Jury Duty Vacation Day LOL
It's been great just ignoring work for the rest of the day! I didn't do everything on my spontaneous To Do List for the day, but I'm pleased with how the day went. I did lift weights, although I didn't go on a walk. I did cook dinner, but haven't hit the hot tub.
I spent some time reading a real paper book. I also started watching a film from 1966. I had a lot of interesting conversations with T throughout the day. I started unfollowing some US Leftists who appear to be going completely unhinged over the Hamas/Israel conflict, including some who I otherwise respect, but when you post an image of the Israeli flag morphing into a Nazi flag that's a bit much.
But in the US we love to resort to Hitler and his Nazis as our ultimate example of evil, and then tag our enemies with Nazi-level "fascism". There have been many evil leaders in world history but we keep fixating on Hitler for some reason as our standard. Probably because the US fought with Germany in both WWI and WWII so we have a century's recent history of anti-German propaganda, despite Germans being the largest self-reported ethnic group in the US --> we had to officially dissolve all our historic European ethnic groups into being White to blot out the fact that WE WERE MAINLY AMERICAN GERMANS FIGHTING EUROPEAN GERMANS.
And a lot of people are throwing around the word "genocide" with respect to either Hamas or Israel without proper definition and context. Two nationalist groups fighting a war over the same territory isn't genocide. I mean, almost every war has been two groups fighting a war over the same territory with the winners evicting the losers. If all war is genocide than the term has lost its meaning. Genocide is the intentional destruction of a entire people. That term has never described the reality of the conflict between Zionists and Palestinians, although there are certainly people on both sides who speak of such extreme goals. Sigh.
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I told T that if I were King I'd end US aid to Israel full stop. That doesn't mean I'm anti-Semitic, or that I want to wipe out Israel, or that I believe Zionists are Nazis. I just wouldn't want my tax dollars being spent on killing people on the other side of the planet. No matter who is doing the killing. If I were King I'd end all our military aid to other countries, and downsize our military to focus on the job of defending our own territory. Not our job to stop China from taking back Taiwan, for example. Doesn't mean I believe in wiping out the Taiwanese people. I don't think China wants to wipe out the Taiwanese people.
Anyway ... yeah, I support a ceasefire ... whoop. Please everybody in the world stop shooting and bombing each other. I support people not murdering each other. That's not how these things work, however. People kill each other regardless of whether I approve or not.
So, less reading about this stuff for me. Unfollowing. If you're a rabid supporter of only one side, either side, I'm not interested. Is there some next step of political evolution after Feudalism and then Nationalism? Or do we just get stuck at Nationalism? Won't it get old? Yes, that group of nationalists did something bad to that group of nationalists. When will we realize that nationalism is the problem?
I spent some time reading a real paper book. I also started watching a film from 1966. I had a lot of interesting conversations with T throughout the day. I started unfollowing some US Leftists who appear to be going completely unhinged over the Hamas/Israel conflict, including some who I otherwise respect, but when you post an image of the Israeli flag morphing into a Nazi flag that's a bit much.
But in the US we love to resort to Hitler and his Nazis as our ultimate example of evil, and then tag our enemies with Nazi-level "fascism". There have been many evil leaders in world history but we keep fixating on Hitler for some reason as our standard. Probably because the US fought with Germany in both WWI and WWII so we have a century's recent history of anti-German propaganda, despite Germans being the largest self-reported ethnic group in the US --> we had to officially dissolve all our historic European ethnic groups into being White to blot out the fact that WE WERE MAINLY AMERICAN GERMANS FIGHTING EUROPEAN GERMANS.
And a lot of people are throwing around the word "genocide" with respect to either Hamas or Israel without proper definition and context. Two nationalist groups fighting a war over the same territory isn't genocide. I mean, almost every war has been two groups fighting a war over the same territory with the winners evicting the losers. If all war is genocide than the term has lost its meaning. Genocide is the intentional destruction of a entire people. That term has never described the reality of the conflict between Zionists and Palestinians, although there are certainly people on both sides who speak of such extreme goals. Sigh.
-----
I told T that if I were King I'd end US aid to Israel full stop. That doesn't mean I'm anti-Semitic, or that I want to wipe out Israel, or that I believe Zionists are Nazis. I just wouldn't want my tax dollars being spent on killing people on the other side of the planet. No matter who is doing the killing. If I were King I'd end all our military aid to other countries, and downsize our military to focus on the job of defending our own territory. Not our job to stop China from taking back Taiwan, for example. Doesn't mean I believe in wiping out the Taiwanese people. I don't think China wants to wipe out the Taiwanese people.
Anyway ... yeah, I support a ceasefire ... whoop. Please everybody in the world stop shooting and bombing each other. I support people not murdering each other. That's not how these things work, however. People kill each other regardless of whether I approve or not.
So, less reading about this stuff for me. Unfollowing. If you're a rabid supporter of only one side, either side, I'm not interested. Is there some next step of political evolution after Feudalism and then Nationalism? Or do we just get stuck at Nationalism? Won't it get old? Yes, that group of nationalists did something bad to that group of nationalists. When will we realize that nationalism is the problem?