Yet another
So, I know I keep saying that I'll drop out of the U.S. campus anti-Joe Biden protest movement debate. I jumped in since I worry so much about our climate crisis that anything that might help out the GOP is something to worry about.
I've seen now how small the anti-Biden movement actually is despite how loud they are I'm not so worried except that since I monitor what motivates voters in the USA the true tiny size of this crowd may belie their political danger.
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If you don't like reading threads or if you want to read it faster than I can copy and paste it, the reason I'm posting this thread is because I found a blog that clearly articulates the concerns everyone that cares about human rights and especially climate change should consider around what they say and do this election year.
So, here's the link and I'll try to respond to thoughtful and respectful discourse, but if you just want to vent perhaps skip it.
https://proudnavyveteran.wordpress.com/2024/05/03/advice-for-college-protesters/
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Please keep in mind that even unintended consequences can cause real harm.
Advice for Protesters and especially professors:
1. Participants and provocateurs outside your campus may not have your best interests in mind.
2. The US/Israel relationship is complicated. Deteriorating relations have the potential to cause unrest throughout the Middle East, (even worldwide).
3. The problem isn’t the Israeli people, the problem is Benjamin Netanyahu. He is a narcissist and a fascist.
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4. Your efforts have the potential to hurt President Biden in November, ushering in a second Trump term. Trump supporters know that, so please reread #1.
5. If you think things are bad for the Palestinian people now, with the Biden Administration trying to restrain Netanyahu, put Trump, a fellow fascist, back in office. Netanyahu will be free to do as he pleases.
Publisher's note: If you care about human rights focus your ire on the Likud Party and not the Democratic Party!
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6. If Trump was President now, you wouldn’t be facing police and tear gas, you would be facing the National Guard, (or even the US military), and automatic weapons.
7. Donald Trump couldn’t care less about your rights and freedoms. So, as you protest, it’s important to remember that the only barrier standing between you and fascism is Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.
Publisher's note: There's a reason that Hamas attacked on Putin's birthday. This whole thing is a gift to him!
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8. The rise of Fascism should be your core concern. It’s driving the events in Israel, it is a very real threat to our Democracy, and is on the rise worldwide.
9. Where is your outrage for the threat fascism poses here at home? Why are you not protesting Trump/Republican ongoing efforts to subvert the US Constitution and install a dictator?
Publisher's note: There's an important concept called political capital. If we support Biden he'll have more power to use against Netanyahu.
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10. Protest wisely. Peaceful protests are powerful because they limit the options for authorities. Violence and property damage diminishes or destroys your message, causes public backlash, and it invites a violent response.
Finally – Make sure your protests don’t ultimately lead to you losing your right to protest, along with every other right and freedom you enjoy today.
Our climate is on the ballot in 2024 so we need to focus on winning on that issue or everything else is hopeless!
This isn't really a part of the thread, but an addition to it about protesting effectively versus ineffectively.
Please monitor the protests happening in Georgia against Putinism and try to learn valuable lessons to help your movement bring about positive progress.
#Georgia #Tiblisi
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/georgia-rocked-by-protests-as-government-pushes-putin-style-foreign-agent-bill/ar-AA1o7qRl
@GreenFire Thanks Kevin for posting this. Trump thinks Bibi "needs to finish the job in Gaza". After his previous term, where he wanted a Muslim ban, that should have already enlightened pro Palestinian people to where they would be if Trump should be elected.
@LindaCollins11
Thanks, one thing that I want to try to make clear is that it's not so important what one's intentions are. What really matters is what the impact of your actions and words have.
I monitor #FauxNews so I know how much political hay they can make out of relatively minor faux pas made by people they can label as Democrats.
@GreenFire You must have a lot more patience than I. Being old, I don't want to stroke out screaming at the TV. Watching the kids all so young and full of the ability to take on the world takes me back to Grant Park in Chicago during the Democratic convention, where I was dragged by the seat of my pants & thrown into a paddywagon.
@LindaCollins11
Yeah I get it, but the point of that thread is related to 1968. Who won that election?
@GreenFire August of 1968 We were losing friends & brothers to a conflict they wouldn't even call a war. I was going into my senior year of high school. Luckily, I was released when I got to Shakespeare pd into a friends moms custody. Youthful innocence
@LindaCollins11
Thankfully, when Putin's useful idiots show up at this year's Democratic convention, our law enforcement officers have learned a lot about how to better deal with unruly mobs of people so we won't have a repeat of 1968.
@GreenFire Yeah, Mayor Daley had barbed wire all around the Amphitheater with more cops than you could ever imagine. He didn't want to fuck round
@GreenFire
Excellent thread Kevin. Well said.
You put into words what I have been wanting to say. Thank you.
@Snowshadow
Thanks, but they're not many of my own words. I'm glad I found that dude's blog post scrolling that foul site and reposted it on Mastodon.
I linked to it in the first or second toot in the thread, but here it is again to spread it even more.
https://proudnavyveteran.wordpress.com/2024/05/03/advice-for-college-protesters/
@GreenFire
Well then thank you for posting the blog.
Take some credit for reading it and posting, eh.
@Snowshadow
Plus, I think that I added a few salient points when I had the extra characters available too
@GreenFire I noticed your "editors' comments" Very well done.
I've been saying this almost word for word here on Mastodon, and I keep getting "but their genocide." Good try, though.
Also reminds me of when I and others tried to warn the purists what would happen if Trump got to appoint SCOTUS judges. Religious bigotry not only affects women's rights to control their own bodies, but also our rights to our own religion or lack thereof.
