Well with the anti immigrant sentiment surging in Germany, I dunno how much longer that will be the case.

The most insane ruling—until overturning chevron.

Yippee. Things are going so well.

Right, but the lower tax burden isnt worth the authoritarianism. The assholes who can stomach sacrificing poor minorities and immigrants for a few gimme policies are not doing something noble. These are politicians we’re talking about. They’re not here for us. They’re here for themselves, and they are lying and antagonizing in order to get power because they know what people want and what certain people are afraid of. Their goal is to bait people with fear, entice them with populism and then…what? You catch more flies with honey and a hatred of honeybees.

It’s called populism for a reason. Trump ran on a populist platform in 2016. Populism can be Democratic or authoritarian, meaning it can be genuine concern about capitalism and the imbalance between the ownership class and the working class or it can be the sugar coating on a bitter, authoritarian pill—or, in other words, a fuckin lie.

Same. And throughout that process I was subscribing to different communities that interested me…to the point that I barely browse all communities anymore because my own feed is so robust and varied.

Or run the piping in the ceiling?

Not to mention, hot air rises up from the floor. Cold air…doesn’t.

The fact that this is news we have to think about in the year 20-fucking-24 is beyond absurd. Not only is it 40 years since it happened, it’s been a decade since same sex marriage has been legalized. Plus it’s been two decades since they started fucking legalizing it. Perfomative bullshit.

NYC did this. I haven’t heard any follow up on housing prices falling though. I’m still hoping it’ll help longer term, but I feel like the market won’t allow for prices to immediately self correct. Who knows though, but it’s been almost a year.

You’re somehow still not getting what I’m saying. Are you doing it on purpose? I mean, you have to be.

You’re absolutely missing the point of my question. I know they’re not the same. I never said they were the same. What I said was the same was this tactic being used by the media. Highlight the worst of the bunch to discredit the movement. Because that’s what’s happening here. Did you side with the media then? Or did you decry this tactic then? Because you’re encouraging it now.

And as for your points here, you’re likening two disparate movements. An actual organization dealing with issues at home, and a loose group of different people from all walks of life coming together to say what we all see happening halfway across the world needs to stop. At my local demonstrations, there are always Hasidic Jewish people demonstrating alongside, speaking out against Israel’s actions. But you don’t say shit about that, you just pick out the worst example you can find and write off the entire demonstration. And, also, how do you know no one said ‘get the fuck out of here?’ You said they accomplished nothing because these two people were there. You really did write off the entire thing because of these two flags. Based on nothing but this article.

I’m genuinely curious though. How did you feel about this tactic being used by the media to discredit and write off the BLM demonstrations? Because this is the same thing being applied to a different situation: the worst or most misguided among an otherwise positive movement being shone a spotlight on in order to derail the conversation and wreck the momentum of the movement. That’s exactly what’s happening here, it’s what happened in 2020. So where do you stand on that

But that’s the point. It’s already in their hands. There is no ethical and helpful application of AI that doesn’t go hand in hand with these assholes having mostly s monopoly on it. Us using it for ourselves doesn’t take it out of their hands. Yes, you can self-host your own and make it helpful in theory but the truth is this is a tool being weaponized by capitalists to steal more data and amass more wealth and power. This technology is inextricable from the timeline we’re stuck in: vulture capitalism in its latest, most hostile stages. This shit in this time is only a detriment to everyone else but the tech bros and their data harvesting and “disrupting” (mostly of the order that allowed those “less skilled” workers among us to survive, albeit just barely). I’m all for less work. In theory. Because this iteration of “less work” is only tied to “more suffering” and moving from pointless jobs to assistant to the AI taking over pointless jobs to increase profits. This can’t lead to utopia. Because capitalism.

Honestly? A lot of them probably don’t know what a Hamas or hezbollah flag looks like. So they wouldn’t recognize it enough to say, “hey! That’s not what we’re about!” Americans are pretty uneducated about most of that stuff. If this particular issue weren’t all over the news, social media, and on everyone’s mind, Americans wouldn’t know a goddamn thing about it. Because let’s face it, this situation has been going on for literally everyone at the march’s entire lives. And this is most likely the first time it’s been on their radar. That’s not a lot of time to learn about the entire history of two separate organizations and the complicated history of an entire geopolitical conflict. They’ve only had since oct. 7.

Add Lebanon into the mix? Forget about it. I’m surprised one person there was aware that hezbollah and hamas were allies.

