Spitballing Truths, Caitlin, as per usual. Glad to see you have stared into the Abyss, but it only circles when it tries to stare back. You know your soul.
I read Refaat Alareer's posthumous collection of poems and essays the day I got it. His humanity shines brilliantly through the holocaust of Israél's bombs. He chose to write in English to talk to the world, and teach his students authentically about the Jewish experience in the Second World War. He writes that it was hard for them because they had to learn to see through the Zionist hatred. But they persevered and succeeded.
The Zionists murdered Refaat, because intellectuals are the key to the end to this cycle of violence. A cycle of violence they don't want to end.
I met Ilan Pappe recently and I could see the same compassion and grit in his eyes that I read in Refaat's writing. Long live Refaat in our memories. Thank you, Ilan. Thank you, Caitlin and Tim.
If you still believe the BS that Palestinians are filled with hate for Jews watch this clip at 16:00. Dr Perlmutter explains what honestly defies explanation. https://youtu.be/v9Mkc5cuZ3U?si=Zu5Jh3UlhVbN1rNd
Yes,Diana van Eyk, it is all about stealing land and resources in the best tradition of settler colonialism. Israel is following in the footsteps of America, Canada, Australia, NewZealand... The difference is it is happening in real time and the weapons are more deadly.
Yes, it's like this tradition, only with the backing of the biggest military and economic power ever. It's not just about European settler colonialism in Palestine. It's part of a bigger picture using Israel to weaken Iran, just like Ukraine, and now the EU, are being used to weaken Russia.
It's about cutting off hydrocarbons to the Chinese economy that has dared to overtake that of the US. It's about getting control of choke points for a maritime blockade. It's about teaching some young boys and girls that they're superior to others so that they oppose a global balance of power (also known as multipolarity).
I was at an anti genocide demo today organized by Palestinians. They were clear that Zionism is the problem. Not Judaism. They named Zionism as the problem and named Judaism as not the problem. They talked about how Jews, Christians and Muslims all lived in Palestine without hatred or oppression before 1948 (or so). Very different from Zionists, brainwashed in Hebrew schools, who have told me that Arabs hate them and then insinuated that anything they do in retaliation is justified. This genocide is about the US Empire taking and maintaining control of the middle east. Israel and the US are almost the same entity. Zionism is the ugly glue that holds them together.
This is a common position but it ignores the reality that, for too long, too many Jews have supported, promoted, enabled, funded Zionist Israel as it has committed some of the worst atrocities in human history.
Zionism is and has been Judaism for all of its existence. By omission or commission, Jews are accountable for the wrongs done in the name of their religion.
For 76 years Israel has claimed to be the Jewish State and most Jews have allowed it to do so, sending money and their children to be brainwashed in a sick system called Birthright. Most have had lovely holidays in the Israel bubble, ignoring or denying the evil injustices and daily atrocities inflicted on the native people of the land they call Israel, Palestinian Christians and Muslims.
Having spent time in what is called Israel and been lucky enough to drive around Occupied Palestine when one could, as a follower of no religion, but as a believer in the humanity of all and equal rights, I was horrified at the levels of racist hatred and bigotry, openly expressed to all, by Israelis. They are deaf and blind to their own evil and have always been for that is the nature of a supremacist culture.
No-one who has spent time there would be at all surprised at the levels of bestial savagery and sadistic cruelty Israelis have inflicted on Palestinian men, women and children for 76 years. They really do think they are subhuman. They really do think that magically, it is the homeland of Jews and non-Jews have no right to exist in it, except as compliant slaves. The Zioraelis make the Nazis look positively benign.
In this age of technology it is not enough to say they did not know and indeed, there have always been some Jews who did know the truth of the State of Hate and Death, Ziorael, and who rejected it from the start.
But, any study of belief systems and mental function in Judaism and most Jews, not all, but most, reveals the vulnerability of Jews to become cult-like in their paranoia and self-serving aggression. They may not know what they do but they should know what they do.
Religion itself creates some ugly behaviour. Christianity has, for sure. Jews were not more bloodthirsty than anyone else when they lived in Europe. But Europe wanted to be rid of the Jews. Wanted them out of Europe. So the Brits gave the Jews Palestine because they wanted the Jews out of Europe. Zionism has been created by a lot of other players, including some Jews, of course. There are many Zionists who aren't Jewish, but Christian. I have not been to Israel, but I have heard others speak about the racism and cruelty toward Palestinians that is there. Jews are no more vulnerable to cult like behaviour than anyone else. It has been convenient for the west to have the Jews in Israel rather than in Europe. It has been convenient for the US Empire to have them there too because then the US has more access to the middle east. I have seen racist behaviour everywhere I have lived. I have lived in several European countries and Canada. I have seen mistreatement of people because of their race, their skin colour, their religion, their class, their gender or gender identitiy. Yes, many Jews are brainwashed into Zionism. But others are brainwashed into thinking that it is better to be rich and if a few suffer, that is just collateral damage. And many are brainwashed to think that Christianity is the way to go.
