naraburns nihil supernum
1yr ago
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Israel-Gaza Megathread #1
This is a megathread for any posts on the conflict between (so far, and so far as I know) Hamas and the Israeli government, as well as related geopolitics. Culture War thread rules apply.
The accusations of rape are entirely plausible, and if I were a betting person I'd bet at least some of the female hostages have probably been raped, quite possibly all of them and quite possibly a lot. On the other hand, it's possible none of them have been raped.
I've seen zero evidence that the attack on the music festival involved rape at all, much less mass rape. I've seen zero actual evidence that any of the hostages or other victims of the attack were raped. If this evidence actually exists, I'd like to see it, because while I'm not nearly so naïve to believe that tribal toxoplasma bullshit is something this community is resistant to, I'd certainly like fewer instances of it. In the limited amount of effort I've made looking into the claims based on the footage available Saturday and Sunday, it seems like the claims being made here are pure rumor and speculation.
The Ukraine experience should teach us to treat this kind of inflammatory unverified story as having more or less zero credibility -- I'm quite sure Israel is not lacking in the information warfare department.
The apparent true facts are bad enough -- the smell of propaganda is concerning as gestures in the direction of whipping up support for a very brutal response.
The Ukraine experience should teach us to treat this kind of inflammatory unverified story as having more or less zero credibility -- I'm quite sure Israel is not lacking in the information warfare department.
This seems odd, as the Ukrainian experience was that there was indeed quite a bit of well documented mass crimes, some visible from orbit. While there were certainly exaggerations, the number and degree of validated incidents would lead to far more than zero credibility.
Now, if you said the Russian experience in Ukraine, that might have the meaning you seem to mean, since the Russian atrocity propaganda before and early on were far more contrived in many high-profile cases, but that doesn't seem to be what you meant.
The apparent true facts are bad enough -- the smell of propaganda is concerning as gestures in the direction of whipping up support for a very brutal response.
Well, of course. That was the Hamas objective. You don't have a Daesh-style atrocity self-publicity campaign without wanting to escalate.
While there were certainly exaggerations, the number and degree of validated incidents would lead to far more than zero credibility.
I'm thinking not so much of the atrocity-porn (although much of that is not exactly certain either); more of the sorts of things reported breathlessly in Western media with minimal (or fabricated) evidence -- like those guys on the island, various twitter 'ghost of kiev'-y stuff, others that I can't think of at the moment. Those had a definite info-ops feel to me -- hard to say whether amateur or pro ofc. Some of the things I am hearing now have a similar feel, is all.
That was the Hamas objective. You don't have a Daesh-style atrocity self-publicity campaign without wanting to escalate.
Assuming the Israeli war-hawk objective is to turn Gaza into a parking lot, they share this objective with Hamas. (and I think have more professional propagandists on staff)
I'm thinking not so much of the atrocity-porn (although much of that is not exactly certain either); more of the sorts of things reported breathlessly in Western media with minimal (or fabricated) evidence -- like those guys on the island, various twitter 'ghost of kiev'-y stuff, others that I can't think of at the moment. Those had a definite info-ops feel to me -- hard to say whether amateur or pro ofc. Some of the things I am hearing now have a similar feel, is all.
Sure. And the proper response to that feeling is not to dismiss everything as having zero credibility.
That propaganda exists, and will exist in short or even immediate order in any context, doesn't mean that the counter-propaganda measure is to dismiss all things as zero-crediblity propaganda. That is the point of many propaganda strategies. Trying to get the audience to disengage, refuse to consider real facts, and be apathetic is not a failure state, it is the desired state for propaganda aimed at undermining resistance to emotionally objectionable things. Spreading around claims of other things with enough falses to trigger non-tailored doubt is a very easy way to do that.
That was the Hamas objective. You don't have a Daesh-style atrocity self-publicity campaign without wanting to escalate.
Assuming the Israeli war-hawk objective is to turn Gaza into a parking lot, they share this objective with Hamas. (and I think have more professional propagandists on staff)
If you tried to formulate this into an actual claim, it would implicitly require that the Israeli government was not, in fact, humiliated and caught off guard by one of the largest disasters in their history, but in fact knew about it well enough to have prepared entire sophisticated tailored IO campaigns in advance with the ability to launch within hours of attack... but not actually stopped the attack. The enemy was not successful while the government failed- the government was actually in control, but it's just evil!
While this will no doubt be a theory for some time, it's little more than 9-11 Trutherism with a tinge of zionism.
Spooks do spooky things, is that really a controversial statement?
Would it really be surprising that some Israeli spooks would have PR campaigns ready for the next Hamas attack?
Do you also believe that journalists were frantically scrambling to come up with their articles and biography, etc the day Elizabeth II passed?
Would it even be surprising that they would have a whole coordinated network of agents embedded within influential countries' media (and governments) ready to propagate that PR?
If the "I" in AIPAC stood for Italian we'd hear a lot more talk about the mafia.
Spooks do spooky things, is that really a controversial statement?
When it's used as a magic wand for conspiracy theories? Sure. Usually, even. Most conspiracy theories are controversial.
Would it really be surprising that some Israeli spooks would have PR campaigns ready for the next Hamas attack? Do you also believe that journalists were frantically scrambling to come up with their articles and biography, etc the day Elizabeth II passed?
What occurred over the weekend wasn't merely 'a PR campaign,' largely because it wasn't actually the Israelis driving it. The primary drivers of engagement were the perpetrators and their supporters social media channels, which were in turn picked up, signal boosted, and dissimenated by social media dynamics the Israelis have never demonstrated functional control of.
