i don’t really know how to relay the horrors that palestinians are describing first-hand, if you can speak arabic and follow people from gaza online there are some phrases i don’t think anyone will forget, some things for the arabic-speaking world will scar for life just like muhammed al-durra scarred me as a child. at least five of the people i followed since last week (journalists, photographers, students, artists, tiktokers) are dead now. it’s becoming terrifying to follow someone from gaza, because you don’t know if they’re going to be alive tomorrow. i don’t really know how to describe this feeling? what is it to follow some kid on tiktok who’s making jokes while planes drop bombs around him and think “i hope he stays alive?”
for those of you who don’t speak arabic, there are many many palestinians in gaza posting updates in english:
many of them are also translating other posts from arabic. you can follow them on twitter.
there are also many gazans reporting from gaza and recording vlogs in english for an international audience that you can follow on instagram
(yara eid is the only one who is not physically present in gaza, but her family is and recently lost her best friend, the photojournalist Ibraheem Lafi in the strikes. she has lots of good and informative videos & interviews on the situation)
please note that these are people living through an actual siege and genocide, experiencing hell on earth for the past fifteen days with no relief and risking their lives to even get these occasional messages through. the content they share is not easy to watch and even more difficult to forget.
you know what trope pisses me off the most? when the protag is pointing a gun at somebody and they’re like “you won’t do it. you’re too good” and the person holding the gun is like oh shit i am and they slowly lower the gun while the other person laughs. WHAT THE FUCK. if i were there, and somebody told me “you won’t do it” i would immediately shoot them dead without hesitating. who are you to tell me what i wont do. musty bitch
Keep in mind that there is almost always a third option, most especially when the person talking is vague about what, precisely, it is that you “won’t do.”
If it’s noodles, pour them on your sister instead of on her computer, or if the noodles are quite hot, pour them on her pillow or in a great spattering arc around her room.
If you have a supervillain at gunpoint and *they* say you’re “too good” and “won’t do it,” shoot them in the leg/foot or the shoulder. The former allows them to think they’re right while you lower the gun only to be confronted with sudden understanding and regret when you blow their metatarsals to kingdom come, while the latter is instant and avoids giving them even a moment’s satisfaction or any time to charge you while you’re lowering the gun to shoot them in the leg.
Door Number Three usually exists and is often your friend. Endeavor to cultivate awareness thereof.
Ethical dillemas are rarely reducible down to a clear binary.
I hate that I’m always trying to find cool biology themed stuff to wear but all the “nature inspired” clothing companies just have like two crossed arrows or a minimalistic mountain on a sweatshirt. Fucking lame, that’s barely even nature-adjacent. Put the life cycle of a salamander on a jacket, put hyena skeleton patterns on leggings, put a damn field guide of birds of prey on a peacoat and THEN you can have my money. Do NOT give me a shirt with a leaf on it that says “stay wild” or some bullshit I would much prefer clothing that broadcasts to everyone around me how many teeth an adult Jaguar has or how some pitcher plants can catch and digest rats.
i love monks in dnd because the guy on the battlefield armed with only his fists doesn’t seem very threatening until he starts sprinting toward you at 69 miles per hour
