Liberals wincing at the brutality of Hamas’ attack is even more smoothbrain when you consider that the Gaza Strip is objectively the worst concentration camp in the world.
It’s the 2nd most densely populated area in the entire world, 95% of water isn’t safe, they are only given 4 hours of electricity (imagine this with the population density and Mediterranean heat), medicine and basic foodstuffs like juice are embargoed. The average age in Gaza is 19 - the old and weak die quickly as their health care system cannot get supplies and doesn’t have stable electricity. More than half of youths under 18 expressed that they have no real desire to live and contemplate suicide regularly. 45% unemployment. Children get blown up playing soccer on the beach by advanced warships. It’s probably the most surveilled and spied upon place in the world. It’s a tiny strip of land 25 miles wide that is regularly subjected to bombing.
In 2018 mass peaceful demonstrations were organized, thousands and thousands of Palestinians marched along the border wall. Israel shot 2,000 of them with live ammunition, but only killed around 200 because they deliberately aim at legs to place even more strain on the depleted medical infrastructure and make an invalid that can’t contribute as well. 36,000 Palestinians were injured peacefully protesting.
Every year the IDF invades Al-Asqa mosque, gasses the worshippers and cracks heads open, and then they leave because there’s no point aside from violent harassment. And then there’s the constant news from other occupied areas of Palestinians being evicted, homes being bulldozed, the survivors fined and harassed. Palestinian olive trees, generational in their age, bulldozed by the occupiers.
Shooting civilians wantonly might be morally dubious in a situation like Hawaii, some place where an occupation makes you disadvantaged and a second class citizen. But Gaza is just flat out a death camp. Of course the commandos went berserk with rage, of course they brought bodies back to parade in the streets - everyone has been dehumanized for their entire lives. Treat people like animals and they might just act like animals once they get their hands on you.
I cope using humor okay 😭😭😭
sustainable.
What really gets me is that every Robin has an opposite.
Dick and Jason are opposites. Dick came to Bruce bitter and grieving and angry with the world, and being Robin slowly allowed him to take out his frustration in a way that Bruce never could. By the time Dick is Nightwing, he's essentially a more well-adjusted Batman. He's more chill and laid back, and most of all, he's happy with the world.
Jason, on the other hand, came to Bruce excited and full of wide-eyed wonder. He'd had a tough life up until that point but chose to reinvent himself. He was happy and cheerful and being Robin gave him magic. And then he died. When Jason comes back, he's angry with himself, Bruce, Dick, the Joker, and the world that let him die.
Tim and Steph are also opposites. Tim grew up rich and privileged. He saw evil in the world, but from his place above it all, he thought that heroes could end it. He was cheerful and optimistic about how justice would prevail. And then Tim becomes Robin, and he sees that evil up close for the first time. He sees it in the villains he fights, in the way Bruce grieves his son, in the way that everyone he loves dies. He becomes depressed and cynical. He still thinks heroes do good, but he knows he's truly barely making a dent.
Steph grew up on the streets. Her father was a villain. She knew evil, had seen it first hand since before she ever should have known it existed. She's cynical, and doesn't think heroes can stop all the evil she knows to exist. And then she becomes Spoiler, and then Robin. And she sees for the first time how much heroes truly do. She becomes more optimistic, realizing that if heroes work together, they may finally put a stop to the evil in the world.
And then there's Damian. He doesn't have an opposite, at least yet. If we ever get another Robin, though, I'd expect them to follow the pattern.
What I can say about Damian, though, is that he and Dick are the same. Not completely, but they both start their careers as Robin bitter and maladjusted. Damian appears to be following Dick's path of mellowing out. Not to Dick's extent, of course, but close enough that Dick can see himself in Damian.
not to be dramatic but i just wanna say that i hate this whole kind of thing with all my being and think it makes fandoms worse and aggressively uninteresting
no gods or masters in fandom please and thanks.
x
❝ today is your turn to lose.❞ okay sure. my virginity?????? okay SURE THEN ABSOLUTELY. NO PROBLEM SIR.
Take notes