TLDR imperialism. Israel helps the US control the middle east and also does stuff elsewhere.
> Israel is basically the US's attack dog in the middle east. Any job that the US is unable to do, or would look too imperialistic to do, Israel carries out on its behalf. > > Israel has played a crucial role in attacking and destabilizing independent Arab governments determined to defy US dictates. In 1967 Israel attacked two such governments in Syria and Egypt in a surprise invasion. Israel's narrative has always been that they launched a preemptive strike to prevent an impending Arab genocide of Jews, but in reality Israel just wanted to take Arab land. Mattiyahu Peled, one of Israel's commanders in the six day war, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, > > > 'The thesis that that the danger of genocide was hanging over us in 1967 and that Israel was fighting for its physical existence is only a bluff, which was born and developed after the war.' > > This invasion was crucial at a time when 550,000 American troops were bogged down in Vietnam fighting the spread of socialism there. The library of Congress study of the Israeli War recounted, quote, > > > The traumatic defeat of the Syrians and Egyptians in the June 1967 war with Israel discredited the radical socialist regimes of Nasser's Egypt and Baathist Syria. The defeat strengthened the hands of the moderates and the rightists. > > In 1981, Israel bombed an Iraqi nuclear power plant with US approval at a time when the US was publicly supporting Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war. Secretly the US wanted both governments to destroy each other but couldn't be seen as playing such an intentionally destabilizing role. > > in 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon with the full support and funding from the United States in an attempt to crush the Palestinian resistance there and appoint an ultra-rightwing Lebanese Phalangist as president. The US would end up sending marines in to aid this effort, only to be defeated by the Lebanese resistance forces. > > Israel also has a long history of doing the empire's bidding outside the Middle East. Israel continued to arm and support apartheid South Africa even after it became too unpopular for the US to do so. Israel even built an electrified fence around Namibia, then a South African colony, to protect it from neighboring Angolan liberation forces. > > Israeli police helped train torturers in the US-backed Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. They trained the right-wing Guatemalan army that was committing genocide against indigenous people. Israel has also been a loyal partner in the US war on terror. The islamophobic hysteria following 9/11 gave the US an excuse to attack any country that stood against its interests in the region, especially Iran. While the US has been careful not to directly strike Iran, Israel has served a very useful purpose by continuing to bully and harass Iran, assassinating its nuclear scientists, seizing Iranian ships, and providing intelligence on Iran through massive spy networks. > > Israel also routinely bombed Syria, a country the US attempted to topple in 2011. Just by being there, Israel gives the US a constant excuse to intervene in the region under the guise of protecting Israel. As Joe Biden once put it: > > > Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel, to protect her interest in the region.
contrast that with reality:
https://ssti.org/blog/large-percentage-americans-report-they%E2%80%99re-struggling-make-ends-meet (May 2023)
> Almost 40% of American adults report they struggle to make ends meet each month, an increase from 34.4% in 2022 and 26.7% in 2021.
https://usafacts.org/data-projects/housing-costs (May 2023)
> 50% of renters and 21% of homeowners spend ≥ 30% of their income on housing, while 25% of renters and 9% of homeowners spend ≥ 50% of their income on housing.
https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/research/average-monthly-expenses/ (Sep 2023)
> The average US household spends 29% of their income on housing, 15% on transport, 11% on food, 11% on insurance and pensions, 7% on healthcare, and 2% of education
That adds up to around 76% of income spent on necessities. If we say half of the food budget is eating out, that's still over 70% of income spent on necessities.
A common rule of thumb to live comfortably is the 50/30/20 rule: 50% of after-tax income on necessities, 30% discretionary, and 20% savings and/or paying off debt.
https://ir.lendingclub.com/news/news-details/2023/LendingClub-and-PYMNTS-Research-Shows-86-of-Consumers-Live-with-One-or-More-People-Yet-Those-Living-with-Only-Partners-or-Spouses-Reap-the-Financial-Benefits/ (July 2023)
> In June 2023, 61% of U.S. consumers lived paycheck to paycheck, unchanged from June 2022 — as is the share of those struggling to pay bills (at 21%)
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https://twitter.com/CensoredMen/status/1717341447744045073
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/israelis-mocking-palestinians-on-tiktok-controversy
The comments are what you expect. All agree that we're psychopaths who support genocide and just want authority as a goal in itself. All agree we do no leftist praxis, I guess just based on vibes. One user wrote:
> let’s be honest, they should be removed from society
which is cool. One-on-one, online or in person, I'm pretty patient with people like this, but when I see a whole thread like this with hundreds of upvotes and no pushback it makes me feel tired.
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lemmy.ml link in case any of you have alts and want to wade in: https://lemmy.ml/post/6930975
The democracy thread she commented in right before posting this: https://lemmy.ml/comment/5160468
After you fight and win a revolution, how do you protect your new state from being crushed or invaded? Look what happened to Allende, Lumumba, Aidit, Árbenz, etc.
I love watching youtube at 2x speed
- 70% of Americans want singlepayer healthcare
- 90% want universal background checks for firearm purchases
- 75% want Citizen's United repealed
and yet these and other popular policies remain politically impossible
Study: Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens:
From the abstract:
Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.
further down:
In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule — at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it.
What is it, like, 70% of Americans want single payer healthcare?
accusing hexbear users of not actually being queer is fucking deranged, what the fuck is wrong with libs
whoa, i've never heard of a hurricane hitting the west coast of the US
"the Ukrainians" are not a monolith. You may be aware that a civil war raged for 8 years before Russia invaded?
Study: Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens:
From the abstract:
Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.
further down:
In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule — at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it.
What is it, like, 70% of Americans want single payer healthcare?
I mean Reddit's director of policy, Jessica Ashooh, is former Deputy Director of the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Strategy Task Force — she's literally a state department plant.
So is nitter just toast now? Are there any working instances? I don’t want to make a twitter account
You ever notice how America seems unable to meaningfully damage China's economy?
This is because China's economy is integral to everyone else's. You can't really hurt China without hurting yourself. Their annual trade volume is in the trillions of dollars.
China paid a price for this leverage. The price was allowing capitalists to operate within China. That is how you do business with the rest of the capitalist world.
They crossed the median line
idk dog, the wording in the article leaves some weird wiggle room.
Of those aircraft, the ministry said 10 had
eithercrossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which previously served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides,orentered the southwestern part of Taiwan's air defense identification zone, or ADIZ.
you're asking communist states to relax their defenses while America is still the dominant power on the planet
BREAKING: Musk "cyber dredge" proposal to clear Panama Pileup would cost $450 Billion
I'm just commenting so future me will be reminded of this thread
this feels like when they're digging a tunnel and the two ends finally meet
Video thumbnail is a tweet saying: > I hate how I am a "I have an appointment at 4pm so I can't do anything all day" type of person
TLDR set disruptive alarms. This lets you forget about the event until you need to focus on it, instead of devoting attention to keeping it in mind all day to the detriment of everything else.
Video is very succinct and well-edited and I think it's worth a watching the whole thing. He has a good style and has ADHD himself so he knows how to edit for his audience.
I go by "test" on live.hexbear.net, or "tset" or "tst" or some other variant when I'm not logged in.
We watch movies on the weekends and sometimes also hang out during the week, you should drop by.