A Left That Refuses to Condemn Mass Murder Is Doomed:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/10/a-left-that-refuses-to-condemn-mass-murder-is-doomed.html
Also posted to Bluesky.
5 replies
(via @joel)
@zachleat We have a few of these leftist apologists too in France. IIUC (I stopped following the drama), they still refuse to call the Hamas terrorists despite backlash (among the left!), at best "the military arm of the Hamas are terrorists", and now they're whining that there are more serious things than this political drama.
@zachleat I've been largely avoiding this topic, but it is *wild* to me that people I know who are full of talk about punching Nazis are at this moment gloating—openly or implicitly—about the most Nazi-esque pogrom since WWII.
And that's who they are to me now. I can't overlook or unsee that. Same as if a friend revealed themselves to be a Nazi of the sort we're more used to.
You either exemplify the ideals you demand from others, or you discredit them. It comes down to that.
@zachleat I'm fully aware of how horribly Israel treats the Palestinians; I knew someone from the West Bank who gave me a traumatically clear picture of how bad things are over there. If the fallout from this includes the disgrace and departure of Netanyahu and his thugs, I'll consider that a silver lining to a very, very dark cloud.
But there's a level of depravity where the only acceptable, moral reaction is "no, there is no justification for behaving in this way, ever."