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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.

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It's a very interesting meme that people have started referring to him as "Bibi". This seems new to me.

I think it's a clout chasing thing. It seemed to start a few years ago as a way for people to imply they know Netanyahu personally (or at least know people who do). Same as referring to Jeff Bezos as "Jeff" or William Shatner as "Bill".

That...can't be it. I think at the least conscious level it's a way to signal that you're someone who keeps up and is well-informed. Just like on February 26, 2022 you could sort normal people from the people who were mainlining /r/worldnews by whether or not they had switched to "Kyiv" yet.

Sudden linguistic shifts like this do annoy me (why do Associated Press style guides get the final say on the English language??) and they do give me big "overnight software update" vibes. Another consequence of the fact that no one reads anything older than one year anymore, so that language is going to start changing faster.