What Happens Is The Same Thing That Happens In Most Toxic Fandoms. I Know Others Have Made The Obvious

What happens is the same thing that happens in most toxic fandoms. I know others have made the obvious "piss on the poor" jokes, but it's important to analyze how this isn't merely "kids these days don't read".

This is people choosing to act like they can't read.

People see that a post relates to their fandom (pro-Palestinian online slacktivism, in this case). They cannot read the post in its entirety. If they do, they might see an argument which pokes holes in their current publicly-stated belief system. It could mean that they are wrong, and they would (no hyperbole, this is the actual case) they would prefer to be dead than to be wrong.

The easiest thing to do is to pretend they have never encountered a persuasive argument from their ideological enemies. To pretend to believe that no such counterargument exists. To pretend that their enemies are simply Bad People who are morally bankrupt subhuman monsters.

They vaguely scan the post, their eyes semi-glazing over (or half-listening to their screen readers), until they encounter a word or phrase with which they strongly disagree. In an average fandom post, that might be evidence that the poster is pro- or anti- or comshipper, or that they ship something the toxic fan disagrees with, or that they like a part of the canon the toxic fan has rejected. For pro-Pal fans, it will be phrases and words indicating that the poster is Jewish, that the poster does not believe Israel should be glassed from orbit, and/or that the poster might disagree with one or two tactics engaged in by pro-Pals (even if they themselves are pro-Pal).

At this point, the toxic pro-Pal fan slams the reblog button and screeches COLONIZER ZIO SUBHUMAN SCUM, adds in photographs of dead bodies, hits post, and feels a warm, hateful glow in their heart. They pretend to believe that this glow is actually the feeling of success and accomplishment. They know, just as anyone who reads their "responses" (which aren't responses, as they, by design, do not address arguments they refuse to read) will know the truth: that is not accomplishment, but sadistic glee.

What I'm describing here is a pretty well-documented phenomenon. You see it a lot in high-control groups, aka cults. Members are trained carefully to ignore what non-members are saying, only latch onto specific key words and trigger phrases, and spit out the same response every time. This is part of what can be called a "cult personality", the reason why all members of a high-control group act the same and appear to think the same and say the same things to the same provocation.

You also can see it in, as I mentioned, really toxic fandoms where fighting's all that happens anymore, as well as in plenty of political groups, even ones that lack a Strong True Leader. "High-control", after all, just means that something is controlling group members and demanding their devotion. Often, that's a person, but just as often, it's an idea.

To read arguments from the Evil People, even for a second, is to show insufficient devotion to The Idea Of Palestine, which is all pro-Pals care about--because real Palestinians are too complicated and inconvenient to fit into The Idea.

How the fuck does someone get "what's happening to Palestinians is good actually" from "I think antisemitism is a bad thing and people need a more nuanced understanding of this conflict than they currently have and they *really* need to learn the actual history of the region rather than the bollocks they're swallowing."

The reading comprehension on this site is truly in the fucking toilet.

You know what? Fuck it.

The amount of notes that this post gets by the end of April is the amount of words I'll write for one of my books.

The default length of pasta is designed to fit on a supermarket shelf, not to be the best length for cooking/eating.

Feel free to break it to any length you want (don't let the Italians know I said this)

the extent to which some college encampments have managed to independently recreate borders, guards, checkpoints, and identity tests/quizzes (and arguably passports/identification) is a phd in itself and a really mediocre 21st century lord of the flies knockoff

you need a wristband to enter? That’s a passport. Encampment for a specific political orientation? That’s an internally ideologically defined identity test. You need to keep people at the entrance and exists to make sure everyone who enters and exists is an ally or good person or outright not trying to infiltrate the camp? Congrats. That’s a checkpoint. Asking questions to make sure they have values that align with yours? Checkpoint. You quiz people on their identities or relations to political ideology? That can even become an ethnically defined internal identity.

I don’t mean all of these things are inherently bad, but it is worth noting and reflecting how quickly they were set up by people whose stated ideology is to oppose ALL of them. Provides a lot of insight into how important praxis actually is, and the uncomfortable fact a lot of liberatory and rebellious nationalisms or ideologies have gotten damn invested in borders checkpoints and guards in the transition to actually holding structural political power

Esther scroll from Ancona, Italy. Late 17th-early 18th century.