I think the “temporarily embarrassed millionaire” idea is overstated, most people I interact with have a somewhat negative outlook on the economy and their future wealth.

I think the real issue is that no viable alternative is presented to most people.

The alternatives presented are Russian-style authoritarian oligarchy, Islamofascism, or a Venezuela-style “socialism” in which the narrative only focuses on poverty.

You are like a block away from Pike Place Chowder! best soup place in the world i think

As an American, I feel the need to pushback when someone tries to rehab or whitewash our war crimes.

Saying “W. is kind” is just unacceptable pablum.

It depends what you mean by “kind”. If you ignore the war crimes and focus on their interpersonal skills, sure you can say they were kind.

But by that same definition, Hitler was kind too.

Saying “maybe people are the problem” is reductive and unhelpful. But I agree with you broadly, religion is just a system or a tool, it can be used for good or evil.

To judge if religion is a good system or a bad one, we can use a cost benefit analysis. This is what we have been attempting to do in this thread.

But when it comes to sensitive subjects like religion, many people have a tendency to avoid, overlook, and deny the associated costs.

Anti-science, misogyny, etc may be bad independently of religion, but they aren’t independent of religion. Religion is a source of these problems.

You can imagine a hypothetical religion that is simply a “social club” or whatever, but here in the real world religion comes with baggage.

Religion is why my cousin’s children have never seen a doctor in their life. Religion is why my gay friend in high school tried to kill himself. Religious indoctrination has led to lifelong shame and trauma in many of my friends.

And this was just from a “moderate” sect of Christianity- the millions living under fundamentalist religion have it even worse.

What you said is all true, but you are ignoring the negative aspects of religion.

Religious influence, both on their followers and on government, is anti-science, misogynistic, and anti-LGBT.

Religions are funded like pyramid schemes, with the most desperate and vulnerable as their victims.

Religious indoctrination is child abuse.

Yes I think we have the same general thesis here, readers should think critically always.

Look at the context here, my unsourced internet comment was in response to xep’s unsourced internet comment.

Xep made 3 claims, and I believe all 3 are incorrect.

Oh, you’re too kind! I would like to take credit but in reality I was inspired by people like Chris Jeffries, the writer of this Medium article.

His confident writing style and utter lack of sources was truly an inspiration.

Sorry I didn’t want to write an essay, but you’re right, I should have provided more.

I think it’s obvious the Medium article is poorly sourced- there are no links, no quotes, and no attribution whatsoever. Compare it to a write up like Hamas Recycling Unexploded Ordinance in Gaza, which tells the exact same story but it comes with links and quotes, and it names the source as Michael Cardash, the former deputy head of the Israeli National Police Bomb Disposal Division.

As for the Iranian connection, I know I’m going against popular opinion, but I made my claims clear and anyone can try to disprove me.

A quick Google search shows many articles on the bomb disposal unit and tactics inside Gaza dating back to at least 2012. The Inevitable Rearmament of Hamas (2021) gives a good analysis. An even better source for this is the al-Qassam Brigade’s youtube, they post raw war footage including bomb disposal. Unfortunately I dont speak Arabic so I wasnt able to find a specific video.

This Medium article is poorly sourced.

The NYT article is from 2021.

The oft-repeated idea that Iran supplies the majority of Hamas weapons is also poorly sourced. It is usually attributed to the CIA’s World Factbook or former US generals who now are talking heads for think tanks. These sources are highly biased.

But one thing that has been well documented is the Hamas unexploded ordinance team. They have over a decade of experience disarming and retrieving Israeli bombs from Gazan homes and businesses.

I would start with MLK, collected essays, no one writes about protest more eloquently.

A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn gives a great broad overview.

Death in the Haymarket by James Green is a great history of the first decades of the labor movement.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Leadership in Turbulent Times goes in depth on LBJ and the civil rights movement.

On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau for the classic philosopher’s take.

We’ve Got People by Ryan Grim details the successes and failures of the movement in the last decade.

You should educate yourself on the history of protest. The media has always been a serious impediment. There was never an “entire population” uniting or a “simple goal that others could get behind”. It was always extremely difficult. It often looked hopeless. Many people were killed in the streets, and others were brave enough to replace them.

Overall I think feeling helpless in the face of monumental challenges is normal. But closing your eyes and telling yourself “nothing can ever change, so why bother” is self-soothing and pathetic.

Things can change, and you can be a part of that positive change if you put in real effort.

What are we gonna do, vote?

“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal” - Emma Goldman

In the last 100 years, protest movements have given us women’s suffrage, workers rights including the weekend and overtime pay, gay rights, civil rights, etc. History shows us that we can have positive change, but it’s not as easy as just voting.

We can see right now how protest movements are moderating the Democrat’s support of Israeli war crimes.

But don’t you feel a responsibility to the rest of the world?

Say if, for example, your tax dollars were funding an ongoing genocide and starvation campaign, wouldnt you feel a bit responsible to change that?

It’s hard to imagine what it feels like to watch your newborn baby starve to death.

It’s hard to imagine the desperation, the sorrow, the helplessness.

It’s hard to imagine the rage, the impotence, the desire for justice and revenge.

Its hard to imagine that Hamas will ever run out of new recruits.

That’s a lot of words to say you support genocide.

This is an article about dead children, it’s rather shocking to see such bloodthirst in the comments.

Can you name a successful decolonization project that was nonviolent?