Anti-DBS law struck down in Georgia for being unconstitutional.

Georgia doing some good lately.

Yes, see, before making families homeless and destroying all their worldly posessions, Israeli terrorists let them know that that's what's about to happen before hand. So it's all good.

Also, its good that Israel destroyed these bookstores, because it's not like it's of a peice with Israel's effort to descimate things like educational infrastructure (or literally any other social support infrastructure for that matter) in Gaza more broadly or anything:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gaza-bookshop-bombed-israel-palestine-b1851330.html

A small peice in the larger exercise of genocide and dehumanization.

idk. He just kinda says it is, and draws out the implications of that. At least as far as I know.

Although I fudged the description somewhat - Badiou really says mathematics is ontology, and what philosophy does is 'meta-ontology': is explicates what is implicit in the math, in a way that even mathematicians are not able to necessarily do. This is not a Pythagorean thesis that being is mathematical, but that math is the langauge in which being is best spoken of.

Bash the fash. — BitconnectCarlos

Absolutely. Like the state of Israel.

Nah, show him up for what he is. Embarrass this stupid motherfucker and his bigoted piece of shit views at every opportunity.

Maybe don't be a disingenuous fuck.

Israeli domestic terror.

The dude straight up advocated for Israel's being the ethnostate that it is - a religious supremacist power, so no, he knows very well that he's a racist asshole, he's just convinced that it's OK.

Has he asked you about Japan yet?

Or brought up East Germany before realizing that it's actually a really great comparison to the misery of occupation and then turning tail like the disingenuous coward he is?

o doubt, SLX, you're familiar with one or more of these reference.) — 180 Proof

Indeedy. I haven't heard of Abbagnano before tho. Good?

Alain Badiou - who takes set theory to be the best description of ontology that we have - makes a similar point but with an opposite conclusion. That the non-totalizibility of set theory attests not to any deficiency of set theory, but to the impossibility "totalizing" the universe at all. In other words, what you see as a deficiency in the instrument of description (set theory) is read by Badiou to be a positive characteristic of the world itself:

"In [Badiou's] language, the universe does not exist, whereas there are many worlds. [H]is argument for the nonexistence of the All or the universe draws on set-theoretical paradoxes, particularly Russell’s antinomy. Badiou argues as follows: If the All existed, it would have to exist as a member of itself. Otherwise, there would be an all outside of which something else, namely the All, existed. Hence, the All has to be a member of itself. Thus, there is at least one set, which is a member of itself. Nevertheless, there are obviously sets that are not members of themselves.

The set of all bananas is not itself a banana. This entails that the All consists both of sets which are members of themselves and sets which are not members of themselves. Given that the set of all sets that are not members of themselves famously leads into Russell’s paradox, the All cannot exist, because its existence would entail an antinomy". (Markus Gabriel, Transcendental Ontology).

I don't like the idea of treating set theory as ontology at all, so it's a non-starter for me, but I thought this was interesting.

If anyone has ever wondered how it is that so-called normal people (in Germany, say) let Nazis get away with what they did, to look as the defenders of current-day Israel is to have your answer.



One only has to let Israelis on the street speak without interruption to recognize that it is a state toxic with a virulent, murderous racism down to its very core.

I picked it up based on those references too and I'm really enjoying it. It isn't quite as engaging as West, but it's incredibly comprehensive. So far (I'm about 200/650 pages) it's very much a review of various approaches to (bourgeois) revolution rather than a history of the revolutions themselves (i.e. revolutions against the feudal order that installed the bougies rather than the proles into power - French, English, American mostly, some stuff on the Russian). It really goes through everyone though - like all the early thinkers - Paine, Locke, Burke, Adam Smith, etc - all the way up to 3 chapters on Marx and Engles' evolving approaches to the topic. Right now on Lenin and Trotsky. I assume the book keeps on like this till the present day. The thing I'm most getting out of it is the power of historical materialism as a tool of analysis and critique. The kinds of distinctions it makes and how it contrasts to more liberal-democratic approaches to society and history.

I'm learning a ton, and it's pretty easy to read. would recommend.

