First, I am not on Israel’s side in this matter. I denounce their historical and ongoing oppression of Palestinians to say the least and generally see a two state solution as an ideal outcome, along with the outcomes you mentioned, dismantling apartheid and establishing self-determination for Palestinians. However I would not condone atrocities to achieve this goal. Just as I am in support of Ukraine’s resistance against Russia, I would not condone any war crimes if they were to commit them. How we achieve our goals matter.

Sure, neither of us are directly affected won’t be the ones deciding, yet here we are expressing our opinions and hopefully having a worthwhile conversation about it. Perhaps all of social media is just political noise, yet us humans seem to like to weigh in on world events.

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What does destruction of Israel as a genocidal settler-colonial ethnostate look like to you? Does it look like Oct 7 writ large across all of Israel? Does it look like the massive bombing campaign, displacement, and destruction of capacity for civilians to live that Israel has perpetrated in Gaza?

I 💯 went through this disappointment. I used to also love looking at a game’s concept art because they always looked so much cooler and atmospheric than the game. I remember the inflection point clearly. I was playing Mass Effect 3 and walking around the citadel wards/docks, with it’s beautifully detailed textures, evocative colours, and painterly lightshafts, feeling absolutely enthralled, and thinking “Holy shit, they’ve finally done it, the gameplay looks better than the box/concept art.”

Just because not everything needs to be political doesn’t mean things that are inherently political stop being politically consequential when you say it doesn’t have to be.

Elon in particular has used his wealth to overtly become a political figure. His political power comes from his wealth. Therefore supporting his wealth through your economic choices inherently supports his political activity.

On comment threads, every day.

1. Do I want to put this out into the world?
2. Do I need this in my life right now/is it worth the time?

This reflective exercise has saved me many excessive fixations. And yes, sometimes I do need to make that snarky overly-researched comment that nobody will see.

You probably have, pehaps even felt a musical tickle or nodded along absentmindedly. She’s pretty ubiquitous, and her music does what pop does best.

That’s not an insult, it’s a specific form of trolling/harassment called sealioning.

Right, that’s a legal argument. Part of presenting a case is to argue what is the legal issue/crime at hand and what circumstances/information is relevant. It’s the defense council’s job to make the argument you just made, not the prosecutor’s and it’s the judge’s job to make judgements about what information the jury should consider in making their decision. It’s the prosecutor’s literal job to make arguments that benefit their side, within their code of conduct and court rules. I don’t know if it’s a very good or convincing approach by the prosecution, I’m not a lawyer.

I certainly don’t condone what the YouTuber was doing, but I’m curious what alternative action/approach you’d prefer to see from the prosecutor in this context? What would it look like?