Thursday, December 7: Person of the Year
What does the title mean when it comes from a rag like "Time" Magazine??
Time revealed their “person of the year” cover story yesterday, giving the illustrious and meaningless award to an equally illustrious and meaningless individual, the pop icon herself, Taylor Swift. All due respect to Taylor, she earned this title by doing exactly what she’s done her entire career; releasing and re-releasing her music and positioning herself as the brave paragon of white feminism while adamantly refusing to take a stance on anything that matters.
As we continue to witness the ethnic cleansing in Gaza and wake up to new horrors every day, outlets like Time Magazine are dead set on convincing us that life can continue as normal. Sadly, this is not the case for many of us. The apartheid state is squeezing 1.8 million Palestinians into a “safe zone” area smaller than London’s Heathrow Airport, declaring it the only safe space for Gaza’s displaced people. It’s almost as though people are being concentrated…into some kind of camp…
We’ve quickly reached a point where the meaning of literally any act of Palestinian resistance is actively being twisted into somehow meaning “genocide of Jews”. Boycotting, Divesting and Sanctioning the apartheid state? That’s actually “genocide of the Jews”. Anti-zionism has become “genocide of Jews”. Intifada (the Arabic word for revolution or rebellion or uprising) is now apparently secret code for “genocide of Jews”. Armed Palestinian resistance is obviously considered “genocide of Jews”. Being anti-apartheid? You guessed it, “genocide of the Jews”. Demanding an end to the genocide itself is somehow “genocide of Jews”.
Somehow the more Palestinians that Israel slaughters, the more we are being asked to take into consideration the hurt feelings of zionist college students who are afraid of slogans and protests against genocide. It’s something I can’t wrap my head around, how people can hear Palestinians begging for Israel to stop killing them and turn around and make it about themselves and how THEY feel unsafe. How can anyone see thousands of people dead and displaced and still believe that actually, the real victims are thousands of miles away complaining from the safety of their homes.
It’s truly wild to witness just how many do-overs the IDF and the apartheid regime get on their awful propaganda attempts. They’re absolutely bowling with the bumpers on. They claimed 40 beheaded babies and western outlets ran with it for weeks, using it as justification for genocide. Their initial mass rape story didn't stick, so they’re trying to roll it out again a few weeks later. IDF soldiers openly admitted to indiscriminately murdering Palestinian (and Israeli) civilians on October 7th, but the whole world somehow ignores this admission of war crimes and continues to position the nuclear-armed apartheid state as the victim. Meanwhile, the top song on Israeli music charts for the past few weeks is a pro-war song, which has been widely condemned as an open call for genocide. Once again folks, this was never really complicated.
It might not mean much, but The Mourning’s first ever People of the Year Award goes to the brave journalists in Gaza; Motaz Azaiza, Plestia Alaqad, Wael Al Dahdouh, and so many others working tirelessly to document and share the war crimes they’re living through. History will remember their names and efforts to educate the rest of the world on the crimes of a genocidal apartheid state.
Side Items
UNLV Shooting: Three people were shot dead and a fourth person was critically injured in an attack on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus yesterday. The shooter, who was killed in a shootout with cops, was allegedly a professor who previously tried unsuccessfully to get a job at the university. Someday we might look back on the gun-obsessed culture of the US and realize how many innocent lives were needlessly extinguished, but that day won’t be today, or tomorrow, or anytime in the foreseeable future
Robber Baron Royal Family: According to a new report from The Guardian, an antiquated and exploitative system directs the financial assets of dead people with no will or living family in northwest England to the “Duchy of Lancaster”, a private estate conveniently owned by the king of England. Over the last decade, the “duchy” has stolen more than £60 million in funds from the deceased. The inevitable revolution against the English monarchy can’t come soon enough
Taylor swift is a bottom of the barrel pick