The mess that is now Israel was not created only by Jews. It was created by many players and it does not say much good about humanity at all. Maybe capitalism is more to blame if we are looking for somewhere to place blame. Right now we have the privilege of watching Donald Trump and Elon Musk along with their cohorts work on destroying the US government and making the lives of working class Americans miserable. They are threatening Greenland, China, Europe. I think, Roslyn, your analysis is shallow and antisemitic in this instance.
Of course all religions have a capacity for violence and yes, I agree, Israel is the horror that it is because not only Jews but many others have enabled and encouraged it to be and never held it accountable. Partly because of the power of Zionism and the influence of Jewish money, but that is an excuse, not a reason.
The targeting of Jews in Europe was complicated and never universal. One strain of my family was Jewish and they lived peacefully in England for the three centuries I have traced them back. Then they lived and live peacefully in Australia for another 170 years. Jews were certainly persecuted in some parts of Europe but it has all been propagandised to make people think Jews everywhere were always targeted and persecuted when they were not.
What is also ignored is the impact the Jewish created and led Bolshevik Revolution in Russia had on people in many parts of Europe. They were terrified the same would happen to their country. That is not to excuse but to explain.
And the other reality is that any group which sets itself apart and yet has a parasitic relationship with a host community will be a target when times are tough. Again, not to excuse but explain.
You said:. Jews are no more vulnerable to cult like behaviour than anyone else.
Not sure I agree. The victim mentality of Judaism and the belief in superiority as humans taught by the religion, does, I believe, make people more vulnerable to cult formation.
When I stood above the Wailing Wall, in Palestine, refusing to go down because women were discriminated against, and did not have free access like males, the guide translated for me, what was being said.
I must admit I was shocked - There were Jews in the 21st century wailing and railing and moaning about wrongs, real and imagined, done to Jews thousands of years in the past. That is not psychologically healthy.
I have lived in Belgium, UK, Canada, India, Angola, Zambia, South Africa, Malawi and spent long periods in the US and Russia and the worst racism I have ever encountered was in India although the Israelis are far worse because they use massive military force to maim and murder those they consider to be inferior.
You said:. I think, Roslyn, your analysis is shallow and antisemitic in this instance.
It would be good if you could explain what is shallow about it and what represents a hatred of Judaism and Jews?
The facts are that most Jews have supported, funded, enabled and promoted Israel regardless of its atrocities and facts may be unpleasant but they are not anti-semitic, i.e. hating the religion and its followers.
In truth I find those who promote the idea that Israel represents Jews to be a true hatred of Judaism and Jews because that says the atrocities Israel has committed for 76 years, worse in the last 17 months, represent Jewish values and practices and I totally reject that.
I think, whether true or otherwise, the Jews you reference are solely Ashkenazis, and not Sephardic or Mizrahi. None of what you refer to belongs to Jews per se, if at all, but, to the extent any does, it's specific to those Eastern Europeans.
I don't agree with all that you say, but I do agree with this: " In truth I find those who promote the idea that Israel represents Jews to be a true hatred of Judaism and Jews because that says the atrocities Israel has committed for 76 years, worse in the last 17 months, represent Jewish values and practices and I totally reject that."
Additionally, I haven’t known many Jews, especially in the neck of the woods where I now reside. But the ones that I have been acquainted with were mostly smug, superior, and largely unpleasant individuals.
Does that make me “antisemitic”? Sorry! Don’t give a flyin’ fuck!
"They really do think that magically, it is the homeland of Jews and non-Jews have no right to exist in it, except as compliant slaves." They think that about non news everywhere.
not sure what YHWH stands for. Catholics think they are better than everyone else too. There have been plenty of genocides committed by Christians. Maybe it is religion, any religion, that is the problem. At least when those religions preach that its followers are better than everyone else, the only way etc.
"I can't think of any examples of actual genocides committed by Christians". Ever heard of residential schools? Ever wonder why there were millions of indigenous people in the Americas before the Christian Europeans came and colonized it, and millions less after they had "civilized" the place?
I have to wonder what kind of a country the Zionists think they’ll have if they succeed in killing off everyone — today the Palestians, tomorrow — any ethnic or religious group that they want out and isn’t protected. They’ve smothered compassion in themselves and there’s plenty of evidence they’re teaching their kids to feel none too.
