I just wanted to confirm from our meeting just now, did you want me to (some crazy shit that could cause problems)?

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Joined 6 months ago
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Cake day: January 9th, 2024

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  • It’s a fairly impressive propaganda double dip

    DON’T explain the context, beyond “synagogue” and “antisemitism” and some vague language about how violence “evolved” into existence. Thus, anyone who isn’t pro Palestinian sees the story in a very particular way that will reinforce a particular wrong perception of the protestors.

    But DO bring Biden’s name into it for literally no reason at all, so that the people who support the protestors and are able to realize that there’s probably more to the story, will have their particular wrong perception, that quite a lot of them probably have, that he’s anti protestor, reinforced.

    It’s a rare and cunning story that can simultaneously communicate “look at these scumbag anti semitic protestors” and “look at Biden thinking these protestors are anti semitic scumbags” simultaneously, with each population receiving the message which is exactly appropriate to misleading them and them specifically.



  • It has yet to pass the Senate, and Biden said he would veto it.

    Of course, Biden is still swearing to everyone that he is still sending shipments except for the one that he paused because of Rafah, and that he plans to keep doing it. And, his administration conducted an investigation which somehow managed to conclude that they “may have” been committing war crimes but that it’s not clear enough that we would have to stop shipping them weapons or anything which we would be legally obligated to do if they “conclusively” were doing anything criminal.

    Fuckin assholes


  • In general, they get grants of cash from the US which they are required to use to “purchase” from US suppliers more or less any weapons (with few export restrictions). We’re giving them weapons but they still get to pick out what they think they need. This is a pretty good overview which seems like it’s mainly missing:

    • The fact that congress authorizes aid, and then the White House is generally responsible for actually sending it. That’s important in cases like the most recent aid package congress passed, which Biden is at least partially simply deciding not to provide, which he is more or less able to do (the “more or less” is complicated and I don’t really understand it).
    • A detailed breakdown of what shipments got “paused” and what aid has actually been delivered since then. Presumably, the White House is able to keep the details of this information secret. Currently, Netanyahu is claiming that they’re cutting off a lot of shipments they should be giving, and the White House is claiming that that’s wrong and they’ve been delivering aid as normal (and as far as I know not saying how much that is); it would be nice to know the detail of what’s being sent and who is lying (although I have a theory).

  • I know this whole message is preaching to the choir but:

    You guys managed to find like the one time in history that US military ordinance killed civilians that unequivocally wasn’t our fault, when they were attacking a clearly military target under occupation from a clearly malicious invading force

    And you are, predictably, complaining like it’s our fault you put the airfield right next to a fucking public beach and then didn’t sound any kind of warning that it was under active bombardment and knocked one of the missiles off its military target and it fell on some people

    Pack up

    Go home









  • Maybe you are gone already so won’t see this.

    But I actually agree with your central point that the politics and tech communities on Lemmy are full of strife and hostility that doesn’t need to be there. Actually most of the rest of it seems fine, but if you care about politics or tech, the quantity of dickheads get hard to ignore.

    My strategy has been to pretty aggressively cull some communities out of my subscriptions, and then make a little hobby out of attempting to disagree with some of the dickheads good naturedly in places I still subscribe to. Be the change you want to see in the world and etc. I don’t always succeed.

    I have to say, skimming over your user, that it looks to me like most of the time when you get downvotes, it’s not because of anything opinion based, but because you’re being hostile and dismissive of the other person’s point of view – sometimes like instantly right out of the gate, like “oh great I’m sure this thread is going to be FULL of people saying wrong opinion X which is obviously wrong”… which is exactly what you’re saying you’re sick of. IDK, man, you could be right or wrong. But being hostile about it and actively trying to pick fights with the other viewpoint even before anyone has shown up to express it seems like it’s not exactly gonna draw people gathering around you throwing roses and warmly embracing you if that’s what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for lots of fighting then sure but it sounds like that is not what you are after.

    Like I say I gave up on certain communities because of what you’re saying. I won’t say at all that your assessment is wrong. But also I do think there’s a certain degree to which (again just saying what I’ve seen looking back a little) you’ve created exactly the strife as well on your side.


  • Acting aggresively, but in a carefully crafted way to avoid an escalated response. The message sent internally that the other side restrains themselaee not out of reason, but fear.

    That actually might be it. We can’t look to people in our own government / own country like we’re anything other than the boss and everyone knows it, but also, we definitely don’t want to pick a massive fight with another nuclear armed power and our biggest trading partner for literally no reason at all. And so, let’s play this stupid fighter-plane-chicken game with them and spin it at home like we’re out there telling them what’s what.

    IDK if I buy it. It sorta makes sense.

    It’s hard to square that, though, with actually fucking up the sailors on Filipino ships in a way that seems like it should demand some kind of response. Maybe the orders were to just be pushy in a non-escalational way and things got out of hand on the ground in a way that for-real wasn’t intended?



  • But they do this shit with the US too. Their fighter planes play the “I’m not touching you I’m not touching you” game with US aircraft right up until the point it turns into the “oh no I did touch you and now I’m dead and my airplane is falling apart in fiery chunks and your airplane is crippled what an exercise in futility that whole thing was” game.

    Like I say, I won’t even say that that didn’t impact US policy in some way similar to what they wanted. I don’t know that it did but I don’t know that it didn’t. Overall my main reaction is just wtf are you guys doing why is your strategy like this.

    (I do of course suspect that they will not try to play the firehoses and spear wielding game with the US Navy. Just some similar version of the same type of tactics.)