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padawanlost · 4 years

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Can I confess something? I know that positivity is “better” than negativity, and people are allowed to have their opinions, but there is something about Pro-Jedi “they did nothing wrong, absolutely no flaws, but were ONLY destroyed by Palpatine” arguments that makes me kind of uncomfortable. Nevermind that half of it is sourced by Disney revisionist canon, it’s just… there is something in the “the intent was good, but this is harmful” “NO ITS 100% GOOD ACTUALLY” that makes my skin crawl. Sorry

I feel you, anon. I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. It worries me how defensive some people are getting. I mean, I love my favorite fictional characters too. I think that’s absolutely normal, and loving a fictional character whether they are the heroes or the villains doesn’t say anything about who we are as people. Admitting we love Anakin or Darth Vader doesn’t immediately make us favorable to torture, war, fascism, murder and corruption.

However, the arguments we use to explain a characters behavior do say something about who we are. And some arguments being used by the star wars fandom are downright scary. You know, there’s a difference between saying ‘I don’t like Padmé because she’s not the type of character I’m usually interested in’ and saying ‘Padmé is useless weak bitch because she died’. One is about you expressing your taste and the other is you showing the world your sexism.

It’s the same with Anakin, Vader and every one fictional character in existence, regardless of fandom. there’s nothing wrong with loving Anakin, but when you start advocating that genocide is a valid option, if you think women belong to men, that torture works and authoritarianism makes the world better, I’m not gonna lie, warning bells do go off in my head.

It’s the same with the Jedi. there’s nothing wrong with loving and supporting them because they were designed to liked by the audience. but once you start advocating that child slavery is not that bad, that war crimes are justified, that indoctrinating children is healthy, that mind controlling people against their will is a kindness, dismemberment is compassion, that child soldiers are a valid option and that the enslavement of poc characters is a necessity…MAYBE the issue here is no longer about fictional characters.

It’s ironic because if an Anakin fan says Anakin was right in slaughtering the tusken raiders, most people – anakin fans included – will be outraged by notion that genocide and mass murder should ever be considered the right solution to any problem. we love Anakin but we also know he made mistakes and what those mistakes were. it’s not about defending him, it’s about acknowledging certain things are simply wrong even if they are done by fictional characters we love.

Weirdly enough, when it comes to the Jedi nothing seems to be wrong enough to some people. everything is justifiable: war crimes, child endangerment, slavery, etc. Nothing seems to be bad enough that they can’t find a way to justify it. And that scares me. because it has become so obvious these issues only matter when the jedi are harmed by them.

The most current example of this is the The Clone Wars series finale. The episode was heavily focused on the massive loss of clones lives that happened during Order 66 and yet some fans were outraged that their white favorites weren’t the main focus of the episode because THEY SUFFERED SO MUCH MORE. It’s the same with fans rapidly turning on Ahsoka, the Martez sisters and even Filoni for so much as hinting they didn’t agree with the Order’s decisions.

You know, it’s not about them defending the Jedi is about how and why they defend them. Saying I don’t care what the jedi did because I love them is fine. Saying I love the Jedi because they never did anything wrong and then writing a long ass essay on why the lives of POC characters don’t matter is not. It sickens me to see people spend a lot of time writing fucking books desperately trying to justify why not helping Kitster, Ahsoka, Barriss or the younglings hunted for sport was the right call at the same they romanticize Obi-wan’s short enslavement as the one of the most tragic things that has ever happening the entire franchise.

Imo, that’s pretty telling. I don’t know if they are racist or just really, really insecure about their own taste but it does makes me wonder about who they are as people. it sounds harsh even to me to say this but the truth is this does goes beyond fiction. this shit has affected people in real life. I mean, every once in a while I see a jedi ‘stan’ telling someone Karen Traviss hated the Jedi and that she was the personification of everything that’s evil about people who criticize the Jedi Order. Look, I don’t know anything about who she is a person but I do know the same Jedi stans spent years sending her death and RAPE threats for being critical of the FICTIONAL CHARACTERS even after she wrote a long letter explaining she didn’t actually hate the Jedi. I don’t know where everyone moral compass is pointing at but *I* was raised to believe that wishing a woman dead and/or raped is NEVER the best answer.

But somehow people who say ‘I love the jedi even if they weren’t perfect’ are being portrayed as the villainous, irrational fans who are ruining everything and attacking everyone. I sleep well at night knowing i never tried to pass actual crimes that harm actual people as good, righteous things just to make fictional characters look better.

It’s not about hating the Jedi the same way that acknowledging Anakin’s crimes is not about hating on Anakin. It’s about recognizing that something that is legally and morally wrong in real life is also wrong in fiction, specially when the fiction world was build as a political parallel of our own. We are not saying war crimes and slavery is wrong because we hate the say, we are saying war crimes and slavery are wrong because THEY ARE WRONG. If our love and support for fictional characters can so easily blind us to real life morality then maybe we should do some soul searching before going to such lengths to justify something considered a heinous crime in both fictional and real world

A few days ago I was trying to get a coworker to start watching Breaking Bad. We were talking about Walter White and why he was such iconic character. he’s clearly not a great guy but that doesn’t mean we don’t love the character. I think that’s the difference some fans have a hard time grasping: the difference between a good character and a good person. I have seen many fans saying WW’s actions were cool, badass, ‘manly’ or whatever but I’ve never seen anyone trying to pass drug trafficking and murder as morally superior choices.

That’s what I’m trying to say. We can love (or hate) fictional characters for whatever reason we want. but how we go about justifying their actions and how we react to those who disagree with our views do say a lot about who we are. I mean, there’s a big difference between saying ‘it was so cool to watch Darth Vader is laughter all those red shirts in Rogue One’ and saying ‘and war crimes are a necessary part of life, Darth Vader was morally justified in slaughter them all and those who disagree with me are haters’.

