Christopher McKitterick - he/they. Science fiction, writing tips, cute animals, equality, astronomy, mental health, the human condition. No AI slop. Writer, educator, editor, intersectional feminist, autodidact, neurodivergent, animal rescuer, & director of the Ad Astra SF Institute. My fiction won the AnLab Reader's Award. Fandoms: Alien, A:TLA, Babylon 5, Leverage, MM:Fury Road, Star Trek, etc. Doing what I can to make our world better. Curated tags for my students & y'all. Many thanks to patrons supporting posts here & on Patreon!
Ahh Jaysus lads here we go again. No Irish need apply to the Ivies or something.
God forbid a Slav do anything near a land-grant school.
Also this is going to be used in antisemitic ways because of course it is.
A lot of people who thought their whiteness was objective reality are about to learn it’s conditional huh
By the way, a lot of progressives share blame in creating this state of affairs.
Not the fascism that’s taking over the US government, oh god no, but the general state of ignorance about the conditional nature of whiteness.
When, for example, Irish people talk about the troubles, and how there was a racial component to the tyranny and genocide that they suffered under, you will absolutely get well meaning but misguided progressives who will turn out in droves to chastise them for this. For far too many people, the knee-jerk reaction to seeing an Irish person - someone generally treated as white by today’s standards, in most places - talking about experiencing racialized oppression and violence is to treat this as somehow appropriating or taking away from the struggles more obviously non-white people, and that mindset only serves to reinforce this notion that somehow whiteness is a strictly delineated monolith, and not an arbitrary club with rules that change every year according to the whims of the people most served by those rules.
You need to let Irish, Poles, Italians, Slavs, etc talk about their experience of racial discrimination if we want to break people out of this mindset. You need to let Jewish people talk about their experiences of discrimination without throwing around terms like “white-passing”. You need to stop playing these “I know all the correct ways to be anti-racist” games where you’ve convinced yourself that there’s a clear and simple set of rules to follow and that it’s your job to bully anyone you perceive as breaking them.
This shit is complicated and weird and arbitrary, and you need to accept that if we’re going to be able to have meaningful conversations about it.
never forget the time two “good ole boys”, who were both brunette themselves, stalked me in my store’s check out lines so they could asked me “what I was? Cause they knew I couldn’t be white…”
all because i am incredibly pale, with brown black hair and eyebrows. it doesn’t matter that im a product of 2000 years of white people fucking on an island, to some people no one is white enough.
thats what a lot of people don’t remember. it’s an ever changing goal post, and if you do something they don’t like, you’re going to find yourself on the wrong side of it.
Probably why we shouldn’t link human rights to race in the first place?
being a jew studying preholocaust european jewish history is just *mourns over what could have been, mourns over what could have been, mourns over what could have been, mourns over what could have been, mourns-*
WWII alternate history stories always go “What if the Nazis won.” WHAT IF THE JEWS LIVED?
That’s actually such a good point about alternative history. So many ask “what if we got the bad ending?”, ignorant of the fact we did, that’s just a worse ending.
Asking “what if the Nazis won” allows one to live in the safe world where the Nazis were the root source of evil in WWII. Asking “what if the Jews lived” forces you to confront the fact that almost all of Europe was complicit in their eradication. Every European power, the United states, everyone involved hated the Jewish people. Everyone was complicit in antisemitism, everyone just sat back and let it happen.
It took an invasion of Poland for the UK and France to act, and it took a direct attack on the US for the US to officially get involved. All of the torture, enslavement, and murder of Jews before this were overlooked because not even below the surface, the German antisemitism wasn’t unique. And basically nobody has the guts to address that.
