RIP Humanity
We lost our ability to be human by not stopping the Rafah massacre when we could
Rafah, Gaza - is an atrocity so full of contradictions and heartbreak, that there aren’t words to sufficiently describe the evil playing out. A tent city. A safe zone. Decapitated children. Real decapitated children seeking refuge in tents, not the ones that were debunked.
I don’t know if I’m more shocked, or numb.
The war on Palestinians has been ongoing in the background for decades. Our ability to look away and ignore the quieter or more infrequent atrocities was in many ways the way Western media gaslit us into blaming Palestinians for their predicament.
Remember that game you play as a child where you grab the hands of your sibling or mate and start hitting them with their own hands? “Why are you hitting yourself?? STOP HITTING YOURSELF!!!”
That’s what it’s like watching coverage of Gaza. “It’s a shame those kids died, but it’s a war, and you know, “hijab laws.”
Or, “I can’t believe you’re defending them, the way they treat their women/gays/(fill-in-the-blank.)”
CNN’s Kasie Hunt referred to the murder of Hind Rajab as a “woman who was killed in Gaza.” (She was a 6-year old girl who called the Palestinian Red Crescent from her car that had been ambushed by the IOF, and whose body was found decomposing in the car, along with her family members who were killed before her, and the Red Crescent rescuers who went out to save her).
Meanwhile, throughout, we’ve witnessed US-backed Israeli massacres at refugee camps and hospitals, destruction of infrastructure, forced starvation and tens of thousands of killed Palestinian civilians, most of them children and women, have been covered and dissected a million ways and a million times to warn about Rafah, and we still failed Rafah.
Those Israeli airstrikes of a tent city in Rafah killed and burned alive 45 people, decapitating and charring children refugees. This horror and act of terror is only topped by this montage of media pushing facts aside for the ease of copy-and-pasting talking points. WTF do we need to do to at least be languaged as full human beings?
A warning of graphic images; while the blur effect is utilized, the sight of a decapitated child at :13 is horrific:
“Explosions” with civilians “feared dead.” That’s the Western news media for you, just doing their job.
It’s not just “breaking news” coverage. This little “think piece”nugget is making the rounds: Just one week before Rafah, The Atlantic’s Graeme Wood decided to quibble over the UN numbers of killed civilians, and to take the “oh well, war is ugly” angle. Thanks to his take on justifying the unjustifiable, we now know that “it is possible to kill children legally.”
Hey Graeme, instead of nerd-play wordplay, how about “killing children is always wrong,” or “genocide is always wrong”? Granted, it’s a lot shorter than your article that justifies killing kids, but your legacy and humanity will be that much better for it.
These next steps are predictable, and also in the playbook, and already being drooled over by old media:
Worldwide condemnation and outrage, BLAH BLAH BLAH.
“Oops, our bad, we made a tragic mistake,” BLAH BLAH BLAH.
White House - ‘we’re not sure if that crossed a red line’ - BLAH BLAH BLAH.
It’s all textbook genocide. And we fall for it. Every. time.
We used to have turning point moments where we saw images that shook us, and we decided we would change circumstances ... as with Vietnam. Media played a key role in showing images that shocked us and changed public opinion. But for some time now, media’s playbook is playing it safe to ensure access to Anthony Blinken.
Iraq was a silent scream for me. For many, that realization was only after years and years of revelations that WMD was a lie and after hundreds of thousands of killed Iraqis and US troops. At the time, though? Media fell in line so they could have Colin Powell lie about yellow-cake uranium on their networks.
Next stop in the media playbook: Look for Biden to make some mumbo-jumbo statement about the sanctity of life, soul of America, we grieve with the families BLAH BLAH BLAH. It will be the leading sound bite on NPR’s hourly newscast when it happens, but make no mistake, this dude has done the most to fund and support this genocide, and he’s paying the price, in polls.
Instead of blaming all the factions of Biden’s former coalition for Trump’s lead in the polls in 5 out of 6 swing states, the media could be covering the generational differences in opinion and having younger generations debate their positions. They could feature Palestinians and introduce real, human Arabs to audiences! It’s easy! You just need to get the green light, jefes, and go! Many of the news directors I’ve known over my career are smart, talented storytellers along with solid reporters who are chomping at the bit for new angles to cover. They just need the okay! Do it, media! Make the genocide a meaningful, meaty story handled at the local and network level of coverage. Make it nuanced, not just a feel-good story of a doctor who was stuck in Gaza (which is a GREAT STORY, mind you, but please, FFS, go deeper!)
We saw Rafah coming. The students warned us, from all faiths, non-faiths and walks of life. #alleyesonrafah was more than a slogan. But media focused on skirmishes and disturbances as the crux of the activity instead of anti-genocide and divestment from war-industry messages.
As much as I'm having real difficult time imagining all those possibilities today after seeing the people who needed protection the most who were burned alive, as much as my soul hurts today, this is within reach. The media have been handed a dozen watershed moments to capture public opinion, but they’ve sat on their hands to stick with BLAH BLAH BLAH.
Life can be so much better if we make the changes we need to make to get our souls back. Old media - for the love of humanity, please get started on your part.