@imnotyet Strong "don't threaten me with a good time" energy. (To be clear, _I_ don't think they should disrupt graduation, but it seems to me that the president of Morehouse has just handed the people who want to make a splash an instruction manual for how to do that. Doesn't seem wise.)
It is impossible to support what #Israel has been and is doing in #Gaza unless you believe at some level that Israelis are more deserving of safety and security than Palestinians. This is true regardless of whether you believe Israel's actions constitute #WarCrimes or #genocide. There is no way to justify Israel's conduct that is not racist and xenophobic. If this post offends you, I suggest you spend a good long time thinking about why.
This morning I'm trying to hold in my head two ideas which don't coexist well together: * Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and the world must do everything possible to stop it, and it is right and just to advocate for that. * Much of the world seems to care more about the Gaza genocide than about other, in many cases worse, genocides that have been and are being perpetrated, and that seems maybe kind of antisemitic.
P.S. I an aware that there are legitimate geopolitical reasons that might explain why the Gaza genocide is provoking more of a response than others have, so I'm not asking for a tutorial. I just think that, I dunno, I'm not sure they fully explain what we're seeing.
The #NYPD in particular, and #cops in general, are such fucking clowns. They're claiming the thick chains protestors at #Columbia used when occupying a building are proof that the protesters weren't real students. In fact, not only are those chains widely used by students all over the city... Columbia itself sells them to students. Don't fall for the NYPD's attempts to manufacture consent for violently attacking peaceful protesters. #StudentSpring#politics#ACAB Ref: https://www.404media.co/email/1cc25606-201a-4f10-87ce-aeefa8285c3f/
A challenge that reformers have faced throughout history is that most people do not want to Do The Work. They will always choose what is easy over what is right. Reform happens when change is easier than stasis. An example in current events: people who have always believed Israel is in the right are unlikely to interrogate those beliefs and change their minds, because it's easier to stick with their comforting narrative. The student protesters are part of what's needed to change the math.
I am so sad and angry about being increasingly shut out of most communal Jewish life, starting in 2016 thanks to Trump, seguing into the pandemic, and more recently escalating thanks to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. 🧵 1/10
Just to be clear where I'm coming from... My father is a rabbi. I attended Jewish day school for seven years. All of my kids attended day school for at least 9 and in some cases 13 years. I was observant until the age of 31, when I realized most ritual had long lost all meaning for me and gave up on much of it. I still believe strongly in Jewish ethics and value Jewish culture and community. Unfortunately I don't feel like I can be part of it anymore, at least not in our current moment. 2/10
In 2016, I watched in horror as it became clear to anyone truly paying attention that Trump and his MAGA movement were a danger to American democracy and to the safety of marginalized people (including Jews!). I hoped Jewish institutions would take a principled stand against Trumpism (and begged several that I had ties with to do so), but they abdicated their responsibility to do that for fear of alienating Republican donors most of these institutions now depend upon. I was crushed. 3/10
In 2020, communal Jewish institutions my family were associated with initially followed the science and effectively protected their people from COVID. Then, most of them just decided it was time to "move on." The let-down, once again, was intense. (Shout-out to Congregation Dorshei Tzedek in Newton, MA, and Temple Beth Shalom in Needham, MA, where my wife teaches, both of which continue to accommodate COVID-cautious community members and protect the community.) 4/10
In the midst of all that, a leader of my congregation, who is about a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier than I, stood up in a congregational meeting, verbally assaulted me, and threatened to "take it outside," because I expressed disagreement with him. I was certainly not the first person he had bullied. He refused to apologize and faced no repercussions. I found myself having panic attacks every time I was in proximity to him. As a result I am no longer a member of any congregation. 5/10
And then, October 7 happened. The obviously right thing to do was to condemn Hamas's attack and their refusal to return the hostages while ALSO condemning Israel's massively disproportionate response, the statements from members of the Israeli government endorsing genocide, the targeting of aid workers and journalists, the overwhelming famine conditions, and Israel's various other war crimes. 6/10
But once again, too many Jewish institutions haven't done the right thing, because they're too steeped in pro-Israel propaganda to see past it, and their leaders are afraid of "sowing discord," and they're afraid of losing pro-Israel donors. Institutional leaders claim that supporting Israel is the "inclusive" choice, but that's nonsense. They're choosing whom to exclude: people like me, who believe that opposing war crimes is the right thing to do no matter who's committing them. 7/10
So here we are. It is blindingly obvious to anyone who isn't entirely ignorant of history that the student protesters are on the right side of it and are bending the arc toward justice. But institutional leaders have backed themselves into a corner: they have to oppose these protests and falsely claim they're antisemitic* because to do otherwise would be to admit they were wrong, and yes, again, to anger pro-Israel donors (it always comes back to money!). 8/10
I had a catastrophically bad experience today with #Instacart. My elderly homebound uncle's computer is broken (actually, fixed but missing in action, look for my thread about Best Buy for THAT story) and Instacart is the only way he can grocery-shop, so I've been placing Instacart orders for him. He doesn't like having to rely on me, so we decided I'd buy him a tablet and set up Instacart on it for him so he could use that until his computer is fixed. 1/11
Before I get too far into a long thread of everything that went wrong, a question for those of you who haven't yet stopped reading out of boredom: are any of the other grocery delivery services that are available in #NewYorkCity#NYC sufficiently better than #Instacart that I might be able to convince my uncle to try one of them, without it costing him a lot more money? Because hoo-boy, after today's experience I really would rather my uncle didn't keep giving Instacart money. 2/11
he/hisDigital Services Expert at #USDS (https://usds.gov/), detailed to #VA.I work primarily in #infosec, #IT, and #SaaS infrastructure. Prior to USDS, I was a #tech #startup #CISO.Dad, old-school hacker, Righteous Indignation Man. Opinions are my own. You can follow my blog from the Fediverse via @jikblog.#MaskUp #COVID #CovidIsNotOver #USPol #MAPol #BosPoli #Boston #MA #politics #resist #linux #FOSS #OpenSource #ConsumerActivism #privacy #programmer #hacker #fedi22