livus

@livus@mander.xyz

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livus,

Someone that acts confident when they shouldn’t, is colloquially known as a “conman”.

No, that’s incorrect.

A “con man” aka Confidence Trickster is a grifter who gains your confidence in order to scam you.

Having false confidence in itself does not mean someone is necessarily a swindler. It could just be that they are delusional or misinformed.

livus,

I hate how all the top google results these days are the self contradicting ramblings of LLMs.

livus,

Probably both. The circular logic and redundant headings scream AI but presumably a human compiled it together and may have written what they thought were bridging sentences.

livus,

Thanks!

livus,

I think they like it for some reason.

livus,

hotbed of violent anti-Semitic rhetoric

Jewish students participating in these protests have made it clear that’s b.s.

I hate how articles like this try to set up this fake opposition between Passover and protesting the Gaza genocide.

What's the deal with Isreal vs. Palestine side taking in the West?

I feel like I’ve been kind of in the loop for most of the headlines regarding this confrontation. Yet somehow I can’t find it within myself to actually care about either side. It seems like both are lead by genocidal parties, hell bent on indoctrinating their populace into hating the other side. Yet at the same time people...

livus, (edited )

Okay there are more than 2 sides.

Personally I am on the side of civilians whether they are Israeli or Palestinian or Druze or Bedouin. I am also on the side of the doctors, nurses, and humanitarian aid workers. These are who I consider the Good Guys. “Look for the helpers.” - Mr Rodgers.

But to cover your question, there’s two separate issues here:

  • the claims of the belligerents
  • feelings about what is happening now in the Israel Gaza war

The past claims of the belligerents

I’m not going to go into this, but but it goes back to history and it’s where the side-taking on the sides of the belligerents mostly comes from, because different people have different interpretations. Legally speaking Palestine is occupied by Israel (West Bank) and blockaded by Israel (Gaza). No one can get in or out, it’s effectively controlled by Israel.

What is happening now

What is happening now is a “war” between the IDF and Hamas. People like me, who are rooting for civilians are upset about:

  • proportionality (so far about 33,000 Palestinian deaths vs 1,400 Israeli deaths)
  • mortality (currently over 1.5% of the population of Gaza have been killed)
  • civilian mortality - high numbers of children being killed (according to aid agencies, one is killed or injured every 10 minutes)
  • high numbers of humanitarian workers and medical staff being killed
  • inappropriate weapon choices (hundreds of 2,000lb bombs are being dropped, for reference the US used just one in its war against Isis.
  • widespread infrastructure destruction, particularly of hospitals and other important buildings
  • mounting evidence of starvation in the civilian population due to blockade of aid

Personally I am against anyone treating a civilian population like this for any reason, and I believe it amounts to war crimes. I was against the killing of civilians in Myanmar, Rwanda, East Timor, and I am against it now.

Side note: The median age in Gaza is 18, meaning literally half the people in it are still children.

Edit: I haven’t given any sources cos lazy. I am happy to give them to OP or anyone in good faith (there are probably a bunch on the post history of my main which is livus@kbin.social). However, I do not speak sealionese.

livus, (edited )

To answer the first question, sorry I keep breaking it into smaller components but again, separating it out makes it clearer. If we look at:

  • what the IDF intentions are
  • what their actions are
  • what the effects of their actions are

What people think kind of depends on how well we think it matches up and whether we think the first one is actually an okay justification for the third one. Like when is it okay shoot when you can see there’s someone in the crossfire.

What their intentions are

The IDF and mainstream Israeli politicians publically stated intention is to “destroy Hamas” in order to protect the safety of Israeli citizens both in Israel and in the part of Palestine that Israel is occupying. Hamas is a broad term encompassing both militant (eg militant) and civil (eg Health Dept) organization. Some politicians have gone a lot further and said their intention is to remove most Palestinians from Gaza. Some have said that no civilians are innocent, but these are minority viewpoints.

What their actions are

This is where it gets tricky, and some of it is contested. What is common ground is that they have chosen to use an unusually large number of bombs in a built up environment full of civilians, using huge bunker buster bombs, and drone bombing of targets suggested by AI. It also involves a ground offensive, and there appear to be “kill zones.” The IDF has set itself numbers for “acceptable” number of civilians per kill, which may be high, and also permits itself to bomb hospitals and schools. Here is an article which covers some of the AI concerns. They also keep tight control of humanitarian aid and limit what enters. There are allegations that are disputed, of widespread deliberate killing of wounded and civilians and children. We may find forensic evidence in the mass graves. The IDF dispute it.

The effects of their actions

  • I’ve covered this already above, but what stands out is the unusually high number of civilians and medics being killed, compared to other modern wars that involved urban warfare. To put the total mortality into perspective, during the Bosnian Genocide 3% of the population were killed over a 2-year period. 1.5% of the Gaza population have been killed in 6 months. The mortality statistics we have are for known deaths, those still buried in rubble are extra.
  • Using satellite images of before and after, analysts estimate 57-60% of buildings in Gaza are destroyed, rising to 75% in Gaza City. We also know the hospitals were bombed.
  • During the current war monitoring of humanitarian aid entering Gaza has drastically reduced the amount going in. (Before this war, Gaza did not function self-sufficiently. A significant part of the population (many were refugees) relied on humanitarian aid.
  • NGOs on the ground report that the current numbers of starving people will meet the technical threshold for it to be designated famine, by May.

