If you are an activist for trying to end the mass slaughter of the people in Gaza, a question you will sometimes be asked is, what about the other injustices in the world, surely it’s not just Gaza where there is a mass slaughter happening?
And that is absolutely true. The sad, horrifying reality of it is that, being what I am, a reasonably privileged guy who has a roof over his head, enough food to eat, and safety from a life of violence, is a rarer thing in this world than we’d all like to believe.
But, I think there are two types of people who ask the question, “What about the other injustices?” in response to Gaza.
- People who are desperately trying to gain support to end another genocide in the world that is as horrifying as what’s going on in Gaza.
- People who don’t care about any human rights abuses whatsoever and are just trying to throw up a diversionary tactic.
I’ve been asked, “What about the other injustices” by people who aren’t active in trying to solve ANY injustice in the world whatsoever. Yes, I think it’s horrifying that so many horrific acts of violence throughout the world go unnoticed. But, unless you’re actively trying to stop one of the many horrific atrocities that is going on in the world, if you come at me with, “What about the other injustices?” I am going to question your motives.
If you think there is another genocide in the world, that is as bad or worse than Gaza, fine, I’m not even necessarily disagreeing with you. But don’t just sit there. Find out what you can do about it. Are there protests? Go to them. Are there products you should boycott? Boycott them. Have you the means to spread the word? Then spread the word. But saying, in response to Palestine activists, “What about the other injustices”, while doing nothing about it yourself, doesn’t achieve anything of value whatsoever.
Why do we care about what we care about?
I think it might be useful to talk about various justice causes I have at least somewhat been involved in over the years. This could mean I’ve done as little as write a blogpost or two about them, but what all of these have in common is that, they are all things where I wish I was doing more to help with. So in no particular order, these are social justice causes I’ve tried to be of assistance to over the years, and the reasons I feel strongly about them
Autism Acceptance
The genesis of this very blog. I was diagnosed as autistic in 2010, but went into denial about it until 2021, when I was finally able to accept what I am. I wanted to understand how and why autism is so stigmatized that it took me 11 years to accept the truth about myself. I realized there must be very severe stigmatization and ostracism of autistic people, if I would go into denial about it for more than a decade.
Trans Rights
Definitely this falls under the category of something where I feel I should be doing more. Part of what got me interested in trans rights is, over the last few years, there has been a lot more trans people on you tube telling their story, so I just had fairly easy access to information on it. Of course, the other side of it, is that, for every video of a trans person telling their story, there are ten videos that are nothing but absolutely disgusting transphobic drivel. There is a particular reason why I despise transphobes, and it’s this. I hate bigotry combined with cowardice. We currently live in a world where open, accepted cruelty towards trans people is at an all time high, and I feel that many people who are going after trans people do so because it’s relatively safe to do so. I strongly suspect it’s the case that, as gay people gained more and more acceptance, the same people who were attacking them all this time, started going after trans people instead. Bigotry combined with cowardice frankly pisses me off.
Animal Rights
I’ve been a vegetarian (though not a vegan) since 2019. This came about by learning about the despicable way that farmed animals are treated. I watched a video of the final moments of completely innocent pigs, and that video haunts me still to this day. Animals are brought into this world, just to suffer and die. That is just despicable.
Preventing Animal Extinction
Animal extinction is something that is beyond horrific. As humans, we should feel a great privilege that we are surrounded by wonderful animals, the fact that our skies are filled with birds or our oceans filled with wonderful animals such as whales and octopuses, should make us feel great joy every minute of every day. Why is the human race wiping out so many animals? So many minds, quite different from ours but quite wonderful in their own way, being destroyed. Is anyone going to take any joy one hundred years from now in the changes we made to the landscape that may end up wiping out the curlew?
Climate Change
We live on Earth, and we are destroying, Earth. This makes about as much sense as setting fire to your own house.
So what’s interesting about a lot of these is that, in many cases, it’s not simply because it’s objectively the biggest injustice that exists. While autistic people are marginalized, I don’t know would I feel as strongly about that issue if I wasn’t autistic. Trans people are treated disgracefully, but I don’t know to what extent this issue would be on my radar if not for there being a high volume of trans you tubers. Would I be as concerned about animal extinction if I wasn’t passionate about birding?
So, looking at what I care about, it’s not always the case that, I am interested in it because of the severity of the injustice. My individual personality and personal circumstances seem to play a part a lot of the time.
And finally, why Gaza?
I’ve talked here about how until 2023, I did nothing to help the people of Palestine in any way:
And there, I talked about, how everything changed for me, with this horrifying quote:
“There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed (to Gaza)”
And around the same time, Energy Minister Israel Katz ordered cutting off the water supply to Gaza.
