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A week of NYPD attacking Free Palestine Protestors, social media companies being pro-genocide and going to a free Palestine March in Brooklyn

A re-reading of the news through an anarchist lens

Design by Naomi Gennery @nn.aa.ii

Hi, I’m Marcela: I’m a comedian, I live Brooklyn, and I really like to tell people how to feel about the news. After wowing zoomers all over on TikTok by giving them news with a sense of humour and anarchy, I decided to start a weekly Sunday newsletter to share my feelings about more news. 

My weekly newsletter has evolved into this beautiful Tuesday weekly news column for shado which also covers international news. I hope the newsletter keeps you informed and makes you laugh a little. We live in hell and I believe humour helps keep this place a little bit cooler.

I’m sharing my feelings about NYPD attacking free Palestine protestors , social media companies being pro-genocide, and going to a free Palestine protest in Brooklyn. 

Onto the news… 

News that made me bring up the UFC

The NYPD attacked Free Palestine protestors in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn on Saturday 21st October. No one is surprised by this attack because one thing we can count on the NYPD to do is uphold injustice and oppression. Just like one thing we can count on Eric Adams to do is to be at a party. Some people don’t like that Eric Adams parties. I wish he would party so much that he forgets he is mayor. I think the City of New York would be a lot safer if Eric Adams didn’t actually do any of his mayoral duties. Nonetheless, this is not just about Eric Adams.

It’s about video footage of David Lamarre, a Strategic Response Group (SRG) sergeant punching protestors like he is in a UFC ring. SRG is a criminal organisation created in 2015 to fight against terrorism. Ironically, the group that was created to counter terror is actually carrying out the terror. Or should I say unironically because what do we expect from the NYPD other than terror and horrible outfits. Sorry not sorry to tell you this, NYPD, but you look as terrible on the outside as you are on the inside.

SRG is a terrorist organisation which the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) has said should be disbanded. The NYCLU didn’t call the SRG a terrorist group, I’m calling them that because they are. You can trust me on this one because never in my life have I ever mistaken terrorism for self-defence. Maybe that’s why I’m not president of an evil empire known as the United States of America. SRG brutalised protestors during the George Floyd uprising and continues to brutalise activists in NYC with hopes of preventing people from protesting a despotic state.

SRG is doing what it was meant to do. When you are a despotic state that wants to maintain power, protesting is terrorism to you. No despotic regime has ever said, yes, please tell us what we are doing is wrong, loudly in the streets. Despotic regimes know what they are doing is wrong and that’s precisely why they don’t want people talking about it, just ask the occupying Israeli government and any group fitness instructor. No, Jim. Me laying down is not to challenge your authority, I’m simply taking a nap because you just made me hold a plank for 45 seconds.

Looking at this footage of David punching people who were protesting genocide highlights one thing about the state of our world which I will keep saying until I don’t have to say it anymore.  The people committing terror are accusing the people fighting against terror of being terrorists!  The NYPD claims that David, the person who is clearly the aggressor, is only attacking criminals in the crowd. Of course I know the NYPD lies more than a teenager who broke curfew, but not everyone knows that.

It’s doublespeak that allows the oppressor to carry out extreme violence without backlash. Someone should tell George Orwell that authoritarians are plagiarising his book 1984. It’s okay if you didn’t read that book in high school, just read the news from non pro-genocide media outlets.

News that made me tell you the real purpose of social media 

@eye.on.palestine, an account which gives updates on the ongoing genocide in Gaza, has been locked out of Instagram. Meanwhile Joe Biden, a pro-genocide troll who happens to be president of the so-called United States of America, gets to keep his Instagram account. I think if anyone should lose their account it’s the guy questioning how many people died in a genocide, not the account covering the genocide. Yes, Joe Biden did use fancy political speeches to say the Palestinians are lying about how many people died because he is just as pro-genocide as Instagram is.

In addition to banning a largely followed account, Instagram has also been shadow banning users who post Pro-Palestinian content. Instagram isn’t alone in this. Other social media platforms including TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have been accused by users for shadow banning or removing Pro-Palestinian content. Looks like the social media platforms had brunch together and decided, covering genocide is bad but letting the manosphere thrive is good. I mean the purpose of social media is for men to post two-hour videos of how they are being oppressed by women, right? We do live in a pro-genocide manosphere, so this makes sense.

