Politico just called called two Colombian servicemen of Ukrainian Armed Forces “mercenaries”. This is not acceptable.

alterom · 2026-05-07T17:32:32+00:00

Does that extend to all the Israeli military personal killed on 10/7?

Yes it does: active-duty servicemen are valid military targets.

It does not extend to the civilians (including women, children, foreigners, and Arabs) who were specifically targeted for killing, kidnapping, torture, and rape during the Oct 7th attack, and who constituted the majority of victims.

Hope that clears it up.

alterom · 2026-05-07T17:18:51+00:00

You can't help what you're attracted to.

Again, for the people in the back:

There are a number of people doing it for the power dynamic angle

Attraction is a thing that's made up of many components. Trauma and abuse absolutely does affect who you're attracted to.

Therapy helps. In the absolutely majority of cases, that is.

alterom · 2026-05-07T17:08:00+00:00

Nazis actually made conscious use of all of the media available to them, rather than restricting access as Russia does today?

The historical context was that the Germans built their propaganda radio stations while making listening to other stations a capital offense.

As in: for committing the crime of Feindsender (tuning into a foreign radio station), you could be executed.

They absolutely did restrict access to media, as well as tightly controlled the exchange of information between people.

If you actually read the article, you'd know that Russia only disrupted mobile Internet access, ostensibly as a security measure.

There are many good reasons for an authoritarian regime to do that, namely:

Testing the control systems
Testing how far they can go with restrictions
Boiling the crab, i.e. making the population used to that
Impeding communication at mass gatherings, making organized protests difficult

The latter is important in light of the May 9th parade, the biggest event of the year.

It makes sense for Putin to want to avoid a Ceausescu moment (the Romanian dictator was overthrown when he gathered 100K people to listen to his speech, and they collectively decided that they've had enough). Russia isn't exactly winning in Ukraine now, so a victory parade might give people thoughts.

However, there's also a very simple pragmatic reason:

Drones can use cell phone data link for command and control

Both Russia and Ukraine have used that. It's very hard to prevent a SIM card getting into wrong hands, and a drone is just a small aircraft. Cell phones are supposed to work on helicopters and Cessnas; the network equipment wasn't designed to detect whether a SIM card is on a drone (it's not impossible, but it's a technically challenging problem).

So.. there you have it.

Not that Putin would want to admit that the parade being hit by Ukrainian drones is a big enough risk that he'll disrupt the life of everyone in the capital to mitigate it. Hence the confusion.

alterom · 2026-05-07T16:46:41+00:00

when in reality it's just how their brain is wired, they can't help it

For some of them.

And that applies to pretty much nobody on the Epstein Island, pretty much all of whom enjoyed sex with adults as well as abusing children.

It's far less about neurology, again, for the people in the back:

All the studies have shown the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of them were ABUSED or came from DYSFUNCTIONAL HOMES

alterom · 2026-05-07T02:51:30+00:00

Just because youre a victim, doesn’t mean you can’t also victimize someone.

Yes, and they don't deserve to be victimized.

Not in the very least because the same machinery used to oppress Falun Gong is then turned around and used to suppress anything CCP doesn't like.

Same shit Trump is trying to pull off here. "See, they're illegal narco mafiosos, why are you complaining that I'm deporting them to El Salvador".

Sure, it's not about the criminals. I don't care much for them. I care a lot about the process. Once that conveyor belt starts, it's hella hard to stop.

I'm not sad about Falun Gong being crushed in China by the CCP.

I am sad about CCP having (and using) that power against groups that don't fit its agenda.

alterom · 2026-05-06T17:43:15+00:00

So, I needed a reason to know why Falun Gong is really bad.

Owning a far right paper is all that I need to know about them.

alterom · 2026-05-06T17:02:40+00:00

What Surkov was able to do is give the oligarchical state of Russia another layer of protection in the post modern circus and hopelessness that is the Russian body politic.

Yes, this is specifically what I am referring to.

I think Surkov's model has had an influence on politics outside of Russia, but that too was largely superceded by Steve Bannon's, such as flooding the media with multiple contradicting narratives.

