betheydocrime @ betheydocrime @lemmy.world

Posts

16

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223

Joined

2 yr. ago

Good afternoon y’all! It’s been a beautiful day for me so far. I’m having to work a little bit harder than I expected at my job, but my job is easy even on the worst of days so I’m not too upset about it. Thankfully, my sister is home to help out with my dog! She gave him a bath then walked him out to see me at work as a surprise.

I put in a PTO request for a vacation last night, and it’s my first time ever doing something like that. Tbh I thought I would never get that privilege, I’m very lucky to have stumbled into the job I have now

I missed that they had daily/weekly discussion threads with no topic. I'll delete this community and start posting there. Thanks for getting me to double check!

It appears the main festive flotilla was perhaps a distraction. Organisers had decided early during the convoy that a smaller supply boat, the most crucial in the mission, should take a different route and not go with the main group to the vicinity of Second Thomas Shoal, which is a major flashpoint.

“Because everybody was looking at the main convoy and the mother ship, what they didn’t know was that ML Chowee [the supply boat] was already in safer, more shallow waters, and was able to sneak past all the tension,” said David.

SECRET SANTA SECRET SANTA

Eating one dry is what I imagine biting a vacuum cleaner bag must feel like

Except for Frosted Shredded Mini Wheats, which are glorified food pallets.

I think the difference between these two situations is the disruption of commerce.

Capitalists do not give a shit about protests until the protests start affecting their bottom line. That's why blocking freeways is such a big deal--it speaks to them in a language that they understand. It's effective not because John Q Taxpayer can't get to work on time, but because Corporation Q Capital-owner can't exploit John's labor without his butt in his seat and without trucks full of resources coming in regularly. Corporations lose much, much more than regular people do when commerce is disrupted.

Grabbing the microphone like is disruptive, but it does not disrupt commerce. If anything, it shows that his goal is to deplatform someone (someone whose platform is the very reason he is there tonight, by his own admission) or to elevate his own platform.

Then that means they don't lack empathy-- that just means that, by your estimation, they misallocate empathy.

The thing about allocation of empathy is that it is subjective. Some people will allocate more empathy to some groups of people than they will others, and that's just part of the human condition. I care more about homeless people and transgender rights than I do men's rights in divorce and tax breaks for the middle class--not because of a lack of empathy for the second groups, but because of an abundance of empathy for the first.

It's the same way here--some people support Israel with all its benefits and flaws over Palestine with all its benefits and flaws, or the other way around, because they have more empathy for one group than the other.

Don't get me wrong, there are definitely people on both sides who have no empathy for enemy civilians, and frustratingly both of those groups of people have somewhat reasonable arguments informing that lack of empathy. But saying that an entire group of people has no empathy is painting with far too broad of a brush and somewhat ironically shows a momentary lapse of empathy from the person saying it.

I don't think that's fair. I think one of the reasons why this conflict is so dear to so many people who aren't directly affected by it is because their connection to it is guided by empathy.

Lots of people support Israel because they are guided by their empathy for the historical suppression of Jewish people and their right for self-determination, while being unaware of (or begrudgingly approving of, or occasionally enthusiastically approving of) the atrocities committed both by its armed forces and by civilian settlers in Israel's name.

Similarly, lots of people (myself included) support Palestine because they are guided by their empathy for the present-day suppression of Palestinian people and their right to self-determination, while being unaware of (or begrudgingly approving of, or occasionally enthusiastically approving of) the atrocities committed by Hamas in Palestine's name.

Can you imagine the rage and the devastation these expectant parents must feel? They have baby rooms decorated. They have baby clothes that they have to decide to either keep forever or eventually get rid of. They've been living in a happy, anxious, exciting whirlwind for the last nine months, and now that has been destroyed and they have to recover from that trauma in an active warzone.

Wherever you think those parents will place the blame for this--Hamas, the IDF, British colonialism, United Nations meddling, or all of the above--think of what the real, systemic victims look like. Think of how it feels to know that your sibling died and if they are ever memorialized, it will be one name among 10,000.

Thank you for that study from 2015. I don't doubt that Israel took it into consideration when they made the claims they did about the Great March of Return in 2017 and 2018. I want to draw your attention to two of the key points mentioned:

National governments should be able to publicly justify their position, and reveal their adversary’s use of civilians in combat. This can only be accomplished by thoroughly documenting incidents, preparing supportive messages, and working across multiple channels to convey those narratives.

Would you say that any of the recent claims Israel has made were "thoroughly documented"? Or was the world supposed to take Israel at its word?

Priority should be given to information activities aimed at the very civilians who are used as human shields, in order to undermine the adversary and convince civilians to actively or passively refuse to serve as human shields. Such activities need to be coherent, consistent and coordinated.

What coherent, consistent, and coordinated activities has Israel taken to undermine Hamas in the eyes of civilians? Has Israel taken any coherent, consistent, and coordinated activities to increase Hamas's authority?

Also, thank you for providing a source about those shots. I checked the source you posted, and the article says this:

Media intelligence agency Storyful confirmed that the video was recorded at the al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital based on Google Maps images, but was unable to say whether the terror group or Israeli forces was responsible.

