Comments

1

Yeah, more endless Tr666p "investigations;" that'll show 'em!
Exhibit A: $hitler's entire criminally insane life to present.

3

I bet a lot of people said the nazis had the "right to defend themselves" too.

4

@3 Just wow. You are seriously comparing Israel to Nazi Germany? Your soul must be darker than that cat in your profile pic.

5

4, it's pretty clear Israelis are becoming what they were trying to escape with the creation of their state. They are engaging in apartheid at best. But there cant even be a discussion about their human rights violations without people flying off the handle about anti-Semitism. Nevermind the fact Palestinians are Semitic people too.

6

Texas dropped their mask mandate two weeks earlier than the rest of the country and NOTHING happened. No increased infections or hospitalizations. This is a good thing. It is showing the vaccines are working.

7

@3 Said no one except fucking nazis.

8

nazis fawkers
genocided Europe of
some six million Jews*

who appear to have learned
their Lesson a Bit too Well.

not that the 'civilized World'
was alll that much Help
back in the Day.

this is what Happens
when you have an open-air
Concentration Camp -- there WILL be Blood.

End The Occupation.
General. fucking. Strike.

bitches.

9

Can someone explain non-binary pronouns to me, please?

"Demi Lovato, enbie icon: Today, the pop star came out as non-binary and changed their pronouns to they/them. "I feel that this best represents the fluidity I feel in my gender expression, and allows me to feel most authentic and true to the person I both know I am and still am discovering," they said in their coming out video"

Why is Lovato using "I/me" and not "we/us"?

11

oooh --- Oregone's (1st!)
got the Vax Passports!

Velkommen to
where's your
Papers?

think them gay-hatin'
Cake Bakers gonna
Love these? think
again. freedom.
bitches.

12

@9 singular use of 'them/they' has been a thing for centuries. It became normalized alongside the singular use of 'you'. Though it's use as a non-binary pronoun is relatively new in popular culture, it's use as a singular third person pronoun has been grammatically correct from the get go.

https://public.oed.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-singular-they/

13

@ 9,

I can’t figure out why “ze” never took off. It sounds vaguely Germanic and fits perfectly into our existing grammatical structure as a gender neutral third person singular pronoun. It seems like such an obvious choice, plus it just sounds cool.

They/them has always been plural and is very confusing when reading or speaking of one person.

15

@ 12, wow, didn’t know that. Still super confusing in every day language though.

16

@4 They're not gassing people yet but there's no denying that war crimes are being committed and they're mostly mounting up on one side. I support Palestinians, I support Jews, I do not support benny the tyrant.

17

@5 I don't think that's clear at all. Can you point me to the announcement Hamas made where they recognize the right of Israel to exist? That's right they are still clear in their mission to wipe Israel from the map.

There can be a lot of criticism of Israel but comparing them to apartheid South Africa is solely designed to delegitimize the right of Israel to exist. Arab citizens in Israel enjoy full voting rights, they have political parties. There are even Arab justices on the supreme court. In Palestine they haven't had elections in 15 years and they just postponed them yet again. Enforcing borders against people determined to kill you is not apartheid.

18

Palestine is an open-air Concentration Camp and the FAR right -- with the same politics of Nazis everywhere -- is slowly stealing all the Best Land for themselves. will it finally End with the Death of all Palestinians? I guess we'll see.

General Strike
bitches.

19

RE: Texas mask mandates

So, the governor eliminates mask mandates because, as he says, "Texans, not government, should decide their best health practices."

You want to know what he did next?

Banned abortions at 6 weeks.

Because government, not Texans, should decide their best health practices, I guess.

20

@9 - they are coming out as non-binary, not as European royalty.

21

@13 - We should just pick one third-person singular pronoun and use it for everyone. I don't care what it is but we should treat it like we do "Ms." for all women instead of using "Miss" and "Mrs." That way no one has to learn different pronouns for everyone.

23

@ 21,

I’m going with he/him/His Excellency.

24

Based on the pics, I presumed that Billy Porter was going to announce he's forming a revival of Devo, and would encourage Demi Lovato to join as their bassist.

25

Sybil Dorsett (They/Them)

25

well since the Perfessor
ain't here to defend hisself

here's a little Recycling:
"... they live under martial law. All mail and internet is monitored and censored. There is only about 6-7 hours of electricity allowed a day.

