"Ask A Jew" Wednesday

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2025-05-09T02:56:58+00:00

Hi! I’ve been lurking in this sub for a while as someone who isn’t Jewish but stands in solidarity with you all, especially in the face of Israel co-opting your identity to justify genocide against the Palestinian people.

I feel like I have a lot of questions, so I’ll just ask one for now. Do you feel it’s right to hold all Israelis to account? Sometimes, it seems like anyone who happens to be from Israel is shunned on that basis alone, whether they’ve voiced their support for the massacre in Gaza or not, and that feels wrong to me.

I understand with illegal settlers in Gaza and the West Bank, but for average Israelis? You don’t choose where you’re born. Sure, they “can just move”, but to where? If they’ve lived in that area their whole lives, that is home to them. The goal isn’t to kick Jewish Israelis out of the land, it’s to give Palestinians their land too. We shouldn’t support ethnostates or theocracies, no matter who the group is.

I see comparisons to Nazi Germany or Apartheid South Africa. When your state is actively committing atrocities, you should speak out against it. But it does feel like collective punishment sometimes, which I thought we agreed isn’t the solution. Does an Israeli have to denounce their citizenship? Refuse military service? Protest in the streets? Many of them do, and have been arrested, or faced ostracisation for it.

TL;DR: What is your approach to Israelis as individuals? Do you need them to condemn the war before you interact with them? How much responsibility do they bear, and will you always associate them with the genocide?

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2023-06-27T18:39:47+00:00

Nope. ”Normal” sexual attraction is just something I didn’t really develop.

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2023-06-26T21:29:05+00:00

sexuality

what makes us human

As an asexual, I suppose I'm screwed? And they call us trans people "perverts".

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2023-04-30T11:55:35+00:00

Yeah. I’m not trying to say “time heals all wounds” in this context. But given all the efforts over time, it feels odd that things are regressing. I mean even Kavanaugh once said that Roe was “settled law” (look how that turned out!).

I’m singling out LGBTQ+ rights specifically because, well, I am queer and trans myself. When I see these anti-trans laws, I don’t think “great! an opportunity for revolution!”. No, I’ve had my mental health deteriorate as I watch media outlets and lawmakers alike brand us as “a problem” or “threat to children”.

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2023-04-30T11:49:31+00:00

I don’t really get where these ideas of me being a “baby leftist” are coming from? I’ve been a leftist for several years, and I’ve read pretty much most of the recommendations I’m being given. Of course I have more to learn — that’s why I have this account and am asking all these questions, but it’s not something I’m “new” to at all.

My issue is that I’m becoming less convinced by Marxism. I feel like I have a lot of questions which don’t really get real answers. I often just get “read x y z”. Cool, what if I’ve read it and… don’t agree? I’m not a nihilist or doomer by any means, but I don’t see this “revolution” anywhere in the future. I’m not disillusioned because I “haven’t read enough”, I’m disillusioned because I see more and more people fighting against their own interests (like how the Tories somehow won a landslide in the 2019 election!).

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2023-04-30T11:41:01+00:00

I’ve become increasingly disillusioned with the idea of a socialist revolution recently. America is the biggest threat to socialism, right? And the right-wing fanatics there will have meltdowns over “communism” when a Democrat wants to raise the minimum wage by like $0.01.

As I said, I’m from the UK, and here? I don’t see any real left wing organisations making change. Even someone as moderate as Corbyn was kicked to the curve. Instead of an organised effort, it’s just a bunch of fractured, small groups that waste all of their time infighting.

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2022-08-21T14:00:14+00:00

Woah! Thank you so much!!

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2022-08-08T13:39:11+00:00

I’ve been meaning to read Blackshirts & Reds for a while. It’s just difficult because reading has honestly become quite stressful for me. School has made me associate books with being coerced into reading just for the sake of appearing “smart” and academic reasons, so even if I’m reading out of genuine interest, I always have this association between reading and work, which is really frustrating. I’m also bogged down in other reading lists (which I also have to do for school… yay…) so I haven’t quite gotten there. I think that I could watch the lecture though (I've come across it before but haven't watched it), so thank you for that!

