Personally it impacted me in a way that I have lost faith in humanity.
Everybody talks, but no body cares, no body takes serious actions. Kids, women, elderly, whole families are being killed for almost two years and no body gives a shit.
Millions of people trapped in a land and moved from north to south from south to north like animals, have you seen videos of starving people running in masses to get food from aids thrown from the air? I can’t beilieve such things are happening in 2025! Sometimes I think, what would I do if I was put under such circumstances? How much hate would I accumulate? What if something happens to my kids? What if I see my kids starving in front of me and I can do nothing about it?
Also big companies, they only care about money, ethics and morale do not exist, they only care about money money and more money.
Countries fighting for women rights in Iran and Saudi (which I agree with) but at the same time, those same countries don’t say anything about the killing of innocent people, pure hypocrites.
Come on man, try to put yourself in others people shoes and have a bit of humanity otherwise the hate cycle will never end.
I never thought that people should be killed because of an election, today almost 50% of Gaza people are <18 which means they were not even born when the elections of 2006! are we saying that 1M are responsible for what is happening to them? Also, in the future the same argument could be used against the other party blaming them that they elected a far-right party, both parties should settle down and end this hate cycle once and for all.
And please we are in 2025 we are not in WWII anymore, if it happened to germany doesn’t justify making it happen again, we should learn from the mistakes of the past instead of repeating them.
Survivorship bias. Every Palestinian faction that advocated for peace or a two state solution no longer exists.
What happened to them? I don't know, but their land is now claimed as a part of Israel. I don't believe they gave it up willingly. Back when people were debating genocide, one of the arguments was that there's more Palestinians than ever before. It used to be ~1 mil over the various states of Palestine, now it's ~5 mil in West Bank and Gaza, and many more all over the world.
The only ones left are the militants because everyone who tried everything else were killed or displaced.
Don’t you think that what is happening will lead to a generation that hates their neighbours even more?
If I were in charge, I would create the circumstances that prevent poverty, create work, and encourage cooperation between both nations hoping that time will heal the hate and anger that both sides accumulated over the years, this requires wisdom and patience from the political party that is smart enough to understand that neither party can redeem the whole land for themselves.
But as long as each party refuses to accept the other, regardless if they say it publicly or not the hate will never end.
unrwa schools teach since 50s about liberation of entire palestine from jews by force[0], jihad and glorification of martyrs[9]. change of curriculum was one of main israeli demands since oslo days because it was obvious that when you teach hate in schools it's not going to end up well for anyone. not sure that "even more hate" is something that people in Israel care about now.
Israel was biggest employer of palestinians from gaza and west bank. In fact, week before oct 7 number of work permits for gazans went up by 10k or 15k. This was because there were thought that economically stable gaza will be less likely violent and that hamas is somewhat interested in state building and prosperity. In aftermath of oct 7th turned out that workers from gaza (with permits) were scouting areas where they worked in order to make a detailed maps for attack and a bunch of attackers actually carried work permits.
when israel left gaza in 2005, inside israel was popular expression that "now that palestinians have complete self rule there, it's up to them what to build there, singapore or somali".
there is an israeli investor [1] who created design center in gaza, donated there money to hospital and employed palestinians from gaza and west bank. he daugher was murdered at nova. a bunch of people who lived in kibutzim around gaza were hardcore left and used to drive palestinians from gaza to treatments in israeli hospitals. they were murdered as well.
Israel being a large employer of Palestinians is not a point in their favor. They are an exploited workforce exploited by the people who keep them locked in a Babylonian style captivity.
Also Israel never left Gaza. They had complete control over the sea air and land entry and exit points. Gaza was essentially an open-air concentration camp. They even calculated the minimum calories required so that Palestinians would not be "overfed". I'm in constant disbelief about the nonsense that Zionists tell themselves.
