Well done on this morning's Slog AM, HMW. A gracious, thoughtful take on a series of horrible headlines that weaves the threads together.

An analytical take on a series of horrible tragedies in today's SLOG.

Reiner tragedy:
Two people attacked with a knife, and two people dead. 100% lethality.

Brown University:
Approximately 60 people attacked with a gun in a lecture hall. 2 died out of 11 people shot. 18.2% lethality.
2 of 60 attacked died. 3.3%
11 of 60 struck. 18.3%
Perhaps we are demanding regulation of the less lethal and dangerous weapon over the more dangerous weapon.

Bondi Beach:
One of the shooters had a permit for six firearms.

US mass shooters:
Analysis shows that over 95% of them would have passed proposed background checks.

Cyclist death:
The driver probably had a license to drive issued by the State of Washington. Most drivers that kill people are licensed and the vehicles are extensively regulated in how they are equipped.

Maybe we should intervene with people, not objects, to make us all safer.

@2:

You are a vile, disgusting person.

@2 God you're fucking disgusting.

@2, @7,

Why? Because I insist we examine these things with are prefrontal cortex instead of with our visceral emotions? Because I insist on what might measurably work, not what feels right?

@5 not @2

Correction to @2:

84% of mass shooters in U.S. obtained firearms legally. I knew it was overwhelmingly high, but should have re-checked the data. Still doesn't alter the conclusion. https://www.statista.com/statistics/476461/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-legality-of-shooters-weapons/?srsltid=AfmBOooPk2MMBFqwQehucP5oGNlzxIFSZfcFIwUIyu7pryPG5-bK9Wy2

@10 I'm honestly surprised you stopped masturbating while thinking about all the dead jews in Australia to comment on this.

@8 Because you use people's deaths to advance a political agenda that will increase the numbers of people being killed. All in the name of "rational analysis." Because you completely ignore the fact that mass shootings almost invariably result in more people dead than attacks with handheld weapons, because apparently not enough people are being killed in this country.

You sick fuck.

I sent a nice message to all of my reps and senators after I learned about the AI gets to deny Medicaid claims stuff that they are piloting. I received a very timely and direct response from Emily Randall expressing her dissatisfaction with AI and the lack of regulation of AI. And seeing now that senator Murray is personally taking up the issue to kill this pilot program, this makes my innards tickle. Yay for upper left reps and senators!!! Fuck MAGA, Fuck Trump, Fuck the GOP, Fuck 'Merica Ferstest, and FEEEEEEEUCK YOU!!!!

You can find clear video of the shooters at work from beginning to end at Bondi here: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/i-was-100m-away-when-the-shots-rang-out-it-has-changed-sydney-forever-20251214-p5nnm1.html

You can hear sirens as soon as the video starts. So people called 000 (Australian 911) as soon as they saw these guys produce weapons or just after they started shooting. The first shooter goes down over 4 and 1/2 minutes later at the hands of NSW police who got there as fast as possible.

Australian restrictions on the law abiding carrying handguns meant shooters had 4 and 1/2 minutes before there was an armed person at the scene who could respond.

11.6% of Washingtonians have concealed carry permits, which means in an event this large, multiple people would have been armed and able to provide instant response time, not 4 and 1/2 minutes.

BTW, Washington State is in the top 10 states in terms of proportion of population with a CPL, but is 29th in homicide rate. Only two of the top 10 states with CPL's are in the top 10 for homicide rates.

https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/blog/the-most-armed-states/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/232561/murder-and-non-negligent-manslaughter-rate-in-the-us-by-state/

@2/7/14, Always helpful reading the comments on the letter he wrote to the editor that was so obnoxious they shared it as a standalone post. 10 years later and these still apply. You can’t tell him anything he hasn’t already heard a million times across multiple platforms.

https://www.thestranger.com/blogs/2015/05/29/22301818/this-is-the-most-ridiculous-letter-to-the-editor-weve-received-all-day/comments/1

@14, Like those advocating for gun control, including you, don't use people's death to advocate for a political agenda.

If you don't address the pathology and people that engage in mass killing, they just switch means. God forbid they return to the firebombing that was used as the chief means of mass murder, prior to WW II.

I am so sorry to hear a fellow cyclist was killed. As an avid Seattle cyclist this hits close to home. Was this the first cyclist death of 2025? My recollection is there were zero cyclist deaths in 2024. Damn it! Curse the coward who killed him then left the scene may he/she gnash their teeth in hell forever.

There will be zero surprise when we learn the driver who killed the bicyclist has a series of moving violations. Drivers licenses are a joke. Too easy to attain, too easy to maintain even by drivers who regularly are shown to put other people at risk. Judges need to yank people's licenses for multiple years after they commit serious infractions or collisions. Driving is a privilege and not a right. Let bad drivers whine about needing their car for work, these poor drivers can take the bus and walk. Or better yet they can ride a bike.

@2 & 3: Why are you like this.

@17 Or the people with handguns might duck and cover just like the Uvalde police. Having more armed people does not result in a reduction of gun violence.

@19 Oh sure, people advancing gun control use people's deaths to advance a political agenda. You know, the one that has a solid chance of preventing the next fucking mass shooting. You, on the other hand, use it Every. Single. Fucking. Time to advocate against laws that have proven effective at reducing (not eliminating, reducing) mass shootings in every other developed country in the world.

I would sure as shit prefer a 4.5 minute response to a single mass shooting in 30 years to 300 mass shootings in one year, which is apparently your preferred option.

You sick fuck.

@19,

Absolutely nobody is dismissing that we desperately need to address the pathology that leads to this horror show shit on a daily basis. But there's also absolutely no reason we can't do so while also and simultaneously addressing the hundreds of millions of guns that are flooding our streets and enabling it. Though as barth already noted, you've been told this hundreds of times over the years and it's pointless to even engage with it any longer.

I mean honestly, congratulations are in order. You've won, decisively and conclusively, as it's unmistakably obvious that America won't ever enact meaningful gun control laws, despite the majority of us being in favor of doing so. And so I'd encourage you to go out and celebrate, crack a bottle of champagne and cut yourself a slice of cake as you & your fellow right wing agitators can just kick back and wait for the next mass shooting to occur so that you can boast and celebrate yet again, just as your did here, less that 20 minutes after Hannah's post went up. Rest assured it won't be long.

You truly are a sick and disgusting person. Congratulations once again on your victory.

@22 Uvalde was the result of police not following their own procedures - it was ended by someone showing up with a gun and willing to use it, the most reliable method of ending a mass murder event. More legally armed citizens certainly does lead to lower casualty counts - the average number of people shot in an event when the shooter is stopped by law enforcement is 14.3, while average number of people shot in an attempted mass killing event when the attacker is stopped by regular people is 2.3.

Australia never really had much of the mass murder issue many countries did. Australia has something like 13 times less the population of the US and less than some single US states. They went from not having many mass shootings before their strict gun laws to not having many after it. They went from having about 4 million guns pre-strict gun control to having...about 4 million today. By some metrics, their rape rates also far outstrip the US, interestingly.

In America, the vast majority of mass shootings (which are mostly committed with handguns) take place in cities with the strictest gun control, like Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.

The United States, with its infamously poor mental health, is perhaps the last place where guns should be readily available. We are simply too whacked to shoulder the responsibility.

Moreover, guns are boring. Imagine a population having it out with medieval weaponry and assorted exotica; blow guns, throwing stars, polearms, etc. The spectacle of it would be far more entertaining. Imagine sitting at a red light in a bad neighborhood and witnessing a duel between a katana and a morning star flail.

@23, @22, As noted many times for both of you, guns in private hands has gone to up and up and up, while simultaneously homicide rates have fallen to 40 year lows. So there is zero correlation between availability of guns and violence rates.

Others, not me, will claim based on that data, that the availability of guns caused the drop in homicides, and violent crime generally, to those record lows. That too is a spurious conclusion from the data. Correlation, even strong negative correlation, does not equal causation. Where you have causation, there is mathematical correlation; however, the opposite is not true. Correlation may mean causation, but often does not.

@22, No, those advancing gun control are being performative in advancing something that has no chance of preventing the next mass killing. Assuming you could put the genie back in the bottle (you can't), the means of mass murder would merely shift to using other methods, because the pathology and cultural norms remain. Performative measures are cynical, and worse than doing nothing.

@25 They're not boring at all, actually! Try out the pinnacle of home and personal defense, the AR-15 (not that you can buy one here anymore). I promise you'll enjoy it more than you think, and it's not just a fun hobby - it might save your life, in a society infamously replete with insane murderers.

@26 It's remarkable* how you have ti both ways. On the one hand, you sanctimoniously say that we should be focused on the shooter, not the guns, since guns don't kill people, people kill people. And of course, only a tiny fraction of guns are used to kill people. And then you completely ignore that an even tinier fraction of people engage in murder or mass shootings. So if you can't deal with guns, you have no fucking hope of dealing with people.

Of course, actual stats on mass shootings are that the perpetrators are overwhelmingly male. The obvious evidence-based solution to address the people and not the object is to ban men from owning or using firearms.

Actually, no it isn't. You perform feats of mental gymnastics greater than this every day. You sick fuck.

@26 You're talking homicides, not mass shootings. Apples and oranges. But you probably already knew that. As the number of guns in private hands have gone up, numbers of mass shootings have also gone up. What can it all mean?

what
Switchblade
Fever [not Magoo]
Fails to Recognize is
the Guy Who DISARMED
OF THE SHOOTERS WAS ALSO

a fucking Muslim

but that'd be
Too Hard On his
Fascist NAZI Narrative.

sieg fucking Heil

@28 I'm talking mass shootings. The 300+ stat is for incidents where 4 or more people are shot by a single perpetrator, which is overwhelmingly performed with handguns in high-crime cities. But you definitely didn't know that, before spouting off on rules you think everyone else should have.

