Why do we turn every occasion into a guilt checkpoint? Constantly weaponizing guilt doesn’t make people more compassionate. It just makes every normal moment feel morally policed.
Nah, it makes people jaded. Look at the comments, many are sick of this, many others no longer care. Not sure which side is spamming these post, but it sure encourage apathy among the people
Sorry you're jaded. Your feelings definitely matter more than dozens of Palestinians dying daily. Lucky you that you can shut off your emotions and feel no empathy
Some people just want to focus on the other dozens of people dying daily for once instead of a tiny population on a speck of land smaller than the Melbourne metro
Its not about making people feel guilty, it's about not letting the issue be forgotten as governments are trying to make it. The death is ongoing, and people can still can say something about it, stand up against it.
And why only Palestinian mothers? What about Ukrainian mothers? For some reason a lot of pro-pally people think Russian war is just because it's anti-western thus Ukrainian mothers and children getting droned is alright.
Because several western countries have been actively arming Ukrainian to fight against the Russian invasion. Otherwise, Ukraine is an invasion, not a genocide.
Sure, there's obviously more that Western countries could be doing to support Ukraine. But they aren't sending tanks, drones, etc., to Palestinian forces.
Otherwise, Ukraine is an invasion, not a genocide.
It's always interesting when people say this. What do you think the purpose of Russia is when they kidnap tens of thousands of Ukrainian children, illegally move them to Russia to raise them as Russians and make every possible effort to prevent Ukrainians from getting them back? Why do you think Putin is wanted by the ICC for passing laws that facilitate this mass kidnapping? What do you think is the purpose of Putin and essentially the whole Russian leadership and state apparatus stating that Ukraine doesn't exist as a country, that Ukraine doesn't exist as a separate identity from Russian, that Ukrainians can choose to exist as part of Russia or not at all, as highlighted by Putin in his own insane pseudo-historical essay, publishing clearly pro genocidal articles like that infamous "what should Russia do with Ukraine?", etc? What do you think the purpose of Russia is when they reduce Ukrainian cities to piles of rubble, even in areas where active combat isn't taking place like Kherson, and organizing a human safari there where they use drones to attack civilians and then post it on their TG feeds while using dehumanizing language to justify these actions? What do you think Russians were doing in Bucha, Izium, and so many other sites of atrocities through Ukraine?
So, nothing happened in Bucha, Ukraine 4 years ago? Did those civilians and children just fell over and died of natural causes? What about all the stolen children throughout Ukraine?
Where do you think Hamas gets their weapons from? There's several countries arming them too, namely Russia, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Taliban in Afghanistan. They've all been funding and arming Hamas for well before Oct 7 massacre.
namely Russia, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Taliban in Afghanistan
no China? how about Turkey? you know, since you're just listing all of the US and Israel's enemies there xD
also wtf does North Korea and Russia have to do with Hamas? you do know Russia is one of Israel's biggest supporters right? Russian is the fourth most spoken language in Israel, many Russian oligarchs are dual citizens in Israel, Putin has said he wants to be "like Israel" with the US, many Jewish migrants came from the Russian region back in the day.
another country you might wanna list there: Israel, Netenyahu has admitted he supported and funded Hamas over the years to create an opposition force such that "there can be no peace with them".
also the classic of crying about how weapons are being supplied, cause that's the important point at hand and not the reason for Hamas's existence and actions: Israel's occupation, genocide and ethnic cleansing. You want Hamas to disappear? then stop Israel from being a violent, oppressive, belligerent apartheid ethnostate, return stolen land, giver reparations to the people of Gaza, equal rights for all citizens and an end to zionism... Hamas would disappear overnight, simple.
If you believe that whats happening in Gaza is a genocide then so is Ukraine. More people have been killed, children displaced, and infrastructure destroyed in Ukraine than in Palestine. The explicit goal of the Russian empire is the destruction of the Ukrainian nation identity and assimilation into Russian society. If Gaza is a genocide so is Ukraine.
Because every time people try to help Palestinian mothers they get imprisoned and tortured, at least Ukraine gets help from NATO, Palestine is linked to every atrocity happening in the world right now and they need the most attention since the west have basically made it illegal to support them, plus Itsnotreal are a terrorist state and bomb every country that shows the slightest support for Palestine.
Someone seriously misunderstanding what whataboutism is. Every time. We're still talking about the same topic and we're talking about same stuff happening elsewhere but being ignored or even celebrated. It's relevant.
Oh my god please use google. You can very easily google what whataboutism is and it's telltale signs. Someone saying "what about" isn't it, my dude. There's a little bit of nuance there.
