I follow a lot of bookstagram accounts and I had finally gathered up the courage to start my own. I love reading other people’s reviews and I love posting about books I read and non of my friends on my personal account seem that interested.
Anyways, today I saw this post about boycotting authors who support Israel or take a neutral stance. Basically this is cancel culture, but we can’t even call it so since essentially there is a genocide going on and it’s pretty shitty that anyone with influence such as big name authors would post things in favor of it publicly (privately disagreeing is one thing, but some things need to be kept to oneself)
I’m personally pro-Palestine. I believe what is going on right now is 100% genocide and inhuman, and most likely fueled by a desire to acquire natural gas reserves in the Gaza strip (a hypothesis so far unproven).
However, being pro palestine doesn’t mean I don’t absolutely LOVE Taylor Jenkins Reid, Alice Oseman, Pierce Brown to name a few.
Not buying their books is easy enough but should I not be posting/ reviewing about their books either? I love their work, and I want to say so, without everyone canceling my account into oblivion.
I’d love to hear what you guys think. I’m sure some of y’all also follow book related social media profiles. How would you feel if a content creator was pro palestine and advocated for palestine but continues to enjoy works of authors such as above? Should authors/ books be boycotted at all?
What’s your take on this?
Are you pro Hamas? Because they are the ones who are the elected government and leadership of Palestine. Do you agree with attacking music festivals, murdering civilians, and taking hostages? Do you support the murder of homosexuals and religious extremism? Honor killing? Are you willing to support a faction backed by Iran? Do you not think they would commit genocide if the roles were reversed?
You need to fully consider a position, especially one as complicated as the Israel Palestinian conflict before you commit to it and go around boycotting people.
The best options I see is a cease fire, a removal of Hamas from leadership of Palestine, and a removal of the aggressive leadership of Israel. But here’s the thing, that’s not going to happen, so best I can really hope for is a ceasefire.