Bob Vylan Hoo-ha (here we go again)

 

Bob Vylan catching the BBC off guard is priceless! 

But have ya heard this one though?

A thousand laugh emojis.

They cleverly used the chance to speak out while the media/government was focusing on silencing Kneecap. The meltdown that followed was typical and expected, but nonetheless maddening.

First of all, Bob Vylan is a punk duo. They are meant to piss off the establishment! Stop with the pearl-clutching!

Secondly, the frontman was referring to the Israeli army, not all Jewish people; nothing anti-Semitic about it. An army that films themselves destroying Palestinian homes and posing in the undergarments of Palestinian women (among other vile videos). An army that barges into homes at night and interrogates and terrorizes families. An army that snipes children in the head and heart. An army that uses Palestinians as human shields. An army that guards an open-air prison (it could also be called a/an concentration/extermination camp). An army that facilitates apartheid and ethnic cleansing. An army that shoots journalists and medics, bombs, hospitals, schools and mosques. An army that blocks aid from reaching Gaza and Palestinians from reaching aid. An army that is responsible for the most child amputees in modern history. An army that is responsible for children being amputated because there aren’t any antibiotics to stop infection. An army that is responsible for children being amputated without anesthetic. An army that allows dogs to maul people. An army that allowed babies to die in incubators. An army that shot at a terrified six-year-old girl trapped in a car 335 times. An army that has abducted and detained thousands of Palestinians. An army that bombs tents. An army that just bombed a café. An army that many duel citizens travel to Israel to fight in. An army that insults our intelligence with blatant lies and cover-ups.

And people are sick of it. We are outraged by this arrogant army that operates with impunity. We want it to stop. ABOLISH THE IDF.

As with all criticisms of Israel, it has nothing to do with ethnicity or religion. But everything to do with humans and how low they can go. So stop with the performative outrage, the gaslighting, and the enabling. Start using your critical thinking. Inform yourself! This is the holocaust of our time, courtesy of Western powers. The same countries that claimed to promote international law so as to ensure a NEVER AGAIN!

If he had said “Death to Sudan’s RSF” would that be construed as death to all Arabs? No, of course not. Would anyone have cared? No, because they are a brutal, sadistic army.

Then why the outrage over this? Because they are still selling the story that criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic and that the IDF (IOF) is the most moral army in the world. (As if any army is moral. What an oxymoron).

And why are they desperate to sell it? Because western powers with the help of the media are complicit in genocide.

It’s telling that the media/politicians express scant sympathy for the Palestinians (the victims of this army) but are deeply upset about the IDF (the oppressors) feeling threatened by stage chants. How much attention was given to Bob Vylan over the weekend? How much was given to Israeli atrocities?

Consider this: politicians and the media are worked up about someone calling for the death of an organization but not upset about said organization literally murdering people. Daily! Not just with bombs, sniper fire, starvation, rape, and torture, but now with a Squid Games-style tactic of shooting people as they approach aid sites. Aptly named by the Israelis as “Operation Salted Fish“ (Red Light-Green Light).

While one could argue that Israeli-born soldiers are victims of intensive brainwashing, and I’d agree (but we could say that about any army), there are other Israelis who have refused to serve and endured jail time. One can resist. One can relocate.

I don’t condone murder or incitement to violence. It’s a slippery slope from rebel/victim to tyrant if a cause promotes and excuses violence against others. I believe all life is sacred. The Western media/politicians would have you think they also hold this belief, but imagine if the BBC had accidentally televised a band chanting Death to Hamas. Would there be Western outrage? Not a hope. Why? Are they not people too? Is Islamophobia not something to be concerned about? The same can be said if a band had shouted Death to Nazis. Yet the actions of some Israeli soldiers are akin to Nazi atrocities, if not worse, and I’m sure that comparison will be a huge topic of research and discussion for years and years to come.

So, double standards it is. The West has dehumanized certain people; they barely batted an eyelid when the Israeli Maccabi supporters chanted Death to Arabs in Amsterdam. Those supporters are surely either current or former Israeli soldiers. In fact, some of them have likely murdered Palestinians. They meant what they chanted!

