US Politics-2021
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David3
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I've heard racist viewpoints expressed by whites, blacks, Jews, Asians, Hispanics and Middle-easterners. It's a flaw of the human mind and its cultures.
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David3
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Why are you limiting your posts to the crisis in Gaza, and to the racist opinions expressed by some Jews? There is terrible racism everywhere. There are ethnic-based crises everywhere.
Anarchist100, the neo-Nazi punk culture was a failure. Some of my generation tried it during the 1980s. Those kids found friends within that movement, but many of them came to a bad end. Too many hard drugs. In the long run, it didn't help them. In contrast, the Peace Punk kids grew up and are doing well.
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David3
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Forgive me if I'm mistaken. Amnesty International agrees with your stance on human rights abuses in Gaza: Everything you need to know about human rights in Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories). (Although Amnesty International also has its critics: Criticism of Amnesty International - Wikipedia). However, you were making multiple posts that were focused exclusively on Jews.
I don't mean to make false assumptions. Perhaps I was triggered by your posts. It made me remember classmates who were dead by age 35.
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Biden will withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021
Jamie in Chile
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I assume your viewpoint here is that as long as we keep seeing "black man killed by police" in the news that implies that there are still race problems in America, whether in general, or specifically at the police. (Or do you mean about police killing people in general not specific to race?)
However, there are 200-300 black people killed by police every year in the US.
Sadly, that number is not going to suddenly fall to zero because of what happened to George Floyd.
300-500 white people are killed every year by police. However, when we factor in that there are many more white people, on a per person basis, more black people are killed per head of population.
So, now let's say in the future that the number of black people killed by police falls to 50 people per year while the number of white people increases to 600 per year in the US. This would then mean that black people are being killed at a lower rate than white people even after adjusting for population size. And yet, even if that were to happen, that would mean you would still have "black person shot by police" in the news once a week on average. [Edited and corrected this to change "man" to "person".]
So we can't conclude anything at all about wider issues on race from the fact that we see "black man killed by police" in the news from time to time.
Instead, wait a year or two and look at the overall stats.
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OP
OP
Tipping points are when things change. or start to change.
A pendulum swings to the right. it stops. then starts the swing to the left. A ball rises it starts to fall. Right when it starts to fall - its still way up there.
If this month is a tipping point, it does not mean that it suddenly falls to zero. it means that next month there are less young black men killed by the police. So no its not going to suddenly fall to zero.
Yeah maybe I'm jumping to conclusions cause another young unarmed black man was shot by the police.
But being that it happened in the same area as the George Floyd trial AND that it was completely avoidable makes one think that maybe the police have not changed at all.
Jamie in Chile
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I think this last video, and perhaps some of the others, are now discussions of history of limited relevance to the present day.
I think things have changed.
The long era of Western colonialism and imperialism is probably basically mostly over in my view for many reasons. It has been on the decline since at least the Bush/Blair period for various reasons:
1 The 2003 invasion of Iraq has been perceived as a bad thing, thus making future events less likely.
2 Western powers have become slightly more ethical over time. It's hard to imagine now the Western powers doing some of the things they did in the heat of the cold war, like overthrowing democratically elected governments just because they were communist leaning.
3 These days journalists and people with cell phones recording and posting on the internet are everywhere. It's harder to put certain things out of sight and out of mind.
4 There isn't the public support in the US for foreign interventions that there was in the past.
5 The Republican party is more inward looking than the Bush era and it has lost this idea about looking for the next war.
6 North America has found plenty of its own fossil fuels so it no longer has the same reliance on the foreign stuff.
7 The maturation of renewables means that there is no longer any need to secure fossil fuels anyway, except in the short term. If oil and gas prices doubled in the past, you had to pay. Now if that happens again, Western governments will go on a crash program of building up an immense amount of renewables.
8 The fear of muslim terrorists is probably on the decline in recent years, with more instances of shootings and violence being carried out in the west by white people than before, and less Islamic terrorism in the west for the last 10-15 years. This limits the possible justification of invading foreign countries as part of a war on terror.
I could be wrong, you can't really predict the future accurately, so let's see. In the 2020s, I think we'll see the US intervening in a more multilateral way, or in response to aggression started by others, or to take on truly awful regimes for humanitarian reasons.
However, I also hope that the UK and the US will stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia at some point.
I think things have changed.
The long era of Western colonialism and imperialism is probably basically mostly over in my view for many reasons. It has been on the decline since at least the Bush/Blair period for various reasons:
1 The 2003 invasion of Iraq has been perceived as a bad thing, thus making future events less likely.
2 Western powers have become slightly more ethical over time. It's hard to imagine now the Western powers doing some of the things they did in the heat of the cold war, like overthrowing democratically elected governments just because they were communist leaning.
3 These days journalists and people with cell phones recording and posting on the internet are everywhere. It's harder to put certain things out of sight and out of mind.
4 There isn't the public support in the US for foreign interventions that there was in the past.
5 The Republican party is more inward looking than the Bush era and it has lost this idea about looking for the next war.
6 North America has found plenty of its own fossil fuels so it no longer has the same reliance on the foreign stuff.
7 The maturation of renewables means that there is no longer any need to secure fossil fuels anyway, except in the short term. If oil and gas prices doubled in the past, you had to pay. Now if that happens again, Western governments will go on a crash program of building up an immense amount of renewables.
8 The fear of muslim terrorists is probably on the decline in recent years, with more instances of shootings and violence being carried out in the west by white people than before, and less Islamic terrorism in the west for the last 10-15 years. This limits the possible justification of invading foreign countries as part of a war on terror.
I could be wrong, you can't really predict the future accurately, so let's see. In the 2020s, I think we'll see the US intervening in a more multilateral way, or in response to aggression started by others, or to take on truly awful regimes for humanitarian reasons.
However, I also hope that the UK and the US will stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia at some point.
OP
OP
Agreed. and its pretty predictable that our resident Anarchist likes Noam. I'll also go on the record that I really respect Noam and have one of books on my To Read list.
Well, sure. but remember
1. the more things change the more they remain the same.
2. One must study history or be doomed to repeat it.
I totally agree. but... still...
Just look at two or three of the things that are on people's minds. Racism, police reform, and gun control. Both to those things need a good historical context to understand fully. and it doesn't require Chomsky to draw lines from here to the sins of our fathers.
With the bad taste of Afghanistan and Iraq in our mouths - it will probably take a long time before we go overseas for anything ...
Ditto
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