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Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

robkhenderson.com

81–90 of 396 posts

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#81
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will you state that Hamas should give up as a means of ending the conflict? To test your moral and semantic consistency. Your "retributive genocide" label doesn't hold if the conflict ends as soon as Hamas is eleminated, which it would. And which they can effect in this instant by giving up. Not that people are obligated to or widely accepting of the morally and logically inconsistent labels of Hamas supporters. Hama…

Sure happy to: Oct 7 was a crime and the perpetrators should face justice. Hamas should immediately disarm and leave civilian areas. I don't like reactionary Islamism, I don't believe violent terror creates political progress. Fighting this war is not productive and is harming civilians. Again: you're welcome to impute whatever motives on me or others that you want, but that doesn't make them correct. With all that s…

>I don't believe violent terror creates political progress.

That's an understatement, especially for the situation under discussion. October 7th has forever destroyed any chance at diplomatic progress on the Palestinian cause. There will be zero political currency to make it happen.

One of the more curious phenomenons of this period is to watch Palestinians and their supporters speak of the future as if October 7th didn't happen.

And that there is some chance of diplomacy toward Palestinian statehood or an improvement in their condition going forward. There won't be, at least given their radicalized state that seems to be the status quo for the forseeable future. Life is going to be a misery for Palestinians, at least for generations more to come.

That isn't an emotional comment. It's an objective one that has the best interest of innocent Palestinians at heart, in terms of suggesting that they move away from radicalization and toward relocating to a region where they can actually have a quality of life.

Those whose rhetoric serves to keep Palestinians radicalized, such as yourself, in-part will be responsible for their continued abject misery. Situations permanently change and this is one of them.

>the presence of Hamas members in civilian areas does not give the Israeli military legal right to kill civilians.

You're confused as to how war works, absent proof of large scale targeting of only civilians.

Hamas just engaged in unspeakable evil to the end of beginning a real War. This isn't a joke. And it has chosen to hide in a dense urban area of one of its cities. Which is another act of unspeakable evil. Civilians should move South.

But no Army, especially one objectively guilty of an operation that was intended to be a massive and the most brutal of war crime, has ever been able to start a war and then hide among its civilians toward preventing its eradication. By claiming that the collateral damage incurred by going after them is a war crime. Leaving Hamas to commit future atrocities on target populations.

Yours are the ethics of the utilization of Human Shields toward engaging in War and War Crimes.

Luckily, the wider West has the baseline level of moral clarity enough to see through these "thin" arguments. If Hamas thought it was going to commit 10/7 and then use its civilians as legal shields, then it is finding out that it is mistaken. And it is further criminal for the attempt.

But it can end the War now by giving up now.

>retributive violence

An obvious falsehood given the already repeated constraints. See my prior posts.

> until conditions are met is just taking the “take hostages” paradigm to another scale.

Your logic car was teetering on its wheels and now has flipped into doing a double barrel roll down the highway.

This is a terrible attempt at inverting what is actually happening. Additionally, it mocks the vicitims of Hamas terror.

Hamas can free the Israeli hostages. Hamas can free Gaza immediately by removing itself from it, after starting a war.

The only stupidity here is how fiercely you are defending the continued actions, and their results, of the most potent terrorist threat in decades. On a public message board.

I don't want a single further civilian Palestinian to so much as get a scratch. They should all immeidately move South for the duration of this conflict, and work toward shaking off their Hamas rulers.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#82
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know lots of people who are quite poor and are also very invested in the human rights of Palestinians. I know lots of people who are quite poor and very interested in reining in police violence. Your opinions and experiences aren't universal.

They aren't speaking about protest in the interest of the human rights of Palestinians. See the fact that protestors aren't suggesting that Hamas give themselves up as a means of protecting the lives of their Palestinian human shields. Protestors want October 7th and no consequences, or limited consequences on the terms of those who would see the perpetrators keep power. Specifically, to be able to slaughter masses o…

Protesting Hamas will do fuck all.

Protesting military action might actually save some lives.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all protests exist to further concrete political proposals (ex. suggestions to Hamas). Expressions of mass grief, community solidarity, and elevation of an issue which harms your neighbors are all important outcomes for people meeting en masse. You're welcome to impute whatever motives you want onto people you disagree with, but that doesn't mean you actually understand.