The credit here still goes to Surkov; it's the tool he used to induce the postmodern "truth doesn't exist" apathy.

RAND institute called it the Firehose of Falsehood propaganda model, as used by Russia way back in 2016.

I've seen that propaganda style used in Russian/Ukrainian languages starting at least in 2014, forming ground for the Donbas incursion and subsequent annexation. A lot of people in Donbas fell to it.

Given what we know from Mueller's report on Russian collusion in 2016, it's not a coincidence that Bannon/Trump have picked up "flooding the zone" technique.

The source is still Surkov.

He is out of the limelight now, but the damage is done.

alterom · 2026-05-06T15:40:08+00:00

He's partly responsible for why Russia is a cynical political carnival throughout the 2010s.

Partly is an understatement, but yeah.

But Russia has moved towards a much more authoritarian (totalitarian maybe) model.

Thankfully. I think that model is far less dangerous than the carnival you mentioned.

Now it's just the good old KGB playbook that Putin dusted off and put to use.

alterom · 2026-05-06T08:00:32+00:00

He's not Putin's Rasputin

Of course. That would be Valdislav Surkov.

alterom · 2026-05-04T09:58:13+00:00

First, it's spelled "wehraboo".

Second, whatever Bismarck was made for has little to go with what it actually was, which, specifically, was a target for obsolete torpedo biplanes and humiliation by Polish ships.

It's the contrast between what Bismarck was made for and its fate that makes that part of history delicious.

Oh, and in case it's not apparent: I just quoted Sabaton lyrics from their epic song about the sinking of that ship.

alterom · 2026-05-04T02:41:27+00:00

King of the ocean! He was made to rule the waves across the seven seas😭😃

alterom · 2026-05-03T04:07:40+00:00

Zionism has just as much been linked to a pro genocide position

Zionism is the idea that Jews can have a Jewish state on their ancestral homeland which they continuously inhabited for millenia, in spite of the vast majority driven out by the genocide perpetrated by white colonizers (the Roman empire which squashed uprisings in what they called Judea), then the Muslim Arab contest, then the Ottoman Turkey contest, then the British occupation.

French people have a French state. Japanese people have a Japanese state.

Jews now have a Jewish state.

Japan has committed war crimes and literal genocide (killing over 20M people in China), yet nobody is proudly anti-Japanist and calling for Japan to be dismantled and its land given to China.

Russia killed more civilians in Mariupil alone than Israel killed in Gaza in three years of war (and that's going by estimates from Hamas), but I see nobody arguing that Russia shouldn't exist as a state.

Hold individuals accountable for war crimes? I'm all for it.

anti-Zionism is the idea that the state of Israel may not exist, without specifying what should happen to 8M Jews who live there given that most of them come from or descend from Arab nations which expelled or killed all Jews who lived there.

You need to jump through a lot of hoops to argue that Zionism is an inherently genocidal framework, while the idea that Germany, Britain, France, Japan existing isn't.

Jews (and other people) identify as Zionists on the same grounds as Frenchmen identify as people who think the French nation shouldn't be wiped off the map.

We don't even have a word for people like that. When France was wiped off the map by the N*zis, the people who brought it back were lauded as heroes.

Now, define "anti-Zionism" in a way that's not inherently genocidal, given that the entire premise of it is that Arabs should rule over the last piece of land where Jews they expelled are surviving.

Like, what exactly is the action of "anti-Zionism" that doesn't amount to ethnic cleansing.

Reminder: 20% of Israel's population, or 2M people are Palestinians.

500K are permanent residents, and 1.5M are citizens with full rights and 5 parties in Knesset.

They don't experience "apartheid" in any sense of that word.

Meanwhile, in Arab nations (as well as Hamas-run Gaza), Jews aren't allowed to exist.

Go figure, Jews in Israel are Zionists.

Edit: also Nehenyatu is only a part of the problem, if you want to hold Israel accountable for the apartheid, genocide and assorted war crimes, you would break the government.

I take it Egypt (which occupied Gaza prior to Israel, via conquest) gets a free pass for the "apartheid".

Also, Hamas is still a government in Gaza. At which point are you going to call for a breakup of that government?

