Imagine thinking politicians are owed votes no matter what they do or promise. You’re beyond cooked. Here’s hoping the Dems and Republicans accelerate the US to a speedy demise.

Yeah allowing even a single Palestinian speaker at the DNC, with vetted speech, and a promised endorsement of Kamala is really a lot to ask, what were those tankies thinking? Even the smallest step in the direction workers rights or not doing genocide was one too many for the Kamala campaign. The democrats rightly lost by pandering to billionaires and oligarchs rather than courting voters.

This ties into the notion of interpassivity. This is when a piece of media perform an action for you (think interactivity, but exactly the opposite). An example is the laugh track on sitcoms. Another is the series or film performing your environmental or anti-capital activism for you. Frequently the bad guy is some big polluting corp, or some evil rich guy who wants to bulldoze the community center to put his Luxury Resort there. You watch the movie, feel all rebellious and sympathetic with the main characters, and go home feeling like you’ve done something, when in fact all you’ve done is feed Disney some more money. See also movies like triangle of sadness and the glass onion or whatever.

Mark Fischer’s capitalist realism explores this and similar ideas in a much more comprehensive and eloquent manner than I ever could. Give it a read, it’s quite short!

I think you’re kind of missing the point. I was pointing out the obvious self contradiction in the Bush-Cheney era “you’re either with us or against us” war criminal rhetoric. I’ll spell it out some more.

You personally are not providing weapons to Israel, nor intelligence. Does this mean that you personally are actively aiding and abetting Palestine?

When America invaded Vietnam, Angola did not provide weapons and intelligence to Vietnam. Does that mean Angola was actively aiding and abetting Vietnam?

When America invaded Iraq, France did not provide weapons and intelligence to America. Does that mean France was aiding and abetting Iraq?

He could lose 99% of it and come out completely unscathed. He lives in a reality separate from ours. The only thing he’ll feel is a bullet through the head. Here’s hoping!

He’s also not providing military support to and not sharing intelligence with Russia, so that means he’s actively and intentionally supporting Ukraine.

In 1831, a group of slaves led by fellow slave Nat Turner rebelled against the white slave owners. The command issued was simple: “kill all whites”. And they did. They killed about 55 white men, women, and children. Ten victims were 5 years or younger. The retaliation of the white slave owners was extensive. For example, in the immediate aftermath, 120 slaves were killed. The material conditions of the enslaved worsened significantly. Despite this violence, and the even more violent retribution, the abolitionists never condemned Nat Turner. John Browne goes so far as calling him an inspiration. Today, we honor Nat Turner as a hero. There’s a park in New Jersey named after him, among other things.

History is rife with examples of violent struggle against violent oppression, and it’s never pretty. The ANC (anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, party of Mandela) bombed civilians, the Hatian revolution involved the mass killing of French colonizers. Invariably, they kill civilians, and invariably, we look back on them as heroes playing a fundamental role in liberation.

Israel is an apartheid state, just like South Africa was. Gaza has been described as a concentration camp. It’s one of the most densely populated regions in the world, borders completely controlled by Israel, you cannot get out. Half the inmates are children. The regular bombings since 2008 of this concentration camp (referred to as mowing the lawn) have killed thousands. The massacres at Sabra and Shatila, directed by the IDF, claiming in three days the lives of up to 3500 palestinians, were genocide. The occupation at the end of the six day war of the Golan heights, the Sinai peninsula, the Gaza strip and the West Bank resulted in the displacement of 400,000 arabs. This is ethnic displacement.

During the march of return, a peaceful protest in 2019 in Gaza, Israel had snipers deliberately target medics, the elderly, children, and the disabled. They were aiming for the knees, maiming some for life, killing others. Thousands were injured, hundreds killed, hospitals overrun. Despite this gruesome response, the protest went largely ignored around the globe, and nothing changed for Gazans.

When peaceful resistance against a violent apartheid ethnostate does nothing, what is to be done? If there is any justice in the world, we will look back on October 7th as we do on Nat Turner’s slave revolt, or the Warsaw uprising. I hope that one day I can walk in Yahya Al-Sinwar park.