Serious The Politics Thread

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If that’s your interpretation from those sentences, I don’t know what to tell you.
I assume it was a joke..?
Also social media is not a reliable source people; do not get news from TikTok (my family has fallen into the conservative TikTok rabbit hole (also note it's like this for both sides of the aisle, this is just my situation))
 
I assume it was a joke..?
Also social media is not a reliable source people; do not get news from TikTok (my family has fallen into the conservative TikTok rabbit hole (also note it's like this for both sides of the aisle, this is just my situation))

Also Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter. All these places are controlled by algorithms and bots. They're designed to funnel whatever you want to see when you log in so you keep coming back for more.

So if a person's entire social media front page just looks like "free Palestine" but then no one in politics / at home / work seems to give a shit... it's probably because they don't. Same thing goes for almost anything unfortunately. The real world doesn't resemble the online algorithm.

Edit: to clarify there are a lot of amazing people and sources on social media, but a truly absurd number of factually terrible, blatantly biased, or even flat out propaganda.
 
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but all things considered it seems like disingenuous political rhetoric to what is a more complicated situation
Israel wants to destroy the idea of Palestinian as a social concept and an identity. Attempting to destroy a group in this way, regardless of whether Israel wants to personally murder every person who considers themselves Palestinian, is pretty textbook genocide. I briefly evidence my claim below:

Israel does not recognize the claim of the Palestinian people to any land as legitimate, continually destroying the concept of "Palestinian land" with the Nakba ethnic cleansing / settlement process, where Israel/Israelis evict Palestinians from their homeland and resettle it with Israelis. It does not recognize the identity of Palestinian as legitimate, equating Palestinians to savages and "people of darkness". It doesn't even recognize Palestinians as humans, saying they are not party of humanity and follow the "law of the jungle". It also wants to deny the Palestinian people and state representation in the UN, again equating the identity to "terrorist" by saying that allowing Palestinians to represent themselves in the UN would just reward terrorism.

"We deny you a homeland and will take it for ourselves, we deny you the right to have representation and justice under laws, we tell the world you're inhuman terrorists and not humans with lives and identities, and now we're going to start killing thousands of you and destroying the infrastructure you use to live" is trying to make a group identity not exist anymore. Israel doesn't want the world to see Palestinian humans living in Palestine, it wants the world to see Terrorists living in Current and Future Israel.

Although the U.N. definition clearly applies, applying it in the first place is debatable–I find it over-broad for the specific purpose of lay categorization of genocide. However, it should be pretty hard to challenge that Israel is trying to destroy the group identity of Palestinian, and that is the meat of what "genocide" means as a concept.

A common hangup for people, at least Americans, is that a given actor accused of genocide is not the Nazis. Like the word fascist, genocide as a word has been seen as claiming "the impossible ultimate evil". However, this creates a trap where nothing matches the very specific image of the Nazis, and every claim of genocide gets seen as a cheap shot for failing against an impossible standard. I've covered this before, and a good video covers the idea for fascist. Genocide is unfortunately not as rare as one might like to believe. I see no issue with categorizing many/all American administrations as genocidal–same for Soviet/Russian administrations, for example. Genocide is a part of the world we live in and used to build and maintain power, and many/all of the most powerful entities in the world inevitably resort to enacting/condoning it to build and maintain their power.
 
So if a person's entire social media front page just looks like "free Palestine" but then no one in politics / at home / work seems to give a shit... it's probably because they don't. Same thing goes for almost anything unfortunately. The real world doesn't resemble the online algorithm.
Shallow and insincere stances certainly exist, but also remember that expressing this anti-mainstream opinion (in the U.S.) has less social/economic consequences in one's anonymous Twitter or Discord profile than one's career.
 
Israel wants to destroy the idea of Palestinian as a social concept and an identity. Attempting to destroy a group in this way, regardless of whether Israel wants to personally murder every person who considers themselves Palestinian, is pretty textbook genocide. I briefly evidence my claim below:

Do you mean Israel as a whole, the Israeli citizens, or the Netanyahu government?

People in this thread are ascribing said ideology to the Biden-Harris administration.
 
