So Disappointed

I am so disappointed. Like Alice before her adventures in Wonderland, I was naïve, big-hearted, and optimistic about the future of the human race. However, like her later in her journey, I’ve become a bit jaded, a little cynical and incredibly aware that few individuals think critically about their communications.

More exactly, over and again, I’ve encountered folks who parrot rhetoric that they esteem will make them popular, at most, else prudent, in the least. I’m referring to gatekeepers of various publications who believe that jumping on the antisemitic bandwagon will well serve them and our world.

Most recently, when cleaning my office, I opened a URL for audio, speculative fiction stories. Most of these tales, over the years that I’ve heard them, were well crafted. What’s more, they’ve originated from many parts of the world. To boot, the venue supporting them backs an array of human differences. All in all, this source, until my most recent attempt to access it, was a great location for all things science fiction or fantasy.

However, I’ll not be looking to it for any more entertainment. These days, its home page features a call for “Palestinian” voices and a declaration that the publication “stand[s] in solidarity with Palestinian people and their words.” This so-called thinking person’s press has opted to position itself “in deep solidarity” with evil.

Sure, part of the human condition is that sometimes passions overcome our sensibilities. If we were purely logical or entirely governed by holy strictures, the world would know no infidelity, murder, or idolatry. The poor would have homes and food. Despots would be removed from office.

The wrong way round, civilization is riddled with unjust, immoral goings-on. For instance, instead of indignation over the Oct.7th massacre, over the killing of more than 1,200 people, the kidnapping of hundreds, the rape of countless women and the brutality inflicted upon the elderly, infants, and physically disabled persons, there are multitudes who side with the source of that malevolence.

The aforementioned website is one such instance of this breakdown in morality. Ironically, one of its co-editors refers to herself as an “Afrofuturist freedom dreamer.” Racial genocide is against her creed, but religious genocide is not. The other co-editor is a proponent of animal rights. Yet, she acts contrarily when it comes to the justice for the citizens of the Middle East’s only democracy.

I wish I could claim I was bewildered. Sadly, saying as much would been inauthentic. During the last half year, antisemitism has proliferated in academia, in “diplomatic” international organizations, and in all forms of media.

Sadly, even forums run by imagineers, i.e., by persons most likely to use their analytical skills alongside of their imaginations to cull Truth, have failed our society. These persons might publish stories of robots, accounts of dystopias, and the ingredients that so-called witches use in their caldrons, and they might encourage neopronouns, but they miss the point of civil liberties in promoting “popular” over “proper.”

The miniskirt was not modest, yet its recognition hurt few people except for the drivers who let their eyes wander from the road. The smart phone, similarly, remains all the rage, yet except for destroying the relationships of its users, does not, currently, cause a worldwide pandemic. Monstrous rhetoric, on the other hand, does and will continue to implode entire empires.

While this breakdown is currently largely ignored or minimalized, it remains corrosive. Those same Palestinians who spew Jew hatred have promised to conquer Europe and North America after they’ve taken over the entirety of the Middle East.

Editors and other concierges who actively endorse wickedness assume, falsely, that their choices cannot, specifically undermine their communities. As well, they assume, misleadingly, that their choice to stand against good won’t, in general, have any consequences.

There’s a significant cost for “welcoming the perspective” of iniquity. Not only does doing so mean taking away publication space from fair-minded or even parve standpoints it also makes an explicit show of support for heinousness. It’s impossible to be simultaneously ethical and dishonorable.

In the end, even if the worst outcome is that these sites sway just a single, impressionable person against all that is upright and decent, they’ve stymied that person’s integrity. Unfortunately, mediated communication ordinarily impacts more than lone souls.

So, I’ll not be returning to that realm of spacecrafts and ancient castles. If I need to keep myself entertained while dusting, sorting, and more, I can listen to narrated speculative tales on many other channels.

I hope, but don’t believe, that this site’s listeners will find its myopic perspective disconcerting and will tune in to its competitors. Somehow, I doubt such action will take place as listeners turn to such settings for recreation, not critical thinking.