(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . It's not "both siding" anything to stand up against authoritarianism [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-09 This diary is in response to the trending diary about both siding the current conflict in I/P. Let’s start with a fairly broad brush statement, while I can’t speak for everyone at DK, I seriously doubt anyone is siding with Hamas’ violence now or in the past. The people claiming we are somehow “supporting Hamas” may be missing that Democrats and people on the left are generally empathic types who feel pain when others are suffering. I feel for a starving child in rural Mississippi, just as I do a suffering mother in Ukraine and a person of color being harassed in Norway. What do all these situations have in common? Right-wing aggression against mostly powerless citizens. The Republican party in Mississippi is responsible for perpetuating crushing poverty through trickle-down, race-based economic practices, Putin (a right-wing authoritarian) is responsible for the devastation in Ukraine and hard-right neo-Nazis are responsible for an uptick in violence against Muslims in Norway. People on this site tend to be vehemently opposed to the GOP’s economic policies, Putin's aggression in Ukraine and Nazis around the globe (me personally, I refuse to hug a Nazi, I will ALWAYS stand against them). So is it any surprise that people here also react negatively to Israel’s hard-right government? Authoritarianism by Trump, Erdogan, Bolsonaro, Duterte and Putin is evil and wrong but we should turn a blind eye to Netanyahu because he is an Israeli? Hard-right extremists always cause suffering for out groups, you think somehow this isn’t true of the hard-right Israeli government? Furthermore, just like the damage done by the American GOP’s policies decades before Trump, even when Israel wasn’t threatened by Netanyahu’s authoritarianism, its policies tended to lean heavily toward apartheid-like conservativism. I don't support these policies. Two things can be wrong at the same time. Hamas is wrong for its actions! But Israel’s right-leaning to hard-right government is ALSO wrong for its decades-long poor treatment of the people of Palestine. When people feel hopeless and oppressed, it shouldn't be surprising that they fight back against their perceived oppressors. Make no mistake, Israel is partly to blame for the rise and continued existence of Hamas. So no, most people here are not both siding anything (but I do agree they are getting more entrenched in their beliefs without listening to the other side of the debate). I feel that most folks on DK are smart enough to hold multiple things in their heads simultaneously. We can deplore the violence by Hamas while also deploring the Israeli government’s treatment of the people of Palestine. That shouldn’t be controversial or surprising. I believe some supporters of Israel are incorrectly equating our dislike of right-wing authoritarianism and the mistreatment of the oppressed with support for Hamas, that's not a fair assessment of my views and I believe that sentiment is shared by many folks here at DK. In fact, I will go out on a limb and state that this view is probably held by a good number of Palestinians as well. So, is Hamas wrong? ABSOLUTELY, I do NOT stand by their actions. But I also don’t see Netanyahu’s government as the good guys. The only people I feel for are the common citizens in BOTH Israel AND Palestine. Wanting vengeance against either group for the wrongs of the other is not acceptable to me. Again, I don’t believe that should be controversial or surprising. For the most part, I am just sad about the whole situation because it’s the common person living in the area who will suffer. But in NO WAY does that make me anti-Jewish/anti-Israel or a supporter of Hamas’ actions… In my opinion, I am just an empathetic human being who can see beyond the stated goals and actions of political factions and this allows me to see the suffering of other humans caught in the middle. That’s not “both siding” anything, that’s supporting humanity over hate and bigotry perpetuated by all sides. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/9/2198289/-It-s-not-both-siding-anything-to-stand-up-against-authoritarianism?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/