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Joined 3 years ago
Cake day: June 11th, 2023
  • It’s “whataboutism” in the sense we’re interrogating focus. Why do you think white ethnonationalists spend so much time asserting “white lives matter?” Because there’s only so much air in the room, and they know giving air to one cause deprives another.

    I think it’s worth wondering why people spend so much time discussing Israel/Palestine and so little discussing other issues that are at least as large from a “people impacted” perspective. Obviously there’s also an African infantilization (that is to say, racist) double standard here — we simply don’t expect Africa to have human rights. But I would say there is certainly also an Israel double standard, and it is antisemitic in the same way saying “well of course Sierra Leone is a hellhole, there’s no news there” is racist.

    You are not a news outlet. But you choose what you’re spending your time and effort on. And it is this. I think many people don’t interrogate why they get so involved and what their opinions actually mean in terms of what their focus accomplished and what it broadcasts.

    I apologize for choosing you as the vehicle for this message; I don’t mean to attack you personally. There are a ton of people doing this and your message was as good as any other to demonstrate my point.

  • Your second point is entirely correct; see also self-hating gays in the Log Cabin Republicans.

    I think the shield for your first point is pretty narrow these days. About a decade ago that point held a lot more salience, but as my “new antisemitism” link discusses, the position has been adopted so vigorously by antisemites that I think it is indeed very close to antisemitic unless deployed extremely carefully.

    Yes, criticism of Israel is not inherently antisemitic. But since this canard is so often invoked by idle and ignorant spectators, with no real understanding of Israeli or Palestinian politics, inserting themselves into a fraught and unhappy situation, usually specifically to criticize or delegitimize only Israel… it’s tough to see how that isn’t a special standard applied only to Israel. Or, worse, it’s invoked by real antisemites hoping to get bystanders on-side with actual antisemitism by cloaking it as criticism of Israel.

    As a concrete example of this new antisemitism – in 2017, Hamas altered its charter, which was wildly and outright antisemitic, to specifically state that it doesn’t actually want to kill all Jews as previously stated, but only the occupiers of Palestine. Given their actions, the huge amount of specifically anti-Jewish sentiment in Gaza, and even the incredibly virulent language in their old charter, do you think they actually changed their minds about Jews? Or are they simply cloaking their antisemitism in a package that more people might agree with these days? A new kind of antisemitism?

  • How in the world did this person call anyone an antisemite? Are you responding to the right post?

    Nothing they do will ever cause the international outrage any other country’s actions would cause.

    Israel has 45.9% of all UNHRC condemnations ever passed, passed at it. Do you believe Israel is committing 45.9% of all human rights atrocities on Earth right now?

    You are right Israel is measured by double standards, but it’s not that its actions produce less outrage than other countries’ – they produce far more. This is new antisemitism.

    It’s not actually necessary to rake Israel over the coals more than other countries. Doing so is a double standard. Sierra Leone has roughly the population of Israel; If you aren’t holding it to task for its human rights abuses as much as you are Israel, you are engaged in that double standard.

  • I was reading about new antisemitism the other day and I thought it was interesting.

    Most canny antisemites have turned to the old (and formerly totally fine) canard “criticizing Israel is not antisemitic” to shield their actual antisemitic criticism. Not wanting to call Hamas a terrorist organization is a perfect example. They’re only terrorizing Israel, which isn’t inherently antisemitic! /s

    But yeah it’s really everywhere now. Sometimes it’s mask off as in this incident. But frequently it’s mask on.

  • Fair, I only know a little bit about the drama that led to it.

    But I do know of and have participated in other servers that have been brigaded by alt-right and fascists and they’ve moderated their way past it. I feel like closing the community entirely was letting the trolls win; in my experience, at least, with haters, you have to show them their bad behavior won’t and can’t change you.

    Also I’m sore because I’ve been in the queue for literally months and just want to talk about this amazing game and can’t.

  • Live and drink, water-sib!

    I love this game and its crazy procedurally-generated world. If you did too, and also like tabletop RPGs, allow me to suggest Vaults of Vaarn, which is inspired by Caves of Qud and does a great job at bringing the same feelings to your gaming table.

    Qud’s only real downside in my experience is its bonkers Discord community, which requires not only an application process to join, but the queue of applications is apparently so long it can take upwards of a year to be approved to join. I just want to talk about the game and what builds are optimal…

    Luckily there’s pretty good chatting about it on the big Roguelikes Discord.

  • I do infrastructure stuff professionally and wanted to not manage that at home so just went for a Synology.

    Just depends on how DIY you wanna go. I’ve had my Synology for years and it’s needed zero ongoing maintenance and has never had any problems so I’m pretty satisfied with it.