Malificandy - Salt, Spite, & Everything Slight

Contrary to popular belief, that is not a cat but a single brain cell.

What do you keep in your witch hat?

I think one of the most important things most goyim don't understand about Judaism is that there's a process for forgiveness, but forgiveness isn't required. And even then, the process of teshuvah requires more than just a simple apology.

It requires that one recognize that they have done something wrong, it requires that one regrets those actions, it requires that one strives to do better, it requires that one changes themselves to be a better person as to not repeat the mistake, it requires one to face the person they have wronged, admit their misdeeds, and declare their intention to do better.

If the offender's apology isn't serious enough, they repeat the same offending deeds, or something else happens where it's clear the apology was not sincere or the offender hasn't taken concrete steps to become a better person, forgiveness isn't required.

And even in the case where the apology is seen as sincere enough, the minimum required amount of forgiveness is "mechilah," which simply forgives a debt (physical or metaphorical) that is owed because of the offending actions. But the crime still exists. The crime is still there.

And EVEN THEN, one is not halachically obligated to offer mechilah. They may be morally obligated to as a sign of good faith, but in no way are they required to.

This is Jewish forgiveness. It is a process that takes time, energy, and trust. Sometimes, it's not granted, but when it is, it's granted because there is faith that the offender will become a better person and not repeat the crimes of their past, at least not intentionally (although that is a whole other topic).

Magneto was a Zionist, you fucking pinecones.

So I’ve been enjoying the Disney vs. DeSantis memes as much as anyone, but like. I do feel like a lot of people who had normal childhoods are missing some context to all this.

I was raised in the Bible Belt in a fairly fundie environment. My parents were reasonably cool about some things, compared to the rest of my family, but they certainly had their issues. But they did let me watch Disney movies, which turned out to be a point of major contention between them and my other relatives.

See, I think some people think this weird fight between Disney and fundies is new. It is very not new. I know that Disney’s attempts at inclusion in their media have been the source of a lot of mockery, but what a lot of people don’t understand is that as far as actual company policy goes, Disney has actually been an industry leader for queer rights. They’ve had policies assuring equal healthcare and partner benefits for queer employees since the early 90s.

I’m not sure how many people reading this right now remember the early 90s, but that was very much not industry standard. It was a big deal when Disney announced that non-married queer partners would be getting the same benefits as the married heterosexual ones.

Like — it went further than just saying that any unmarried partners would be eligible for spousal benefits. It straight-up said that non-same-sex partners would still need to be married to receive spousal benefits, but because same-sex partners couldn’t do that, proof that they lived together as an established couple would be enough.

In other words, it put long-term same-sex partners on a higher level than opposite-sex partners who just weren’t married yet. It put them on the exact same level as heterosexual married partners.

They weren’t the first company ever to do this, but they were super early. And they were certainly the first mainstream “family-friendly” company to do it.

Conservatives lost their damn minds.

Protests, boycotts, sermons, the whole nine yards. I can’t tell you how many books about the evils of Disney my grandmother tried to get my parents to read when I was a kid.

When we later moved to Florida, I realized just how many queer people work at Disney — because historically speaking, it’s been a company that has guaranteed them safety, non-discrimination, and equal rights. That’s when I became aware of their unofficial “Gay Days” and how Christians would show up from all over the country to protest them every year. Apparently my grandmother had been upset about these days for years, but my parents had just kind of ignored her.

Out of curiosity, I ended up reading one of the books my grandmother kept leaving at our house. And friends — it’s amazing how similar that (terrible, poorly written) rhetoric was to what people are saying these days. Disney hires gay pedophiles who want to abuse your children. Disney is trying to normalize Satanism in our beautiful, Christian America. 

Just tons of conspiracy theories in there that ranged from “a few bad things happened that weren’t actually Disney’s fault, but they did happen” to “Pocahontas is an evil movie, not because it distorts history and misrepresents indigenous life, but because it might teach children respect for nature. Which, as we all know, would cause them all to become Wiccans who believe in climate change.”

Like — please, take it from someone who knows. This weird fight between fundies and Disney is not new. This is not Disney’s first (gay) rodeo. These people have always believed that Disney is full of evil gays who are trying to groom and sexually abuse children.

The main difference now is that these beliefs are becoming mainstream. It’s not just conservative pastors who are talking about this. It’s not just church groups showing up to boycott Gay Day. Disney is starting to (reluctantly) say the quiet part out loud, and so are the Republicans. Disney is publicly supporting queer rights and announcing company-supported queer events and the Republican Party is publicly calling them pedophiles and enacting politically driven revenge.

This is important, because while this fight has always been important in the history of queer rights, it is now being magnified. The precedent that a fight like this could set is staggering. For better or for worse, we live in a corporation-driven country. I don’t like it any more than you do, and I’m not about to defend most of Disney’s business practices. But we do live in a nation where rights are largely tied to corporate approval, and the fact that we might be entering an age where even the most powerful corporations in the country are being banned from speaking out in favor of rights for marginalized people… that’s genuinely scary.

Like… I’ll just ask you this. Where do you think we’d be now, in 2023, if Disney had been prevented from promising its employees equal benefits in 1994? That was almost thirty years ago, and look how far things have come. When I looked up news articles for this post from that era, even then journalists, activists, and fundie church leaders were all talking about how a company of Disney’s prominence throwing their weight behind this movement could lead to the normalization of equal protections in this country.

The idea of it scared and thrilled people in equal parts even then. It still scares and thrills them now.

I keep seeing people say “I need them both to lose!” and I get it, I do. Disney has for sure done a lot of shit over the years. But I am begging you as a queer exvangelical to understand that no. You need Disney to win. You need Disney to wipe the fucking floor with these people.

