Streamer and commentator Hasan Piker said that “if” Palestinian fighters carried out rapes and sexual violence on October 7, it does not justify genocide against 2 million Palestinians in Gaza. CNN’s Dana Bash finds his remarks deeply objectionable.
No major human rights organization — including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, or the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory — has published findings confirming a single verified rape case from October 7.
The narrative was nonetheless amplified aggressively by Western media. CNN played a central role, broadcasting accounts that were later found to be unsubstantiated or fabricated, helping construct the justification framework for what human rights experts, including UN investigators, have called a genocide in Gaza.
The pattern employed by Bash has deep colonial roots. Allegations of sexual violence have repeatedly been weaponized to justify collective punishment, lynchings, and mass killing—from the U.S., where false claims were used to legitimize the lynching of Black men, to colonial contexts like Kenya under British rule and apartheid South Africa, where such accusations helped rationalize brutal repression against dehumanized populations seeking freedom and equal rights.
Almost 10 years of practicing as a therapist, and no textbook has ever taught us how to conduct therapy in the middle of war. No module explains what to do when, in the middle of a therapy session, the sound of enemy warplanes tears through the sky and both you and your patient freeze, convinced a bomb has just fallen nearby, only to realize few minutes after they are dropping threatening flyers instead.
There is no clinical guideline for how to continue holding space for this, and it’s not surprising because modern psychotherapy was developed in the West, where war is studied, analyzed, and theorized… but outsourced to the rest of us.
So therapists in places like #Lebanon, Gaza, Sudan, and beyond are left practicing therapy inside the very trauma we are helping people survive.
This is why conversations about decolonizing mental health matter. So let’s be careful when we talk about international frameworks/guidlines/best practices as universal truths, that can be simply exported to us. The future of global mental health will not be written only in Western textbooks, but in places that have been surviving war for generations.
Suicide
Today, let me tell you a crucial observation I've been researching about suicide
If you have ever, at the slightest period in your life, thought of committing suicide at some particular lowest periods of your life, then you should quickly start putting a mental health system in place in your life.
Suicide would first flash through your mind in the quickest of ways.
It will first come as that quick option, to which you will dismiss it immediately.
Now, you will dismiss the thought faster, because you believe your situation isn't worth "considering the option of suicide"
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Until that period where everything crumbles.
Nothing works
Everyone leaves
Financial life down
Love down
Meaning and purpose down.
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That's when suicide will flash through your mind again, and this time, based on the current phase you are in, your mind would start factoring it as a possible option.
And in this phase, you might have already isolated yourself away from people around you.
So as you are deliberating the option of suicide, you are doing so in extreme isolation and inside thinking.
Giving yourself reasons why that option might be the best
And unfortunately, no one is around to give second opinions.
So each passing day, the option of suicide becomes more grounded as the best choice.
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Now, at this phrase, you will enter a state of aggressively justification.
To take your own life, isn't an easy thing.
Your brain naturally protects you from harm.
So for you to now consciously harm yourself, it means you would have to sit your brain down and lecture it on why suicide is best for both of you.
By aggressively justifying the act.
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For instance,
You brain would say "But people care about you"
You would say "No one has checked up on me for the past 24 days"
Your brain would say "But your work pays you well and you can buy what you want"
You would say "I am not fulfilled doing the job anyways. I'm not happy in the workplace"
Your brain would counter again and say "But your children love you so much"
You would say "My mother would take care of them, when I leave"
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So your brain now works with that lecture, drops all it's coping mechanisms and defence strategies, and enters a state of compliance.
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At this stage, the person is a walking dead.
They have made up their mind and it's now a matter of when.
It takes a very strong pull to remove them from this state. A very strong consideration.
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The best stage to help out is the stage where they are still lecturing their brain.
When they are still trying to justify the act.
That's the best time to influence their thoughts and make them change their mind.
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Now, if you are at a stage or you've been at that stage of lecturing your brain on why suicide might be an option, then you really need to see a mental health professional.
I will drop some official suicide prevention phone numbers of various countries below.
They will work with you detailedly and put you through a proper mental health procedure.
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They would have a more detailed procedure than what I would give you, if you come to me.
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So please save their numbers below
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United States 🇺🇸
Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: 988 (call or text)
Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
Ghana 🇬🇭
Lifeline Ghana: +233 244 471 279
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South Africa 🇿🇦
SADAG (Depression & Anxiety Group): 0800 567 567
Suicide Crisis Line: 0800 21 22 23
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India 🇮🇳
Tele-MANAS (National Mental Health Helpline): 14416 or 1-800-891-4416
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Nigeria 🇳🇬:
Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (MANI): +234 809 111 6264, +234 809 210 6493
Emergency services (nationwide): 112
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United Kingdom 🇬🇧
Samaritans: 116 123
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May the soul of Katherine Rest in Perfect peace 🩶🕊️
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Renee Good’s last words were “It’s fine dude I’m not mad at you” and she was met with murder and “fucking bitch”. Alex Pretti’s final words were asking the woman he was defending “Are you okay?” And he was met with murder and “boo hoo”. These ghouls have no humanity, no soul
TODAY: Hundreds of thousands in Minnesota braved -10°F weather to march through downtown Minneapolis as part of the statewide general strike demanding ICE out of the Twin Cities.
🚨 AMERICA — THIS IS THE MOMENT THE LINE WAS CROSSED. READ THIS CAREFULLY. SHARE IT. THIS IS NOT A THEORY. THIS IS NOW LAW.
A SILENT, UNANIMOUS RULING BY THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES HAS FUNDAMENTALLY REDEFINED THE FOURTH AMENDMENT — AND MOST PEOPLE DON’T EVEN KNOW IT HAPPENED. NO PRESS CONFERENCE. NO NATIONAL DEBATE. NO WARNING. JUST A DECISION THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING.