The are required to get special travel and work permits. Most work low paying service jobs in Israel which, again requires special permits to get through security checkpoints. Most of the public transport is severely limited. Traditionally Palestine was an agricultural economy.

All the most arable productive land is now under control of Israel.

There is also wanton corruption from both Israeli and Palestinian officials that saps wealth creation.

So. What economy CAN develop? The only economy that flourishes in these conditions is black market. So then criminal organizations are the only ones that generate wealth.

What outside company will hire or contract with Palestinian companies under such unpredictable and unstable conditions?

This is almost identical to the circumstances that stifled and impoverished black South Africans.

But since they vastly outnumbered white South Africans and their nation wasn’t seen by a superpower as a strategic aircraft carrier adjacent to massive oil reserves South African apartheid could not be sustainable.

On an ironic side note I’m somewhat horrified that so-called liberals defend a racist apartheid regime.

Professor_Hiztory on May 18, 2021 at 10:32 AM

26

Israeli Assault Has Killed at Least 222 Palestinians and Displaced Tens of Thousands/Protests Continue Across U.S. in Solidarity with Palestinians

Multiple protests took place in Dearborn, Michigan — which has the nation’s highest percentage of Arab American citizens — during President Biden’s visit. Protests continued elsewhere in the U.S., as well.

Here in New York City, people rallied in front of the U.N., Senator Schumer’s office and the offices of AIPAC — the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — and Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.

This is a protester at a Los Angeles rally Tuesday.
Sammer Sahhar Abahanat: “The message to the U.S. government is to stop funding Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid a year.

The message to Israel is that you cannot have a two-state plan and be preaching peace while you have people behind walls and being bombed and murdered and land stolen from them.

That is not the way to peace.”

--from Democracy NOW!
https://www.democracynow.org/2021/5/19/headlines/israeli_assault_has_killed_at_least_222_palestinians_and_displaced_tens_of_thousands

27

Savoring the impotent fury of the grammar scolds is probably my biggest reason for supporting trans rights. There are dozens of better reasons, obviously, but I just can't help myself.

29

speaking of those Peaceful Fascists
oh & facebook
nyt:

Mob Violence Against Palestinians
in Israel Is Fueled by Groups on WhatsApp

Israeli extremists have formed more than 100 new groups on the Facebook-owned encrypted messaging app in recent days to target attacks.

“Together we organize and together we act,” read a message in one of the WhatsApp groups. “Tell your friends to join the group, because here we know how to defend Jewish honor.”

That evening, live scenes aired of black-clad Israelis smashing car windows and roaming the streets of Bat Yam. The mob pulled one man they presumed to be Arab from his car and beat him unconscious. He was hospitalized in serious condition.

The episode was one of dozens across Israel that the authorities have linked to a surge of activity by Jewish extremists on WhatsApp, the encrypted messaging service owned by Facebook.

Since violence between Israelis and Palestinians escalated last week, at least 100 new WhatsApp groups have been formed for the express purpose of committing violence against Palestinians, according to an analysis by The New York Times and FakeReporter, an Israeli watchdog group that studies misinformation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/19/technology/israeli-clashes-pro-violence-groups-whatsapp.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

when one of thee Best Equipped
(THANKS, US!) and Trained
Armies on the Planet aren't
Quite Enough
you
can Always
count on fb.

30

here's a comment from the nyt article @26, above:

Considering the pogroms that Jews faced over the centuries, this makes all of this anti-Arab violence even sadder. This cycle of war must end.

Israel must remove the illegal settlements, stop the evictions of Palestinians, commit to recognizing East Jerusalem as the future capital of Palestine, end the blockade on Gaza.

These steps would ensure that Israel endures in security, bring a degree of calm in the short-term to the region, and be a cornerstone for peaceful, two-state coexistence.

Hamas must likewise agree to a ceasefire, recognize Israel’s right to exist and come to the negotiating table. Israel, being the most belligerent, powerful and frankly brutal of the two parties must take the first steps.

With the Iron Dome a unilateral ceasefire on the part of Israel would a) put pressure on Hamas to stop firing, b) still allow Israel to defensively intercept missiles from Gaza.

The question is: Does Netanyahu desire a war until the June 2nd deadline for his competitor to form a government?