@28, Mass shootings have gone up where the definition of what is a mass shooting is altered and then compared to baseline studies that didn't use that definition. In research where the definition has not been altered, not so much.

Assuming they have gone up as more weapons have been pushed out into society, you have correlation. There are also many things that the increase could also be just as validly correlated to. Mathematical correlation is a helpful tool, but in and of itself does not prove causation, or at its worse leads to false determination of causation.

"The obvious evidence-based solution to address the people and not the object is to ban men from owning or using firearms."

That doesn't stop anything, because there are lots of other means of mass murder and individual murder other than firearms. Ban the firearm, you get the same outcome, or worse, because the law-abiding lose their equalizer, because the perpetrators are still just as bent on unlawful violence and merely change the means they use.

@28, School shootings are but one subset of mass shootings, and they aren't going up.

https://www.npr.org/2018/03/15/593831564/the-disconnect-between-perceived-danger-in-u-s-schools-and-reality

I assume you find NPR a credible source. I do.

Knife, you read like you are looking for a job but given your paranthetic comments demonstrate that you are uniquely and completely unemployable.
Good luck with that.

@33,

You've not answered my question about why you continue to bitch and moan incessantly over a political argument that you've clearly and decisively won. There was a mass murder over the weekend, there'll be more murders today and there'll be more and more mass murders than any of us can keep track of for as long as any of us here will be alive to consider. What there won't be of course is gun control, despite the overwhelming majority of Americans supporting such measures, and so you can just go ahead and crack a cold one and revel in the bloodshed and lack of gun control laws. Good for you!

Do you also complain about the calls that went against the Seahawks in the 2014 Super Bowl or do you celebrate their championship? If not, then what is it you're on about here?

@32 Apparently you just haven't figured out yet that it is vastly more difficult to kill large numbers of people with a non-firearm personal weapon than it is with a firearm. And of course it's also far easier to disarm someone with a non-ranged weapon.

Oh, and you're wrong about the changing definitions. If you look at places that use a single definition (like the Gun Violence Archive https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/), you see significant increases in gun violence from 2015-2024. Similarly, there's an upward trendline in the Mother Jones data that uses consistent definitions. Alas, you're once again not as smart as you thought you were. Too bad.

"Blah blah blah People kill people with knives so murder's the problem not guns! I'm a pseudo-intellectual tool of the gun lobby! And we can't do anything about murder so oh well we can't do anything! We can't pass laws because people might break them! I love statistics until they contradict my preconceived notions!"

@27 Too bad that it is far, far more likely that a firearm in the home will be used against the owner or their family than to successfully fend off crime.

@35, Why do you, and The Stranger, call for something that the evidence does not support?

All of the studies on the issue, both pro control and pro rights, have major methodological and/or data flaws.

https://reason.com/2016/01/05/you-know-less-than-you-think-a/

So do we accept evidence (or bow to the lack of it), or do we just follow our own per-suppositions?

@36, The Nice attack in France was committed with a truck, killing 86.

The OKC bombing killed 168.

The Sarin attack in Japan killed 13 and the animation studio gasoline fire attack killed 33.

So much for needing a firearm to kill large numbers of people.

The means and material required for all those attacks are still readily available, both here and abroad.

CO2 is readily available at any welding or restaurant supply outlet. Just crack a bottle open at a low rate of flow, unobtrusively in a concealed area, and people will be hitting the floor before anyone is the wiser. Odorless and colorless.
The studies you refer to are methologically and/or flawed with their data.

"A 1993 New England Journal of Medicine article by Arthur Kellermann and his colleagues. "Although firearms are often kept in homes for personal protection," they concluded, "this study shows that the practice is counterproductive."

The study has many flaws. In addition to the predictable failure to establish causality, there's a more glaring irregularity: Slightly less than half of the murders Kellermann studied were actually committed with a gun (substantially less than the national average in 1993 of around 71 percent). And even in those cases he failed to establish that the gun owners were killed with their own guns. If even a small percentage of them weren't, given that more than half of the murders were not committed with guns, the causal relevance of the harmed being gun owners is far less clear. (The study found that even more dangerous risks than having a gun at home included living alone, using drugs, or being a renter.)" https://reason.com/2016/01/05/you-know-less-than-you-think-a/

"Stroebe notes that the two major post-Kellermann studies most often used to demonstrate an association between gun ownership and risk of homicide shared one of Kellermann's fatal flaws: They offer no information about whether the gun used to kill the gun owners was their own." ibid.

I'm circling back to this thread, and what I see is a textbook study in how to enable the right-wing trolls to drive the conversation. Remember, it's only a conversation if you take the bait and respond.

Just a little suggestion to:
• COMTE
• tbass1981
• boatgeek
• Lissa
• mike blob
• Nuclear Marc

(I'd include barth, but I get the sense barth's only purpose on these threads is to feed the trolls.)

Disclaimer. Someone might accuse me of being an opponent of free speech by saying this. Of course, that requires some muddled thinking. By saying DFTT, I'm not inhibiting the trolls' sacred First Amendment right to tag the Slog AM comment threads. It's just worth noting that silence is its own powerful form of speech. And rest assured, the trolls are desperate to inhibit that sort of speech.

@41: Well said.

@41
Yes, the Monday Trolls have been more than impressive! Let me interrupt the Trollstream to say Go Hawks! They won yesterday in spite of themselves.

'ADELAIDE, Australia—The shooters who attacked a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday appear to have been inspired by Islamic State, Australia’s prime minister said Tuesday, as investigators looked into the planning behind the country’s deadliest mass shooting in nearly 30 years.

'Police said they found two homemade Islamic State flags alongside improvised explosive devices in a car registered to a 24-year-old man accused with his 50-year-old father of carrying out the attack, in which 15 people were killed and dozens were injured.

'Australia has designated the mass shooting a terrorist attack on the Jewish community.

'“It would appear that this was motivated by Islamic State ideology,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday. “The ideology that has been around for more than a decade that led to this ideology of hate and, in this case, a preparedness to engage in mass murder.”

[...]

'In August last year, Australia raised its nationwide terrorism threat level to probable, meaning authorities believed there was a greater than 50% chance of an attack on home soil or one being planned over the following 12 months. Authorities cited extremism among young people, who they said were turning to racially or religiously inspired violence with little or no warning.'

(https://www.wsj.com/world/bondi-beach-shooters-motivated-by-islamic-state-australia-says-23becf1f?mod=hp_lead_pos3)

Just keep throwing the word, "genocide," around, kids -- and especially at a minority which has historically been scapegoated and attacked. It makes you look trendy and hip and oh-so KEWWWWWWL, whilst having absolutely no negative effects of any kind whatsoever, amirite?

"Just keep throwing the word, "genocide," around, kids --

and especially at a minority which has
historically been scapegoated
and attacked."

--@The Wormtongue

"It’s
so gross
watching the
tail-wagging excitement
of Israel supporters in response
to the Bondi shooting. They’re so happy
they have another rhetorical weapon with which
to bludgeon pro-Palestine voices into silence. They can barely

contain their glee."

--‪Caitlin Johnstone‬; ‪@caitoz.bsky.social‬

"I saw a tweet from Aaron Maté yesterday:

“15 civilians were killed in the massacre targeting Sydney’s Jewish community. A day in which Israel massacres 15 Palestinian civilians in Gaza would be at the low end of the average in 2+ years of genocide.

“Israel’s atrocities and the impunity they receive are undoubtedly the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide. And to show how little Israel and its apologists care about anti-Semitism, many are exploiting the Sydney massacre to justify Israel’s rejection of a Palestinian state; baselessly blame Iran; and demand more censorship of anti-genocide protests.”

If I had my slate cleaned and could see the world through fresh eyes it would never occur to me that I and my society would ever see 15 people being murdered in Australia as more significant than 15 people being murdered in Palestine. I would expect them to be viewed as exactly as terrible.

And they should be. Palestinians don’t love their families any less than Australians do. Australian lives aren’t any more significant or valuable than Palestinian lives. There is no valid reason for the world to have focused any less on the 15 people who were killed in Gaza on March 16 than on the 15 people who were murdered on Bondi Beach. But it did."

"When a dozen Jews
are massacred in Australia
the World is in mourning. When a
dozen Palestinians are massacred every
day in Gaza, the world celebrates it as a ceasefire."

--Zachary Foster, in a Tweet, with 14.1K heart emojis

Sunday was an awful, dark day. Hundreds of lives have been directly devastated by this tragedy, thousands more indirectly, and in some ways the nation as a whole has been changed. The trauma will reverberate in the victim’s families for generations.

The sorrow is palpable and ubiquitous. It’s everywhere; in the streets, at the supermarket. There is catastrophe in the air, and people around the world are feeling it.

And this is appropriate. This is what 15 deaths ought to feel like. This is what it feels like when you see mass murder inflicted upon a population whose murder hasn’t become normalized for you.

Humanity won’t survive into the distant future unless we grow into a conscious species, and part of that growth will necessarily include widening our circles of compassion to include our fellow beings around the world.

If we can’t do that, we’re not going to make it. We’re too destructive.

We hurt each other and our environment too much.
We destroy everything around us trying to shore up
wealth and resources for ourselves, and it simply is
not sustainable. It’ll get us all killed eventually.

We’ve got to become better.
We’ve got to become more caring.
More emotionally intelligent. Less susceptible
to the manipulations of propaganda. A society driven
by truth and compassion rather than lies and the pursuit of profit.

That’s the only way we’re making it out of this awkward
adolescent transition stage with these large,
capable brains still wound up in vestigial
evolutionary fear-based conditioning.

That’s the only way we achieve our true potential and build a healthy world together."

--Caitlin Johnstone

oodles:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/australians-being-massacred-shouldnt

ok, wormmy.

"Just keep throwing the word, 'genocide,' around, kids --
and especially at a minority which has historically
been scapegoated and attacked. It makes you

look
trendy
and hip and
oh-so KEWWWWWWL"

-@the Wormtongue, gleefully, above

“Israel’s atrocities and the impunity they receive are
undoubtedly the number one driver
of anti-Semitism worldwide.

