Truth Is Truth — Even If We Choose to Look Away

The cliche is also true — it will set you free!

Who remembers the Tarantino gangster movie, Reservoir Dogs, about a botched bank robbery?

There’s a scene where some of the robbers, who all go by pseudonyms, are meeting up at their rendezvous point, a huge disused warehouse. One of the characters, Mr Blonde, played by Michael Madsen, is criticised by Mr White, played by Harvey Keitel, for killing loads of civilians, including a 21-year-old woman.

Mr Blonde attempts to justify his action by saying, ‘If they hadn’t done what I told them not to do, they’d still be alive.’

Would you agree that is a typically inhumane psychopathic response? I don’t think anyone would argue with me about that, would they?

Likewise, we sometimes see others with terrible anger management issues, running amok, creating chaos and destroying lives but refusing to accept responsibility for their actions. They say things like, ‘Look what you’ve made me do.’ We’ve all seen them, haven’t we?

In civilised societies, when we see people reacting to things with disproportionate levels of aggression, we call it out, don’t we? The law on self-defence states that we can use ‘reasonable force’ to diffuse a situation and the same rules are incorporated into religions — ‘Eye for an eye,’ for example.

If we’re all agreed so far, therefore, you can see why I am so sickened when a nuclear-armed state — a superpower on the world stage — is dishing out death and destruction at unprecedented levels, breaking records in the amount of violence it has inflicted in such a short time, and breaking international law to the point that most of the world is looking on in horror, and some people attempt to justify it by saying things like:

‘Well, Hamas shouldn’t have done what they did on 7 October,’

Or

‘Well, Hamas are using those people as human shields.’

OR

‘Give back the hostages then.’

Is it just me, or can others see that those statements sound as though they have come out of Mr Blonde’s mouth?

NOTHING can justify what is taking place in Gaza. NOTHING. Regardless of whether you call it genocide, ethnic cleansing or anything else, it is what it is — and that is atrocious. I cannot believe what I am seeing, and I cannot believe how governments such as ours, backed by the media, have enabled this.

This is the first time I have spoken so bluntly, but I have to stand up for my values. There is nothing that would make me happier than to see a peaceful solution. I long for a time when there is no violence and no hostage-taking. Let’s be clear about that. I do condemn those things.

However, if you believe that what is taking place is just, we do not share the same values, and I am not interested in interacting with you. The other day, I blocked someone because they were supporting and sharing very weak posts attempting to justify the Israeli slaughter of innocent civilians.

I am not here to argue. I am here to show up and show who I am. If you don’t like it, you know what do to.