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Not modern enough

Elizabeth was providing technical support for Roblox to a friend today. We asked Daniel what she was doing and he replied that we wouldn’t understand because “You’re not as modern as we are“.

Daniel created a Minecraft Realm recently and invited several friends to it. One of his friends accidentally created a looping command block to kill all players which meant that whenever someone joined the Realm they immediately died and couldn’t do anything. Fortunately, Daniel was able to fix this so they could all play again. Meanwhile, Elizabeth created a log burner in her mansion which inadvertently set the whole house on fire when she wasn’t online. The lesson here is never to leave fires unattended.

Has anyone else been wondering what Antifa is? It popped up on Twitter this week. I’d never heard the word before until Donald Trump announced that he was going to “designate ANTIFA as a terrorist organization” and suddenly everyone was up in arms.

I looked up Antifa on Wikipedia which is generally pretty reliable and it says, Antifa activists engage in “property damage and physical violence, and harassment”.

Many people may not realise this but the animal rights organisation – Animal Liberation Front (ALF) – has never killed anyone, is non-violent, and yet it is listed as a domestic terrorist threat in the US and has been the FBI’s No.1 domestic terrorist threat. I don’t see anyone up in arms about that and I think this demonstrates people’s bias towards their own worldview and political leanings. People who are against speciesism see it as outrageous while people who support the continued abuse of non-human animals are supportive. Similarly, people who despise Donald Trump automatically disagree with everything he says including the classification of an organisation that promotes physical violence as a terrorist organisation. Physical violence should not be tolerated and is also not a very effective form of activism for anything.

Thinking about the ALF reminded me of this clever scene in the Korean movie Okja. In it, the ALF are depicted as slightly nuts and amusing but they were also heroes with their non-violent but effective methods. You can see them towards the end of this clip in black balaclavas protecting Okja from the baddies.

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Rachel M

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6 responses to “Not modern enough”

  1. Ed Davies Avatar
    Ed Davies

    Wikipedia is great for non-controversial topics; for things on which people are split a bit more care is needed. Antifa is one of those. Just look at the history of that article [¹] – the first page of changes at the moment are all dated June 2nd. I’d suggest finding out a bit more about the matter before taking one sentence in an evolving article too seriously.

    [¹] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Antifa_(United_States)&action=history

    Reply
    1. Rachel M Avatar
      Rachel M

      Ok, fair comment. I had never heard of Antifa before. This BBC article does not deny the violence but says it’s a form of self-defence – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/X56rQkDgd0qqB7R68t6t7C/seven-things-you-need-to-know-about-antifa

      6: How violent are they?
      Their willingness to use violence marks out Antifa from many other left-wing activists, although the Antifa members we spoke to said they denounce the use of weapons and violent direct action. They said if violence does occur, it’s as a form of self-defence. They also make historical arguments to justify their position. For instance, they ask, what if opponents of the German Nazi Party had been more forceful in their opposition in the 1930s, could World War Two and the Holocaust have been averted?

      In any case, the point I was really trying to make is that if Antifa is not a terrorist organisation then neither is the ALF.

      Reply
  2. Katrina Avatar
    Katrina

    Antifa is an anti-fascist organisation, which opposes fascism and extreme right-wing ideology. Apart from that, I don’t know much about their actual activities.

    The US has bowed to corporate interests in declaring ALF a domestic terrorist organisation. It is a beyond-words corrupt use of power, just so animals can continue to be treated appallingly for the best economic outcome.

    Reply
    1. Rachel M Avatar
      Rachel M

      Yes, it’s absolutely corporate interests that have led to the classification of ALF as a terrorist group but it’s not just in the US. It’s also in the UK and even Australia – https://www.sbs.com.au/news/domestic-terrorists-nsw-cracks-down-on-animal-rights-activists
      I think what they do is admirable.

      Reply
  3. Denise Avatar
    Denise

    Your kids are so amazing! We did Okja at our film club at work recently. It was a good choice. I liked the use of humour in the way the ALF were depicted, for example the guy who kept feeling faint because he didn’t want to eat anything, which does hint at the balance we all have to make in our lives if we want to do good in the most effective way.

    Reply
    1. Rachel M Avatar
      Rachel M

      They are amazing! It’s funny to see them providing tech support to their friends.

      And yes, I remember in the film they gently poked fun at the ALF but did it in a way that viewers still sided with them and wanted them to win. Or at least I did.

      Reply

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