And to show how little Israel
and its apologists care about anti-Semitism,
many are exploiting the Sydney massacre to justify
Israel’s rejection of a Palestinian state; baselessly blame
Iran; and demand more censorship of anti-genocide protests.”

--tweet from Aaron Maté

I believe
I'll Pass, on
AIPAC nonsense.

Pardon bibi:
END the
"War."

@40 My God, you're a dumbass. It's even sadder that you think you're so goddamn smart. But you're just Gish galloping your way to proving the opposite point.

OKC bombing: After the bombing, rules were changed to make it far, far harder to buy ammonium nitrate in an uncoated form that's suitable for bombmaking. You have to be a registered user with a need for explosives and be checked regularly against the terrorism database to buy the stuff. Golly, if only we could do something like that for guns!

Trucks: Why yes, truck attacks did kill people. And police departments worldwide have responded by putting up barriers between streets and areas where people are going to congregate. You know, making them truck-free zones. Just like security checks for weapons before you go into a concert or a rally. But let's look at real numbers. There were ~130 people killed in truck attacks the same year as the Nice attack, or about 0.29 per million population of the EU. There were ~15000 people killed in gun homicides in the US last year, or ~43 per million population. Trucks aren't the problem.

Sarin: Ooooooh, vewy, vewy scawy! It even sounds scientific and vaguely Asian, so it's extra scary to rubes like you! Given that non-governmental users of sarin have killed roughly 20 people in the last half century or so, it's not even a drop in the murder bucket. Mass shooters in the US kill a dozen people on the regular. Oh, and the precursor chemicals for sarin are tightly regulated. Golly, if only we could do that for guns!

Keep shilling big guy, keep shilling.

And now, with respect to @41, I'm out.

@48,

And yet the chemicals and know how to produce all of those things is still available. Gasoline is the most widely available.

Mass shooters plan for months or years. They legally acquire the means for their crime. A few more hoops isn't going to stop them. They are intelligent. They are sane (99% of insanity defenses fail).

@48, How did those truck barriers that New Orleans Police erected perform. They dude drove around them and up the sidewalk. Absent that, he could have easily driven through the thin glass retail storefronts on the street corners (they aren't structural) to pass onto the street beyond.

So you are for more money, on more performative measures, rather than measures that could work. Nearly all of these mass killers, kill out of grievance. They publicize what they do, days, hours, or minutes, ahead of time, usually on social media. So monitor that, as some FBI agents (under Obama) proposed. Then intervene with Extreme Risk Protection Orders to seize weapons and mental health holds.

"...but the Australian prime minister has pledged to tighten their gun laws even more after this shooting. Sure beats thoughts and prayers."

Or, outfits like the Stranger could cool it with the overheated rhetoric on Gaza, already. From last February:

'Antisemitic incidents have risen all over the world since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s military response in Gaza. But the attacks in Australia have hit a nerve in a country where Jews have long held prominent roles and where antisemitic incidents have been relatively rare. Australia’s most widely acclaimed World War I commander was Jewish. Thousands of Jews migrated to the country after the Holocaust, including Frank Lowy, who co-founded global mall giant Westfield.

'Police helicopters now fly nightly over Sydney’s eastern suburbs, patrolling synagogues, Jewish businesses and even world-famous Bondi Beach.

'“It’s next level stuff. It’s not kids doing something stupid on the spur of the moment,” said Menachem Vorchheimer, a Jewish human-rights advocate from Melbourne.'

(https://www.wsj.com/world/antisemitic-attacks-mar-australias-legacy-as-a-haven-for-jews-dacc96c0?mod=article_inline)

Frivolously throwing around serious terms like "genocide" emboldens anti-Jewish bigots everywhere, even in faraway, multi-cultural Australia. Endless one-sided rhetoric against Israel's conduct in the war, but absolutely nothing said at all about Hamas' intentional slaughter of civilians, feeds the bigots' irrational hatred of Jews as a sinister Other, for whom violence can be the only path.

@51

tS's Chief Israeli
Propagandist
cum AIPAC
Mouth-
piece:

"Or,
outfits
like the Stranger
could cool it with the
overheated rhetoric on Gaza"

The Wormtongue's
Calls for the Stranger
to Censor itself! are No
Surprise -- he's been De-
manding It Ever Since 10/7

in fact, Any criticism of Israel and its actions
wormmy conflates with the worst kinds of
violent anti-Jewish bigotry

Conflating
Anti-genocide
with Anti-Semitism
each and every Time:

"... trying to stomp out criticism of
Israel’s genocidal atrocities.

using a tragic mass shooting
as a political cudgel against people
who believe Palestinians are human beings.

This is just one more cynical manipulation
aimed at protecting Israel from criticism
so that it can inflict more violence
and suffering upon the world."

--Caitlin Johnstone

"Or,
outfits
like the Stranger
could cool it with the
overheated rhetoric on Gaza"

Don't
Listen to
the Wormtongue

as painful
af as it may be
Pardon fucking bibi

and END the Genocide.

‪
Point 1: Obviously
it is evil to massacre
civilians for being Jewish.

Point 2: Obviously
Israel's genocidal atrocities
must continue to be opposed,
and will continue to be opposed.

Today
the worst people in
the world are trying to pretend
Point 1 and Point 2 are contradictory.

--Caitlin Johnstone‬; ‪@caitoz.bsky.social‬

Who tF takes
their Advice from
'the worst people in the world'?

Sorry,
Wormmy:
but You're on the
Wrong Side of History here

@51 -- "'Antisemitic
incidents have risen all over the world
since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023
[killing 1.300], and Israel’s military response in Gaza [killing 60,000+] ... "

huh.

This, from Caitlin's Newsletter:

Australians Being Massacred Shouldn't
Bother Us More Than Palestinians
Being Massacred

Indeed, the worst people on earth are using the Bondi Beach shooting to argue for crackdowns on free speech and freedom of assembly to silence Israel’s critics online and on the streets, in Australia and throughout the western world.

And when 15 Palestinians were killed
by Israel on March 16, the
west barely noticed.

I don’t remember the 15 Palestinians who died during that 24-hour period in mid-March, but I will always remember the Bondi Beach shooting. Someone could mention it to me thirty years from now and I’ll know exactly what they’re talking about.

My society {Australia] made an infinitely bigger deal about the deaths of 15 westerners in Sydney, Australia than the deaths of 15 Palestinians in Gaza, so it will always stick in my memory.

a tweet from Aaron Maté:

“15 civilians were killed in the massacre targeting Sydney’s Jewish community. A day in which Israel massacres 15 Palestinian civilians in Gaza would be at the low end of the average in 2+ years of genocide.

“Israel’s atrocities and the impunity they receive are undoubtedly the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide. And to show how little Israel and its apologists care about anti-Semitism, many are exploiting the Sydney massacre to justify Israel’s rejection of a Palestinian state; baselessly blame Iran; and demand more censorship of anti-genocide protests.”

If I had my slate cleaned and could see the world through fresh eyes it would never occur to me that I and my society would ever see 15 people being murdered in Australia as more significant than 15 people being murdered in Palestine. I would expect them to be viewed as exactly as terrible.

And they should be. Palestinians don’t love their families any less than Australians do. Australian lives aren’t any more significant or valuable than Palestinian lives. There is no valid reason for the world to have focused any less on the 15 people who were killed in Gaza on March 16 than on the 15 people who were murdered on Bondi Beach.

But it did.

@51 -- "'Antisemitic
incidents have risen all over the world
since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023
[killing 1.300], and Israel’s military response in Gaza [killing 60,000+] ... "

“Israel’s atrocities
and the impunity they receive are
undoubtedly the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide."

-- Aaron Maté:

@51

"Frivolously throwing around serious terms like "genocide" emboldens anti-Jewish bigots everywhere, even in faraway, multi-cultural Australia. Endless one-sided rhetoric against Israel's conduct in the war, but absolutely nothing said at all about Hamas' intentional slaughter of civilians, feeds the bigots' irrational hatred of Jews as a sinister Other, for whom violence can be the only path." --oh, so Eleoquent, wormmy!

and Oh, so Misplaced:

What IS It that so "feeds the bigots'
irrational hatred of Jews as
a sinister Other"?

“Israel’s atrocities
and the impunity they receive are
undoubtedly the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide."

-- Aaron Maté:

Please make
a fucking
Note of
it.

@56 ~ ptrhjqwiorj

@58~s;EOFI E F

@60 its
a mirror

@62

@61 Stung, eh?

from Kurt Russel's Brilliant 'Tombstrone'

Wyatt Earp: What
makes a man like Ringo, Doc?
What makes him do the things he does?

Doc Holliday: A man like Ringo
has got a great big hole,
right in the middle
of him.

He can never kill enough,
or steal enough, or inflict
enough pain to ever fill it.

Wyatt Earp: What does he need?

Doc Holliday: Revenge.

Wyatt Earp: For what?

Doc Holliday: Bein'
born.

your
PTSD
CAN be
Eased, sharppy.
there Are Ways, lad.

it's
Not
Your
Fault.

@62: "Write" is rather an exalted term for it, really. It's more like he's projectile-vomiting chunks of half-digested material onto the screen, and watching it dribble down after it hits.

After two years in which all of their many words utterly failed to deter Israel's relentless crushing of Hamas in Gaza, you might think the Stranger (and supportive commenters) would be happy to learn their constant inflammatory rhetoric has actually accomplished something, even if it's just inciting violence against innocent Jews half a world away from Israel itself.

@51 -- "'Antisemitic
incidents have risen all over the world
since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023
[killing 1.300], and Israel’s military response in Gaza [killing 60,000+] ... "

--@the Wormtongue,
still spouting AIPAC's
pro-genocidal Mis-
& Malinformation

“Israel’s atrocities
and the impunity they receive are
undoubtedly the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide."

