A place to Reblog All The Things

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In retrospect, I think probably there are a lot of American Jewish people on this post because they've been interrogated about zionism nonstop for months and they've been made afraid through acts of terror on American soil.

Years. We've been interrogated about it for years. It is the defining purity/litmus test for Jews of any affiliation. I have been kicked out of both real life and online spaces for refusing to denounce Israel as the source of all evil and the destruction of it and my entire ethnic identity as a prerequisite for the coming of peace on earth.

When I pointed out that it was not a genocide back in November of 2023, because of the actions being taken by the IDF to reduce civilian casualties, I had someone who I believed had been a friend for six years summarily block and ghost me. In the time since, I have seen them make the claim that I personally have killed Palestinian children "and laughed". How that's possible when I live in Europe and have never been to Israel is apparently left for the jury to determine.

We've all lost friends, social circles, entire political affiliations, jobs, financial opportunities, and more because we're Jews, and thus are treated with suspicion because of our ethnic heritage, and if we're not willing to bark "Israel Is The Source Of All Evil In The World And Must Be Destroyed And All Of The Israelis Murdered As Painfully As Possible In Order To Achieve Justice" without prompting, we're looked upon with suspicion of being "secret Zionists". Members of our community have been murdered and given a pass by the population at large because the murderer claimed that they're "not antisemitic, just antizionist". The legal system in Europe has given offenders who have engaged in conspiracy to assault and kill Jews benign sentences that were little more than slaps on the wrist. And more and more.

So seeing someone like yourself actually stand up and say, "Yeah, no, that's BS. There have definitely been crimes committed and they need to be investigated and prosecuted, but this histrionic labeling of people as 'Zionists' is just in opposition to everything I stand for," is something that practically drives some of us to tears. When people you once thought of friends, colleagues and allies show that they will abandon every principle they claimed they had on the altar of Jew-hate, seeing someone actually hew to their principles is worth cherishing.

I've gotten a couple asks like this and I want y'all to know I'm chewing on them.

I'm very good at poking my way through my own thoughts, so I've been doing a lot of thinking since that post about why I'm so sure that this is a bullshit purity test and not what many people believe it is -- a dogma of colonialist, racist, violent ideology.

Is it just because I know a lot of Jewish people? I mean, I do know a lot of Jewish people (lawyer, notorious Jewish prestige profession), and I'm like, those guys? Nah. That one's a Jewish lady with the biggest purse I've ever seen and we won a case together on behalf of some siblings; that one's an old Jewish guy who went to the same drama school as my mom like ten minutes after she left and knows all her friends and tells a great story.

I've felt for a long time that Jewish people are the canary in the coal mine when it comes to burgeoning fascism, but that's not all of it either.

I have posted a fair amount about liberal purity culture, the foolishness of driving off imperfect allies, the joy of embracing people where they are and broadening your own world as a result, so there's some inherent hostility to liberal and leftist exclusion.

Words and attitudes can certainly contribute to harm. Even across the globe. And I've seen things on here that speak to a defensiveness about Israel from Jewish folks that seems... well, honestly, seems just defensive. Reactive.

On top of this, there was a literal point when I knew that some of this debate was just a business that was none of mine, and that was when a Jewish friend of mine told me that zionists were missing the point of being Jewish because Jewish people were supposed to wander, that was what it was about. (PLEASE DON'T ARGUE ABOUT THIS, unless you are being respectful and informative. I'm only using this as an example of a thing that surprised me and showed me wow, I have only scratched the surface of understanding this shit.)

Then there's what I've done with my life and career. It took ages for me to start seeing the big picture in the criminal justice system, and start feeling out the shape of how state violence is creating the exact problems it's claiming to be solving. Whenever I read anything about Israel, it seems to me like I see the same thing happening there, like a perpetual motion machine: each side (speaking specifically of the ones making the violence-related decisions), in reacting with violence, ensures the future violence that will react to them, and in so doing perpetuates the need for retaliation, forever, forever. From what's happened over the last few years, it seems to me that Israel has given Hamas recruits for decades, and Hamas has inspired Israel to new atrocity.

