@ngkiscool / ngkiscool.tumblr.com
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When you debate a person about something that affects them more than it affects you, remember that it will take a much greater emotional toll on them than on you. For you it may feel like an academic exercise. For them, it feels like revealing their pain only to have you dismiss their experience and sometimes their humanity.
The fact that you might remain more calm under these circumstances is a consequence of your privilege, not increased objectivity on your part. Stay humble.
[x]
In the 1600s in Prague fencing masters were forbidden from teaching Jews “their secret thrusts”
Bringing this out of the tags because it made me choke on my sandwich
Hello, I am Iranian.
Everyone keeps asking the same question over and over: what's wrong with the leftists? Why are they so noisy, why do they support the Gaza Strip, but remain completely silent when it comes to Iran? The answer is simple: because the truth exposes the lie. Because acknowledging Iran destroys the ideological fantasy they have built. Let's be clear: the Islamic Republic of Iran is not a victim of Western imperialism. It is a theocratic authoritarian regime that exists by exporting violence, funding Islamist groups, and suppressing its own people. Yes, it funds Hamas. It funds Hezbollah.
All these small proxy groups in the region and worldwide are financed with Iranian money — not government or regime money, but stolen funds: money taken from workers who today in Iran cannot even afford bread; from families destroyed by inflation; from women who are beaten, imprisoned, tortured, and raped for refusing religious submission. And that is exactly why the leftists are silent: because Hamas feeds their narrative, but the Iranian people do not. Because Islamist violence against Israelis can be turned into "resistance," but Islamist violence against Iranians reveals the truth. At this very moment, as you read this, Iran — a country with over 92 million people — is being destroyed in real time.
Almost a complete blackout for more than 24 hours: no internet, no phone connection, no communication at all. And — silence. No "urgent protests" at Western universities, no hashtags, no statements of solidarity, no megaphones. Because the suffering of Iranians does not fit their agenda.
Because modern leftist movements are no longer driven by human rights — they are driven by selective outrage and ideological loyalty.
They will scream about censorship — unless it is done by an Islamist regime.
They will condemn state violence to the fullest — but will never say a word if that violence is wrapped in religious language. They chant "Free Palestine," but will never say "Free Iran," because that would require one difficult admission: that political Islam is not liberation — it is domination. And, by the way, this is happening in the West today as well. The Islamic Republic is not anti-imperialist; it is imperialist toward its own people. Hamas is not an isolated resistance group; it is part of a broader Islamist ecosystem funded, trained, and supported by regimes like the Islamic Republic of Iran. Here is the part they do not want to hear: You cannot claim moral superiority while justifying a regime that kills women and punishes them for refusing the hijab, kills protesters, cuts off the internet for a 92-million-strong nation, and uses foreign proxy groups to cover up its own internal collapse. You cannot pretend to care about Palestinians while ignoring Iranians who are being shot, tortured, and killed by the Islamic Republic. This is not solidarity — this is ideological blindness.
The Iranian people are not silent — they are forced into silence. The silence of Western leftists is their choice: a choice to defend ideology, justify Islamism, and turn a blind eye to the suffering of millions because the pain of the Iranian people complicates the slogan. History will remember this moment. It will remember who spoke about universal freedom and who decided that some lives are less important than preserving a narrative. Long live Iran."
Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones JESSICA JONES SEASON 1 (2015), created by Melissa Rosenberg
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
I think you can start to understand suicidal empathy by looking at the Iranian Revolution.
During the late 1970s, a wide coalition of groups including Marxists, liberals, Islamists, and students opposed the Shah of Iran, who was supported by the US and seen by this coalition as a Western puppet. Many Western leftists viewed the Shah's regime as imperialist and authoritarian, and therefore cheered the Iranian revolution as a people's uprising.
Ayatollah Khomeini, a Shi'a cleric, became the symbolic leader of this revolution.
Western leftists, in solidarity with the anti-Shah cause, downplayed or misunderstood Khomeini's theocratic intentions, viewing him instead as a symbol of anti-imperialism.
But Khomeini was an aspiring theocrat. Once the Shah was overthrown, Khomeini's Islamists turned on their secular and leftist allies.
Marxists, feminists, liberal democrats, and secular nationalists were imprisoned, executed, or exiled. Women were forced to wear the hijab, and Islamic law replaced secular codes. Political dissent was brutally crushed, often much more harshly than under the Shah.
The naïveté of Iranian leftists who had supported the revolution without recognizing the reactionary, theocratic nature of the movement they were backing? That's where the Western far left is going. That's suicidal empathy.
Suicidal Empathy is a form of excessive or uncritical empathy which leads individuals or groups to support causes, ideologies, or people whose core values may be fundamentally opposed to their own...and ultimately to their own detriment or destruction.
This kind of empathy becomes suicidal when it results in self-destructive alliances or compromises, often in the name of tolerance, anti-imperialism, or social justice.
Suicidal empathy helps explain the paradoxical support of Western leftists for radical Islamist movements which despise them as articles of faith.
So...why do such leftists support Islamists who would cheerfully murder them?
1. Shared Anti-Imperialist and/or Anti-Western Sentiment
Many Western leftists are deeply critical of Western foreign policy, especially U.S. and European military interventions in the Middle East. Islamist movements, particularly militant ones, also oppose Western influence. This shared opposition to "imperialism" can create a strange bedfellow dynamic.
These Leftists see Islamist resistance as part of a broader struggle against Western hegemony.
But this overlooks the reactionary social values of many Islamist groups, which often include patriarchy, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and authoritarianism - values that sharply contradict progressive ideals.