There's no significant Hamas presence in the West Bank and yet there Palestinians are routinely kicked out of their homes, beaten and shot by fanatical settlers as the Israeli army supervises. That is the reality of Israel. A fascist ethnostate, lawless and hyper aggressive. A Rhodesia on the Mediterranean if you will.
somehow when israel stops employing palestinians it also criticized as leading to collapse of palestinian authority/people going hungry/etc. also i didn't see any attempts by jordan or egypt to employ palestinians.
there was lovely border crossing with egypt. this is till hamas started to export terror to sinai and egypt build a wall on border with gaza. and another wall in last year. open air prison narrative is boring. 100k palestinians left gaza after oct 2023. prior to oct 7th there were videos talking about gaza as vacation destination.
there is significant hamas presence in west bank. in fact there are cities that PA can't go to. About half year-year ago PA tried to remove Hamas from Jenin but got it ass kicked and had to ask Israel to clean it from Hamas. In fact, PA still in "control" of areas A/B because Israel works on suppressing hamas and pij in west bank. Latest may polls show that hamas support in west bank is higher than for any other party (which is one of the reasons that PA doesn't hold elections in past 20 years).
I have the feeling you look at things from one side only, making one party as good and the other as evil, there are extremist groups in Israel too as there are in Palestine, each side made atrocities to the other, each side have people that really hate the other party.
Withdrawal from Gaza is very opinionated, some say it was to give Palestinians self rule as you say, many others see it as a tactical move making it an open air prison, and that Israel itself preferred that Hamas take over Gaza.
My only hope is that on both sides there are enough people that want to live in peace and prosperity with equal rights and care for each others regardless of their roots and don’t care if you call it Israel or Palestine or whatever.
What I was trying to present is that Israel already tried to do all those things that you talk about over last 30 years and it didn't work.
Extremist groups in Israel came to life after second intifada and started as revenge groups, that performed same type of attacks that Palestinians performed on Israeli. You can say that they were radicalized by Palestinian violence (I think in your original post you were worried about results of radicalization as result of violence, didn't you ? Somehow people forget that it can go both ways). They also don't hold a candle to hamas/pij/pflp/etc and their actions way overreported and misreported [0] while other stuff is underreported [1]
Blockade of gaza mostly started in 2007 after palestinian elections of 2006 in which hamas won both in west bank and gaza (usa pushed to have election), failed coup (sponsored by usa) of PLO against hamas that resulted in hamas (internationally recognized terrorist organization). takeover of gaza in 2007. I want to remind that Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005 and what followed are hundreds of rockets on Israel [2]
Extremist groups in Israel existed since 1940s (before its establishment) or even before …
And the actions of Israel in the past 30 years, and affirmations from its leaders don’t seem to be moving toward the OSLO accords, otherwise why building all those settlements in the west-bank? It just doesn’t make sense.
anyway who cares about the past I am more interested in the future:
1) In your opinion how all this crisis could be solved?
2) If you had the misfortune of being born in Gaza, and obviously you cannot leave it, what would you do?
when todays extremist groups in Israel are discussed, I don't think poster refers to either irgun or lehi.
in past 30 years there were multiple attempts on behalf of Israel for agreements that were rejected by palestinians. and could you please count how many settlements were build by state since 2000 for example ?
1) hostages returned. hamas/pij/pflp disarm. gaza taken over by international force for purpose of stabilization and reconstruction. school curriculum is changed - both in gaza and west bank. deep reforms in PA (Emirati foreign minister then called the Palestinian leadership "Ali Baba and the forty thieves" and claimed senior officials in the Palestinian Authority are "useless" and therefore "replacing them with one another will only lead to the same result.").
2) 100k palestinians left gaza since oct 7th 2023. Israel said that it will help to leave gaza whoever wants to leave. But more to a point of your question - I'll hide/avoid area of hostilities.
The events of October 7th were an atrocity. The illegal settlements and extrajudicial killing of Palestinians prior to October 7th was an atrocity. The launching of rockets into Israel were atrocities. Israeli citizens cheering and watching from deck chairs while white phosphorus was dropped onto Gaza was an atrocity. And this ongoing slaughter, starving of civilians, murder of people waiting for aid in designated humanitarian areas, targeting of doctors, journalists, aid workers, double tapping of hospitals, missile strikes on other sovereign states who are hosting negotiations... Those are atrocities. The whole history is riddled with atrocity on both sides.
