To repeat for emphasis: DSA expelled Shri Thanedar last month. This month, Thanedar announced he was leaving DSA over its putative views on Israel and Palestine — an announcement that’s been picked up by the Hill, MSNBC, Fox News, Politico, Forbes, and beyond, with outlets regurgitating his disparaging statements about the organization that expelled him.
This is supremely frustrating. I knew it was going to be frustrating before I clicked, but it was even more frustrating than I had anticipated.
This is supremely frustrating. I knew it was going to be frustrating before I clicked, but it was even more frustrating than I had anticipated.
the difficulty here is the local chapter didn’t announce they expelled him publicly, and expulsion from a local chapter also isn’t expulsion from the organization as a whole (which had been referred to the NPC, the body that runs the organization as a whole day-to-day, but hadn’t been acted upon). so, nobody is actually lying here. the chapter did expel him, but Thanedar did also leave DSA before the organization told him to kick rocks.
Ah that does slightly complicate things. Still frustrating that none of these outlets even looked into his relationship with the DSA (or lack thereof) before uncritically repeating his statements, but that does excuse it slightly.
Still pretty weak, TBH. Language calling Hamas’ actions “attacks on random Israeli civilians” while giving at least some credence to the phrase “Israel’s right to defend itself.” That’s a lot of giveaway to imperialist and Zionist propaganda while allegedly trying to clear the air on who holds what opinions.
This is an anti-colonial struggle. Colonized people have a right to defend themselves. Nation-states absolutely fucking do not, nor do colonizers while they violently expand their colonies, uphold apartheid, and continue to commit genocide. Upholding one’s oppression is not coherent with self-defense, sorry.