News/Current Affairs thread

[waters44]

One thing I learnt a few years ago is often ignorance comes from a place of self preservation rather than malice. Some people have such hard lives or worries that they simply can’t bear to take on any other stress and block it out. I’m not commenting on if that’s a good or a bad thing just the reality of what’s going on with some people. And problems are relative too - what could be a minor niggle to you can be extremely stressful to somebody else. So try not to get too down if people close to you don’t seem interested in the worlds problems, everyone is different 

FWIW I am really getting a lot from all contributions to this thread, thank you

[Keith Houchen]

This is interesting, Biden sanctions four Settlers

They’ve had their US assets frozen, can’t access any US property or use the US financial system.
On one hand, it sends a strong message to those instigating settler terrorism. On the other hand, he did this as he travels to Michigan, which has a large Arab American population. And polling for him has dropped to 19% in that particular demographic. 

[LaGoosh]

13 hours ago, waters44 said:

One thing I learnt a few years ago is often ignorance comes from a place of self preservation rather than malice. Some people have such hard lives or worries that they simply can’t bear to take on any other stress and block it out. I’m not commenting on if that’s a good or a bad thing just the reality of what’s going on with some people. And problems are relative too - what could be a minor niggle to you can be extremely stressful to somebody else. So try not to get too down if people close to you don’t seem interested in the worlds problems, everyone is different 

This is very true. Life is stressful and hard enough even without the endless nightmare of geopolitics. You can't blame people for not engaging with something they have no personal connection or understanding of and zero control over. Likewise someone might be incredibly engaged with this conflict but completely ignoring the civil wars with mass civilian casualties going on in Africa at this very moment. Everyone has to draw a line somewhere.

[David]

3 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Everyone has to draw a line somewhere.

That's true, but that particular line is often drawn somewhere for a specific reason. 

EDIT: I should probably add some content to the above. An example would be the widespread horror and news headlines given to the Ukraine war, where nations are opening their doors to refugees from the area and flying Ukrainian flags. Yet, not much attention is given to wars in, for example, Somalia, Sudan, or Mozambique.

Refugees from those particular wars are viewed quite differently from the Ukrainian refugees being accepted throughout Europe.

That's not to say that Ukraine's issues aren't considerable because they are. And those people deserve the help they're getting, but as you mention, that line is drawn somewhere. And usually for a reason.

Edited February 2, 2024 by David

[Keith Houchen]

48 minutes ago, David said:

but as you mention, that line is drawn somewhere. And usually for a reason

And I can’t qwhite work out what it is. 

[David]

5 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

And I can’t qwhite work out what it is. 

Well, Ukrainian birds are well hot. That could be it? 

[SuperBacon]

7 minutes ago, David said:

Well, Ukrainian birds are well hot. That could be it? 

And they're in YOUR area!!!

[Devon Malcolm]

Brianna Ghey's murderers were sentenced today. Could be deemed to be a disappointingly light sentence but I'm not sure they'll ever be released.

The verdict statement by the judge was really important though, not shying away from the fact this was a murder motivated by transphobia.

TW for this for some transphobic slurs.

 

[Keith Houchen]

I was reading the daily transcripts at the beginning of the trial but had to stop about a week in as it was so fucked up it was affecting me. 
 

 

[SuperBacon]

I wasn't really sure where to put this, I only really know the author because of his love of rap, but this deserves wider than the hip hop thread and I would genuinely urge anyone to read it if they have a spare 20 minutes.

An essay which covers a bit of rap, antisemitism, Judaism, anti blackness, and probably the best thing I've read in forever.

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-bottom-of-the-funnel-on-blacks-jews-whiteness-conspiracy-and-hip-hop/

[Loki]

Regardless of your stance on the larger conflict, the Israeli's Iron Dome anti-missile technology is incredible.

Here it is earlier this evening intercepting dozens of Hezbollah rockets fired at northern Israel.  

While I'd still not sleep easy, it's impressive to have the capability of negating attacks on your country like this on a daily basis.

 

[Devon Malcolm]

Yeah, amazing what you can achieve when you have the financial and technological backing of western superpowers behind you!

[Chest Rockwell]

It's impressive and all but this kind of military porn makes me super uncomfortable. 

[Chris B]

There are a lot of conversations to be had about rockets in the middle east right now, but I wasn't expecting this one. Fully expecting a post now about how impressive the rockets targeting Palestinians are.

[Chili]

That's such an impressively Partridge opening line.