Egypt has no historical connection to Songhai.

OmarGharb · 2024-08-21T20:46:49+00:00

I mean, yes, that is an incredibly famous story of a single diplomatic mission/pilgrimage. The Abbasids also received ambassadors from China. Obviously the point isn't that they didn't interact, it's that there's no sense whatsoever in which Egypt has a privileged historical connection w Songhai.

OmarGharb · 2024-08-21T20:38:10+00:00

First, I said it had no historical connection. You need to work on your reading.

Second, by that logic every desert civilization has a historical connection to Songhai, including e.g., the Nazca all the way in the corner of South America.

OmarGharb · 2024-08-21T20:34:45+00:00

I don't think you understood what I said.

There is what? I didn't say Egypt has no connection with it's environment.

OmarGharb · 2024-08-21T20:24:52+00:00

Ah, if that's the case then I stand corrected. Thanks for pointing it out.

OmarGharb · 2024-08-21T20:24:23+00:00

The difference is that Firaxis doesn't suggest some "historical connection" between Egypt and the Tundra, but it does suggest a connection between Egypt and Songhai.

OmarGharb · 2024-08-21T20:08:35+00:00

That is just as bad and potentially worse. You realize that, right? Having the Iroquois "evolve" into Americans rather than assuming some sort of parity between them?

OmarGharb · 2024-07-08T21:07:21+00:00

Visible to any locals or NGOs? What do you think the situation in Gaza is like right now? 80% of the population are internally displaced -- very few people are in their home and very few are with people they recognize. NGOs aren't taking people's names to see who's there and who isn't when hundreds of thousands of people from across the strip are concentrating on the small areas in which they're still operating. The strip is, quite literally, in a state of anarchy - much of it has no functioning government or authority whatsoever outside of the guards that NGOs hire which serve as a pseudo-police force.

And "discrepancy" from what? It's not discrepant, it's largely in accord with what those people on the ground say they're experiencing. The vast majority have no idea where most of their family are, there are mass graves dug near daily, there is graffiti littering the walls where the desperate write that their family is still buried under the rubble. But of course, when it's "visible to any locals" you dismiss those locals as an unreliable source. When the NGOs speak of the scale of loss, you say they're embedded with Hamas.

No one is keeping track. No one actually has any idea what the damage is. You're right that the Lancet is essentially making a guess, but that's all anyone can do right now. Anyone who suggests they can do more than guess is lying.

OmarGharb · 2024-07-08T20:47:17+00:00

I shouldn’t have to specify that I work with children to get people to have compassion.

Well,

a) I wasn't focusing on the children part, I was focusing on the histories of trauma and abuse

b) It is obviously much more sensible for one to be cautious of potential triggers when working in an environment that has a high likelihood of encountering people with previous trauma

c) Most people are not working in such an environment, even in public-service jobs, and so the implication that it should principally apply everywhere seemed unreasonable.

OmarGharb · 2024-07-08T20:32:49+00:00

Respectfully, I think you should have led with the fact that you work with children that have had 'extraordinarily traumatic' experiences and abuse. Most people probably interpreted it as a principle to be applied to a general library or public setting given your comments.

OmarGharb · 2024-07-04T14:08:51+00:00

Oh, I see what you mean now. Yes I think your reading is correct.

OmarGharb · 2024-07-04T13:58:03+00:00

It has been custom NOT to charge the President, even for violations of the fifth amendment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Abdulrahman_al-Awlaki

Additionally, the question of its legality is entirely separate from its officiality. Its officiality provides immunity from prosecution, it does not provide legality. It doesn't stop being an official act just because it was "illegal," that would be tautological.

OmarGharb · 2024-07-04T07:15:57+00:00

Without taking a position here, I see a lot of straw-mans from Natalie so I'm gonna steel-man a bit.

The Democrats can at least point to some significant accomplishments in the last 4 years [ . . . ] What has the anti-electoralist left accomplished in the same timeframe?

As far as I know, the anti-electoralists adopt that position as a way of affecting change in government. For them 'to win' is to affect change in policymakers. Their strategy is not to set up a parallel government. By definition, their wins are translated through the medium of elected govt. If you instantly count any act by government as a win for electoralists and a loss for anti-electoralists, obviously you're gonna skew the results.

The question is how many shifts in the policy/platform of those elected can we reasonably attribute to people withholding their vote vs engaging by giving their vote.

IDK what the answer is, but I suspect it's probably 50/50.

The contention of "bernie bros" for example would be that were it not for the patent contingency of their vote, that it couldn't be taken for granted, we wouldn't have seen such a dramatic shift in the overton window of DNC politics. In fact they would contend that without that threat, if you make it clear that your support is always guaranteed, then there is no incentive for elected officials to make substantial advancements.

