iain

joined 1 year ago
[–] iain@feddit.nl 28 points 8 months ago (15 children)

Terrorists is just code for Arabs attacking civilians. Non-arabs attacking Arab civilians, it's called "the U.S. military" or "IDF".

[–] iain@feddit.nl 21 points 8 months ago

From Wikipedia:

Fearful of the potential impact the slave rebellion could have in the slave states, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson refused to recognize the new republic. The Southern politicians who were a powerful voting bloc in the American Congress prevented U.S. recognition for decades until they withdrew in 1861 to form the Confederacy.

Later:

Fearing possible foreign intervention, or the emergence of a new government led by the anti-American Haitian politician Rosalvo Bobo, President Woodrow Wilson sent U.S. Marines into Haiti in July 1915. The USS Washington, under Rear Admiral Caperton, arrived in Port-au-Prince in an attempt to restore order and protect U.S. interests. Within days, the Marines had taken control of the capital city and its banks and customs house. The Marines declared martial law and severely censored the press. Within weeks, a new pro-U.S. Haitian president, Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave, was installed and a new constitution written that was favorable to the interests of the United States. The constitution (written by future US President Franklin D. Roosevelt) included a clause that allowed, for the first time, foreign ownership of land in Haiti, which was bitterly opposed by the Haitian legislature and citizenry.

[–] iain@feddit.nl 36 points 8 months ago (2 children)

It's put up from the inside... did the antisemites walk in, moved the blinds, taped the messages, then put the blinds back?

[–] iain@feddit.nl 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I regret not making my assumption explicit: a democracy in which there is a just constitution that guarantees the rights of everyone equally. I would not model this democracy based on the USA, because it is such a broken system. In the USA, only one party is in power at a time, which makes problems like the dictatorship of the majority a real concern. Better are European systems where nobody ever gets an absolute majority and always has to form a coalition. It's of course also not without its problems and I don't profess to have all the solutions.

What I don't like is just saying that the two state solution is ideal, but immediately saying it's not feasible for something the Palestinians have done. This again places the Israeli needs over the Palestinians and disregard the vastly bigger crimes Israel has committed onto the Palestinian population over the years.

[–] iain@feddit.nl 5 points 8 months ago

Yeah it does. To be honest, that didn't even register with me, because the rest of the post just talks about the cause, not the solution. Also it agrees with my experiences when discussion this topic. Quite a few people say it's complicated and that just ends the discussion for them.

Also any discussion about a solution must address the cause: as long as Israel occupies Palestinian land, they will face resistance.

[–] iain@feddit.nl 14 points 8 months ago (5 children)

Do you let it be a democracy

That one, if I had to choose. But I don't, it's the Palestinians that get to decide their own fate. I believe it's everyone's right to self-determination.

A lot of people only seem to imagine ethnostates as a solution. I invite those people to ask themselves some questions on why that is.

[–] iain@feddit.nl 27 points 8 months ago (3 children)

That is not what OP was saying at all. I don't know what hypothetical person you're quoting. OP wasn't even talking about any solution. Just stating that the source of the problem isn't that complicated. Sometimes a simple problem has a complicated solution.

Nobody serious is asking for all the Israelis to leave. The solution to one ethnostate is not another ethnostate. We're asking for a new state that truly treats all its citizens equally. And to have a tribunal of sorts to convict the people who committed war crimes. This is not an easy solution, but getting justice rarely is.

[–] iain@feddit.nl -2 points 8 months ago

The problem is that people point to the problems of the USSR and say it's because of communism, but when the USA does similar things, it's just them fucking up, not because they're capitalist. It's a double standard hinted at by OP.

The problem with the USSR was not that they were communist. I think that communism worked well for them, which magnified both their successes (beating nazis, reducing poverty, increasing literacy, getting to space, etc), but also magnified their mistakes (suppressing religion, art, etc).

[–] iain@feddit.nl 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I don't think financial literacy is the problem. I think the majority of the debt is incurred because people need to spend money on necessities. No amount of sound financial planning can make that go away

[–] iain@feddit.nl 3 points 8 months ago

Of course, every country worth it's salt is putting out propaganda, interfering with elections, and more.

But what I don't agree with is that every time someone exposes the dark side of the U.S. (like people voting for Trump, or democrats being caught doing something shitty again), the default is to blame an external evil instead of acknowledging your own mistakes.

[–] iain@feddit.nl 4 points 8 months ago (4 children)

You're letting Trump get off easy by suggesting he's being manipulated by someone else. He's not an idiot, he knows exactly what he is doing.

But the bigger point is this: Assange did something that benefitted Putin. That doesn't mean he is Putin's agent. Americans are so obsessed with Russia, they see it everywhere, which is just not true.

view more: ‹ prev next ›