The Thing I Keep Coming Back To, With All The *gestures Expansively* Is That Real Life Doesn't Have Peaceful

I haven't purchased a HP item in close to a decade - I use the books I already had as doorstops or to prop a laptop up for meetings nowadays.

There is NO "death of the author" with JK Rowling - she controls and continues to profit from her IP, and uses that money to fund hate groups.

Pajiba

How Many More Times Can We Say It? Your Harry Potter Addiction Is Funding Transphobia

When one person can give £70,000 to a hate group's legal funds, maybe it's time to bin the Dobby plushies.

You're such a hypocrite it is truly infuriating. You want people to condemn Hamas attacks on hospitals and kindergartens but your countries attacks on churches, hospitals, ambulances and refugee camps are ok?

Either both of them are bad or both of them are alright.

The way you start this ask makes it clear that you're incapable of hearing me out, so this reply isn't for you. It's for anyone else who might be confused.

Here's the timeline of events:

Oct 7: Over 3,000 terrorists break into Israel and rape, maim, kill and abduct over 1,400 civilians. Among their crimes, these terrorists kill paramedics in their ambulances, and shoot the tires of said ambulances so they can't be used to save lives.

Medical staff and tools targeting isn't widely condemned, nor reported by major news outlets. No outraged posts on Tumblr.

Oct 8: Barzilai hospital takes a direct hit from a Palestinian rocket fired from Gaza.

Hospital targeting isn't widely condemned, nor reported by major news outlets. No outraged posts on Tumblr.

Oct 11: Barzilai hospital takes a second and third direct hit from Palestinian rockets fired from Gaza.

Repeated hospital targeting isn't widely condemned, nor reported by major news outlets. No outraged posts on Tumblr.

Oct 17: Hamas reports an explosion at al Ahli hospital in Gaza, claims 500 people killed, and blames Israel instantly (even though it would be impossible to determine a number of fatalities that high within just 10 minutes of the explosion taking place, or to verify responsibility within that time frame).

Worldwide condemnations of Israel, every major news outlet adds this false Hamas report to their breaking news headlines and push notifications, and Tumblr fills with posts about Israel committing war crimes immediately.

But that very night, it turned out that the rocket was fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist organization. The rocket malfunctioned and hit the al Ahli hospital instead of Israel, and the next day it turned out the hospital wasn't even hit, it was the parking lot, the damage caused didn't fit an Israeli airstrike, and the damage also didn't fit a casualty figure of 500 people. In the following days, every independent check (including from institutes hostile to Israel) confirmed it was a PIJ rocket, not an Israeli airstrike.

No PIJ condemnations, nor reports by any major news outlets. Posts on Tumblr either ignore PIJ's culpability, or continue to insist that Israel is to blame, despite NO credible sources saying definitively so.

I know where the hypocrisy lies.

But the hypocrisy doesn't end there. Because what Israel and Hamas are doing with their own medical facilities is different.

Israel DOES NOT use its ambulances to hide soldiers and to transport weapons. It doesn't place its headquarters under the Barzilai hospital. There are no Israeli fighter jets being launched from its courtyard. That's why the Barzilai hospital maintains its protected status as a forbidden target during fighting. Because it is used strictly for civilian purposes.

In contrast, Hamas placed its headquarters under the Shifa hospital in Gaza. It has used ambulances to transport its armed terrorists. It's done so, because they KNOW that Israel normally doesn't strike medical facilities. Hamas terrorists have said so themselves. Here are two vids, the first about the use of hospitals by Hamas units, the second about the use of ambulances, and in both cases the reason given is that Hamas knows Israel wouldn't strike there:

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

“Books are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!

“E-books are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!

“Audiobooks are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!

“Video games are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!

“Subscriptions to magazines/newspapers are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!

For real, get a library card for your local public library and you will have almost unlimited access to all kinds of media for free. Libraries also often have many different kinds of classes you can take, often for free or very cheap. Oh, and don’t forget the computers and internet access you can also use for free.

In conclusion, yet a library card.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC LIBRARY!!!

I believe one of the most telling signs of how bad blatant antisemitism has gotten, is that diaspora Jews are terrified for Israeli Jews, while Israeli Jews are terrified for diaspora Jews.

Here's the latest example of why I, as an Israeli Jew, in the middle of a multi-front war, am terrified for my siblings abroad...

Two vids that I combined into one, because Tumblr's a dick to posts with multiple ones:

What makes this of particular concern is the fact that this is a man who's supposed to be combating antisemitism, but instead he's perpetuating it, while actively denying Jews some of the few tools that are meant to protect marginalized communities...

IDK if it's of any comfort, but diaspora Jews, you are NOT alone. We see you, we hear what you're going through, we care. We wish we could do more for you, but you are NEVER alone. <3

Sending you all the love from Israel, be strong! xoxox

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

A complaint known to the Anglo-Saxons as aelfsgotha (hiccough, or heartburn) was attributed to fairy agency, or perhaps to elfin possession. A Latin charm used to expel it, when translated, runs: "Almighty God, expel from thy servant N. through the laying on of this writing, all attack of the Castalides from his head, from his hair and from all parts of his body". The "Castalides" were the Muses of Classical myth, but the name is used here as a Latin equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon word aelf, "an elf". (W. Bonsor, "Magical Practices against Elves", Folk-Lore, XXXVII, p. 350 ff.)

-The Fairy Tradition in Britain, Lewis Spence, pg. 167

“Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.” ~ Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Just tossing this here so non-jewish mutuals/followers are aware, since I think this isn't as well known: Jewish Voice for Peace is as representative of jews as Autism Speaks is of autistic people. That is to say - not at all.