you might like The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, by Michael Chabon. it’s an alternate history where, during World War II, a settlement for Jewish refugees was established in Sitka, Alaska, in 1941,and grew into a big city
I’m sorry but we have got to stop goyische sff authors from writing time travel stories where the characters have to let the Holocaust happen for Reasons™️. Like oh, you’re not allowed to change the past? It’s against the law? Damn, that’s crazy! However as I am not a little bitch, I would simply break the law in order to prevent the fucking Holocaust were it possible. As would literally every other Jew on this planet. ‘But oh what if it changes the future??’ Uh yeah, I sure hope it does!! Just write the fucking story and leave out that “joke” about how you wish you could go back in time and kill baby hitler unless you actually have the chutzpah to do it. Hope this helps! :)
re: the final point, if you want to write a variation on the “kill Hitler” alternate-history joke, here’s a great example of how to make it work:
Queens Shmira Public Safety Update | Community Alert
We have been notified this coming Shabbat, Saturday February 25th, a group of violent extremists are planning to come out a protest against Jewish communities across the country. NYPD Counter-terrorism Bureau has released a statement notifying the Jewish Community in NYC of this group’s plans. Shmira has been in direct contact with the NYPD 112th and 107th precints and were reassured that there will be an increased police presences at Synogogues this week. The precints will be utilizing all necessary means of man power such as, House of Worship AUto, counter-terrorism units, precinct sector cars, and auxiliary units who will all be rotating posts at different key locations throughout our neighborhoods.
We would like to remind everyone that in the event of any incidence taking place to please be swift in calling 911 and reporting them to the police. The community is asked not to call 311 or the precincts directly to file these kinds of reports, in order to avoid delays in response.
Queens Borough Safety Patrol, Shmira
New York Police Situational Awareness Alert
Transcript of Report:
Domestic Violence Extremists Trumpet Upcoming Nationtional “Day of Hate” by Encouraging Direct Action
The NYPD Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau (IBC) recently observes online domestic violent extremist (DVE) messaging announcing a national “Day of Hate,” scheduled to take place on Saturday, 25 February. Based on ICB observations of extremist postings online and at least one shared propaganda video on a social media platform, the anonymous online organizers of this overtly racist, anti-semitic event are instructing likeminded individuals to drop banners, place stickers and flyers, or scrawl graffiti as a form of biased so-called activism. According to at least one DVE shared message, organizers requested that participants in the “Day of Hate” photograph or record direct actions and submit them in order to create a compendium of exploits from around the country. Members of the service are advised to maintain elevated situation awareness and vigilance on Feb 25 for DVE activism in the form of biased, in-person acts around the city and at potential key locations that might garner higher interest from these types of actors based on the locations’ affiliations with certain religious or social communities. Please see the accompanying infographic for awareness of DVE imagery.
Day of Hate Message:
Join [redacted] in a day of Mass Anti-Semitic Action
We are calling on all fighters of truth and justice to take a stand, and expose the international clique of parasitic vermin that infest our nation today. A national day of activism is set for February 25th. Make your voice heard loud and clear, that the one true enemy of the American people is the Jew. We refuse to capitulate to the wishes of the anti-white establishment, that our race be suberted and controlled by the devil’s chosen few. The people demand White Power.
Shock the masses with banner drops, stickers, fliers, and graffiti. Inaction is unacceptable. The time to stand up for your people is today. Take pictures, and videos of your activism and send it to [redacted]
Groups that are interested in participating, please reach out to get featured in this post.
This is the only good review from a big name I’ve seen. I’d read it.
the best part is that the obligatory “buy this game here” link instead links to a trans crisis hotline
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There’s a hole where this game’s heart should be.
The story, besides being rooted in anti-Semitism (a global “cabal” is trying to end slavery but that's bad because the slaves like being slaves), doesn’t even feel compelling. It feels muddy, a minefield…
[Video transcript: a TikTok video by Jamyle K. Cannon (@jamylecannon). In it, Mr. Cannon (a Black man with close-cut hair and a red Chicago Bulls jacket) says the following.]
I was talking to a black man in his early 20s about Kanye and he said: “You know, what Ye said about Jewish people was true; they do control the media.” I started to explain that’s just an old antisemitic talking point - like, nobody ever talks about how the energy sector is controlled by white Christian men! They only mention Jewish people in the media to impact you in a certain direction.
He said, “How can it be antisemitic if it’s positive? We saying they got money and they stick together!”