@KathyLK @Snowshadow
The professional political technologists chose to help these young people to embrace wielding the term #Genocide as a weapon to help them avoid subjecting themselves to serious rational debate over the Gaza conflict and it also serves their purposes of helping make the response to the issue emotional rather than rational.
@GreenFire
Yes!! I agree. @KathyLK
@GreenFire @KathyLK @Snowshadow Listen to what the Israeli government consistently say and then tell me they aren't committing genocide. Palestinians are "animals" and all Palestinian civilians (including children, apparently) are "Hamas," according to Israeli government officials. They aren't being shy about it. When called out on it, they are, of course, quick to sidestep the actual meaning of their words, but the soldiers hear it and act on it. "Stand back and stand by," indeed.
@RinostarGames @GreenFire @Snowshadow
The Israeli government, and Netanyahu, are criminals. How do they stay in power? We could ask that of any so-called democracy where the right-wing minority has somehow commandeered the government. The U.S. is certainly on the brink of having a right-wing authoritarian government imposed on it, which will of course give the most power to White, wealthy men--just as it did during Trump's last regime.
Again, here's an enlightening article on how European Ashkenazis in Israel view and treat Jews who are "not us."
@KathyLK
I agree. It also affects some minorities...it seems to give white right wing evangelical "christians" the freedom to spread their hatred and resentment of BIPOC. I will not tolerate that in my TL.
@GreenFire
‘3. The problem isn’t the Israeli people, the problem is Benjamin Netanyahu. He is a narcissist and a fascist.’
Not entirely true. While many Israelis are disgusted at the slaughter in Gaza, many thousands of Israeli ‘settlers’ (a deeply racist terrm) fervently support the coalition of hardliners Netanyahu has assembled into his death’s head government.
This item misses the fact that Biden presiding over a genocide is arguably a greater risk to his election chances.
@GreenFire number 5. Absolutely spot on. I daren't even begin to imagine.
@capnthommo
I wish that people would really, truly think about what is in the best interest of the Palestinian civilians rather than what seem to me to be mostly hot takes driven by emotional responses to images and videos firing up their always simmering hate of the USA's history.
Yeah, our history isn't great. No country's is, but we can still have a good future if we try and do it right.
@GreenFire @capnthommo What's in the best interest of the Palestinian people?
I wish Palestinians finally had the freedom to decide to no longer be the pawns in the hands of corrupt, self-serving Palestinian nobles & princes, misleading their alleged subordinates into hateful wars & atrocities with no end & no perspectives to ever have a peaceful & prosperous future beneficial to all of them & all Middle Eastern peoples.
@GreenFire “Boutique” voters (or non-voters), for whom nothing is more important than patting themselves on the back for their ideological purity will put Trump back into power in November.
@Jgmeadows
You're exactly right. It seems to be their self-perceived purity that they want to preserve for their fragile personal egos.
There seem to be so many on the left side of the aisle that purport to support progressive causes yet refuse to support Democrats because if they were to do that then they wouldn't have anyone to blame.
@GreenFire All of this is spot-on. I’m Jewish, and like the vast majority of American Jews I a) support the two-state solution and b) cannot stand Netanyahu, a dictator who has made Jews less safe in the diaspora.
Also, most Israelis hate Bibi’s guts — witness the massive protests going on right now, in the midst of the war.
@PamelaBarroway
Americans just don't pay attention to news let alone any from overseas well enough to deserve to have their opinions on U.S. foreign policy taken seriously for the most part I'm sad to say is the impression that I've gotten made reinforced since the news about Russia's Ukraine invasion left our airwaves.
@GreenFire *sigh* Sadly that is true. But thanks for sharing this nonetheless!
@PamelaBarroway
I don't want to give the impression that we should stop trying to make things better though at all.
We've got to try to make Americans care about trying to get enough information to make decisions on vital questions that have to be addressed.
@GreenFire Oh, absolutely! My feed is full of ways to support #Biden and other Dems up and down the ballot, as well as general #GOTV-ing this cycle.
@GreenFire @PamelaBarroway I sometimes wish I couldn't pay attention. It's so stressful. Thank goodness for Marijuana!!!!
@otownKim @GreenFire Way stressful. I walk and listen to podcasts to chill out.
@PamelaBarroway @GreenFire I walk a lot. But I do music instead of podcasts. It's cheaper than therapy
@otownKim @PamelaBarroway @GreenFire me too but more podcasts or audio books, music as a special treat
@JonChevreau @PamelaBarroway @GreenFire I used to Listen to NPR but noticed I stressed on my therapeutic walk because of the facts
@GreenFire having the US pressure Netanyahu to stop escalating the war is not going to cause relations to deteriorate.
@jack_of_sandwich
Netanyahu continuing his mass murder of civilians should cause relations to deteriorate though. It was his failure that left Israel vulnerable to the Hamas attack on Oct 7th, & no matter how many Palestinians he kills, it will never undue his guilt for allowing that atrocity to be perpetrated on Israel. Destroying good relations with the U.S. will just make it harder for his replacement. He needs to be in jail
@CivilityFan @jack_of_sandwich
I'm hopeful based on the peaceful protests that I've been seeing in Tel Aviv that Israelis are regretting leaving the Likud Party in charge for so long and Israel and Uncle Sam along with the Palestinians can get along better in the coming years.
It's up to the people in each of their own countries to own course though I reckon so as usual I'll try to focus on the USA although being the globe's only superpower puts a lot of pressure on our POTUS for sure.