• fosforus@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Hamas and Israel are both enemies of the people.

    Uhmm. Are you aware that Israel is #4 on the World Happiness Index this year? It’s the happiest non-scandinavic country in the world. You don’t get there by being “enemy of the people”.

    Here are the rankings of Israel’s neighbors:

    • Egypt #121
    • Jordan #123
    • Lebanon #136 (second worst of all measured)
    • State of Palestine #99

    Israel is obviously not the problem in that area.

    • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      Wow, extremely wealthy country propped up by imperialism has a high happiness rating compared to extremely poor countries being stomped on by that same imperial war machine.

      Surely the poor countries are the problem.

      • fosforus@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        You must understand that you cannot explain it away like that. Palestine perhaps you might, but funnily enough, it’s the happiest country of those four.

        • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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          1 year ago

          Why not? Literally just give any explanation. You didn’t even try to explain in your first comment how “happiness” has anything to do with this.

          • fosforus@sopuli.xyz
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            1 year ago

            Why not? Literally just give any explanation.

            Egypt’s, Jordan’s and Lebanon’s bad standings in the happiness scale cannot in any way be explained away by Israel. Just because you lost several wars against an enemy several decades ago isn’t enough to explain any of it. So it’s all on them. As I said, Palestine’s bad situation might be explained by Israel, but again, it’s the happiest of those four.

            You didn’t even try to explain in your first comment how “happiness” has anything to do with this.

            You said that both Hamas and Israel are the enemies of the people. I disproved that notion by noting how Israel is #4 happiest country in the world. My apologies, I thought the inference was obvious.

            • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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              1 year ago

              I didn’t blame it on Israel, I said the imperial war machine. Israel the state is also the product of capitalist imperialism, but they are the beneficiary. I made that pretty clear I think.

              The poor countries on that list are all the target of structural adjustment policies, which basically say “you need to neglect your population and become indentured servants, and if you don’t we will fucking glass your country.” That last part about glassing them isn’t in the text, but it’s clearly implied by the context these policies take place in. Also the leaders are usually bribed so they will agree more readily.

              And just because Israeli citizens are “happy” according to some index that you’ve not actually shared, just insisted does exist, has nothing to do with whether the state is on their side. They are generally extremely wealthy people living in an extremely wealthy state that is propped up by US spending. The people who live there are expats from wealthy western countries, which is a privileged sample of a privileged sample.

              I’ll refer you to Hank’s Razor: “Anything that can be explained by socioeconomic status in a society, it’s probably that rather than the thing that you’re measuring.”

              This is almost certainly entirely socioeconomic status, directly influenced by geopolitics.

              Also, Israel’s genocide is not making their people safer. It is endangering them enormously. The state just can’t stop genociding because it’s been given a green light by the US imperial war machine, and that’s just how states behave when they have that kind of power.