WHAT THE COURT JUST AUTHORIZED: POLICE MAY NOW ENTER YOUR HOME WITHOUT A WARRANT, WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT, AND WITHOUT A CRIME BEING COMMITTED. ALL THEY NEED IS A “REASONABLE BELIEF” THAT SOMEONE MIGHT BE IN DANGER. NOT PROBABLE CAUSE. NOT A JUDGE. NOT EVIDENCE. A FEELING.
THIS RULING CAME FROM A CASE IN MONTANA. A MAN WAS REPORTED BY HIS EX-GIRLFRIEND AS POSSIBLY SUICIDAL. NO THREAT. NO VIOLENCE. NO CRIME. NO WARRANT. POLICE ARRIVED, GOT NO RESPONSE, LOOKED THROUGH A WINDOW, AND THOUGHT THEY SAW A FIREARM. ONE OFFICER ENTERED THE HOME ANYWAY — AND SHOT THE MAN.
THE MAN SURVIVED. IT WAS LATER CONFIRMED HE WAS HOLDING A HOLSTER — NOT A WEAPON. AND HERE IS THE PART THAT SHOULD TERRIFY EVERY AMERICAN: THE MAN WHO WAS SHOT WAS THEN CHARGED WITH ASSAULTING THE OFFICER WHO SHOT HIM.
FOR OVER 200 YEARS, THE HOME WAS A HARD CONSTITUTIONAL BOUNDARY. ENTRY REQUIRED PROBABLE CAUSE, A JUDGE’S SIGNATURE, AND CLEAR JUSTIFICATION. THIS RULING DESTROYS THAT STANDARD AND REPLACES IT WITH SUBJECTIVE JUDGMENT, AFTER-THE-FACT EXCUSES, AND UNCHECKED DISCRETION. “REASONABLE BELIEF” NOW OUTRANKS THE CONSTITUTION.
THE MOST ALARMING DETAIL? THE DECISION WAS UNANIMOUS. LEFT. RIGHT. LIBERAL. CONSERVATIVE. ALL AGREED.
THIS IS NOT ABOUT SAFETY — IT IS ABOUT CONTROL. WHEN THE STATE CAN DEFINE AN “EMERGENCY,” IT CAN ALSO SUSPEND YOUR RIGHTS. HISTORY IS CLEAR: EMERGENCY POWERS NEVER DISAPPEAR. THEY EXPAND. THEY NORMALIZE. THEY BECOME PERMANENT.
YOU’VE HEARD THE LANGUAGE BEFORE: “IT’S FOR SAFETY.” “ONLY FOR EMERGENCIES.” “IF YOU’VE DONE NOTHING WRONG, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR.” THESE WORDS JUSTIFIED SURVEILLANCE, SEIZURES, CENSORSHIP, AND DETENTION. NOW THEY JUSTIFIED WARRANTLESS HOME ENTRY.
TODAY IT’S MENTAL HEALTH. TOMORROW IT’S RISK ASSESSMENT. NEXT IT’S NONCOMPLIANCE. EVENTUALLY IT’S DISSENT.
THE MOST DANGEROUS PART IS THE SILENCE. NO OUTRAGE. NO HEARINGS. NO DEBATE. A POPULATION TRAINED TO ACCEPT EXCEPTIONS WILL EVENTUALLY LIVE WITHOUT RIGHTS. A SOCIETY THAT NORMALIZES EMERGENCY AUTHORITY ALWAYS LEARNS TOO LATE THAT THE EMERGENCY NEVER ENDS.
THIS RULING FORCES A SIMPLE QUESTION: ARE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS FIRM LIMITS ON POWER — OR TEMPORARY PRIVILEGES THAT VANISH WHEN FEAR IS INVOKED? IF CONCERN ALONE JUSTIFIES FORCED ENTRY, THEN PRIVACY IS CONDITIONAL. IF FEAR OVERRIDES DUE PROCESS, THEN FREEDOM IS THEORETICAL.
THIS WAS NOT A SMALL LEGAL CHANGE. THIS WAS A STRUCTURAL SHIFT. THE FOURTH AMENDMENT WAS NOT REPEALED — IT WAS HOLLOWED OUT.
⚠️ THE DOOR IS NOW OPEN. THE QUESTION IS NOT IF IT WILL BE USED — BUT HOW FAR IT WILL GO. PAY ATTENTION. BECAUSE ONCE EMERGENCY EXCEPTIONS BECOME NORMAL, THE CONSTITUTION BECOMES OPTIONAL.
MR. POOL
PAY ATTENTION, check on your spouses, boyfriends, and girlfriends. If somebody’s sleeping all day, distancing themselves, you notice a lack of interest in everything, they’re barely eating, barely sleeping, they’ve got that “it is what it is” mindset all the time, there’s something wrong.
Depression is REAL, anxiety is too. You never know what a person could be going through or feeling...
Check up on them.
AOC: “I understand that VP Vance believes shooting a young mother of three in the face three times is an acceptable America that he wants to live in, and I do not. That is a fundamental difference between VP Vance and I. I do not believe the American people should be assassinated in the street.”
In the past, even with George Floyd, the Trump gov did not rush to smear the man and called for an investigation. That every single member of this Nazi party immediately smeared this woman as a terrorist and defended her murder without even the pretense of impartiality is a massive escalation
Based on my own (& friends') experiences in American media dealing with top-level editors, what's striking is how familiar Boss Bari comes off here. The editorial conformism/cowardice camouflaged under layers of j-school pieties and corporate jock talk.
https://t.co/ex5F3ttMsO