We saw what Israeli-affiliated and associated government media were trying to do over the weekend. It had very little to do with the viral news cycle that saw the unexpectedly overly successful pro-Hamas people egregiously overstep their local political pieties.
What occurred over the weekend wasn't merely 'a PR campaign,' largely because it wasn't actually the Israelis driving it. The primary drivers of engagement were the perpetrators and their supporters social media channels, which were in turn picked up, signal boosted, and dissimenated by social media dynamics the Israelis have never demonstrated functional control of.
So it's Hamas that spread the claim that they decapitated babies?
Just like Assad was the one spreading the news that he was gassing his own people conveniently right after the US said they would not do anything to Syria unless Syria used chemical weapons?
Saddam bragged about having WMDs?
And Russia bombed its own pipeline as well?
Trump created the piss-dossier and asked the FBI to investigate him for it?
The enemies of the war-hawks in Washington DC just seem to keep making these obvious PR mistakes that provide material for these war-hawks to do what they love to do. Weird, uh.
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Notes -
Hamas is publishing photos of kidnapped women with blood between their legs.
link?
The accusations of rape are entirely plausible, and if I were a betting person I'd bet at least some of the female hostages have probably been raped, quite possibly all of them and quite possibly a lot. On the other hand, it's possible none of them have been raped.
I've seen zero evidence that the attack on the music festival involved rape at all, much less mass rape. I've seen zero actual evidence that any of the hostages or other victims of the attack were raped. If this evidence actually exists, I'd like to see it, because while I'm not nearly so naïve to believe that tribal toxoplasma bullshit is something this community is resistant to, I'd certainly like fewer instances of it. In the limited amount of effort I've made looking into the claims based on the footage available Saturday and Sunday, it seems like the claims being made here are pure rumor and speculation.
The Ukraine experience should teach us to treat this kind of inflammatory unverified story as having more or less zero credibility -- I'm quite sure Israel is not lacking in the information warfare department.
The apparent true facts are bad enough -- the smell of propaganda is concerning as gestures in the direction of whipping up support for a very brutal response.
This seems odd, as the Ukrainian experience was that there was indeed quite a bit of well documented mass crimes, some visible from orbit. While there were certainly exaggerations, the number and degree of validated incidents would lead to far more than zero credibility.
Now, if you said the Russian experience in Ukraine, that might have the meaning you seem to mean, since the Russian atrocity propaganda before and early on were far more contrived in many high-profile cases, but that doesn't seem to be what you meant.
Well, of course. That was the Hamas objective. You don't have a Daesh-style atrocity self-publicity campaign without wanting to escalate.
I'm thinking not so much of the atrocity-porn (although much of that is not exactly certain either); more of the sorts of things reported breathlessly in Western media with minimal (or fabricated) evidence -- like those guys on the island, various twitter 'ghost of kiev'-y stuff, others that I can't think of at the moment. Those had a definite info-ops feel to me -- hard to say whether amateur or pro ofc. Some of the things I am hearing now have a similar feel, is all.
Assuming the Israeli war-hawk objective is to turn Gaza into a parking lot, they share this objective with Hamas. (and I think have more professional propagandists on staff)
Sure. And the proper response to that feeling is not to dismiss everything as having zero credibility.
That propaganda exists, and will exist in short or even immediate order in any context, doesn't mean that the counter-propaganda measure is to dismiss all things as zero-crediblity propaganda. That is the point of many propaganda strategies. Trying to get the audience to disengage, refuse to consider real facts, and be apathetic is not a failure state, it is the desired state for propaganda aimed at undermining resistance to emotionally objectionable things. Spreading around claims of other things with enough falses to trigger non-tailored doubt is a very easy way to do that.
If you tried to formulate this into an actual claim, it would implicitly require that the Israeli government was not, in fact, humiliated and caught off guard by one of the largest disasters in their history, but in fact knew about it well enough to have prepared entire sophisticated tailored IO campaigns in advance with the ability to launch within hours of attack... but not actually stopped the attack. The enemy was not successful while the government failed- the government was actually in control, but it's just evil!
While this will no doubt be a theory for some time, it's little more than 9-11 Trutherism with a tinge of zionism.
Spooks do spooky things, is that really a controversial statement? Would it really be surprising that some Israeli spooks would have PR campaigns ready for the next Hamas attack? Do you also believe that journalists were frantically scrambling to come up with their articles and biography, etc the day Elizabeth II passed?
Would it even be surprising that they would have a whole coordinated network of agents embedded within influential countries' media (and governments) ready to propagate that PR? If the "I" in AIPAC stood for Italian we'd hear a lot more talk about the mafia.
When it's used as a magic wand for conspiracy theories? Sure. Usually, even. Most conspiracy theories are controversial.
What occurred over the weekend wasn't merely 'a PR campaign,' largely because it wasn't actually the Israelis driving it. The primary drivers of engagement were the perpetrators and their supporters social media channels, which were in turn picked up, signal boosted, and dissimenated by social media dynamics the Israelis have never demonstrated functional control of.
We saw what Israeli-affiliated and associated government media were trying to do over the weekend. It had very little to do with the viral news cycle that saw the unexpectedly overly successful pro-Hamas people egregiously overstep their local political pieties.
So it's Hamas that spread the claim that they decapitated babies? Just like Assad was the one spreading the news that he was gassing his own people conveniently right after the US said they would not do anything to Syria unless Syria used chemical weapons? Saddam bragged about having WMDs? And Russia bombed its own pipeline as well? Trump created the piss-dossier and asked the FBI to investigate him for it?
The enemies of the war-hawks in Washington DC just seem to keep making these obvious PR mistakes that provide material for these war-hawks to do what they love to do. Weird, uh.
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