-- Aaron Maté

and
it's Still
just as true as
the Ongoing massacre in Gaza

The World
SEES you
wormmy

Oh!
and Speaking
of AIPAC and its
Ownership of "OUR"
Government, if you're
thee Slightest Bit Curious

about how much Influence this
Pro-Israel -- and Pro-EVERYTHING
ISRAEL DOES -- Has, you owe it to Yourself to

check out this AIPAC Beneficiaries List.

it includes ALL OF Congress
and the Staggering Amounts
of Influence Israel/AIPAC exerts

Over "Our" Lawmakers

and helps explain
why We are
Backing a
Genocide

and are Complicit
in Over 60,000
Palestinian
Deaths.

it. is. an.
Eyeopener:

https://www.trackaipac.com/

"TRACK YOUR CONGRESSMEMBERS

Do your representatives
support genocide?

Follow
the money
and find out: "

https://www.trackaipac.com/

you'll Never again See
our Congress in the
same way.

'Ms. Nadell, a professor of history at American University, points out that recent events should not shock. “Antisemitism,” she contends, “has coursed throughout American history.” Her chronological narrative is persuasive. The earliest European settlers in what became the United States carried with them the conviction that Jews were collectively guilty of Christ’s crucifixion and “utterly corrupted by money.” The story of Hugh of Lincoln—one of the earliest “blood libels” against the Jews—crossed the Atlantic to appear in American ballads from New England to the Deep South. Anti-Jewish attitudes have morphed over the centuries but have never disappeared.'

'Ms. Nadell is convincing that anti-Israel movements have fomented antisemitism. “Apartheid” weeks and campaigns for divestment over the past 20 years have shaped the way a growing segment of the country understands Israel. Thus, when Hamas attacked, activists were ready to denounce both the Israeli response and those Americans who sympathized with the world’s only Jewish state. Ms. Nadell minces no words. “The majority demonstrating for Palestine,” she tells us, “have erased” the line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. The comment paints with an overly broad brush, but there is no question that anti-Israel activism stokes anti-Jewish harassment and violence. In May 2025, a man shot and killed two people as they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. “I did it for Gaza,” he boasted.'

(https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/antisemitism-an-american-tradition-review-prejudice-in-the-promised-land-58c82784?mod=Searchresults&pos=10&page=1)

Any American engaging in constant rhetorical attacks upon Israel -- especially when pointedly not criticizing Israel's enemies for doing far worse -- cannot then express surprise at a rising number of anti-Jewish incidents afterwards.

"Ms. Nadell
is convincing that
anti-Israel movements*
have fomented antisemitism."

lots of peeps're
Convincing af

“Israel’s atrocities
and the impunity they receive are
undoubtedly the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide."

-- Aaron Maté

*sometimes
Oftimes it Hard af
to Separate genociders
from the country they hail from

and hiding behind Jewishness
to cover one's Atrocities
only Works until it
No Longer does

the World tires of
an Unrelenting
IOF starving
& bombing
a Captive
Citizenry

whilst stealing
their Land &
their Future

Pardon bibi
and END this
gottdamm 'War'

Jews
Planetwide
Deserve NO LESS.

from Caitlin's Newsletter:

A reminder from Gideon Levy:

“There aren’t many populations in the world
as helpless as the Palestinians who live in their own country.

No one protects their lives and property, let alone their dignity,
and no one intends to do so. They are totally abandoned
to their fates, their houses and cars can be torched,
their fields set on fire. It’d all right to shoot them
mercilessly, killing old people and babies,
with no defense forces at their side.

No police,
no military: no
one. If some such
desperate defense force
is organized, it’s immediately
criminalized by Israel. Its fighters
are labeled “ terrorists”, their actions
“terrors attacks”, and their fate[s] sealed,

with death or prison, the only option.”

--Patricia Blair

from: The Australian Israel Lobby
Is Flat-Out Saying They Want
A Ban On Criticism Of Israel

https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-australian-israel-lobby-is-flat/comments

"Australians everywhere
should be made acutely aware
that the Australian Israel lobby is now
explicitly advocating a ban on criticism of the state of Israel.

Not just hate speech against Jews.
Criticism of a foreign state.
They’re coming right out
and saying it.

During a recent public video conference
with the American Jewish Committee on the topic
of the Bondi Beach shooting, the Executive Manager
of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC)

explicitly says he wants pro-Palestine protests
to be banned by the Australian government,
and that addressing the problem of anti-
semitic hate speech in Australia neces-
sarily means stopping opposition
to Israel’s actions."

--Caitlin Johnstone; December 18, 2025

https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-australian-israel-lobby-is-flat

one comment:

"This is the moment where the issue
stops being Israel or Palestine and
becomes a civil liberties question.

Once criticism of a foreign government
is reframed as inherently dangerous speech, the
line between hate prevention and political censorship disappears.

You don’t have to agree with the protests
to see the precedent being set here,
state power deciding which geo-
political positions are allow-
ed in public space."

--Honey Badger Journal; Christopher Rixman

"We also condemn Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to
exploit this tragedy for political
gain by blaming the attack on
Australia['s] recognizing the
legitimacy of a Palestinian
state, as if acknowledging
Palestinian humanity
were itself an act
of terror."

--AIPAC Tracker‬; ‪@trackaipac.com‬

https://bsky.app/profile/trackaipac.com/post/3ma4w3c4shu2n

to track How Much the Israeli
Lobby Group that has a
Death Grip on OUR
Politicians PAYS
those Pols

to Do Things
THEIR WAY

go to:
https://www.trackaipac.com/

"Nearly Half of Adults Worldwide Hold Antisemitic Views, Survey Finds
Antisemitism has surged, especially among the young, as the Holocaust fades from collective memory"

'The ADL has in the past been challenged for sometimes considering criticism against Israel as antisemitic. In the study, however, attitudes toward Israel don’t affect the antisemitism score, which only represents the percentage of respondents who answered “definitely true” or “probably true” to six or more of the 11 antisemitic tropes listed in the questionnaire.

'Antisemitic attitudes vary across regions and continents, the study shows. Three quarters of respondents in the Middle East and North Africa agree with most of the listed antisemitic tropes. Around half of those surveyed in Asia, Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa hold significantly antisemitic views. In Western Europe, that figure drops to 17%, in the Americas to 24% and in Oceania to 20%.'

'Twenty percent of the respondents haven’t heard of the Holocaust, while 17% think the number of Jews killed in it was greatly exaggerated by historians, and 4% believe it never happened. The acceptance of the Holocaust as a historic fact also varies across regions. Only 16% of the respondents in the Middle East and North Africa and 23% in sub-Saharan Africa accept that the Holocaust happened as described by mainstream historians.'

'The good news of the study, Greenblatt said, is that 57% of respondents recognized that hate against Jews is a serious problem, giving policymakers popular backing to counter it.'

(https://www.wsj.com/world/nearly-half-of-adults-worldwide-hold-antisemitic-views-survey-finds-574a1766?mod=Searchresults&pos=12&page=1)

“Israel’s atrocities and the im-
punity they receive are undoubtedly
the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide."

-- Aaron Maté

"Nearly Half of Adults Worldwide Hold Antisemitic Views, Survey Finds!"

Expect that percentage
to Snowball as bibi's
Keep outta Prison
gambit proceeds.

Assaults upon any Jews anywhere for the actions of the Israeli government has no more moral standing than terrorizing of Americans has for actions of Trump.

‘The Hanukkah massacre at Australia’s Bondi Beach reveals the potential for mass anti-Jewish violence carried within a ubiquitous libel: that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, targeting children in particular, and that diaspora Jews are complicit.

‘The libel has a track record. In November 2024, those praising a violent “Jew hunt” in Amsterdam lauded the perpetrators as “Dutch opponents of the genocide.” In January a French study noted that “the hammering of the false genocide accusation . . . helped to demonize the image of Jews in France” and justify hostile behavior toward them. In May the alleged murderer of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim in Washington, D.C., wrote that “abettors [of genocide] have forfeited their humanity.” Palestinian-American activist Susan Abulhawa wrote that the two were “genocide cheerleaders,” and that “no Zionist should be safe.”’

Prof. Norman J.W. Goda
University of Florida
Gainesville, Fla.

(https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-human-cost-of-the-jewish-genocide-libel-israel-australia-war-gaza-c254e150?mod=Searchresults&pos=1&page=1)

“Israel’s atrocities and the im-
punity they receive are undoubtedly
the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide."

-- Aaron Maté

Stop picking on poor little Israel.

It’s just sitting there minding its own business trying to do a little genocide in peace while aggressively lobbying your government to crush your freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and you’re OBSESSING about it for NO REASON.

You just hate Jews.

That’s the only possible reason you could spend so much time obsessing about this one tiny little harmless country: you’ve got a crazy, irrational fixation on a small abrahamic religion, because you’re a weirdo.

Stop saying it’s actually
about all the wars and atrocities
and apartheid and starving children
and lobbying and propaganda and nonstop
assaults on your civil rights and your government’s
complicity in genocidal abuses and the fact that you

can’t engage in any aspect of society without having pro-
Israel influence operations shoved down your throat.
No. That’s not it. It’s because you get
freakishly enraged by small hats.

Don’t you know there was a shooting on Bondi Beach?
Some ISIS guys killed some Jewish people, and
it never would have happened if protesters
hadn’t been accusing Israel of
doing bad things.

Stop saying they did it be-
cause they had been involved
with ISIS for many years. They did it
because you wore a watermelon pin.

There was a mass shooting in Sydney
so that means everything that happened
over the previous two years gets erased, just like
how October 7 automatically deleted the last eight decades.

Everything that happened before the bad thing gets shaken
out of existence like an Etch A Sketch, and anything that’s
done afterward is justified by the bad thing. If this
happens to advance pre-existing Israeli agendas
like massive land grabs or suppression of
pro-Palestine demonstrators, so be it.