Independent journalist Alexander Higgins reported on X that jihadists began shooting after Israeli forces agreed to allow civilians to evacuate the hospital.

The Israel Defense Forces have surrounded the facility — which it says doubles as a terrorist citadel — as it attempts to root out Hamas in response to its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed more than 1,400 people, including 33 Americans.

Clicking through to the twitter link shows a video where it's unclear who is firing shots, where they come from, or where they land. The only source saying that it was Hamas is Some Dude On Twitter whose bio reads "Freed by Elon". The video also shows zero civilian casualties on screen, and the general lack of terror in the crowd makes me assume that there were also no off-screen civilian casualties.

There is no evidence saying that Hamas fired these shots--and even if it was Hamas that did the shooting, they didn't hit any civilian targets. IDF snipers can not or will not show that same level of restraint.

Hamas also told people not to leave the evacuation zone,

then Israel admitted that they bombed a refugee camp in Jabalia, and then they apparently did it again in al-Maghazi, kinda validating what Hamas said

have been using civilians and humanitarian structures as human shields,

I recently typed out this comment in another thread about how we can't trust Israel's word about human shields because of their actions during the Great March of Return in 2017/2018 and how it's a double standard anyways.

and have been shooting at refugees trying to leave

this is the first I've heard this accusation, and a quick google search for "hamas shoots fleeing refugees" and "hamas shoots gazans" didn't turn up any results for me. Do you mind providing a source? FWIW, there is growing evidence that at least some of the October 7th death toll can be attributed to Israeli friendly fire due to a mix of desperation and combat confusion

You wouldn't use the same armaments that your enemy is using? If I were evil, I would do my best to make it look like my enemy is the one who is killing civilians. It's so common that there's actually a name for it

I've already typed out a comment and you said TLDR. You are the master of your own ignorance, bud.

I would take my own advice if I were you :)

That is literally the point of snipers, man-- high precision, calculated strikes at long range. Doing the math of how far a bullet will drop between your location and the target, calculating how long it will take the bullet to reach your target after you pull the trigger, judging if there is possible collateral damage, and waiting to make your shot until several variables align is all part of the job because sniping is literally math. I'm sure you know all that, though, because here you are saying that you know, in general, how sniper rifles work.

Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't make them an anti-semite, sweetie. I would call myself anti-IDF and anti-Zionist, though, and I know that propagandists on both sides like to blur the lines between those three so I'm going to let that one slide.

But let's look at it from a pro-Israel stance for 2 seconds, like you suggest. Let's pretend for the sake of this comment that Israel is right and Palestine is wrong. Let's forget about price tag attacks and instead assume that every member of the IDF is capable of and wants to engage in level-headed treatment of Palestinians. Let's assume that there was definitely a Hamas commander inside this hospital. Furthermore, let's assume that he was high enough in their chain of command to justify attacking a hospital to kill him. We also must assume that this assumptive Hamas commander is the one who was killed and that's why the sniper or snipers stopped firing. Let's also assume that the last bullet the IDF sniper or snipers fired is the one that killed the assumptive Hamas commander (as opposed to the assumptive Hamas commander dying early in the salvo while the sniper or snipers continued to fire due to reasonably imperfect intel). Then, let's assume that each of the 28 civilian casualties were injured indirectly and that they were not visually within the sniper's or snipers' scopes when they pulled the trigger. Finally, let's assume that there were more than 29 shots fired-- one bullet per injury/death would statistically guarantee that civilians were targeted and we are assuming that is not the case, so the sniper or snipers must have fired more than 29 shots for our assumption to be true.

Bearing these pro-Israel assumptions in mind, let's go back to the comment you replied to. First, they point out that the IDF is one of the best-trained and advanced military forces on the planet. Then, they point out that sniper rifles are precision weapons that are traditionally used to minimize collateral damage. Finally, they come to the conclusion that the IDF either employs terrible snipers or they were deliberately targeting children.

Their first statement doesn't contradict our pro-Israel assumptions. Neither does their second. Their third statement does, though. The IDF can't possibly be deliberately targeting civilians, that would be evil, and Israel isn't evil! That must mean that the IDF employs terrible snipers-- what other explanation could there be for so many accidental casualties?

The reason why the original commenter was so upset and the reason why you're getting so many downvotes is because we have looked at the internal logic of those assumptions and their necessary conclusions, both in this situation and in others, and seen that there are a lot of contradictions that don't make sense if you actually pause to think about them. Is the IDF one of the most sophisticated military forces on the planet, or do they employ terrible snipers? Are Aman/Shin Bet capable of determining that there was a Hamas commander in this hospital, or are they incapable of detecting a massive offensive operation into their nation? Are Gazans going to be allowed to return home after Israel demanded their displacement, or will over 50% of all housing be destroyed by Israeli bombing?

So now the snipers are aiming at the children again? Pick a narrative and stick to it, buddy, I'm getting whiplash here

Specific and constructive criticism about your actions is only a passive-aggressive remark if you think you are not capable of improving yourself :) have a good one

You think a .338 round can make "limbs disappear", buddy. Everything you learned about sniper rifles came from Call of Duty.

You may want to find a more direct way to communicate that, then. The way your comments are written makes it seem like you could use some practice at reading comprehension, and maybe a course on the logic of argumentation.