Taste doesn’t really said anything about who we are but behavior does. Loving or hating a fictional characters doesn’t make us better or worse than anyone. But what we have to say about fictional and how we behave around other fans do say a lot about who we are.

Fandom is a community and like any community nothing and no one is perfect. Pretending ‘everything is awesome’ is choice, of couse, but one i’m not very fond of.

#ask #anon #sw meta #meta: fandom #jedi order #txt

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wionews · 6 years

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South Africa blighted by racially charged farm murders

"They beat him with a pole... and you could hear the bones breaking," said Debbie Turner, recounting her husband's murder in a slow, defiant voice.

She refuses to talk about him in the past tense and sleeps with a photo of him close by.

"I miss him so terribly -- it's just so hard," she said, sitting in front of the frail-care unit that has been her home since the attack at their farm.

Robert "Oki" Turner, 66, was beaten to death before her eyes six months ago on their isolated stretch of mountain land in South Africa's northeastern Limpopo province.

He was one of the latest victims of a long campaign of violence against the country's farmers who are largely white.

The rural crime epidemic has inflamed political and racial tensions nearly a quarter-of-a-century after the fall of apartheid.

Farm murders are just one issue that reveals how South Africa is struggling with violence, an economic slowdown and divisions along race lines.

The Turners moved to the verdant region, half-way between Kruger national park and Zimbabwe, some 30 years ago.

On their property, which spans dozens of acres, they grew gum trees which they sold to craftsmen or for firewood.

"Until about four or five years ago, we were very open. We didn't have a key for our house -- we would go away and nothing would have happened," she said.

But then the extreme violence that had long afflicted major cities engulfed rural areas like theirs.

Break-ins, hostage takings and killings became common -- with attackers often making off with just a few hundred rand (less than $20), a mobile phone or a hunting rifle.

The Turners were targeted after nightfall on June 14 when two armed men stormed their farm. Debbie was alone after her husband stepped out to fix a water tap.

- Savagely beaten -

"They said 'we want money'. I said I haven't got money," recounted Debbie.

"They dragged me all over the house and put me under the shower and turned it on and left me for 15 minutes.

"Then they decided to try to rape me. I said 'please don't rape me, I've got HIV'."

Sometime later, Oki was found slumped motionless covered in blood after being savagely beaten by the attackers searching for the key to the couple's safe.

He died in hospital a few hours later.

Dozens of white farmers are murdered in similar circumstances in South Africa every year.

In the absence of detailed statistics, the scope and scale of the crimes has become a battleground.

AfriForum, a pressure group that advocates on behalf of the country's nine-percent-strong white population, is one of the forces seeking to shape the debate around farm murders.

"Farmers are living in remote areas, they are far from police stations," said the group's vice president, Ernst Roets.

"There are political factors that play a role here. We are concerned about hate speech, political leaders who... would say for example 'the white farmers should be blamed for everything'."

He is particularly damning of Julius Malema, the firebrand leader of South Africa's radical left, who has called on his followers to "retake the land" from whites.

In 2012 President Jacob Zuma sang a struggle-era song containing the words "shoot the farmer, shoot the Boer".

Agriculture, like much of South Africa's economy, remains in the hands of the white descendants of colonial-era settlers.

White farmers control 73 percent of arable land in the country compared with 85 percent when apartheid ended in 1994, according to a recent study.

Calls for "radical economic transformation" to benefit the black majority have gained traction as unemployment has soared.

They are frequently coupled with accusations that the white minority control a disproportionate share of the nation's wealth.

- 'We built this country' -

That narrative has alarmed many white rural communities.

"We're being hunted," said Pauli, a 43-year-old farmer who declined to give her surname.

More militant white farmers describe the violence they face as "genocide" and use the casually racist rhetoric of the apartheid era.

"They (black people) truly think that we have stolen the country from them," Limpopo-based farmer Gerhardus Harmse told AFP.

"We built this country, show me anything, any place that the blacks built -- there isn't any. They cannot build, they destroy."

The radical fringe has become increasingly vocal.

Last month, some supporters flew the flag of the old white-minority government during a protest against farm murders.

The demonstration called on the government to guarantee farmers special protection -- something that police minister Fikile Mbalula categorically refused.

"All deaths of all South Africans must be met with disgust," wrote Mbalula in a Twitter post. "My problem is that farm murders are racialised and politicised."

While black farmers have so far been largely reluctant to march with their white colleagues, they face many of the same risks.

"We don't feel protected by the government," said Vuyo Mahlati, president of the African Farmers Association of South Africa.

"We need to deal with everyone trying to utilise farming as a centre of a right-wing political discourse. That we are not going to allow."

- 'I will go back' -

Feeling abandoned by the government, many white farmers have taken steps to protect themselves.

Some patrol their land under moonlight, pistols tucked into their belts, to deter would-be attackers.

Others undergo commando training in anticipation of the worst.

Among them is Marli Swanepoel, 37, who owns a farm in Limpopo.

"You have to be prepared. You have to protect yourself," said the mother-of-three.

Hans Bergmann was recently assaulted on his farm, but takes a different approach.

Some weeks ago, armed men broke in to rob his safe, tied him up and shot him in the foot.

"In South Africa everybody thinks farmers have a lot of money," he said.

Bergmann, who is in his sixties, declines to carry a gun or abandon his land.

"I just accept it... where do I go from here if I leave the farm?" he said.

Debbie Turner is scathing of the police who have yet to catch her husband's killers -- or even take a statement from her.

"It shows that what happened that night doesn't mean anything to these people," she said.

"I'm angry against those people who killed my husband. Sometimes I wish they could hang them."

But she will not be leaving any time soon, vowing: "One day I will go back to the mountain."

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