--Tony Cochran; Portland, Oregon

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/19/technology/israeli-clashes-pro-violence-groups-whatsapp.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage#commentsContainer

32

one more from @29, 30:

Mob violence is a concern, but what’s more concerning is the systemic apartheid practices and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians that generated this type of hatred towards Arab-Israelis.

In this whole conflict, Israel has NO rights whatsoever. Under international law, an occupying power has absolutely and precisely zero rights owed to it by the occupied people. Yet, it has plenty of duties it owes to the people it occupies and oppresses.

For the sake of me, I just don’t understand how Israel can with a straight face tell the whole world that the main part of the problem is the failure of Palestinians to recognize it’s right to exist when it stealing Palestinian land, displacing the Palestinian people, demolishing Palestinian homes, and arbitrarily arresting Palestinian civilians.

OF COURSE Palestinians are not going to recognize Israel rights to exist, because Israel is actively removing Palestinians’ existence.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/19/technology/israeli-clashes-pro-violence-groups-whatsapp.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage#commentsContainer

Velkommen to far 'right' Cancel Culture
oh and as another nyt Commenter commented

hey, neoLibs and Cons when a Native
American knocks on the Door to your
Home you gonna let 'em have it?

yeah, that's what I thought.

34

@28: asking (politely!) how it works is being a "scold"?

Pot, kettle.

35

@31 Prof, this is what I've noticed...

The Trump years were so batshit crazy, that it provided cover for the fringe extreme left-wingers... you guys seemed "normal" in comparison, and when fighting against Trumpism, there's no way to be wrong.

What I noticed soon after the election as things started to return to some semblance of "normalcy" (for better and worse), and why I largely stopped reading TS and commenting since then, is that the TS staff, and most of the regular left-wingers here in the comments, are just as batshit crazy. You just happen to be on the "righter side" of most of the issues. But the reasoning and critical thought isn't there to back it up. You just take whatever is the most left-wing stance you possibly can on any issue and then regurgitate the talking points. You tend to see things as black and white (too often literally). It's often the opposite of "liberal". You're almost in as much of a bubble as the right-wingers. It's an extremist POV of the world that shares a lot in common with right-wingers.

36

yeah, skiddy no I don't even see Natives asking for Reparations let alone (Some of) their TREATY-GIVEN Ancesteral Homes -- I was comparing land-thieving -- Hell, International LAWs Violating – Jews, evicting Palestinians (from Homes Jews hadn't occupied for what was it, 1,300 years, what some claim "Belongs" to the Jews) to an Imaginary 'Indian' seeking what some claim Occupying Jews are Entitled to – which they’re NOT.

not according to International Law.

but, Luckily for the Fascists (they’ve learned their little lesson already) we’re no longer a Part Of such humanity-affirming Devices like that.

C’MON Smokin fuckin’ JOE
Shut. it. Down.
the $4,000,000,000.00 in
WMDS too while you’re at it

NO good Reason
for We the peeps to be
FINANCING WAR CRIMES. let
that nutnyahoo pay for it hisself.

Let BIBI finance his own
Keep tf Outta Jail Schemes

39

@37 prof, another right-wing tactic - repeat something enough times and it will be “true”.

40

@39:

You seem to be implying @37's statement is not true - care to provide evidence to support that assertion? Have the Israelis NOT bombed hospitals? Have they NOT killed hundreds of innocent civilians, including journalists and scores of children? Your oblique reference to Goebbels's famous quote is only applicable if the statements being repeated are verifiably false, that is, lies; if they're verifiably true then, well, they're just true, aren't they?

41

@40 -- e.g. trumpf Won

42

The singular-they will never be acceptable in all contexts, especially when the physical singular or plural is important. For example:

Did you set a place for them at the dinner table?

43

it's either 'im
or 'er or 'em
for brevity
& clarity

maybe.

44

@42,

That reads fine to me actually. I mean, that question implies the one answering it is already aware of whom is being referenced and so there wouldn't be any confusion.

46

@34 Asking how it works is being an infant, not a scold. Here's how it works: you ask the person you're talking about to tell you which pronouns you should use, and then you use those pronouns when you talk about that person. You need different use cases explained? Just go back and ask the person you're talking about for clarification. Or hey go on being a humongous baby about it, if you'd prefer to keep me entertained.

