• 26 Posts
  • 371 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 19th, 2023

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  • Gaza has collapsed. It is beset by famine and starvation. Widespread unavailability of fuel is exacerbating the collapse of infrastructure and systems essential to preserve life. Gaza is in large parts no longer habitable.

    I’m so sick of articles saying it’s on “the edge of collapse” or “teetering on famine” or “soon to be uninhabitable”.

    It happened. It’s a killing field. All life in Gaza is now persisting in spite of efforts to extinguish it. Nursing mothers cannot produce milk. The elderly die for lack of basic 20th century medicines. No food can grow and what water there is is tainted and unsafe to drink. Hospitals are barely more thanpiles of rubble at which the doctors who’ve not yet been assassinated tearfully go to provide insufficient care to the dying on sites that were once known as houses of modern medicine.

    We are watching a ruthless genocide and no humanitarian need can be fulfilled without ending the brutal blockade intended to kill all living on this land. And this is not a “looming” or “imminent” risk, it’s reality.




  • This article is better than I expected.

    I thought it was going to be overly credulous nonsense about what the strategy is for an operation that is clearly a purely selfish gimmick to keep Bibi in power at the expense of Israel’s long term reputation, security, and stability.

    Overall, this author appears to be using dry sarcasm to allude to the fact that the emperor obviously has no clothes.

    It makes me sad that Jewish Israelis let Bibi puppeteer them like this. It’s unfortunate, and it reminds me that at least until something changes, change will have to come from abroad. I think American Jews are probably the greatest hope for an intervention. But it’s not a hopeful situation.


  • Honestly, I don’t think this is really correct. It’s not a bad take, I just think the truth is that no one really wants more than violence for the sake of power.

    Iran has never really supported Palestine, they just arm anyone who will attack Israel. And claiming that Netanyahu wants to install a puppet leader is giving him away too much credit. He wants nothing more than an indefinite war so he can start in power. He’ll fight in Iran until something shocking happens like a terrorist attack from the West Bank and then he’ll shake the etch a sketch and do all this again. And again. And again. Until anyone with sufficient power stops him.


  • This is silly.

    First, I don’t know why you’re using the past tense. I don’t call water “wetted” I call it “wet”. And while I wouldn’t call fire “burned”, I would call it “burning”.

    But here’s the thing: you’re welcome to have your idiosyncratic opinion on this. The fact that you seem to want me to argue my side when I feel perfectly comfortable letting you have a subjective opinion most people consider ridiculous says to me that (A) you know which one of us holds the broadly agreed upon position and (B) this isn’t about resolving a dispute. It’s just online debate for sport.

    Enjoy believing a hotdog is a sandwich. Sleep well in your claims that cereal is a soup. I’m not going to explain to you why water is wet because it’s a waste of my time.



  • Most scientists define wetness as a liquid’s ability to maintain contact with a solid surface, meaning that water itself is not wet, but can make other sensation.

    But if you define wet as ‘made of liquid or moisture’, as some do, then water and all other liquids can be considered wet.

    So… by a highly common definition it is wet. That’s not much of a debate.

    There are plenty of words that mean different things in scientific contexts that are different from common use. It’s like saying “the sky is blue” is a false statement. Yes, there are contexts where the sky isn’t blue. At night. On other planets. Perhaps earlier periods in our planet’s history. But are we in those contexts right now? And is my meaning ambiguous?

    There are a lot of times where language is unclear, and we must work to bridge communication barriers. But to insist on debating things when no genuine confusion is present is just an a bizarre antisocial practice.





  • It looks like a lot of people in this comment section didn’t read the article. Because I expected something far more dystopian, and honestly this is not that big a deal. Maintaining your confidence and avoiding distractions during a job search is actually a real challenge, and if they offer lunch and WiFi, then spending a few dollars a day to get dressed and leave your apartment sounds like a totally reasonable service.

    I think it sounds a little fucked up, but just in the way that most work stuff is fucked up today. I wish multi-purpose short term space rentals in the US were this cheap.




  • My brother and I (both 38) actively speak out and oppose it.

    My mom has been sort of in a state of shocked bewilderment. She’s horrified and also constantly confused as though trying to comprehend how 2+2 = 5. For her, it doesn’t make sense: Jews aren’t killers, they’re victims. But they’re killing all these civilians. Why would anyone want to keep the war going instead of getting the hostages back? Netanyahu is a monster. We all know this. Why is he still in charge?

    I’m sorry that she’s suffering (then again, anyone of concience is). She’s also expressed a sense of alienation, since she has no idea how others feel, because she doesn’t feel like it’s socially acceptable to say what she feels outside the home. But I’m grateful that this hasn’t created any conflict between me and her. She doesn’t feel as comfortable as I do saying the plain facts of it, but I remind her that all my convictions are a reflection of the values she raised in me, and I think that reflects highly of her.




  • There’s no ‘getting caught’. They’ve been doing so publicly before, and they’re doing it publicly now.

    I think what upsets him is that their long-term vision of Israel is a right-win illiberal middle-eastern theocratic kleptocracy, and he prefers a neoliberal technocratic imperial republic.

    He’s not, like, a GOOD GUY, but I think in this instance his enemy is my enemy, and I think he’s being pretty frank and sincere.




  • This is messianic levels of insane. This is guy is a meglomaniacal fanatic fascist.

    The only good thing I can say about Bezalel Smotrich is that I admire his candor. He really doesn’t bother with pretext.

    I am not someone who looks forward to a violent collapse of Israel. I wish for freedom or Palestinians and democracy and secular human rights. I fear that Israel is less than five years from a catastrophic collapse in international support, and that when that happens the people there will reap what they have sown.

    Which is terrible. I don’t like what they’ve sown, and I don’t think I’ll like what they reap. But I do want this nightmare – and I mean the whole occupation – to end.