I’m vividly aware of that second one, as an atheist. On social media I’ve seen posts by atheists who were once Muslim, they told such depressing stories of hiding, of trying to save up to move to Western Europe or North America. Gays too, and for them it’s even harder since all it takes is hungrily eyeing one cute guy by mistake for the game to be up as they prepare to run. And in college I once met a gay from Saudi Arabia who quietly deconverted (became an atheist) from Islam and later escaped to the US using that university (hopefully he has citizenship, a green card or something), I once overheard him talking about how scared he felt around followers of his former faith.
Or unironically use such imaginative and devastating insults as “Amerikkka”/“Imperial Core” (USA), “The Empire” (NATO), “Ukronazi”, or “Isntreal” towards countries they don’t like and want genocided
Perhaps we’d have entirely solar-based calendars with four month-like divisions for the seasons, based on the angle of shadows cast by the Sun (I hear the Mayans had these huge dial things that just counted from 1 to 365) and leap days added onto one season every few years.
I both laughed and cried at the same time. What is it with both belligerents in this war and killing the other side’s journalists? (One of the most dishonorable and dirty things you could do)
This is in the Dagestan Republic, which is mostly Muslim. While many of the mostly-Christian Russians are indeed anti-Semitic these days (indeed, in regards to the war in Ukraine I’ve seen some comment on social media about how “it’s DA JOOOOOZ” because Zelensky is a Jew and America has the second-largest Jewish population after Israel), this is a case of religious extremism by people brainwashed by Arab countries’ propaganda, who think all Israelis are evil. To be completely fair though, Ruzzia pretending to care about Palestinians probably didn’t help either.
Yes, and as an American college student who isn’t one of those mindless sheep with one of 2 oversimplistic views on the situation who believe everything they read off social media, are ignorant of what “from river to sea” actually implies because they saw this new meme on tiktok but can’t actually find either “the river” or “the sea” on a map, and seem to prevail on our campuses, I always dread the inevitable mention of the Gaza one at social gatherings because I know I’ll likely end up being called both an “antisemite” and an “apartheid sympathizer” in the same fucking argument for not unquestioningly selling my soul to either Team Israel or Team Palestine. 🙄
That, or they’re college pseudointellectuals who have become so isolated from the world outside their campus and the surrounding neighborhood and are lied to so constantly about how the world works (as it’s an institution where ideas don’t have to be factual or practical in order to keep being taught) that they’ve been brainwashed into thinking those ideas are applicable to every current problem in existence and into always being contrarian and automatically disagreeing with everything the mainstream says.
I’m vividly aware of that second one, as an atheist. On social media I’ve seen posts by atheists who were once Muslim, they told such depressing stories of hiding, of trying to save up to move to Western Europe or North America. Gays too, and for them it’s even harder since all it takes is hungrily eyeing one cute guy by mistake for the game to be up as they prepare to run. And in college I once met a gay from Saudi Arabia who quietly deconverted (became an atheist) from Islam and later escaped to the US using that university (hopefully he has citizenship, a green card or something), I once overheard him talking about how scared he felt around followers of his former faith.