2. Victimhood Framing
Some leftists adopt a framework where oppression and victimhood define moral authority. Since Muslims, in the context of global leftist politics, are often seen as victims of Western aggression, there's a tendency to uncritically sympathize with Islamist movements under the assumption that they are inherently oppressed, regardless of evidence to the contrary.
So when Islamist ideologies are anti-liberal or even fascistic...they may still be viewed through a lens of victimhood rather than agency.
3. Cultural Relativism Taken to an Extreme
Many leftist thinkers promote cultural relativism not as an academic principle, but as a living practical policy doctrine. The fear being labeled as Islamophobic if they, for instance, acknowledge the atteocities of female genital mutilation, honor killings, child brides, slavery, and theocracy. So they avoid criticizing reactionary, regressive, barbaric aspects of Islamist ideology, even when these violate their own principles (e.g., women's rights, LGBTQ rights, free speech).
In defending "cultural practices" under the banner of tolerance, they tacitly support values that would call for their own deaths. "Suicidal empathy," indeed.
4. Post-Colonial Guilt
The legacy of colonialism leads many in the Western left to feel deep guilt over historical injustices. This can fuel an overcorrection which leads them to defend or romanticize "resistance" movements, even when these movements uphold values that are themselves oppressive and regressive. (Bizarrely, their guilt over colonialism never finds expression in US leftists organizing en masse for Native American Indian nations. Canadian leftists haven't given nearly the energy to the needs of First Nations people's that they've given to Palestinians. No leftist movment in support of Australian aboriginal peoples has ever gotten the energy from Australian leftists that Palestinians enjoy. Why? Because by condemning and sacrificing Israel for their sins, they get to feel righteous without having to know or sacrifice bupkis.)
And this works against actual human rights efforts.
This alliance enables authoritarianism and suppresses genuinely progressive voices in many Muslim-majority societies. Secular Arab liberals and feminists often express frustration that Western leftists support the very Islamist movements they struggle against at home.
Suicidal empathy comes from well-intentioned, dangerously naive solidarity that prioritizes identity, victimhood, or anti-imperialism over consistent moral principles. The alliance between Western leftists and Islamist movements becomes "suicidal" when it undermines the very values the left claims to champion-like human rights, secularism, and gender equality.
The Millennial and Gen Z protestors calling for Israel to be destroyed? That's where they're headed.
I think one of the reasons we're having massive political realignments all of the world right now is because many are starting to realize that shared enemies ≠ shared values.
I hope the campus leftists figure it out soon.
Everybody fucking read Persepolis.
The movie is also good. Link below, free.
Happy 30th anniversary, Good Omens!
The dash is feeling Tennant-y tonight, I see.
i found this ancient post from my blog so if you want to know what tumblr looked like from an ipod in 2010……
happy 15 years to this post
Convergence - rated T
Chapters 1 and 2 of 12, ~ 1,330 words
An Angel and a Time Lord cross paths again and again on their parallel journeys home.
The man standing in the doorway was not tall, not thin, and definitely not Crowley. Deep wrinkles carved gullies in a long-nosed face; a stocking cap half-concealed a shock of white hair. A short cloak, open at the front, exposed a collar that flared out like a pair of wings rather than the currently fashionable stocks, cinched in place by a cravat whose floppy bow sported a woven stripe. The hand raised before him sported a worn, fingerless glove.
“Er… we’re not exactly open yet,” said Aziraphale. “Well, we are, but there’s been a bit of a – oh, never mind – come in.”
The man stepped in off the cobbles. “Ah, a bookshop,” he said. “So you’re certain to be well informed. I need to get my bearings. I was en route to the planet Dido, but the instrument panel’s had something of a blink. I’m afraid I was distracted – my granddaughter went off suddenly, it’s been a shock –”
“Well, I fear we haven’t any young ladies here. Have you alerted the constabulary?”
“Oh, she’s a grown woman, I’m sure she’ll manage. I don’t suppose this is Dido, is it? And have you a spanner anywhere about?”
“Um – there’s a mallet, and a crowbar, the workmen were opening cases earlier, but no spanners – there’s a carriage yard in Oxford Street, I’d expect they’d have some –”
“Mallet will do. Be quick about it.”
“I say, that’s a bit short, isn’t it? Who might you be?”
The man straightened, gripping the lappets of the cloak (Aziraphale, who’d developed a habit of tugging at his waistcoat, recognised a nervous tic). “You may call me the Doctor,” he said.
Fic will update on Thursdays and Mondays. Tagging in the replies as usual -- lmk if you want on or off the tag list (or just want to skip updates for this one)!
It occurs to me that there are people who weren’t on this website in 2012 and therefore never saw the magical gif that you can actually hear:
It’s been over five years and that still impresses the hell out of me.
wdym you can hear it?
Basically, it’s a form of synesthesia, movement-hearing. In this case, you expect to hear a thud, so you do. It’s estimated that 20% of people experience this type of synesthesia, as opposed to 2-4% for other kinds.
YO what the FUXK
The longer you watch it the more you get convinced that you can hear a distant thud and the air displace.
I heard the thud. I closed my eyes and the thud stopped. I opened my eyes and I heard the thud. My goodness but human brains are a mess.
This was easily the first ever viral post on Tumblr back in 2011/12. Perhaps even before the great “what your leg feels like after falling asleep” followed by a picture of a static teevee channel.
As Both a professional Jew and gay man ppl asking why Jews “get to have” things like Hatzalah or Jewish hospitals reminds me a lot of ppl getting angry about gay men having things like bathhouses, choirs, clubs, etc. we get to have them bc WE made them and maintained them during times of discrimination and violence. Make your own spaces if it’s such a big deal to you. No one’s stopping you.
