I don't think most people are fully grasping what happened to Omar Artan. Citizens of African countries cannot travel to the US without first navigating a highly restrictive, discriminatory visa process. Africans face the highest refusal rates globally, not only for US visas +
Remember how everyone rushed to use his photo, of his walking toward an IDF tank to advocate for the lives of his patients? Rushed to plaster it everywhere, rushed to make AI edits, art, whatever. That was in December 2024.
How often is he mentioned today? He is alive, he is being tortured and slowly killed - he, alongside every Palestinian hostage, must be freed.
"Cubaâs infant mortality rate for Black children is the same as for white children. Its Black population has life expectancy equal to its white population. No other nation in the Americas can make that claim...
đš New study shows the New York Times, the Associated Press, the Washington Post, CNN, Politico, USA Today and Axios collectively used the term "savage" 16 times for the killing of Israelis, but never for the killing of Palestinians.
Likewise, "slaughter" appeared 120 times in relation to the killing of Israelis, but only once for Palestinians.
"Massacre" was used 344 times in relation to Palestinians killing Israelis, but never for Israelis killing Palestinians.
"Barbaric" was used 14 times to describe the killing of Israelis, but zero times in relation to the deaths of Palestinians.
The cable coverage displayed a similar pattern.
MSNBC, presenters and guests used
"massacre" 177 times, "barbaric" 46 times, "savage" 23 times and "slaughter" 102 times in relation to Israeli deaths.
They never called the killing of Palestinians "barbaric" or "savage". In relation to Palestinians, they only used âmassacre" eight times and "slaughter" four times.
References to "savagery" and "barbarism" echo the logic of settler colonialism, identifying the uncivilised natives as a problem to be solved.
Credit: âHow to Sell a Genocide: Mediaâs Complicity in Genocideâ by Adam Johnson.
I reframe:
"President Ismail Omar Guelleh, who dissolved Djibouti's sovereign fund (FSD) discuss with Ethiopia's sovereign fund Chairman Dr Brook Taye about a pipeline to transport refined petroleum product from Doraleh oil terminal to Dawanle depot."
"but im a white guy working on ai"
you can only fucking lol at something so incomprehensibly ignorant and out of touch
let me get this straightâ
you were born and raised in quebec, and had the good fortune to study at mcgill - literally one of the world's best universities - for less than $5000 a year.
then you did graduate studies at waterloo - canada's top school for computer science, and earned a masters in maths and a phd there.
you then went on to move to America, work for Google, and later started your own ai company.
and the narrative you want to weave around your upbringing and training is that you ESCAPED canadian socialism?
so the socialism was good enough for you to grow up safe, have healthcare, receive a literal world-class education that helped you into one of the top technology firms in the world, but is also so bad that america has a moral imperative to ensure you, a technologist working there, should be granted permanent residency.
and if your lack of gratitude for your upbringing wasnt enough, you were promoting a presidential candidate who was vehemently opposed to immigration â while you, an immigrant, were staying in their country with a temporary visa.
i guess you can be smart enough to work on ai and quantum computing but still be dumb enough to not only think these things, but actually post them on twitter expecting sympathy