There’s heavy indoctrination in Israel, a kind of mass psychosis. It seems to me inevitable that that much hatred and contempt will cause Israelis to turn on each other, and that day can’t be too far off. As far as I’m concerned it can’t happen soon enough…
I'm as naive and ignorant as possible, but I've had some association with the Bahais (when I was in my early 20s...I'm 81 yo now). I have admiration for them from their founder Baháʼu'lláh throughout their faith tradition and their system that seem to have transcended the astonishing deficiencies of the other Abrahamic faiths Judaism/Christianity/Islam, Hinduism, etc. I'm open to and would sincerely appreciate riposte, concurrence, enlightenment from anyone more erudite than I....
(I am aware that there is a Bahai presence in the Zionist entity's invaded/occupied space...don't know the details, but I'm sure it's not one of US-style obeisance to the tyrannical/terroristic reign of Colonial Zionism and its genocidal persecution of the Palestinians....)
russian_bot, I will tell you another story: Not a God fearing one or your version of "shitlib militant atheists"one. The fact is whoever it/she/he is, God is irrelevant to the human condition.
Only human egos would imagine that a being that can transcend time and space would see Reality in exactly the same way that their pathetic minds comprehend.
"WhY DoEsN'T GoD CoMe DowN AnD StOp HuMaNs FrOm BeHaViNg aS HuMaNs HaVe CHOSEN tO Do???"
Gee, I dunno -maybe the onus on the HUMANS not to behave like this? :Rolls eyes:
And why are jumped up monkeys so fucking special? Perhaps "God" will reveal themselves as a chicken, and say "It's Karma-time, bitches! You've been treating my people REEALL bad!!!".
"No, no, my god is just like me!!!".
I don't recall the Universe having a vote on that.
Atheism. It took me less than 6 months to see through that infantile rubbish - when I was younger than 14, after having left Christianity a few months earlier.
Agnosticism is where it's at. (Cue: all the Militant Athetards screaming "They're the same thing!!". No, no they are not AT ALL. One is a scientific position that "We don't know", the other is a religious certainty that however "God" is defined, it DEFINITELY cannot exist. Chalk and bloody cheese, morons).
If there is one group even stupider and more gullible than Christians, it's the Atheists. And by All that's Holy, that should be impossible by all rights.).
The only sensible position is Agnostic because we can neither prove nor disprove that any entity which could be called God, exists.
There is certainly much evidence for conscious intelligence at work in this world, creatively at least, but such a force is not going to be as humans have depicted what they call God.
It is indeed all a terrible and wonderful experiment.
"It’s not about hostages. It’s not about Hamas. It’s not about terrorism. Those aren’t the reasons, they’re the excuses. The excuses to expel Palestinians and turn more Palestinian land into Israeli land. That’s all this has ever been about. Anyone who says otherwise is lying." Amen, Amen, Amen. That's all I can manage today. Good on you, Caitlin. Amen.
"Our species evolved these brains of unprecedented sophistication only to use them to destroy our biosphere, invent new ways to blow each other up, and make ourselves miserable with our own thoughts."
I've often wondered if evolution shouldn't have halted at the great apes.
Well, didn't it? We are one of the great apes. And evolution is ongoing. It has not purpose, goal, or desired outcome. It follows what works until it doesn't. And we, along with all of the hominids, are looking like one of the 'not working,' group.
If you want to split hairs, Joy, we, along with our Homo associates and forebears are hominins, which you probably know. So my reference was to stop at hominid. Don't progress to hominin. Most readers might not get it.
But please now, I was being fanciful, not scientific. You don't really think you need to inform a biologist that evolution is ongoing, do you?
More to the point, my biological opinion I withheld from this thread: it's simply that our line, which we narcissistically labeled "sapiens" may have come through as the surviving hominin because we were better at interpersonal violence and killed off neandertalis, which given its brain size and what we can deduce of its sociology might have been a better fit with the rest of the biosphere. But then, we also know of sapiens clans who did indeed live in that particular mode of harmoniousness. So the reality is of course complex and mostly speculative. The minor genetic differences between sapiens, neandertalis, floresiensis, Denisovans, would not nearly provide the differentiation necessary to adjudicate. So again, my feelings about sapiens the murdering hominin are clearly back-projection of my revulsion about our murderous selves back through evolutionary time. Not very scientific, I grant you,
It is interesting how the Zionists have exploited Jewish paranoia and gullible belief systems. Without the support of too many Jews, Zionist Israel would never have existed.
If a religion brainwashes people to believe they are superior as humans and at the same time that everyone wants to kill them because they are superior as humans, it does not take much for the group to manifest as a cult and to justify anything and everything they do, no matter how evil or debased, because, they are saving themselves and protecting themselves from what they consider to be a far greater evil - the deaths of the most superior humans the world has ever known and will ever know.
