What To Boycott NOW To Help Stop Israel’s Unfolding Genocide Of Palestinians In Gaza

kitchen equipment: a guide

If you, for some reason, still have a subscription to the Atlantic, cancel it

please consider how you engage with aaron bushnell's death. you may react to it as you will, but it's crucial to remember that his death was specifically a call to action. it was not meant solely to shock but to draw attention to a vast moral hypocrisy: that to many, a soldier dying in a campaign backed by the U.S. government is noble, even if the soldier kills innocents to do so, even if the cause is morally bankrupt--but this? this is insanity. a man taking his own life, on his own terms, in an attempt to help others while hurting nobody else, is somehow less rational and more horrifying than the mass killing of civilians.

of course aaron's death was horrific. but as he said beforehand, it is realistically no more horrific than what's happening in gaza. if we can't stomach this, then why can we stomach children being bombed? thousands being starved? for all that self immolation is, it brings death in a matter of minutes. it is a fraction of the amount of pain, fear, and grief that people in gaza are experiencing. it's just that we are able to quantify it. and this tiny, quantifiable sliver of horror is still so unbelievably awful. how can anyone bear to think about anything else when this horror is happening a millionfold in palestine? this is the question aaron bushnell was asking. and he wanted you to face it, head-on, watching him burn to death.

I've been seeing people make fanart. minimalist graphics to sell on t-shirts. to commodify his death, to mythologize it not a day afterwards, is not only in poor taste but a hindrance to his message. the answer is not commodification, nor is it defeatism, nor is it rejoicing in his death. if you want to honor aaron's legacy, take action. channel your horror and your outrage into making a material change. this wasn't about him. this was about palestine. remember that it was always about palestine.

Okay, since the Spielberg post blew up, I need to clear up something because I can see in the notes that pple think that Spielberg owns the rights to MLK speeches and I don't want to spread any misinformation. This is what the Vice article says:

vice.com

The Bizarre Reason You Rarely Hear Martin Luther King Quotes in Movies

Steven Spielberg has received criticism for buying the film rights to MLK's speeches, and further controversy stems from King's estate.

In 2009, Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks company paid the estate for film rights to King's words, along with his life rights, which allow a person or company to make content based on an individual's story. DreamWorks has yet to produce or direct Spielberg's planned King biopic, but the rights have caused complications for numerous filmmakers. (Neither Spielberg's literary agent nor King's estate returned Broadly's request for comment.)

This means that while the MLK estate still owns the original copyright for the speeches, Spielberg actually bought and now owns the film rights to MLK's speeches. However, this doesn't erase how problematic it it is since this means that Spielberg is the only filmmaker legally allowed to use MLK's speeches word for word in his films. A White filmmaker is essentially holding onto the film rights, at the expense of Black filmmakers. The article talks about how Ava Duvernay had to write original speeches from scratch for Selma.

King has received only one major biopic, 2014's Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay [...] Instead of using King's speeches, DuVernay wrote original monologues that sounded like soliloquies the civil rights leader could have given. [...] When asked about the changes in 2014, DuVernay told the Washington Post, "We knew those rights are already gone. They're with Spielberg."

The article also mentioned that Spielberg bought life rights and according to this Forbes article, this means that Spielberg also bought the rights to MLK's life.

By paying the Estate for the film rights to Dr. King's speeches along with life rights, Spielberg obtained unprecedented filmmaking access to Dr. King’s life — supported by Dr. King’s extraordinary intellectual property (the right to use Dr. King’s actual words.)

Hope this clarifies everything!

- mod sodapop

this sucks ass but what’s neat is the event is free to register for and will be capped at 300 in person registrations. pitch in and register with your favorite fake name and hopefully this idiot will walk in to a room of empty chairs. takes like 10 seconds. el oh el

Courtney Love talking about the meaning behind her band name, Hole

The disabled community fucking NEEDS to rally for Palestine. Israel is creating millions more of us. They are permanently disabling people, robbing them of their ability, their agency, and giving no support. Disabled Palestinians are dying not just from violence but from neglect due to lack of resources, which is violence itself. We have to support these people, people who haven't even been able to come to terms with the fact that their limbs are missing, they're severely traumatized, they can't move without pain, they've been so focused on just surviving. There cannot be a single Palestinian left without physical and/or mental trauma. And there are absolutely no resources being given to them, they're being actively withheld.

Please give anything you can offer. Money, coping mechanisms, resources, information, emotional support, e-sims, you could probably even donate any disability aids you don't use anymore to refugees in your home country. I know a lot of us are unable to protest right now. Sharing information is also extremely important. There ARE things we can do. Protesting is only one aspect of activism. Sending emails, making phone calls, directly supporting Palestinians in one of the ways I said above.

Just like covid is a mass disabling event, a genocide is a mass disabling event. Please do not forget this and remember, you CAN make a difference.

(BTW this is not one of those "you should care about them because they're like us!" things, everyone should care about Palestinians because they're human beings. The point of this post is to discuss what we as disabled people can do to support people who are suddenly disabled without help. Becoming disabled is not easy even with support and healthcare.)