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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 17, 2025

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Perhaps no one has noticed given Trump, Ukraine, Yemen, Trump, and eggs: war in the Middle East is back! Very strong words from America in support of Israel:

All hell will break loose, and all of the terrorists in the Middle East – again, the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, Iranian-backed terror proxies and Iran themselves – should take President Trump very seriously when he says he is not afraid to stand for law-abiding people. He is not afraid to stand up for the United States of America and our friend and our ally Israel.

as compared to “Canada only works as a state”. Israel’s reasoning is as follows:

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement cited by Israeli media that the attacks had “the goal of achieving the war objectives as determined by the political leadership, including the release of all our hostages – both the living and the fallen”.

Prompt: what is it that makes Israel worthy of the friendship of the US whereas NATO is worthy of relegation given both would pull it into wars of choice half way around the world of no strategic importance? Follow-up: should Israel be the 51st state?

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/03/17/middleeast/israel-strikes-gaza-hamas-ceasefire-intl-hnk

what is it that makes Israel worthy of the friendship of the US whereas NATO is worthy of relegation

I understand that users here tend to be particularly stupid when it comes to anything involving jews, but the simple answer is that unlike the Germans, the Isrealis pay thier bills and have actually managed to win a war in the last century.

I understand that users here tend to be particularly stupid

I assume there is no need for me to explain why you are banned for a week.

I'm not second-guessing, just curious: Did TequilaMockingbird have a history of name-calling-type behavior? Politely claiming that discussions of Israel/Jews on The Motte are low-quality wouldn't have been against the rules, and a one-week ban for a first ban would be abnormal, so far as I know.

Isn't he obviously Hlynka? My instincts could be misleading me here, but if that's the case there's a long history of exactly this behavior way beyond the lifetime of this particular account.

I would be very surprised if this were true.

Really? How many right wingers are there on here that thoroughly dislike race & AI discourse, argue for DR3, think that online nu-rightists and leftists are the same at their core, frequently use invective against sissy intellectual elites, tend to write think pieces as top posts, and like snappy one liners as responses, especially those with certain trademark expressions like "what's the old saw"? Not to mention that the account was created in June 2024, i.e. a short time after Hlynka's ban, but frequently talks like it's been part of the wider SSC-sphere for more than a decade.