You see this in the attitudes of most Israelis and all their supporters, i.e. the deaths of 1139 Jews (ignoring the fact most were killed by their own military) requires the deaths of 600,000, or even millions, of non-Jews, in order to establish the belief, fantasy, lie, delusion, that henceforth Jews will be safe.
These beliefs do not even have to be conscious to manifest and indeed, such beliefs, unconsciously held become even more powerful, brutal and evil.
Dems like Bernie are more than happy to take a stand as long as they know that their votes and bills will fail, be of no actual consequence, but present a feeble protest.
Israel is telling Trump he's the chosen one to usher in the Noah Hyde laws and to usher in the anti christ. Trump is dumb enough to go along with this, he's being pressured by Christian zionists and jewish zionists, if this happens we better pray because they do not believe in Jesus Christ. Politics is now a religion and its scary to think where this shit will end up. Anyone who has eyes to see, ears to hear and a beating heart knows what Israel is doing is demonic. We can see who's going along with the murdering of Palestinians, they are mostly in the US government in some fashion. I pray for Gaza everyday, I pray this insanity ends, Trump has lost his way completely, he's on the side of satan now, watch him and what he does next.
I’m beginning to believe that Caitlin’s blog is the vanguard of social media cloud-seeding. Narrative is the blood of the imperial body, and exploding the false narrative is its arterial plaque. It’s essential, indispensable labor, but it is a slow slog.
The most dangerous, existential enemy of the American Empire IS the American Empire. It’s unquenchable appetite to amass more power, left to morons who have no self-awareness, will absolutely be the end of it’s death quest. Hopefully the empire expires before humanity.
The hopes of humanity reside in Moscow and Beijing and Sanaa and Teheran, in the peoples of Africa, and really in the hearts of all people who choose not to put personal status before decent, humble behavior. Governments across the globe have mostly succumbed to the filthy lucre, and they act in accordance with the would-be kings and queens who have power bequeathed by fraud and violence.
The wealthiest economy on the planet leads that planet in deaths by gun, prison population as a percentage of the whole, untreated mental illness, lack of nutrition, lack of healthcare, neglect of retired soldiers, abuse of children and the elderly. By every conceivable measure, the empire is recruiting its fiercest enemies. The United States of Terrorism is on life support. Its days, viewed millennially, are numbered.
In every war, there is no neutral ground. The choice is love or pretend you don’t need to.
"Bernie Sanders has been such a worthless empire simp..."
My sentiments exactly. Bernie is sheepdogging again for the useless Dem-wits, trying his best to fool voters into supporting the duopoly against the big bad Trump wolf. Why anyone would think placating the a-holes that have gotten us into this fascist mess would do anything to get us out of it? Bernie, do us all a favor! GO HOME.
This essay has so much in it that needs to be said because of how rare it is to find such substance in any of the news-hole or Op-Ed space given over to 'Whoever's Minding the Desk of Empire.'
It won't make me any friends, but I'll be sharing this with those whose most laborious effort to understand this 75 some years of messing with geo-political maps and successions of neo corporate empire has been to personalize, de-personalize and add off-color language to the war cry of "WTF" to other signifiers that any business-like discussion of resolution is off-the-table.
With respect, gratitude and solidarity especially to and with those who've never succombed to any rushes to judgment, yet, who've maintained and supported Good Will around all the tables of The Genuinely Perplexed and offered human necessities to those stranded in tents of the generationally dispossessed and disregarded.
Spitballing Truths, Caitlin, as per usual. Glad to see you have stared into the Abyss, but it only circles when it tries to stare back. You know your soul.
Stay strong, and keep going. We need you. <3
I read Refaat Alareer's posthumous collection of poems and essays the day I got it. His humanity shines brilliantly through the holocaust of Israél's bombs. He chose to write in English to talk to the world, and teach his students authentically about the Jewish experience in the Second World War. He writes that it was hard for them because they had to learn to see through the Zionist hatred. But they persevered and succeeded.
The Zionists murdered Refaat, because intellectuals are the key to the end to this cycle of violence. A cycle of violence they don't want to end.
I met Ilan Pappe recently and I could see the same compassion and grit in his eyes that I read in Refaat's writing. Long live Refaat in our memories. Thank you, Ilan. Thank you, Caitlin and Tim.
If you still believe the BS that Palestinians are filled with hate for Jews watch this clip at 16:00. Dr Perlmutter explains what honestly defies explanation. https://youtu.be/v9Mkc5cuZ3U?si=Zu5Jh3UlhVbN1rNd
🙏
Meant to say ,Thank you PJ London for remembering Refaat Alareer. 🙏
Yes. Thank you, PJ London, for making me cry again reading those words.
(I wonder if Refaat was mocking the macabre nationalism in The Soldier by Rupert Brooke).
It's all about stealing Palestinian land. The rest is (very ugly) window dressing.
