It’s disgusting. Goes to show they don’t actually care about Palestinians and probably don’t even think this is a genocide.

I mean, if they genuinely cared or thought this was a genocide, why are they now defending China and Russia blocking an immediate ceasefire that would at least temporarily stop Palestinian suffering?

How entirely predictable that the same kind of people who make excuses for Russia’s role in the genocide in Darfur, Russia’s role in Syria, Russian war crimes in Ukraine, and China’s treatment of the Uyghurs, care more about scoring points against the US than ending the war in Gaza.

https://imgflip.com/i/8k66jp

To force the population to believe the lie. Out of fear or because they have been brain-washed. A test of loyalty.

Ask them the pin code or credit card number.

When they refuse to give it, reply “So you do have something to hide.”

I actually enjoy that sentence, because you can ask them for the pin code of their bank card.

There’s a Craig Ferguson interview, where he says one of the secrets of some(!!!) of the most attractive Hollywood actors, is that in real-life they look like bug people. You know, weird looking, big eyes, huge head, tiny body. Looks great on camera and in 2d, not so much in the flesh. Probably also why IRC some Hollywood insiders call actors lollipop people. Stick with a big head on it.

Here’s what I found:

Over the past year, numerous dissidents across Russia have found their Telegram accounts seemingly monitored or compromised. Hundreds have had their Telegram activity wielded against them in criminal cases. Perhaps most disturbingly, some activists have found their “secret chats”—Telegram’s purportedly ironclad, end-to-end encrypted feature—behaving strangely, in ways that suggest an unwelcome third party might be eavesdropping. These cases have set off a swirl of conspiracy theories, paranoia, and speculation among dissidents, whose trust in Telegram has plummeted. In many cases, it’s impossible to tell what’s really happening to people’s accounts—whether spyware or Kremlin informants have been used to break in, through no particular fault of the company; whether Telegram really is cooperating with Moscow; or whether it’s such an inherently unsafe platform that the latter is merely what appears to be going on. … Elies Campo, who says he directed Telegram’s growth, business, and partnerships for several years, confirmed this general characterization to WIRED, as did a former Telegram developer. In other words, Telegram has the capacity to share nearly any confidential information a government requests. Users just have to trust that it won’t.

https://www.wired.com/story/the-kremlin-has-entered-the-chat/

Ok.

But in the quote you used above he explicitly says he is not including the Holocaust. Perhaps use another quote next time.

To be clear, and I’ve said it here before, but IMHO it’s not helpful to make nazi/holocaust comparisons, when you can call them fascists or racial supremacists (because plenty of them verifiably are based on what they have provably said and done) and call what they’re doing ethnic cleansing or genocide.

It’s far harder to deny.

But I suppose the language you use depends on the goal you have in mind.

Anyone call this a Holocaust level genocide is an absolute moron.

You’re not entirely wrong, and I’m not accusing anyone here, but sometimes they’re not stupid. Sometimes they are doing it deliberately to disconcert and because they know it will be hurtful to survivors (most of whom weren’t Jewish, but I digress). Sometimes they’re being useful idiots and uncritically parroting that propaganda.

Unfortunately a lot of anti-Israel propaganda does have explicitly anti-semitic undertones. For example, the Russian/Soviet inspired stuff. Twitter is also full of actual Nazis using this conflict for their own ends. It’s important for people who oppose what Israel is doing, to avoid adopting those anti-semitic undertones even if they’re justifiably angry, because it allows the Israeli far-right to paint all criticism of Israel as anti-semitic. It also alienates the many Jewish people who are critical of the Israeli government and how the Palestinians are treated.

For example, saying “Zionists control all Western Media” plays into the trope of Jews controlling the media, and is easy to disprove. Obviously not all Jews are Zionists, but if you go on a website like StormFront, they’ll openly admit using Zionist as a dogwhistle for Jew. Hence, you’ll occasionally see an especially blatant comment which says something about ‘’‘Zionists’‘’ being cunning or the like. Plenty of western coverage is critical, which those who defend what Israel is doing will happily use to claim that there is no Zionist bias in Western coverage. Meanwhile if you don’t engage in hyperbole, and simply state that a lot of (but not all) western media are very often (but not always) biased(not fully controlled) in favour of Israel, that’s very hard to disprove because IMHO it’s largely true.