Generally, I’ve always interpreted the “death to…” chant as symbolic of ending something, e.g., the end of a terrible and destructive organization. The IDF is an organization that needs to be abolished. The media/political outrage over Bob Vylan is ridiculous and tactical, and unfortunately it works. I can’t blame all the comment section calls for Bob Vylan to be locked up on bots.

Divide and conquer!

The good news is the sociopathic Zionists and craven governments and media, nonetheless, feel threatened by it; otherwise, there wouldn’t be such a strong reaction. Ignore comments about the youth of today jumping on the Pro-Pal bandwagon, and bet they couldn’t find Gaza on a map. One doesn’t need to be an expert on a people and place to oppose genocide. Also, it’s not just young people speaking up for Palestinians. It’s people of all ages. And it’s not the bandwagon effect. It’s a growing movement of awareness, compassion, and connection.

Free Palestine!

Free Humanity!

"Horses still suffer for cheap pork"

I don’t think many people know about this. I only recently found out about it and initially doubted its veracity. It just seemed so utterly horrific that I thought it must be made up.

But it’s real. 

And I think consumers should make informed choices. 

 Here is a link to a recent article about this industry. Do you accept this as part of humanity's way to acquire food? 

https://www.aerzte-gegen-tierversuche.de/en/news/no-end-to-the-cruel-blood-mare-business-in-iceland

Below are excerpts from an Animals’ Angels article about a 2023 documentary exposing the abhorrent practice.

“the hidden blood business makes painfully clear, the blood extracted from pregnant mares at blood farms is collected under brutal conditions and comes at an unacceptable price.”

“PMSG has been used by industrial animal breeders for over 40 years to increase the fertility of sows and other farmed animals but is now considered by many to be an outdated solution.”

Justifying Genocide (or denying)

 

At this stage, anyone who is still attempting to justify what is happening to the Palestinians in Gaza (and Palestinians overall) is either fully on board with it or unwilling to face the reality. Therefore, these Piers Morgan/Charlie Kirk-style debates are not only pointless but profoundly unethical. Even if all their Hasbara spins were true (and they are not), it still wouldn’t justify it. What sane person argues for killing people? Therefore, I refuse to take part in such an immoral debate anymore.

 I used to engage in this and was confronted with outright genocidal apologists and cordial liberal Zionist (the former sadistically relishing in their opponent’s show of emotion, and the latter still feeling good about themselves: if it can be debated, it can’t be that abhorrent). 

In both cases, the end result is the same: they are not going to change their stance based on what I say. There is so much information out there: images, books, interviews, analysis, black humor comedy. If they want to KNOW, then it’s all there for them. It takes some courage to accept that one’s worldview is based on lies. They will only change when they are willing to face that.

 My responses will only either put them into immediate defense mode or give them an almost vampiric energy hit.

 Consider an argument they use. What about Sudan and Myanmar? Think about someone using that as a deflection, and you will realize how disingenuous they are and how morally twisted their mindset is.

Having said that, let’s hope there are people out there who can still be reached. Sharing posts, street protests, art of all kinds are ways to keep the message alive; at least, people can’t completely put it out of their minds. Flotillas and marches are amazing and brave forms of activism. We want (and need) to keep the focus on the perpetrators, and they don't want that.

And if you want to debate them, go for it. We have to do something!

But just remember they are steeped in myth and hasbara, and their goal is to catch you out with some narrative you aren’t informed enough about to debunk. Then they feel justified or creepily triumphant.

Kneecap Hoo-ha

 

(a short rant)

If a band can go up on stage and say Am Yisrael Chai and not cause western moral hysteria, then a band should also be allowed to say up Hamas. The Israeli army fits the definition of terrorist, so either the proscription is used consistently or not at all.

History will be kind to Kneecap, but not to the disingenuous pearl clutchers and genocidal apologists. Not to the liars and deniers. Nor the indifferent and both siders.

These smear tactics will be remembered for what they are: deflection and projection.

Human(un)kind: thoughts inspired by the film "The Zone of Interest"

Highly original in its style, this film definitely won't suit everyone, but I found it engrossing and effective. Slow-paced voyeurism of family-life across the garden wall from Auschwitz, yet they go about their daily lives more or less unperturbed.

Insidiously disturbing. 

Not just because this is a true account of a family then, but of what it says about humans in general, our capacity for depravity and callousness. The stories we tell ourselves to quiet our conscience and satisfy our egos, fears, desires. To override our humanity. 

