I have not commented on the Palestine situation at all, anywhere on the internet, since the recent invasion started. I was originally hesitant to say anything because I am neither Israeli nor Palestinian, have no personal connections to anyone there, and have not done a ton of research into the politics in that region so I don’t consider myself qualified to speak on it. That is still true, but just reading the discussions taking place on Reddit and the more “mainstream” Lemmy instances, I also realized that there is basically no way that I can engage in a good faith debate with anyone there. Surprise surprise, the “tankies are all guilty of whataboutism and never address actual claims against governments they support” crowd has been unironically going “but Hamas!!!” to every single thing that has happened in the recent days and weeks. I’m not in a good mental health state (have never been in my whole life if I really think about it) and it’s getting to the point where even thinking of how to respond to various hot takes on various threads, and imagining the responses that my comments will get (which I do before commenting most things) has gotten me angry to the point where my hands literally shake and my heart goes so fast I can hear it through the arteries in my ears. Like genuinely physically angry and wanting to punch something, way more of an negative emotional reaction than any regular person at a hot take on the internet I assume, which, I really do have diagnosed mental health issues so that’s probably why. That’s really unhealthy and I’d rather not spend my time on social media angry all the time, which is supposed to be a break from my job and IRL issues, so I’ve more or less decided at this point to take a big step back from hot topic political issues and socialist advocacy for the foreseeable future, publicly anyway. In other words I’ll probably just lurk around this instance and political content in general, as I still think it’s important to read those and know what the general takes, both good and bad, are, but I really don’t feel like debating anymore. Didn’t really take a big turning point decision either, just gradually realized that this is probably better for my mental health.
I’m not saying everyone should be doing what I’m doing obviously, but the short of it is I just don’t think I’m mentally stable enough to do a ton of “advocacy” on the internet, so I won’t do that at least for now. Still a Marxist-Leninist “tankie”, just more of a private one than the norm on this instance.
Just wanted to rant a bit but also to share what’s been going on with me and posting on Lemmy/grad. Anyone feel the same way?
There is no reason to engage with the topic anywhere on normie internet. You won’t get into a good faith conversation, you won’t change anyone’s mind, and you wont learn anything new. Everyone is either astroturfing, repeating astroturf talking points, or is a Zionist/Nazi.
The irony of this extreme flattening of the discourse is that there’s no reason for anyone to participate. If you’ve read the official communications from the Israeli government, you’ve got all the information that anyone is willing to discuss. Everything else - including primary-source reporting, photos, videos, UN reports, NGO communications, and even established facts about the history of the conflict - is considered suspect. Want to learn more? There’s nothing else to learn. Want to make a distinction between Palestinians and Hamas? There is none. Want to discuss whether Israel’s strategy is or will be effective? Shut up.
I’ve honestly never seen anything like this since 9/11. It makes the initial response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine look like a nuanced discussion.