this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
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I didn't want to direct this question to Americans specifically because, at this point, other countries have shown support to Israel in one or the other way. If my country was financing this, I would be taking the streets. Shit, I'm right now in the hospital but all I can think about is protesting anyway just to feel I did something to stop this madness.

Are you doing something about this? Are you feeling unsettled? How do you feel about all this mess?

EDIT: So, buying Chinese stuff takes the USS Gerald Ford to Gaza’s coast. Also, TIL that that chocolate my cousin gave me when she was 20 and I was 5, (delicious stuff!) made me a slavist-ish. The fact remains, this genocide is being paid and supported by taxpayers money; of course, I was hoping that most of us didn’t pay taxes wishing for this. Thank you all for your responses, some of them were hard to swallow.

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[–] ctobrien84@lemmy.world 67 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean, if you've purchased chocolate in the last century, you're supporting slavery by your logic. Same for many other commodities, but most people know about diamonds. You could be protesting your entire life, justifiably, about many things. Most people in the world cannot consume without inadvertently causing harm and suffering somewhere in the world. It's nice that you're now thinking about it though.

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[–] jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 63 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Since you probably buy stuff made in China like everyone else, you tell us.

[–] ComradeKhoumrag@infosec.pub 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

China meets the manufacturing needs for most of the world, it's economically not realistic to boycott them

That said, we still should boycott them, at least in principle.

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[–] Aatube@kbin.social 56 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Leading question.

Edit: For an actual "answer", some people are in fact taking it to the streets. For your favorite country you can search for it and if you don't want to do that here's an article for the US. While you may argue that we should've expected this, at the time of financing all we know is that there was a first strike and people were angry. Now it's different, at least in my local circle.

Either way, this should not be a question for asklemmy. It should be in the politics community or something.

[–] MxM111@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] scorpious@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

rhetorical “question”

[–] state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 39 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I feel that taking one side over the other without allowing for any nuance in that complicated clusterfuck over there is disingenuous. I feel very sorry for all civilians caught between the many murderous assholes in that region, but I can't fully support one group while completely condemning the other. Acting like it's a black and white issue is so very wrong and not helpful.

[–] neptune@dmv.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But our government did pick a side. So what is our obligation, then?

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[–] Browning@lemmings.world 37 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Keep posting of that's all you can do right now.

[–] jimmydoreisalefty@lemmus.org 10 points 1 year ago

Great quote you made me think of.

The truth hurts, but silence kills. -Mark Twain

[–] TokenBoomer@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Not good. All I can do is vote. Until they take that away.

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[–] Astroturfed@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

I love genocide. I just wish there was some way I could actually vote for it. Instead I'm stuck voting for the closest option which does none of what I want but fortunately both sides support Israel killing Muslims in mass.

I'll put this here because people are dumb as hell /s

[–] FluffyPotato@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My country has been voting to condemn Israel's treatment of Palestine in the UN until 2022 but they will probably vote the same now. As far as I know my country doesn't support Israel monetarily either so I'm pretty happy.

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[–] ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 year ago

DISGUSTING.

Prime minister of my country supports Israel because “they’re allowed to defend themselves”.

What is happening now, has nothing to do with defending themselves, it’s their mission to genocide. I cannot believe the entire world is fine with it. Western but also Arabian countries unfortunately.

In my opinion, “justice” does not exist. It never did. Because it seems the law doesn’t apply to Presidents and a country that purely stands for genocide.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

It's never just been the US - Israel doesn't just have a whole bunch of enablers... said enablers also back the very idea of a modern-day Israel.

France, the UK, Germany, Australia, Apartheid-era South Africa all played their part in helping with all this - I guess the fact that it's all countries with histories that are deeply entwined with white supremacism, antisemitism and colonialism is purely coincidence, eh?

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[–] dirkgentle@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago

I don't mean to derail the conversation, but it pains me to say that Europeans have been financing the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh by buying Azerbaijani oil with almost no repercussion.

[–] SkepticElliptic@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago

It's giving me Iraq war vibes, except my friends aren't getting involved. The escalation doesn't make sense at all unless you consider Netanyahu needed to distract from his aspirations of becoming a dictator.