// Not all protests exist to further concrete political proposals (ex. suggestions to Hamas). Expressions of mass grief, community solidarity, and elevation of an issue which harms your neighbors are all important outcomes for people meeting en masse This too smells like a "luxury belief" to me. If you're actually experiencing the problem, you want to solve stuff. You want to be practical and pragmatic because your a…

If anything, glibly dismissing mass protests as "luxury beliefs" is itself a luxury belief.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure happy to: Oct 7 was a crime and the perpetrators should face justice. Hamas should immediately disarm and leave civilian areas. I don't like reactionary Islamism, I don't believe violent terror creates political progress. Fighting this war is not productive and is harming civilians. Again: you're welcome to impute whatever motives on me or others that you want, but that doesn't make them correct. With all that s…

// The idea that the only response to the violence of one political faction (Hamas) is greater amounts of retributive violence This seems to be the crucial flaw in your analysis - I don't see a cycle of "retributive" violence. Israel asserts the goal is to "solve this threat" not "kill as many as possible." If they could remove the threat w/o affecting civilians, they would do that. This is a qualitatively different…

From where I'm sitting the historical contours are somewhat different. I understand what is asserted by Israel, but I think an examination of their historical treatment of Palestinians makes it pretty clear that they're interested in basically removing them from the area at any cost. In my own opinion, this history makes their claims about not wanting to harm civilians not very credible. I've drawn a lot of parallels with the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and I think that this is another place where history is repeating itself. The US claimed over and over again that it was fighting "justly" and would not be committing violence if it wasn't the cleanest way to resolve the threat, but retrospective analysis shows that this isn't really what was happening on the ground.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#85
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure happy to: Oct 7 was a crime and the perpetrators should face justice. Hamas should immediately disarm and leave civilian areas. I don't like reactionary Islamism, I don't believe violent terror creates political progress. Fighting this war is not productive and is harming civilians. Again: you're welcome to impute whatever motives on me or others that you want, but that doesn't make them correct. With all that s…

>I don't believe violent terror creates political progress. That's an understatement, especially for the situation under discussion. October 7th has forever destroyed any chance at diplomatic progress on the Palestinian cause. There will be zero political currency to make it happen. One of the more curious phenomenons of this period is to watch Palestinians and their supporters speak of the future as if October 7th d…

Okay sounds good :)

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#86
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure happy to: Oct 7 was a crime and the perpetrators should face justice. Hamas should immediately disarm and leave civilian areas. I don't like reactionary Islamism, I don't believe violent terror creates political progress. Fighting this war is not productive and is harming civilians. Again: you're welcome to impute whatever motives on me or others that you want, but that doesn't make them correct. With all that s…

>I don't believe violent terror creates political progress. That's an understatement, especially for the situation under discussion. October 7th has forever destroyed any chance at diplomatic progress on the Palestinian cause. There will be zero political currency to make it happen. One of the more curious phenomenons of this period is to watch Palestinians and their supporters speak of the future as if October 7th d…

> Those whose rhetoric serves to keep Palestinians radicalized, such as yourself, in-part will be responsible for their continued abject misery.

What a fucked up thing to say. As if rhetoric from some far-away Westerners is what keeps these people radicalized and miserable.

You can eliminate Hamas down to the last man, but if conditions in Gaza don't change, you'll just get Hamas 2.0. And Hamas 3.0 after you eliminate those. I'm stating the obvious, but it's not possible to deradicalize a group of people by bombing them and depopulating their largest city.

> Yours are the ethics of the utilization of Human Shields toward engaging in War and War Crimes.

And yours are the ethics of shooting the hostage to kill the hostage taker. Which certainly has precedent in warfare, and may be necessary to ensure national security depending on who you ask — but let's not mince words here. You don't get to wash the blood from your hands by pointing to the hidden terrorists behind the corpses of bombed-out families. (Even if you're legally allowed to label it "collateral damage.")

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all protests exist to further concrete political proposals (ex. suggestions to Hamas). Expressions of mass grief, community solidarity, and elevation of an issue which harms your neighbors are all important outcomes for people meeting en masse. You're welcome to impute whatever motives you want onto people you disagree with, but that doesn't mean you actually understand.

