"It's Just Horrific": Israel's Destruction of Gaza Chronicled in New Documentary
Posted by RaskolnikovX on October 13, 2024, 10:09 am
The doc itself has already been posted here but this is a discussion of the issues around it and, as usual, GG asks some very good questions eliciting informative answers.
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...no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
.. although I decided that GG's 'style' grates. Perhaps it's the US thing .. talking fast as if it was a mainstream show etc. He got better after about third of the way through.
Has anyone got a link to the movie per chance? It's possible I wasn't paying attention etc : /
As usual, distressing footage but it feels like the sort of thing that must be watched.
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On a side note, I have noticed my mental health starting to be affected by consuming all of this horrendous news all the time. I've got back into hitting the rowing machine to get some endorphins flowing (and lose some of the weight I've put on since stopping running marathons) but it's definitely taking a toll. Anyone else felt the same thing?...no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
Re: Here you go.
Posted by Ken Waldron on October 14, 2024, 12:12 pm, in reply to "Here you go."
"On a side note, I have noticed my mental health starting to be affected by consuming all of this horrendous news all the time... it's definitely taking a toll. Anyone else felt the same thing?"
Yes: you aren't alone. My son admonishes me for keeping in touch with International politics and events and the consequent depression it leaves me with. " Doom-scrolling" he calls it. This is exacerbated by knowing we the public are utterly impotent and can do nothing.
Tell the truth or even repeat the news without the establishment gloss online and you are censored. March against war and mass murder and you are collectively " terrorist supporters": thats if a march of hundreds of thousands actually gets noted in the media.
Even if you pine for democratic change our politicians are all pre-vetted by establishment and media. Look what they did to the Labour party. What used to at least pass for an "opposition" is now in power and what do we have? A glib Ukraine war-funding Zionist genocide supporting security state apparatchik in charge in Downing street: he's their man not ours and we all know it because no opposition is in fact allowed on these matters. -The problem is systemic and infects the entire political body.
In these circumstances giving in to a sense of despair & hopelessness is entirely understandable: this is not a new thing. Suffering from "the sorrow of the world" induces what used to be classed as one of the old Christian " seven deadly sins": in fact "the most troublesome of all" that of "Accidie". This is worth recalling if only to remind ourselves that many have despaired the state of the world in the past and it's human-induced horrors..but we are still here and the majority of people aside from the powerful are still on the side of a genuine humanity.
-There is no remedy because this is caused by externalities but what you already clearly know helps it be bearable: physical and mental activity in other directions. Mine presently is walking and gardening but I hate to think what the oncoming winter will bring.
Best. K
Re: Here you go.
Posted by t on October 14, 2024, 2:43 pm, in reply to "Here you go."
Ta for the link Rask.
On a side note, I have noticed my mental health starting to be affected by consuming all of this horrendous news all the time. I've got back into hitting the rowing machine to get some endorphins flowing (and lose some of the weight I've put on since stopping running marathons) but it's definitely taking a toll. Anyone else felt the same thing?
Until recently I felt compelled to get to know and record *everything* and was able to cope. Observing myself, I found that capacity surprising since the 'news' appears to get worse by the day. I cannot discuss this with family and friends.
In the last week or so I am starting to falter, finding myself not being able to watch some atrocities and have to switch off.
Re: Here you go.
Posted by RaskolnikovX on October 14, 2024, 3:14 pm, in reply to "Re: Here you go."
I spend a lot of time reading/watching this and I have a very strong constitution for this kind of thing but I think the cumulative effect (perhaps added to non-related factors elsewhere, plus the onset of winter is always slightly gloomy) is starting to get at me.
Getting some fitness back is helping mind you. It also feels a bit ridiculous and "first world problems" complaining about "watching images of this genocide is getting me down"!
I'm clinging on to some hope that there is a reckoning for all the perpetrators and their enablers in the political/media class. They would definitely put a smile on my face. Slow train comin' but one day they will have to pay a price, surely......no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
Re: Here you go.
