You hit bullseye every time, Sobia!👌 We live in a world where some folks permanently have their heads up their arse. Clearly, they enjoy the aroma so much they're incapable of popping their heads out to see the world around them. Only their problems exist, and how dare others have a functioning brain and focus on issues that actually matter? They're so self-involved and disconnected from reality that they don't see people suffering all around them. From Palestine to Sudan to the homeless people sleeping on the streets, they don't see them because they're fixated on themselves. Only when issues directly affect them personally will they wake tf up. Not because they've suddenly developed a conscience and newly found empathy for others – no, it's just because their 'perfect fantasy world' has now been inconvenienced. Selfishness is a dangerous disease and if people aren't careful we'll see more and more people behaving just like Israelis. No one in their right mind would want that.
Diane, you also hit the bullseye every time, sadly - sad because every word you say is true, and I know so many people like this. Its almost intolerable to have to be around people who literally have their heads up their fucking arses to this degree, where all they want is endless indulgence and not to even hear what's happening outside 100 yards radius if its not entertaining or relevant to them. They don't want to understand what links them to those peoples suffering. "self involved and disconnected...' 100%. I truly believe those people can only learn through direct suffering. And while we are not he subject, I also find those "lefties" who think they're feminists and yet don't give a shit about the women of Gaza to be equally abhorrent and harmful. what Shitrael has done, amongst other things is an assault on the very essence of Motherhood. Where are the feminists? Oh yes - their heads are up their fucking racist arses.
You're spitting fact after fact, Sobia. I know so many exactly like this and I have removed them from my life. My days of entertaining bullshit are long gone, and I have no time to wait for people to wake the hell up and care. I've zero f**ks to give to selfish c**ts of any kind and that's how it's going to be from now on.
Mainstream media also deserves a wave of your anger. They stoke the narrative for the status quo and collect their easy money while masquerading as voices of truth. They are lazy and fraudulent and only find the truth when warrior journalists genuinely pursuing truth force a story into sufficient public attention for the media to have no other option but to broadcast or publish it.
I would like to pay tribute to the exception Robert Fisk who exposed the self-interested interference of the USA and UK in the Middle East, their manipulation of mainstream media and the influence of Israel with their characteristic pattern of holding occupied people to terms of cease fires and dispensing with any obligation of restraint upon themselves. He began reporting the resistance to British occupation in Northern Ireland in 1971 and continued his career as a foreign correspondent, reporting from the war fronts in the Middle East until his death in Dublin in 2020.
You're right - I have a number of his books and deeply admire him. I guess when I say "mainstream Western media" - I mean as a collective machine. I don't mean those types of exceptions.
this piece really names the violence of selective empathy. privilege is not simply having a soft life, it is being able to decide which suffering counts, which children feel “close enough,” which mothers deserve grief, and which massacres can be filed away as politics. for those of us who came out of Gaza carrying children and memory, this distance is not neutral. it is part of the machinery that lets horror continue while people still call themselves kind.
Thanks Bet, I also find it really heartening when I come across a writer here that articulates the way I think, theres a sense of recognition, but also I may not be able to write how they do, so I read their work. I am really glad some people feel can feel that sense of recognition when they read my work, and I am glad it resonates with you. Thank you.
You hit bullseye every time, Sobia!👌 We live in a world where some folks permanently have their heads up their arse. Clearly, they enjoy the aroma so much they're incapable of popping their heads out to see the world around them. Only their problems exist, and how dare others have a functioning brain and focus on issues that actually matter? They're so self-involved and disconnected from reality that they don't see people suffering all around them. From Palestine to Sudan to the homeless people sleeping on the streets, they don't see them because they're fixated on themselves. Only when issues directly affect them personally will they wake tf up. Not because they've suddenly developed a conscience and newly found empathy for others – no, it's just because their 'perfect fantasy world' has now been inconvenienced. Selfishness is a dangerous disease and if people aren't careful we'll see more and more people behaving just like Israelis. No one in their right mind would want that.
Diane, you also hit the bullseye every time, sadly - sad because every word you say is true, and I know so many people like this. Its almost intolerable to have to be around people who literally have their heads up their fucking arses to this degree, where all they want is endless indulgence and not to even hear what's happening outside 100 yards radius if its not entertaining or relevant to them. They don't want to understand what links them to those peoples suffering. "self involved and disconnected...' 100%. I truly believe those people can only learn through direct suffering. And while we are not he subject, I also find those "lefties" who think they're feminists and yet don't give a shit about the women of Gaza to be equally abhorrent and harmful. what Shitrael has done, amongst other things is an assault on the very essence of Motherhood. Where are the feminists? Oh yes - their heads are up their fucking racist arses.
You're spitting fact after fact, Sobia. I know so many exactly like this and I have removed them from my life. My days of entertaining bullshit are long gone, and I have no time to wait for people to wake the hell up and care. I've zero f**ks to give to selfish c**ts of any kind and that's how it's going to be from now on.
100% with you sister!
A clear case of suffering from as long as I’m OK, everyone is OK!
Absolutely.
Mainstream media also deserves a wave of your anger. They stoke the narrative for the status quo and collect their easy money while masquerading as voices of truth. They are lazy and fraudulent and only find the truth when warrior journalists genuinely pursuing truth force a story into sufficient public attention for the media to have no other option but to broadcast or publish it.
100% - I am infuriated by Western mainstream media - they have blood on their hands.
I would like to pay tribute to the exception Robert Fisk who exposed the self-interested interference of the USA and UK in the Middle East, their manipulation of mainstream media and the influence of Israel with their characteristic pattern of holding occupied people to terms of cease fires and dispensing with any obligation of restraint upon themselves. He began reporting the resistance to British occupation in Northern Ireland in 1971 and continued his career as a foreign correspondent, reporting from the war fronts in the Middle East until his death in Dublin in 2020.
You're right - I have a number of his books and deeply admire him. I guess when I say "mainstream Western media" - I mean as a collective machine. I don't mean those types of exceptions.
Ukrainian children are considered white and that's all there is to it. Trevor Noah called it out at the time.
100%. The "outrage" is selective and coloured. End of.
That says it all to anyone with a soul, thanks Sobia.
Thank you Jeff!
Sobia, I find you wonderfully human and your influence in this world humanizes us all. You give your all.
Thank you Jeff - such kind words of encouragement from those reading my work, are truly motivating!
this piece really names the violence of selective empathy. privilege is not simply having a soft life, it is being able to decide which suffering counts, which children feel “close enough,” which mothers deserve grief, and which massacres can be filed away as politics. for those of us who came out of Gaza carrying children and memory, this distance is not neutral. it is part of the machinery that lets horror continue while people still call themselves kind.
Hi Bet, thank you so much for reading my articles so carefully, and also quoting and restacking - I really appreciate your readership.
I think you have read everything, but I hope to write something else soon!
Thanks Bet, I also find it really heartening when I come across a writer here that articulates the way I think, theres a sense of recognition, but also I may not be able to write how they do, so I read their work. I am really glad some people feel can feel that sense of recognition when they read my work, and I am glad it resonates with you. Thank you.
Dear Betul, thank you for sharing your story with me, I am privileged to have you share it. Thank you for your support, I will DM you if that is okay?