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Israel-Gaza Megathread #3

This is a refreshed megathread for any posts on the conflict between (so far, and so far as I know) Hamas and the Israeli government, as well as related geopolitics. Culture War thread rules apply.

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The mirror here would be mainstream conservatives saying that KKK/Neo-Nazi types are a negligible % of the right. If you're a mainstream conservative, you find these people embarrassing and don't want to be associated with them. It's psychologically easier to pretend they just don't exist rather than acknowledging that a troubling group that votes the same way you do.

A problem here is the disparate treatment in mainstream culture. After Charlottesville, nobody on the right defended the tiki torch people. Media falsely attributed the Fine People quote to Neo-Nazis in an effort to tie them into the broader political right. Contrast that with rediscovered staunch free speech principles and special support groups set up for people literally celebrating terrorism and cheering on Hamas. "Stupid college kids" are a very important group when it comes to mobilization, so in theory it should be easier to albatross the political left with their existence.

The mirror here would be mainstream conservatives saying that KKK/Neo-Nazi types are a negligible % of the right.

If some large percentage of the prestigious right was, in fact, those things. Harvard is basically elite left incarnate. The right has a problem when people notice its outliers. The left has a problem when people are able to see their leaders.

it's why the crazies in the right are found dumpster diving while the ones on the left are in yachts.

Nobody? I remember there being an awful lot of people insisting that tiki torches were completely innocent and/or very protected expression. Perhaps that was only around here?

Saying that it's protected expression is correct in both cases. This is different than celebrating the guy who ran over Heather Heyer, which is the equivalent of what many on the pro-Hamas side ("this is what decolonization looks like" sentiments) did the day after the 10/7 attacks. I'm sure you can find people who supported the Charlottesville driver, and I agree they shouldn't get jobs at big law firms and should be deplatformed from social media.

After Charlottesville, nobody on the right defended the tiki torch people.

Yeah, I know it’s weird and unsettling to have people defending the driver equivalents. I was talking about the people defending those defenders.

I thought there was a decent argument his actions were self defense. Someone hit his car moments before. I don’t know anyone who defended him if he ran over an innocent civilian for no reason.

We'll never know, because he was systematically denied representation in order to spare the Virginia legal system the embarrassment of not convicting a "Nazi" of murder.