A Palestinian man was found dead in a park in the Belgian city of Antwerp with his hands and feet tied, leaving the cause of his death a mystery amid authorities’ suggestion that it may have been a suicide.
“Suicide.”
“There is no such thing as a ‘lesser evil’ when the result is genocide”
“Yes there is”
- a completely unironic liberal take I saw highly upvoted just today that this reminded me of.
Eventually you are the evil, and that moment passed a long time ago.
Someone tried to argue with me that Kamala will genuinely try to make a ceasefire happen, right after she banned Palestinians from talking at the DNC rally.
His evidence that the “uncommitted voters” supported Kamala was that they backed her campaign in their speech… which was the one banned from being presented because it was pro Palestinian…
I still haven’t replied to that thread because I genuinely don’t know how to explain to this person that their candidate lied to them, and clearly has no interest in ending the genocide.
My take? Vote your conscience, or not at all if that’s where your conscience leads you. I can’t bring myself to fault anyone for refusing to vote for a “lesser evil”. At the end of the day, electoral politics just isn’t worth the amount of time and energy people give to it. That time and energy is better spent engaging in direct action, community building, and just general activism. I have long been disillusioned that electoral politics can bring about meaningful progress.
“There is no such thing as a ‘lesser evil’ when the result is genocide”
“Yes there is”
a completely unironic liberal take I saw highly upvoted just today that this reminded me of.
Eventually you are the evil, and that moment passed a long time ago.
Do you regard the Soviets and the Nazis as equally evil?
Do you regard the Soviets and the Nazis as equally evil?
I’m not too sure how constructive this question is. They have different characteristics for sure and this is enough for me, in terms of analysis.
It’s very constructive. Soviets and Nazis both committed genocide. But anyone with a shred of morality should have no hesitation, if it’s down to the wire and only the two of them to choose from, which one should side with. The Soviets, if that wasn’t clear. The Soviets, awful as they were, and even though they were quite literally genocidal - on multiple occasions, on a massive scale - are very much the lesser evil compared to the Nazis. The idea that there is no ‘lesser evil’ when genocide is involved on both sides as a matter of general principle would necessarily imply that the Soviets and the Nazis are equally evil, which is fundamentally absurd on its face.
It’s a hollow argument trotted out to make “LIBERALS BAD FOR FOREIGN POLICY” sound more profound; it’s not a sincerely held principle, and the inability to answer that challenge displays that.
It’s not constructive, it’s what-about-ism and disengenious rhetoric.
I entirely misunderstood the parent comment.
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail
https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html
Yes, we are all familiar with the Letter from Birmingham Jail. Congratulations on passing your high school history class.
Now would you like to answer the nice person’s question? Would you prefer more or less genocide. Very simple.
And no, I’m not a fucking moderate.
Would you prefer more or less genocide.
That this is the choice our “elected representatives” are asking us to make is sick beyond measure. I actually want to just thank you for cutting the bullshit and just asking the question directly so I can respond to it in the way any sane person should, by rejecting the premise that these are our only options. The answer is no, not more or less, none. I acknowledge that the third option of no genocide is not achievable through electoral means, which is why I support the protests, encampments, and uncommitted delegates.