The only way out of this, while retaining some shred of humanity is through diplomacy, upholding international law, and centring the role of civil society and the huge numbers on both sides who want a peaceful, just coexistence.
The whole thing is sickening. Also hard to see how this can possibly improve Israel's security in the long term.
Gaza Sky Geeks [0] is/was a startup accelerator or tech hub in Gaza, with backing from people from Mercy Corps, Google and Microsoft. Needless to say, their activities have been severely interrupted by the violence since October 7th, 2023. I'm subscribed to their email newsletter, and the updates are heart-breaking.
If anyone from Gaza Sky Geeks is reading this, please consider sharing those updates on your blog as well as on your email newsletter, so that they can be shared more widely.
In my personal life, it has had a rather significant effect; although still trivial compared to those in the region.
I'm Jewish, and opinions in my extended family about Israel have always been in tension; but this war has brought it to an untenable level. I've stopped going what had previously been the normal Shabbat and holiday dinners, in favor of smaller ones with family that is less pro Israel (and very staunchly anti Netenyahu). Even there we more or less avoid the topic. Our less Passover sedar involved a very thinly veiled discussion about the war, which did not go particularly well.
Professionally, there has been much less of an effect. I work for a US defense contractor. For the most part, we avoid talking about it. From the little conversation, I have had, there seems to be a general morale drop; but that might be a selection effect with who I am willing to talk to about it.
The only time Israel became an open topic of discussion was after the pager bombs. Even then, it was pretty much a professional "and this is why we have so much red tape around supply chain management".
My workplace has become very tense as most of us are pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist, but our CEO and investors are very aggressively Zionist. Internally we debate if we should quit, or stay and "fight" the best we can. I think in general there's the sense that we shouldn't let the Zionists chase us out of our jobs, especially when most people don't support their cause.
On a personal level, I boycott all Israeli products and companies, including companies that do business with Israel (to the best of my ability, I still need an alternative to NVIDIA).
On october 8th there was already anti-israeli sentiment at work (i am Israeli, living currently in USA). The only person that asked me for my well being was Palestinian guy who lives here as well.
Foreign Students are come and go anyway. Unlike in USA they can't stick around in Israel.
Israeli tech companies raised record amounts in Q2
I don't consider myself part of the HN crowd, rather just someone with a waning tech background and persistent interest in many things. I'm unaffiliated with any identity regarding the conflict. A mere American, dizzy and uneasy.
Personally, the effects for me, coupled with Ukraine, instill a sense of illness. I deliberately avoid the numbers as I would the flu. My delusions of a wonderful world are presently reserved for intoxicants and occasional suspensions of disbelief which come sparsely. The tension surrounding the topic, however, is palpable.
I wish you the extensive discussion the subject deserves.
It has made it clear to me that humans do not have any real ability to act on morality in our advanced society. I actually thought that in a sufficiently advanced society, like the one we have today, that we would be beyond certain things. I've gotten the lesson that this iteration of humanity really is forked from that previous iteration of humanity, and that the "moral" part of the codebase was never actually enhanced.
But I also thought we were kind of beyond outright corruption and jingoism too. That these societies that you think are sophisticated and educated are actually not different at all from the sensibilities of societies that crucified people, enslaved people, wholesale eradicated people, economically suffocated people ...
There's nothing about our advanced society that has markers of advanced character, certainly not advanced moral character.
To be fully clear, if you show me a cohort of high school graduates from this year, with wonder in their eyes and a lot of talk about "the future will be good and just", I will absolutely give no credence to it. They are branch of this long torrid code base, and the romance of us as a species is mostly over in my heart (IDGAF how many rockets we launch into space, and how cool AI is). This is not a new type of epiphany, as I'm sure many people were broken throughout history exactly like this. If you believed the young people of 20-40 years ago that their innocence would persist and they would truly build a better world, you got catfished. None of us were ever going to be really different than the shitheads from yesteryear, and the dark truth is this will probably be the case long after our current iteration has mostly passed on.
