The whole thread rages pretty hard from the OP lmao:
I am f*cking tired of constantly needing to check if everyone I interact with hates Jews
I'm Jewish, Zionist, live in NYC, but not very active in Jewish circles (mostly bc I have social anxiety, imposter syndrome, and yes, I should find a therapist)
I am constantly vetting every event I attend, and every date I may potentially go on. I am tired of being surprised by someone's IG post about the "brave students" in the encampments, after they had the gall to come to my Hannukah party. I am tired of checking with my newly engaged friend about the guest list of their wedding. I am tired of wanting to go on a camping trip with my friends, but since I have not personally asked every single person about their stance on Israel I don't know if it will be a safe space. I am tired of watching in apprehension when people look at my Magen David. I am tired of being excited about a friend coming to visit, and wondering if I should ask them about their views now, or wait till I see them in person. I am tired of assuming everyone is a latent anti-Semite who is just hiding their views from me. I am tired of needing to explain why Jews have a right to exist and a right to a homeland.
Edit:
Thank you everyone for your posts! It is helpful (but depressing) to hear that other people are struggling the same way. I don't think my non-Jewish friends understand how I am feeling at all.
and to the person that thinks I have ADHD, and to the pathetic, repetitive, anti-Semitic incel from the UK who is obsessed with BeckiJones and slipped into my DMs - go f*ck yourself.
A whole generation of nerds that didn't get bullied enough
It worries me how many people appear to be genuinely adopting these ideas about criticizing a genocide that a government is committing being an attack on them personally. As I understood it the point was to be a smokescreen for Israeli policy, but it feels like an increasing number of these folks will be permanently broken by this, big time brainworms.
it has always always always been this way
im 40. i was protesting the invasion of iraq. i was alive and saw the news of iraq #1 even (tho i was a kid). i was talking to my parents during the invasion of iraq and grandparents in the car... i was fresh out of highschool and i got the dress down of my life from them. they all went full on ghoul mode. to this day i will never let them claim they were against it. im insufferable about it. at the time i told them it would kill tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of civilians and was called 'hysterical' over it. then we killed about a million.
and this is the crux of it. at any point any of these people could say, "oh i mean i dont like hamas or whatever but this other stuff seems bad, too" and just be a fence sitter. they could have their cake and eat it too. but they've dug in. they have to defend it now and will till the end of time. because otherwise theyd be wrong and being wrong is an attack on your person, in their view. it is unacceptable to be wrong
so i will not give them an inch.
NO, Israel DOES NOT have a right to defend itself, either as a matter of international law (as was already decided decades ago) or as a moral principle. NO, I will NOT condemn Hamas. Yes, the Palestinian people DO have a right to defend THEMSELVES both as a matter of international law AND as a moral principle and, in fact, it is a moral imperative that they fight back against their oppressors by any means necessary and white Westerners HAVE NO RIGHT to take a moral stand against that.
We had a walk-out to protest the war at my high school. I asked one of the teachers whom I knew to be anti-Bush if she was going to come with us. She flipped the fuck out and said we were "giving aid and comfort to the enemy." It has always been this way, but it will always be jarring.
I mean, would you not double down? It's kind of human nature to double down.