The social media companies are reflecting the bias of western media companies like BBC and CNN which have also blatantly disregarded Palestinian lives. This is because the purpose of western media has always been to maintain white supremacy and give terrible white men jobs. I assume everyone knows the media reinforces white supremacy because Tucker Carlson exists. Even bell hooks in black looks explains, “when most black people in the United States first had the opportunity to look at film and television, they did so fully aware that mass media was a system of knowledge and power reproducing and maintaining white supremacy”.

Social media companies didn’t want Palestinians and other anti-zionists to counter the lies being told by western media because they are capitalist organisations that gain from maintaining white supremacy and colonialism spearheaded by the so-called United States of America. The only way to maintain white supremacy and colonialism is through lies.

Through social media, anti-colonial accounts were able to finally reveal the so-called United States of America and the occupying Israeli government as the genociders they are. Additionally, many people learned western media’s role in supporting colonialism and genocide. Shocker! News outlets owned by capitalists who gain from colonialism support colonialism.

When people saw the truth via accounts like @eye.on.palestine, they learned the truth and went to the streets to demand the liberation of Palestinians. Liberating Palestine means ending imperialism everywhere and that’s something the so-called United States and Israeli governments don’t want. 

That’s why when the lies of self-defence from the occupying zionist government were revealed, the Israeli government turned off the internet in Gaza. The Israeli government wants to keep the genocide and colonialism going and the government doesn’t want us to know about it because we’ve made it clear we don’t want it. When I say us and we, I mean people who are anti-genocide and anti-colonialism which doesn’t include Amy Schumer.

News that made me feel like I finally had a squad

On Saturday the 28th October I went to a protest in Brooklyn along with thousands of other people to protest genocide in Palestine. It made me happy to see so many people outside the Brooklyn Bridge together ready to take the streets for the same cause. New Yorkers do agree on one thing, hating Eric Adams. It was nice to see so many people brought together by love instead of hate. Though hating Eric Adams is kind of like love. We hate him because he makes people’s lives miserable and I think that’s love.

I didn’t realise how much it would impact me to see so many people gathered together because of love. We all love humanity and the Palestinians and we went out to the streets to let the world know. We could have all easily spent our Saturday day drinking and frolicking in the park. I’m not judging anyone who did this, frolicking and day drinking are things we all need to get through capitalism. It’s just to have thousands of people out in the street calling for the end of genocide, condemning Joe Biden for supporting genocide, and naming settler colonialism as the problem almost brought me to tears.

Usually I feel like I’m sitting on an Island all by myself when I’m screaming that the United States is an evil empire and people look at me like I don’t make any sense. By screaming I don’t actually mean screaming, I mean saying the United States is evil over and over again until everyone stops talking to me at the party. This time I wasn’t the only one calling out settler colonialism as the root of all evil at a party. I felt like I had an anti-imperialist squad with me. I wish I could take them everywhere because for the first time in a long time I didn’t feel alienated from others for my thoughts. Turns out saying Joe Biden is the sith lord in a suit is very controversial and people will hate you for bringing it up.

💌

I wanted to talk about my experience at the protest to remind everyone that if your thoughts are for a better world, all these people marching out in the streets should remind you there are others out there. Right now we are screaming at world leaders appointed by capitalists to stop the genocide being funded by our labor. Yes, world leaders are appointed, democracy is a sham, and cheerios are gross. Sorry if you like them.

Nothing on this planet happens without our labour yet we don’t make the decisions. It makes me feel like we are the robots in I, Robot except for much cuter. The robots have to obey the rules laid out by people who oppress them and the greatest fear is one day they will break these rules and set themselves free.

Let’s be our oppressors’ greatest fear. Let’s love each other so much that we march on the streets and do whatever it takes to free Palestine and free each other.

Last week on TikTok I asked why we live in a world where we are asking who bombed a hospital. 

@feelthenewswithmarcela Colonizers are going to colonize. Subscribe to my newsletter so you can ger more news from me. #leftist #leftisttiktok #freepalestine🇵🇸❤️ #anarchism #feelthenews ♬ original sound – Feel the News


See ya later,

Marcela 

What can you do?

  • On 4th November, there’s a march inWashington D.C  for Palestine. Please go if you can.
  • I’ll be hosting my show Feel the News, the comedy show on 4th November in Brooklyn at 8pm at Friends and Lovers. Come hang out with me. You can buy tickets here
  • Other resources:
  • If you enjoy my writing and would like me to be able to do more of it please become a paying Feel the News subscriber
  • Read my previous column HERE
Design by Naomi Gennery @nn.aa.ii
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