Right now, this isn’t just a fight between a giant corporation and Ron DeSantis. This is a fight about the right of corporations to support marginalized groups. It’s a fight that ensures that companies like Disney still can offer benefits that a discriminatory government does not provide. It ensures that businesses much smaller than Disney can support activism.

Hell, it ensures that you can support activism.

The fight between weird Christian conspiracy theorists and Disney is not new, because the fight to prevent any tiny victory for marginalized groups is not new. The fight against the normalization of othered groups is not new.

That’s what they’re most afraid of. That each incremental victory will start to make marginalized groups feel safer, that each incremental victory will start to turn the tide of public opinion, that each incremental victory will eventually lead to sweeping law reform.

They’re afraid that they won’t be able to legally discriminate against us anymore.

So guys! Please. This fight, while hilarious, is also so fucking important. I am begging you to understand how old this fight is. These people always play the long game. They did it with Roe and they’re doing it with Disney.

We have! To keep! Pushing back!

I think I’ve finally reached my “no more fucks to give” era. I used to be willing to engage in good faith, or at least try to reason with the anti-Zionist crowd into being slightly less horrible towards Jews, but they have stuck their heads so far up Hitler and Stalin’s asses that I can’t be bothered anymore.

So yeah, I’m done. Get fucked, you asshats. Am Yisrael Chai 🖕🏻

nyc dyke march literally put out a statement being like "people have been asking if jews are welcome at dyke march, the answer is yes, and we do not actively support antisemitism" and then 30 minutes later took it down and posted an apology message for the "harm" they caused with that statement and made sure to clarify that it was posted by like a rogue operative without the approval of the full board

You never need to wait for a Black Friday sale to download NASA images from the Hubble and Webb space telescopes: They’re FREE! 

Images are in the public domain and may be freely used. Search by “observations” or keyword within Hubble’s images:https://hubblesite.org/resource-gallery/images

Or Webb’s: https://webbtelescope.org/resource-gallery/images

I haven’t yet seen a tumblr post with these resources so I am making my own and hoping it shows up in the tags. I ASK EVERYONE WHO SEES THIS TO PLEASE REBLOG THIS.

THE INDIAN CHILD WELFARE ACT (ICWA) IS UNDER ATTACK. AND WE NEED HELP TO PROTECT IT USING THE RESOURCES BELOW.

I am not going to go into heavy detail on the bill, on its history, anything like that, the resources have a lot of information, but as a little bit of background:

It is a bill passed that forbids Native children from being adopted by non-Native families. This is for a good fucking reason, there have been historically large scoops of children taken from their Native families, at a much higher rate than white children (see the 60s scoop in Canada). These children are often abused in these homes, and their entire culture is taken from them (many end up not even knowing what tribe/nation they came from), hence the point of why they were taken in the first place (forced assimilation). Now, this does still happen through the foster care system, but this has protected in the case of adoption. It makes it that only Native families can adopt Native children.

White people hate this and have been smearing it for years (think of the whole Lexi Choctaw/Alexandria P. situation, which was so fucked how they used that little girl). Now, the state governments of Texas, Louisiana, and Indiana have taken it to the Supreme Court to be ruled unconstitutional. This case is called Haaland v. Brackeen. Because white people … really want to steal Native children. This is being heard by the court, oral arguments start WEDNESDAY. ICWA could be overturned in the matter of weeks or even days.

PLEASE USE ALL OF THESE TO PROTECT ICWA:

Petition that will involve you sending messages to your Congressional leaders through their text automated system, only available to those in the US (BUT NOTE YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A CITIZEN, OR ELIGIBLE TO VOTE TO SIGN, JUST NEED TO BE IN THE US):

https://resist.bot/petitions/PCCPGW 

Petition to send a message to President Biden and leaders at the Department of Justice, this does have a place to put in your country so seems like it may be available for those outside of the US but I am unsure (consider also donating to the Lakota People’s Law Project if you are able to):

https://action.lakotalaw.org/action/protect-icwa

Petition to be sent to the Attorney General and Secretary of the Department of the Interior, since it is through change.org it likely can be signed from outside of the US:

https://www.change.org/p/protect-the-indian-child-welfare-act

PLEASE SIGN AS MANY AS YOU ARE ABLE TO. PLEASE REBLOG IF YOU SEE THIS. PLEASE HELP US PROTECT ICWA.

Posted @withregram • @thepersianjewess Save Arvin Netanel.

#IraniansStandWithIsrael

#WomenLifeFreedom

#AntizionismIsAntisemitism

𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗿:

This content is intended solely for educational purposes. I unequivocally denounce any form of violence, hate, harassment, or bullying. This page does not endorse or promote dangerous acts, organizations, or any form of violence.

In accordance with section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, this content is made available for “fair use” purposes, including criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research.

—(end original post)—

This is what means to be a non-Muslim living in a Muslim supremacist regime. You don’t have rights. Your existence on this planet depends on the mercy of Muslims who consider themselves to be your inherent superiors based on their religion and your refusal to convert.

This is what Hamas wants for Israel. They want to recreate what Iran has done. Any Jews allowed to live will be treated as second class citizens, killed if they have the temerity to defend themselves.

This is what people who say “From the River to the Sea” and “Globalize the Intifada” are actually supporting. Its not for some idyllic little country where the Muslims will suddenly change and become the version of America that they think should exist. It will be a brutal, oppressive Sharia compliant country.

Maybe you should think about what you are supporting. Israel is not perfect. But Israel is pluralistic society that has demonstrated it respect human rights of its citizens. Could it do more? Yes. But so could every other liberal democracy out there.

But the difference between what Israel is and what Hamas and Fatah want are striking. Israel wants to be better. Hamas and Fatah do not.