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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 31st, 2023

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  • nowhere am I finding any indication that anyone is earnestly making the argument that Israel has the right to rape prisoners.

    It literally happened a little over a week ago.

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-hamas-war-idf-palestinian-prisoner-alleged-rape-sde-teinman-abuse-protest/

    Paragraphs 5-7. I recall there being a video of the moment but I don’t know if it is included in the linked article.

    A member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, speaking Monday at a meeting of lawmakers, justified the rape and abuse of Palestinian prisoners, shouting angrily at colleagues questioning the alleged behavior that anything was legitimate to do to “terrorists” in custody.

    Lawmaker Hanoch Milwidsky was asked as he defended the alleged abuse whether it was legitimate, “to insert a stick into a person’s rectum?”

    “Yes!” he shouted in reply to his fellow parliamentarian. “If he is a Nukhba [Hamas militant], everything is legitimate to do! Everything!”

    nowhere am I finding any indication that anyone is earnestly making the argument that Israel has the right to rape prisoners.

    An Israeli lawmaker was asked if anal rape with a stick was legitimate and the Israeli lawmaker replied “Yes” and clarified that “Everything is legitimate to do” so long as the recipient is Hamas. Is he in the majority? No, but someone is earnestly making the argument.

    Here’s the thing. The fact that I’m making the effort to demonstrate this utterly fucked up reality is, I guarantee, going to convince someone here that I’m antisemitic. I don’t think it will matter to them that I have family that is Jewish or that I’m 50% Ashkenazi by blood.

    The fact that this is happening, and that any Israeli lawmaker would defend it, literally makes Jews worldwide less safe. It gives real, actual antisemitism more perceived legitimacy.

    Edit: Video Link. Couldn’t find anything outside twitter/insta/tiktok, none of which I ever visit directly. Kind if telling that American news outlets don’t have it posted anywhere I could easily find but whatever. While I’ve had folks attest to the accuracy of the translation, I don’t speak Hebrew so feel free to continue to pretend it isn’t happening.

    https://x.com/ireallyhateyou/status/1817904053462196523


  • What is so maddening about this comment is how much it proves my point that you don’t see.

    This was literally the first sentence of my post. I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear enough and “maddened you”.

    At this point I feel like it’s akin to art that people just don’t get. The average person doesn’t understand the message or point.

    I personally don’t often enjoy art. In particular, the art where the artists are creating some kind of layered metaphor like a blank canvas with a cryptic title or something. The artist might be trying to communicate that consumerism will never fill our need for social contact or whatever but the message is lost on me.

    The same thing applies here for most people I think. However, for once I actually see a meaning in it. I get horrified by the act, then I read later how little actual damage is done. Then I reflect on it and realize there is no way the protestors didn’t know that the Mona Lisa was protected by glass. There is no way they accidentally used the least harmful bright paint they could find on Stonehenge… and it occurs to me that I was so immediately upset at the perceived harm but have become desensitized to news of the actual harm of climate change.

    I’m not stating that this message is obvious or that people are stupid if they are angry - I’m stating it gets lost and most people don’t get it. Yes, I’m a bit angry that the media often never mentions up front how little damage is done in any headlines I see. It’s usually “climate activists throw soup on Mona Lisa, arrested, condemned by bystanders and art lovers everywhere” not “activists harmlessly throw soup on painting protected by glass to demonstrate humanity’s questionable priorities”. Sure, the glass can be in the article somewhere but nobody bothers to read that far.

    Regardless, I agree that the end result isn’t helping because most people don’t understand. I, however, sympathetic with the activists and felt compelled to explain the message as I saw it.

    What is most interesting to me is that the “powers that be” have so much influence over the news that I feel like harmless acts of protests have lost their power and are demonized by default. Climate change, income inequality, police abuse, Gaza… I’m honestly concerned that people with very legitimate concerns (at least, in my mind) will have to further escalate their actions in order to feel heard. This is just the beginning I think.

    “I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard.” MLK


  • At this point I feel like it’s akin to art that people just don’t get. The average person doesn’t understand the message or point.

    These protestors are committing simple acts that threaten to damage something that people value. People are so very angry that biodegradable paint was sprayed on an ancient monument, or that soup was tossed onto the glass protecting a famous painting.