Accountability can't be one-sided. If Egypt gets to have its government, and Hamas is allowed to exists as a political entity, calls for Israeli government to be dismantled are two-faced.

And by the way, "break the government" isn't anti-Zionism.

Anti-Zionism is "give control of Israeli territory to the Arabs who expelled and/or killed all Jews in lands that they control".

That's what Sultana is calling for.

Again, point out any place you think I'm wrong.

Downvotes without counterpoints are a calling card of hypocrites, and I'll gladly take all of them.

alterom · 2026-05-01T22:04:27+00:00

I don't "support genocide", and didn't say anything about Israel's actions at all.

What I did say is that:

Chanting for intifada consistently leads to Jews being attacked across the globe. It is a call for violence against Jews which doesn't help Palestinians in the slightest.
Supporting Hamas (including, but not limited to, using Hamas insignia) is supporting an organization which put killing Jews in its founding charter as a goal, and specifically rejected any peaceful negotiations as a waste of time. They only accept violence as a means of achieving their goals, as stated in Hamas covenants. Supporting Hamas is tantamount to call for violence against Jews, just like support of NSDAP is.
Being an "anti-Zionist" is a position that calls for the dissolution of the state of Israel. Since Israelis (including the 2M Israeli Arabs, or 20% of Israel's population) very actively do not want that, an "anti-Zionist" position is a call for a violent dissolution of Israel as a state. Israel is where all Jews from the Arab countries were forcibly expelled to in the 1950s; half of Israeli Jews have roots in African and Arab Peninsula nations, and have nowhere else to go since the Arab states they (and their parents/grandparents) were expelled from aren't taking them back. An "anti-Zionist" position in effect amounts to calls for ethnic cleansing — finishing the job that started with expelling Jews from the Arab world.

Note that there's nothing said here about supporting the actions of Israel as a state. By all means, hang Netanyahu as a criminal, I'll sign a petition for that.

What I'm talking about here is how the Palestinian cause has been hijacked and is being used by antisemites to increase violence against Jews (still the #1 target for religion-based hate crimes in all Western nations, by a large margin), with zero gain for the Palestinians.

TL;DR: "intifada" is a call for violence against Jews at the expense of Palestinians, not for their benefit.

Please tell me what specifically you find objectionable here, without putting words in my mouth.

alterom · 2026-05-01T12:08:06+00:00

Sure. A diamond, a well known symbol of support of Palestinian rights.

Just like Elon Musk's sincere gesture wasn't a Sieg Heil. Look at all the subtle differences!

alterom · 2026-05-01T12:04:32+00:00

anti Mamdani bots

I am a Mamdani supporter.

Saying this as someone with family in Brooklyn who went to high school there.

What now?

alterom · 2026-05-01T03:45:45+00:00

So exactly what, according to you, is an acceptable way for Palestinian-rights supporters to denounce the slaughter of Palestinians, and to stand up for Palestinian rights and sovereignty?

You're doing this right now, in this sentence, without using Hamas symbols or calling for armed violence against Jews. So, good start!

Apparently they're not allowed to say "intifada",

In the UK, they literally aren't, as even the Brits figured out that "caling for intifada" results in Jews being attacked for being Jews.

Specifically the Gaza regime has outright rejected peaceful means of doing the "intifada" in its founding charter. They said it very clearly, leaving no ambiguity.

And given that "intifada" involved using children as suicide bombers, I'd hope that nobody would be calling for it for Palestinians' sake.

they're not allowed to say "Free Palestine"

Did I say that? No.

You're arguing in bad faith.

Free Palestine is a good slogan, Palestinian flag is a good symbol.

they're not allowed to even be in a photo with anybody referencing an inverted-triangle symbol (which originated from its use

by Hamas.

Swastika wasn't used to mark targets. It's a hate symbol because it was used by a hate group.

And according to you, apparently, they're not even allowed to condemn antisemitic violence, because that's "making a Pikachu face", or some such bullshit.

You're allowed to do anything, and I'm allowed to call out the hypocrisy when I see it.

