sum guy

which is... honestly really distressing? i've seen posts from a number of users on this site alone that demonstrate an inability (or perhaps just unwillingness) to simply understand the layman's experience in any one of the aforementioned countries ... because truly citizens have very little control over the actions of a government. which i'm kind of baffled that i have to say for it to be known

it tends to be a desire to characterize these groups of people some type of way - as all assholes, or genocidal, or stupid, or anything of the like. it dissociates you from other people. that exact rhetoric is a part of the pipeline that has been shown to lead to violence, both directly and indirectly. regardless of your political standing, your activism is immediately discredited when you focus on the individual and not the system.

let me be perfectly clear: this is a criticism of monochromatic thinking - at the moment i'm not trying to single out any one faction on the matter because i have Seen with my own two eyes this Exact thing go on at both ends. at best it would be hypocritical of me to point it out happening in only one of those spaces.

i think it's important to proceed with these discussions without hate. genuinely. blind anger and hatred what's poisoning all chances of finding solidarity, of finding a place to meet and just talk. and like... i understand the urge to say something cruel to someone who pisses you off or whose ideologies frustrate you. i think that's a universal thing to feel. but from a humanistic perspective, how are we supposed to incite and maintain long-term peace if what drives us to those goals is unfettered rage

i should also make it obvious, so this post doesn't reach the wrong crowd: i am avidly pro-palestine, pro-jew, and anti-zionist. if you believe those things are mutually exclusive, you have missed the point of this post by a mile.