This film might take place during Nazi controlled Europe, but it reaches far beyond that time. It finds us here as a metaphor for the West and how we go about our lives with some level of awareness of the plight of the "Third World" and how their troubles benefit us. Like the characters in the film we can turn away or tune it out, dehumanize and rationalize. Worried about our children's welfare, but insensitive to the sick and starving.  

The Höss Family may seem exceptional in their callousness, but how many times have we seen this before? Slavery, Jim Crow Laws, South Africa and so on. And now, the Israeli genocide of Gaza and other current horrific world tragedies. Are any of us fully immune to propaganda and societal messages that stereotype, demean and other? 

Just as ethnicity doesn't determine your worth, it also doesn't determine you capability for wrong doing. Being human does. We are susceptible to cultural conditioning regardless of genetic make-up.

This film is a warning. We need a new story and that story begins with cultivating our innate compassion. For each time (and I heard someone say this in an interview, but can't recall who) we dehumanize others, we lose a bit of our own humanity. 

 

 

    

Pasteurized versus Raw

Milk was already caught up in culture wars due to a backlash against veganism, and veganism is anyway caught up in conspiracy theories, but now the milk argument has expanded in another direction: pasteurized or raw?

I could go on about how as a kid, I tried milk fresh from a cow's udder, or how, before I was vegan, we owned a goat and drank her milk unpasteurized for years. Never a problem. 

I could also add that Frans von Soxhlet's idea to pasteurize milk definitely saved many lives, and with intensive farming, is, especially needed. 

But who cares?

The question, the argument, the democrats versus republicans, liberals versus conservatives and so on, as to whether we should drink raw or pasteurized cow's milk is unnecessary and absurd. 

A bunch of grown adults bickering about the best way to consume baby food. From another species. 

Left, right, liberal, libertarian, whatever, stop drinking milk! Problem solved.

For the ones who believe that they are thinking for themselves by not following "suspect" governmental health advice (and the rabbit hole that leads down), and for the others who think they're so smart because only idiots drink raw milk, you're all being manipulated, and you're all being pretty stupid.

You don't need bovine baby food to be healthy. You've fallen for Big Dairy propaganda.

You are not living in an era or area where drinking milk is a necessity. Stop this nonsense.

Leave the cows, goats, sheep, horses alone. It's their milk for their babies, you weirdos.😀

It's amazing to hear people complain about phytoestrogens in soya yet they drink cow's milk. 

And there's nothing like grown ass men going online to defend their right to drink baby food from another species.   

SOME FACTS ABOUT THE DAIRY INDUSTRY

 https://www.ciwf.eu/farm-animals/cows/dairy-cows/

 

The Truth About Veganism

Veganism is not a fad diet to lose weight and/or get more healthy.

It has nothing to do with fasting. Vegans don’t only eat fruit.

It is not about amassing online followers with your groovy, plant-based lifestyle.

It is not a diet!

Veganism is an ethical stance against any form of animal exploitation.

One can be an unhealthy vegan. Or a super healthy one. That’s up to the vegan.

The chances are that when a celebrity or content creator stops being vegan, they never truly were. They were on a diet.

Although veganism is highly beneficial for the environment, animal agriculture being the second highest cause of Climate Change, one should never lose sight of animal liberation.

Veganism is a potent package that can free animals from exploitation, combat climate change and other environmental issues, and prevent and reverse certain diseases, including the very probable prevention of harmful viruses. Surely, one of those benefits can shift your cultural conditioning. Just a tad? Are you not even curious to try some amazing plant-based foods?

Otherwise, we’re trapped in a cycle of abuse. Animals, earth, earth, animals, leading to our self-destruction.

So, make the initial change for anthropocentric concerns, if you must. Do it out of curiosity. But stick with it for the animals.

Make a small change then steadily expand to everything you eat, drink, wear and use. The more we do it, the more they will strive to come up with satisfying alternatives. We have the power.

Don’t buy into Big Ag propaganda and political rhetoric. Veganism is not an evil, elitist plot to take over the world by weakening humanity. It’s a key factor in saving us. I’ll say it again, we have the power!

Come on, let’s change our food system to one that doesn’t rely on abusing the earth and animals.