• moe93
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    9 months ago

    I think you underestimate the Arab/Muslim population in the US who stopped believing in “blue no matter who” because of what is happening.

    Also on a side note, what do normal people care about? I’d argue if you don’t care about the fact that a Holocaust level genocide is taking place then you aren’t really that normal.

    • SevenOfWine@startrek.website
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      9 months ago

      I’d argue if you don’t care about the fact that a Holocaust level genocide

      17 million people died in the holocaust. IRC the population of Gaza is roughly 2.4 million of which just over 1% have died. That figure includes Hamas militants. The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between combatant and civilian casualties in its reports.

      It is possible to criticize and condemn Israeli war crimes and ethnic cleansing, which are without doubt horrific, without distorting the facts.

      In fact, it actually makes your criticism more convincing and harder to discount by supporters of the current hard right Israeli government. The fediverse is a bubble on this conflict, but we should be aware that hyperbole does not serve the interests of the Palestinian cause or win the argument outside of this bubble.

      Maybe you’ll be the exception, but I say this knowing full well that some will call me pro-Israel for this comment. But if anything these extremists are useful idiots for Israel’s far right government and its supporters, as they allow them to paint any criticism as anti-semitism or disingenious.

      e: this comment already had downvotes within seconds of me posting it. This is not long enough to finishing reading it…

      • moe93
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        9 months ago

        While I appreciate your thoughtful response, I disagree with the fact that we need to wait for 17million Palestinians murdered before we can liken the current genocide to the Holocaust.

        The way I see it, the Holocaust was/is attributed to the systematic cleansing and expulsion of an ethnic group at a mass scale and not measured by the number of murdered people (not death, murder because that’s what it is).

        You can call it whatever you want, but at the end of the day what is happening in Palestine is an ethnic cleansing at a mass scale similar to the Holocaust.

        • SevenOfWine@startrek.website
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          9 months ago

          The comment I replied to said:

          a Holocaust level genocide is taking place

          30,000 people have died. 17 million people died in the holocaust. That is not on the same level and it is not on the same scale. 30,000 is a significantly smaller number than 17 million.

          If you support the Palestinian cause, pretending otherwise is a home goal.

          I get that it feels right, because people are understandably angry about all this, but it’s not a winning argument. Quite the opposite. If you’re provably exaggerating the scale of what’s happening, it allows supporters of Israel’s far right government to sow doubt and claim you might also be exaggerating about the very very real war crimes and ethnic cleansing they are engaged in.

          • moe93
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            9 months ago

            I feel like you and I are NOT on the same page, as a matter of fact, I feel like we are arguing to different points.

            You seem like you are gatekeeping the definition of the Holocaust based on number of murdered casualties, I argue that the act of ethnically cleansing the Palestinian people is comparable to the Holocaust.

            Please don’t create another straw man to argue over, the number of casualties was never the point, rather the act itself.

            • SevenOfWine@startrek.website
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              9 months ago

              I argue that the act of ethnically cleansing the Palestinian people is comparable to the Holocaust.

              Your comment above:

              if you don’t care about the fact that a Holocaust level genocide

              Maybe you misunderstood my criticism, but I wasn’t disputing that what was happening was genocide or ethnic cleansing. I was disputing the level or scale of what was happening. Clearly what is happening in Gaza (and the West Bank) is on a smaller scale. 17 million vs. 30,000 in Gaza.

              This doesn’t make what is happening ok. It just means that it is on a smaller scale than the holocaust.

              Please don’t create another straw man to argue over, the number of casualties was never the point

              This is not another argument. The number of casualties was my argument from the beginning. The number of casualties may not have been your point, but it was mine when you said that what was happening was on the same level or scale as the holocaust.

              This is also not a strawman argument. I am literally adressing something you said in your comment.

              On a more general note, this is why comparisons to the Nazis or the Holocaust are rarely helpful, and partly why Godwin’s law is a thing.

              For example, just because someone isn’t Adolf Hitler or a Nazi, doesn’t mean they’re not a fascist. Calling someone like Ben Gvir or Smotrich a Nazi might feel good, but it allows them to say “Aha! But I don’t believe x, y, z. Also, the Nazis hated Jews. I’m a Jew. So you’re wrong.” It undermines your argument, even if they are quite similar to Nazis. Call them a fascist or racial supremacist, based on things that they actually said and did, and it’s far harder to deny.

              • moe93
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                9 months ago

                I have much respect that you are willing to engage in a civilized argument.

                Now that you have pointed out what I have posted, I understand that I wasn’t being explicit enough in my definition and argument so I’ll do that here:

                When I said Holocaust level, I didn’t mean it in the sense of the total amount of victims, but rather the act itself (systematic cleansing and expulsion of an ethnic race).

                I hope you and I are now on the same page.

              • ???@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                I agree that the victims of the holocaust are 17 million by many estimates, but did you notice how the wikipedia page of it only mentions 6 million Jewish deaths under the Holocaust definition as an event?

                Curious to know what you think about that because it irks me. I don’t see how all those dead Polish people aren’t part of the tally.