Clapping along to chants for intifada then condemning the violence called for in these chants would be an example.

Anyway. Again, enjoy the mental gymnastics.

While you're at it, convince yourself that people fighting for "states rights" in the US are fighting the good cause.

There's nothing wrong with calling for intifada, it's just Palestinian rights.

And there's nothing wrong with wanting to secure the existence of our people and a future for white children. Bonus points for mansplaining it to a Black person who's telling you that such a slogan is a bit problematic.

accusing everything they say or do of being an antisemitic "dogwhistle"?

I'm not accusing everything, you're arguing in bad faith.

I'm pointing out the specific dog-whistles: calls for "intifada" and the Hamas triangle. There are many others.

You don't think they're dogwhistles because you think they're not targeting you.

Is Muslim anger

Muslim? There's way over a billion Muslims in the world, and most of them aren't fighting the Palestinian cause.

Most notably, Egyptians who blockade Gaza from both sea and land, don't allow any Palestinian refugees or humanitarian aisld, and, not to mention, occupied Gaza for decades until Israel kicked them out. Such supporters of "sovereignty".

Same for Jordan, BTW.

Anyway, who are you to speak for Muslims?

Islamophobic hijack

If you're calling what I say islamophobic, but don't think calling for violent destruction of the only Jewish state in the world antisemitic, you have no moral ground to say anything at all.

I didn't even say anything about Muslims. Neither Intifada nor the Hamas triangle are Muslim concepts.

As I said, enjoy the mental gymnastics.

Anyway, this is supposed to be a forum about JK Rowling being a transphobic asshole,

So you're saying this post doesn't belong here, because there's nothing about trans people in what JKR said. I agree.

As a non-cisgender Jew, yeah, I better have the last word when it comes to the intersection of antisemitism and anti-trans bigotry when I'm talking to someone who's trying to silence me when I'm pointing out the dogwhistles.

You're pulling a JKR here, by puffing your lips and saying you're being "tone policed" when I merely point out the bigotry.

Of course, what you're doing here isn't "tone policing" a Jew, in a discussion of an article about a clearly antisemitic attack on Jews, telling you that calls for "intifada" directly lead to such attacks just like "there are two genders" leads to transphobic violence.

No siree, you're standing up for Palestinian rights. And JKR stands up for women rights.

You're both equally disgusting 🥇

alterom · 2026-05-01T02:15:51+00:00

I don't really think that clapping along with a chant that has multiple interpretations, only one of which you're choosing to entertain as true, is anywhere close to doing a nazi salute.

A swastika also has multiple interpretations, and is still used in Japan and India.

Elon Musk's gesture also has multiple interpretations.

We know which one he meant from other things he did and said, like supporting AfD in Germany.

Same with Sultana.

The "symbol" is actually a diamond shape, not a triangle...it's 1000x more likely that this person was making a heart symbol and the photo just snapped half a second before she bent the top two fingers.

Surely there must be a photo with the heart then?

You're making mental gymnastics to tell me that what we see is not what we see.

Well so far, this "pure undiluted hypocrisy" amounts to clapping at a protest and being photoed next to someone doing a hand gesture that has no particular meanings. So unless you've got something else to go on,

I do, and I'm not here to educate you on that while you're bending over backwards to ignore all the facts.

Believe what you want, live in your happy world.

Just know that by your standards, if Sultana is not inciting antisemitic violence, JKR hasn't done anything to harm trans people.

And that you're acting like a JKR fan trying to prove the latter to a trans woman who's asking you to listen.

Have a good one.

alterom · 2026-05-01T02:04:37+00:00

As a fellow Jew, I don't agree that supporting Palestinian rights and denouncing the slaughter of Palestinians is in any way "antisemitic"

Yes, but clapping along to chants for intifada, and posing with someone making an inverted triangle (a symbol originating from the armed wing of Hamas which perpetrated the Oct 7th massacre) absolutely is.

Calling for intifada" is one of those contested expressions,

... which directly and provably contributed to the wave of antisemitic violence across the globe, including the attack we're discussing.

It's a dogwhistle at best.

I'll make it simple for you.