For many of those who are on the side of civilians, there is no possible justification for killing this many people to get to each millitant. International law (eg Geneva Conventions) specifies how to treat civilian populations, and many international experts think that these rules are being breached. Moreover, the blocking of humanitarian aid is problematic, whatever the rationale.

Most of us live in civilisations where we do not find it acceptable to kill innocent people as way to also kill guilty people.

livus,

The answer to your second question to some extentit probably depends on which country you’re in.

Generally speaking I think the people with strong opinions about land occupation already had those opinions before this war. The current wave is much more a reaction to what is happening to civilians right now.

I think the general population in the US are more likely to have pre-existing strong opinions about Israel Palestine because it’s regularly in their news, and there is a sizeable US expat population in Israel. For me personally (I live in New Zealand) the human rights situation in Gaza normally sits on my radar alongside the situations in for e.g West Papua and Western Sahara. But right now, there is an active large-scale massacre of civilians taking place in Gaza.

livus,

I think it was really cool that you asked questions instead of just being content with assumptions.

Btw, here’s an article describing how epidemiologists have been able to independently verify the mortality rate. It’s from a while ago so the numbers are lower but you can still get a sense of it.

livus,

Honestly, just get yourself an account that allows you to see who votes and vote order, it will save you a lot of paranoia.

3 of the first 11 upvotes are people I recognise and have interacted with. It’s obviously not sockpuppets.

If the downvotes I can see, two of the first 3 are people I’ve recently interacted with as well.

I’m a non-US fediversian and I upvoted it because I thought the headline was funny and because I sympathise with Americans for having to choose between these two old men (who aren’t even Bernie Sanders, which would have been more understandable).

livus,

Just any kbin account will do it. The info is there in ActivityPub so sooner or later there will be a client that includes it, if there isn’t yet.

(My main’s at kbin.social but we are temporarily on read-only here at lemmy.world due to our servers going haywire, so to comment here I have to use my lemmy account).

livus,

Don’t think so, kbin’s not stable yet.

I’m a bit out of the loop though because I prefer mobile interface.

livus,

It’s nice that you visited, but I believe people like Desmond Tutu, who actually lived through Apartheid in South Africa..

There’s a reason why South Africa are the ones with the case against Israel in the international courts. They know what this is.

livus,

The UN officials aren’t saying any of those things. Here’s a tldr of the issue

  • The platform is meant to be in Northern Gaza where the worst of the starvation is
  • Israel wants it to be moved south to an Israeli choke point
  • Israel is about to close the crossings in South Gaza so it can attack Rafah
  • If the tiny amount of aid that can come in is able to be diverted to South Gaza then Israel may face less international condemnation over this phase of the Gaza genocide.

Please help me understand why delivering food and medicine to Gaza is bad.

If there is a starving child and you can choose to deliver them the nutrients they need but instead you choose to give them half a peanut instead, in a really theatrical way, that’s obviously bad right?

That’s what’s happening here.

livus,

We are all familiar with the genocidaires’ explanations/pretexts for why they are blockading humanitarian aid, thanks, you don’t need to rehash them here.

Egypt doesn’t want terrorists

More to the point Egypt doesn’t want to give Israel a pretext for constant drone strikes in Egyptian territory now that every Palestinian refugee child is supposedly “Hamas”.

But either side can close a border, that’s intrinsic to borders.

livus, (edited )

It’s a point that only makes sense if you don’t pay attention to international geopolitics.

Small countries have a vested interest in the upholding of international law because they are vulnerable, so they quite often stick their heads up above the parapet for it. E.g. when the Rohingya Genocide occurred in South East Asia a small country in West Africa, The Gambia, are the ones who took them to the ICC.

As for South Africa, it has a very long history of criticizing Israel for its apartheid. Bishop Desmond Tutu made international headlines by calling it an apartheid after his visit to Israel and Palestine. Moreover, during Apartheid South Africa era, Israel was one of the big weapons suppliers to the Apartheid regime (which was at war with its neighbour) when many countries were boycotting it.

The entire African Union are quite sensitive about what Israel does.

If you know anything about history, it makes perfect sense that South Africans would be leading the charge here (which they have done consistently).

livus,

Post pic, I won’t marry you but I will say something nice.

livus,

I’d never heard of Ed Zitron but this is the second good blog I’ve seen by them this week.

livus,

It’s also pretty obvious he cheated, though.

He clearly had a good phone, phone plan, and secure comprehensive healthcare.

livus,

they could sedate him, clean the wound, and administer antibiotics for just over $2000

OP I don’t know how long it will take you to get the money but please clean the wounds as best you can yourself in the meantime.

I remember someone in your other post said it’s probably dog bite abscess. I have cleaned those before. You will need warm water, put a little betadine iodine in it and use soaked cotton wool to very gently “lick” the wound as if you are another cat.

Wrapp the cat’s body securely in a towel first.

I would phone another vet and ask for a quote as what you have been quoted sounds insane to me especially since they didn’t even tell you what the wounds are.

livus,

That’s understandable. I wish you and Blue all the best.

livus,

Facebook: hold my beer

livus,

Number 6 will shock you.

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