Though there is absolute truth, there is also complexity. In war, there are our guys and their guys, and, in our minds, their guys are bad guys. While in Vietnam, the guys trying to kill our guys (and me) were my bad guys. But they were trying to kill us because we were killing their guys. We were their bad guys. Nothing makes you decide…
Though there is absolute truth, there is also complexity. In war, there are our guys and their guys, and, in our minds, their guys are bad guys. While in Vietnam, the guys trying to kill our guys (and me) were my bad guys. But they were trying to kill us because we were killing their guys. We were their bad guys. Nothing makes you decide who the bad guys are than if they are trying to kill you. I know this with high assurance.
In public opinion of what's going on in Gaza, we are for the most part spectators. I have no kin there. Most of us don't. Who the bad guys are is not the standard "They killed my brother" of the people who are there. Many subject themselves to the accepted view of their tribes. People want to belong. As irrational as all things in tribal partisan political politics, a curse on humanity. Does my opinion based upon morality as I understand it from afar matter to the people in the killing fields?
Unfortunately, people go on university campuses and stick a microphone in the face of students who are seen as pro Hamas because they think what Isriel (my enemy's enemy is my friend) is doing is wrong and they often will also tell you that men can have babies and if you disagree you are a transphobe denying that trans people exist. All you need to do is show people holding a certain view are idiots based upon their view on an unrelated subject and all of their opinions become null and void. The most effective tool of the political right.
"In public opinion of what's going on in Gaza, we are for the most part spectators."
This is, of course, true. But if you look at the last twenty years of history, say, we're more involved than most people appreciate.
It's quite probable the Iraq war wouldn't have happened (or at least would have gone differently) without Netanyahu's assurances to congress that it would bring stability to the Middle East. (It also wouldn't have created ISIL).
The only reason the houthis are firing rockets at ships in the Red Sea is the Genocide in Gaza.
The Israeli occupation in Palestine was the number one motivation cited by Bin Laden for 9/11 in his "letter to the West."
This stuff does affect the rest of the world. So while I wish we lived in the kind of world where the simple, moral, "killing children so you can steal their homes is bad" argument were enough, even the self-interest argument is worth deeper consideration than it gets.
Though there is absolute truth, there is also complexity. In war, there are our guys and their guys, and, in our minds, their guys are bad guys. While in Vietnam, the guys trying to kill our guys (and me) were my bad guys. But they were trying to kill us because we were killing their guys. We were their bad guys. Nothing makes you decide who the bad guys are than if they are trying to kill you. I know this with high assurance.
In public opinion of what's going on in Gaza, we are for the most part spectators. I have no kin there. Most of us don't. Who the bad guys are is not the standard "They killed my brother" of the people who are there. Many subject themselves to the accepted view of their tribes. People want to belong. As irrational as all things in tribal partisan political politics, a curse on humanity. Does my opinion based upon morality as I understand it from afar matter to the people in the killing fields?
Unfortunately, people go on university campuses and stick a microphone in the face of students who are seen as pro Hamas because they think what Isriel (my enemy's enemy is my friend) is doing is wrong and they often will also tell you that men can have babies and if you disagree you are a transphobe denying that trans people exist. All you need to do is show people holding a certain view are idiots based upon their view on an unrelated subject and all of their opinions become null and void. The most effective tool of the political right.
"In public opinion of what's going on in Gaza, we are for the most part spectators."
This is, of course, true. But if you look at the last twenty years of history, say, we're more involved than most people appreciate.
It's quite probable the Iraq war wouldn't have happened (or at least would have gone differently) without Netanyahu's assurances to congress that it would bring stability to the Middle East. (It also wouldn't have created ISIL).
The only reason the houthis are firing rockets at ships in the Red Sea is the Genocide in Gaza.
The Israeli occupation in Palestine was the number one motivation cited by Bin Laden for 9/11 in his "letter to the West."
This stuff does affect the rest of the world. So while I wish we lived in the kind of world where the simple, moral, "killing children so you can steal their homes is bad" argument were enough, even the self-interest argument is worth deeper consideration than it gets.