Thursday, June 10, 2021

no, what i want to do is articulate myself as clearly as i can.

the palestinian-israeli conflict (which is not an arab-jewish conflict because the palestinians are not arabs, they're hebrews that converted to islam) is essentially rooted in a dumb argument over which religion gets to dominate the region. yes, there are complicated geopolitical realities at play, but i don't care about that in trying to understand the moral basis of the conflict, itself - which is utterly, amazingly, bafflingly stupid to it's core.

now, you can try to layer in concerns regarding ethnicity or other types of identity, but if you expect me to concede some kind of point by arguing that it's about race instead of religion (as though race is any less stupid or any fundamentally different a concept than religion), you're entirely misunderstanding the position i'm taking on the issue. ethnicity, race and religion are not exactly the same thing, but they're basically the same thing, and i'm not going to react to a stupid, tribalistic conflict about race any differently than i'm going to react to a stupid, tribalistic conflict about religion.

but, i need to reiterate the point - the fundamental point of conflict here is and always has been the religion. the racial issues are secondary, and hard to really define; i'm not going to completely discount the idea that race forms a component of the conflict, but if you're going to look me in the eye and say "this is about race, not religion", i'm going to tell you that you're both incorrect and ignorant - because palestinians and jews are both hebrews, to start with.

so, it's two clans of hebrews killing each other based on their religious beliefs. you might not realize that, and you might not see it that way, but it's because you don't understand it correctly, not because it's wrong.

both sides of the conflict are driven by far right, quasi-fascist paramilitary organizations. this is far more of a caricature of the israeli side than it is of the palestinian side, but it's true on both sides nonetheless.

they both want to wipe the other side out - neither wants co-existence or peace.

and, while it is true that the israelis generally kill more palestinians when it gets going, and i've consistently called for restraint (along with many others), the only fundamental reason that more palestinians die is that the israelis have better technology. if the situation were flipped over in terms of technology, we'd be talking about pogroms and invoking the holocaust. there's no fundamental moral dilemma here - there's just one horrible group with more power than the other horrible group, and that is utilizing that power because it can (and who's to say they shouldn't? if you have power, you should use it - which is why it's important to stop people and systems and organizations from gaining power.).

so, there isn't anybody to support - there's nobody to stand in solidarity with, there's no moral issue to uphold. it's just one group of savages fighting against another. and, i mean you can point to this abuse on that side, or that abuse on the other, but you're missing the forest for the trees - if you want to take anything approaching a moral position for the purposes of it being a moral position, you couldn't possibly support either of these parties, you'd have to look towards some other party as a mediator, to come in and keep them away from each other and offer suggestions to both sides, which is why i keep pointing to the secularists and the apostates.

but, something that's popping up recently is the idea of muslim-washing. i don't mean telling smelly arabs to take a fucking bath, i mean using supposed rights abuses (often dubiously or without context) against muslims to justify things like leaving parties that support shutting down oil pipelines that generate jobs in the region you represent. and, i'm far more concerned about this than i am about this stupid conflict over stupid things that will never end until the place gets fucking nuked.