This is cool:

"Joint List Chairman Ayman Odeh added, “From doctors to taxi drivers and high-tech workers, everyone joined the general strike as an act of unity that’s a source of pride for Arab citizens. Weeks of the Netanyahu government’s provocative and violent policy of repression have failed and will not succeed in repressing our struggle or diverting us from our path – an organized and just civil struggle against the occupation, the blockade, the attack on Gaza and for peace and equality.”

..In Beit Shemesh, which is experiencing a construction boom, all the cranes were silent on Tuesday. One crane operator said that many operators are Arabs who were striking, and added, “If we would all fight that way for workers’ rights maybe we would achieve something.” The Israel Builders Association said Palestinian workers had observed the strike, with only 150 of the 65,000 Palestinian construction workers coming to work in Israel. This paralyzed building sites, causing losses estimated at 130 million shekels (nearly $40 million). But even before the strike, since the beginning of the operation in Gaza, only 6,000 to 8,000 Palestinians were coming to work every day. According to Yehuda Katav, vice president of the builder’s association, construction has slowed to a snail’s pace. “We cannot build without them,” he said.

Users of public transportation also felt the strike; the Transportation Ministry said 910 drivers, some 10 percent of all bus drivers, didn’t show up for work Tuesday. Egged spokesman Ron Ratner said nearly 300 journeys had to be canceled, while the Kavim bus company warned riders to expect disruptions and avoid unnecessary trips that day."

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-general-strike-highlights-israel-s-dependency-on-palestinian-workers-1.9824446

He makes it so easy.

Explaining the walking, talking joke that you are would ruin it, so I'm gonna keep letting you going.

Wow, you're actually this slow.

I strongly reject all framings like this — BitconnectCarlos

He says right after he frames someone as exactly this.

Fuck you're a moron.

The Nazis loved to describe themselves as victims and frame reality as an intractable struggle between groups you would fit right in. — BitconnectCarlos

Huh, so Israel.

hen doing so, the facts presented about the conflict, as it is today, becomes clear. — Christoffer

:up:

History is the refuge of the coward.

It is sad to think that it takes so much violence to get to a resolution for both sides. — schopenhauer1

It really doesn't. Israel simply needs to fuck right back off into its own borders and rewrite its constitution so it stops being a Jewish supremacist state, incompatible with any minimally abiding democracy. Which would mean dismantling its apartheid apparatus too. None of which requires violence. The US could also stop sending $3b a year in terrorism support funding to Israel, which would go a long way too.

As long as we're not funded by Hummus — Baden

Big Hummus would like to have a word.

But it is part of our vocation to corrupt the youth.

Like so many other things, one simply has to follow the money - the US provides billions in aid to Israel, which is then used to buy arms from US corporations. It's a wealth transfer of tax dollars to arms tycoons via the intermediary of the Israeli state. Those same arms dealers then fund elections which secure the politicians in their pocket to keep the cycle going. More than that, arms plants in the US are almost all typically located in industrial backwaters (incentivised by tax and IR consessions), which helps ensure the more even spread of surplus recycling within US geographical borders, helping to sustain an economy which would otherwise come apart at the seams. Capitalism in action. This all to say nothing about Israel providing a platform for American imperialism in the Middle-East more generally, providing oil security among other things. As Joe Biden once so memorably put it - Israel is an investment, one so valuable that it would have to be invented if it didn't exist (as if it wasn't indeed an invention...).

That the US is filled with religious lunatics who want to see the end times after the Palestiniams are decisively erased from their homeland is just ideological icing on a materialist cake.

*

Whatever it takes to justify your 3 word vocabulary.

virtue signalling — Judaka

There it is hahaha

It's like agency doesn't exist in your world or it only exists for Israel — BitconnectCarlos

In the asymmetrical distribution of power which Israel levearges at every point as an opressive, aggressor force, it is indeed entirely responsible for everything that happens to it.

Considering Israel was directly responsible for the creation of Hamas - and the conditions which perpetuate its existence - yes.

I like your current position - that both sides suck - much more than your previous strategy of only criticizing one side through your writing. Presumably, you can now criticize both more evenly. Huge improvement. — BitconnectCarlos

Nope. Israel bears fulls responsibility for everything that is happening, and anyone who 'both-sides' it is a fucking moron.

