I’d really rather stop writing about this – I have a post about compost (a com-post?) that’s been sitting on the backburner for about two weeks now – but I’ve been absolutely gobsmacked by the tropes people are pulling out to defend Helen Thomas’s statement, and I’ve noticed that they fit into an exhaustingly familiar pattern, so I want to say one more thing.<\/p>\n
If you’re a blogger and you find yourself writing anything even remotely resembling the following:<\/p>\n
“We must allow groups to define their own oppression! We must listen to and respect the lived experiences of everyone! Except Jews\/the disabled\/trans folk\/this group\/that group\/whoever’s in my blind spot today. They don’t know what they’re talking about and they need me to tell them what should and shouldn’t offend them.”<\/p>\n
…then please stop typing, dunk your head in some ice water, get out of the house for a bit, and try again.<\/p>\n
Trust me, it’ll be better for everyone.<\/p>\n
It is completely, 100% possible to talk about Palestine\/Israel while ignoring the lived experiences of neither<\/em> Jews nor<\/em> non-Jewish Arabs. Not only is it possible, it’s quite easy. So what does it say about us as activists, radical or liberal or anything in between, that we still can’t get the hang of it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’d really rather stop writing about this – I have a post about compost (a com-post?) that’s been sitting on the backburner for about two weeks now – but I’ve been absolutely gobsmacked by the tropes people are pulling out … Continue reading