It is impossible for me to understand how Congress can pass a law for a 20 year prison sentence for boycotting Israel . Meanwhile it is ok for Israel to kill American journalists with no consequences. USA is cooked.
Because Drumpf want Gaza ethnically cleansed so he can get in thereto build real estate, and one of his ridiculous Drumpf towers. Hopefully he'll be long gone, with his cabinet members who are as evil as the Israelis they send bombs to, instead of bombing it into oblivion.
I have never felt so hateful towards any country that I wish them to cease existing but watching what they have done to Palestinians in their own land has caused me to feel like that.
Even if Trump gets his way building the Gaza Riverina, who in their right mind would visit there? Do these shitbags really believe (internationally recognised legal) resistance to Israel occupation and ongoing apartheid and genocide will end... ever?
I hear the Ted Bundys of the world are salivating at the opportunity to visit the Gaza Riviera.. mostly of the Israeli type. And then, like a failed casino, the whole project will fold and Mr Trump can declare victory and move on..
Expect the Oligarch Adelsons to book early and often. With their own IDF & AIPAC-expensed PRIVATE SECURITY entourage & IBM Land to Air Array for Picnic Season....
Tio Mitchito
(And I'm what's left of the Zionist Pro-Israel\Palestine community!)
Eretz Israel (“modern” Israel) was created by the British Empire within the British colony of Palestine, seized from the Ottoman Empire. The American Empire has sponsored Eretz Israel since at least the end of WWII.
Israel is a strategic military base of the USA, disguised as a country, and would cease to exist without ongoing US sponsorship.
I find it hard to understand that the good people of the US are allowing them to get away with what they've done.
After all....
''We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are … endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…. That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men…. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. … Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Declaration of Independence (1776).''
Why are the good people of the U.S. allowing Israel to keep on with their annihilation of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, you ask? It's simple: the leaders of this country of which I am a citizen are part of an elite group of immoral, arrogant, war-mongering, selfish, and completely heartless human beings. I am ashamed for my country.
Caitlin - I have no words left to express my disillusionment with the world (I'm pointing at EVERY country in the world other than Yemen) and humanity.
Doesn't this make one seriously ponder the question of whether 'humanity deserves to exist'? Is anyone else feeling as powerless as I feel in being unable to stop (or do enough to end) this psychopathic and sociopathic madness?
Sometimes I feel that I totally understand how Aaron Bushnell felt. He had more courage than almost anyone I know. May he rest in peace (along with Rachel Corrie and so many Palestinian martyrs).
Fuck Israel (and fuck the U.S. too), FREE PALESTINE!
Depends what you mean by the question. I don't believe the delusion-based tendencies which cause us to inflict these evils on our world deserve to exist, and those tendencies are prevalent throughout the human species. But humanity does have something within itself which is wise and loving underneath that delusion-based conditioning, and that thing within us absolutely does deserve to be born into this world. We just have to find a way to wake up.
I would say the means to wake up already exists in class struggle. But it’s a messy and lengthy process that requires substantial buy-in while simultaneously living under the thumb of the largest empire the world has ever known, with the most destructive capability, and the widest spread of propaganda.
And of course humanity deserves to exist. We may have created capitalism, but we also have the power to destroy and replace it as we have destroyed and replaced prior class-based economic systems.
>>"as we have destroyed and replaced prior class-based economic systems."
Have we? Slavery still exists. Feudalism still exists. Monarchy still exists. Mercantilism still exists. Statism still exists. Colonialism still exists.
It's just that Capitalism has displaced most of these other systems in most parts of the world. And I'm not so sure that Capitalism is better than some of these other systems...
I knew what to expect before watching The Settlers but that documentary has made me feel sick to the stomach with disgust. Disgust at the world for doing nothing while this injustice and oppression occurs, disgust at a group of people for their self-rigteousness and sense of superiority, disgust at the inhumanity of this world.
I haven't had such a physical reaction to one of Louis Theroux's docos as this one. This needs to be shared widely.
In dark moments, I think humanity is utterly doomed and I wait for the Earth to slam into the Sun.
Same. We can't pretend we don't know. Have we as a species lost our humanity? How are we superior to other species if we can ignore the genocide in Palestine?
“How are we superior to other species?” Theron lies the problem. From the planet’s perspective, we are not superior to other species. That way of thinking leads us to one group of people (English, American, Israeli) thinking they are superior to another group of people (everyone else), leads to “exceptionalism”, leads to “manifest destiny, leads to “God gave us the land”, which all leads to discrimination, apartheid, war, genocide. Why cannot we just be equal? All of us, all the people, all the living things.
Perhaps "superior" is not the best word to use. If you ignore god, we have reached a higher place on the evolutionary scale than other beings. If one can speak and discuss and help others, produce great art and literature, which depends upon some sensitivity, then how can we fail to be empathic with a group that are being systematically exterminated, along with any evidence that they ever lived there? I think the root cause is uncontrolled competitiveness, which thrives in a capitalist society, and produces the arrogance and exceptionalism that exists in Israel and the U.S. The road back is a hard one.
"we have reached a higher place on the evolutionary scale than other beings. If one can speak and discuss and help others, produce great art and literature, which depends upon some sensitivity". I agree with your point about empathy and for most humans, the things that Nazis, Zionists, American war-mongers, etc. have done is essentially not understandable. Those things you speak of that differentiate us from other species are all human defined as being better, if not superior. I think it's better to think of us as "different", as all species are from one another, as all individuals are from one another, rather than "superior" or even "higher on the evolutionary scale".
I don't believe we are, but it is a claim that is often made. And language is often used to indicate that cruel and vicious (and other negative) behaviour is somehow associated with other species, ie is not expected of humans. But if we are honest with ourselves, humans are in a class of their own when it comes to viciousness.
"humans are in a class of their own when it comes to viciousness." Based on modern day evidence, I cannot disagree with that statement. Are there any anthropologists out there who can tell us whether the cave-man, or hunter-gatherers were any less vicious towards one another, or did it all start when human kind started settling down, farming, and claiming land. Capitalism put the viciousness on steroids.
Well, what I can talk to you about this, but I think it's way off topic.
To make it a bit relatable, earlier Zionist settlers in Palestine didn't initially encounter hostility, however the sheer numbers over a very short time in the 1920s (and possibly some of the acts of the settlers) did lead to violence. This reflects accounts from other settler/colonial societies. And obviously since the creation of israel there has been far more reason to resist.
Material I have read in relation to intertribal conflict more generally was it was often over resources, and was usually during periods of environmental stress. However when you throw cultural/religious/political beliefs, especially related to superiority or being chosen or special, especially when combined with territorial ambition and/or valuable resources,we start getting really nasty stuff, and that is what we have seen in Palestine since israel was created, and we are now seeing an exponential escalation of that. The intertwined nature of the global economy and a highly effective propaganda campaign has ensured that leaders in non participant (at least not directly) groups are complicit in the genocide.
It's only ordinary people who don't have vested interests who have the power to stand up and say no, but too often they prefer to ignore it. Whether it's a variation of the bystander effect, racism, selfishness, or something else I have no idea, but to me it is incomprehensible that so many can ignore what is happening.
I think we all know now that we haven't heard much about this because most western governments have made a stand. They stand with Israel. They don't stand on the side of international law, or the numerous declarations and conventions they have been signing since the 1940s, and that we all learned were important. At least, not when it is Israel who is violating the law, or any of these other principles. And we also know that the Western media are happy to play along with this - they love to titillate their readers with shock horror stories as long as it's not Israel who is the perpetrator of the shock and horror. When that happens, their response us to bury the story as soon at it is mentioned. Or blame the victim.
I've come to believe that Israeli Zionists develop in infancy a special feedback neuronal loop in their brains that prompts their language centers to spew the words "blame Hamas" in response to every accusation of wrongdoing, and "right to exist" in response to just about every other query.
Israelis are exposed to extreme propaganda just like American people are starting in their schools.
I never heard about how we treated native Americans or blacks even after the civil war ended. Only finding books and stuff about them was I able to see how much propaganda I had swallowed.
People aren’t born racist. They are taught to be racist.
You are so very right. This is the reality of almost, if not all, attitude and behaviour. It is called: socialisation. It takes place within family, peer group and institutions, not least religious groups and schools. Whether consciously contrived or not, its effect and aim is to indoctrinate the generally accepted 'norms' of a society into one's mind so that one 'fits in' with the group.
We are *all* subject to it. Where there is difference is that some of us are helped, encouraged and/or trained to become aware of it, to ask questions rather than give answers, and to check fact from fiction and moral awareness from hypocrisy.
If anyone doubts that this exists then they need to think, question and read, for it is not a myth but a reality. One may also ask why it is that although humanity has some universal truths, such as that life is inviolate and children should be protected, so many 'leaders', governments, or otherwise powerful individuals and groups will so readily persecute, abuse, detain, dispossess, enslave, defile or kill, men, women, boys, girls, infants to aged, infirm or disabled to healthy, whole and strong?
Israel was responsible for the establishment of Hamas. Israel knew at least two weeks prior to the incursion of 7 October 2023 that an incursion was imminent and Israel has now killed over 52,000 Palestinians, 70% women and children, and another 20,000 or so are missing, presumed dead under the rubble of their land razed to the ground. - This, supposedly, now some 20 months after 1127 Israelis were killed by Hamas resistance fighters, (and no, I'm not condoning that but there is at least a sound explanation for why it happened), is still justified (excused) by the hypocrisy that it is 'self defence.'
Like the song from the musical "South Pacific" says about racism: "You have to be carefully taught... From six, or seven or eight...to hate all the people your relatives hate... You have to be carefully taught."
You’re right. You have ‘'We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights….’ and no one raised their hand to ask whether they should have inserted all ‘White’ Men.. ‘cause that’s what it really means...
Unless I am somehow incredibly mistaken, 🇮🇱 has proven itself beyond the shadow of a doubt as the most Anti-Human entity on earth, and as such should not enjoy any privileges of being recognised as a state!!!
I am beyond extremely tired of my brain being used for decades as a trash can for their unimaginable propaganda, worse than anything Hitler's Nazis could come up with.
It should very clearly not exist, but then neither should any other state. It’s only once we can reframe our productive and distributive capacity on people’s needs (all people) and not states or corporations or profit that we can move beyond this “predatory phase of human development” as Einstein put it.
As Caitlin says it is astonishing that Louis Theroux’s documentary "The Settlers " made it past the BBC censors. Maybe Israeli carnage of the Palestinian people has gone beyond any limits of psychopathy even the BBC found it difficult to stomach! It is a pity, actually it is criminal that they waited so long till upwards of hundreds of thousands were massacred, starved, reduced to scrounging a living in bombed out heaps of rubble.
The BBC's and of other Western media's usual propagandised narrative failed miserably - thanks to real humanitarian journalists and ordinary Palestinians who recorded and let the outside world know what really was happening. Even though this cruel world has not done anything to stop the genocide. We should spit their " values, their ethics, their way of life " right in their faces and hold them to account. As Caitlin and Tim are doing and carrying us with them.
"One of the best ways to tell the truth about the real Israel is to just point a camera at these freaks and let them tell it themselves. "
The truth will set you free--and reveal the monsters by letting them strut their stuff proudly before the camera. I figured after watching a live-streamed genocide for the past year and a half that the settlers wouldn't be able to keep their wicked ways to themselves. I hate being right. #FuckIsraelFreePalestine
Imagine, if you will, "belonging" to a society of family-centric cultists who believe that their indoctrination from birth and absolute severence from the norms of civilization-at-large proves their human genetic superiority to the extent that all others outside of the cult are inferior creatures destined to serve the "superior humans" of the cult as ordained by a "God" who chose them for this purpose. This is Global Zionism.
Now imagine being born into a familial lineage that is based upon some "certain knowledge" that self-determines an inherent bloodline genetic link extending back in time to the "God" that chose some above others as His favoured people. This is Global Royalty.
Those inculcated into either of these strictly isolated and adhered to streams of superiority belief are today faced with an overwhelmingly large population of increasingly intelligent 'creatures' who are becoming increasingly aware of the superiority charade that has subjugated them throughout history and used their disposable lives in battles of inter-familial wealth, power, and control.
The walls of enforced ignorance behind which these "superior" people hide are becoming more and more transparent as the 'common man' becomes more aware through broad-scope knowledge once denied.
And our "superiors" are Very Alarmed at what may transpire were the hoi polloi to unite against them ~ Thus the multitude of manufactured religious, racial, ideological, wealth dividing fractures being whipped into the frenzy that has become The Times that We Live in.
Israel has to have all the advantages. They must have a lot to hide to try to stop people from talking to each other. Wow, what a persecution complex they have. They need to take a look at that because they are making the world think of them as lowlifes.
How can they be victims when they possess nuclear weapons, own practically all the press and are at the top of most big corporations. More like squawkers.
Of course it's not all Jews, or all israelis who condone the genocide and illegal settlements. There is a movement afoot to distinguish between Zionism and Judaism. Here's some footage of a powerful message being delivered during a protest in Jerusalem by descendents of the Jewish people who lived in Palestine before the arrival of the Zionists--
Reminds me of how Miko Peled describes his mother's grief upon learning that her Arab neighbors had been expelled from their homes in Palestine after they had lived together in peace for years.
"The Settlers" are filled with the same sort of violent, sociopathic trash people who live in armed compounds in Oregon, Idaho, Texas - people liberals generally revile if they are in the US - but somehow support in Israel.
The Israeli's have not only the worlds most immoral army in the world they also qualify as the worlds greatest hypocrites.
It was not only extremely dumb for the IDF to post evidence of their warcrimes on social media - which caught the attention of the whole world which is most definitely watching - to subsequently target journalist who've come to report on the ongoing sadistic genocide that's taking place is a new level of hypocrisy far beyond the pale.
Shame on any government and media outlets that has utterly failed to condemn this sadistic and cruel genocide.
Any institution that fails to condemn this genocide has to be compromised and is therefor complicit.
We must do everything we can to stop this and suggest a prolonged global strike until all our perfectly reasonable humanitarian demands are met.
Including the arrest and subsequent accountability according to international laws and whatever is required to stop the madness that's taken over our supposedly democratic institutions.
Is anyone still in doubt that our supposedly democratic institutions haven't been taken over?
They are - which is one of the reasons why the call for resistance has gone out and why it's all hands on deck time.
One of objectives of the prolonged strike is to deny our taxes being wasted on wars - stop feeding the racket - it's a long story just like all wars are bankers wars - this sadistic genocide provides a number of lucrative opportunities for the financial elite.
People who support Trump are just dumb. Alcatraz is to be reopened by Trump order. May he and his like be held there forever. Burt Lancaster is no longer alive to recuse them. I’ve had enough of this shit.
It is impossible for me to understand how Congress can pass a law for a 20 year prison sentence for boycotting Israel . Meanwhile it is ok for Israel to kill American journalists with no consequences. USA is cooked.
Congress has been bought by wealthy psychopaths.
I would say that Congress CONSISTS of psychopaths and sociopaths AND are open to being bought by OTHER psychopaths and sociopaths.
86% Chang and rising.
The next step, of course, is to seriously amend and then rewrite the US Constitution in Hebrew.
Just a matter of time.
It is ALL about $$$$$. Russia:Ukraine = BAD
USA:Israel:Palestine = OKEY DOKEY. US and Israel are morally deformed and depraved.
Because Drumpf want Gaza ethnically cleansed so he can get in thereto build real estate, and one of his ridiculous Drumpf towers. Hopefully he'll be long gone, with his cabinet members who are as evil as the Israelis they send bombs to, instead of bombing it into oblivion.
I have never felt so hateful towards any country that I wish them to cease existing but watching what they have done to Palestinians in their own land has caused me to feel like that.
Even if Trump gets his way building the Gaza Riverina, who in their right mind would visit there? Do these shitbags really believe (internationally recognised legal) resistance to Israel occupation and ongoing apartheid and genocide will end... ever?
I hear the Ted Bundys of the world are salivating at the opportunity to visit the Gaza Riviera.. mostly of the Israeli type. And then, like a failed casino, the whole project will fold and Mr Trump can declare victory and move on..
Expect the Oligarch Adelsons to book early and often. With their own IDF & AIPAC-expensed PRIVATE SECURITY entourage & IBM Land to Air Array for Picnic Season....
Tio Mitchito
(And I'm what's left of the Zionist Pro-Israel\Palestine community!)
Eretz Israel (“modern” Israel) was created by the British Empire within the British colony of Palestine, seized from the Ottoman Empire. The American Empire has sponsored Eretz Israel since at least the end of WWII.
Israel is a strategic military base of the USA, disguised as a country, and would cease to exist without ongoing US sponsorship.
I find it hard to understand that the good people of the US are allowing them to get away with what they've done.
After all....
''We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are … endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…. That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men…. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. … Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Declaration of Independence (1776).''
Why are the good people of the U.S. allowing Israel to keep on with their annihilation of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, you ask? It's simple: the leaders of this country of which I am a citizen are part of an elite group of immoral, arrogant, war-mongering, selfish, and completely heartless human beings. I am ashamed for my country.
Caitlin - I have no words left to express my disillusionment with the world (I'm pointing at EVERY country in the world other than Yemen) and humanity.
Doesn't this make one seriously ponder the question of whether 'humanity deserves to exist'? Is anyone else feeling as powerless as I feel in being unable to stop (or do enough to end) this psychopathic and sociopathic madness?
Sometimes I feel that I totally understand how Aaron Bushnell felt. He had more courage than almost anyone I know. May he rest in peace (along with Rachel Corrie and so many Palestinian martyrs).
Fuck Israel (and fuck the U.S. too), FREE PALESTINE!
Depends what you mean by the question. I don't believe the delusion-based tendencies which cause us to inflict these evils on our world deserve to exist, and those tendencies are prevalent throughout the human species. But humanity does have something within itself which is wise and loving underneath that delusion-based conditioning, and that thing within us absolutely does deserve to be born into this world. We just have to find a way to wake up.
I would say the means to wake up already exists in class struggle. But it’s a messy and lengthy process that requires substantial buy-in while simultaneously living under the thumb of the largest empire the world has ever known, with the most destructive capability, and the widest spread of propaganda.
And of course humanity deserves to exist. We may have created capitalism, but we also have the power to destroy and replace it as we have destroyed and replaced prior class-based economic systems.
>>"as we have destroyed and replaced prior class-based economic systems."
Have we? Slavery still exists. Feudalism still exists. Monarchy still exists. Mercantilism still exists. Statism still exists. Colonialism still exists.
It's just that Capitalism has displaced most of these other systems in most parts of the world. And I'm not so sure that Capitalism is better than some of these other systems...
I feel the same way too.
I knew what to expect before watching The Settlers but that documentary has made me feel sick to the stomach with disgust. Disgust at the world for doing nothing while this injustice and oppression occurs, disgust at a group of people for their self-rigteousness and sense of superiority, disgust at the inhumanity of this world.
I haven't had such a physical reaction to one of Louis Theroux's docos as this one. This needs to be shared widely.
In dark moments, I think humanity is utterly doomed and I wait for the Earth to slam into the Sun.
Same. We can't pretend we don't know. Have we as a species lost our humanity? How are we superior to other species if we can ignore the genocide in Palestine?
“How are we superior to other species?” Theron lies the problem. From the planet’s perspective, we are not superior to other species. That way of thinking leads us to one group of people (English, American, Israeli) thinking they are superior to another group of people (everyone else), leads to “exceptionalism”, leads to “manifest destiny, leads to “God gave us the land”, which all leads to discrimination, apartheid, war, genocide. Why cannot we just be equal? All of us, all the people, all the living things.
Perhaps "superior" is not the best word to use. If you ignore god, we have reached a higher place on the evolutionary scale than other beings. If one can speak and discuss and help others, produce great art and literature, which depends upon some sensitivity, then how can we fail to be empathic with a group that are being systematically exterminated, along with any evidence that they ever lived there? I think the root cause is uncontrolled competitiveness, which thrives in a capitalist society, and produces the arrogance and exceptionalism that exists in Israel and the U.S. The road back is a hard one.