Israel wants to destroy the idea of Palestinian as a social concept and an identity. Attempting to destroy a group in this way, regardless of whether Israel wants to personally murder every person who considers themselves Palestinian, is pretty textbook genocide. I briefly evidence my claim below:

Israel does not recognize the claim of the Palestinian people to any land as legitimate, continually destroying the concept of "Palestinian land" with the Nakba ethnic cleansing / settlement process, where Israel/Israelis evict Palestinians from their homeland and resettle it with Israelis. It does not recognize the identity of Palestinian as legitimate, equating Palestinians to savages and "people of darkness". It doesn't even recognize Palestinians as humans, saying they are not party of humanity and follow the "law of the jungle". It also wants to deny the Palestinian people and state representation in the UN, again equating the identity to "terrorist" by saying that allowing Palestinians to represent themselves in the UN would just reward terrorism.

"We deny you a homeland and will take it for ourselves, we deny you the right to have representation and justice under laws, we tell the world you're inhuman terrorists and not humans with lives and identities, and now we're going to start killing thousands of you and destroying the infrastructure you use to live" is trying to make a group identity not exist anymore. Israel doesn't want the world to see Palestinian humans living in Palestine, it wants the world to see Terrorists living in Current and Future Israel.

Although the U.N. definition clearly applies, applying it in the first place is debatable–I find it over-broad for the specific purpose of lay categorization of genocide. However, it should be pretty hard to challenge that Israel is trying to destroy the group identity of Palestinian, and that is the meat of what "genocide" means as a concept.

A common hangup for people, at least Americans, is that a given actor accused of genocide is not the Nazis. Like the word fascist, genocide as a word has been seen as claiming "the impossible ultimate evil". However, this creates a trap where nothing matches the very specific image of the Nazis, and every claim of genocide gets seen as a cheap shot for failing against an impossible standard. I've covered this before, and a good video covers the idea for fascist. Genocide is unfortunately not as rare as one might like to believe. I see no issue with categorizing many/all American administrations as genocidal–same for Soviet/Russian administrations, for example. Genocide is a part of the world we live in and used to build and maintain power, and many/all of the most powerful entities in the world inevitably resort to enacting/condoning it to build and maintain their power.
This is an excellent post. Thank you for this, a much better job made of explaining it than I did.
 
Do you mean Israel as a whole, the Israeli citizens, or the Netanyahu government?

Arguably given the polls, it’s all of Israel.

People in this thread are ascribing said ideology to the Biden-Harris administration.

No, try again. Go read what I said. They are committing genocide through complicity, aiding and abetting Israel’s. The ideologies don’t have to line up perfectly for the USA to be complicit in a genocide.
 
Do you mean Israel as a whole, the Israeli citizens, or the Netanyahu government?

People in this thread are ascribing said ideology to the Biden-Harris administration.
I primarily mean the state of Israel, the geopolitical construct. As the government directly acting in that entity's capacity and directly furthering that genocidal agenda now, the Netanyahu government are also included as genocidaires. Some individual Israeli citizens participate in it, some individual Israelis support or condone it, some do neither, and some actively protest against it. The geopolitical construct of the United States, and by extension the entities acting in its capacity (most-to-all American administrations since many decades), undoubtedly condones these genocidal acts of Israel. Let me know if this didn't answer your question.
 
Eh. As a black American I am uncomfortable with characterizing the Biden-Harris administration as "genocidal" when in the context of our history in the U.S. half of our presidents actually were genocidal maniacs on what is now considered American soil. I am no expert on the matter here but all things considered it seems like disingenuous political rhetoric to what is a more complicated situation. And we should be able to discuss while still being able to say Netanyahu is a piece of shit and the U.S. should do as much as it can to broker a cease fire.

I feel like what your gut is telling you that you have a hard time placing Biden-Harris admin as “one of the bad ones” given the deeper history of American Presidents but I don’t think it changes facts or labels— putting identity aside as well.

I am frequently referencing FDR in this thread as one of the best admins despite being a Japanese American and he being the President of internment camps. I also see Reagan as a tremendous shit despite being the President who signed Japanese Reparations. My Grandparents had very different opinions from mine because of these exact policies…

Just a few pages ago I also mentioned that FDR’s handling of the war was extremely racist to Asians, actively abetting the strategy that was preserve white soldiers’ lives while their own government oversaw the death of 100,000 American National Filipinos with endless American bombs/artillery, while treating all the Pacific just as an excuse to prosecute the war he actually cared about in Europe.

