Krono

If any tanker tried to defy US sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, or Russia it would be sunk the same way.

You're right, and none of that gives me hope that Harris will pivot.

The re-elect Harris campaign will start on January 20th, and the political reality you just described will still exist.

Changing stances on Israel's genocide will take leadership, which is something we haven't seen from the Harris campaign. It is not Harris leading a campaign on principle, it is the polls leading the Harris campaign, just as you described it.

Those suburban moderates' views can be changed, they just have never been exposed to an opposing message. The news says Israel is the good guys and Hamas is the bad guys; only those on the fringes say otherwise. If Harris would show leadership and take a principled stance on the side of humanity, she could bring most of these low information moderate voters with her.

How do you explain things like her refusal to let a Palestinian speak at the DNC? Or how she re-commits herself to Israel's "defense" whenever asked?

I want some of that hope, but it seems like facts are pointing in the other direction.

When a culture completely oppresses another people, then that culture naturally attempts to annihilate any empathy for its victims.

You can see the same pattern in how Nazis treated their victims, and how Americans treated their slaves.

No one can justify war crimes quite like the boys at West Point.

You are like a block away from Pike Place Chowder! best soup place in the world i think

"Let them fight" is a fantasy, as if they are in a UFC ring and the rest of us get to be safe spectators.

Here in the real world, children and innocents do the dying.

One night a few days ago, a doctor was tucking his daughter into bed. Just then, the beeper at his hip exploded, embedding shards of plastic, silicon, and metal into her 10 year old face. Can you imagine her screams as she dies in pain and shock? Can you imagine her little limbs frantically flailing? Can you imagine her parents desperate wailing as their little girl bleeds out in her cute little bed? Can you imagine what her adorable little face looks like after it was disfigured?

I think the 10 year old girl is a sympathetic victim, and I spit on anyone who disagrees.

And on top of all that, as an American I'm cucked. My tax dollars are paying for these Israeli war crimes.

Yeah I agree I am masturbating here. It's fun, I'm enjoying myself. Maybe you just dont understand my particular flavor of shitposting.

But I think the big lie here is that shitposting is apolitical. NCD can come off as brutal and callous, but there is an underlying thread of morality. I think this post, and others like it, failed to hold that thread. I also think NCD is the type of community that, if it loses this thread, would devolve into an echo chamber posting nazi memes and loli porn.

When I posted my original "you people disgust me" comment, I was expecting to be heavily downvoted. To my surprise, it is significantly upvoted. What does that tell you about this community and how it is perceivied?

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

I think we are in agreement on almost everything here.

The middle class can do nothing in the face of a regional offensive by Islamist warlords. When it gets to that point it's already too late.

My argument is in agreement with what you have said: a strong middle class is a bulwark against the formation and expansion of warlords.

As for the second issue, I fear my words were unclear here- when I referred to "two decades-long invasions" I was speaking of two separate invasions, each decades long. Namely the Soviet invasion in 1979 and the American invasion in 2001. The 2001 invasion was brutal and unjustified, but we can agree it was not the root cause of Afghanistan's problems.

One issue we may find disagreement on is the attempts at creating a firm national government. I am not aware of any serious attempts at such a thing since the 70s. Each government has been either a puppet government set up to suit foreign interests, or a reactionary warlord. It may be true that the peculiar circumstances of Afghanistan prevent it from having a firm national government, but that hypothesis goes untested in the face of overwhelming foreign meddling.