Dear Swifties:

The radical theocratic terrorists that targeted the Taylor Swift concert are functionally the same people that want to destroy Israel.

The ideology is the same. The willingness to kill civilians is the same. The goal is the same.

When you support Hamas, you’re supporting the same people that wanted to assassinate Taylor Swift and her fans.

@briannawu

fuck #hamas (many #palestinians agree)

fuck #netanyahu (many #israelis agree)

the problem:

someone speaks against hamas, and someone else confuses that with speaking against palestinians and supporting netanyahu

or:

someone speaks against netanyahu, and someone else confuses that with speaking against israelis and supporting hamas

but:

some *do* speak against israelis or palestinians

*nobody* can attack palestinians, israelis, #muslims, or #jews

(1/3)

There’s an inconvenient truth and hole in the argument that Palestinians do not support Hamas @benroyce.

Anticipating some pushback, so saving some time here. If Palestinians cannot govern themselves, then they shouldn’t have a country. If they can, then they have to own their problems.

@briannawu is right here.

https://www.axios.com/2024/08/06/hamas-names-political-leader-yahya-sinwar

Hamas names architect of Oct. 7 attack as new leader

The move anchors Sinwar's status as the top — and perhaps even sole — decision maker in Hamas.

Axios

@rob @briannawu

a people should always govern themselves

period

that there exist parasitical entities like hamas who push mass murder on others as a dynamic for control, is an argument against hamas, *not* against palestinians

i mean, you could use your own logic against israelis with netanyahu

or americans with trump

or russians with putin

or venezuelans with maduro

etc

my point is:

do not confuse the parasite with the people

@benroyce @briannawu

The question is not what people *should* do. The question is, what *is* happening in Palestine? What *was* happening on October 6th in Palestine?

Were the Palestinians ruling themselves or not? And how does one explain these poll results and square it with the future?

https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-palestinians-opinion-poll-wartime-views-a0baade915619cd070b5393844bc4514

Palestinian poll shows a rise in Hamas support and close to 90%

A wartime opinion poll among Palestinians shows a rise in support for Hamas, which appears to have ticked up even in the devastated Gaza Strip. The survey published Wednesday also reflected an overwhelming rejection of Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, with nearly 90% saying he must resign. The findings signal more difficulties ahead for the Biden administration’s postwar vision for Gaza. Washington has called for the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank-based autonomy government currently led by Abbas, to eventually assume control of Gaza and run both territories as a precursor to Palestinian statehood. The pollster said that with findings indicating a further erosion of the PA’s legitimacy, the default option for post-war Gaza is likely an open-ended Israeli occupation.

AP News

@rob @briannawu

I don't give a shit. A people rule themselves, period. The only way to peace is a two state solution. Hard stop

Whatever problems that exist preventing that must be overcome. And I will never buy the argument that the parasites that foment violence to remain in power are the same as the people. Whether putin, maduro, hamas, whomever. How much support these cancers have in their societies is besides the point. The people will figure out their parasites are their downfall

@benroyce @briannawu

90% of support sure doesn’t seem like a parasitical force.

But what I am seeing here is that you are saying that Palestine cannot govern itself. The parasites have taken over.

Is that really what you want to say here?

@rob @briannawu That parasites exist? Of course I'm saying that. That is true for every nation on Earth. Those who establish a dynamic for power that preys on the people's worst instinct. Demagogues. And how much the people buy into the lies from the grifters merely defines the parameters of their future suffering

@benroyce

I think the very definition of a state and self-governance is agency.

And I think you’re saying that the Palestinian people have no agency. (I don’t want to put words in your mouth.)

I can’t get behind that. I’m in the same boat as @briannawu.

@rob @briannawu

"And I think you’re saying that the Palestinian people have no agency"

Then you haven't listened to anything I said at all

@benroyce @briannawu
Well if they have agency, then they wanted the war and started the war and should therefore expect consequences.

It seems to me that well meaning people have stretched the suffering of the Palestinian people for a long time by excusing away bad behavior.

Have the Israelis been fair? No. But life isn’t fair.

@rob @briannawu

palestinians will indeed suffer as long as they grant any legitimacy to hamas. just as long as israelis will suffer as long as they grant any legitimacy to netanyahu

but none of this leads to denying the existence of palestinians as a people (or israelis as a people as others will say)

if you do that, you are not merely observing "life isn't fair," you're abandoning morality

you're not responsible for what is happening, but you are bound by morality to reject it

@benroyce @briannawu
I am a European descendent, living in a country, on a continent, in a hemisphere, that was literally founded on genocide and slavery.

I like to point out that the founding of Israel in 1948 (76 years ago) is a similar timeframe to the largest mass hanging on US territory (86 years).

This happened in May of 2024.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/05/28/minnesota-historical-society-mankato-hanging-rope-prairie-island-community

Minnesota Historical Society will repatriate the ‘Mankato Hanging Rope’ to the Prairie Island Indian Community

The item known as “the Mankato Hanging Rope” was used in the hanging of Wicanhpi Wastedanpi (also known as Chaske), one of the 38 Dakota men hanged on Dec. 26, 1862, following the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.

MPR News

@rob @briannawu

and this is true for the entire history of the world

every nation on earth has genocides and mass murder at some point in their past based on ethnic hatreds, religious disputes, etc

obviously, we both agree this is wrong

but also obviously, "well it happened once, so we have to let it happen again" has nothing to do with morality

@benroyce @briannawu
I don’t know. Maybe if people want war and promote war and make war, we should let them.

That appears to be the case, by the evidence presented, by the support and will and the agency of the Palestinian people. They support Hamas. Hamas started the war.

This is the result. It’s horrible. But this is where they are today.

@rob @briannawu

the moral stand is to oppose oct 7

and oppose what israel is doing in gaza now

when you pick sides, you give up your morality

so stop picking sides

side with morality instead

@benroyce @briannawu

How do you answer the statement that 100% of American Palestinians live on stolen land?

Knowing that you too live on stolen land, why should your morality be better than any other morality?

Why do you lionize the suffering of Palestinians over that of Native Americans? How did you make that moral choice?

@rob @briannawu

very easily:

something bad happening before does not justify something bad happening now

"well, i knew this guy who raped a woman once, and he got away with it. so this guy right here, he raped a woman, but i'm going to look the other way because life's not fair"

no

you owe it to your sense of morality to condemn the rapist today

because rape happened before has absolutely zero bearing on your clear moral responsibility *today*

the past is *the past*

@benroyce @briannawu

And why should we respect Palestinian history and not Native American history? How far back should we go?

I might be a “deranged asshole” but your morality seems a little wobbly to me.

@rob @briannawu

i responded to you, and you ignored it, that if harris and walz win, the governor of minnesota will be a native american woman, the first in our nation, peggy flanagan

she is a citizen of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe

that is the future of palestine and israel if israelis and palestinians can forget the *violence* of the past, instead of continuing to feed it

nothing i have said is remotely wobbly and i did not call you a "deranged asshole"

@benroyce @briannawu
I wasn’t ignoring it, I was trying to keep up!