18 Comments
Dec 9, 2023Liked by Nora Loreto

That was a damn courageous article for you to write. Rape is rape, awful and heinous, as murder is murder, awful and heinous. No distinctions. Yet it gets used as cruel propaganda to justify horrendous actions. Thank you for saying it.

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Dec 9, 2023·edited Dec 9, 2023Liked by Nora Loreto

All of this lately reminds me of this quote from Toni Morrison:

“The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing.”

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Dec 10, 2023Liked by Nora Loreto

"Rape goes hand in hand with war and atrocity. Where there is violence, there is always also sexual violence; always and everywhere. "

I used to think that rape always went with war or violence, but I learned that wartime rape can be prevented. Usually this involves holding individual commanders of units accountable.The research of Elisabeth Jean Wood goes into more details.

doi.org/10.1177/0032329208329755

campuspress.yale.edu/elisabethwood/files/2014/02/wood-rape-is-not-inevitable-in-war-2012.pdf

This topic also makes me think of a book "Warless Societies and the Origin of War" by Raymond C. Kelly. An anthropologist studied societies without war, and concluded that war starts when people stop treating perpetrators of crimes as individuals start thinking it is acceptable to punish another person in their stead. Then blood feuds start.

In both cases it seems important to think about individuals who are responsible for their actions.

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Certainly our foreign minister Melanie Joli asking us to believe Israeli women so she could justify a slaughter is not something I thought I’d ever encounter.

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Please add a tip jar so that I can contribute to you occasionally rather than subscribing.

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author

That's a great idea. Not sure if that's possible but I will look.

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Buy me a coffee is effectively a tip jar

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founding

When Israel whinges that it has the right to exist, then plays genocidal bait-and-switch for the bajillionth time, I want to stop my lessons and start my own march of return.

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Life is complex and we all make choices for many reasons. I think we need to stop this genocide and call out rape, domestic violence and war in every culture and strata of society. We need to join together to tell new stories. I so admire Vivian Silver , who was murdered on October 7 . I feel we need to celebrate and honour women like Vivian Silver and the 50,000 who joined Women for peace, Jewish Voiced for Peace is another group I support. I love the work of Sally Armstrong, who worked to have rape recognized as a war crime. Dr. Samantha Nutt who works for children affected by war and Dr. Angela Liu who spoke out seven years ago about American bombing of hospitals !! I think we are better off coming together as humans and saying we need new stories. We do not need a third world war. Yes the Israelis government is genocidal but who provided these weapons and who profits from the blood of Palestinian babies. It is appalling what happened to Emmett Till and so brave of his mother to leave his coffin open . As the white mother of brown sons I hate being told by white American women that I know nothing about racism. That happened after some PBS program on white fragility in the US . I can tell you that all kinds of people are racist. I have had all kinds of people make disgusting remarks when after my Vietnamese husband died I went out to eat with mu sons. Just because our colouring is different people refuse to believe these are my sons. it really is not pleasant at all. Violence and Bias are such a horrible aspects of our human nature.

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I totally believe the rape happened, but here's why it doesn't matter even if it did, and by the way the Israelis are probably doing more rape even though no one has alleged it... oh, and a powerful group of Manhattan elites are being paid in coke and underage girls by evil Jews to create fake rape narratives. But I'm absolutely not denying rape. And I'm DEFINITELY not an antisemite even though I think Nazis winning WWII have added bonuses.

Beautiful stuff here. I can't imagine why real publications won't publish these delusional ramblings.

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author

You think Nazis winning WW2 would have had added bonuses?

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This is the kind of desperate "No, YOU!!!" response an 8 year old would make at recess. Keep reaching for that gutter, Nora.

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author

No, it's me asking wtf you're talking about. Because if you're just demonstrating that you're as basic and boring as most of my trolls, I've already addressed this silly claim, here: https://noraloreto.substack.com/p/on-the-men-that-hate-me

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Dec 11, 2023·edited Dec 11, 2023

Unfortunately, I've read it already. What you don't seem to be able to get through your head is that casually dismissing death in a holocaust (regardless of context) is a cruel and ignorant move. Since then, you've pretended not to understand why people would be angry and upset.

The United States also probably wouldn't have been a super power if the Civil War had ended differently. But for some reason I think you would be able to admit that laughing off the further enslavement, abuse, rape, death, etc. of Black people probably isn't something that should casually be bandied about as a light "Devil's Advocate" thought experiment.

You said something hurtful and ignorant. You have never apologized. And so it's easier to play the victim and claim that mean rich men are attacking you than to accept that your words had impact.

What a shame.

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author

Here's the thing Michelle -- in that exact tweet, which is in a very long and very stupid twitter thread, I say that there would have been "more deaths" -- if you want to code that as being a positive statement, you're being intellectually dishonest just to, what, tear me down? Get fucked and fuck you for using the Holocaust like this against someone who would have been among the first victims of Nazi terror and violence.

Not only do I have nothing to apologize for, but I would like to insult you, personally, even stronger.

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Well that makes sense, as ad hominems are all someone has left when they know they've lost.

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You can't call it an epistle either, unless you want us to all understand you're illiterate.

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hmm you don't know what martyrdom is either? Why are you exposing yourself like this? lmao

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