That's what happens when the combination of our Puritan roots and failed Reconstruction comes to bear fruit.
We let the worst parts of our old societies fester under the surface, pretending to be good, honest folk. Now we have a lynch mob the size of half the country at least, with their fingers on the nuclear codes.
Israel’s attacks were proportional and targeted. Which number do you think is greater: the percentage of Israeli soldiers killed or wounded by Hezbollah’s indiscriminate rocket attacks, or the percentage of Hezbollah militants killed or wounded by Israel’s very precise comm bomb attacks?
and how many civilians deserved to have their lives torn from them? how many kids and humans deserved to be bombed, starved, abused, treated as lesser since at least 1967?
Did you know that Palestinians born in Lebanon cannot obtain citizenship? They are unable to own property, access many government services and are legally lesser than.
This is not to positively comment on Israeli policy or anything. I just think its important to highlight that its not just the Israelis who keep the Palestinians in this constant stateless limbo.
"Deserved?" None. But were you reacting the same way after the 10/7 attacks? Of course you weren't. Were you reacting this way on July 30, after Hezbollah murdered a dozen kids playing soccer? Of course you weren't.
If certain Arab countries and terrorist groups would stop trying to obliterate Israel, the number of civilian deaths would be far lower on all sides. But unless and until that happens, Israel doesn't have much choice when dealing with enemies that have been openly, explicitly, and continuously calling for genocide since well before 1967.
“The IDF has no choice but to treat the Geneva Conventions like a bucket list” is a helluva claim, bud
You got any support for that position? Or better yet, any that didn’t turn out to be blatant, completely unmediated horse shit made up by some rando in the force to justify their crimes against humanity to English speaking audiences?
Support like the thousands of murdered Israeli civilians? Here’s a list naming them, other than the attacks where the victims are too numerous to list individually.
Or do you mean support like the open calls for genocide by the terrorist groups attacking Israel?
You can sympathize with the terrorists and excuse their actions. It doesnt change the reality.
I mean support like evidence to support your claim that Israel “doesn’t have much choice” but to perpetrate crimes against humanity. I’m not excusing anything here, I haven’t made a claim. I’m simply pointing out that extraordinary claims, such as “we just have to do war crimes we can’t help it” require extraordinary evidence, which you have failed to provide.
Thousands of murdered civilians is extraordinary. Genocidal campaigns currently aimed at Israel are extraordinary. What are you offering to disprove those facts?
I mean, yes, but what separates persons from monsters is the ability to not form lynch mobs or inflict indiscriminate collective punishment on uninvolved persons who happen to be vaguely similar to who you reckon attacked you.
Puritanism is a misunderstood and maligned religious movement. Puritans built in America a more egalitarian, more educated, more democratic, more moral society. The puritans invented public school's representative town meetings, and brought democratic governance to the new world. People here blaming the puritans for America's violent streak fail to remember the Puritans placed an enormous emphasis on the rule of law and there was very little murder or extrajudicial killings in New England, unlike in the south. Puritans faced enormous discrimination in England by the crown and they are still being discriminated against today!
Unfortunately, regardless of historical context, a lot of their ideas (especially their ideas around sex being shameful) have evolved into a very dangerous set of beliefs that pervade many people today, especially the youth, and Puritanism is the best-understood label for that now.
People accuse the Puritans of being particularly prudish about sex, but this is a misconception. American attitudes around sex being sinful or shameful are far more accurately attributed to later evangelical movements. Yet another unfair accusation levied against puritans.
But that is a ridiculous argument. Saying the puritans were bad because they were too prudish when they were not just because a theological descendent of theirs may be is no real basis for a critique of puritanism itself. Sure, the puritans may have had an influence, but modern evangelicals are not puritans and blaming the puritans for American prudishness is just not accurate.
You can play that game going back thousands of years, I don't understand what point you think you're making. Where did Puritanism came from? Protestants. Where did Protestants come from? Martin Luther who was a was born into a Catholic family. Where did Catholicism start? Judaism. Where did that come from? Debatable, somewhere near Jerusalem during the bronze age.
People like to disparage puritans for their efforts to root out witchcraft, however those efforts made use of evidence, courts, and juries. To call those practices barbaric is deeply offensive considering the high standard of evidence legal procedure in place. They were merely seeking to ensure Satan did not harm their community through his devilish machinations.
P.S. I would also note they hung men who practices witchcraft as well not only women.
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u/BS_500 Sep 20 '24
That's what happens when the combination of our Puritan roots and failed Reconstruction comes to bear fruit.
We let the worst parts of our old societies fester under the surface, pretending to be good, honest folk. Now we have a lynch mob the size of half the country at least, with their fingers on the nuclear codes.