But we can't forget the humanity in all of the killers and torturers and bombers. They see themselves as a guardian of the weak, an avenger of the fallen, a bringer of justice. That's why they do this. So what good do I do in calling someone an ideological enemy? What even is an ideological enemy? Is it someone I would kill in the name of ideology? That's no one. I'm a pacifist.

...That went a little far afield. But, also: the trappings of bullying include anonymous harassment and accusations without evidence, both of which are pretty telling. If you're on the side of knowledge and clarity, I'm gonna be kinda suspicious when you're apparently afraid to stand behind your words. (Anonymous questions are a totally different thing from anonymous accusations, that's about giving people an environment of openness without judgment where they can ask the things they're genuinely wondering about.)

Sort of a final note. I don't have an overriding theme here, as you may have figured out, I'm just sort of having thoughts.

People who have spent a while in one career or working hard on one hobby and who got good at it understand: when you interact in a space with certain concepts, you get skilled at dealing with those concepts. Talented costume designers understand the structure of the human body and how bits of things fit together in clothes in a way I don't know. Scientists have huge dimensions of knowledge where I can, at best, skim the surface.

This tickled me!

Summary:

Safety warnings have been getting wilder as our world becomes more intricately dangerous. I've spoken about this before: fifty years ago, most warning signs were like "don't put your cigarette out in this." Nowadays there's a ton of cautions about radio interference with your Xbox controllers if you eat a cupcake the wrong way after having major dental surgery.

Part of this is because the demands of the customer have become more sophisticated. Every day, we're doing shit that would have pissed off a NASA scientist, and not even thinking about it too hard. Last week, I got mad that the free wifi on an airplane wasn't very fast. My buddy made some kind of special collar that lets us hear the thoughts of dogs, and then he threw it out with the other clutter on his desk when his in-laws were visiting.

Unfortunately, human brains are still basically the same as fifty years ago. Most of us would still be considered "kinda weird" in the 70s. There is a much wider gap of knowledge that has to be expressed to your average run-of-the-mill ding-dong in order to explain to them just how much trouble they are in. That's where the warnings are coming from: you practically have to include an undergraduate lecture to get people up to speed with the concepts involved, before you tell them not to put those concepts in their mouth.

“Chief Hakoda?” the Prince of the Kill It With Fire Nation repeats, like his brain is as stupid as his face. Or like he just realized he’s taken a high-value hostage, redeemable for one (1) ransom against an enemy leader.

“Did I say Chief Hakoda?” Sokka laughs, nervously. “I meant, ah—”

“Shut up, peasant,” the prince shouts. And then sort of… chokes on his own words, getting redder and redder.

---

“Perhaps a break, Prince Zuko?” says Uncle, like this is… like this is the tea-time social he’s set the table for. 

Zuko is in the hallway with the door slammed behind him before he can think. Thinking. Thinking is a thing he needs to do, and Uncle’s proverbs only ever leave his thoughts feeling twisted around, and—

And that is not a peasant that sacrificed himself, to give the Avatar a chance to flee. That’s a fellow prince, or whatever the Water Tribe would call him.

---

“So,” Sokka says, spinning the teacup between his cuffed hands contemplatively. “How much poison would you say is in here? And what kind?”

The old man is sputtering indignantly, but Sokka is very seriously considering taking his first sip. If it’s laced with something to loosen his tongue, well, can’t get much worse there. It’s not like he knows where his dad is. Or anything useful. Certainly not more useful than handing the Fire Nation the son of their fleet’s leader. And if it’s something deadly, well...

He doesn’t know what his dad would do or give to get him back. But it wouldn’t be good, for the war or the world or their tribe.

He figured he’d die, when he’d shouted at Katara to go, take him and go. He hadn’t realized how much worse this could get. Was getting. Because the son and heir of Fire Lord Burn Them All was out in the hallway, thinking. 

---

Zuko thinks. About what his own father would do, if he were to receive a ransom letter. The disappointment. The… repercussions. 

---

“You’re what?” Sokka asks. 

“I am releasing you,” His Shoutiness repeats, through clenched and grinding teeth.