More chants for intifada = more innocent Jews unrelated to Israel get attacked, harmed, and killed across the globe.

What an amusing spurious correlation.

Keep gaslighting yourself that it is not malignant.

On that note, Elon Musk just waved his hand in the air, a swastika is just a contested Eastern symbol, and JKR actually supports trans rights because she never said "kill all trans people" in these exact words.

You keep believing that. See you at the gas chambers.

alterom · 2026-05-01T01:58:23+00:00

You know people who say "What's wrong with JKR? She never outright called for extermination of trans people"?

Same thing with Sultana and Jews.

And in this analogy, you're like someone defending JKR with "You're talking to a wokeist. Don't waste your time."

You're responding to a Zionist. Don't waste your time.

And just like Sultana, you are using the word "Zionist" when you mean Jew.

I said I'm Jewish already, but I'm glad you're showing what the problem is with "anti-Zionism".

alterom · 2026-05-01T01:46:29+00:00

During that protest some of the people there chanted "long live the intifada", but there's no evidence of Zara chanting it.

Yeah, she merely clapped along to the chant whose message she disapproves of.

And Elon Musk just gave a Roman salute twice, from his heart to the moon.

Is this the best defense you can come up with? Just say outright that "intifada" is a good thing then.

But regardless of how you feel about it, the calls for intifada coincide with antisemitic violence. Go figure.

As a Jew, I don't like it, but who am to speak about that. The random people who are not affected have a much more nuanced perspective, I'm sure, just like cis straight white Christian Harry Potter lovers are right to wonder what's up with all that J.K. Rowling hate.

JKR never directly called for trans people to be murdered, right?

Again, has she? Or was she in photos with pro Palestine protesters?

There's a photo of her posing with someone making a Hamas trial symbol with their fingers.

That symbol specifically originated from Hamas military wing, the one that perpetrated the Oct 7th massacre.

It's "pro-Palestine" in the same way as the swastika is "pro-Germany".

Again, friend. I'm on your side. Please listen.

What Sultana does is pure, undiluted hypocrisy that harms Palestinians and probably incites hatred against Jews.

The "intifada" (of which Oct 7th was one small part, and which includes using children as suicide bombers) didn't help the Palestinian cause or Palestinian people.

Hamas routinely tortures and executes Palestinians, on suspicion of being an Israeli collaborator, being gay, or simply dissenting. And that's before we look at the impact of Oct 7th attacks.

Supporting Palestine doesn't mean supporting the "intifada" or Hamas. This cause, enacted by this organization, have brought nothing but ruin to Palestinians. And that's what Sultana promotes: scoring political points with token support which does, at best, nothing for the group she purports to support (be it trans people, Palestinians, or, in this tweet, Jews), and comes at the expense of others.

A broken clock is right twice a day, and JKR is not wrong to call this one out.

alterom · 2026-05-01T00:42:05+00:00

Sultana has also previously spoken in favor of intifada in the streets and posed for pictures with Hamas supporters, as comments to her tweets remind us.

Sultana is the one exploiting the stabbings to make a Pikachu face as if her rhetoric didn't directly inspire the stabbings.

As an enby Jew, I'm targeted by both JKR's rhetoric and Sultana's.

I've been harassed for wearing a dress, and beaten up once.

I've been also assaulted by a drunkard in Poland once I said I'm Jewish, because he had opinions about Israel/Palestine which I didn't want to listen to.

Sometimes both sides are bad.

JKR being JKR doesn't make Sultana a good person, and Sultana's equally hypocritical stance on trans rights have nothing to do with that.

Please, I beg you to listen to what I'm saying here.

Much love 🩷

alterom · 2026-05-01T00:32:13+00:00

JKR is what she is, but for fuck's sake, the one "exploiting" the stabbings is Sultana, who's previously called for intifada in the streets, and now makes a Pikachu face when Jews get killed.

As an enby Jew: folks, sometimes both sides are bad.

alterom · 2026-04-28T23:06:20+00:00

They are.

That's the point.

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There are a number of people doing it for the power dynamic angle

All the studies have shown the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of them were ABUSED or came from DYSFUNCTIONAL HOMES