In short, human innovation and energy is something I no longer believe is sufficient enough for building a sound world anymore. I falsely believed scientific and infrastructural advancement would be enough to keep lifting society. It's clear we morally platued quite some time ago, while technology has trended way way up.
It really opened my eyes to the lack of actual interest in reality. The number of people willing to believe what they're told by social media or by the popular kids far exceed those who would try to understand the situation.
It fascinates me that it's become so popular to defend people from reprisals for their own elected government's actions.
I also found it really interesting that over a thousand Israelis were killed, yet the people I work with immediately started saying that any kind of response was totally unfair to the Palestinians. Not a single word of compassion for the Israelis who were killed. But I guess that's not a trending thought.
first sentence in article: "I watched as the goal of mainstream journalism shifted from describing reality to ushering readers to the correct political conclusion."
Maybe they object to mass murder of civilians, children and the deliberate starvation of 2 million people.
It's not particularly complicated, what Israel is deliberately perpetrating is something that normal, uninvolved people cannot agree with, it horrifies and disgusts them and they will forever associate these actions with Israel.
Even with Israels deep political connections and influence committing ethnic cleansing and a genocide is not something that they will ever be able to whitewash away, no matter how they contort the situation.
Personally it impacted me in a way that I have lost faith in humanity.
Everybody talks, but no body cares, no body takes serious actions. Kids, women, elderly, whole families are being killed for almost two years and no body gives a shit.
Millions of people trapped in a land and moved from north to south from south to north like animals, have you seen videos of starving people running in masses to get food from aids thrown from the air? I can’t beilieve such things are happening in 2025! Sometimes I think, what would I do if I was put under such circumstances? How much hate would I accumulate? What if something happens to my kids? What if I see my kids starving in front of me and I can do nothing about it?
Also big companies, they only care about money, ethics and morale do not exist, they only care about money money and more money.
Countries fighting for women rights in Iran and Saudi (which I agree with) but at the same time, those same countries don’t say anything about the killing of innocent people, pure hypocrites.
[flagged]
Planned starvation of civilians is not "the unfortunate reality of losing a war".
Blocking aid is not "the unfortunate reality of losing a war".
Bombing hospitals is not "the unfortunate reality of losing a war".
Come on man, try to put yourself in others people shoes and have a bit of humanity otherwise the hate cycle will never end.
I never thought that people should be killed because of an election, today almost 50% of Gaza people are <18 which means they were not even born when the elections of 2006! are we saying that 1M are responsible for what is happening to them? Also, in the future the same argument could be used against the other party blaming them that they elected a far-right party, both parties should settle down and end this hate cycle once and for all.
And please we are in 2025 we are not in WWII anymore, if it happened to germany doesn’t justify making it happen again, we should learn from the mistakes of the past instead of repeating them.
If Gaza were rid of the Islamist terrorists that lead then then it would be better for Israel and also much better for the innocent youth of Gaza.
Unfortunately there is no way for the innocent youth of Gaza to rid themselves of Hamas. In fact Hamas actively endoctrinates the youth.
The only way for Gazan youth to be saved from a cycle of terrorist-led hatred is for Israel (or another developed power) to remove the terrorists.
Survivorship bias. Every Palestinian faction that advocated for peace or a two state solution no longer exists.
What happened to them? I don't know, but their land is now claimed as a part of Israel. I don't believe they gave it up willingly. Back when people were debating genocide, one of the arguments was that there's more Palestinians than ever before. It used to be ~1 mil over the various states of Palestine, now it's ~5 mil in West Bank and Gaza, and many more all over the world.
The only ones left are the militants because everyone who tried everything else were killed or displaced.
what palestinian fractions advocated for peace or two state solutions ?
Don’t you think that what is happening will lead to a generation that hates their neighbours even more?
If I were in charge, I would create the circumstances that prevent poverty, create work, and encourage cooperation between both nations hoping that time will heal the hate and anger that both sides accumulated over the years, this requires wisdom and patience from the political party that is smart enough to understand that neither party can redeem the whole land for themselves.