Yes,Diana van Eyk, it is all about stealing land and resources in the best tradition of settler colonialism. Israel is following in the footsteps of America, Canada, Australia, NewZealand... The difference is it is happening in real time and the weapons are more deadly.
Exactly, Indu.
Yes, it's like this tradition, only with the backing of the biggest military and economic power ever. It's not just about European settler colonialism in Palestine. It's part of a bigger picture using Israel to weaken Iran, just like Ukraine, and now the EU, are being used to weaken Russia.
It's about cutting off hydrocarbons to the Chinese economy that has dared to overtake that of the US. It's about getting control of choke points for a maritime blockade. It's about teaching some young boys and girls that they're superior to others so that they oppose a global balance of power (also known as multipolarity).
I was at an anti genocide demo today organized by Palestinians. They were clear that Zionism is the problem. Not Judaism. They named Zionism as the problem and named Judaism as not the problem. They talked about how Jews, Christians and Muslims all lived in Palestine without hatred or oppression before 1948 (or so). Very different from Zionists, brainwashed in Hebrew schools, who have told me that Arabs hate them and then insinuated that anything they do in retaliation is justified. This genocide is about the US Empire taking and maintaining control of the middle east. Israel and the US are almost the same entity. Zionism is the ugly glue that holds them together.
This is a common position but it ignores the reality that, for too long, too many Jews have supported, promoted, enabled, funded Zionist Israel as it has committed some of the worst atrocities in human history.
Zionism is and has been Judaism for all of its existence. By omission or commission, Jews are accountable for the wrongs done in the name of their religion.
For 76 years Israel has claimed to be the Jewish State and most Jews have allowed it to do so, sending money and their children to be brainwashed in a sick system called Birthright. Most have had lovely holidays in the Israel bubble, ignoring or denying the evil injustices and daily atrocities inflicted on the native people of the land they call Israel, Palestinian Christians and Muslims.
Having spent time in what is called Israel and been lucky enough to drive around Occupied Palestine when one could, as a follower of no religion, but as a believer in the humanity of all and equal rights, I was horrified at the levels of racist hatred and bigotry, openly expressed to all, by Israelis. They are deaf and blind to their own evil and have always been for that is the nature of a supremacist culture.
No-one who has spent time there would be at all surprised at the levels of bestial savagery and sadistic cruelty Israelis have inflicted on Palestinian men, women and children for 76 years. They really do think they are subhuman. They really do think that magically, it is the homeland of Jews and non-Jews have no right to exist in it, except as compliant slaves. The Zioraelis make the Nazis look positively benign.
In this age of technology it is not enough to say they did not know and indeed, there have always been some Jews who did know the truth of the State of Hate and Death, Ziorael, and who rejected it from the start.
But, any study of belief systems and mental function in Judaism and most Jews, not all, but most, reveals the vulnerability of Jews to become cult-like in their paranoia and self-serving aggression. They may not know what they do but they should know what they do.
Religion itself creates some ugly behaviour. Christianity has, for sure. Jews were not more bloodthirsty than anyone else when they lived in Europe. But Europe wanted to be rid of the Jews. Wanted them out of Europe. So the Brits gave the Jews Palestine because they wanted the Jews out of Europe. Zionism has been created by a lot of other players, including some Jews, of course. There are many Zionists who aren't Jewish, but Christian. I have not been to Israel, but I have heard others speak about the racism and cruelty toward Palestinians that is there. Jews are no more vulnerable to cult like behaviour than anyone else. It has been convenient for the west to have the Jews in Israel rather than in Europe. It has been convenient for the US Empire to have them there too because then the US has more access to the middle east. I have seen racist behaviour everywhere I have lived. I have lived in several European countries and Canada. I have seen mistreatement of people because of their race, their skin colour, their religion, their class, their gender or gender identitiy. Yes, many Jews are brainwashed into Zionism. But others are brainwashed into thinking that it is better to be rich and if a few suffer, that is just collateral damage. And many are brainwashed to think that Christianity is the way to go.
The mess that is now Israel was not created only by Jews. It was created by many players and it does not say much good about humanity at all. Maybe capitalism is more to blame if we are looking for somewhere to place blame. Right now we have the privilege of watching Donald Trump and Elon Musk along with their cohorts work on destroying the US government and making the lives of working class Americans miserable. They are threatening Greenland, China, Europe. I think, Roslyn, your analysis is shallow and antisemitic in this instance.
Of course all religions have a capacity for violence and yes, I agree, Israel is the horror that it is because not only Jews but many others have enabled and encouraged it to be and never held it accountable. Partly because of the power of Zionism and the influence of Jewish money, but that is an excuse, not a reason.
