RedInstead

The Rodeo Rule: you only have to do it for the first time once.

The Rohan Rule: if you are at a social function full of new people and you want to be liked, find someone doing important work like setup or food prep and offer to help.

The Tutorial Mode Rule: to navigate an unfamiliar situation where you fear you will mess up an interaction, preface the interaction by mentioning that you've never done this before, and let them know if you have a specific concern or question.

The Rocket Science Rule: most new things you want to try seem very complicated but are simple when taken step by step.

The [X] Will Remember That Rule: if you need to make small talk with the same person on a regular basis, try to save one fact or current event in their life from a given conversation and bring it up next time you talk.

If you go without it you feel unwell in a way that you never usually feel unwell. Sweating, tired, sleepy, headaches, irritable, depressed, etc. For example when I was in opium withdrawal I got incredibly depressed in a way that I’ve never been before or since. When you quit caffeine you might get super bad headaches even if you never usually get any headaches.

Thoughts of it regularly bother you and the thoughts go away once you’ve taken it but only temporarily. Unlike with a food craving which usually stays away once you’ve satisfied it or distracted yourself from it.

You find yourself rationalizing with yourself why you should break your own rules about how much you can take and how often. For example you might only let yourself drink alcohol every four days but start thinking that three days is actually close enough to four days, right? Especially if this happens regularly.

You’re using it so often that you feel the need to lie about how much you use because other people might think it’s concerning

If the substance or activity is nearby it’s genuinely difficult to not consume it or participate in it in a way that’s really frustrating.

You feel bad when you’re not on it and your brain tells you “if you just take the thing you wouldn’t feel this way”

You can only feel “whole” or “normal” when you’re on a substance even though it’s a recreational drug

Tell me you've never talked to a Palestinian in your entire life without telling me. Just. Wow. Imagine claiming to speak for Palestinian people and not taking the time to even do a 5 second google. I'm going to be really honest here. Your behavior disgusts me.

Palestinians are human beings. Do you get that?! They're not your props. Or your toys. They aren't a fashion accessory to make you look cool. Or a weapon you can wield in a hateful campaign against Israelis and Jews. Or a shield so you can feel better about having enabled a violent racist Fascist pedophile to be elected President of the most powerful country on earth. They are real, living, breathing human beings with thoughts and feelings and opinions.

The United States is very important and powerful. And elections in the US matter, not just for Americans but for people all over the world. The election mattered for the immigrant children in the US now being rounded up into prison facilities by ICE. They mattered to the trans people across the United States whose very existence is now being criminalized. They mattered for the millions of children across Africa sentenced to death by Trump's USAID cuts. AND THEY MATTERED TO PALESTINIANS.

Palestinian people were literally begging for anyone other than Trump. So much that even Al Jazeera, the fucking PROPAGANDA PUBLICATION OF THE CORRUPT QATAR DICTATORSHIP (the same dictatorship that bribed Trump by gifting him a whole plane) that usually spends all its time denying the Holocaust, supporting Hamas, spreading lies about Israel, and justifying the atrocities of the Qatari regime (including slavery) had to acknowledge it. Palestinians were screaming "please not Trump" so fucking loudly that even the PRO SLAVERY TERRORIST SUPPORTING PROPAGANDA NEWS REPORTED ON IT.

(It was also reported in other press too)

But sure. They're "too busy dying". WTF does that even mean? You think people who are in danger just sit around waiting to die for your gross fetishistic aesthetic and don't have opinions about what might make their situation better or worse?

The truth is, it's the opposite. People in danger can't afford not to care. Privileged, ignorant Westerners like you are the ones who can afford not to care. Who can say appalling things like "this election didn't matter" (while tens of thousands in Iran bleed and die just for the hope of one day having the privilege of voting) and "both Parties are the same."

The election mattered. Both Parties were not the same.

Stop fetishizing the suffering of Palestinian people and speaking over them and treating them as a trend or a means to feed your hatred of liberalism and democracy. You want to see freedom burn. You want to see Jews, Israelis, and Palestinians suffer. You aren't an activist. You are an ignorant privileged bigot.

If any part of you truly cares about Palestinian people you can start by being quiet for give minutes, learning to listen, learning to embrace nuance, and then channeling your energy into seeing who you can help, not who you can get away with hurting.

Here are some actual Palestinians you can listen to.

And some other helpful videos for additional context on the region and conflict:

And a really great Palestinian advocacy org to check out:

Sure, there is the argument that without any of those people and groups doing what they have done, antisemitism and Islamophobia respectively, would not be at the level it occurs. The same argument can be made that women who dress promiscuous are inviting men to sexually harass or assault them becuase if they just covered up, men would be able to help themselves and not harass them.

However, that level of thinking doesn't work. Antisemites and islamophobes would still find a way to be bigoted. Just like how even women who wear burqa still experience harassment and assault, despite being fully covered.

With all three things, people force permission from actions. Men force permission to sexually harass women by claiming its how they dress and not something that they personally have control over. Islamophobes do the same by acting as if the relatively few muslim terrorists represent all muslims. And antisemites do the same by acting as if the israeli government represents all jews.

With all 3 of these scenarios, it all boils down to individual responsibility. Whilst you can't exactly control every thought you have and thought crimes aren't real, it is your responsibility to go "hey, I didn't like that thought. Maybe I should cool it with consuming content that is making me think that way for a bit."

It is also individual responsibility to take action on a thought that you have. You don't have to do something just because you thought about it.