In the Pocket of Big Civilian

Yep, I'm a sellout.

(image credit: Associated Press/Mohammed Dahman)

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“Pick a side. You’re either with us or against us.”

Okay, if that’s your ultimatum, if you’re claiming there’s no nuance or space here for the suffering of everyone, if you’re giving me only two choices, if I must pick a side, then I’ll just say that I’m absolutely against you.

I’m against any person or group who attempts to justify intentionally murdering innocent civilians and then shames anyone who doesn’t just go along with it.

I am in the pocket of Big Civilian.

Israeli civilians, Palestinian civilians, Muslim civilians, Jewish civilians, agnostic and atheist civilians, insufferably nihilist civilians, young civilians and old civilians, civilians in pre-school and civilians going through a midlife crisis and civilians in their golden years, civilians who like me and civilians who don’t, civilians I like and civilians I don’t, civilians who stand on the left side of the escalator and civilians who switch lanes without using a turn signal, civilians of any nationality and race and ethnicity, civilians who support LGBTQ equality and civilians who are anti-LGBTQ extremists, civilians who speak twenty languages and civilians who struggle with just the one, civilians who are chill neighbors and civilians who run the local homeowners association, civilians who have eclectic tastes in their television programming and civilians whose entire personality revolves around their Sopranos fandom, civilians who disagree entirely with my politics and civilians who mirror mine perfectly…

I am a huge, neoliberal sellout for the safety and dignity and respect of ALL civilians.

So, when I say that Hamas is an antisemitic terrorist group that needs to be destroyed, it’s because I care about ALL civilians they’re brutally murdering, Israeli and Palestinian, Muslim and Jewish, alike.

And when I say that Benjamin Netanyahu is a terrible, fascist, incompetent head-of-state and that the current Israeli government needs to stop its indiscriminate violence against innocents, it’s because I care about ALL civilians in Gaza whose lives are at stake.

I want a temporary ceasefire not because Hamas shouldn’t be destroyed—they absolutely should—but because the current Israeli government has been inexplicably floundering in their military operations.

If these sentiments somehow mean I’m either anti-Palestinian or anti-Israeli, then I guess I’ll just have to live with that.

I want the slaughter of civilians to stop, however naïve and Pollyannish that may come across to some.

And truthfully, I am deeply skeptical and wary of anyone who somehow feels this conflict is easily framed for the benefit of only one side.

If anything, it’s been a revealing moment on the question of whom among grown adults are willing to engage with reason and empathy and whom among us are far too eager to abdicate those qualities for brief—and ultimately empty—comfort from their inherent cognitive dissonance in justifying the murder of innocents.

If you feel the same about all this, please know you’re not alone. It’s truly a dark moment for acknowledging obvious humanity, senselessly replaced with a team sports mentality.

And I refuse to go along with it.

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