Posted by Ian M on October 14, 2024, 7:25 pm, in reply to "Re: Here you go."
Usually I feel like I can cope with reading details of the west's latest atrocities, because I'm primarily motivated by finding out the truth and dispelling the lies that get pumped out by the media & those in power. There's a kind of rush that comes from finding out what's really going on and I enjoy the process of piecing together the evidence that adds up to radically different narratives to those we get spoonfed by the dominant culture. I wonder if I spend so much time on TLN because of an addiction to that feeling, as well as the degree of comfort that comes from people not reacting like I'm insane for venturing these points of view. That's probably not entirely healthy, especially if it doesn't result in anything productive or any material changes to my life or the lives of others as a result.
My partner asks me what's the point of finding out all this depressing information and getting miserable because of it (she notices more than me, probably because I'm in denial about it) if nothing changes as a result, and especially considering there's no immediate connection to my day-to-day existence. I don't have answers I find particularly persuasive. You could say it's valuable to find out what's happening to Palestinians if only to know how power operates so you're ready when the same measures get implemented over here. Or that it's about international solidarity really and compassion for the oppressed (which I find hard to do meaningfully for people who live thousands of miles away and whom I will likely never meet). There's a sense of duty to at least be a witness to the suffering going on, even if it hurts, when nobody else seems to give a sh!t But then why them and not, say, poor people living in the next town over, about whom I manifestly don't feel the same duty to find out about and help if I can? Don't know.
Maybe the lack of connection to meaningful activism is the reason for increased depression? Hard to do when out in the sticks, and you have to wonder about the value of spending a day to go to one of the major cities, attend a rally and go home again. I've been doing that all my adult life and can't in all honestly say that it made the slightest bit of difference for any of the various causes, except to maybe make me feel better. Not really the point, is it?! Palestine Action are doing good things and I try to boycott companies on the BDS list, but again, where's the evidence that it's making a difference?
The above all reeks of privilege, no doubt. For the Palestinians, Lebanese, Iranians, Syrians & Yemenis, including their families who may live in western countries, there's no choice about whether to be active or not in opposition to the crimes of Israel & the west, and it wouldn't matter if their actions were effective or not because ultimately it's about defending the people they love, so of course they're going to come to their aid no matter what, even if their efforts are doomed to failure.
Maybe our responsibility, as people born & raised in western countries, is not the same kind of resistance - defense of people & places we don't know & never will - but rather stopping the offense being carried out 'in our name' because it will have a direct bearing on the kind of society we live in and who we are as a result? Finding out about the atrocities can provide the outrage to drive that kind of resistance, and wouldn't feel futile and self-defeating in the same way.
Posted by RaskolnikovX on October 15, 2024, 9:28 am, in reply to "Re: Here you go."
They have given me plenty to think about and also the sense of solidarity that comes from LBN also helps keep me (realtively) sane.
I find myself asking similar questions when I mention things to family/friends at the (increasingly rare) times we get together and they look at me blankly as if I had just talked about vampires or something. A lot of the content we see/read at LBN just doesn't appear to them at all.
I definitely agree with the desire to know the truth and the duty to witness and be informed. Other than passing that information on, it's difficult to see what we can do with it and what we actually achieve by knowing it, but we definintely should know it.
I think this last year has really magnified the disconnect between reality and what the media/politcal class represent as reality and that leads to potentially feeling even more on the fringes. ...no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
Tough out here in the 'reality-based community'...
'The aide [an official in the George W. Bush administration, assumed by many to be Karl Rove] said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'.' - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community
Apparently liberals went through a phase of embracing the term for themselves, but we all know that's not true any more post-Russiagate, covid, Ukraine, Gaza, if it ever was.
cheers, and best of luck with maintaining sanity. Even Norm took a break when it was getting too much for him.
on October 13, 2024, 10:09 am