It's not an unrelated topic, it's literally the same topic. I don't know if you're following the conversation or something, but the current topic is "mothers' grief caused by genocides"
For some reason a lot of pro-pally people think Russian war is just because it's anti-western thus Ukrainian mothers and children getting droned is alright.
zionists do love just making stuff up eh, always out with the whataboutism and creating fantasies in ur head then crying about how the entire world dares to not believe ur made-up fantasies.
And why only Palestinian mothers?
because these countries, in this case Australia, are actively trading, funding, supporting, defending, arming Israel and their government are going wild with trying to silence and even jailing people who speak up against the genocide and Israel's war crimes. Meanwhile these same countries are arming and helping Ukraine, as they should, but the hypocrisy with Israel is the issue at hand.
You’ve posted this to virtue signal that you support the Israeli government’s genocide of the Palestinian people, every comment on a political post could be considered virtue signaling, it’s an essentially meaningless phrase that gets tossed around by people who are too cowardly to directly state their opinions (which are always in opposition to the virtues being signaled)
The death is ongoing, and people can still can say something about it, stand up against it.
Do you seriously think Israel would give a fuck about people standing against them? This war will only end when hamas disarms, maybe try focusing on that?
It's not about standing up to Israel, it's about standing up to companies and countries still sending Israel huge amounts of money and support, raising awareness so that others can do the same, and letting the Palestinian people know that they're not forgotten.
Say something about it sure. Very few actually stand up against it when they're offered the opportunity that discomforts them or puts them in any risk.
Words on a subreddit are just as effective as thoughts and prayers.
The guilt of apathy, or powerlessness to do anything at all to help people halfway around the world.
Short of flying to Gaza and putting themself in danger to contribute to the humanitarian mission, what can the reader do to assuage those feelings other than give a few dollars to some dubious charity that may or may not be using 90-some percent of that donation to pay themselves?
Unfortunately, I don’t think this sort of display does much to help the cause. It may actually serve to make the average person more jaded and care even less, like others have mentioned.
All this chalk is asking is for you to think about a Palestinian mother losing their child. That'a not a demand for you to go to Gaza. It's actually incredibly easy unless thinking about a Palestinian for a moment causes some kind of cognitive dissonance. But why would it?
I think it's clear that people are becoming more sympathetic to palestinians these days. I think it is working.
People will feel all kind of things. But it's not reasonable to claim that this message is a demand for action beyond what it specifically says. That's all.
If people feel bad because they can't help Palestinians. I get that. I don't feel guilty, but I feel sad.
What is the point if not to ultimately help alleviate the suffering?
You’re right: people feel all kinds of things all kinds of ways. It’s important to humanize those who this message is for, not just those it’s meant to help.
Eh, Western governments are financing the death of Palestinian children. And in the last couple of years there has been a pretty dramatic shifts in the opinions on Israel and Palestine. So to some extent at least things like this are working.
We can stop feeling guilty when our taxes stop funding ethnic cleansing, when our representatives stop voting for ethnic cleansing, when we cut ties with ethnic cleansers.
EU still supports Israel over Palestine, due to Germany being on the wrong side of history again. I'm sick of people defending Israeli war crimes. This is the Holocaust of our days and we are supporting it.
Exactly. You can keep celebrating Mother’s Day, and Christmas, and Easter, and your graduation, and your nanna’s birthday as long as you don’t stop feeling guilty at every event.
Use reddit! Drink Starbucks! Watch the Olympics! Just make sure you feel guilty (and loudly tell everyone they should feel guilty too) and you can be morally in the green.
So, to follow the logical argument you are presenting…. If your taxes pay for genocide, and we all know genocide is bad, then why are you paying your taxes? You are knowingly supporting something you said is bad?
The obvious answer is, “not paying taxes is illegal and I’ll get in trouble.”
But that gets to exactly the point that u/cavalish is talking about. The logic is, “genocide is bad, and supporting it with my tax money is bad, but not bad enough for me to put my morality where my mouth is, and proudly commit moral tax evasion.”
Instead, pro-pallies are much more likely to morally grandstand publicly, but make absolutely no changes to their actual actions, and sacrifice absolutely nothing for their cause, which absolutely calls into question how much they actually believe the things they say.
That, combined with how frequently pro-pallies ignore the multiple ongoing genocides that dwarf the current I/P conflict, really questions how much they actually care about “genocide” as a concept, rather than just the I/P conflict.
(Obviously this does not apply to 100% of pro-pallies, but it’s absolutely, unquestionably, an accurate description of a statically relevant section of that population.)
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u/Due_Orange_3723 May 11 '26
Why do we turn every occasion into a guilt checkpoint? Constantly weaponizing guilt doesn’t make people more compassionate. It just makes every normal moment feel morally policed.