this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
200 points (90.3% liked)

politics

18909 readers
3541 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
  2. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  3. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  4. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive.
  5. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  6. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Yeah, I really want to hear senior Dem leadership tell the youth they’re listening to the “wrong” news sources about the Israel/Palestine conflict. /s

Is he in the pocket of AIPAC or simply never considered that support for Israel is support for genocide?

Get on the right side of history, dude.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 9 months ago

you consider him senior dem leadership?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I agree that Congress is not on the right side of history here, but he's not entirely wrong. Few people have nuanced views that say Israel and Hamas are bad, and instead try to oversimplify to give people a side to root for.

It's a clusterfuck of politics, war crimes, and ancient grudges, and Palestine is stuck between.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

I think there are more than a few people who feel that Israel and Hamas are both bad actors here.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I hope you're right, because that hasn't been my experience.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

They get downvoted or banned and tend to post less and less because of it. It's one of those social media echo chamber things.

72% of Palestinians say the October 7th attack was justified. It's just just a few Hamas fighters hiding among completely innocent civilians. Most of them actively want the violence to continue, just not aimed at them.

But most isn't all, and it's hard to blame an eight year old who has been told his whole life that his greatest calling is to sacrifice himself to kill some Jews while he sees an IDF soldier shooting out his brother's kneecap.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/poll-shows-palestinians-back-oct-7-attack-israel-support-hamas-rises-2023-12-14/

There are no good guys here. I'd be happy if we reduced or stopped Israel funding. But that's not gonna make me fly a Palestinian flag while cheering for them like a sports team.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Those of us who feel like both are to blame tend to be outshouted by the "I ALWAYS STAND WITH ISRAEL NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO" and the "HAMAS ARE JUST FREEDOM FIGHTERS SO ANYTHING THEY DO IS JUSTIFIED" groups. And if we speak up to point out that both groups have issues, we get attacked by both groups for not being on a side and especially for not being on their side.

One of the big problems with the Middle East is that it's a messy situation and people like simple narratives. They don't want to hear a hundred plus years of attacks, revenge attacks, generational trauma, etc. That's not easy to resolve. Instead, people want to know that A is always good and B is always bad. That's nice and simple and easy to fix. You just eliminate the bad people and all is well.

Sadly, the real world is rarely so black and white.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

As an Irish person I can say with some experience that what Hamas is doing is not justified but it is pretty much inevitable. And unless Israel are really going to continue their genocide, all they've done is perpetuate this inevitability.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I feel you, I should not have to lead every criticism of Israel with a criticism of Hamas. I can criticize the fucking government. I don’t think I need to condemn terrorist that everyone knows are already terrorist.

I expect more from a fucking government than I do of Terrorists.

But if you just want to do the same stuff that they’re doing, you’re not a good guy so don’t call yourself. Don’t try to pretend to be one just admit that you are what you are, the bad guys, not every situation has good guys

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The reverse is true. Every criticism of Hamas should be led with a criticism of Israel.

The Palestinians have tried every form of peaceful protest which led to them getting shot by Israel. Hamas is a reaction to Israel's deeds. That reaction did not appear out of thin air for no reason.

Saying there are two evils in this situation is a milquetoast take. Hamas is morally gray. Israel is the only real evil party here.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

No, no, they lost all of their great area when they attack a Music festival full of civilians and kidnapped and killed children.

That is 100% sold in the morally black area

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

There is no evidence of Hamas intentionally killing any children. There is plenty of evidence of Hamas sparing children. Almost all of the kids were likely killed by the IDF shelling the Kibbutzes.

The music festival wasn't even supposed to be there anymore but was extended so that was just an unlucky coincidence. Hamas leadership stated that this was not planned and wasn't their goal. Their targets were military bases.

Also there were armed soldiers at the festival with guns.

