this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2024
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Funny how you never heard this much outrage on social media from the years of Uyghur genocide committed by China or Russia’s murders of it’s internal political opponents. Palestine is terrible and deserves attention, but it’s pretty clear this movement is getting a major boost from Chinese and Russian social media farms to influence US voter turn out.
Or it's because Western countries directly prop up and support Israel, which we do not do for China or Russia.
And therefore Western citizenry feel more culpable and outraged about something their countries support.
We could also point to half a dozen other "ally" countries engaged in human rights abuses, most of which are largely ignored because of economic reasoms, but that also does not invalidate criticisms of Israel.
Like just because nobody protests Saudi Arabia or Sudan or El Salvador, it doesn't mean that we support what the USA is doing in those countries. It just means people aren't paying as much attention for a variety of awful reasons.
I again am not saying that what Israel is doing is okay or defending them at all. My point is people need to also be aware how much Chinese and Russian troll farms control the discourse across the internet by escalating atrocities that specifically make the US look bad and downplaying ones that make China or Russia look bad wherever possible. It is a major problem because those countries are manipulating genuine outrage to specifically target and weaken their enemies while drowning out the voices of other people also in need of support through genocide like the Uyghurs. It’s important because those groups get forgotten when all the discourse is manipulated towards one popular cause that the authoritarians get to hide their crimes behind. We can acknowledge Israels crimes and still be cognizant of the threats coming from authoritarian troll farms.
No, I wasn't saying you were defending Israel. And I think you have a strong point that our silence on other atrocities undercuts our moral authority in pointing out others.
But ultimately, reality is what we see. An atrocity is an atrocity, and protesting one thing doesn't mean we condone another. It just means this is the thing we're focused on right now.
I can't help the Uyghurs. I have no leverage against China. I can write to my Senator, a guy who I voted for, who is a strong supporter of Israel, and I can tell him how I feel. I can talk to my friends and relatives about it, and we can change the dynamic of public support for a nation engaged in human rights abuses that are enabled by American voters. I could mention Uyghurs in my letter, and lgbtq+ rights in Russia, and Muslims and Sikhs in India, and half a dozen other problems. But fixing those problems would mean invasion. We might win one of those wars, but we won't win them all and we aren't really in a position to be exporting freedom around the world, anyway.
We can stop Israel now. Today. Biden, the US government, the American citizens, we can stop this. We can't stop Hamas from attacking. We can't ensure humans everywhere have food, safety, and water. We can stop Israel.
Well, that's a big question mark, but I would say we can stop SUPPORTING Israel in its genocide, at least.
Well yeah. I mean, I should say we have a hope of stopping Israel. Netanyahu wants Trump, but he's not going to defy Biden in the meantime, that is if Biden ever actually took a hardline position.
Smells like IDF whataboutism.
No, I just don’t myopically go after one cause while ignoring others because manipulated social media points me in a direction. I am pointing out that people need to pay attention to the world, not only the issues bots push to the top of threads. The manipulation of algorithms by authoritarian troll farms has consequences for all the other suffering people in the world not getting heard. The pressure on Israel and the US has gotten Palestine support and aid. Others need that same support and you barely hear anything about other genocides online. That is no mere coincidence and people should be aware they are being manipulated away from other genocides on purpose by authoritarian regimes like China. The world needs to keep pressure on them over their Uyghur genocide and internment/enslavement as well. You can create awareness and pressure online about more than one movement at a time.