But don’t worry we dropped bomb warning notes for our Filipino citizens just like the IDF does now— clearly moral army.

I can hold onto that while still deeply respecting all the great progressive works done under FDR, I can still let my feeling rush reading his words that all the world’s people deserve 4 freedoms of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from War (violence), and freedom from Hunger (material need).

We can see with clear eyes both the good done by Biden and his character as an individual human, while not turning away from or making light of the reality of genocide he is responsible for.

Any man’s life is full of contradictions, but it’s a question of degrees— while one of my Chinese cousins I met recently told me I need to read “On Contradiction” by Mao.

You heard it here lefties— Lesser Evil voting for Kamala Walz is Maoist, so get onboard and let’s try to push them to end the genocide!
 
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The "US should broker a ceasefire" line is a bit interesting. How about not sending Israel the weapons it's murdering thousands of babies with?

I feel like if I were giving many weapons to someone who is murdering people, it might indicate that I want them to keep the murders going.
Totally agree. It’s a bit like a drug dealer asking you to go to rehab whilst stuffing a brown envelope full of pills into your hand.


This sociopathic demon enjoys every second of what he is doing. I will derive immense satisfaction from watching his downfall as he and this entire regime are one day brought to justice.

I don’t think we will, but in years to come the history books will be written and Anthony Blinken, in particular, will be remembered for his sorry part in all this.

I think we should have seen a ceasefire in December. The continued “aid” (can it really be called “military aid” - ?) to Israel is making the situation much, much worse.

And don’t get me started on the state mandated assasinations. I know of no previous negotiations between countries where killing the negotiators was an accepted tactic.

Israel has smashed so many norms of war that we are likely to see both Ukraine and Russia shrug their shoulders and go for broke, and maybe other countries around the world as well - because the UN and the UNSC have been absolutely powerless, whether due to the US’ veto or Israel simply not following the demands of a single resolution.

If you‘re sat there wondering why I am not saying the same of Hamas - possibly because it’s a tiny operation with limited weaponry and because virtually all of the killing, maiming and destruction has been wrought by Israel.

Still can’t believe any “democracy” in the 21st century is debating the use of rape as a tool of torture, but there you go.
 
Last thing I can bear to post in here for the time being.

It’s being reported that there are now 17,000 unaccompanied, orphaned children in Gaza.

Of those 17,000 children, a significant portion of them are either suffering starvation, have had amputations, or both.

I know this is quite serious for a Pokémon fan forum so I’ll probably give it a rest for a bit, but my humanity is really taking a kicking every day watching the news at the minute.
 
It is rich that the corporate media spent months talking about the “cognitive decline” of President Biden while convicted felon rapist Trump is clearly showing signs of dementia. I mean damn. Mixing up names was a huge thing (that went viral) but not a peep when Orange man is slurring words and combining people from different eras. When will the media demand that cognitive test?
"See guys, he wasn't lying, his brain is just deteriorating"
-Fox News in a week
 
It honestly would be bad if he got replaced with Haley or Desantis. Not that it’s remotely possible for a cucked fascist party to replace their God king nor that either would best the Dem ticket but their chances would go up.

True and I hear you. Just pointing out that these news headlines are cringe. The corporate media cannot help themselves. Inflation has dipped under 3%, yet the spin is already that is “bad for Democrats.” You can’t make this shit up.

Federal Reserve policymakers and top economists say the U.S. has turned the corner on inflation. Now, Vice President Kamala Harris has to sell American voters on how she’ll keep the economy afloat through its aftermath.
 
Meanwhile, the accepted death toll in Gaza is now 40,000 children, with the vast majority of the casualties being women (11,000) and children (16,000).

https://aje.io/nuquob?update=3119866

40,000 confirmed as dead within 10 months, with over 100,000 injured, 17,000 orphans, 2.3 million people displaced, over 70% of their homes, places of worship, civilian infrastructure, including sources of water, hospitals, schools, damaged or destroyed.

Over 10,000 still estimated to be under the rubble.
 
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