site banner
naraburns  nihil supernum  6mo ago (text post)   12677 thread views

Israel-Gaza Megathread #3

This is a refreshed 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.

9
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

In another related dead bird news, Vivek goes into full Hindu Zionist mode.

2000's Onion satire again becomes 2020's reality.

Now is the moment for Israel to return to its founding premise: the Jewish State has an absolute right to exist. A Divine gift, gifted to a Divine nation, charged with a Divine purpose.

Very strange for professing Hindu to say.

Yes, technically, all life has a divine soul and divine essence, but we know Vivek does not wanted to say it, we know he wanted to say: "Hello my fellow Evangelicals, I am one of you! Vote for me!"

And, judging from bird site, it does not work. Every Vivek's tweet talking about God is followed by numerous Christians posting pics of many armed Hindu deities and asking "What God, Vivek? WHAT GOD?"

And, judging from bird site, it does not work. Every Vivek's tweet talking about God is followed by numerous Christians posting pics of many armed Hindu deities and asking "What God, Vivek? WHAT GOD?"

Hell, I didn't even have to make the goose meme myself.

I experience an odd dichotomy whenever I read or listen to something this guy said.

On one hand I find myself wondering how is this guy even in the running? Everything about him just screams sketchy con-artist and not a particularly competent or intelligent one at that. On the other, the devil on my shoulder who always assumes the worst of people is whispering "you know exactly why he's in the running"

Vivek might not seem very intelligent to you because you're not in his target audience, but in my opinion, the things he says and tweets are perfect for appealing to a populist American conservative.

you're not in his target audience

...

the things he says and tweets are perfect for appealing to a populist American conservative.

something must be off then, because if his aim is to capture the unironic MAGA-hat wearing crowd (as distinct from a Twitter-leftist's caricature thereof) he's going about it wrong. His base of support within the GOP is not the populists, it's the east coast patrician types.

Wrong how?

For me, anything this guy says will be colored by the way I first heard about him: some dude on this board getting way too excited. A red flag if I ever saw one.

His job is to say things white Republicans can't say.

I disagree, Vivek is the queer theater kid candidate for queer theater kids.

Trump and to a lesser degree DeSantis who are the "Says what we've all been thinking but were too polite to say" candidates, hence the human trafficking charges.

There's some truth to that too I think. He comes off as a theater kid doing a bad job playing a character in bad high school play. I think an even better analogy is he is in debate class assigned to argue the right wing side but clearly doesn't truly believe it.

Why?

This might just be culturally specific to @JTarrou's violent class but the dude's whole vibe is very "used car salesman on 32nd street trying to sell a Ford Mustang to a PFC at 69% apr"

...and the why is basically that secular liberals, being the dominant ideology lack the memetic antibodies required to recognize hostile action even when hostile action is brazen. Dude has screwed over everyone who's ever invested in him and yet the idiots on the in the professional class remain enamored "he's so intelligent and androgynously pretty, how could you not vote for him?" easily actually.

I think most of the professional class thinks he’s a scammer. The only Vivek fans seem to be the WallStreetBets types who idolize Leo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort and for whom a sleazy scammer image is attractive.

Maybe I'm misreading the room then because my impression is that populists hate him while the more liberal leaning members of the managerial class think he's amazing because they fancy themselves as "Jordan Belforts" themselves

Every Vivek's tweet talking about God is followed by numerous Christians posting pics of many armed Hindu deities and asking "What God, Vivek? WHAT GOD?"

This tweet is certainly pandering, but I've known several religious Hindus who talk about God singular. There's enough wiggle room in Hindu theology for that notion too, as well as the notion of a pantheon of many armed gods.

Every Vivek's tweet talking about God is followed by numerous Christians posting pics of many armed Hindu deities and asking "What God, Vivek? WHAT GOD?"

Those tend not to be boomer evangelical Christians, lol.

And if Vivek was a serious threat to Trump, he would lose his boomer evangelical support when Trump challenged him to eat a steak and then asked if it was because "kali has blood coming out of her whatever".

Vivek would just eat the steak, he isn’t particularly religious and I know a lot of wealthy lay Hindus who eat beef.

It is just so inauthentic. I do wonder why pols get such bad advice. Trump has a following because he is his true self. It isn’t entirely what he says but that you believe he is the person saying it.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats