I think provisional measures (“bandaid” solutions) should always come with an “until ____ is passed”. Because yes, it shouldn’t be how we have to do things. But while there isn’t the political will to do/get the thing that would actually help the situation, something needs to be done to mitigate the harm that already exists. For example, I don’t want to have to drink water from a dirty stream. That shouldn’t be the standard. But if I find myself in a situation where it’s that or to die of dehydration… restricting/denying the Band-Aid is essentially condemning them to the original harm

Fuck Trump. But also, I think with divisions the way they are, we have to be careful how we engage with our criticisms. And my problem with calling Trump “white trash” is layered. First, white trash has classically been used to denigrate lower class white folks. There’s more to unpack there than I want to tackle, but to oversimplify, I feel like it is unnecessarily classist and brings in race at the same time. I’m sure there are plenty of people who you could call white trash that aren’t racist, traitorous, scam artists. Also, I would consider Trump either not lower class, or a class traitor. And on top of that, it kind of seems like the least concerning thing about him. Him being cringe or gross or just generally repugnant is so 2016. We’re now in the midst of several global catastrophes that this animated blob of greed and hatred will almost certainly pour rocketfuel on.

“It sets a shitty precedence…” is a gross minimalization to attach to effectively making the US be a dictatorship. And saying you’re ok with a dictatorship because you happen to agree with the dictator is the kind of sentiment that cannot be left unchallenged/unexamined

It’s almost like it is in the best interests of one of the political parties to have a less informed populace and that party tends to limit or dismantle that educational infrastructure

You’ve misapplied progressive language in such a way as to make me suspect this comment is an example of astroturfing. I almost hope that is the case, because the alternative is that you have allowed ignorance and implicit bias to lead you down a path of self justified racism/bigotry. As the dominant culture, it is not our place to decide to exclude groups of people based on a preconception. Every culture has blindspots. But none of them are absolutes. You tolerate the culture, and try to discourage behavior that is detrimental to the whole. Otherwise we’d ban most religions. Even western ones.

Do you think the West is that far off?

Defining it as a feature would dispel the myth of there being an ethical way to incarcerate/indefinitely detain people. The “bad apples” argument tries to put forward an idea that something bad is actually fine. It’s only bad in ‘this instance’ because these people are bad/immoral/incompetent.

Sounds like she could do with more bran in her diet >_>

I get what you’re saying. And might even agree with elements. But it is easy to say it’s futile to fight when you aren’t in a position to need to. Doing nothing in this case means resigning not just yourself to being under their oppression, and not even just your friends and family. It is resigning your entire culture to a slow painful death by attrition. They are losing more and more land, rights, and any hope of progress. Like… if someone is strangling you, do you fight back, or just resign yourself to it? And that’s before we even get into the fact that those complying and not fighting are still being killed. Those not fighting and wanting to leave were lured to slaughter. Not fighting is an illusory choice.

You just gotta take that line of thought one step further. I believe in you.

If Hamas had the same capabilities, there would likely be less violence because Israel would not be able to oppress, occupy, or encroach on Palestinian life. The one with more power doesn’t need to use all of their strength, whereas the one struggling under the boot of the other will fight with all of their strength and use whatever is available to them