Hadad
1mo ago
Much of the Republican coalition would also like to put the average young male voter through a struggle session for such crimes as watching pornography, playing video games, engaging in "devil worshipping" activities like D&D, and not being married.
This just isn't true nowadays, I don't think. The religious right has never been weaker or had less cultural sway. The Republican coalition nowadays isn't a bunch of disaffected people united by Mother Church's guiding hand -- the religious ones are just a small part of that coalition themselves, and need make concessions to other people, not vice versa.
Hadad
1mo ago
Sure, I personally responded to October 7th with "oh, damn, Gaza's gonna get fuuuucked."
Hadad
1mo ago
The Israeli response has been quite measured -- Gaza still exists, and its population has even climbed, last I checked. They should go harder, but they seem unwilling.
Hadad
1mo ago
These predictions are pretty damn weak, man. Fuentes isn't making any good predictions. "The terrorist attack on Israel will encourage Israel to attack back!" is not prescience. Nor is proclaiming that this is what gives us license to attack Iran's nuclear facilities; we've been dealing with their attempts to go nuclear for years and years at this point.
Predicting retaliatory violence after an attack isn't foresight.
Hadad
1mo ago
Being world hegemon requires a flourishing and agile MIC. I quite like America having the biggest stick. I much prefer it to someone else having it.
Hadad
1mo ago
The Israelis TRIED the Ethnic Cleansing, by offering Gaza and the West Bank back to the Egyptians and Jordan in exchange for peace! The genius of the Egyptians and Jordanians is that they REJECTED the inclusion of Gaza and West Bank into their territories and made peace anyways!
That's not ethnic cleansing. Rest of your post is fine, not sure how viable a gelatinous cube is, but yes, the best outcome for all is the Middle East self-destructing completely.
Hadad
1mo ago
I don't much believe in horseshoe theory, anyway. I think people are far too quick to say "oh, so you don't like the status quo? Then you're just like all these people who don't!"
There's actually a huge gulf between what the "horseshoe's ends" think, believe, and want, and tying them together is actively detrimental to understanding their motives.
Hadad
1mo ago
Yes, they are our enemy, and we are their enemy. The difference is we can destroy them, and they can get destroyed.
Hadad
1mo ago
Part of me wonders if everyone would have been better off if the Isreali's had just ripped the band aid off back in the day and just straight pushed them out/completed the ethnic cleansing. The displaced Palestinians would still be salty, but they'd be a few generations into moving on by now, and they'd probably get bombed way less.
I will in fact explicitly state my belief that ethnic cleansing ~80 years ago was the most moral option, and would have led to an integrated Palestinian cultural remnant by now that's been broken up and assimilated into all the other regions -- including Israel itself. Instead, the world's accepted that Palestine is never going anywhere, but also accepted that Palestine will never stop trying to refight the conflicts it continually loses.
You break the country and the people decisively, and you relocate the survivors, and a few generations later you have a rough peace. Otherwise, you let every single generation re-radicalize and commit gradual violent suicide against Israel (and whatever Muslim neighbors offend them that day).
Hadad
1mo ago
Ok at this point I’m convinced you’re an intentionally anti-Semitic troll.
I'm not an anti-Semite.
The belligerent Israeli act was straining credulity already but this is just a 4chan screed about Jews that you’ve Cntrl find+replaced with “Palestinian”.
I'm also not Israeli.
Muslims just suck, man. It's not any kind of conspiracy or act. They're a wretched people, and I've supported exterminating the lot of them since I was a teenager decades ago.
Hadad
1mo ago
A majority of that aid goes right back into our coffers, and lets the Middle East serve as a testbed for various weapons, as I understand it. ~3.8 billion annually through mostly FMF, thus mandatory to spend on US goods and services. Helps keep our defense industry active and prospering even during peace times, which is important.
I don't consider the expenditure wasteful. In fact, I'd consider it a good investment.
Hadad
1mo ago
I was surprised it happened without any leaks, but pleased with the result. It's what the bombs are good for.
Hadad
1mo ago
Sorry, I meant they can coexist with America / the western world. A world better off for not having Palestinians in it, so I appreciate Israel's expansion -- though it should have happened decades ago, no one ever should have let a bitter, vengeful minority dig in roots. The net human suffering would be so much lower if they'd just totally conquered & displaced generations ago. Their greatest moral failure has been half-assing it.
Hadad
1mo ago
As opposed to brainrotted Boomers who think women and minorities are oppressed.
Those people are also morons, yeah. When the boomers have died off, we'll be living in a crazy world.
They didn't need Facebook to come to that conclusion yet arrived at it anyway, so the problem rests with the people, not the technology.
It's both. A better people would perhaps not be susceptible to TikTok propaganda, but we don't have a better people.
Hadad
1mo ago
I don't think you're a bleeding heart lefty. But I do think this sentimentality is actively worse for the long-term health of the region than my lack of it. So, yes, I'd suggest being less of a bleeding heart. The world is unfair. It sucks the Palestinians grew up in these conditions. It sucks the world broke them.
But they are broken. Israel can coexist in a way they can't.
Hadad
1mo ago
I trust the ability of the Israelis to keep the Saracens at bay, given the existential nature of their grudge.
Hadad
1mo ago
Yes, the Jews are unduly influential. The Muslims are also violent savages. These are not contradictory claims. The Palestinians have alienated every single one of their neighbors, ruined every chance at peace they ever have, and maintained the world's biggest victim complex while being the world's sorest losers. The average Palestinian is a regressive piece of shit who supports the cruelties of his people -- he's just mad he's losing.
And the Iranians? Olympic champions of terrorism.
They're feral dogs. Israel manipulates, but they're at least capable of peaceful coexistence. One wants to leech off a system, another would tear it to pieces.
Yeah, zoomers are brainrotted with tiktok slop and think the genocidal jihadis are oppressed. It's not a mystery, it's just a grim reminder we should have banned tiktok ages ago.
Hadad
1mo ago
Where do you all draw the line? At what point would you intervene? When should the State intervene?
I'm sufficiently white trash that the cultural norm of my people is to call out bullshit, but not so white trash I'm willing to cavalierly go to prison. I'd take a foam sword for myself, offer one to the kid, and ask if he wanted to play. If the parents seemed reluctant to let him, I wouldn't force it -- legally I couldn't -- but I would obnoxiously question why they're doing this to their son.
I'd willingly burn down every bridge I had with that family to force a social confrontation. If I ended up convinced the situation's abusive, I'd call CPS.
Hadad
1mo ago
Demanding he denounce a position he hasn't staked out, no matter how much you might think he believes it deep down, is pretty obnoxious. Would you even believe him if he threw up his hands, said "fine, I don't want to kill the Jews, now hush"? Or would you assume he's just saying that to hide his power level?
Everyone involved in an ongoing conflict is usually pretty justified in pursuing the conflict to its conclusion, yes. Especially between states. If a grudge is big enough to motivate a war, it's big enough to motivate winning that war.
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