AnarchoNinaWrites
Last RT, true.
Also however, I have been advising ppl to stop using the word "Zionist" because it merely serves to obfuscate the point and in fact the monstrous reactionaries pushing the Zionist project would greatly prefer you use that term so they can call you an antisemite.
Zionism, as practiced in the really real world, is simply violent settler colonialism; we don't need a special word for this because it's in Israel, and indeed, "Zionists" are invested in you never realizing this point.
AnthonyJK-Admin
Here's where I somewhat disagree.
Yes, "Zionism" is but one form of settler colonialism, but it is the basic form that directly targets a particular group of people -- the Palestinians -- for total liquidation & massacre in the name of specifically "Jewish" nationalism.
Also, classic antisemite Nazis aren't going to change their rhetoric merely to adopt to the fascism of really existing Zionism; their hatred of people of color supercedes even their hate of Jewish people.
AnthonyJK-Admin
Obviously, removed from the proper context of settler colonialism, capitalism, and White Supremacy in general, "Zionism" can and has been abused as a classic dog whistle for OG Nazis. But, what other term is possible to define the particular ideology that is being exploited to envelop Jewish folk into a system of colonial expansion and land theft at the expense of the native Palestinian population?
AnarchoNinaWrites
@AnthonyJK Again "violent settler colonialism."
The rhetoric deployed by Zionists is literally IDENTICAL to the rhetoric deployed by American and proto-American settlers during the genocide of Indigenous people here; and identical to the rhetoric deployed by Spanish colonialists in South/Central America. You seem hung up on the idea that extermination was not the project back then; which is I'm sorry to say, inaccurate.
AnthonyJK-Admin
Great point.
Maybe it's more that I'm jilted more by the American model of colonial expansion off the backs of the First Nations and Black peoples, which didn't emphasize, at least not in my admittedly limited perception, a "final solution" of total liquidation.
Hey, gotta continuously learn new stuff.
AnarchoNinaWrites
@AnthonyJK It did tho. In fact, the introduction of chattel slavery is a necessary extension of the project of exterminating the Indigenous people of "the New World." We sought, directly and fully written into historical evidence, to wipe out "the Indian" and replace the slave labor with Africans who were not indigenous BECAUSE doing it that way would aid the settler colonial project. Africans cannot swim home; Indigenous slaves can rebel. This is literally written down by contemporary sources.
AnarchoNinaWrites
@AnthonyJK Furthermore, nothing about ceasing to use the term Zionist has anything to do with what antisemites do or say, I think you've misread my post. The reality however is that Zionism as a term, has a distinctly Jewish connotation, that ALLOWS Zionists to conflate it with antisemitism, to avoid the argument.
There is nothing special about Jewish nationalism that is not present in all other nationalisms. Even the religious aspect is present in other settler colonial projects in history.
AnarchoNinaWrites
@AnthonyJK The people conducting the violent settler colonial project called Zionism, would simply MUCH RATHER you use the term "Zionist" than "settler colonialism" because it mystifies the process and allows for the obfuscation of conflating it with antisemitism.
AnthonyJK-Admin
I absolutely acknowledge that.
My only concern is that a Palestinian whose seen his entire family get wiped the fuck out and his land bombed, burnt, & then taken by an army and armed settler militias explicitly glossing themselves as "Zionist" may not see things with the same outward broad analysis as we looking in on this atrocity do. Their perspective may be shaded by rage of being targeted, but it is there nevertheless.
Not trying to pitch a battle; just thinking aloud.
AstroMancer5G (she/her)
@AnarchoNinaWrites
It's true that there's nothing special about Zionism as a form of settler-colonialism. But it's not true that Zionists don't also conflate the the term "settler-colonialism" with antisemitism. They don't actually care whether or not it has a distinctly Jewish connotation, they will feign one regardless. We should use both terms, where they apply.
@AnthonyJK
AstroMancer5G (she/her)
@AnarchoNinaWrites
We also shouldn't specify "violent" settler-colonialism. If "violent" means anything meaningful, it's inherent to settler-colonialism. But in practice, settler-colonialism itself defines "violence" in whatever ways are most convenient to it.
@AnthonyJK
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