“Huh,” Sokka says, and takes another sip from his cup, because oh, this is hallucinogenic tea. Good stuff. “Care to explain that?”

---

No, Zuko wants to shout. But this is the fellow son of a world leader. Zuko hasn’t had many friends, and he’s not looking to add the Water Prince to that atrophied number, but. 

But he could understand.

“You stood and fought when you could not win, for a cause you believed in,” Zuko said, and he didn’t know why Uncle suddenly looked so pained. “I will not demand trinkets from your father for your return. If he hears of this, it will not be from me. You will be released at the nearest neutral port.”

---

Like an undersized fish, Sokka did not say. 

#the nearest neutral port just so happens to be kyoshi island #why say aang and katara what are YOU doing here??

Zuko is grinding his teeth SO HARD he did not come here to start an international incident and he WON'T start one stop looking at him like that Uncle he is doing something Honorable the Southern Prince said so and so help him he is going to KEEP BEING HONORABLE while the other boy is watching even as the Avatar creeps closer and closer one little side step at a time looking all curious and hopeful

like an actual child

THE BENDING PRODIGY SISTER IS THANKING HIM REPEAT ZUKO IS IN THE SIGHTS OF THE BENDING PRODIGY SISTER

she is smiling at him and sounds incredibly sincere

(and also confused)

and he KNOWS what "sincere" smiles from sisters mean

abort abort abort

maybe he can get his ship away from here before she "accidentally" sinks it

(clearly her bending fumbling at his ship was a clever disguise, if she'd REALLY been that bad she'd have been CAPTURED, had she been MOCKING his crew? clearly that was the only--WHY IS THE AVATAR STANDING AT HIS ELBOW)

No really WHY is the unfathomably powerful (literal child) right next to his elbow and GRINNING up at him

And talking about how Zuko is a prince. And Sokka is a prince.

(the sister is laughing behind her hand REPEAT the sister is laughing abort abort abort--)

And since there's two princes and an Avatar here on this neutral island why don't they have

why don't they have

peace talks

"I will make tea!" Uncle beams and instead of using that as cover to retreat back to their ship goes to do so IN THE VILLAGE and Zuko

Zuko can't leave him alone with these people

So there he is. On Kyoshi Island. Incapable of admitting in front of Prince Sokka and Princess Katara and Avatar, The that he might

maybe

not have the ability to create legally binding agreements like a real prince should

which is about when Zhao shows up. And you know who doesn't have the legal right to INTERRUPT peace talks?

Motherturtleducking Zhao

which is to say

he is sincerely sorry, Father, for the overstep of his position

and rest assured no formal promises were made

but please see the enclosed First Draft treaty between the Fire Nation and the United Southern Water Tribes

(as well as a small request for reparations to Kyoshi Island, for peace talk hosting and minor fire damage)

And rest further assured that he has taken the joint advice of Avatar Aang and General Iroh

And will be traveling with the Avatar to facilitate communication with the Dragon Throne

Until such time as the Fire Lord commands him not to

Sincerely,

Your Most Loyal And Obedient Son

And then there's a bit right at the end of the story as the wife and the husband are walking out of court:

Jill turned abruptly. "What is your name? Your real name."

The man's gray eyes flickered. He smiled a little, kind, gentle smile. "I'm afraid you would not be able to pronounce it. The sounds cannot be formed..."

Jill was silent as they walked along, deep in thought. The city lights were coming on all around them. Bright yellow spots in the gloom. "What are you thinking?" the man asked.

"I was thinking perhaps I will still call you Lester," Jill said. "If you don't mind."

"I don't mind," the man said. He put his arm around her, drawing her close to him. He gazed down tenderly as they walked through the thickening darkness, between the yellow candles of light that marked the way. "Anything you wish. Whatever will make you happy."

And I. God. There's something there. A soupcon of monsterfuckery. To tell your partner in a moment of intimacy that yes, you're something so inhuman that the lips you're stealing can't speak your actual name. You're a parasite that not only had the ability to burrow under this man's skin and take over his life, but you were so desperate to escape a dead, dry, blasted planet that you did.

No parts of it extended beyond the lines, and the paper ticket was clearly displayed, impaled on a horn.