The targeting of Jews in Europe was complicated and never universal. One strain of my family was Jewish and they lived peacefully in England for the three centuries I have traced them back. Then they lived and live peacefully in Australia for another 170 years. Jews were certainly persecuted in some parts of Europe but it has all been propagandised to make people think Jews everywhere were always targeted and persecuted when they were not.
What is also ignored is the impact the Jewish created and led Bolshevik Revolution in Russia had on people in many parts of Europe. They were terrified the same would happen to their country. That is not to excuse but to explain.
And the other reality is that any group which sets itself apart and yet has a parasitic relationship with a host community will be a target when times are tough. Again, not to excuse but explain.
You said:. Jews are no more vulnerable to cult like behaviour than anyone else.
Not sure I agree. The victim mentality of Judaism and the belief in superiority as humans taught by the religion, does, I believe, make people more vulnerable to cult formation.
When I stood above the Wailing Wall, in Palestine, refusing to go down because women were discriminated against, and did not have free access like males, the guide translated for me, what was being said.
I must admit I was shocked - There were Jews in the 21st century wailing and railing and moaning about wrongs, real and imagined, done to Jews thousands of years in the past. That is not psychologically healthy.
I have lived in Belgium, UK, Canada, India, Angola, Zambia, South Africa, Malawi and spent long periods in the US and Russia and the worst racism I have ever encountered was in India although the Israelis are far worse because they use massive military force to maim and murder those they consider to be inferior.
You said:. I think, Roslyn, your analysis is shallow and antisemitic in this instance.
It would be good if you could explain what is shallow about it and what represents a hatred of Judaism and Jews?
The facts are that most Jews have supported, funded, enabled and promoted Israel regardless of its atrocities and facts may be unpleasant but they are not anti-semitic, i.e. hating the religion and its followers.
In truth I find those who promote the idea that Israel represents Jews to be a true hatred of Judaism and Jews because that says the atrocities Israel has committed for 76 years, worse in the last 17 months, represent Jewish values and practices and I totally reject that.
I think, whether true or otherwise, the Jews you reference are solely Ashkenazis, and not Sephardic or Mizrahi. None of what you refer to belongs to Jews per se, if at all, but, to the extent any does, it's specific to those Eastern Europeans.
I don't agree with all that you say, but I do agree with this: " In truth I find those who promote the idea that Israel represents Jews to be a true hatred of Judaism and Jews because that says the atrocities Israel has committed for 76 years, worse in the last 17 months, represent Jewish values and practices and I totally reject that."
👍👏👏💯 Well said Susan T. and I agree with you 100%!
>>"I think, Roslyn, your analysis is shallow and antisemitic in this instance."
Agree! Thank you for saying what needed to be said Susan T.
Well perhaps you can do as Susan T. has done and make a case as to what in my statements is shallow or anti semitic.
WRONG, Chang… sorry.
IsraHell is the “Jewish State”, is it not?
How many IsraHellis oppose the genocide?
Additionally, I haven’t known many Jews, especially in the neck of the woods where I now reside. But the ones that I have been acquainted with were mostly smug, superior, and largely unpleasant individuals.
Does that make me “antisemitic”? Sorry! Don’t give a flyin’ fuck!
"They really do think that magically, it is the homeland of Jews and non-Jews have no right to exist in it, except as compliant slaves." They think that about non news everywhere.
Well there is no generic they but it is a common belief, consciously and even more unconsciously. And there are exceptions of course, many of them.
not sure what YHWH stands for. Catholics think they are better than everyone else too. There have been plenty of genocides committed by Christians. Maybe it is religion, any religion, that is the problem. At least when those religions preach that its followers are better than everyone else, the only way etc.
"I can't think of any examples of actual genocides committed by Christians". Ever heard of residential schools? Ever wonder why there were millions of indigenous people in the Americas before the Christian Europeans came and colonized it, and millions less after they had "civilized" the place?
I have to wonder what kind of a country the Zionists think they’ll have if they succeed in killing off everyone — today the Palestians, tomorrow — any ethnic or religious group that they want out and isn’t protected. They’ve smothered compassion in themselves and there’s plenty of evidence they’re teaching their kids to feel none too.
There’s heavy indoctrination in Israel, a kind of mass psychosis. It seems to me inevitable that that much hatred and contempt will cause Israelis to turn on each other, and that day can’t be too far off. As far as I’m concerned it can’t happen soon enough…
Gods = Wars
At 84 I'm still waiting for that wooden nickel under my pillow.
U would think at 84 I'd given up on the Tooth Fairy?
Actually, it's "Churches = wars". I've yet to see a God come down and start war. Just humans and their created institutions.
The Buddhists of Myanmar don't even believe in "God(s)", but they massacred the Rohingya anyway.