It was horrifying how the Israeli government could announce they were committing such a horrible act, the denial of food, fuel and water to Gaza, in front of the whole world.
For me , that’s a big part of the answer to the question “Why Gaza?” The fact that Israel can do, what they are doing, in front of the whole world without consequence.
Pro-Palestine activist Owen Jones has said many times, that no crime has been more confessed to than the genocide in Gaza. Nehenyahu and his cronies have basically admitted to what they are doing. And many people in response simply shrug their shoulders, or say, the most insufferable phrase in the English language, “I stay out of politics.”
And what about the powers that be? While there have been some promising developments lately, such as many countries FINALLY pledging to boycott the Eurovision, and finally, military vessels being sent to protect the Somud Flotilla, for two years the governments of the world actively aided the horror in Gaza. Gaza is a genocide, that, for two years, was live-streamed, and the response of many of the general public was to shrug their shoulders, and the response of many of the governments of the world, was to actually help with the mass slaughter.
People have often said to me, “There are so many injustices in the world that people don’t even know about.” Yes, that’s true, but, the fact that people stand back and do nothing about an injustice they DO know about is more morally reprehensible. Who would you have more moral condemnation for? Someone who did nothing while somebody was having a heart attack, because they were completely unaware that they were having a heart attack, or another person who did nothing, while completely aware that somebody WAS having a heart attack?
The fact that injustices are happening, worldwide, that never make the papers or social media, is absolutely unacceptable. But surely we need to talk about how for the last two years, everybody knew what was going on in Gaza, and so many did nothing? If we can’t get people to care about an injustice that they know is happening, how do we get people to care about injustices that they’re not yet aware of? So to me, it shouldn’t be a case of, we need to stop worrying about Gaza while there’s other injustices going on, it’s a case of, we need to figure out why people can sit back and do nothing while they know there’s a genocide going on in Gaza. If we can’t figure this out, then trying to get them to care about mass murders that they don’t yet know about is a non starter.
Sudan
I’d like to talk now about a horrific genocide that I’ll admit until recently, didn’t occupy my thoughts much, and I’ll also admit I’m still painfully uneducated about it. Indeed, I often have this terrible anxiety that one of my previous blogposts trivialized it.
The intention of this post was to draw attention to the fact that, some people who bring up other injustices in the world are simply engaging in a diversionary tactic to justify the fact that they themselves don’t care about Gaza, or any injustice for that matter. Despite my intentions, I spent a lot of time thinking about whether it was right to use this kind of humour. My intention was to criticize people who bring up Sudan for spurious reasons, but I wonder, did I just trivialize a horrific genocide?
Here are two videos about Sudan, that I hope have given me a better understanding of what’s happening there, though I still have a long, long way to go.
Try to imagine, having experienced a genocide twenty years ago, and now experiencing another one. Imaging being a mother, and removing your child from your back, and realizing the child has died. Imagine having to eat animal feed because there’s nothing else to eat.
Sexual violence and sexual slavery. One year olds being raped. I don’t even know what to say, anything I say would be shockingly empty.
And I admit despite the horror I feel at learning of these things, I am still shockingly ignorant about the genocide in Sudan. I know who Nehnenyahu and Smotrich are, could I name any of the perpetrators of the horrors that are happening in Sudan? No, I can’t. I know the name Hind Rajab, that terrified six year old girl brutally murdered by the I.D.F. Can I name any of the children who were murdered in Sudan? No, I can’t.
I don’t even know who the perpetrators are, or who the victims are, in this insanity that’s happening in Sudan.
On the one hand we have Gaza, where the media shamefully spent two years excusing the genocide. On the other, we have Sudan, where the media doesn’t even bother to cover it.
I still remember, how many in the West quite rightfully came together to oppose Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. But, these same people all of a sudden regarded themselves as apolitical agents when the genocide in Gaza started. Funny how they rebranded themselves so randomly, funny that! And of course, they didn’t even need to come up with an excuse for Sudan, they could just safely ignore it.
Would this have anything to do with the fact that Ukranians are mostly white, and mostly culturally similar to us in Ireland, Britain and the United States, while the people of Gaza and the people of Sudan are a bit too foreign for out liking?
As a society, we all need to take a long, hard look at ourselves. And figure out, how we’ve managed to create a world, where one genocide can be excused with meaningless drivel such as, “It’s complicated”, but with another, there’s no need to to even come up with drivel, it can just be safely ignored, the screams of those people not even reaching Western ears.
Free Palestine
Free Sudan
Ponderings Of An Autist 
2 thoughts on “What About The Other Injustices?”