Them’s the rules.

There was a mass shooting in Australia so
now everyone needs to shut up and do whatever
Israel wants. Israel feels sad about the shooting so now
it gets to do a bit more genocide, as a treat. It’s only fair.

Caitlin Johnstone; December 22, 2025

Oodles:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/stop-picking-on-poor-little-israel

“Israel’s atrocities and the im-
punity they receive are undoubtedly
the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide."

-- Aaron Maté

Bingo, Aaron.

“the hammering of the false genocide accusation . . .
helped to demonize the image of Jews in France"

wanna know
what's Not helping
Jews, Everyfucking Where

on Planet Earth?

(and, NO, it is NOT
the fucking Fault
OF ALL JEWS):

["but, Technically, IS it Truly 'genocide'?"
Getting hung up on definitions
is nothing but a Distraction]:

“Israel’s atrocities and the im-
punity they receive are undoubtedly
the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide."

'Lynda Ben-Menashe, the president of the National Council of Jewish Women Australia, expressed an apt sentiment after yesterday’s terror attack at Bondi Beach: She said that she was “horrified and devastated” but, she added, “not shocked.”

'Indeed, how could anyone be shocked? The act of terrorism, in which a father-and-son duo targeted Jews celebrating Hanukkah and killed at least 15, was the deadliest in Australia’s history. But events have been working up to it since October 7, 2023. Powerful forces far from Australia have responded to the conflict in Gaza by promoting anti-Semitism globally, and acts of violence like the one in Sydney are the predictable result.

'In the past two years, Australia’s Jewish minority—117,000 people in a nation of close to 28 million—has come under an unrelenting barrage. Jewish schools, synagogues, bakeries, and delis have been graffitied with Nazi symbols and fuck israel messages. Cars and one brewery have been set ablaze in attacks linked to anti-Jewish sentiment. A pair of nurses recorded a video in which they threatened to kill Israeli patients in their hospitals or refuse to treat them. An explosive-filled trailer was found with a list of synagogues inside. Australia’s Jewish institutions recorded almost 4,000 anti-Semitic incidents from October 2023 to October 2025. In March, Australia’s intelligence chief said that anti-Semitism was his organization’s top priority “in terms of threats to life.”'

(https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/12/bondi-beach-jewish-attack/685273/)

The dumbest thing we
are being asked to believe
today is that pro-Palestinian
protests caused the Bondi shooting.

It’s self-evidently moronic.
No one sincerely believes it.
They’re just pretending to believe it to
get protests banned and criticism of Israel outlawed.

Nobody actually believes
pro-Palestine protests caused
the Bondi shooting. They’re just pretending to
believe that to promote the interests of a genocidal apartheid state.

Nobody actually believes “globalize the intifada” means
“kill all Jews”. They’re just pretending to believe
that to promote the interests of a
genocidal apartheid state.

Nobody actually believes pro-Palestine demonstrations
are “hate marches” or that pro-Palestine speech
is “hate speech”. They’re just pretending to
believe that to promote the interests
of a genocidal apartheid state.

Nobody actually believes there’s a soaring epidemic of antisemitism
in our society that is caused by anti-genocide demonstrations.

They’re just pretending to believe that to promote
the interests of a genocidal apartheid state.

Nobody actually believes
opposing the state of
Israel is the same
as hating Jews.

They’re just pretending to
believe that to promote
the interests of a
genocidal apar-
theid state.

Israel supporters
are liars and manipulators.

They support genocide and apartheid.

[We disagree on this point, Caitlin:
not ALL Israeli supporters are
manipulators and liars, and
support this ongoing Gen-
ocide, nor Israel's
Apartheid]

[but Too Many do,]

Of course they will lie about what they believe,
and pretend to think things that they don’t
actually think. They’re defending a mass
atrocity that can only be defended
using lies. They’re bad people.

Bad people do bad things.

❖

It’s crazy how the Bondi shooters got radicalized
by the anti-genocide protests from 2023 to
2025 and then invented a time machine
and went back to 2019 to join ISIS.

That’s the claim that’s being made when people
say the mass shooting in Sydney was caused
by pro-Palestine protests, you know.

In 2019 Naveed Akram was on
an Australian intelligence watch list
because of his ties to an Islamic State terror cell,
so the claim that the Gaza protests caused or incited
the shooting necessarily requires an element of time travel.

Call their story “The Terrorists and the Time Machine.”

❖

We’re being asked to believe that ISIS were
a bunch of cuddly wuddly snuggle bears
until Australians started protesting
an active genocide.

--Caitlin Johnstone; December 21, 2025

fawking Oodles:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/notes-on-bondi-beach-and-free-speech

Israel’s Atrocities, and the Im-
punity they receive, are Undoubtedly
Thee Number ONE Driver of anti-Semitism, Worldwide.

FIX It:
Pardon bibi & END
This "War" on Palestinians.

I hate doing this, by the way. If it were up to me I’d have just let Australia grieve a horrific attack without spending days going “Actually this doesn’t mean you get to take away our rights and silence Israel’s critics.”

It’s not my fault that the worst people in the world opportunistically seized on this moment to shove through pre-existing agendas aimed at stomping out criticism of Israel and quashing anti-genocide protests in my country.

I didn’t ask for this. They did.

They’re the ones who made this political.

It could have just been about two ISIS guys
doing a terrible thing. Israel supporters could have
proved me wrong when I said the attack “will be used
as an excuse to target pro-Palestine activists and further outlaw

criticism of Israel in Australia.” Everyone could have just
focused on mourning the victims, and I would have
looked like a jerk. Instead they proved me 100
percent correct, and I’ve had to spend all my
time getting shrieked at by profoundly evil
genocide apologists who are pretending
to believe pro-Palestine protests caused
the attack in order to promote the inter-
ests of a genocidal apartheid state.

Does it look like I enjoy this shit?
Because I don’t. I fucking hate it. And
I hate that they’re making it necessary
for me to do this, because the alternative to
speaking out now is voluntarily losing my voice forever.

They made this. This is on them.

--Caitlin Johnstone; December 21, 2025

fawking Oodles:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/notes-on-bondi-beach-and-free-speech

[All my work is free to bootleg
and use in any way, shape or form;
republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise;
whatever you want. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.]

Expanding on @74, from the French Study which Prof. Goda mentioned:

'The issue of Palestine has been a powerful catalyst throughout the year. This year [2024] has been marked by a profound deterioration of the climate towards Jews in the French public sphere (schools and universities, streets and public places, the private sphere, and social media). This atmosphere largely stems from the hyper-activism of a few hundred radical anti-Israeli activists (blockades of schools and universities, boycott campaigns, actions and demonstrations against events organized by Jewish organizations, anti-Israeli inscriptions and graffiti, glorification of Palestinian terrorism, and legitimization of Hamas's actions). This climate is also a consequence of the amplification of anti-Israeli rhetoric, particularly thanks to the actions of a political party and some of its members. For example, the relentless repetition of the false accusation of genocide, as well as its corollary of accusing supporters of Israel of being "pro-genocide," has contributed to demonizing the image of Jews in France and justifying hostile or insulting behavior towards them.'

(https://www.spcj.org/antisémitisme/chiffres-de-l-antisémitisme-2024, translated by Google Translate)

why on Earth
would the Wormtongue
/AIPAC wants us to STFUA
re Israel's Genocidal Atrocities?

Israel’s Atrocities, and the Im-
punity they receive, are Undoubtedly
Thee Number ONE Driver of anti-Semitism, Worldwide.

Pardon bibi.
Stop the "War.'
END The Madness.

@80: More from the report on anti-Jewish activists in France, this time using the site's translator:

'This year [2024], many universities have become battlegrounds for anti-Israean militant organizations. These contributed to the creation of "Palestinian committees", composed of only a few students, whose objective is to put pressure on management to end all cooperation with Israeli institutions or working with Israel. These committees also seek to disseminate the language elements of anti-Israeli rhetoric among students (registration, stands, towing, event organization). The instrumentalization of these places dedicated to study and teaching, by small groups of radical activists, has managed to create a hostile and deleterious climate for Jewish students.'

Huh. That sounds somewhat familiar:

'Three Jewish students in June sued the University of California system, arguing that UCLA allowed protesters to erect an encampment that blocked Jewish students from accessing parts of campus, including classrooms and an undergraduate library.

'U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi agreed that UCLA knew students could not enter parts of campus because of their religious beliefs.

'“In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith,” he wrote.

“UCLA does not dispute this,” Scarsi wrote. “Instead, UCLA claims that it has no responsibility to protect the religious freedom of its Jewish students because the exclusion was engineered by third-party protesters. But under constitutional principles, UCLA may not allow services to some students when UCLA knows that other students are excluded on religious grounds, regardless of who engineered the exclusion.”'

(https://edsource.org/2024/federal-judge-orders-ucla-to-ensure-equal-access-to-jewish-students-following-pro-palestinian-protests/717544)

In the French site's native translation, the conclusion appears in bold text:

'... the hammering of the false accusation of genocide, as well as its corollary of accusing Israeli supporters of being "pro-genocide", have contributed to demonizing the image of Jews in France and justifying hostile or insulting behavior towards them.'

Pardon bibi.
Stop the "War.'
END This Madness:

Israel’s Atrocities, and the Impunity
they receive, are, Undoubtedly Thee Number
ONE Driver of anti-Semitism: Planet fucking wide.

And one's (intentional?) Failure
to Recognize This, is only
Leading to MORE, NOT
LESS, Anti-Semitism,

And. it's beginning
to seem rather
Deliberate.