    Yet they continue on with their lives and refuse to hold many corporations accountable while those corporations make our planet less habitable. This would become a wall of text that nobody would read if I tried to just outline the existential threat human society faces thanks to the reckless behavior of many of the organizations. The suffering, loss of life, economic damage… unimaginable… yet we are basically barreling toward that inevitability at full steam.

    But I’m sorry, how silly of me. How could I forget that some scientists might lose the opportunity to study undisturbed lichen on Stonehenge this year.


  • As someone who is trying to teach themselves a few new things this year by diving to projects using them… I seriously, seriously feel you. It honestly makes me question whether I should just abandon each project I start, both professional and personal.

    All the relevant hits are from years and/or 2+ versions of whatever ago or forum posts with dead links to an alleged solution.

    I feel like in the past I could just dive into something and search my way through it. Now I feel like that era is over and I question whether it’s me, my niche project idea, the disappearing community, or just the search engines.



  • Your clip is Biden saying he did exactly what I said he did and exactly what my source says he did. The US administration, Europe, and the IMF was displeased that the prosecutor wasn’t going after corruption and wanted him fired. The United States, via their chosen representative Joe Biden, threatened to withhold aid if they didn’t fire the guy and find someone who would do the job.

    You are saying Biden did something for reasons that were not in the interest of the US and it’s allies in order to benefit himself and his family. I’m saying he did that same exact thing because it was, in reality, the US and it’s allies’ literal goal. Biden saying he did that thing does not support your false statement regarding why he did it.

    It’s clear you aren’t reading any sources being shown to you. It’s clear you aren’t even reading the quotes from my sources that I included in my response to save you the trouble. It’s clear you aren’t addressing any other points raised in my response.

    It’s clear you are not engaging in discourse. You are willfully spreading disinformation and think a link and insincere politeness makes you look like a reasonable actor. My response is here, not because I think you will respond with anything relevant but because I want the audience you want to misinform to understand what you are and what you are doing.

    Please step outside and touch some grass. While you are at it, please tell whatever foreign power is paying you to spread this nonsense that you need to improve your script or flowchart or whatever.


  • in a fair and free world you will have different opinions and both sides need to be respected

    This is true when it comes to matters of reasonable opinion. The problem is that opinions are not facts. You cannot tell me that the sky is green and that I need to respect your opinion or the world is not free. In truth, the world can be endangered by your incorrect understanding of reality.

    Joe Biden literally leveraged aid money as per US and European policy to have an ineffective guy fired. Do you think the Obama administration and the IMF and many European nations were all pressuring Ukraine to protect Biden’s son?

    Mike Carpenter, who served as a foreign policy adviser to the then-vice president, told USA TODAY that Shokin “never went after any corrupt individuals at all” and “never prosecuted any high-profile cases of corruption.”

    .

    As a result, Biden leveraged $1 billion in aid as “a stick to move Ukraine forward,” Kupchan said. “He was acting alongside our European allies. Everybody was of a single mind that this prosecutor was not the right guy for the job.”

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/10/21/fact-check-joe-biden-leveraged-ukraine-aid-oust-corrupt-prosecutor/5991434002/


  • We hear aid is provided, we hear aid is taken away from civilians by Hamas beating people, we hear people selling aid packages to others civilians. We hear all sorts of things.

    Which of these potentially terrible things negates what has been done to the people of Gaza? The destruction of their infrastructure - housing, universities, hospitals. The killing of civilians. The living conditions. The starvation.

    So there is some, but not nearly enough aid. So some bad actors are taking advantage of the unimaginably fucked up situation there. How does that change the fact that Israel is at best using collective punishment (a war crime) and at worst committing genocide?



  • I see people cosplaying as Hamas as Palestine protests. Cosplaying as genocidal maniacs.

    I can’t take you seriously.

    First, Israel has committed war crimes against Palestinians for decades. When nobody plays by the rules there is no point in quoting the rules.

    Very few people condone killing civilians or taking hostages. Most people support the liberation of the Palestinian people and peace.

    Which is why it’s only the young and naive that support it.

    Only the naive think that the situation is anywhere near as cut and dry as you seem to imply it is. And only the gullible think any fraction of the population worth mentioning are cosplaying as or celebrating the actions of Hamas.