Month: June 2024

Where Do I Stand?

We see it all over the internet, on people’s profiles and posts: “I stand with Israel!” “I stand with Ukraine!” Pick your champion; someone’s standing with them. Safely outside the line of fire, mind you, but still.

Don’t mistake me: It takes courage to make a moral stand, even online. You lose friends, families get torn apart. People like me, who use their internet accounts to promote their writing/art/business, get blocked and lose customers. As a result, it’s usually also a stupid thing to do, especially since your brave stand with Ukraine doesn’t kill a single Russian soldier.

The difference between courage and stupidity is often so fine a line as to be nonexistent.

And yet…

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They’re Stealing the Truth

“Trump said it, so it must be a lie!”

That’s really not a terrible axiom. Oh, it’s not 100% accurate, but most of what he’s said over the years has ranged from mild exaggeration to only true in certain circumstances all the way up to a bald-faced whopper. He repeats the lie often and loudly, and some will come to believe him — and others automatically disbelieve.

Herein, however, comes a problem: Sometimes, people end up disbelieving what he says even though there’s some truth to it.

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Why Are You…?

People keep asking me (online, for the most part) why I’m on this side or that. I tell them I’m not, and do my best to explain, and they remain confused. It goes like this:

“Why are you defending Israel? They’re committing genocide!”
“I’m not talking about genocide. I’m talking about [insert abstract topic].”
“That doesn’t matter! Israel is evil!”

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White Phosphorus In Gaza

Every few months, the organization “Human Rights Watch” releases a report accusing a major anti-Iranian nation of using white phosphorus rounds against civilians. It’s consistent, well-documented, factually correct, and a flaming lie all at once.

“But how could that be? Is it white phosphorus or not? Is phosphorus illegal or not?”

Glad you asked. I’ll tell you.

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