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PaperclipPerfector  7d ago (text post)   23818 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 23, 2026

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I wondered why the attack happened on a Sabbath, but it being the week of Purim makes sense. Per Google:

Shabbat Zachor: The Shabbat immediately preceding Purim is known as Shabbat Zachor ("Remember"). During this service, a special Torah portion (Deuteronomy 25:17-19) is read, commanding the remembrance of Amalek, an enemy who attacked the Israelites from behind, specifically targeting the weak and elderly. This connects directly to the villain of the Purim story, Haman, who is considered a descendant of Amalek.

Trump’s team is doing a Pascal’s Wager that it’s worth supporting Israel religiously, as well as politically. This will make the anti-Zionists and antisemites “big mad” as the kids say. I do wonder if this strike counts under the original Persian decree of Xerxes that the Jews be allowed to defend themselves; in the Book of Esther, a decree written in the king’s name and sealed with the royal signet ring cannot be revoked.

As for the direction of the Middle East and Levant going forward, I want to see Iranian blood money dry up and see the region incentivized to peace by the siren song of capitalism.

The people in the middle east are not going to like Israel more after another Israeli war of aggression. Meanwhile the rest of the world gets a continued reminder of what a warmongering and alien state Israel is. More Americans supported Palestine than israel in a poll for the first time in the US. That number is going to take a big jump.

Alien? You mean, alien as in unlike the famously peaceable USA and other countries well-known for spending their prime doing absolutely no wars of aggression?

It bears repeating that in no world is Israel ever going to be more alien to "the rest of the world" than the Muslim countries, save for perhaps other Muslim countries. The fargroup-outgroup distinction is in full force, and Israel is, as always, not the so-alien-they're-not-really-thought-about fargroup.

Having been to both (as a rootless piece of Euroslop who spent close to a decade in the US), I would say Turkey felt much less alien than Israel, and the latter's pervasive militarised Manifest Destiny frontier society vibes had everything to do with this.

You didn't get a 'militarized manifest destiny frontier society' vibe in the US?

Course not. We finished our conquest and settled in behind our comfy double moat so we could switch gears to becoming Leviathan II.

Unless someone finds an uninhabited island with guano deposits.

Would be funny if we started airdropping guano on islands to annex them in order to avoid having to go to Congress for it.

Sounds like a job for... Batman.

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