// Not all protests exist to further concrete political proposals (ex. suggestions to Hamas). Expressions of mass grief, community solidarity, and elevation of an issue which harms your neighbors are all important outcomes for people meeting en masse This too smells like a "luxury belief" to me. If you're actually experiencing the problem, you want to solve stuff. You want to be practical and pragmatic because your a…

> This too smells like a "luxury belief" to me. If you're actually experiencing the problem, you want to solve stuff

This is kind of broad and I don't think it's super fair to what I'm trying to say. You might want to solve stuff very badly, but simultaneously want to hold space for communal grief. There are examples of this all over the place (look at any community response to a mass shooting). Waving that away as "noise and energy" is IMO a kind of tech-bro, solutionist impulse that ignores the very real function that it serves in creating bonds between people or like entrenching a shared culture. Solutions come from coherent political movements, coherent political movements come from people who know and trust each other. Being together, in physical space, airing the same grievances and seeing how many people stand with you is incredibly empowering and an important step in producing the kind of mass movements that bring change. You can call that a luxury belief if you want, but I would encourage you to talk with poor people who actually organize political movements (although maybe you do and we just run in different circles) because I think your mind will be changed.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#88
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK. I mean if you're not curious about it I'm not going to try to convince you? Generations of activists and scholars have found a relationship here but if you're certain they're wrong to that's your project. Not sure why you even wrote anything past the first sentence here.

> I mean if you're not curious about it I'm not going to try to convince you? With that attitude it's no surprised both groups have become -- as they say -- marginalized.

Yours is an under-rated comment. When my belief is sound, I go and advocate for it articulately and logically, engaging with people where they are to bring them along. When my belief is weak, I malign them for not a-priori reaching the same conclusion w/o my effort.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#89
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Few cities reduced police budgets at all certainly nobody in any meaningful way defunded the police and even cities short of officers have funding for additional officers they lack people far more than money. Also in case you didn't notice police don't do much to protect normal folks from crime. They'll be there 15 minutes after whatever happened happened to file a report if they aren't too busy screwing with law abi…

The movement not only affected budgets but also affected morale. DAs would not press charges, so they didn’t bother with lesser crimes. Yes, the police harass, sometimes I get harassed but that presence is what puts a lid on crime. I’ll put up with some harassment in exchange for fewer criminals running free. We can seek redress from the police, we cannot seek redress from criminals. The reason we need police is the…

I was harassed repeatedly made to stand with my hands on a patrol car for 15 minutes in case I had developed a record since last week when I was just walking home from my job at night. I was ultimately falsely arrested for using bad language whilst walking away, prepared a reasonable defense then a excellent appeal both of which were ignored. They showed it as dropped then re-raised it when I had left town.

If I was willing to spend 30 days in jail lose thousands of dollars income and spend thousands more I might be able to win it when appeals took it out of that fucked up state.

Realistically I can't do anything about it.

On the other hand they didnt really investigate the 2 attempts to burn down my apartment building attempted homicide x 50 x 2 nor arrest the ex co-worker who tried to murder one of his fellows in a walmart parking lot.

I was left to organize a neighborhood patrol of the premises in the one case and get a psycho to chase me to get him off a guy who can only run by pressing x.

We live in the worst of all possible worlds where police are available to shoot teens but aren't available to do their jobs. If you wonder why you can't hire enough cops wonder no more. It's not liberals pissing in their cornflakes a lot of good folks don't choose to be a part of an obvious shit show.

In closing it's been said those who would give up essential liberty for temporary security deserve neither but more importantly they get neither. A police state isn't a particularly safe place.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#90
post #71

I find the luck vs. hard-work a weird dichotomy - both are true and both are false. If you don't work hard, you probably won't be successful. But if hard-work were sufficient for success then the richest person in the world, or the President, or however we measure success would also the hardest working, which I don't think most people who agree with. Similarly, although I think most sports-people would be acknowledge…

The author did not do a good job delving into what exactly do these phrases mean. They mean different things to different people. If you are in a working class neighborhood, you value hard work as you see the consequences of unemployment, drug abuse, alcoholism, and poverty. You value hard work to escape poverty. If you are an incredibly successful and wealthy, you will readily admit that luck played a large part in your success. You see many people who worked just as hard or even harder, but fortune smiled on you and not them.
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