librehab

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"LibRehab" is a place to point people to when they showcase clear signs of Liberalism (not in a mean way). It is also a place to proactively destroy your liberalism before it becomes counterrevolutionary.

Posts here should be a mix of simplified theory, countering of historical revisionism / anti-communist talking points, and a nonjudgmental space for those on the journey of deprogramming their mind.

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What would you say to someone who says Hamas "use civilians as human shields"? (hexbear.net)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The obvious response is that Gaza is a very densely populated place, of course there's civilians near any given location, that's not a conspiracy by Hamas. But are there any other talking points I should hit?

(I'm not really a lib in rehab, but this seems like the comm for getting talking points straight)

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

There's a few different things you can say. You can ask them about any specific instances, to which they'll probably answer with the music festival or the POW Hamas took in the beginning.
To the first you can point out that video footage show IOF at the festival, shooting from the middle of a crowd. There's more, but I'm lazy, it's easy to find tho.
To the latter you can ask why Israel knowingly fired on their own people. This one you can also make more general - Human shields are vile because they make use of a "weakness" of the other, that they refuse to shoot civilians. When the IOF just shoots anyway, then how are they above critique?

You can also more generally counteract their narrative of human shields. Ask them for instances of Hamas making use of these, and discuss them with them. If their definition is that Hamas hides among civilians during bombings (wrong also, they hide in the tunnels) ask them: When Gaza is so tiny and so densely packed that any bombing will hot civilians, how can Hamas avoid being amidst civilians? How does this justify a carpet bombing of Gaza? Perhaps it is the IOFs methods that should be critiqued here, when they cannot avoid murdering civilians.

You can also go on the offensive. If you know they Support Ukraine, then challenge them on this. Show them news stories of Ukrainians making use of civilians as shields (amnesty International released a report on it). Ask if that justifies Russia's invasion. Ask if that justifies levelling Ukrainian cities.