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Ask HN: Has the Gaza war affected the HN crowd?

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Re: Ask HN: Has the Gaza war affected the HN crowd?

#41

Post by NomDePlum »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #40
ok1984 wrote: post #8

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…

My opinion is caring about the Palestinians is incredibly performative. People that claim to care about Palestinians care about 'the cause' but not the individuals themselves.

What "cause"? Not sure I understand that?

My main concern is how quickly what I would have considered Western value structures, democracy, press freedom, international law, reasonableness have evaporated and I now see the West, and the US in particular very differently.

Allowing one group, in fact enabling them in so many ways, of people who we have close affiliations with to kill, starve, displace and torture an entire population, no matter the reason, just makes me see the world in a very different way.

This centuries illegal wars had opened my eyes somewhat but even those I'm going back to and re-evaluating and seeing them and the current situation as frankly great evils.

I'm old enough to not really have to worry for myself, but selfishly it does make me very concerned for my children.

And yes I am more than concerned for the Palestinians, if that is the "cause" you are referring to.

Re: Ask HN: Has the Gaza war affected the HN crowd?

#42

Post by austin-cheney »

ok1984 wrote: post #37
petralithic wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question, have other past conflicts in history not made you also lose faith in humanity? Studying what people did to each other even thousands of years ago, systematically beheading and parading them around on spikes for example, as many civilizations have done, has made me realize that humans simply do not change, for our biology and psychology remains the same. Even still, have previous recent or concurrent…

Yes all recent wars, but the comment was on a question related to Gaza. Still gaza war feels different, maybe because it’s almost streamed live on social media platforms by the directly impacted people? I don’t agree with the statement that corporations are machines to absorb money, behind corporations there are people and people must have morale.

It feels different because as horrible as other conflicts are they at least have a military objective. For example Russian invasion of Ukraine is horrible but I can see some strategic purpose to it for Russia. Gaza just feels like a Genocide.

Re: Ask HN: Has the Gaza war affected the HN crowd?

#43

Post by racktash »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #40
ok1984 wrote: post #8

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…

My opinion is caring about the Palestinians is incredibly performative. People that claim to care about Palestinians care about 'the cause' but not the individuals themselves.

I used to think this, and I was so wrong. Or course some attend the rallies for foolish reasons, but I found that a lot of what I believed about the Israel-Palestine situation was effectively Israeli propaganda (and grossly untrue).

The mistreatment of the Palestinians is long running, deliberate, calculated. The recent blood bath in Gaza is another entry in a long running tragedy.

Between River and Sea by Dervla Murphy is a wonderful, humane examination of the country. It's over a decade old but still very informative without being academic or dry. I would recommend it highly.

Re: Ask HN: Has the Gaza war affected the HN crowd?

#44

Post by kypro »

ok1984 wrote: post #8

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…

Our ability to apply empathy selectively is the root cause of most of the evil in the world. I myself struggle to understand why some things when they happen to some people move me so deeply, but when similar things happen to others I feel much less. I obviously don't choose to behaviour in this way, but that seems to be how we are wired.

I guess the difference is that I'm aware of it and I try to fight it. The ability to empathise with those whom you disagree with or share little in common with is a skill that can be learnt, and one we should try to teach to our children. And I mean this in its most extreme sense. If you can't empathise with someone you find truly bad/evil, that's a problem because we can always view others as bad/evil if it allows us to justify our lack of empathy towards them. Typically its those who we believe instinctively deserve the least empathy which we must proactively try our hardest to understand and care about. You see this all the time in war – they're the bad guys and deserve the bad things we do.

Unfortunately I'm not sure how practical what I'm saying is at its limit. Something you quickly realise when you practise being empathetic to everyone is that people will take advantage of that. But still, as a trend the world would be much a better place if more people could see past differences and care for the suffering of people equally.

Re: Ask HN: Has the Gaza war affected the HN crowd?

#45

Post by cm2012 »

austin-cheney wrote: post #42
ok1984 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes all recent wars, but the comment was on a question related to Gaza. Still gaza war feels different, maybe because it’s almost streamed live on social media platforms by the directly impacted people? I don’t agree with the statement that corporations are machines to absorb money, behind corporations there are people and people must have morale.

It feels different because as horrible as other conflicts are they at least have a military objective. For example Russian invasion of Ukraine is horrible but I can see some strategic purpose to it for Russia. Gaza just feels like a Genocide.

[flagged]

Re: Ask HN: Has the Gaza war affected the HN crowd?

#46

Post by cm2012 »

a_tartaruga wrote: post #39

No major changes professionally other than that I have become a bit more careful about keeping my geopolitical opinions to myself. Also having some coworkers living in the Middle East makes the two recent Qatari strikes feel scarier. I had a lot of trouble doing anything during the week of the Iran war besides refreshing the news. I felt quite awkward around my Iranian coworkers knowing that my tax dollars were fundi…

Most Iranians outside of the US hate the regime, so probably were in favor of the bombing of Iran. But best not to talk any politics at work, its better.

Re: Ask HN: Has the Gaza war affected the HN crowd?

#47

Post by abdusco »

cm2012 wrote: post #45
austin-cheney wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels different because as horrible as other conflicts are they at least have a military objective. For example Russian invasion of Ukraine is horrible but I can see some strategic purpose to it for Russia. Gaza just feels like a Genocide.

[flagged]

[dead]

Re: Ask HN: Has the Gaza war affected the HN crowd?

#48

Post by _DeadFred_ »

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, mass kidnappings of children, etc have had much more impact on me. So many people defending Russia, trying to justify Russia's position, or wave it away. If we can't take care of people in the heart of Europe we definitely can't begin to touch things in the middle east.

I don't understand why so many in the west get upset by the Gaza war but are so indifferent/don't care about Ukraine or actively hand waive away concerns and/or loudly say 'I don't care about Ukraine'.

Re: Ask HN: Has the Gaza war affected the HN crowd?

#50

Post by petralithic »

ok1984 wrote: post #37
petralithic wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question, have other past conflicts in history not made you also lose faith in humanity? Studying what people did to each other even thousands of years ago, systematically beheading and parading them around on spikes for example, as many civilizations have done, has made me realize that humans simply do not change, for our biology and psychology remains the same. Even still, have previous recent or concurrent…

Yes all recent wars, but the comment was on a question related to Gaza. Still gaza war feels different, maybe because it’s almost streamed live on social media platforms by the directly impacted people? I don’t agree with the statement that corporations are machines to absorb money, behind corporations there are people and people must have morale.

> I don’t agree with the statement that corporations are machines to absorb money, behind corporations there are people and people must have morale.

This is covered by the principle of the diffusion of responsibility. One person may have morals but spread over many, the entire structure does not. Those corporations that do have morals are outcompeted by those that don't, in terms of amount of money made, so over time corporations that are not moral do better.

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