"The Srebrenica massacre was found to be an act of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, a finding upheld by the ICJ.[19] On 24 March 2016, former Bosnian Serb leader and the first president of the Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadžić, was found guilty of genocide in Srebrenica, war crimes, and crimes against humanity and sentenced to 40 years in prison. In 2019 an appeals court increased his sentence to life imprisonment.[20] On 12 May 2021, it was announced that, in an agreement with UK authorities, he would serve the rest of his sentence in a UK prison.[21]" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_genocide)

And yet, if any Serb in any other part of the world was ever assaulted for alleged complicity in this genocide, no one seems to have recorded it. Why did a legal finding of actual genocide not inspire so much as one single attack against anyone who identified as a Serb, even though Serbs themselves often say all Serbs worldwide are members of a single nation? Why was there (admirably!) never such an attack, nor (even more admirably!) any justification stated for making such attacks? Why is the Bosnian Genocide never cited as a reason to attack Serbs anywhere in the world? Why can people around the world easily understand there is no collective responsibility amongst Serbs worldwide for the Bosnian Genocide, and yet, attacks can happen upon Jews in America for the alleged genocide in Gaza by Israel?

It would seem opponents of "genocide" have a very large amount of flexibility in their thinking on this matter.

Two crushing defeats for pro-Israel lobby
These victories for free speech are crucially important
. . . .

And in another case, Avon and Somerset Police
have concluded that no further action will be
taken against punk rap duo Bob Vylan over
chants such as ‘Death, death to the IDF’
at Glastonbury Music Festival.

The IDF is a foreign military force which,
as per the consensus of genocide scholars -
including in Israel itself - is committing genocide.

The International Criminal Court has
issued arrest warrants for war crimes and
crimes against humanity perpetrated by the IDF.

It was those conflating the IDF and Jewish people -
by claiming that attacking the former was
attacking the latter - who were act-
ually promoting antisemitism.

It is an outrage
to associate Jewish people
as a whole with the IDF’s war crimes.

If an artist had chanted ‘Death, death to the Russian Army’,
there would have been no criminal investigation.

Well, it wouldn’t make sense, would it:
given Britain is arming Ukraine, the
chant would merely reflect official
government policy.

--by Owen Jones; December 24, 2025

Oodles:
https://www.owenjones.news/p/two-crushing-defeats-for-pro-israel

Expanding on @74, Prof. Norman J.W. Goda posted an interesting essay at the University of Indiana, Bloomington’s Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism. (https://isca.indiana.edu/publication-research/research-paper-series/norman-jw-goda-research-paper.html) He goes into length on the accusations of genocide against Israel over the decades, and even shows how purveyors of “settler-colonist” theory have long tried to expand the definition of “genocide” to far beyond the legal definition, to include acts that Israel has committed against Palestinians. (Arab countries’ commissions of similar — or even identical — acts against Palestinians magically do not ever count, of course; but we always know that already.)

So, the deep confusion on the topic of “genocide,” exhibited here for years by proponents of settler-colonist theory, becomes not a case of merely coincidental ignorance, but a malicious attempt at goalpost-moving against Israel. (This also jibes perfectly with the Strangers condemnation of violence against Palestinian civilians in Gaza coming to an immediate — and so far, permanent — end the instant Hamas was reported murdering Palestinian civilians en masse in Gaza.)

from Democracy Now

Arundhati Roy on New Memoir
“Mother Mary Comes to Me,” Gaza
& Authoritarianism from India to U.S.

ARUNDHATI ROY: . . . And second of all, although I know that, you know, Democracy Now! and so many other non-mainstream channels rage against the American mainstream, it’s nothing compared to what the media in India has done.

You know, the media in India has been criminal. I mean, seriously, they should be tried in front of a war tribunal for the violence that they have endorsed, for the poison they have intravenously dripped into people, for the TV anchors behaving like captains of lynch mobs, for the fake news, for the absolutely unforgivable decades of support, where, you know, corporate news channels — so, the fascism is completely underwritten by Indian corporations, and has been, because they own all the media. You know, they own — like, some of them own 20 channels — 24-hour news channels, you know?

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, let’s just talk about, in fact, what’s happening in Palestine today, which you have also spoken out about and been deeply critical about Israel’s war on Gaza, deemed now by most international legal and human rights organizations to be genocide.

ARUNDHATI ROY: Look at the psychology that is being forced upon us. We are, all of us, able to reach at night for an image of a child starving or a person being blown up in Gaza easier than reaching for a glass of water. And we are helpless. We are able to do nothing more than keep speaking about it.

And I’ve come to a stage where I feel humiliated to have to discuss it, because what is there to discuss? What is there to discuss when you’re murdering children, destroying hospitals, destroying universities, murdering journalists, and boasting about it, boasting about it? And everybody’s sort of ambiguous — I mean, what we are witnessing also is,

I think, there are surveys that say that almost 90% of the population of the world wants this to stop, but there is no connection between democratically elected governments and the will of the people. It’s ended. So, the whole charade of Western liberal democracy is as much of a corpse under the rubble as the tens of thousands of Palestinians.

Oodles:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/12/26/arundhati_roy_on_new_memoir_mother

ARUNDHATI ROY: Look at the psychology that is being forced upon us. We are, all of us, able to reach at night for an image of a child starving or a person being blown up in Gaza easier than reaching for a glass of water. And we are helpless. We are able to do nothing more than keep speaking about it.

And I’ve come to a stage where I feel humiliated to have to discuss it, because what is there to discuss? What is there to discuss when you’re murdering children, destroying hospitals, destroying universities, murdering journalists, and boasting about it, boasting about it? And everybody’s sort of ambiguous — I mean, what we are witnessing also is,

I think, there are surveys that say that almost 90% of the population of the world wants this to stop, but there is no connection between democratically elected governments and the will of the people.

It’s ended. So, the whole charade of Western liberal democracy is as much of a corpse under the rubble as the tens of thousands of Palestinians.

ARUNDHATI ROY: Yes. But, you see, one of — one of my books of essays has been dedicated to those who have learned to divorce reason from hope. And we have to hope. We have to be unreasonable, and we have to hope, and we have to do what we have to do, you know?

I can’t — I don’t want to — I don’t want to sound like some cute, you know, person saying, “Oh, everything will be all right.” But at the same time, I mean, the end of my talk about Alaa Abd El-Fattah in London a few months ago was that it can’t — it can’t continue like this.

I mean, Israel, yes, it has devastated Gaza, but it has devastated itself, too. It is reviled in the eyes of the world for what it has done, you know? And it has also — I’m sure that all the young people that committed those horrible crimes, one day it will — it will destroy them, you know?

AMY GOODMAN: Arundhati Roy, author of her new memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me.

Oodles:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/12/26/arundhati_roy_on_new_memoir_mother

for Now,
as long as it
is (Still!) Allowed:

“Israel’s atrocities and the im-
punity they receive are undoubtedly
the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide."

-- Aaron Maté

I mean, Israel, yes, it has devastated Gaza, but it has devastated itself, too. It is reviled in the eyes of the world for what it has done, you know? And it has also — I’m sure that all the young people that committed those horrible crimes, one day it will — it will destroy them, you know?

--Arundhati Roy

@89: Poor kristo' didn't understand the memo. The Stranger gave up pretending to care about Gaza shortly after the peace they both hate so much took effect there. From that moment onwards, too many stories have appeared in Western media about Hamas slaughtering civilians in Gaza, about Hamas using hospitals in Gaza as command posts during the war, about miles of Hamas-built tunnels under civilian infrastructure in Gaza, and about Hamas fighters still holed up in some of those same tunnels. Everything the Stranger (and sympathetic commenters, kristo' most definitely included) said about the war turned out to be false, and everything we their opponents said about it turned out to be true.

They just can't take it, and as a result, both the Stranger and other sympathetic commenters here have silently abandoned Gaza. (The other sympathetic commenters still appear here, but comment only upon other issues.) The two years they all just spent obsessing over Gaza may as well have never even happened. Only kristo' cannot (or will not) understand the party's over: no one still repeats Hamas' casualty figures for Gaza as fact; no more cheap accolades flow easily for contrafactual denunciations of the Middle East's only pluralistic democracy; no one still wears kaffiyehs from China. It's all over, dead, and gone, replaced by a peace so repulsive to him, he's been called on his bitter wish for the return of war. (https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2025/10/09/80275358/slog-am-israel-and-hamas-have-agreed-to-a-peace-deal-seattles-trolls-go-to-the-white-house-siff-ends-their-lease-with-the-egyptian/comments/52)

@90: "Guy who makes 36 comments in 6 days accuses me of hijacking the comments lol"

Since his return, I've scrolled past his comments in real time. Today, I found a different way to do it. I put his full nym into the CTRL+F search box, finding 32 matches. Quickly tapping through the matches, each of them was at the bottom of a comment. That's over one-third of the comments -- in a single thread here (so far..)! Give it up, dude -- your favorite war has warned you not to talk at her anymore, she's moved away with her family, and they've blocked you on their apps. Go find someone else who's totally out of your league to file a restraining order against you.

@91:

"... a peace so repulsive to him, he's been called on his bitter wish for the return of war."

--@the Wormtongue

and yet Another
of your 'Vile Projections!'
[THNX, Catalina!) from a diseased mind

doing what it Might
to Continue bibi's little
Keep-Outta-Prison Gambit
cum Genocidal Atrocities on the
Palestinian defeated, war-torn population:

for Now,
as long as it
is (Still!) Allowed:

“Israel’s atrocities and the im-
punity they receive are undoubtedly
the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide."

-- Aaron Maté

I mean, Israel, yes, it has devastated Gaza, but it has devastated itself, too. It is reviled in the eyes of the world for what it has done, you know? And it has also — I’m sure that all the young people that committed those horrible crimes, one day it will — it will destroy them, you know?

