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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   34220 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 15, 2025

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There’s no compelling evidence that they are trying to steal food or storm the sites. In some cases they are fired upon 800 meters away from a site. In other cases they are fired upon when waiting in line too early. The state of the aid distribution, if anything, make stampedes and other risks more likely, which the UN and aid groups have warned about since the start of it (even before that). The examples of stampedes which you link occurred inside buildings and in small alleys, and there’s no excuse for a stampede to occur in an open area with almost no remaining building. Additionally, the use of live rounds makes no sense when dealing with an emaciated unarmed crowd so far away, when even a paintball gun would do a better job both deterring any unwanted crowd movement and also in delineating the desired passage for the population.

The reason boys collect the aid might be because the IDF frequently shoots civilians. From the UN Human Right’s Council report on the 16th:

Importantly, the Commission has found that children have been directly targeted in various ways by the Israeli security forces since 7 October 2023, including during evacuations, at shelters, and more recently at GHF distribution sites. Medical professionals told the Commission that they have treated children with direct gunshot and sniper wounds, often to the head and abdomen, indicating that the Israeli security forces have intentionally targeted children during their military operations in Gaza. In relation to the attacks along the evacuation routes and within designated safe areas, the Commission found that the Israeli security forces had clear knowledge of the presence of Palestinian civilians, including children. Nevertheless, Israeli security forces shot at and killed civilians, including children who were holding makeshift white flags. Some children, including toddlers, were shot in the head by snipers.

The reason boys collect the aid might be because the IDF frequently shoots civilians.

An unarmed man is no more bullet resistant than an unarmed woman, so this is a strange argument. If the Gazans had surrendered, the only IDF casualties would be due to unexploded ordnance and friendly fire. Clearly given ongoing military casualties and regular firefights this is not the case, therefore the Gazans have not yet surrendered. If you look at footage of food distribution lines in violent conflict zones anywhere else in the world (esp in places like East Africa) there are almost always substantial numbers of women. The highly disproportionate number of fighting age male casualties in the ‘peaceful’ aid lines is very telling in this regard.

I don’t trust the UN when they say being against mass immigration to Europe is Dacian, so why should I trust them when they say that everyone shot outside these aid centers is an innocent lamb, especially when there have been countless firefights outside them since the invasion of Gaza began in 2023.

Who are the Gazans and how would they go about surrendering?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74z4gy5g31o

Gaza aid site offered a 'women only' day. It didn't stop the killing

Palestinian men mostly take on the risk, jostling to secure a box of food for their family […]

Sheikh al-Eid died from a bullet injury to the neck. She is one of two women known to have been killed on Thursday's "women's day". The BBC also spoke to the family of the second woman who was killed, Khadija Abu Anza. One sister, Samah, who was with her said that they were travelling to a GHF aid site when an Israeli tank and troops arrived. From a distance of just metres, the troops first fired warning shots as they told them to move back, Samah said on Friday. "We started walking back and then she was hit by the bullet," Samah said. "They shot her in the neck and she died immediately."

There are also risks because Israel is arming and funding criminals gangs in Gaza, gangs affiliated with the Islamic State:

"Some people here die from stabbings and attacks — all over food. We've all turned into mafias and road blockers."

Pretty obvious why men would want to venture to get aid in these conditions. You’re right that in UN-patrolled areas this doesn’t happen, but Israel has (naturally) prevented UN-mediated aid distribution.

An unarmed man is no more bullet resistant than an unarmed woman

He is more expendable though.

Only in a polygamous society which I'm not sure is very common in Gaza.

Historically, marriage to cousins was once common. Polygamous marriages are rare among Muslim Palestinians, except among some Bedouin communities. As Palestine does not have a civil marriage option, marriage law follows the religious faith of the couple.

Can Palestinian widows not remarry?

You would still only have as many pregnant women as there are men, making men a bottleneck to reproduction the same as women.

You can just stretch the definition of men, this isn't a wealthy industrialized society where you need long job-training for a man to have the economic means to marry. Hamas enlistment is the only game in town and they'll take 13 year old boys.

I assume when people talk about women being inherently more valuable than men they mean it in the sense of:

If you have 100 men and 1 woman, the most babies you can have at the end of the year is 1-3. If you have 1 man and 100 women, you could have 100+

But that doesn't hold as true in a monogamous society so I don't understand where the idea that men are extra expendable is coming from.

Gaza isn’t strictly monogamous, and isn’t subjected to the economic constraints that prevent normal industrial societies from marrying off increasingly marginal men.

Divorce in Islam is not fairly common.

Uh, yes it is. It's not as common as in, say, Russia, but it's by no means rare.

Whoops i forgot to remove the "not" after rewording it.

I thought that's why they came up with polygamy to begin with...

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