To clarify, I do not disagree with the idea of jews fighting for.. well, peace. I am a big supporter of organizations like Standing Together which pushes for exactly that. The issue is that JVP just makes shit up, often misrepresents or totally messes up jewish tradition (like the time when they misspelled every single hebrew word on their passover plate), and is generally such a car crash that it would be a bad idea to take their comments on judaism at face value.

So I’ve been enjoying the Disney vs. DeSantis memes as much as anyone, but like. I do feel like a lot of people who had normal childhoods are missing some context to all this.

I was raised in the Bible Belt in a fairly fundie environment. My parents were reasonably cool about some things, compared to the rest of my family, but they certainly had their issues. But they did let me watch Disney movies, which turned out to be a point of major contention between them and my other relatives.

See, I think some people think this weird fight between Disney and fundies is new. It is very not new. I know that Disney’s attempts at inclusion in their media have been the source of a lot of mockery, but what a lot of people don’t understand is that as far as actual company policy goes, Disney has actually been an industry leader for queer rights. They’ve had policies assuring equal healthcare and partner benefits for queer employees since the early 90s.

I’m not sure how many people reading this right now remember the early 90s, but that was very much not industry standard. It was a big deal when Disney announced that non-married queer partners would be getting the same benefits as the married heterosexual ones.

Like — it went further than just saying that any unmarried partners would be eligible for spousal benefits. It straight-up said that non-same-sex partners would still need to be married to receive spousal benefits, but because same-sex partners couldn’t do that, proof that they lived together as an established couple would be enough.

In other words, it put long-term same-sex partners on a higher level than opposite-sex partners who just weren’t married yet. It put them on the exact same level as heterosexual married partners.

They weren’t the first company ever to do this, but they were super early. And they were certainly the first mainstream “family-friendly” company to do it.

Conservatives lost their damn minds.

Protests, boycotts, sermons, the whole nine yards. I can’t tell you how many books about the evils of Disney my grandmother tried to get my parents to read when I was a kid.

When we later moved to Florida, I realized just how many queer people work at Disney — because historically speaking, it’s been a company that has guaranteed them safety, non-discrimination, and equal rights. That’s when I became aware of their unofficial “Gay Days” and how Christians would show up from all over the country to protest them every year. Apparently my grandmother had been upset about these days for years, but my parents had just kind of ignored her.

Out of curiosity, I ended up reading one of the books my grandmother kept leaving at our house. And friends — it’s amazing how similar that (terrible, poorly written) rhetoric was to what people are saying these days. Disney hires gay pedophiles who want to abuse your children. Disney is trying to normalize Satanism in our beautiful, Christian America. 

Just tons of conspiracy theories in there that ranged from “a few bad things happened that weren’t actually Disney’s fault, but they did happen” to “Pocahontas is an evil movie, not because it distorts history and misrepresents indigenous life, but because it might teach children respect for nature. Which, as we all know, would cause them all to become Wiccans who believe in climate change.”

Like — please, take it from someone who knows. This weird fight between fundies and Disney is not new. This is not Disney’s first (gay) rodeo. These people have always believed that Disney is full of evil gays who are trying to groom and sexually abuse children.

The main difference now is that these beliefs are becoming mainstream. It’s not just conservative pastors who are talking about this. It’s not just church groups showing up to boycott Gay Day. Disney is starting to (reluctantly) say the quiet part out loud, and so are the Republicans. Disney is publicly supporting queer rights and announcing company-supported queer events and the Republican Party is publicly calling them pedophiles and enacting politically driven revenge.

This is important, because while this fight has always been important in the history of queer rights, it is now being magnified. The precedent that a fight like this could set is staggering. For better or for worse, we live in a corporation-driven country. I don’t like it any more than you do, and I’m not about to defend most of Disney’s business practices. But we do live in a nation where rights are largely tied to corporate approval, and the fact that we might be entering an age where even the most powerful corporations in the country are being banned from speaking out in favor of rights for marginalized people… that’s genuinely scary.

Like… I’ll just ask you this. Where do you think we’d be now, in 2023, if Disney had been prevented from promising its employees equal benefits in 1994? That was almost thirty years ago, and look how far things have come. When I looked up news articles for this post from that era, even then journalists, activists, and fundie church leaders were all talking about how a company of Disney’s prominence throwing their weight behind this movement could lead to the normalization of equal protections in this country.

The idea of it scared and thrilled people in equal parts even then. It still scares and thrills them now.

I keep seeing people say “I need them both to lose!” and I get it, I do. Disney has for sure done a lot of shit over the years. But I am begging you as a queer exvangelical to understand that no. You need Disney to win. You need Disney to wipe the fucking floor with these people.

Right now, this isn’t just a fight between a giant corporation and Ron DeSantis. This is a fight about the right of corporations to support marginalized groups. It’s a fight that ensures that companies like Disney still can offer benefits that a discriminatory government does not provide. It ensures that businesses much smaller than Disney can support activism.

Hell, it ensures that you can support activism.

The fight between weird Christian conspiracy theorists and Disney is not new, because the fight to prevent any tiny victory for marginalized groups is not new. The fight against the normalization of othered groups is not new.

That’s what they’re most afraid of. That each incremental victory will start to make marginalized groups feel safer, that each incremental victory will start to turn the tide of public opinion, that each incremental victory will eventually lead to sweeping law reform.

They’re afraid that they won’t be able to legally discriminate against us anymore.

So guys! Please. This fight, while hilarious, is also so fucking important. I am begging you to understand how old this fight is. These people always play the long game. They did it with Roe and they’re doing it with Disney.

We have! To keep! Pushing back!