All of this is to say, in some respects, you’re right. Tolerating intolerance should never happen. But to paint an entire group of people that want a people facing genocide to stop fuckin dying as intolerant because probably one person flying both flags (or two people, at most) that the rest of the well-meaning people probably didn’t recognize or didn’t know the history of just feels…wrong to me.

And the entire conversation started because it was likened to right wingers flying Nazi flags. No one is unaware of nazis. It’s not the same.

As for the person/people at this march that were either fine with it or supportive of it, I tried to explain that in my last comment.

It’s not great. But it’s not as cut and dry as writing off the whole goddamn movement to end the genocide. Because that’s what the media is doing here. Not really writing about the march, but writing off the whole march because of these two people. Side stepping the entire issue at hand because they can easily dismiss the entire thing by saying, “well, see? They’re bad people. Forget the message of peace.” It’s like a window getting smashed and the same media writing off the entire BLM march as a riot. Where did you stand then?

You don’t know if I realize that?

Not to mention, the nuance of hamas being sort of painted as freedom fighters against a genocidal force. Because, in some respect, they are that. They are what’s attempting to stand between the Israeli government and the people of Palestine. But, in reality, they are a far right fundamentalist organization that doesn’t have the Palestinian people’s best interest at heart. They’re largely unelected, undemocratic, bigots.

So you just didn’t read what I said and decided that what I said wasn’t right.

Entirely reasonable and a worthy addition to the conversation, thank you.

Speaking of not grasping nuance.

You don’t know me.

But, there is a marked difference between the root causes of these two instances. Though they both stem from similar places. On the far right, you have a media machine that has, for 30+ years, used dogwhistles that basically Pavlov an entire group of people (roughly half the US voting population) into salivating for racism. When the mask came off, they over salivated and moved so far right that they took up the mantle of one of the worst movements in human history. It was a conditioning, built on impulses already present in the population that was susceptible to that conditioning, that needed—like an addiction—to be redoubled and made more acute as time wore on. And there is a serious problem with far right views being made mainstream. Even if they don’t fly a swastika on a flag, that fascist, bigoted mentality is pervasive on the right. It doesn’t have to wear a tiny mustache and an armband to be Nazi.

As for the people on the left, yes, there has also been a long-standing conditioning, but less acute and more just the temperature of the water we’ve all been swimming in. That being antisemitism. So much antisemitism is baked into our culture, a lot like general racism. And yes, some people on the left were pushing it, but not in the same way.

The more overt cause of this phenomenon is online culture and the need to be “more just” or “more [blank],” the blank being whatever issue is being discussed, people want to be more right about it. More extreme, more the movement being a part of these peoples identity. So you get one-upsmanship that shows itself by people embracing ideas that aren’t that great because they want to be more passionate about the issue at hand.

Not to mention, the nuance of hamas being sort of painted as freedom fighters against a genocidal force. Because, in some respect, they are that. They are what’s attempting to stand between the Israeli government and the people of Palestine. But, in reality, they are a far right fundamentalist organization that doesn’t have the Palestinian people’s best interest at heart. They’re largely unelected, undemocratic, bigots.

But there is no room for nuance on a flag. There’s no room for nuance on a protest sign. There is only room for the most basic of messages, and when you couple that with the aforementioned identity issues involved in politics these days, then you have a recipe for idiots misunderstanding what’s good with what’s more “unique” or more of an extreme statement.

So, in short, comparing the two is disingenuous at best.

The two people waving the two flags? Yeah, seems like it. But you’re painting a whole march based on two people. Which seems super disingenuous and shitty. Which is exactly what this outlet is doing here.

It’s really aggravating and sad that people just don’t have the capacity for anything resembling nuance anymore. And this isn’t even nuance. It’s basic recognition of who is what. There is no difference between anti-genocide people hating Jews and a white person getting robbed by a person of color and turning against the entire race. This is the type of shit that makes me think all hope is lost. We can’t even have a discussion anymore without having to take time to separate out these people and explain to them what’s wrong with their position. And that conversation never goes easy and never gets anywhere. And then the entire movement is derailed. Or taken over by them.

Right. As I was writing, I changed the definitive final sentence to a less definitive “it didn’t happen as they said it happened.” I never said there was no rape whatsoever.

Unfortunately rape is used in war. You’re right about that. Both sides are allegedly using it as a tactic. But their story was systematic rape used as terror on Oct 7 was a lie.