But as long as each party refuses to accept the other, regardless if they say it publicly or not the hate will never end.
unrwa schools teach since 50s about liberation of entire palestine from jews by force[0], jihad and glorification of martyrs[9]. change of curriculum was one of main israeli demands since oslo days because it was obvious that when you teach hate in schools it's not going to end up well for anyone. not sure that "even more hate" is something that people in Israel care about now.
Israel was biggest employer of palestinians from gaza and west bank. In fact, week before oct 7 number of work permits for gazans went up by 10k or 15k. This was because there were thought that economically stable gaza will be less likely violent and that hamas is somewhat interested in state building and prosperity. In aftermath of oct 7th turned out that workers from gaza (with permits) were scouting areas where they worked in order to make a detailed maps for attack and a bunch of attackers actually carried work permits.
when israel left gaza in 2005, inside israel was popular expression that "now that palestinians have complete self rule there, it's up to them what to build there, singapore or somali".
there is an israeli investor [1] who created design center in gaza, donated there money to hospital and employed palestinians from gaza and west bank. he daugher was murdered at nova. a bunch of people who lived in kibutzim around gaza were hardcore left and used to drive palestinians from gaza to treatments in israeli hospitals. they were murdered as well.
[0] https://cdn.theatlantic.com/media/archives/1961/10/208-4/132...
[9] https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/Gazas-Education...
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67679634
Israel being a large employer of Palestinians is not a point in their favor. They are an exploited workforce exploited by the people who keep them locked in a Babylonian style captivity.
Also Israel never left Gaza. They had complete control over the sea air and land entry and exit points. Gaza was essentially an open-air concentration camp. They even calculated the minimum calories required so that Palestinians would not be "overfed". I'm in constant disbelief about the nonsense that Zionists tell themselves.
There's no significant Hamas presence in the West Bank and yet there Palestinians are routinely kicked out of their homes, beaten and shot by fanatical settlers as the Israeli army supervises. That is the reality of Israel. A fascist ethnostate, lawless and hyper aggressive. A Rhodesia on the Mediterranean if you will.
somehow when israel stops employing palestinians it also criticized as leading to collapse of palestinian authority/people going hungry/etc. also i didn't see any attempts by jordan or egypt to employ palestinians.
there was lovely border crossing with egypt. this is till hamas started to export terror to sinai and egypt build a wall on border with gaza. and another wall in last year. open air prison narrative is boring. 100k palestinians left gaza after oct 2023. prior to oct 7th there were videos talking about gaza as vacation destination.
there is significant hamas presence in west bank. in fact there are cities that PA can't go to. About half year-year ago PA tried to remove Hamas from Jenin but got it ass kicked and had to ask Israel to clean it from Hamas. In fact, PA still in "control" of areas A/B because Israel works on suppressing hamas and pij in west bank. Latest may polls show that hamas support in west bank is higher than for any other party (which is one of the reasons that PA doesn't hold elections in past 20 years).
I have the feeling you look at things from one side only, making one party as good and the other as evil, there are extremist groups in Israel too as there are in Palestine, each side made atrocities to the other, each side have people that really hate the other party.
Withdrawal from Gaza is very opinionated, some say it was to give Palestinians self rule as you say, many others see it as a tactical move making it an open air prison, and that Israel itself preferred that Hamas take over Gaza.
My only hope is that on both sides there are enough people that want to live in peace and prosperity with equal rights and care for each others regardless of their roots and don’t care if you call it Israel or Palestine or whatever.
What I was trying to present is that Israel already tried to do all those things that you talk about over last 30 years and it didn't work.
Extremist groups in Israel came to life after second intifada and started as revenge groups, that performed same type of attacks that Palestinians performed on Israeli. You can say that they were radicalized by Palestinian violence (I think in your original post you were worried about results of radicalization as result of violence, didn't you ? Somehow people forget that it can go both ways). They also don't hold a candle to hamas/pij/pflp/etc and their actions way overreported and misreported [0] while other stuff is underreported [1]
Blockade of gaza mostly started in 2007 after palestinian elections of 2006 in which hamas won both in west bank and gaza (usa pushed to have election), failed coup (sponsored by usa) of PLO against hamas that resulted in hamas (internationally recognized terrorist organization). takeover of gaza in 2007. I want to remind that Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005 and what followed are hundreds of rockets on Israel [2]
[0] https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articl...