This is why I love letting these people show themselves for who they are - they honestly think everyone else is as morally vacuous as they are, and they present gotchyas like HeRp-DeRp HaMaS KiLls the GaYs and then they expects you to.. defend them? Like, it's so easy to expose these unprincipled, opportunistic rats for what they are.

You're shutting down conversation here. — BitconnectCarlos

Lol, you're so transparent. I'd watch every Hamas leader rot in the ground for what they're doing to LGBTQ people in Palestine - right next to Israeli leadership in the same miserable dirt. Considering the one was funded and encouraged by the other. Not that you could say the same.

None of this being of any relevance to Israeli settler colonialism and the atrocities it continues to commit.

But nice try at changing the subject from your shitty historical parallel.

Oh I'm sorry would you like to change the subject again? In any case, don't pretend you give a flying hoot about LGBTQ issues, you opportunistic weasel. Besides rolling out a talking-point right out of IDF Twitter, conveniently weaponizing a sliver of wokeness for which you'd otherwise couldn't care less about is the lowest form of cynical manipulation. When you even begin to show a mediocum of care about the people that Israel is bombing to smithereens, I might even consider that your newfound insincere concern for LGBTQ rights has any substance to it at all.

But don't let that distract us. Tell me more about the Soviet occupation of East Germany and its evils, while you were on the subject. I'm still waiting.

Read: "jump in and draw out the natural implication of my own example". Squirm more, genocide apologist.

This is the scope of the conversation — BitconnectCarlos

That's the scope of the conversation you'd like to have, considering that even a moment's reflection upon its consequences would make parallels which you're obviously squirming about trying to avoid.

I'm not asking about whether Soviet control of East Berlin was good; I'm asking whether we can conclude that the Soviets were the aggressors in WW2 because they came to control part of Berlin/Germany.... and that answer is no. — BitconnectCarlos

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of you backtracking on your historical example because the most pertinent part of it - the decades long occupation by a murderous regime - proves the exact opposite of the point you wanted to make. You can, of course, try again.

Hmm, it's like the fall of the Berlin Wall in which the ejection of an unspeakably brutal occupying power is not today celebrated as among history's most momentous occasions! :chin: :chin: :chin:

Would be totally cool if a certain present situation might one day come to an end in such celebrated manner after decades of universally acknowledged horror! :love: :love: :love:

Yay historical parallels! :cheer: :cheer: :cheer:

Or will someone chime in about thr CoMpLeXiTy of East German misery and how 'you can't just get rid of the wall' because HiStOrY iS CoMpLiCaTeD? :gasp: :gasp: :gasp:

Israel withdrew its Settlements from The Gaza Strip and that clearly reduced it's security and also made it much more difficult for Gazans to travel freely in Israel and to the West Bank — Andrew4Handel

Was this before or after Israel blockaded its ports of entry and exit, whittled away its key infrastructure like electricity, water, roads, sewerage, and medical services, crippled its economy, restricted the population's caloric intake, continually barred the entry of human rights observers and international reporters, mired it in poverty, dismantled education opportunities, imposed vaccine apartheid during a global pandemic, shrunk its territory, regularly employed lethal force in situations that did not call for it, and engaged in periodic warfare involving copious war crimes? To name a small part of a much larger list that doesn't even cover the documented crimes against humanity in the West Bank.

You want The Jews expelled from the Middle east and to have no internal security — Andrew4Handel

Israel's illegal settlements do not constitute its entire presence in the Middle-East - unless of course, you're admitting more than you'd care to do right now. And Israel's internal security would be inestimably improved by not deliberately cultivating an entire population whose misery and poverty is a direct result of Israeli state policy.

I should add that the very first policy that ought to be enacted is the cessation of all US 'aid' and weapons sales to Israel. Their sponsorship of state terrorism is as much as cause of the present situation as anything Israel - or Hamas for that matter - has ever done.

No one is going to compromise without reasonable demands being made on them. — Andrew4Handel

Agreed. It is reasonable that Israel cease its genocide of the Palestinian people, immediately remove all its illegal settlements, and compensate the Palestinian territories for the nearly incalculable damage it has inflicted upon it - all of which counts as among Israel's monumental acts of aggression, thinly masquerading under the veneer of 'defence' by the sycophants who continually draw attention away from its world-historical cruelty.