"we have reached a higher place on the evolutionary scale than other beings. If one can speak and discuss and help others, produce great art and literature, which depends upon some sensitivity". I agree with your point about empathy and for most humans, the things that Nazis, Zionists, American war-mongers, etc. have done is essentially not understandable. Those things you speak of that differentiate us from other species are all human defined as being better, if not superior. I think it's better to think of us as "different", as all species are from one another, as all individuals are from one another, rather than "superior" or even "higher on the evolutionary scale".
I don't believe we are, but it is a claim that is often made. And language is often used to indicate that cruel and vicious (and other negative) behaviour is somehow associated with other species, ie is not expected of humans. But if we are honest with ourselves, humans are in a class of their own when it comes to viciousness.
"humans are in a class of their own when it comes to viciousness." Based on modern day evidence, I cannot disagree with that statement. Are there any anthropologists out there who can tell us whether the cave-man, or hunter-gatherers were any less vicious towards one another, or did it all start when human kind started settling down, farming, and claiming land. Capitalism put the viciousness on steroids.
Well, what I can talk to you about this, but I think it's way off topic.
To make it a bit relatable, earlier Zionist settlers in Palestine didn't initially encounter hostility, however the sheer numbers over a very short time in the 1920s (and possibly some of the acts of the settlers) did lead to violence. This reflects accounts from other settler/colonial societies. And obviously since the creation of israel there has been far more reason to resist.
Material I have read in relation to intertribal conflict more generally was it was often over resources, and was usually during periods of environmental stress. However when you throw cultural/religious/political beliefs, especially related to superiority or being chosen or special, especially when combined with territorial ambition and/or valuable resources,we start getting really nasty stuff, and that is what we have seen in Palestine since israel was created, and we are now seeing an exponential escalation of that. The intertwined nature of the global economy and a highly effective propaganda campaign has ensured that leaders in non participant (at least not directly) groups are complicit in the genocide.
It's only ordinary people who don't have vested interests who have the power to stand up and say no, but too often they prefer to ignore it. Whether it's a variation of the bystander effect, racism, selfishness, or something else I have no idea, but to me it is incomprehensible that so many can ignore what is happening.
Did we as a species, ever have any humanity?
Well, we pretended to .... since WWII at least. Now we don't even pretend.
Aaron Bushnell's call to action rings in my ears.
https://nedb.substack.com/p/aaron-bushnell-what-would-i-do
How terribly sad. It's hard to understand how people can become so hateful.
It’s how they were taught from birth.
They know it's wrong that's why they're going after the journalist who dare to expose them.
I think we all know now that we haven't heard much about this because most western governments have made a stand. They stand with Israel. They don't stand on the side of international law, or the numerous declarations and conventions they have been signing since the 1940s, and that we all learned were important. At least, not when it is Israel who is violating the law, or any of these other principles. And we also know that the Western media are happy to play along with this - they love to titillate their readers with shock horror stories as long as it's not Israel who is the perpetrator of the shock and horror. When that happens, their response us to bury the story as soon at it is mentioned. Or blame the victim.
I've come to believe that Israeli Zionists develop in infancy a special feedback neuronal loop in their brains that prompts their language centers to spew the words "blame Hamas" in response to every accusation of wrongdoing, and "right to exist" in response to just about every other query.
Israelis are exposed to extreme propaganda just like American people are starting in their schools.
I never heard about how we treated native Americans or blacks even after the civil war ended. Only finding books and stuff about them was I able to see how much propaganda I had swallowed.
People aren’t born racist. They are taught to be racist.
Couldn't agree more Sam! I've learnt more since I left High School than I did in the 11 years of schooling I attended.
Luckily I had teachers that taught us critical thinking and how to learn.
Brings to mind the Paul Simon song "Kodachrome" When I think back to all the crap I learned in HS, it's a wonder I can think at all".
You are so very right. This is the reality of almost, if not all, attitude and behaviour. It is called: socialisation. It takes place within family, peer group and institutions, not least religious groups and schools. Whether consciously contrived or not, its effect and aim is to indoctrinate the generally accepted 'norms' of a society into one's mind so that one 'fits in' with the group.
