Oh yeah absolutely. Humankind has not been… kind, to their species.

holy shit

I can’t wait for the elephant-to-human translators

imagine if we could actually talk to elephants? if we could, like, teach them concepts?

Lightsong the Based

F A M I L Y

This isn’t religiously motivated violence the same way that the Spanish Inquisition was. But religion is pretty deeply baked into the conflict, in some very important ways.

You know? I think that sums it up nicely.

That’s fair. Religion can be a very important part of both identities.

However, I would like to stress that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not directly motivated by religious differences. As in, it’s not a case of “their religion is different! GET EM!”. The direct problem isn’t that the other side has a different religion, it’s that the other side essentially has competing land claims, and a competing nationalist vision.

Since religion is an important part of Hamas’ identity (and possibly of some factions in Israel, I’d guess), that affects how each side frames the conflict, and what some of their means and ends are. But the key issues of the conflict have to do with things like land borders and economic conditions.

No, it has almost nothing to do with religion. The only part of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis that actually tangibly relates to a religious dispute, is the contesting claims over Jerusalem (because it’s holy to both Judaism and Islam).

Literally the entire rest of the conflict is based on competing nationalist claims.

Yes, even though Hamas is yelling “Allahu-akbar”. Believe it or not, they’re not fighting because of their religion, they’re fighting because of their political goals (namely in Hamas’ case AFAIK the destruction of Israel). They do also happen to be religious, but the primary conflict is a political one.

That’s pretty wild.

What’s even the point of using a nuke at that point? Are they somehow cheaper to produce than conventional bombs of a similar scale? Even if you just want some fallout, you can use a dirty bomb or something, no?

If we’re going with what the commenter above laid out, then even if Hamas fighters evacuate, their tunnels presumably get collapsed.

Also, I think that might actually be why they gave such a tight deadline. If there isn’t enough time for everyone to get out, will Hamas manage to escape, that sort of thing.

God I hate all of this.

The southern part of Gaza

I don’t think they make nukes small enough to only get the northern half of a city, without also getting the southern half, and everything else around the city for a decent radius.

Honestly, fair enough.

As far as I know, the USSR collapsed because Gorbachev’s reforms weakened existing institutions and power structures, without providing replacements.

oh fuck

Honestly I’m more of an ebook guy. However, there is something you can do with audiobooks that you can’t really do with ebooks — experience them together with a small group of other people.

My first time listening to a book together with friends was over a car ride. But then, me and my friends got into this book series, and we listened to it together over Discord.

There’s probably a neat parallel to be made with listening to a story around a campfire.

Nonetheless, mostly I stick to ebooks. There is something to be said for reading at your own pace, not the pace of the narrator.

Keeping an open dialogue is important. I can’t help but feel that there are other ways of doing that.

If they have the balls to ban the US, then yeah, they should.

I love capitalism

Everyone should be allowed… except countries currently actively invading one. Or currently enaged in warfare in general.

libgen