[1] https://www.jns.org/over-6300-terror-attacks-against-jews-in...
[2] https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/number-of-rocket-attack...
Extremist groups in Israel existed since 1940s (before its establishment) or even before …
And the actions of Israel in the past 30 years, and affirmations from its leaders don’t seem to be moving toward the OSLO accords, otherwise why building all those settlements in the west-bank? It just doesn’t make sense.
anyway who cares about the past I am more interested in the future:
1) In your opinion how all this crisis could be solved?
2) If you had the misfortune of being born in Gaza, and obviously you cannot leave it, what would you do?
when todays extremist groups in Israel are discussed, I don't think poster refers to either irgun or lehi.
in past 30 years there were multiple attempts on behalf of Israel for agreements that were rejected by palestinians. and could you please count how many settlements were build by state since 2000 for example ?
1) hostages returned. hamas/pij/pflp disarm. gaza taken over by international force for purpose of stabilization and reconstruction. school curriculum is changed - both in gaza and west bank. deep reforms in PA (Emirati foreign minister then called the Palestinian leadership "Ali Baba and the forty thieves" and claimed senior officials in the Palestinian Authority are "useless" and therefore "replacing them with one another will only lead to the same result.").
2) 100k palestinians left gaza since oct 7th 2023. Israel said that it will help to leave gaza whoever wants to leave. But more to a point of your question - I'll hide/avoid area of hostilities.
The events of October 7th were an atrocity. The illegal settlements and extrajudicial killing of Palestinians prior to October 7th was an atrocity. The launching of rockets into Israel were atrocities. Israeli citizens cheering and watching from deck chairs while white phosphorus was dropped onto Gaza was an atrocity. And this ongoing slaughter, starving of civilians, murder of people waiting for aid in designated humanitarian areas, targeting of doctors, journalists, aid workers, double tapping of hospitals, missile strikes on other sovereign states who are hosting negotiations... Those are atrocities. The whole history is riddled with atrocity on both sides.
The only way out of this, while retaining some shred of humanity is through diplomacy, upholding international law, and centring the role of civil society and the huge numbers on both sides who want a peaceful, just coexistence.
The whole thing is sickening. Also hard to see how this can possibly improve Israel's security in the long term.
Gaza Sky Geeks [0] is/was a startup accelerator or tech hub in Gaza, with backing from people from Mercy Corps, Google and Microsoft. Needless to say, their activities have been severely interrupted by the violence since October 7th, 2023. I'm subscribed to their email newsletter, and the updates are heart-breaking.
If anyone from Gaza Sky Geeks is reading this, please consider sharing those updates on your blog as well as on your email newsletter, so that they can be shared more widely.
[0] https://gazaskygeeks.com/
In my personal life, it has had a rather significant effect; although still trivial compared to those in the region.
I'm Jewish, and opinions in my extended family about Israel have always been in tension; but this war has brought it to an untenable level. I've stopped going what had previously been the normal Shabbat and holiday dinners, in favor of smaller ones with family that is less pro Israel (and very staunchly anti Netenyahu). Even there we more or less avoid the topic. Our less Passover sedar involved a very thinly veiled discussion about the war, which did not go particularly well.
Professionally, there has been much less of an effect. I work for a US defense contractor. For the most part, we avoid talking about it. From the little conversation, I have had, there seems to be a general morale drop; but that might be a selection effect with who I am willing to talk to about it.
The only time Israel became an open topic of discussion was after the pager bombs. Even then, it was pretty much a professional "and this is why we have so much red tape around supply chain management".
[flagged]
My workplace has become very tense as most of us are pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist, but our CEO and investors are very aggressively Zionist. Internally we debate if we should quit, or stay and "fight" the best we can. I think in general there's the sense that we shouldn't let the Zionists chase us out of our jobs, especially when most people don't support their cause.