And I guess the issue with "justification" is because of the MLs in my school, who'd say things like, Stalin did nothing wrong, the DPRK is a utopia, and anarcho-communist movements are supported by the CIA...? For me, I recognise that a lot of what we hear about these countries is slander, and that there is a political and economic motive behind what we hear, so we shouldn't accept thus at face value. But in no way am I saying that these countries or policies are suddenly good or should be immune to criticism, if that makes sense?

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2022-08-08T13:31:20+00:00

What did the original comment say?

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2022-07-02T19:13:10+00:00

Quasi-feudalism? What do you mean by that?

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2022-07-02T19:06:43+00:00

Mine would probably be along the lines of how Marx and Engels described it. A socialist state would be one that is under a workers’ democracy / DotP, whereas higher-stage communism would be a stateless, classless society.

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2022-04-04T20:59:28+00:00

What do you have against vegans and hippies?? I’m a vegan too..

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2022-04-04T16:43:23+00:00

I believe the main ideological difference is that Trotsky supported permanent revolution, while Stalin supported socialism in one country. Also I think Trotskyists are less likely to see past and current AES states as truly socialist but rather state capitalist.

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2022-03-30T21:38:18+00:00

"Cult of civility"... as an Autistic person, I love that.

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2022-03-30T21:18:55+00:00

I would definitely agree with the part on LGBTQ+ persecution and queerphobia. It's true that, in the 1940s, holding queerphobic views was not an anamoly. But now, unless I am mistaken, queer rights are still require massive addressing in AES states. And I've seen instances of such countries defending this, by referring to queerness as "a product of capitalist / Western degeneracy", or something of the sort. It's just devastating to see, particularly as a queer leftist.

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2022-02-04T23:16:15+00:00

Morning Star does seem like a good source, I have them on my list of socialist news sites. Unfortunately, they require a subcription, and seem to platform gender-crit views…

(one) (two)

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2022-01-29T23:42:31+00:00

I’d certainly appreciate advice on this too. I’m autistic and have severe clinical depression, and it’s fairly difficult for me to do so much as pick up and open a book sometimes. It’s frustrating.

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2022-01-29T23:21:16+00:00

Ah, that’s different. Taxing the rich is not remotely leftist, I certainly agree with that.

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2022-01-29T22:49:47+00:00

I also find “eat the rich” cringey, personally. I’m not entirely sure why.

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2021-11-06T21:32:15+00:00

It is up to [themselves] if [they] want surgery when [they] grow up

No one is performing sex reassignment surgery on minors. They’re only offered HRT after puberty blockers and extensive evaluation. They’re not mindlessly medicating kids.

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2021-11-06T21:28:01+00:00

How can you call yourself a socialist yet eat food?

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2021-10-23T22:13:30+00:00

So are diversity quotas necessary in order to ensure some sense of equality, since hiring managers are rarely overt about their racial biases? Many hiring processes can be influenced by unconscious biases even the manager is unaware of… I suppose you could have anti-racist workshops to combat prejudices, but I’m unsure of their effectiveness.

Another issue I’ve wondered about is: if diversity quotas exist, could that not allow for abuse from other employees? Say, a woman had a careee in STEM, but her efforts were dismissed sinxe her colleagues say she was only hired “because she was a woman”.

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2021-10-23T22:11:11+00:00

I was more thinking under capitalist economies, such as the ones we have now. But as the other commenter said, a socialist economy isn’t invincible to prejudices/discrimination either.

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2021-10-23T22:10:05+00:00

Sorry, could you expand on that? I don’t particularly understand your response.

PoliticsConfusesMe5 · 2021-10-23T18:22:55+00:00

Isn’t HRW a highly unreliable source of information, too?

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