I'm as naive and ignorant as possible, but I've had some association with the Bahais (when I was in my early 20s...I'm 81 yo now). I have admiration for them from their founder Baháʼu'lláh throughout their faith tradition and their system that seem to have transcended the astonishing deficiencies of the other Abrahamic faiths Judaism/Christianity/Islam, Hinduism, etc. I'm open to and would sincerely appreciate riposte, concurrence, enlightenment from anyone more erudite than I....
(I am aware that there is a Bahai presence in the Zionist entity's invaded/occupied space...don't know the details, but I'm sure it's not one of US-style obeisance to the tyrannical/terroristic reign of Colonial Zionism and its genocidal persecution of the Palestinians....)
I believe the Bahai temple is in Haifa. I must have seen it when I visited Israel many years ago.
I agree. I was trying to keep it simple. U get any coins from the tooth fairy?
Hell yeah I did. Your parents must have skipped the equivalent contributions to the Tooth Fairy Fund. What goes around comes around. :)
It's not like they have JOBS, you know!
The Fairies take control of your parent's minds, and get them to put the contributions there under the pillow. How else did they get the idea? :'D
russian_bot, I will tell you another story: Not a God fearing one or your version of "shitlib militant atheists"one. The fact is whoever it/she/he is, God is irrelevant to the human condition.
You're both right. Depending on how the Being is DEFINED, means they are both either relevant, or irrelevant.
Only human egos would imagine that a being that can transcend time and space would see Reality in exactly the same way that their pathetic minds comprehend.
"WhY DoEsN'T GoD CoMe DowN AnD StOp HuMaNs FrOm BeHaViNg aS HuMaNs HaVe CHOSEN tO Do???"
Gee, I dunno -maybe the onus on the HUMANS not to behave like this? :Rolls eyes:
And why are jumped up monkeys so fucking special? Perhaps "God" will reveal themselves as a chicken, and say "It's Karma-time, bitches! You've been treating my people REEALL bad!!!".
"No, no, my god is just like me!!!".
I don't recall the Universe having a vote on that.
Atheism. It took me less than 6 months to see through that infantile rubbish - when I was younger than 14, after having left Christianity a few months earlier.
Agnosticism is where it's at. (Cue: all the Militant Athetards screaming "They're the same thing!!". No, no they are not AT ALL. One is a scientific position that "We don't know", the other is a religious certainty that however "God" is defined, it DEFINITELY cannot exist. Chalk and bloody cheese, morons).
If there is one group even stupider and more gullible than Christians, it's the Atheists. And by All that's Holy, that should be impossible by all rights.).
The only sensible position is Agnostic because we can neither prove nor disprove that any entity which could be called God, exists.
There is certainly much evidence for conscious intelligence at work in this world, creatively at least, but such a force is not going to be as humans have depicted what they call God.
It is indeed all a terrible and wonderful experiment.
Wait a second my name is CALVIN!
"It’s not about hostages. It’s not about Hamas. It’s not about terrorism. Those aren’t the reasons, they’re the excuses. The excuses to expel Palestinians and turn more Palestinian land into Israeli land. That’s all this has ever been about. Anyone who says otherwise is lying." Amen, Amen, Amen. That's all I can manage today. Good on you, Caitlin. Amen.
"Our species evolved these brains of unprecedented sophistication only to use them to destroy our biosphere, invent new ways to blow each other up, and make ourselves miserable with our own thoughts."
I've often wondered if evolution shouldn't have halted at the great apes.
Sometimes I feel the same way Vin!
Well, didn't it? We are one of the great apes. And evolution is ongoing. It has not purpose, goal, or desired outcome. It follows what works until it doesn't. And we, along with all of the hominids, are looking like one of the 'not working,' group.
If you want to split hairs, Joy, we, along with our Homo associates and forebears are hominins, which you probably know. So my reference was to stop at hominid. Don't progress to hominin. Most readers might not get it.
But please now, I was being fanciful, not scientific. You don't really think you need to inform a biologist that evolution is ongoing, do you?
More to the point, my biological opinion I withheld from this thread: it's simply that our line, which we narcissistically labeled "sapiens" may have come through as the surviving hominin because we were better at interpersonal violence and killed off neandertalis, which given its brain size and what we can deduce of its sociology might have been a better fit with the rest of the biosphere. But then, we also know of sapiens clans who did indeed live in that particular mode of harmoniousness. So the reality is of course complex and mostly speculative. The minor genetic differences between sapiens, neandertalis, floresiensis, Denisovans, would not nearly provide the differentiation necessary to adjudicate. So again, my feelings about sapiens the murdering hominin are clearly back-projection of my revulsion about our murderous selves back through evolutionary time. Not very scientific, I grant you,
Mea culpa. I'm disgusted with my species!
