ergopraxis

Frankly, a lot of what is happening here is that many US Liberal Jews have views about Israel that do not fit into a liberal framework of universalist human rights, they find this acutely uncomfortable, and so there is a lot of special pleading and contortion to try and obscure that from themselves.

A baseline approach which enforces minimum of international law (*all* settlements are illegal, *trade* with those settlements is illegal, *arms dealing* that involves end-use in the oPT is illegal) is punitive insofar as it means Israeli Jews no longer have zero consequences for ruling my people.

You can be overdramatic in your responses here but at core Nathan gets at the core of a certain problem here: unless you actually literally do agree with the Israeli assessment of the situation, you are not required to coddle it.

They are not obliged to send it weapons, they are not obliged to back its adventurism abroad, they are not obliged to do anything to facilitate those delusions.

I'm not really taking a position on whether what Akiva said slots into what Nathan is talking about because I dont know Akiva well enough, but here goes, here's what yall are missing about N's post: if a country has delusional opinions about what makes it safe, others arent obliged to indulge it.

Switch from The Matrix says "Not like this."

*Just in the LAST WEEK*:
- Prisons are experimenting on trans prisoners to "cure" them
- Kansas revoked every trans Kansan's driver's license
- Scouts agreed to ban trans kids
- Texas declared all health services stop helping trans kids
- SCOTUS declared it legal to out trans kids to abusive parents

All power to President Sanchez

The real existential threat to the labour party are not the greens, it's the labour party itself, which is a bit of a problem for them, because you can not ruthlessly smear yourself to save yourself from your own dreadful public image.

I don’t think they are playing 5D chess here, most of the senior administration is just in an information ecosystem where “we did it for Israel” is rewarded. You were also part of this ecosystem until a few days ago when you suddenly caught up to the Democratic base.

On the mark

hop in boys we’re doing a crusade

They got Aaron Rupar posting like this it's so over

There is a reason pursuing a war, under international law, is required to be a last resort marked by necessity, and the major case where it is legal to engage in one is *when it is foisted on you* through someone else's acts of aggression.

When I see people defend starting a war (a process in which the grave violation of peoples' rights at scale is inevitable even when pursued with the utmost care for jus in bello) to "protect peoples' rights", Glados starts singing in my head: "For the good of all of us, except the ones who are dead"

Trump lied, school girls died.

Don't occupy Iran, just change the regime immediately

Iranian attacks on US and UK bases in the gulf countries and Cyprus are actually legal. There are armed attacks that constitute acts of aggression against it coming from the territory of those countries, with the consent of those countries. These are valid military targets in ongoing hostilities!

as far as I can tell the US wants Iran to become Venezuela, while Israel wants it to become Libya

Gender critical folks also don't believe us when we tell them "sex-based rights" is an idea they themselves made up in just the last handful of years.

The goal *is* the wasteland-ification of much of MENA so that Israel and the Emirates can rule over rubble.

we were probably all up last night staring at the ceiling with our own version of the same thought running on endless loop, but mine looked something like this:

I hate these people to a degree that feels simultaneously corrosive to the soul, and also the only righteous response to this kind of evil

tbh I'd like Martin to take a break from not working on winds of winter to focus on various ASOIAF prequels, to instead not work on winds of winter to focus on a story set in the far future of the ASOIAF world

things every single republican president of your lifetime has done

- started a war in the middle east
- completely destroyed the economy

That's why we pay the CIA the big bucks, to deliver hard hitting news like this

Also doesn't hurt to target opposition figures like Mousavi and to hit political prisoner wings in Evin too! That way you ensure there's no legitimate opposition figures available, just clowns in Fairfax.

Some conservatives here think that secular young Iranians would be happy if America would come and liberate them. What would you say to them? Democracy, contrary to what they try to tell us, it’s not a paper that you hang on the wall and then you have a democracy. Democracy is a social evolution. It is something cultural. Iranians, they have become much more secular, and they are ready for democracy, but they have to fight themselves for democracy, and the only thing that other countries can do is to understand their fight and help them in their fight. They [America] talk about the human rights in Iran … how is it that the United States makes the biggest deals with China, and China is far from respecting human rights? What about Saudi Arabia? If you want to talk about an inquisition, the Iranian regime is far from being an inquisition. We have almost a free press, people leave, women have the right to study, they drive, they work. Saudi Arabia, they don’t have anything like that! Talk about human rights in Saudi Arabia! Why doesn’t anyone go and put a bomb in Saudi Arabia and kill the king?

Do you think it’s ironic that, in the face of American threats, you almost find yourself defending the Iranian regime? Absolutely, but if we want a democracy, the Iranian people have to do it themselves. The Americans say they want a democracy in Iran, and at the same time, when the Iranians wanted to become democratic in 1953 with [Mohammad] Mosaddeq and to nationalize our oil, the CIA came and made a coup d’état in my country. Why do you want me to believe that they want to come and make a democracy? We have to make our democracy! There are many things that I wish for in my country — I want my country to be free, I want my country to be democratic, I don’t want any journalists to go to jail because of an article they wrote in my country. But if the United States of America attacked my country, no matter what, I would be against the United States.

Do you see similarities between the Christian fundamentalists in our government and the mullahs in Iran? They’re the same! George Bush and the mullahs of Iran, they use the same words! The mullahs of Iran say we have God on our side; he has God on his side, too. Both of them are convinced that they are going to eradicate evil in the world. But when these words come out of the mouth of a mullah, it’s normal. It’s a shame that the president of the biggest secular democracy in the world talks with the same words as the mullahs. It’s extremely scary.

Do you have any advice for secular Americans who are faced with living in a country that’s increasingly governed by religious fundamentalists? If I have any advice, it’s that every day that you wake up, don’t say, “This is normal.” Every day, wake up with this idea that you have to defend your freedom. Nobody has the right to take from women the right to abortion, nobody has the right to take from homosexuals the right to be homosexual, nobody has the right to stop people laughing, to stop people thinking, to stop people talking. If I have one message to give to the secular American people, it’s that the world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don’t know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same.

The full 2005 interview it's from is well worth a read btw. Sadly just as relevant today as it was 20+ years ago—moreso, in fact. www.salon.com/2005/04/24/s...

"There are many things I wish for my country . . . But if the USA attacked my country, no matter what, I would be against the US."

Picture of Marjane Satrapi alongside a quote from her. The quote reads: The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same... - Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist

Thinking about this quote from Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi again.

his time is eternal.

www.reddit.com/r/Grimdank/s...

greens aren't against air travel. we just think frequent fliers should be levied.

this wouldn't impact the average person going on holiday once a year. just the ppl who use flights like taxis.

As we plunge headlong into another catastrophic war, Sen. Schumer and Rep. Jeffries’ throat clearing and process critique only serves Trump and the war machine.

Democrats should speak clearly and with one voice: no war.

“The destruction that Kennedy has wrought in 1 year might take generations to repair, and there is little hope for US health and science while he remains at the helm.”

The LANCET cover, March 2026, says it all...

RFK Jr’s “radical transparency”: comments scrapped, advisers & whistleblower gone, data buried, junk science elevated, states rejecting CDC guidance.

Trust: 83% → 63%

Every congress member who enabled this bears generational blame for U.S. health.