On a personal level, I boycott all Israeli products and companies, including companies that do business with Israel (to the best of my ability, I still need an alternative to NVIDIA).
You touched on the key tension here
The VC community, weighted by AUM is profoundly Zionist.
I worked at one of the most prominent funds and 4 of my coworkers (American) literally relocated to Israel for ideological reasons
You can't bite the hand that feeds even if it's morally right.
On october 8th there was already anti-israeli sentiment at work (i am Israeli, living currently in USA). The only person that asked me for my well being was Palestinian guy who lives here as well.
Foreign Students are come and go anyway. Unlike in USA they can't stick around in Israel.
Israeli tech companies raised record amounts in Q2
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-israeli-tech-companies-ra...
I admire your courage in asking these questions.
I don't consider myself part of the HN crowd, rather just someone with a waning tech background and persistent interest in many things. I'm unaffiliated with any identity regarding the conflict. A mere American, dizzy and uneasy.
Personally, the effects for me, coupled with Ukraine, instill a sense of illness. I deliberately avoid the numbers as I would the flu. My delusions of a wonderful world are presently reserved for intoxicants and occasional suspensions of disbelief which come sparsely. The tension surrounding the topic, however, is palpable.
I wish you the extensive discussion the subject deserves.
It has made it clear to me that humans do not have any real ability to act on morality in our advanced society. I actually thought that in a sufficiently advanced society, like the one we have today, that we would be beyond certain things. I've gotten the lesson that this iteration of humanity really is forked from that previous iteration of humanity, and that the "moral" part of the codebase was never actually enhanced.
But I also thought we were kind of beyond outright corruption and jingoism too. That these societies that you think are sophisticated and educated are actually not different at all from the sensibilities of societies that crucified people, enslaved people, wholesale eradicated people, economically suffocated people ...
There's nothing about our advanced society that has markers of advanced character, certainly not advanced moral character.
To be fully clear, if you show me a cohort of high school graduates from this year, with wonder in their eyes and a lot of talk about "the future will be good and just", I will absolutely give no credence to it. They are branch of this long torrid code base, and the romance of us as a species is mostly over in my heart (IDGAF how many rockets we launch into space, and how cool AI is). This is not a new type of epiphany, as I'm sure many people were broken throughout history exactly like this. If you believed the young people of 20-40 years ago that their innocence would persist and they would truly build a better world, you got catfished. None of us were ever going to be really different than the shitheads from yesteryear, and the dark truth is this will probably be the case long after our current iteration has mostly passed on.
In short, human innovation and energy is something I no longer believe is sufficient enough for building a sound world anymore. I falsely believed scientific and infrastructural advancement would be enough to keep lifting society. It's clear we morally platued quite some time ago, while technology has trended way way up.
same, the genocide does not impact me directly in any material sense, but it changes how I see the world and human beings fundamentally.
It really opened my eyes to the lack of actual interest in reality. The number of people willing to believe what they're told by social media or by the popular kids far exceed those who would try to understand the situation.
It fascinates me that it's become so popular to defend people from reprisals for their own elected government's actions.
I also found it really interesting that over a thousand Israelis were killed, yet the people I work with immediately started saying that any kind of response was totally unfair to the Palestinians. Not a single word of compassion for the Israelis who were killed. But I guess that's not a trending thought.
first sentence in article: "I watched as the goal of mainstream journalism shifted from describing reality to ushering readers to the correct political conclusion."
https://www.thefp.com/p/friedman-when-we-started-to-lie
[flagged]
Maybe they object to mass murder of civilians, children and the deliberate starvation of 2 million people.
It's not particularly complicated, what Israel is deliberately perpetrating is something that normal, uninvolved people cannot agree with, it horrifies and disgusts them and they will forever associate these actions with Israel.
Even with Israels deep political connections and influence committing ethnic cleansing and a genocide is not something that they will ever be able to whitewash away, no matter how they contort the situation.