We are *all* subject to it. Where there is difference is that some of us are helped, encouraged and/or trained to become aware of it, to ask questions rather than give answers, and to check fact from fiction and moral awareness from hypocrisy.
If anyone doubts that this exists then they need to think, question and read, for it is not a myth but a reality. One may also ask why it is that although humanity has some universal truths, such as that life is inviolate and children should be protected, so many 'leaders', governments, or otherwise powerful individuals and groups will so readily persecute, abuse, detain, dispossess, enslave, defile or kill, men, women, boys, girls, infants to aged, infirm or disabled to healthy, whole and strong?
Israel was responsible for the establishment of Hamas. Israel knew at least two weeks prior to the incursion of 7 October 2023 that an incursion was imminent and Israel has now killed over 52,000 Palestinians, 70% women and children, and another 20,000 or so are missing, presumed dead under the rubble of their land razed to the ground. - This, supposedly, now some 20 months after 1127 Israelis were killed by Hamas resistance fighters, (and no, I'm not condoning that but there is at least a sound explanation for why it happened), is still justified (excused) by the hypocrisy that it is 'self defence.'
I think not.
Like the song from the musical "South Pacific" says about racism: "You have to be carefully taught... From six, or seven or eight...to hate all the people your relatives hate... You have to be carefully taught."
This song so often comes to mind.
You’re right. You have ‘'We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights….’ and no one raised their hand to ask whether they should have inserted all ‘White’ Men.. ‘cause that’s what it really means...
True. I was taught that the civil war was to end slavery, but that’s not true. It was about how America would do its economic policy.
The Jim Crow laws were just as cruel to Blacks as slavery was. I think I started school when it was happening and especially in the Southern US.
We’ve gotten better, but racism is still being taught by parents.
Judging by my personal interactions with some Zionists over the decades I would say that they are definitely wired differently to all other humans.
Unless I am somehow incredibly mistaken, 🇮🇱 has proven itself beyond the shadow of a doubt as the most Anti-Human entity on earth, and as such should not enjoy any privileges of being recognised as a state!!!
I am beyond extremely tired of my brain being used for decades as a trash can for their unimaginable propaganda, worse than anything Hitler's Nazis could come up with.
It should very clearly not exist, but then neither should any other state. It’s only once we can reframe our productive and distributive capacity on people’s needs (all people) and not states or corporations or profit that we can move beyond this “predatory phase of human development” as Einstein put it.
👍🏽
👏 “point a camera at these freaks and let them tell it themselves.” 👏
At risk of repeating myself:
Funny how humans say the most awful truths when they no longer have any responsibilities or face any consequences.
As Caitlin says it is astonishing that Louis Theroux’s documentary "The Settlers " made it past the BBC censors. Maybe Israeli carnage of the Palestinian people has gone beyond any limits of psychopathy even the BBC found it difficult to stomach! It is a pity, actually it is criminal that they waited so long till upwards of hundreds of thousands were massacred, starved, reduced to scrounging a living in bombed out heaps of rubble.
The BBC's and of other Western media's usual propagandised narrative failed miserably - thanks to real humanitarian journalists and ordinary Palestinians who recorded and let the outside world know what really was happening. Even though this cruel world has not done anything to stop the genocide. We should spit their " values, their ethics, their way of life " right in their faces and hold them to account. As Caitlin and Tim are doing and carrying us with them.
imo, it's also indicative of how profound the (systemic) change has to be to set things right. a mere 'reconciliation-commission' will not do.
"One of the best ways to tell the truth about the real Israel is to just point a camera at these freaks and let them tell it themselves. "
The truth will set you free--and reveal the monsters by letting them strut their stuff proudly before the camera. I figured after watching a live-streamed genocide for the past year and a half that the settlers wouldn't be able to keep their wicked ways to themselves. I hate being right. #FuckIsraelFreePalestine
Imagine, if you will, "belonging" to a society of family-centric cultists who believe that their indoctrination from birth and absolute severence from the norms of civilization-at-large proves their human genetic superiority to the extent that all others outside of the cult are inferior creatures destined to serve the "superior humans" of the cult as ordained by a "God" who chose them for this purpose. This is Global Zionism.