A lot of times when we talk about Jewish people in the Black community, it’s framed as if it’s a positive: “they don’t waste their money, they build generational wealth, they invest in businesses” - but those actually aren’t our original ideas about Jewish people. Those are stereotypes that were given to us. Why would people who hate Jewish people pass down stereotypes that sound positive?
When you think of the typical stereotypes about Black men, what are they? “Dumb, angry, volatile, wasteful; only useful for physical tasks; not useful for using their brains.” These stereotypes paint the picture of a group of people who are a drain on society, unless they are broken, controlled, imprisoned, or enslaved. And that mentality justifies everything from throwing away our job applications to killing us in the streets.
Stereotypes about Jewish people are different: “they control the media, they stick together, they keep their money to themselves”. Those stereotypes paint a different picture: a picture of a group of people that can compete with, outperform, and even subjugate white people in the open market. Why were white supremacist groups walking through Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us”? Because, while black people were painted to be a drain, Jewish people were painted to be a threat - and they have very specific ideas about what to do with a threat; they just need more support for those ideas.
But those stereotypes didn’t come from us, and they’re not meant to benefit us; they’re meant to pit one group against another in support of white supremacy.
[End caption.]
Worth pointing out that white supremacists can and will invert this pattern whenever and however they find it convenient.
After the Civil War, white people were frequently sold white supremacist policies with the idea that black people were going to outcompete white people in the labor market (and I wouldn’t be surprised if this rhetoric is still used). And the talking point that Black men are going to outcompete white men for white women’s affection and reproductive capacity persists to this day.
Meanwhile, in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century, Jewish people were painted not only as obscenely wealthy capitalists secretly controlling the world’s finances, but also paradoxically as worthless outcasts who would never leave the ghettoes and contribute to “real society” because they were some combination of too lazy, dishonest, insular, or stubborn.
Fascism often resorts to these kinds of double-binds. Fascism often simultaneously argues the out-group is sub-human and deserves to be killed or subjugated; and that the out-group is super-human and monstrous, and has to be stopped for the protection of the in-group.
If you’re thinking “that doesn’t make sense!”: the point is to whip the in-group up into a terrified, murderous frenzy to exploit for political gain. The contradictions are designed to reel people in, and get them to stop asking questions and start asking for marching orders.
When you see a wack headline about Kanye West and go, “That checks out”
being a jew studying preholocaust european jewish history is just *mourns over what could have been, mourns over what could have been, mourns over what could have been, mourns over what could have been, mourns-*
WWII alternate history stories always go “What if the Nazis won.” WHAT IF THE JEWS LIVED?
That’s actually such a good point about alternative history. So many ask “what if we got the bad ending?”, ignorant of the fact we did, that’s just a worse ending.
Asking “what if the Nazis won” allows one to live in the safe world where the Nazis were the root source of evil in WWII. Asking “what if the Jews lived” forces you to confront the fact that almost all of Europe was complicit in their eradication. Every European power, the United states, everyone involved hated the Jewish people. Everyone was complicit in antisemitism, everyone just sat back and let it happen.
It took an invasion of Poland for the UK and France to act, and it took a direct attack on the US for the US to officially get involved. All of the torture, enslavement, and murder of Jews before this were overlooked because not even below the surface, the German antisemitism wasn’t unique. And basically nobody has the guts to address that.
you might like The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, by Michael Chabon. it’s an alternate history where, during World War II, a settlement for Jewish refugees was established in Sitka, Alaska, in 1941,and grew into a big city
Nazism and fascism are not the same as other political beliefs
I mean, that seems obvious, right? But I just saw another post where lots of people were defending literal nazis by spewing the old, “Socialists are fascist and anyone who believes differently from you is a nazi.”
Nope.
a brief introduction to nazism:
Nazism is a form of far-right politics called “fascism.” The term is an abbreviation of “Nationalist-Socialism,” Hitler’s populist appeal to appropriate the term “socialism” into meaning “dealing with the common weal” - nationalist patriotism - while valorizing private ownership and capitalist market control.
