Notably absent from Walz’s speech was any real substance on foreign policy — including discussion of the genocide happening against Palestinians in Gaza, which uncommitted delegates and their allies have been trying to discuss for days at DNC. Indeed, most of the night, if not the week, has ignored the issue, and where it has been mentioned, Israel’s role in the genocide has been glossed over.
Uncommitted delegates in support of Palestinian liberation and an end to the genocide have requested that the DNC allow a Palestinian speaker take the podium in the United Center, to discuss a permanent ceasefire and an embargo for weapons from the U.S. to Israel, which the U.S. is legally obligated to do.
“We are learning that Israeli hostages’ families will be speaking from the main stage. We strongly support that decision and also strongly hope that we will also be hearing from Palestinians who’ve endured the largest civilian death toll since 1948,” read a statement from the Uncommitted National Movement account on X. “Excluding a Palestinian speaker betrays the party’s commitment in our platform to valuing Israelis and Palestinian lives equally. Vice President Harris must unite this party with a vision that fights for everyone, including Palestinians.”
A group of uncommitted delegates, joined by interfaith leaders and their allies, staged a sit-in just outside the convention hall on Wednesday night, saying they wouldn’t remove themselves from that spot until their demands for a Palestinian speaker were met.
The calculus has changed. Those things happened before concerted propaganda via the internet, which is largely unregulated, unlike television and newspapers. Previously, spreading propaganda was a lot more difficult. The reality is that propaganda is disseminated at high speeds and has tools like Persona Management Software, where half the people you are arguing with online, aren’t even real people (just hundreds of sockpuppet accounts controlled by a single person). Was anyone ever able to “flood the zone” with bogus material like this in the past? No, because only the internet allows such endless publishing with no guardrails.
But sure, somehow those are all exactly the same. It’s not like LGBTQ rights have been losing ground or anything recently? Give me a break.
We literally have an anti-trans billionaire who owns a fucking media organization, and because he’s insulated by money, fuck-all happens to him when he breaks the law.
EDIT: Further, we’re literally headlong into a “death of truth” era because of AI video. The idea that the speed at which propaganda can be made and disseminated doesn’t change how hard it is to fight is abso-fucking-lutely bullshit. This is a way harder fight, and comparing to past fights is a fucking joke.
All activists will sometimes lose ground. The successful ones gain the ground back. The unsuccessful ones are discouraged by setbacks, complain about the latest tactics used by their opponents, and give up.
Women’s rights activists suffered a huge setback in 2022. They did more than complain about the internet and billionaires. They redoubled their efforts and are determined to gain all that ground back in the coming years. And then some.
A genocide can’t really wait years for action
Well, in America change generally takes years. Activism takes patience. Set your goals accordingly.
The goal is a ceasefire. When we are arming one side, Israel, that uses our weapons to eradicate the other side, Palestinians; a ceasefire means to stop providing the weapons used for genocide. Conditional military aid, conditional on Israel abiding by international laws and not committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
That is the moral position. That is also popular, and a great way for Harris to gain support and momentum. In general but also critically in key states.
If you see Palestinians as equals, I don’t get why you’re arguing against the people advocating for their voice instead of being an advocate
If the goal is a ceasefire, commonly defined as a bilateral end of hostilities, then you should encourage and reward the administration’s attempts to secure a ceasefire.
If the goal is to stop arming Israel, then Americans overall do not sufficiently support this goal right now. That means this goal will take years to achieve.
If you want to help Palestinians, then you should be realistic about what you can achieve and how long it will take.
40-100 thousand people have died while they fail to pressure Israel to agree to the ceasefire. Americans overall do, you don’t.
MLK had patience, which that quote exemplifies. It took the civil rights movement years to see any results.
MLK hated people like you who told him to be patient, that he was too radical and that he was trying to change America too quickly or that his protests were hurting LBJ’s re-election campaign. He wrote long diatribes against this idea and people who told him he was moving too fast, go read his anger in Letters from a Birmingham Jail.
Don’t misquote him like that.
Edit: Why We Can’t Wait was the actual title of his 1964 book. King’s “Letter” issues a call for urgency. He wrote it as a response to eight local white clergymen who had criticized his activities in Birmingham and appealed for a more patient and restrained approach to lobbying for civil rights. The “Letter” expresses King’s deep disappointment with “the white moderate,” who “paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom.” https://sojo.net/articles/when-patience-becomes-complacency-why-we-cant-wait
I just wanna say i like your style. You’re saying a lot of the things that I’ve been trying to say, but you’re way more eloquent than I.
Oh no! Someone complained! That must mean they’re not a real activist who gets anything done and thus should be chided and dismissed!
If that’s really your implication here, get fucked, cunt. People can and do both. You’re allowed to speak at how fucked the situation is while also trying to do something about it, and people telling us “just try harder” like they’re doing anything better can eat dogshit.
You can, and should, do whatever activism you can.
Who cares about how hard it is with Persona Management blah blah blah. Activism isn’t supposed to be easy. Get it done, or don’t.
Every other Democratic activist in America faces the exact same problems, but they aren’t whining. Women’s rights activists got ballot initiatives in ten states this year. They rose to the challenge, and that’s why they are successful.