Now imagine being born into a familial lineage that is based upon some "certain knowledge" that self-determines an inherent bloodline genetic link extending back in time to the "God" that chose some above others as His favoured people. This is Global Royalty.
Those inculcated into either of these strictly isolated and adhered to streams of superiority belief are today faced with an overwhelmingly large population of increasingly intelligent 'creatures' who are becoming increasingly aware of the superiority charade that has subjugated them throughout history and used their disposable lives in battles of inter-familial wealth, power, and control.
The walls of enforced ignorance behind which these "superior" people hide are becoming more and more transparent as the 'common man' becomes more aware through broad-scope knowledge once denied.
And our "superiors" are Very Alarmed at what may transpire were the hoi polloi to unite against them ~ Thus the multitude of manufactured religious, racial, ideological, wealth dividing fractures being whipped into the frenzy that has become The Times that We Live in.
☮️
Fancy believing in a "God", so inherently savage that he would ever allow this murderous evil to continue. Kind, benevolent and merciful, my arse.
...... Also Spunty, how ridiculous it is to claim a piece of land or country is theirs because some "god" in the mists of time gave it to them!
Well said!
Israel has to have all the advantages. They must have a lot to hide to try to stop people from talking to each other. Wow, what a persecution complex they have. They need to take a look at that because they are making the world think of them as lowlifes.
So much for the victim card.
How can they be victims when they possess nuclear weapons, own practically all the press and are at the top of most big corporations. More like squawkers.
Of course it's not all Jews, or all israelis who condone the genocide and illegal settlements. There is a movement afoot to distinguish between Zionism and Judaism. Here's some footage of a powerful message being delivered during a protest in Jerusalem by descendents of the Jewish people who lived in Palestine before the arrival of the Zionists--
https://www.facebook.com/61555577036047/videos/1201395858141454
Thank you for this! Must see for those that are unable to differentiate between Judaism and Zionism and Jews and Zionism.
This is a hopeful sign. I hope it gathers momentum in Israel - possibly leading to a civil war in the not-to-distant future?
We can only hope for such an outcome, Chang.
Reminds me of how Miko Peled describes his mother's grief upon learning that her Arab neighbors had been expelled from their homes in Palestine after they had lived together in peace for years.
"The Settlers" are filled with the same sort of violent, sociopathic trash people who live in armed compounds in Oregon, Idaho, Texas - people liberals generally revile if they are in the US - but somehow support in Israel.
The Israeli's have not only the worlds most immoral army in the world they also qualify as the worlds greatest hypocrites.
It was not only extremely dumb for the IDF to post evidence of their warcrimes on social media - which caught the attention of the whole world which is most definitely watching - to subsequently target journalist who've come to report on the ongoing sadistic genocide that's taking place is a new level of hypocrisy far beyond the pale.
Shame on any government and media outlets that has utterly failed to condemn this sadistic and cruel genocide.
Any institution that fails to condemn this genocide has to be compromised and is therefor complicit.
We must do everything we can to stop this and suggest a prolonged global strike until all our perfectly reasonable humanitarian demands are met.
Including the arrest and subsequent accountability according to international laws and whatever is required to stop the madness that's taken over our supposedly democratic institutions.
Is anyone still in doubt that our supposedly democratic institutions haven't been taken over?
They are - which is one of the reasons why the call for resistance has gone out and why it's all hands on deck time.
One of objectives of the prolonged strike is to deny our taxes being wasted on wars - stop feeding the racket - it's a long story just like all wars are bankers wars - this sadistic genocide provides a number of lucrative opportunities for the financial elite.
People who support Trump are just dumb. Alcatraz is to be reopened by Trump order. May he and his like be held there forever. Burt Lancaster is no longer alive to recuse them. I’ve had enough of this shit.
No different than the absurdities democrats plague us with. They love to get the people riled up and against each other. Politics works every time.
Dems and repubs, two sides of the same coin.
Two cheeks of the same arse.
Absolutely, get the plebs to tear out each others' eyes. That gives them their jollies.