Now What? The Quotable Linkspam Version

via zeitgeistmovement:

Do not let the nationalistic and jingoistic “Hooray! The evil terrorist is dead!” mentality seep into your head. If anything, this will be used to control you and drive support for more foreign empire expansion.

via crownroyalonice:

My mind is blown at the reactions to Bin Laden’s death on FB. So many folks seem to be missing the fucking point. One of my sisters is in the military and has been since 1998. So, I’m coming to this on ideological and pragmatic level. Let me be clear: War is bullshit. Killing Bin Laden is not a magic bullet. You can’t be anti-imperialist one day and dancing around praising our imperialist activities the next day. I’m too through.

via zuky:

“We live in a society whose leaders speak of killing and humiliating their enemies with barely-concealed chest-thumping and juvenile macho posturing. We live in a society whose budgetary priorities demonstrate a violent obsession with body-shattering weaponry and a distinct lack of interest in the health and well-being of human beings…And it begins at the top: with the corporatist kleptocracy of the US government, the global gangster state which dominates and exploits through violence and intimidation and the hoarding of wealth, granting favors to loyal subjects, issuing threats to the unruly, and killing rivals. If we can eradicate the culture of violence and misogyny and crime at the top of our society, then just maybe we’ll have a shot of eradicating it at the bottom too.”

via radicallyhottoff:

i want different achievements. I want to set our collective USA mind to peace. peace that comes with liberation rather than violent subjugation. i don’t want any more cheering and USA chants when another person is killed.

Okay He’s Dead (a few more things to consider) AKA Harshing Your Squee, One Tweet At A Time

Yes, I built an entire post on tweets.

Yo, Dubya, how’s that Mission Accomplished working out now? Will Trump want to see his death certificate?

I see tweets like this: “OBL hijacked my religion & identity! For 10yrs our lives have been hell! Now I feel a mountain has been lifted!” and I cannot help but feel a little bit sad. Not to rain on anyone’s parade or co-opt experiences, but that is like claiming a post-racial society because President can now come before a name like Barack Hussein Obama. Or did we not pay attention for the past few years?

Here’s the thing, the xenophobia is n0t over. Come Wednesday (or considering this news cycle Monday night), when the national high of “Osama’s dead” wears off, we who don’t look quite right (white) still have to face a very xenophobic society. Right now, right this minute, people of color will still have to deal with xenophobia, because tweets like this: “It’s pretty awkard [sic] in my cab right now”, were thrown out with racist abandon and repeatedly retweeted- and not so that they could be critiqued, either.

My skin is still wrong. Your skin is still wrong if it is no’t white. Non-Christianity is still wrong. This did not change when Obama took office. This will not change because of Osama Bin Laden’s death.

Osama Bin Laden is dead.

Not even gonna lie or try to pretend otherwise, that feels damn good to write but I cannot, we cannot forget the overtones of imperialism and jingoism in all this, in the United States proudly declaring a victory won with the blood of one too many:

From President Obama’s speech: “No Americans were harmed.”

Be grateful. Pause.

“They took care to avoid civilian casualties.”

Reconsider.

Taking care does not mean that there weren’t any civilian casualties. Seemingly black and white news is definitely not black and white. No matter how much we want to shift that responsibility, this particular war won’t be won on the backs of a marginalized (though entirely reprehensible) person. It would be irresponsible to forget that there are wars going on, wars that will keep claiming lives even after this news because this is not a zero sum game.

I will be a good Lupe!stan and ask you to watch Lupe’s latest, “Words I Never Said”, because it is very relevant to our current interests. To quote Lupe Fiasco’s awesome tweet: “Now kill poverty, wack schools, and US imperialism”.

[youtube.com=”www.youtube.com/watch?v=22l1sf5JZD0″]