Hey Are You A Vampire? Take This quiz I Just Spent Way Too Long Making And Find Out The Time Period

• Unsolved Academia •

Late nights at libraries studying cryptids, watching The X-Files in your spare time, reading up on the history of old houses wondering if maybe some inhabitants never left, keeping an eye out for any news involving extraterrestrials, always asking the question: Are ghosts real?

I'm asking this in good faith, but also in an admitted lack of full understanding. If you don't have the energy to engage with this topic anymore please disregard it.

Someone on your post noted the comparison of Israel-Palestine to that of the Native Americans, but the way I read it it seemed like they were putting Palestinians in the role of the native Americans and Israel as the colonizing force, but historically wouldn't it be the Jewish people who are the Native Americans in that comparison? I ask because from what I know it would be the Jewish people in what is now Israel at the same time in history as the Natives in the Americas. Am I misinformed about that? I'm not trying to say Palestine would be the colonizing force in that comparison btw, just that if we're talking about natives to the land, it seems to me like it'd be the Jewish people.

tbh neither maps on exactly

the expulsion of jews from what is now israel/palestine started in 70 AD and then was a gradual process over the next few hundred years as people moved out due to oppression by various rulers, poverty, etc

palestinians, as far as i understand it, likely descend from a mix of some of the jews who were left behind and arabs who conquered the land. they've been there for hundreds of years, and some families have owned the same land for all of that time

the thing about indigeneity as it's been explained to me is that it's not about origin so much as relationship to colonization. and the founding of israel was colonization -- herzl actually used that word himself in his writings.

you know the jnf? the original purpose was to exploit a feature of ottoman land law. if you planted a tree on someone's land and they didn't remove it for a certain number of years, you could claim ownership of that land. this and other methods were used to steal parcels of land from palestinians.

"your ethnicity stole the land from our ethnicity, to whom the land belongs" is a fucked up framework that seems really akin to blood and soil (as does "our ethnicity has rightful ownership of this land from ancient times, so your ethnicity needs to clear out"), but genuinely wresting ownership from individuals owners really can be said to be stealing land.

also, the nakba was a series of massacres and fighting that led to a huge influx of palestinian refugees from many areas in israel/palestine, and israel seized control of the land and homes they vacated to hand over to jews. israel used the jnf, again, to cover the ruins of many palestinian villages with trees to obscure the fact that they were ever there. in general israel built over many palestinian villages and the mindset in israel is not to know and not to think about it.

personally i think the indigeneity debate is not useful. it feels sometimes that jews think that if we can prove we lived in israel in ancient times (we did, a lot of people insist we didn't because it is inconvenient), we can justify things like the above. my position is that it does not justify it, because it is not an excuse for causing human suffering.

however, many people use a framework that is not about human suffering, but about how invading foreign jews stole the land from the "rightful" ethnic group. i don't agree with that either. especially when it becomes an excuse to support ethnic cleansing in the other direction. that is to say: they locate the crime not in the invasion but in the foreignness. such people are motivated to deny the historical fact of jewish origins in israel, because their argument is based on jewish foreignness.

but anyway, the comparison to indigenous peoples in the americas refers to the way that palestinians experienced the establishment of the state of israel -- starting with small groups of settlers, involving violence early on and then massacres, and later ethnic cleansing and displacement. cities and towns destroyed. shoved into small areas with few resources. lack of power and autonomy.

in addition, the way the early zionist leaders conceptualized themselves as enlightened europeans colonizing land with disdain for the existing residents.

(Credit: unknown)

(Submitted by @myownflo)

how do we get people to stop referring to mild temporary discomfort as ‘trauma’

Ive spent my entire life focusing on watering everyone's flowers instead of watering mine. I've very rarely met people who water mine when I am wilting.

Dont settle for selfish people who only seek you out when it benefits them.

⚜️𝘋𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘭’𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘭𝘥. 𝘈 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘵.⚜️

The universe is an ongoing explosion.

That's where you live.

In an explosion.

Also, we absolutely don't know what living is.

Sometimes atoms arranged in a certain way just get very haunted.

That's us.

When an explosion explodes hard enough, dust wakes up and thinks about itself.

And then writes about it.

I beg anyone who sees this, put your poems that you are too scared to post in my asks. You can be anonymous if you wish!

I love reading poetry and would love to get some of yours out there!! Don’t be frightened! Send them in my asks :)

✨Reblog this if people can put poetry in your asks!✨

“I never look back darling! It distracts from the now.”

- Edna Mode, The Incredibles (2004)