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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 11, 2023

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This might be your personal opinion, but international law disagrees and clearly lays out who is combatant and who is civilian.

https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/api-1977/article-50

I know this. I consider the bulk of international law illegitimate, as does everyone who conducts war, because they don't really seem to bother with it until they win, and then selectively apply it to the other side and a few domestic outsiders.

And now you keep adding another things.

Just say what you want to say: "We good, ug. They bad, ug ug. We kill them, this good, ug ug ug. They kill us, this bad, ug ug ug ug."

I consider history when evaluating a populace, yes. And Palestinians are historically, as a group, bad. To disagree is not just to disagree with me, but to disagree with the international community as understood by their actions (rather than their virtue signaling at the UN). Egypt has continually refused to either accept Gazan refugees or to annex Gaza. Ditto Lebanon and Jordan with the West Bankers. And those refugees in those two countries are not allowed to join society as a whole, instead are relegated to camps. Western cities that have large Palestinian populations face issues with them as well. There is a reason that much of Europe is opposed to Israel conducting an effective operation in Gaza: They believe it will generate refugees that they will have to pretend to be enthusiastically accepting(International law after all wink) when they know they will be like the Syrian refugees on steroids when it comes to sucking up resources without providing any foreseeable ROI.

I know this. I consider the bulk of international law illegitimate

Do you object to current international law concerning war in particular, or to the idea of laws and custom of warfare in general?

If the latter, then your beef is not only with soft modern liberal age, but with nearly all cultures of history, who had their laws and customs concerning wars.

There were always people who said "Might makes right!" "Fuck the law, we have guns". It this is what inspires you, go ahead, but better make dooubly sure that you really have the might and that you really possess enough guns.

I consider history when evaluating a populace, yes. And Palestinians are historically, as a group, bad.

So, "good people" should have carte blanche to massacre "bad people" with impunity. Who gets to decide who is "bad"? Well, the "good" people, they are experts on goodness and badness, after all.

To disagree is not just to disagree with me, but to disagree with the international community as understood by their actions (rather than their virtue signaling at the UN). Egypt has continually refused to either accept Gazan refugees or to annex Gaza. Ditto Lebanon and Jordan with the West Bankers. And those refugees in those two countries are not allowed to join society as a whole, instead are relegated to camps.

Palestinians are bad, because no one wants them, no one would welcome them as refugees.

As someone who identifies with Jews/Israelis, this is really the last argument you should use.

The Jews have proven to be good at self government. They also do well as a minority in productivity (although their politics leaves much to be desired). Palestinians are can't do either.

With regard to war, I think most people pretend they abide by rules when they aren't pressed. Which is often now because they all have daddy ruling everything. But overall, yes, the current set of rules of war are particularly odious.