@MLClark @LiseL And who weeps for the Uyghurs? Where are the mass protests in front of Chinese embassies? In the Financial Times the other day there was a long piece of how the CCP is systematically "Sinoizing" Muslim culture, changing mosques to have "Chinese" architectural features. Where's the outrage from the Muslim street for this? Where are the college students and their slogans?
@LiberalLibrarian @MLClark @LiseL Honestly. I've been speaking and quite upset about the Uyghur genocide for years. This new Temu website, seems to be sourcing a lot of products from their slave labor camps.
Oppression has become so so systematized and integrated into the world supply chain its become near invisible. I've seen stats like 66% of chocolate is source from slave or child labor. Coffee and bananas might as well be called conflict crops.
It's a lot.
@LiberalLibrarian @MLClark @LiseL
People like to say "no ethical consumption under capitalism" and then go right on consuming. I am not to judge, there is no way to do any of this perfectly, and even if you could reduce your impact to zero, that wouldn't stop the bleeding.
@LiberalLibrarian @MLClark @LiseL
We all have to pick our battles and give our all to it. We need the collective result of billions of individual actions and choices. We don't need to condemn each other, we need each pick our spots on the wall and fight like hell against the encroaching dark.
@LiseL @NiveusLepus @LiberalLibrarian @MLClark
if each of us lights the candle of life in the darkness of death surrounding us, we can find each other while lighting others' candles along the way.
civilizations come and go, like yeast colonies, so successful that they eventually drown in their own waste,
which we then consume, and so will it be with this human enterprise, eventually.
meanwhile, our mission, should we accept it, is to find a way through life with integrity & compassion.
@holon42 @NiveusLepus @LiberalLibrarian @MLClark
Stretching the metaphor pretty far... Every day I light a candle, every day tears of sadness, anger, and frustration extinguish the flame, and I have to search high and low to find where I put the damn matches. Fortunately, yes, most days I can just make out the blinking lights of other candles in the distance. 🕯️ 🧡
@LiseL @NiveusLepus @LiberalLibrarian @MLClark
yes, there are days when we rely on the light of others.❤️
whether they be flesh or words ancient or present.
grateful for the light that shines in the darkness. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
@LiberalLibrarian @MLClark @LiseL y'all don't wanna know how I really feel about a bunch of the protestors and those who want to simplify what's going on in the Middle East.
I know enough to know that I don't know enough.
Doesn't mean I'm not gonna side-eye those agents provocateur who are exploiting Israel vs Hamas to advance their own power schemes. That's what is happening, and I've seen such exploitation often enough to make me ill.
@MLClark @LiseL And who weeps for the Muslim Rohingya, as Buddhist Burmese loot and pillage their homes, declaring them unpersons?