I read the Haaretz headline and immediately wondered if my shower was too hot this morning:
"Israeli Government Approves Bureau for 'Voluntary Emigration' of Palestinians From Gaza"
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-03-23/ty-article/.premium/israeli-government-approves-bureau-for-voluntary-emigration-of-palestinians-from-gaza/00000195-c2ed-dcee-a7b7-fffdc83c0000
This of course reminds us of
- Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration (Reichszentrale für jüdische Auswanderung)
their branch offices, the
- Central Offices for Jewish Emigration (Zentralstellen für jüdische Auswanderung)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Office_for_Jewish_Emigration
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichszentrale_f%C3%BCr_j%C3%BCdische_Auswanderung
It does not get much more overtly Nazi.
It is interesting how the Zionists have exploited Jewish paranoia and gullible belief systems. Without the support of too many Jews, Zionist Israel would never have existed.
If a religion brainwashes people to believe they are superior as humans and at the same time that everyone wants to kill them because they are superior as humans, it does not take much for the group to manifest as a cult and to justify anything and everything they do, no matter how evil or debased, because, they are saving themselves and protecting themselves from what they consider to be a far greater evil - the deaths of the most superior humans the world has ever known and will ever know.
You see this in the attitudes of most Israelis and all their supporters, i.e. the deaths of 1139 Jews (ignoring the fact most were killed by their own military) requires the deaths of 600,000, or even millions, of non-Jews, in order to establish the belief, fantasy, lie, delusion, that henceforth Jews will be safe.
These beliefs do not even have to be conscious to manifest and indeed, such beliefs, unconsciously held become even more powerful, brutal and evil.
Dems like Bernie are more than happy to take a stand as long as they know that their votes and bills will fail, be of no actual consequence, but present a feeble protest.
Israel is telling Trump he's the chosen one to usher in the Noah Hyde laws and to usher in the anti christ. Trump is dumb enough to go along with this, he's being pressured by Christian zionists and jewish zionists, if this happens we better pray because they do not believe in Jesus Christ. Politics is now a religion and its scary to think where this shit will end up. Anyone who has eyes to see, ears to hear and a beating heart knows what Israel is doing is demonic. We can see who's going along with the murdering of Palestinians, they are mostly in the US government in some fashion. I pray for Gaza everyday, I pray this insanity ends, Trump has lost his way completely, he's on the side of satan now, watch him and what he does next.
I’m beginning to believe that Caitlin’s blog is the vanguard of social media cloud-seeding. Narrative is the blood of the imperial body, and exploding the false narrative is its arterial plaque. It’s essential, indispensable labor, but it is a slow slog.
The most dangerous, existential enemy of the American Empire IS the American Empire. It’s unquenchable appetite to amass more power, left to morons who have no self-awareness, will absolutely be the end of it’s death quest. Hopefully the empire expires before humanity.
The hopes of humanity reside in Moscow and Beijing and Sanaa and Teheran, in the peoples of Africa, and really in the hearts of all people who choose not to put personal status before decent, humble behavior. Governments across the globe have mostly succumbed to the filthy lucre, and they act in accordance with the would-be kings and queens who have power bequeathed by fraud and violence.
The wealthiest economy on the planet leads that planet in deaths by gun, prison population as a percentage of the whole, untreated mental illness, lack of nutrition, lack of healthcare, neglect of retired soldiers, abuse of children and the elderly. By every conceivable measure, the empire is recruiting its fiercest enemies. The United States of Terrorism is on life support. Its days, viewed millennially, are numbered.
In every war, there is no neutral ground. The choice is love or pretend you don’t need to.
unwarranted, I salute you!
I am honored.
"Bernie Sanders has been such a worthless empire simp..."
My sentiments exactly. Bernie is sheepdogging again for the useless Dem-wits, trying his best to fool voters into supporting the duopoly against the big bad Trump wolf. Why anyone would think placating the a-holes that have gotten us into this fascist mess would do anything to get us out of it? Bernie, do us all a favor! GO HOME.
It's not about being "good" or "evil" it's about the need for the capitalism to own and control resources to keep it's profits growing.
This essay has so much in it that needs to be said because of how rare it is to find such substance in any of the news-hole or Op-Ed space given over to 'Whoever's Minding the Desk of Empire.'
It won't make me any friends, but I'll be sharing this with those whose most laborious effort to understand this 75 some years of messing with geo-political maps and successions of neo corporate empire has been to personalize, de-personalize and add off-color language to the war cry of "WTF" to other signifiers that any business-like discussion of resolution is off-the-table.
With respect, gratitude and solidarity especially to and with those who've never succombed to any rushes to judgment, yet, who've maintained and supported Good Will around all the tables of The Genuinely Perplexed and offered human necessities to those stranded in tents of the generationally dispossessed and disregarded.
Tio Mitchito
Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters, PsalmSong Chasers
Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of Atonement Seekers)
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