Quantumfreakonomics
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Quantumfreakonomics
11hr ago
Then one must ask why is this anti Israel misinformation so much more potent now? It's not as if antisemitic propaganda is a new phenomenon, what has changed to make it more effective?
Another hypothesis I want to consider is the switch from text-based news and commentary to audiovisual news and commentary. It's easy enough to defend Israel over text. Jews needed a place to go after the holocaust. Mandatory Palestine had a thriving Jewish community thanks to the British and early Zionists. The PLO did a lot of extraterritorial terrorist attacks you can rattle off. They bombed a damn pizza place. It's not until you've seen the bombed-out remains of Gaza or Lebanon, talked to the guy in the West Bank who used to have an olive grove on the other side of that hill but can never get to it ever since the settlers moved in, and seen the literal walls that separate the Jewish part of Hebron from the Arab part of Hebron that you realize what a mess the whole thing turned into.
Quantumfreakonomics
13hr ago
I'll defend them on this one. Swift execution is the only way to prevent murderers from being released in the inevitable next hostage exchange.
Quantumfreakonomics
18hr ago
What is the Zionist model of antisemitism*?
Matt Yglesias posted what turned out to be a surprisingly hot take that the downturn in public opinion of Israel is a result of Israeli actions, and that the best way for Israel to fix its public relations problem is to change its actions vis-a-vis the Palestinian issue and foreign policy.
I was surprised at the pushback. This seems straightforwardly true. There was a great chart I saw a few days ago, which I am unfortunately unable to find, which showed that public opinion of Israel has been approximately this low before. It was in 1982 with the invasion of Lebanon and the notoriously brutal siege of Beirut.
Most of the alternative theories fell into two camps.
- Antisemitism is a result of massive, society-wide misinformation perpetuated by the press, universities, and social media. This is the “wall of dead children” model. Israel’s actions don’t really matter because they will be twisted and misrepresented anyways. The solution is to exert more control over the information environment.
- Antisemitism is an intrinsic force of nature. It doesn’t have a cause, or if it does, it has a cause which cannot be effectively operated upon. Asking what causes antisemitism is like asking what causes DeCarlos Brown to stab people on the subway. The way to deal with antisemitism is to kill, deport, or disenfranchise antisemites.
It’s hard to tell how religious the people in 2. are, but my general impression is, “quite a bit”. Many of them seem to speak of antisemitism as if it were a spiritual fault, another manifestation of the platonic ideal of pure evil. Seen as a spiritual problem, the correct response is to become even more aggressively Jewish. This has the rather large problem of being counterproductive when, e.g. smashing idols goes wrong.
*By “antisemitism” in this post I almost exclusively mean “antizionism”. I use the term to maintain consistency with the pro-Israel literature I am engaging with, not as an endorsement that antizionism = antisemitism.
Quantumfreakonomics
2d ago
Both the IRGC and Hamas are militant Shiite extremists.
Hamas is Sunni
Quantumfreakonomics
2d ago
I am most familiar with the ACX-comments-section arguments which inevitably go like this:
Gallant: "AI capabilities progress is incredibly dangerous. We should stop/pause/slow down."
Goofus: "But China is developing AI too. If we stop or slow down, then China will beat us and we'll die anyways, or worse, be conquered by the CCP. This is why all regulations are evil."
Gallant: "Well if you're concerned about China, then surely you support chip export restrictions. That's one regulation that isn't evil right?"
Goofus: "No, chip export restrictions are regulations and therefore evil."
Gallant: "It sounds like you don't actually care about the geopolitical implications of China having acess to advanced AI systems. I think you are arguing disingenuously because you want to make lots of money."
Goofus: "How dare you! You haven't even engaged with the many arguments in favor of selling chips to China."
The arguments in favor of selling chips to China are only ever aluded to, never stated or linked. Having now heard the arguments from Jensen Huang, I understand why they were never explicitly invoked. They presuppose that China having access to advanced AI systems is no big deal, which undermines the Xi-risk argument against X-risk mitigation.
Quantumfreakonomics
2d ago
The blockade is the first good idea that Trump has had the entire war. It accomplishes the same strategic objective as capturing Kharg Island, can be maintained indefinitely, and is low-risk. Makes you wonder what the hell they were thinking for the first six weeks.
"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."
Quantumfreakonomics
6d ago
There was a Manifold market: “Will Donald Trump tweet an image of himself as Jesus Christ?” Resolved yes
You don’t think they use the term “antisemitism” amongst themselves to describe (what they think is) a real concept?
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