What does the above graphic mean?
In mathematics, we graph lines by equations. The point where two lines intersect is the point where their equations are equal. For example:
The blue line has a formula of y = x + 4.
The red line has a formula of y = 2x + 1.
When are these two formulas equal? When x = 3.
When x = 3, both of these equal 7.
That’s why the lines intersect at the (x, y) point (3, 7) — just above the 3 and to the right of the 7 on the graph.
This graph indicates that parody and reality have interacted in such a way that there’s no longer a clear distinction — we’re past the point where they’ve equalled out.
As indeed we are.
Atrocity Denial
Despite the literal livestreaming of Hamas atrocities, there are plenty of apologists for Hamas who deny that they happened at all.
To me, this is somewhat better than the people who flat-out justify rape, torture, and brutal murder of civilians as “resistance.” I say it’s better even though the justification brigade is actually something I’m reasonably satisfied with—I like it when psychopaths self-diagnose, in public.
If anyone who matters to me were so stupid, morally bankrupt, or depraved as to deny Hamas atrocities, I would try to use this tactic against them. I would say, “You don’t think Hamas did the things that I assert they did. Does that mean we agree that those actions, if they were committed, would constitute barbaric atrocities?”
If the person said no, they’d be out of my life, instantly. I have enough trust issues without adding that to the complex calculus of emotional baggage I carry around. If the person said yes, I’d get downright mean until they watched some of the videos that Hamas filmed on GoPros and livestreamed, themselves. (Yes, there are videos of some of the atrocities online. Yes, I am sufficiently moronic to have given myself additional nightmares by watching them. No, I’m not going to link to them. They weren’t hard to find and won’t be for your kids, so for heaven’s sake, monitor your kids’ internet access, people.)
Three Parts Justification, One Part Denial
Where we’ve crossed the line of parody inversion is the case of atrocity justification that merges with atrocity denial. Why is this worse than either flat-out justification or flat-out denial?
Because it takes the horrors of what Hamas has done and minimizes and denies them, while attributing any scrap of human kindness to Hamas.
Twitter is full of pictures of hostages smiling as they return to Israel, with influencers making disgusting and pedophilic remarks about adolescent girls being in love with their captors. I am not linking to or screencapping that depravity.
But here’s a specific example for you.
Someone posted a video on Twitter of Emily Hand’s family talking about how she won’t eat without offering her food to others first. The adult hostages with whom she was kept for part of her seven weeks in captivity consistently gave their food to the children.
Of course, they edited the video and claimed that the compassionate sharing of food with whoever was most hungry was done by…Hamas.
Yes, really. There are people whose Jew hatred rises to the level that they would actually dare to diminish the atrocity of kidnapping and terrorizing a nine-year-old girl by crediting the kindness of other hostages to her kidnappers.
Oh, it gets worse. So much worse.
Twitter influencers were posting the video in earnest, including claiming that the child had benefited from this—that Hamas taught her manners, empathy, caring, and compassion.
Community Notes eventually stepped in, but so far the influencers — including Saira Rao, the bestselling author and major anti-racist activist who runs non-sexual BDSM sessions for white women wherein they pay for the privilege of serving dinner to Rao and her partner while being berated and verbally abused — are not deleting the tweet. They fully expect people to believe the propaganda version and ignore the Community Note.
The thread is full of people whose Jew hatred is so clear, direct, and unambiguous that they even go so far as to assert that Emily’s time as a hostage of a terrorist group was the first time she was around “real people” and that the hostages will want to go back to Gaza.
What, pray tell, were the Jews she spent the first nine years of her life around, if not people? I pray I never have to hear one of these monstrous animals answer that question.
A few more responses:
Note that the person Rao retweeted this from, as does one of the above commenters, directly connects Hamas to the Palestinian people.
Gosh, I wonder why?
Up until now, I would have said that the priors for truly outlandish claims should be on parody.
But we have crossed the parody inversion point, where the prior shifts to reality.
This is the point where, if I believed in God, I would say something both dramatic and sincere, something like “May God have mercy on us.”
But there are no gods, so I can only finish with the truest statement I know, today:
We are so totally fucked.
About Me and My Substack: I’m a data scientist whose great love is mathematics, but I also enjoy writing. My posts are mostly cultural takes from a broadly anti-Woke perspective—yes, I’m one of those annoying classical liberals who would’ve been considered on the left until ten seconds ago. Lately I’ve regained a childhood love of reading and started publishing book reviews. My most widely useful essay may be this one, about how to resist the demon of self-termination.
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Christ on a skateboard.
It's a strange new world, for sure. Awesome essay. Salute!