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Melissa Louise

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Everything posted by Melissa Louise

  1. You have denied and minimized the Holocaust on this site in your own words. Where I'm from, that's a hate crime.
  2. [deleted by moderator]
  3. Freedom fighters? No. Heartsick.
  4. Terrorists don't commit terror out of desperation though. They commit it to further political and/or religious aims, and to satisfy their backers.
  5. I just hate the way it's being used as propaganda - see how kind Hamas are! Not saying you were using it that way, of course.
  6. Meanwhile. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/24/earth-vital-signs-human-history-scientists-sustainable-future
  7. In the extended interview, the released woman also describes being beaten, dragged and confined to tunnels. And her husband is still a hostage. So, small mercies, I guess, that the beatings ceased while in stationary captivity, while being used as a political bargaining chip by terrorists.
  8. I've never thought this song had a happy ending. Power anthem? Woman now in slightly less poverty than earlier due to slightly better job than earlier check out role, although now with kids, kicks out dead beat husband...I mean, good, but not exactly rags to riches! It's a sad song, to me. To me it's about poverty, and how corrosive it is, and how the 'dream' is just hard work, and maybe loss too, if you need to leave behind others who understand what it's like to come from poverty.
  9. This happens here as well, with pressure particularly brought to bear on passing full fee paying international students. The people I know who teach in universities are in humanities, though, so perhaps the downstream consequences to this profit-first approach are less immediately troubling.
  10. This. Can we not with the babies?
  11. I'm not going to go looking for the exact number of murdered infants and delve into the world of nit picking over how said infants became murdered/ burned/potentially headless. Because honestly, I don't want to do that to myself.
  12. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/23/israel-shows-footage-of-hamas-killings-to-counter-denial-of-atrocities *One still image from a distance in the link, one video which does not play automatically and all other atrocities described in text only. I think this is another case, though, where those who deny the atrocities will not be convinced by evidence, and those who can be don't need video evidence to know that Hamas are terrorists. The kind of brainwashing that can make men do these things and think they are serving God is terrifying, and I'm sorry, it's more terrifying than vaccine deniers.
  13. This is not the thread I expected! Songs aren't 'girl' or 'boy' songs. People cover other people's songs all the time, they don't have to gender match. I have no idea how people got into the whole lesbians IVF thing. I like the original song, haven't heard the cover, not really interested - the guy is a country singer? Yeah, nah.
  14. Honestly, I think there are no sources at the moment which are not attempting to manipulate in one direction or another. Editorial bias is on very clear display everywhere you look. This 'error' from the NYT, the BBC and other media whose influence rests of a legacy of quality journalism has done irreparable harm, not only to themselves but to the trust readers/listeners/viewers can put in them, or in any media. These are bad times. Journalism has been sidelined for the main game of getting those clicks (media as profit making machine) for quite some time, and in periods of world crisis, we see just how lacking we are.
  15. I think it's OK to make a distinction between undesirable propaganda (say, that might stop someone getting a vaccine) and abhorrent propaganda (say, that might make someone torture and set alight small children thinking they are doing a Noble Thing). Otherwise you end up with this ridiculous flattening effect where living under Hamas is functionally the same as living in a democracy where your human rights are (imperfectly) protected. Or narratives that gloss over just how terrible an organization like Hamas (backed by Iran, home of beating girls into comas for having hair visible on the street) is for its own people. Meanwhile, as a direct result of the October 7 massacre, thousands of children are dead who were alive mere weeks ago, and more will die. Israeli, Palestinian, each one worth the same and deserving of better than the willfully naive excusing of terrorism as 'punching up'.
  16. It's easy to abhor the horrors inflicted by Hamas, both on Israelis and their own population, support the right of Israel to exist, protest against world-wide hatred of Jews, but also criticize the current Israeli government and their actions (or support Israelis who do), believe in a two state solution where Palestinians can freely govern themselves, think West Bank settlements are illegal, and believe that children and other civilians in Gaza and Israel should be protected from harm. At no point is antisemitism required, but boy, there seems to be a lot of it about. I don't know how people can't be genuinely shocked by it. I think many believe that if they just substitute the word 'Zionist' for Jew, the antisemitism goes away. It really doesn't. There's enough dehumanization to go around, that's for sure. I'm pretty old; I remember many attempts at negotiation a two state solution, all of which failed. It seems an intractable crisis. I believe Palestinians are entitled to their own state but so are Israelis. There are peacemakers and warmongers on both sides.
  17. I would argue about most of these topics, with the exception of beards - don't care. I would be for the beach in winter, the mountains in summer, caffeine as the most mild of vices, and tattoos as a personal choice. Strongly against cult sci fi TV of any description, excluding TV whose primary focus is travel in time. I am probably reflexively for Lady Gaga.
  18. I haven't seen a poll showing vast majority support for Hamas amongst Palestinians. I have definitely seen more than one poll showing a majority though - in the 55%+ region. I did see a recent poll with much higher % in favour of action against Israel etc, which I assume is a function of being at war.
  19. I've never had Covid symptoms and/or a positive Covid test. I assume I must have had it at some point; I have had illnesses since I stopped masking at the beginning of the year. Or maybe I just haven't, yet, for some reason, and after posting on this thread, I will bring down the evil coronavirus eye upon me.
  20. Honestly, 'we' can do.little other than vote, call our political reps etc None of us here have any impact on resumption of 2 state solutions or whatever. I guess people with money to spare can send money.
  21. My feeling on resettling refugees is that it is best done locally, where humanly possible. AU, for example, should be taking Pacific Island climate refugees. It was right that we took both Vietnamese and Chinese refugees/asylum seekers. Our backyard. I The thing that bugs me about emotional or moral appeals on this issue to ordinary people (and I've made a lot of them in the past) is that ordinary people aren't stupid - they are sensitive to resource allocation and community cohesion. It isn't those with the big piece of any national pie who'll be having to share; it's everyone else getting crumbs. It's easy to moral grandstand from SE privilege (and yes, I know globally we in the West are all privileged - please tell to the malnourished unhoused many in our own communities).
  22. Oh, I'm sure there is. I'm.more thinking about how quickly the fact of hostage taking disappeared from - activist - view.
  23. Yeah, my only point is that the US is n not unusually egregious. These things are standard in the majority of other Western and non-Western countries.
  24. It goes without saying that Hamas should release all hostages. It's been remarkable to me that this most basic of demands has seemingly slipped out of the general discourse, though not diplomatic discourse, thankfully.
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