our perpetual role in it. I'm only on Instagram and typically post anything political or controversial there, but I think I can answer why people are posting these images about the current conflict (I'm thinking in particular of the activist Shaun King, who I follow). Those people are desperately trying to get people to care about war and to use their voices to help stop it. In the case of King, he specifically is trying to bring awareness to the plight of the Palestinians (who until this moment were hardly on the world's radar and who the US media largely ignore). The Palestinians in Gaza have been living in what amounts to the world's largest open air prison since 2006 (and before that, starting in 1947, have been displaced from their land and their homes so that Israeli Jews can move in). Gaza is home to around 2 million Palestinians, half of whom are children (who cannot vote and so did not vote for Hamas). They are continually food, medicine and income insecure (and 90% of the water is not potable). Israel controls everything that goes into Gaza and everything that comes out, and although there has been some primitive military resistance to this state of affairs (which they are allowed to do under International law as residents of an "occupied" land), Gazans have been carpet bombed by the Israelis on the regular for most of my lifetime. Now, due to the Hamas terrorist attack, the far-right wing Israeli government has pretext to go beyond fighting Hamas and to collectively punish and eliminate all Palestinians from Gaza (this is considered a war crime under International law).
The reason why all Americans should care about this (besides the obvious) is that our tax dollars are directly funding this horror. Israel is basically our proxy in the region, and we give them unconditional monetary and military support. The major human rights organizations consider Israel's actions a genocide and much of the rest of the world is turning against us. All UN members (except US and Israel and Ukraine) have voted for a ceasefire. Iran (who many think are funding Hamas), Russia (who we are fighting by proxy in Ukraine) and China (who would like to usurp us geopolitically) are aligning against us geopolitically, as are many South American countries (many of which we upended politically with coups during the 70s and 80s and beyond and so have many reasons to dislike and distrust us). These things do not make us safe and we are now losing our position as the world's hegemon (basically squandered, in my opinion, with greed and lust for war and power, facilitated by a distracted and ignorant population. Many think we are on the brink of WWIII (perhaps involving nuclear weapons), at which point we will all be affected, in one way or another. Who will fight that war? I doubt we have enough enlisted personnel. We most certainly will need to bring back the draft and then maybe people will care about war. At the very least, our job as Americans is to be informed about these things and let our government representatives know that we find them intolerable. There are massive protests going on right now (including blocking of weapons-carrying ships carrying at the major West coast port) and there will be political consequences to the Democrats, who are some of the warmongeringest MTFRs out there (including Joe Biden, who has never met a war he didn't love). The Republicans are no better, as they all get contributions from the weapons and reconstruction industries. Hedge funds, such as Blackrock, love to invest in war. To be clear, I don't blame Jewish people for the actions of the Israeli government (the conflation of Jews with Israel is a propaganda trick to suppress dissent on this topic). I don't personally know any Palestinians but I have had plenty of Jewish friends and coworkers (and a Jewish "godmother") who I care about deeply. Hope this clears things up.