[–] demystify@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago (7 children)

The only thing I'm dissatisfied with is their free hand with bombing civilians along with military targets. I can understand that Israel is angry, and rightfully so, but they fancy themselves a western country, being better than terrorist Hamas. They can't let their anger take control. Bombing civilians undermines their legitimatecy, I think they should try and be as surgical as possible, like they did in previous rounds of fighting. Other than that, I fully support their desire to root out Hamas. Though conquering Gaza only has any merit to it if they decide to stay and govern it themselves, otherwise Hamas would just rise up again.

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[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

I want to finance a complete genocide of mosquitos and i'm not kidding.

[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If my country was financing this, I would be taking the streets.

If I took to the streets over this, I would make protestors look bad because I have no experience, no social skills, no support network, and I'm a terrible rhetorician, especially when I am angry. Additionally, my family is fast to call the cops and has promised me that they would cooperate with the police if I ever got on their radar, so my presence would be a security culture issue.

Are you doing something about this?

Well, I have chosen not to work for companies that participate in such genocides, which is not a completely vacuous statement because they have sent me recruitment emails to design their fucking missiles! But frankly, I am fighting my own battles right now. I am desperately trying to find work. I am constantly fighting insurers to pay for the few times I ever muster up the courage to use my insurance. I am fighting my own goddamn family who will throw me to the fucking wolves if I can't afford the rent. I am fighting the urge to walk off into the woods and fucking die of embarrassment at having accomplished so little at my age.

So no, I'm not really doing anything. I'll cop to that. I've copped to worse, and at least for now I can live with being a hypocrite. Sorry if that's unsatisfactory.

Are you feeling unsettled? How do you feel about all this mess?

I fucking HATE America, I fucking HATE world governments, and this just adds to the list of reasons why. Unsettled doesn't even begin to cover it.

[–] HappyMeatbag@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don’t like it one bit.

The government sees it as a strategic need to have a strong ally in the region. That view will not change, at least not anytime soon. The Pentagon considers it a national security issue, which puts it beyond politics. Unfortunately, I have to live with that.

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[–] PetDinosaurs@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (15 children)

Also please remember that Europe purchased nearly the entirety of products produced by slaves in the Americas.

If there were no European market there would have been little incentive for American slavery.

I guess the slave free northern states also purchased their fair share, but nothing compared to Europe.

[–] blindbunny@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago (9 children)

It's almost like capitalism fosters slavery, weird 🤔

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[–] SecretPancake@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Germany is bound to support them no matter what. I understand why but there should be some conditions. It’s a sensitive subject here.

Beyond that I don’t really understand this conflict enough to have an objective opinion.

[–] TheFriendlyDickhead@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I fell like most people have very little idea whats going on. The conflict is extremely complicated.

[–] SkepticElliptic@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Israel is retaliating against civilians for an attack carried out by Hamas. This is what America did in Afghanistan after the attack on the world trade center in 2001. It was dumb and it's dumb now.

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

I’d call it “retaliating” against civilians. Actual retaliation would mean hitting the set of people who attacked Israel.

IMO a big source of the problem is that we’re conflating four groups for two groups.

Government A, People A, Government B, People B.

Any time Government A attacks People B, Government B “retaliates” against People A, and vice versa. It’s not actual retaliation it’s forwarding the violence to someone new.

There are tenuous connections between these governments and these peoples, but it’s not like slapping the guy who just slapped you. It’s like slapping his kid.

[–] grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's my emotional understanding of the current situation. I supported the invasion of Afghanistan whole-heartedly the night it happened, but I was a child then. 9/11 was upsetting and rockets are exciting. Now, with maturity and hindsight, that invasion was a cruel mistake. I believe this current invasion is also a mistake.

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[–] agitatedpotato@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Defeated and hopeless mostly. Almost the same as I felt funding the war in the middle east after looking at the casualties and reading testimonies from US soldiers. It's long weighed heavily on me that half of every dollar I'm required to pay to the government is used to kill people who have nothing to do with me, especially as someone whose worked since he was 16. The war in the middle east was met with the largest protests in US history at the time and nothing changed. We then elected a democrat who was given a noble peace prize, he kept the war going and killed many civilians with drone strikes. I don't even own a house and the rate at which my savings are stacking up, there's not much I can even afford to do. Welcome to the machine.

[–] jimmydoreisalefty@lemmus.org 5 points 1 year ago

Similar to all other wars, shitty but numb to human greed, at times.

Best when brought up organically, but steering toward it may also happen.

Teaching/learning and talking to as many people about it IRL, while also trying and failing on the interwebs.

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