--Arundhati Roy

Expanding on @77, "Powerful forces far from Australia have responded to the conflict in Gaza by promoting anti-Semitism globally, and acts of violence like the one in Sydney are the predictable result." The Atlantic's article suggests Iran's hard-line regime may now, in turn, be using the Hanukkah attack in Australia to whip up anti-Semitism worldwide:

'In August, Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador over “credible intelligence” linking Tehran to several attacks on Australian Jews. Among these were an assault on a kosher restaurant in Sydney and one on a synagogue in Melbourne. Australia then passed a law banning organizations designated as state sponsors of terror. The first entity designated under that law was the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a powerful militia that controls much of Iran’s military and economy.'

'Tasnim, the IRGC’s main mouthpiece, headlined the news, “At Least Ten Zionists Dead on Hanukkah in Australia.” It used a derogatory term, halakat, that usually designates the death of animals, or of humans whose death is not considered lamentable. And it described Hanukkah as a “Zionist celebration.” (The Student News Network, run by a student wing of the IRGC, used the exact same language.)

'The conflation of Jewish religious observance with Zionism is not new. In 2019, Tasnim condemned Hanukkah as “not a Jewish religious feast but a colonial Zionist event.” Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates officially acknowledge Hanukkah (including with public displays in Dubai, in the latter’s case), and the Iranian regime and its allies continually rail against them for it.'

And, of course, Iranian assets provide the inevitable claim that attacks upon Jews in places far from the Middle East result from Israel's supposed "genocide" in Gaza:

'Iran’s hard-line outlets have veered between describing the attack as an act of righteous anger and presenting it as a false-flag operation perpetrated by Israel. In Hamshahri, a newspaper currently run by hard-liners, an analyst wrote that “general anger against Israel following the genocide in Gaza could provide the background” for the attack.'

Blaming the Jewish state for attacks upon Jews is merely the most recent version of the anti-Semitic victim-blaming, which easily flourished over the nearly 2,000 years when no Jewish state even existed at all.

Again, if the Stranger (and supportive commenters) would please stop doing the rhetorical work of Iran's hard-liners, then maybe we could reduce the likelihood of attacks upon innocent Jews worldwide.

Claiming Victimhood
whilst Genociding
a Captive People?

"Blaming the Jewish state for attacks upon Jews is merely the most recent version of the anti-Semitic victim-blaming, which easily flourished over the nearly 2,000 years when no Jewish state even existed at all."

“Israel’s atrocities and the im-
punity they receive are undoubtedly
the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide."

-- Aaron Maté

I mean, Israel, yes, it has devastated Gaza, but it has devastated itself, too. It is reviled in the eyes of the world for what it has done, you know? And it has also — I’m sure that all the young people that committed those horrible crimes, one day it will — it will destroy them, you know?

--Arundhati Roy

Broadway legend Mandy Patinkin
has compared Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza
to his Princess Bride hero’s so-called “revenge business.”

Patinkin, 72, is best known for his role in
the 1987 [Rob Reiner-directed!] family classic as
Spanish swordsman Inigo Montoya, whose life’s mission
is to avenge the murder of his father by Count Tyrone Rugen.

Montoya repeatedly tells his perceived enemies
in the comedy: “My name is Inigo Montoya.
You killed my father. Prepare to die.”

But
in a new interview
with The New York Times,
the Yentl actor was very serious
as he quoted another of his character’s lines:

“I have been in the revenge business so long.
Now that it’s over, I do not know what
to do with the rest of my life.”

Likening Montoya’s vengeful mindset
to that of Israel’s policies, Patinkin
called on his fellow Jews to
“consider what this man
Benjamin Netanyahu
and his right-wing

government is doing to
the Jewish people all
over the world.”

“They are endangering
not only the State of Israel,
which I care deeply about and
want to exist, but endangering the
Jewish population all over the world,” he continued.

“To watch what is happening, for the Jewish people
to allow this to happen to children and civilians
of all ages in Gaza, for whatever reason, is
unconscionable and unthinkable,”
he added.

“And I ask you Jews,
everywhere, all over the world,
to spend some time alone and think,
Is this acceptable and sustainable? How
could it be done to you and your ancestors
and you turn around and you do it to someone else?”

Patinkin was joined by his wife of 45 years,
Kathryn Grody, who also condemned
the actions of Israel:

“I hate
the way some people
are using antisemitism as a claim for
anybody that is critical about a certain policy,”
the Lemon Sisters actor said. “As far as I am concern-
ed, compassion for every person in Gaza is very Jewish.”

Grody further stressed:

“And the fact that I abhor the policies
of [Netanyahu] does not mean that
I’m a self-hating Jew or
I’m antisemitic.

(WHY is this so fucking CHALLENGING for
fans of the Israeli genocidal atrocities
to wrap their heads around?

WHY!?]

“I feel the behavior,
the politics of what he’s doing,
is the worst thing for Jewish people.

It’s like lighting a candle
for anybody that has any antisemitic
feelings,” she said before growing emotional.

“I really feel deeply troubled
and horrified by what is
happening in
my name.”

[OH my God --
don't We ALL?]

Inga Parkel, in New York; Sunday -- 13 July 2025

Oodles:
https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/news/mandy-patinkin-israel-gaza-princess-bride-b2788175.html

well
I suppose
you can take it
from the Wormtongue
and his cast of Genocidal
Atrocities-Apologists, or you

can take it from Inigo Montoya

who Knows a Thing
(or TWO!) about
"the Revenge
Business."

the
Choice is,
of Course, Yours.

“Israel’s atrocities and the im-
punity they receive are undoubtedly
the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide."

-- Aaron Maté

that's a Bingo, Aaron.

I mean, Israel, yes, it has devastated Gaza, but it has devastated itself, too. It is reviled in the eyes of the world for what it has done, you know? And it has also — I’m sure that all the young people that committed those horrible crimes, one day it will — it will destroy them, you know?

--Arundhati Roy

Pardon bibi.
END the Massacre
and FREE both Israel
And fucking Palestine:

whilst
There Is
STILL TIME.

“As far as I am concerned,
compassion for every
person in Gaza is
very Jewish.”

--Kathryn Grody

you know,
it's Also very
Christian, as well.

okay
wormmy
I'll leave it all
to you and your
little buddy there
to keep on Justifying
the Unjustifiyable -- but
I'm Certain you can handle it

after all,
you've been
'handling it' for the
last Two+ fucking years.

Merry Christmas,
Everyone!

@Benthe
blackknifed
shotathitwould
NeverProvokeANY
ONEohthat'sSO'Pro-
gressive"ofyouYOUPOST
TOOMUCH~EVENMORETHAN
mebecauseyoursoSTOOPID!DIDNOT

read: I'm sorry --What was your question?

yeah.
you Did.
say hi to pg2.

Loser.

Well then, why don't
Let's Make it
17,022:

U.S. taxpayers
have spent $24 billion
on Netanyahu's horrific war in Gaza.

Instead of starving children, that money could pay for:

500,000 low-income kids receiving health care
500,000 veterans receiving VA care
700,000 public housing units
600,000 kids in Head Start

Combined.

--‪U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders
(I ~ VT) ‪@sanders.senate.gov‬

folks like
@Benthee
blackKnifed
shotat,hitwould
NeverProvokeANY
ONEohthat'sSO'Pro-
gressive"ofyou,YOUPOST
TOOMUCH~EVENMORETHAN
me,becauseyoursoSTOOPID!DIDNOT

read and his fellow Get Out the Genocider
aka thee Wormtongue're PERFECTLY
Happy, know we use all them
BILLION$, Blowing Up kids

instead
of Helping
Our very Own.

so
Who's
the real
Patriots here?

@105

a Slight Correction, here
'Knowing' what Sticklers
our far Reich Wingers
are for Proper fuck-
ing Grammar:

folks like
@Benthee
blackKnifed
shotat,hitwould
NeverProvokeANY
ONEohthat'sSO'Pro-
gressive"ofyou,YOUPOST
TOOMUCH~EVENMORETHAN
me,becauseyoursoSTOOPID!DIDNOT

read and his fellow Get Out the Genocide!er
aka thee Wormtongue're PERFECTLY
Happy, knowing we used up all
them BILLION$, Blowing Up
the Elderly women and
small Children (BUT
HAMAS! BUT
HAMAS!)

Instead
Of Helping
Our very Own.

so
Who's
the real
Patriots here?

So,
What's that
Tally now, blacky?

@104: And of the 106 (so far) comments, 43 were from kristofarian. (How he missed reaching 50% is beyond me, but it wasn't for his lack of trying.) As "Johnstone" appears eight times throughout, I would wager kristo' quoted extensively from her standard cruel victim-blaming of Jews, and/or the Jewish state, for the violent anti-semitism which has always been with us. And that they both absolutely refused to take any responsibility of any kind whatsoever for any anti-semitism which their constant extremist hate rhetoric may have whipped up.

In that last, I find humorous and revealing in equal measure their own insistence that their endless words have had no effect. As I noted @65, their words had a total lack of impact upon US or Israeli policy towards Gaza, or upon the outcome of the war, so when they insist their endless, mean-spirited, one-sided bile against Israel also didn't inspire any anti-semitism, they've back-handedly admitted their words have never had any effect at all. Yet they still keep right on yakking, even though their favorite war has now ended. I guess the sounds of their own voices enchant them too much for them ever to stop, even though they've never said or written anything of any value.

"... their constant extremist hate rhetoric may have whipped up.'

In that last,
I find humorous
and revealing in equal measure
their own insistence that their endless words have had no effect."

--@the Wormtongue
in his Prelude to the
Elimination of Any
and All Criticism
of a Genocidal
Warmonger
& his keep
outta Jail
Scheme

oh and Landgrab

See: Gaza. see
Also: Gaza's
West Bank

see This too
whilst we'-
re at it:

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns
defended his authoritarian crackdown on
pro-Palestine protesters following the Bondi shooting
by arguing that Australia doesn’t have the same free speech protections as the US.

“I acknowledge
that we don’t have the
same free speech rules that
they have in the United States
and I make no apologies for that,
we have got a responsibility to knit
together our community,” Minns said.