@42 The whole point is that we should use different words for different people because different people have different sorts of discomfort with the various words that we might use unthinkingly if we're being insensitive. We need to learn to be flexible and unlearn any nervous impulse we might have to impose something we personally deem "acceptable in all contexts" on others who feel differently. As for your example sentence, "a place" disambiguates "them" as singular; if you were referring to multiple people you would say "did you set places for them?"

48

mind your
Petards
dewey!

49

@44: You are assuming it known to both parties the number of people being referenced. The question with the conventional plural meaning means that setting two place settings would be a yes to the question.

Our use of language is inherently to disambiguate and to be clear, not to placate sensibilities.

@48: "Did you set places for them?" is actually incorrect if a single person is using Them/They as pronouns. Because nobody would actually expect two place settings for only one physical person.

The slippery slope of wokeness is upon us.

50

@40 comte, yeah, you see, that's the issue - everything is black and white, without context, cherry picking words and meanings, distorting. It's the same thing we accuse the right-wing of.

Since, I'm ending my participation in this discussion here, FTR, I do not support the Net administration and think they are shitty. I think it was stupid to force Palestinians out of their homes to make way for new Jewish settlements. It's tragic that there is loss of life, particularly the innocents who are caught in the middle of two shitty ruling parties.

My previous comment wasn't just aimed at this though. It's similar to the gender pronoun discussion, where you're doing the same thing.

I respect the pronouns people choose. That being said, using the pronoun of "they" to refer to a singular person is stupid because it's confusing, and it will never not be confusing. It's self-defeating. And because "they" arose at a time where there is a lot of deserving sensitivity around gender expression, it was never able to go through a course correction.

But it's not enough to say, "hey, yeah, it's confusing, but people are allowed to identify as they please, and it's not really hurting anyone, and so let's just respect it." No, that's not good enough, we have to have ridiculously drawn out grammar debates in an attempt to rationalize something that is inherently irrational.

Peace.

53

actually PiP's correct

there may be Times when a little hyperbole may
somehow seep into my commentariat but I plead
fully-Licensed. and only partially unhinged.

Plus
tS?

54

@49 But raindrop, that's precisely why the example you provided is not a problem. There is no ambiguity, because you can determine whether "them" is singular or plural from context, singular for "a place" and plural for "places." There was no need for a single sentence that covered both cases before we started being more considerate of our trans friends, and there is no need for one now.

And all this assumes the sentence exists in a vacuum; in the real world you'd of course know perfectly well who you were talking about from the rest of the conversation preceding this question about your dinner party.

55

'English'
is Evolving
Corps stole
it Ages ago...
shape it how You
WANT it . or follow them.

57

@54,

Thanks, wasn't sure if I was overlooking something obvious as I too had struggled to make sense of the context in which raindrop's hypothetical question would still be problematic. The only personal frame of reference I can put it is my mother and aunt preparing Thanksgiving dinner. They learn that an indeterminate number of people of indeterminate gender may also be showing up to eat and so one asks the other, "Did you set a place for them at the dinner table?" and it keeps sounding fine. I'm guessing there probably IS some contextual scenario that exists where potential confusion COULD conceivably arise, but I'm not gonna waste any more time trying to envision it. Yeesh.

58

@51 Professor_Hiztory: Yes. I worry about idiotic white supremacist Texas MEN like Greg Abbott making all reproductive choices for women and adolescent girls against their will when he doesn't know shit about menstrual cycles, let alone human pregnancies, childbirth, labor and delivery. While I am not as concerned about my own reproductive health anymore after a recent full bilateral hysterectomy finally corrected 43 years of accumulative misery, I weep for the futures of women and girls younger than I am. Shit like this is largely why I am so happily asexual.

59

I also weep for Palestinians and anyone whose skin color is other than Caucasian. I do not understand why anyone of African lineage is called Black when their skin color truly isn't, but more of a dark chocolate brown. I have black yoga pants. The convertible top of my car is black. Skin that is black is charcoal burnt or singed by accident or violent abuse.

President Joe Biden--WHY are you financing the war in Israel? Don't you see what is happening to hundreds--thousands of Palestinians and innocent people?

GO, New York AG Letitia James, GO!! Roast Trump and its crime syndicate of lawyers, lobbyists, fixers, enablers, trophy bitches, bimbos, snot-nosed heirs, QAnon thugs, Proud Boys, and Patriot Players down to the very last and most braindead of MAGA tools.

I wish RepubliKKKans could all be shipped off into exile to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and left to fight each other off like the true racist savages they are.


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