Thomas Wictor

I wrote “ISIS” for reasons of search-engine optimization (SEO). The terrorist organization actually calls itself the Islamic State. Regardless of the name, most people don’t oppose this group. Today some Twitter users explained to me why: If they condemn ISIS, that will make it impossible for them to continue hating Christianity, the United States, and Israel. And their hate defines them.

It began with this statement.

I don’t know where Cordie Mendoza is from, because I never look at Twitter users’ profiles. Today two Twitter users blathered to me about their number of followers. Well, maybe that means something to you, but I’m totally indifferent. Having a massive number of Twitter followers doesn’t mean anything except that you have a massive number of Twitter followers.

Need I say more?

I got into an argument with Cordie Mendoza about Christian atrocities committed against Native Americans. Cordie has no factual knowledge on the topic. He didn’t know that Native Americans committed unspeakable atrocities against each other, and he cobbled together a babyish straw man to explain why I was informing him of this fact.

I didn’t bother telling Cordie that I’m not Christian, and I’m an eighth Santee Sioux. He’s incredibly lacking in the repartee department, crippled by a dependence on emoticons.

Several other Twitter users on the thread share Cordie’s view that there’s no difference between Christianity and the Islamic State.

This one thinks Americans are worse than the Islamic State.

ISIS sells DVDs of its atrocities. They don’t sell postcards because those are relics of a bygone era. What amazes me about Twitter is the uninhibited presentation of mutilated corpses. Nobody gives you a warning, and nobody ever complains. They’re all benumbed.

Then I had my epiphany: Most people don’t oppose the Islamic State because they think that such condemnation will make them appear pro-Christian, pro-American, or pro-Jewish. These people are all defined by their hatred. They can’t ever give it up; more importantly, they can’t be perceived as giving it up. I used to think that they minimized Muslim atrocities out of condescension—the soft bigotry of low expectations—but now I realize that they’re terrified of being seen as on the same side as Christians, Americans, or Jews.

To much of the world, those three categories are the same. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia infamously said, “An Englishman is a Jew.” There are billions who see the United States as did pro-Nazi Norwegian artist Harald Damsleth in 1944.

At the bottom it says, “USA will save Europe’s culture from decline. By what right?”

The poster has everything Twitter users love to hate about the US: Jews, dollars, warmongering, sexism, racism, organized crime, black people, the Ku Klux Klan, patriotism, industry, Native Americans, and pop music.

What I like about the poster is its self-nullification. It disdains both black people and racism, crime and prisons, prosperity and poverty, beauty and ugliness. It’s the work of a mental patient, a man driven insane by his hate.

Most of the world hates Christianity, the US, or Jews so much that it refuses to defend itself against Islamic terrorism. Even recognizing the threat might make someone think you’re pro-Christian, pro-American, or pro-Jew. Most of the world also doesn’t care when Muslims murder Muslims. The Islamic State just massacred Palestinians in the Syrian refugee camp of Yarmouk.

ISIS militants besieging a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria’s capital have savagely beheaded the leaders of a Hamas-linked group opposed to President Bashar Assad, it has been claimed.

Having seized control of up to 90 per cent of the Yarmouk camp in south Damascus, the jihadis posted gruesome images showing the severed heads of two alleged members of Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis online.

Like ISIS, the Palestinian group has declared Israel its sworn enemy, although its presence in Yarmouk has until now been to defend the camp’s 18,000 residents from a crippling two year siege carried out by the Assad regime.

ISIS’ decision to publicly execute the men - as well as reports of the deaths of dozens more Palestinians during clashes inside Yarmouk - has prompted outrage in Gaza, where hundreds of furious Hamas supporters swore bloody revenge on the terror group during a march yesterday.

Hundreds of residents of the Yarmouk camp fled yesterday amid shelling by government forces and clashes between ISIS fighters and Palestinian militants, activists said.

An activist based in an area just south of Damascus, Hatem al-Dimashqi, said many residents started fleeing the camp after midnight as the fighting let up. The camp has been subjected to intense shelling and airstrikes by government warplanes allegedly carrying barrel bombs.

It’s like a macabre joke. Palestinian refugees are getting shelled and barrel-bombed by the Syrians, massacred by ISIS, and murdered by Hamas.

And guess what? The only people on Twitter talking about this ghastliness are Palestinians and…Israelis.

My engagement with the Kultur-Terror crowd veered—without warning or logic—from religion to the inevitable.

No idea what that meant, but I decided to ask about what was happening to the Palestinians in Syria.

See? They come right out and admit it. Unless they can use a given atrocity against Christians, the US, or Jews, they’re simply not interested. That’s why most of the world doesn’t oppose the Islamic State. They can’t use Islamic State atrocities against Christians, the US, or Jews, and they’re terrified of being perceived by their hive-mates as being pro-Christian, pro-American, or pro-Jewish.

It’s one of the reasons I never look at a Twitter user’s profile. All I care about is the content of the tweet.

Some namedropping: I tweet to the author-poet Kola Boof and the comedian Roseanne Barr. What unites us is our support for Israel. In the case of Kola (who asked me to call her that), I also love her writing. I admire Ms. Barr for her skill at surviving and prospering, her intelligence, and the brilliant film She-Devil.

I would never—under any circumstances—impose my various beliefs on these two women. That would be very disrespectful. The basis of our cyber relationship is Israel and my fandom. Those are the parameters. I’m not defined by my beliefs; as a multifaceted person, I can appreciate art without having to be in 100 percent agreement with the artist. In fact I prefer not knowing anything personal about artists.

Since I belong to no group, I’m not worried that people will think I’m (fill-in-the-blank) for tweeting to Kola and Roseanne Barr. All three of us support Israel, and I’m a fan of their art.

The end.

Well, not quite the end. Here’s a better way to end this post.

Croatian terrorists dying exist. Translucently.