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How I think about my antisemitism-related activist burnout, fighting sectarianism 

No matter how determined a certain kind of antisemite is to willfully ignore that Jewish people and the state of Israel aren't 100% the same thing. No matter how much dual loyalty tropes are hardwired into people who will always see me as less than human... None of that excuses bombings and wars of extermination. None of that means I must become worse, permanently jaded, or abandon humanitarian causes. None of that means I will corrupt my own principles out of spite, and stoop down to their level of sectarian hatred which can see nothing but mere inverse of "the evil Jew" where a real political critique should be. Then I would not be anyone's better, and the world would be worse for all.

Actually instead of diving headlong into committing to washing your hands of eventual extermination, I think you should just ignore that kind of person. Wild concept, I know, but blind rage can blind you to simple truths. It baffles me how many people will commit themselves to being permanently a worse person who loses all rights to claim righteousness or justice over the petty voices of seeded antisemitism present in virtually every culture on earth should you peer hard enough. Taking the footing of spreading blame thinly across whole peoples over the nonsense antisemitism spattered among them so obviously concludes in destroying the world to preserve your fragile sense of what is just.

I'll be real with y'all. If I took every ethnic group who has had a vocal antisemite assault me personally, and swore their collective nations all permanent enemies... That would be an endless distraction tour of world destruction compared to shrugging them off or quickly humiliating them. Compared to fostering the solidarity groups of people who really care, and aren't just after endless cycles of sectarian revenge this is trivia. To be the better of the antisemite is to not fall into the mirror image of their thinking. To repair the world is not to rush headlong into endless quests to exterminate loose-mouthed idiots and perpetuate feuds generations in the making. This is why revenge isn't a Jewish value. Not only does an eye for an eye leave the whole world blind, but your healing intent will be permanently diverted to only damaging the world further.

For as many loudmouth antisemitic pricks make their way into the international "activist" milieu there will always be two more who would have been willing to try for something better had you not been blinded by rage. Give yourself 10 minutes maximum to make them the fool, but don't dwell in the role so long you forget why you think a better world is possible. Finding that mental fortitude to not drop sights towards a better tomorrow the first, second, or twentieth time a Palestinian, Yemeni, or whoever else makes some crass antisemitic comment is the only way out of this sectarian violence trap.

While everything above is addressed to my fellow Jews, all I must say for other comrades is, kick out antisemites early to prevent burnout and sectarianism. It is not worth having a "big tent" with the prejudices we are trying to overcome. If you can understand how a Jewish Zionist whose sectarian aspirations have turned them blind to human suffering causes so much stupid violence, don't leave room for petty campists who just jump to the cause for their fear of the other, either. Sectarianism always produces burnout in movements attempting to move past meaningless human brutality and helps nobody. Humanity's collective elders all becoming jaded, and divided among sectarian lines, is how we all got here. We must overcome, we are stronger together.

· Edited · · Tusky · 0 · 0 · 2
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