Fueling Hatred with the Fire of Fear.
Oh, How tiresome it is to watch as our society crumbles under the guise of progressive ideology. How the heart bleeds when truth becomes smothered by the thick, opaque smoke of fallacy. How the eyes well when humanity loses sight of reality when traversing the labyrinth of media. I scroll through my feed, dumbfounded and appalled by our generation's lack of historical and social intelligence. To parade in the streets preaching the words of totalitarian leaders of the past and present, in the name of what, exactly? In the name of resistance? Of reform? I sit in my room, absolutely speechless, watching in horror as Democracy loses power to idiocracy.
I struggle to find the words to describe the way I feel. Reading, seeing, and hearing how society views my people, the Jewish people, makes me sick. I wish to make a difference, but I know that if an individual feels so fervently about a cause, I cannot change how they think. The Jewish people are stuck in a perpetual loop of genocide, harm, and the inability to protect themselves from the wicked tongue of hatred. The strength and assertiveness of lies guide the weak into submission. These falsehoods are fostered in fear, creating fertile grounds for the birth of hate and ignorance.
As a society, we yearn for progress, but without logical reasoning and basic humanity, how will this progress come to fruition? Social media has doomed us. It has given anyone the ability to voice their opinion without any factual basis. Progress within society stems from social awareness and understanding. However, when the message of homicidal maniacs gets blended in with messages for "peace," we are no longer fighting a battle against governmental wrongdoings. How can marginalized groups stand with terror? Aren't they all seeing what we are seeing? Aren't we all living within the same reality, the same black-and-white world?
I struggle to find the words to describe how I feel because, as a Jewish woman, I feel frightened. I am watching as my colleagues justify and rationalize the actions of a literal terrorist organization and do so with complete conviction. As an American, I observe closely as our Freedom of expression and speech gets entirely manipulated, being put to the test as uneducated, ignorant individuals spew hateful, nearly tyrannical rhetoric.
Our very concept of reality, of truth, is being tested. Whenever we open our phones or go through social media, our perception of reality is at risk of being completely distorted. Due to the internet, it is challenging to mediate the information being pumped onto any platform. After all, how can you distinguish between "real" and "falsified" information when the very notion of what is true is constantly in question?
I struggle to find the words and am on an indefinite quest to do so because, as a Jewish woman, I am tired of this feeling. The feeling, as Jean-Paul Satre coined it, is almost this state of nausea. Being a Jewish person during this time, or being any person with a pure and rational conscience, has altered how I view the world. During this time, humanity demonstrates how little it values itself, and, in turn, it reflects the mundane emptiness of our existence. The superficiality of media, the disingenuousness of advocation, as humans, we were never meant to know as much as we do now. I am consumed by this nausea because, for the first time in my life, I base my opinions of people on their beliefs and how they interpret events. The revulsion I feel when I watch videos of my people being beaten in the streets to the tune of "revolution" or "anti-colonization" is something I cannot describe beyond the word nauseating. The stomach churns and twists; it yearns to be free from the stress my brain puts it through; it wishes to exist back when my view of reality was coated by a soft, foggy hazy of unknowing.
Oh, How tiresome it is to see people struggle to view each other as equals. How unfair it feels to watch as the Jewish people get persecuted yet again and have their maltreatment be justified. The isolation I feel viewing unabashed, unjustified, unquenchable contempt for my people whose mere existence causes global outrage. I am trying to find the nouns, verbs, and adjectives to string together to convey my feelings, but it's nearly impossible. I feel lost, but not quite. I feel alone, but not really. I feel misunderstood, but that is too simple.
Unity and strength must be the focus of the Jewish community at this time. There should be no justification or rationalization of antisemitic arguments and no speaking on behalf of those who wish to see our demise. Jewish voices in support of Palestine are used as weapons, not as words for peace. They are knives that slash the fabric that protects Jewish people from adversity rather than bolstering our community. We Jews must agree that the strength of hateful, falsified rhetoric is chipping away at the power embedded within our community. The world is watching us as we scramble to unite and defeat the insidious beast of antisemitism.