But you’ve been heavily downvoted, I’ve been heavily downvoted above, and this comment will inevitably also be heavily downvoted too. The fediverse is a bit of a circlejerk like that.

It’s not as if what we say will actually influence anything anyway, and we’re certainly not going to stop the killings. I participate in the fediverse to practice my English.

What about these guys? … Meyer repeatedly argued that there are parallels between the Nazi treatment of Jews leading to (but not including) the Holocaust, and Israel’s dehumanization of Palestinians.

???

Ie. Meyer is explicitly NOT arguing that it is comparable to the holocaust, but only to the treatment of Jews leading up to the Holocaust.

I argue that the act of ethnically cleansing the Palestinian people is comparable to the Holocaust.

Your comment above:

if you don’t care about the fact that a Holocaust level genocide

Maybe you misunderstood my criticism, but I wasn’t disputing that what was happening was genocide or ethnic cleansing. I was disputing the level or scale of what was happening. Clearly what is happening in Gaza (and the West Bank) is on a smaller scale. 17 million vs. 30,000 in Gaza.

This doesn’t make what is happening ok. It just means that it is on a smaller scale than the holocaust.

Please don’t create another straw man to argue over, the number of casualties was never the point

This is not another argument. The number of casualties was my argument from the beginning. The number of casualties may not have been your point, but it was mine when you said that what was happening was on the same level or scale as the holocaust.

This is also not a strawman argument. I am literally adressing something you said in your comment.

On a more general note, this is why comparisons to the Nazis or the Holocaust are rarely helpful, and partly why Godwin’s law is a thing.

For example, just because someone isn’t Adolf Hitler or a Nazi, doesn’t mean they’re not a fascist. Calling someone like Ben Gvir or Smotrich a Nazi might feel good, but it allows them to say “Aha! But I don’t believe x, y, z. Also, the Nazis hated Jews. I’m a Jew. So you’re wrong.” It undermines your argument, even if they are quite similar to Nazis. Call them a fascist or racial supremacist, based on things that they actually said and did, and it’s far harder to deny.

The comment I replied to said:

a Holocaust level genocide is taking place

30,000 people have died. 17 million people died in the holocaust. That is not on the same level and it is not on the same scale. 30,000 is a significantly smaller number than 17 million.

If you support the Palestinian cause, pretending otherwise is a home goal.

I get that it feels right, because people are understandably angry about all this, but it’s not a winning argument. Quite the opposite. If you’re provably exaggerating the scale of what’s happening, it allows supporters of Israel’s far right government to sow doubt and claim you might also be exaggerating about the very very real war crimes and ethnic cleansing they are engaged in.

He’s not arguing in good faith.

Here he’s arguing that Hamas hasn’t rejected anything, ie. they haven’t rejected a deal.

Further down in the comments, he says that the Israeli deal is stupid, thereby admitting that there is an Israeli deal which Hamas is rejecting.

Check out his comment history.

I’d argue if you don’t care about the fact that a Holocaust level genocide

17 million people died in the holocaust. IRC the population of Gaza is roughly 2.4 million of which just over 1% have died. That figure includes Hamas militants. The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between combatant and civilian casualties in its reports.

It is possible to criticize and condemn Israeli war crimes and ethnic cleansing, which are without doubt horrific, without distorting the facts.

In fact, it actually makes your criticism more convincing and harder to discount by supporters of the current hard right Israeli government. The fediverse is a bubble on this conflict, but we should be aware that hyperbole does not serve the interests of the Palestinian cause or win the argument outside of this bubble.

Maybe you’ll be the exception, but I say this knowing full well that some will call me pro-Israel for this comment. But if anything these extremists are useful idiots for Israel’s far right government and its supporters, as they allow them to paint any criticism as anti-semitism or disingenious.

e: this comment already had downvotes within seconds of me posting it. This is not long enough to finishing reading it…