The IDF however does plans to kill children in a children's hospital that are getting treated from having the leg blown off from the IDF bombing their house. THAT is not a coincidence. They do this with full knowledge, satalite imagery and guided missiles.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They still kidnapped babies friend, that is their rubicon.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They didn't kill the baby like israel does though.

Also if they didn't take the baby there was a big risk of the baby being bombed by israeli hellfire missles or shot by israeli tanks so you could say Hamas saved the baby.

Sadly the IDF really wanted to kill that baby so they shot a rocket at it when it was in Gaza and managed to kill it. Hamas really did everything they could to save it.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Oh my bad, I didn’t realize you were trolling.

Have a good one

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You can stop shilling for the IDF already.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago

Yeah brother i absolutely love the IDF.

Bye troll

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It’s just super fucking annoying that all of our politicians are stuck in zero-sum tribal thinking, and cannot comprehend that most rational people think Hamas AND the Israeli government are complete psychos, and that the vast majority of Palestinian and Israeli civilians (specifically excluding “settlers”, who are violent, racist, theocratic, nationalist pieces of shit) are simply caught in the middle.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Weird, we only seem to meme about Israel...

I don't use tiktok as I think it makes us dumber but I imagine the ratio is relatively similar.

How many tik toks have you seen about the long history of peace offerings Hamas has refused?

[–] [email protected] -2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

How many have you seen of Israelis dumping water down the drain to make fun of the Palestinians they don’t have any?

I’ve seen more than one and I don’t use TikTok.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Zero.

I have no idea where one would even find one but it sounds like the algorithms are working exactly as designed; exposing you to content that makes you think the worst of the other side so as to trigger your outrage and clicks.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

If Mike Tyson fought a 9 year old for calling him a bitch...

Yeah, they're both in the wrong. But post fight it wouldn't be rational to say they're both at equally at fault.

Especially if Mike didn't stop with that kid and just beat up every child in the room

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I get what you're saying, but I think that analogy doesn't really capture the gravity of what happened. Both of them have committed egregious war crimes, which means people aren't just beat up, they're dead. Israel has certainly committed an order of magnitude more, but I don't think it does the victims justice to imply Israel is the big, strong adult who merely got kicked in the shins by Hamas.

I think your analogy could be improved if you changed the 9yo vs Mike Tyson to the 9yo's adult cousin who fights Mike Tyson for the family honor but also abuses the 9yo for fun. Still doesn't capture the gravity of the number of innocent people who have died, but it at least represents the parties involved a bit better.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Is Israel the child abuser in your scenario?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

No, Hamas is the abuser in his scenario.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Palestine is the abused child then, and Israel abuses the child too

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I didn't write the metaphor. I just explained what it meant, when following the logical structure within

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

You can be on the side of civilians. Pretty simple actually

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I agree. I don't see other people (other than a relative few on the Fediverse) who see it that way, because they want a clear villain to defeat.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

It's a pretty simple stance to take, you know the "don't go around killing/maiming/terrorizing/raping random civilians" stance. It shouldn't be hard to say "treat people with respect". No matter if they are friend, enemy, or bystander.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 9 months ago (15 children)

What if I told you there are citizens in Israel who have been hurt by the conflict

load more comments (14 replies)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

So far, I've seen far more people claiming someone else is defending Hamas than I've seen people actually defending them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

dem leadership

So you’re just making shit up? Fetterman ain’t leadership lmao he’s a fucking freshman, the fuck you talking about

Is he in the pocket of AIPAC or simply never considered that support for Israel is support for genocide?

if you actually fucking cared, you would find that his district is one of the biggest for Jewish populations. It is clear he is representing his continents whether you agree or not.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

if you actually fucking cared, you would find that his district is one of the biggest for Jewish populations. It is clear he is representing his continents whether you agree or not.

Jewish Americans tend to be much more friendly towards the Palestinian cause than non-Jewish Americans.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Certain accounts on there, yeah. Turns out it's not hard to be credible if you just try.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Unironically yes.