I'm still digesting the events of this morning, losing my little philosophy channel has sent me down this path of negative thinking, but I can't seem to help it, at least not right now.
False dichotomy
I realize it's not easy to take on this subject without ruffling some feathers, but I do think I should give it a go. The truth is that the conversations being had online can be quite confusing and I think this is by design.
The presented choices by those who love to hump narratives are as follow:
- You either support Israel and thus are a good person
- You support Palestinians and thus are a terrorist
The truth here my friends is quite complex, but those are not the only choices and we all need to be comfortable enough to fight back the ridiculous narrative.
Violence begets violence
The story of how this conflict got started goes back decades, and I'm not going to pretend to be able to explain it in a short blog. But for now it might enough to say that what happened in oct 7 was a reaction to the broken relationship Israel has had with it's neighbor.
This is not to say I excuse, that I condone it, not even a little bit. But, if we can't objectively analise how we got here, we can't correct course, and that is precisely what we should be striving for, right? A solution.
I'm taking this small detour, laying a caveat of sorts, because of the point I'm attempting to share. The question I would love to have an answer to.
What happened to freedom of speech?
A few days ago Trump signed an executive order effectively going against the first amendment, and not a whole lot of people seem to care.
"To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you," Trump said in the fact sheet.
This my dear friend, my dear reader is the text book definition of the slippery slope.
The framing of the action, presenting it as an attempt to curve antisemitism, to protect the Jewish people is the way to gaslight us into accepting what otherwise goes against our core.
To be clear, I'm not defending people who engaged in violence, who attacked Jewish Americans, who actually think Hamas is great, of course not. But, this might be a surprise to some, that is not the majority, the opposite is true.
With this law anybody who dares to question the civilian deaths in Gaza, who dares to ask why shooting a little kid in the chest two times is "just how war works" can be effectively labeled an antisemite, a Hamas sympathizer, etc.
The public opinions are mixed here, as we would expect them to be, but this makes the whole situation even more sad in my book.
I may sound bitter today and I apologize, but I'm allowing cynicism to take the wheel for a second, and nihilism to whisper in my ear.
As with many laws, many rules, they only are applied when it's convenient, when the one holding the sword, the monopoly of violence sees them as tools to advance agendas.
Kill the goose, silence the gander...