Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt, thinks September 11th attacks were "defensible"

[afeelingunacted]

What the absolute fuck pic.twitter.com/ofyBwxxWBP
- Casey Stegman (querying) (@cstegman) November 16, 2023

• In a series of now deleted tweets the author condemned The Guardian taking down Bin Laden's Letter to America in which he reveals his reasoning behind the September 11th attacks
• Felker-Martin called destroying the twin towers "principled" and "

Comments

[afeelingunacted]

I get into a lot of arguments on here with people saying criticizing Israel isn't antisemitism, which I agree with, but this is a classic example of how antisemitism works in leftist spaces.

On the surface this is just a wild, unhinged tweet but the second I saw it, it pinged in my head as antisemitic because of Gretchen's previous posts where she defended the Hamas terror attacks and then claimed that was okay because she would cheer on indigenous people trying to kill her. Yes, really. This is in the same vein. It's antisemitism but with steps so she can justify what she's saying as moral.

I noticed a lot of people on twitter misinterpreting her apology as "the drugs made me do it". If you actually read what she wrote it was Israel made her do it. The drugs are something she's going to take to relieve her stress.

It's a real "heads I win, tales you lose". To her, the death of innocent Jewish civilians is to be celebrated because of what Israel did. But conversely the death of Palestinians made her so upset she just had to celebrate the death of American civilians because Bin Laden had some points (most of that letter is an anti-Jewish screed. I am alarmed she read that or claims to have read that and was like "Well, actually...").

But don't worry this was all a mistake, once again caused by the Jews, Israel. She will be taking no further questions.

[fauxkaren]

This is where I am too.

Criticizing Israel is NOT anti-Semitism. Because... you know... you should be able to criticism any government bombing civilians and killing thousands of them.

But some people are definitely using criticism of Israel as a smoke screen for their anti-Semitism and it's important that people look at voices they are amplifying and check to see which category the person they're amplifying falls into.

[afeelingunacted]

100%

Also this isn't a zero sum game. You can be horrified by the October attacks AND outraged and horrified at the Israeli decimation of Gaza. Many pro-Palestine activists manage both!

I think that sort of binary "There can only be ONE bad person" leads to this sort of thinking and it's fucking dangerous because you're looking for confirmation to deny the humanity of a group of people.

[euraylie]

They most definitely are using it as a smokescreen. I’ve seen people on the left now claiming the Holocaust was not “special” and people should basically get over it.

[progression]

Jfc. I just tried to watch a clip of Finding Your Roots with Mandy Patinkin that showed up on FB and had to stop as they described how families (including his relatives) were forced to report to the ghetto. It’s not new information for me, but it was just too much to think about whole families being eliminated.

(It’s the same way I feel about whole Palestinian families being eliminated by Israel right now. My heart and brain can’t just go “Oh well, they’re Jewish or Muslim or Rwandan or (insert anything here) so their deaths don’t mean anything because I’m fighting for the rights of this other group of people.” Not if they’re just innocent people living on this planet.)

[euraylie]

This exactly! But people online are treating this a football game or a stan war where anything goes.

[ohyesbinch]

Exactly this. I'm terrible at phrasing it, but this is what I've been trying to say to others. Of course what Isreal is doing is wrong. but that doesnt make it suddenly ok what hamas did either. It's really hard to articulate that without people immediately jumping up and down screaming about how you're a zionist and jewish people are actually soulless monsters. People are VERY black and white MY TEAM vs YOUR TEAM about this which is just absolutely horrific because theres never a situation ever where unsuspecting civilians get attacked and murdered is justifiable nor acceptable.

Its not true right now with isreal and gaza, it wasnt true in rwanda in the 90s, and it wasnt true with september 11th either. Its never justifiable for any reason no matter how downtrotted you may be, to suddenly run out and start killing people at random. America of all people should know that with how many fking mass shootings we have every month and how on edge we are because of it. An attack on innocent civilians is never a noble gesture, no matter what your cause.

[emmanium]

Yeah, some leftists definitely have some unchecked antisemitism. And it's so wild to me because honestly it should be pretty damn easy to separate Israel/Zionism from Jewish people but I guess not? Those ppl end up telling on themselves, though.

[2_on]

i'm dying @ her saying she would cheer on indigenous people trying to kill her, like a whole bunch of indigenous people stabbing her and she's like "yasss! stab me harder! you're doing so good!"

[headcaseheidi]

it’s probably a kink 🤢

[roomgirl]

It sounds so ridiculous on its face, but I honestly do believe this is a common justification among the "eye for an eye" set like her to mitigate the disconnect between their perceived right to bloodthirst and how they benefit on other axes. The only way to still be in the right under such a philosophy is to say something mindless and unactionable like "I would totally let this marginalized group mow me down if it came to that. That's just how selfless and aware of my privilege I am. 😇"

[headcaseheidi]

i thankfully haven’t seen her posts for ages since i left twitter, but i remember her making a lot of subtly misogynistic takes under the guise of attacking “kink shamers” and “scolds” and getting roundly cheered on for it 🤡

glad to see her stupidity extends elsewhere

[ferelden]

YES. I am so fucking wary of people when it comes to talking about Israel. I’ve had too many people (some friends, some friends of friends) say some very antisemitic things when they should have said anti-Zionist things. Or they’ll ask my opinions on Israel/Palestine by starting with the phrase “As a Jew.”

[damaliaraya]

I don’t think a meaningful conversation has ever started with someone asking how someone felt as *insert marginalized group here*. It just feels bad faith

[ferelden]

I know they were really surprised when I didn’t want to continue the conversation.

[walterwhiteh2o]

Thank you for this. As a Jew who is against the Israeli government, I really need people to understand that Jews don't equal Israel, that Hamas don't equal Palestine, and that you can condemn both the deaths of Palestinian civilians and the deaths of Jewish civilians.

I'm trying to stay away from social media for my mental health right now, I'm really scared of the growth of antisemitism