I am feeling very angry and frustrated in this land of turboliberals and bet there are folks here who can relate. I also feel so alone and alienated with this in my real life. If no Hexbear, I would have snapped by now (this is the same feeling that is there with covid & libs versus covid in reality, but Gaza is what seems to be breaking me).
The issue I have is with the local libs, including family (partner and kid excluded) and withessing the disregard and apathy, willfull ignorance and downright denial of what is going on.
I am in the same group chats with these people. In the last days I’ve posted a few links to the chat about the flotilla, because I refuse to let them be completely comfortable in ignoring what is happening.
What they do is completely ignore the post. No comment, no reaction, no discussion. Ever. They just pick right up after it to post about a hobby or a new treat they bought or whatever, like the thing isn’t even there. They also never discuss Palestine at all when I see them.
This is very different from the way things used to be in this country. This has changed with covid and the ukrainazi & nato stuff where people have become a lot more divided. But now there is just this silence. People talk only about the most mundane shit and endless treats and it’s driving me up the wall.
This same goes on in Mastodon where my bubble is very local, this is a small ass country. There are maybe two people like me who post about Palestine, but the rest is just focused on whatever hobby, work thing, everyday thing or maybe occasional lib thing they are into. But never Palestine. The last two days have been just endless biking or foss posts or whatever from them and I have again also seen the whiny posts about posting about the genocide without a cw, because these people don’t want these bad news to pollute their vibes. And I get why a cw is useful, but these are calls for it just so very comfy middle class turbolibs don’t have to feel bad that they are at brunch and can’t be arsed to even voice support for Palestine in public.
I want to rage at these people. I want to snap. I want to stand up on a table and yell at them to ask them what the fuck is wrong with you?! You have kids. You claim to be on the side of the oppressed. You have this veneer of being a good person, but you aren’t. You aren’t even donating money from your huge bs jobs salaries nor are you visibly shaken by all of this.
The things I see from Gaza often put me into tears. It’s breaking my soul. How does it not do that to these people, I cannot understand it. I hate them for it.
Is the issue here that they’re indifferent to or supportive of the genocide? Or that they’re just not vocal in their opposition to Israel?
I can no longer even be sure what they are, because they scoot past the issue so completely. But they do this with other things too now, it’s been like this singe covid & ukraine. It’s like the murican “be non political” mindset has made landfall here, this used to be very odd behaviour for most people I know.
For clarity, these are libs who are from the “the middle east is complicated” upbringing that engage with mainstream discourse and watch the national news, which is very much establisment driven. But they are so called progressives, they just no longer voice anything much at all.
Yeah there’s a strong “don’t bring up politics” sentiment in the typical American brain. Could also be outrage fatigue; they’re not just seeing what you’re posting, they’re seeing a thousand injustices in the news everyday and at that saturation level it feels like background noise. As with most things, on-the-ground organizing, fundraising for Palestinian causes, are more likely to be fruitful even if it feels like it’s hitting fewer eyeballs than Mastodon.