Though popularized by Hitler, it arose before him from the post-WWI German economic crisis that stirred far-right, anti-Marxist, anti-liberal, anti-LGBTQ, antisemitic, white supremacist, and national-superiority sentiments.
Like fascism in general, nazism today exhibits fervent racism, anti-communism, eugenics, pseudo-scientific theories of racial hierarchy and “social Darwinism,” and extreme nationalism. It is authoritarian in structure and belief, concentrating power in the hands of the few. It is influenced and supported by extremist religion, paramilitary groups, and a cult of violence.
Nazis and other fascists seek to centralize power and destroy through violence those they hate. They do so by appealing to populist fears and confusion, spreading misinformation designed to serve their desires and crush those who don’t support them.
This is not the same set of beliefs as, for example, wanting people to wear masks to help end a pandemic before it takes root and kills millions. It’s not the same as wanting LGBTQ people to enjoy the same rights as others. Wanting to make the world happier, healthier, and more equitable is not the same as seeking to erase the rights - and lives - of those you hate.
Tolerance that leads to a better life for all is not the same as tolerance that leads to the spread of hate. Tolerating fascist beliefs (and the nazi subset of fascism) leads to genocide and mass murder.
in short:
Socialism does not equal fascism.
Nazism is part of fascism.
Both fascism and nazism embody the politics of authoritarianism, hate, and death. If left unchecked, they lead to genocide and, ultimately, the end of civilization.
This is not hyperbole. We’ve seen what it leads to embodied in Hitler and other fascist dictators. We almost saw where it could lead in the USA on January 6, 2021. We’re probably seeing it unfold in Russia right now, embodied in Putin.
“Nazi” and “fascist” mean very specific things. Don’t let them dilute the meaning of these terms.
“The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism. History has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse. GOP leaders must renounce and reject these views and those who hold them.”
so next time you hear a right-wing apologist bleating “but BLM and antifas are worser!” just point them to this article: X
I think the “secret group of rich people” is the antisemitic conspiracy, and this tweet is redirecting to folks like Bill Gates (who just prevented the Covid-19 vax from being publicly available outside the European/US markets), Elon Musk (whose cryptography-bros are currently destroying the environment), Jeff Bezos (whose labor-squashing policies are responsible for a lot of the growth in extremely low-paying, dangerous jobs), Mark Zuckerberg (who’s built an empire in the internet that’s destroying political discourse and enabling far-right nationalism), Rupert Murdoch (whose media empire has been chipping away at political discourse for decades), and less-famous venture capitalists with hands in Uber, Google, Apple, etc.
In other words - there is no “secret cabal of rich people who control everything,” that’s an antisemitic conspiracy theory. There IS a very public, obvious network of rich people who’ve been buying and selling politicians and judges in plain sight for years. The antisemitic conspiracy theory serves both to drum up antisemitism and inflame white supremacists/nationalists, AND to distract people from the actual problem of capitalists a la Gilded Age.
See that picture above? That’s a close up of my great grandmother’s immigration papers when she first came to the US back in the early 20th century. But my great grandma’s information isn’t the important part here. The important part is that line in the middle there about how they arrived in the country.
And how ‘stowaway’ is a legitimate, valid option to select.
So yeah. They absolutely just showed up, and that part of immigration history needs to be talked about a lot more.
REMINDER THAT TRAVEL VISAS AS WE KNOW THEM TODAY WERE INVENTED IN THE 1930S TO KEEP JEWISH REFUGEES OUT OF COUNTRIES THAT DID NOT WANT AN ‘INFLUX’ OF THEM, THEREBY FACILITATING THEIR GENOCIDE :)))))
And you could write as much, maybe more, about how white supremacy makes us sick, and homophobia, and sexism, and transphobia, and antisemitism, and ableism, and how they all fucking work together to destroy the mental well being of most of us.
the correct way to treat fascists
imagine if Germans had reacted against their “Brownshirts” like this in the 1920s and early 30s
imagine what will happen in the USA if we don’t react correctly against racism, nazism, and white supremacy
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