And of course Minns isn’t wrong
when he says Australians don’t have
any real free speech rights (Australia is
the only western democracy without any
kind of national bill of rights), but it is a bit odd
to be openly proclaiming that this is a good thing
because it means you’re allowed to stomp out criticism
of Israel. Kinda feels like that’s saying the quiet part out loud.

It’s been so surreal watching in real time
as Australians get manipulated into accepting
the Zionist narrative about the Bondi Beach attack.

As of this writing we have not been presented with the tiniest
shred of evidence that anti-genocide protests had anything
whatsoever to do with the massacre, but the nation is
proceeding as though this is an established fact.

NSW is banning the phrase “globalise the intifada”
and passing laws allowing for demonstrations to
be made illegal for up to three months while PM
Anthony Albanese rolls out more policies to
align with “antisemitism envoy” Jillian
Segal’s plan to crush free speech
in Australia.

After being smashed in the face
with an extremely aggressive mass media
propaganda campaign to marry the Bondi attack
to anti-genocide demonstrations in the minds of the public,

a recent poll by the Resolve Political Monitor found that
53 percent of Australians now support
a ban on pro-Palestine marches.

Again, this is happening in light of literally zero evidence
that pro-Palestine demonstrations were even slightly
responsible for the Bondi attack. None. Nothing.

They’re suggesting that there is
an association between the
two, and they are lying.

They’re rolling out pre-existing agendas
to crush free expression in opposition to an
active genocide, and they are doing so based on lies.

And Australians are just going right along with it,
like a bunch of human livestock. We’re a whole
damn continent full of bipedal sheep.
Absolutely fucking pathetic.

❖

A German journalist named Anna Liedtke
reports that she was raped by Israeli forces after
she was abducted from the Global Sumud Flotilla while
attempting to deliver aid to starving people in Gaza this past October.

Unsurprisingly, as of this writing
there appears to be a near-total media
blackout on Liedtke’s story in the German press.

❖

Activist Greta Thunberg has been arrested by British police
because in the UK it is considered an act of terrorism
to hold a sign which says “I support the Palestine
Action prisoners. I oppose genocide.”

Zionism is the single greatest threat to free speech in the western world.

--Caitlin Johnstone; December 27, 2025

https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/netanyahu-is-visiting-trump-for-the

'Yet they still keep right on yakking, even though their favorite war has now ended. I guess the sounds of their own voices enchant them too much for them ever to stop, even though they've never said or written anything of any value.'

--@The Wormtongue

gosh wormmy!
you Forgot to call
us/them 'Nattering
Nabobs of Negativism.'

that's Okay. the Wormtonge
all He wants to Do is to join
Cadet Bonespurs and Shut
Down ALL FREE SPEECH

ESPECIALLY AGAINST ANTI-GENOCIDERS:

Three NSW-based pro-Palestinian, Indigenous and Jewish advocacy groups said on Tuesday, before the final vote on the legislation, that they would be “filing a constitutional legal challenge against the draconian anti-protest laws”.

Palestine Action Group Sydney said in a statement shared on Facebook that it was launching the challenge together with the Indigenous group Blak Caucus and Jews Against the Occupation ’48.

“These outrageous laws will grant NSW Police sweeping powers to effectively ban protests,” the Palestinian advocacy group said, accusing the NSW government of “exploiting the horrific Bondi attack to advance a political agenda that suppresses political dissent and criticism of Israel, and curtails democratic freedoms”.

Changes to the state’s protest laws also come just months after more than 100,000 people marched over the Sydney Harbour Bridge in protest against Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, after a court overturned an attempt by the Minns government to try to stop the peaceful protest from taking place.

--by Lyndal Rowlands;
Published On 24 Dec, 2025

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/24/australias-nsw-passes-tough-anti-protest-gun-laws-after-bondi-attack

Expanding on previous quotes from The Atlantic:

"For the law to provide justice, however, it must be fairly and evenly applied. South Africa’s case raises the question of why Israel is accused of genocide when Hamas is not.

"The fighting in and around Gaza is an asymmetric conflict, but there are two sides. Against the accusation of genocide, Israel says it is acting in self-defense, and this latest round of fighting began when Hamas slaughtered some 1,200 men, women, and children—even infants in their cribs—on October 7. Moreover, unlike Israel, which denies any genocidal intent, Hamas has publicly espoused genocide against Israelis for decades."

(https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/01/international-court-justice-gaza-genocide/677257/)

If the right to free speech does not
include the right to oppose an active genocide
using strong and unmitigated language, then there is no freedom of speech.

This is exactly the sort of thing that freedom of
speech is intended for: times when the government is
doing something wrong which needs to be ferociously opposed.

That’s the primary reason it’s an enshrined value in our society.

Freedom of speech is for holding the powerful to account.

If you only have freedom of speech when you’re agreeing
with your government and saying nothing which incon-
veniences the powerful, then Saudi Arabia has free
speech. Every tyrannical regime that has ever
existed has had freedom of speech
by those standards.

You don’t measure a society’s freedom
by how much its citizenry are allowed to agree  with
their government, you measure it by how much they’re allowed to disagree.

And right now
we are being told
we’re not allowed to disagree.

We’re being told the protests need to stop,
the anti-genocide chants need to be criminalized,
and everyone needs to shut up and obey — all justified
by the completely baseless narrative that the words and actions
of pro-Palestinian activists were somehow responsible a terrible massacre

that was committed in Sydney last week.

And these policies just so happen to serve the interests of the
very same western powers whose genocide-enabling actions
were being forcefully opposed these last two years.

Government officials constantly being protested
and questioned about their facilitation of
Israel’s genocidal atrocities.

Politicians who are consistently confronted
by anti-genocide demonstrators during
their public appearances. 

Wealthy arms manufacturers
whose profit margins are being
harmed by direct action from activist groups.

Plutocratic media institutions who are becoming
more and more discredited in the public eye as the Gaza
holocaust exposes them all. Billionaires whose empires are built
upon the political status quo that gave rise to the genocide in question.

If the powerful are shutting down speech rights to advance their own interests
in your society, then your society is not meaningfully different than
the dictatorships the western world tries to contrast itself with.

All our stories about living in a free society
have been just that: stories.
Fairy tales.

https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/if-youre-not-free-to-oppose-a-genocide

from the Chris Hedges Report on Substack:

Abolishing the First Amendment

Those who testified at the state capital against New Jersey’s adoption of the IHRA, arguing that it would criminalize free speech, had our microphones muted and were shouted down, proving our point.

I testified at the New Jersey state capital in Trenton last week against Bill A3558, which would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.

“This is a dangerous assault on free speech by seeking to criminalize legitimate criticism of Israeli policies,” I said. “The Trump administration’s campaign to ostensibly root out antisemitism on college campuses is clearly a trope to shut down free speech and deport non-citizens, even if they are here legally.

This bill falsely conflates ethnicity with a political state. And let’s be clear, the brunt of repression on college campuses is directed against students and faculty who oppose the genocide in Gaza, 3,000 of whom were arrested and hundreds of whom were censored, suspended or expelled.

Many of these students are Jewish.
What about their rights? What
about their constitutional
protections?”

America, like Israel, exists in a parallel reality. It denies the stark and incontrovertible reality of the live-streamed genocide. It slanders anyone, including Israeli holocaust scholars such as Professor Segal, as antisemites.

I know, sadly, where this goes. I witnessed it in the many dictatorships I covered as a foreign correspondent for two decades in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans.

Those of us who fight for an open society are silenced, attacked as traitors and criminals. We are blacklisted, censored and at times, locked up. If we can escape in time, we are forced into exile.

As we are silenced, the sycophants, grifters, Christian fascists, billionaires, Zionists and thugs, elevated to the highest positions in the federal government by the Trump White House, are rewarded with absolute power, luxury and debauchery.

Our corporate-indentured ruling class has no genuine political ideology. Political parties are a farce, a species of entertainment to beguile the population in our pretend democracy. Liberalism, and the values it claims to represent, is a spent and bankrupt force.

The burlesque in the committee room in Trenton was another depressing reminder that there is little now that will halt our path towards an authoritarian state, not the press, not the universities, not the courts, which cannot enforce the few rulings made by courageous judges, not the political class, including the Democratic Party, and not the electoral process.

We must resist, if only to assert our integrity and dignity, if only to stand in solidarity with the oppressed, if only to slow the consolidation of tyranny, if only to revel in the small pyrrhic victories that resistance alone makes possible.

But we should not be fooled.

--by Chris Hedges; July 28, 2025

former Middle East Bureau Chief for the NYT

Oodles More:

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/abolishing-the-first-amendment

and all
Hastened by
free speech Abolitionists

Even on
These pages.

NPR:

The Veterans Administration
has just announced it is no longer pro-
viding Abortions; NOR IS IT ALLOWING IN ITS CLINICS
EVEN DISCUSSION OF ABORTION WITH MILITARY MEMBERS.

another 'Win'
for your team
Wormtongue!

way To GO!

your
Hellscape
is fucking here, buddy.

Confucking Grats!

I think, there are surveys that say that almost 90% of the population of the world wants this to stop, but there is no connection between democratically elected governments and the will of the people. It’s ended. So, the whole charade of Western liberal democracy is as much of a corpse under the rubble as the tens of thousands of Palestinians.

Oodles:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/12/26/arundhati_roy_on_new_memoir_mother

The IDF is a foreign military force which,
as per the consensus of genocide scholars -
including in Israel itself - is committing genocide.

The International Criminal Court has
issued arrest warrants for war crimes and
crimes against humanity perpetrated by the IDF.

It was those conflating the IDF and Jewish people -
by claiming that attacking the former was
attacking the latter - who were act-
ually promoting antisemitism.

It is an outrage
to associate Jewish people
as a whole with the IDF’s war crimes.

--by Owen Jones; December 24, 2025

Oodles:
https://www.owenjones.news/p/two-crushing-defeats-for-pro-israel