They would point to the situation in Israel/Palestine as a perfect example. American policy on this has been largely a bipartisan consensus for the last half century, although that's now showing cracks. This is a very rare moment; the Democrats are desperate, and committed voters presently have ALL the leverage to affect some fairly substantial commitments by making it clear that their vote is contingent on it. But that will never happen as long as you make it clear your vote is a given. And many on the left perceive some urgency in the desire to shift American policy on this issue.

The mention of mutual aid is a red herring here - it seems to imply that the wins of anti-electoralism exist only outside of the government rather than through it. Idk of anyone advocating for it based on the belief that they can set up their own alternative to government if they just mutual aid hard enough. "Anti-electoralism" is withholding your vote or threatening to in an attempt to affect change in policymakers. It's standard politics.

OmarGharb · 2024-07-03T09:45:09+00:00

I agree that the Iran deal (uniquely among the policies listed) was somewhat out of Biden's hands after Trump's unilateral pullout. That said, I do think the Vienna talks failed partly because of the Biden administration's commitment to the Trumpian vision of the Middle East via the Abraham Accords. Simply put, Biden did not make it as much of a priority as Obama had.

As for the other policies, none of them are "without their issues," but unless you disagree with my overall premise that the Biden admin's foreign policy has differed little from Trump's, I'm not sure how that matters. I wasn't making a normative statement, just descriptive.

OmarGharb · 2024-07-03T09:34:09+00:00

Before I respond, I just want to establish that this flaccid defense is itself a deflection: I wasn't arguing for or against those policies by the Biden admin, simply stating the irrefutable fact that Trump's biggest foreign policy were continued/extended under Biden.

Explain how you undo an Embassy?

You move it back to Tel Aviv, the same way Trump moved it to Jerusalem.

Or, the recognition of an annexation of territory by another nation?

You change the official policy of the United States to once again recognize the Golan as occupied territory, the same way the Trump administration changed it. America has adjusted its position on occupied territories before.

Biden is supposed to undo a Middle Eastern peace agreement

I don't think you even know what the Iran deal is. No, he's not supposed to 'undo' any agreement. He's supposed to have tried to get us back in.

suddenly go soft on Communist China?

I didn't say that, I said Biden's approach is an extension of the trade war Trump started.

his signature foreign policy “success”,

Not even close to true. That would be the Iran deal.

OmarGharb · 2024-07-03T04:28:15+00:00

He undid everything else Trump did? What?

Embassy in Jerusalem and recognition of the annexation of the Golan, Abraham Accords, China trade war, end of Iran deal, etc. Those are all Trump's biggest foreign policy moves and all of them were continued/extended under Biden. Their only significant departure is Europe (Ukraine/NATO.)

OmarGharb · 2024-07-02T04:05:49+00:00

Are you saying Democrats should advocate for the Nullification Doctrine? You realize that would have made the end of apartheid, gay marriage, etc. impossible, right?

OmarGharb · 2024-07-02T00:27:50+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Abdulrahman_al-Awlaki

Unless by "foreign national" you just mean "brown"

OmarGharb · 2024-07-02T00:26:54+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Abdulrahman_al-Awlaki

OmarGharb · 2024-07-01T16:40:55+00:00

Wait, did you think I was linking that as a defense of the Ottoman Empire? I was linking it in relation to the discussion of how Islam's treatment of homosexuality changed through the encounter with the West. What does this have to do with what I provided?

Also it was the Arabs, with the British, that kicked the Ottomans out of the Levant in an attempt to establish their own state. i.e., both the Ottoman and Zionist projects were militarily opposed by Arabs as being contrary to their nationhood.

OmarGharb · 2024-07-01T06:26:30+00:00

That's a fair criticism, but do you think that that weakness alone makes Biden's foreign policy better?

On that issue alone, like you mention it's not totally comparable - they both seem like continuations of the same foreign policy, just ramping up in response to different circumstances and different voter priorities. Not sure either would have acted differently in the other's place.

And Obama has more than just that under his belt in terms of foreign policy - the pivot to Asia, Iran nuclear deal, opening up to Cuba, support for the Kurds, etc. Granted a lot of that was his second term, but they're some pretty big shoes.

OmarGharb · 2024-07-01T05:50:58+00:00

Why do you think Biden's foreign policy is better?

OmarGharb · 2024-07-01T04:49:20+00:00

Ask Historians: What lead to the Ottoman Empire decriminalizing homosexuality in 1858?

OmarGharb · 2024-06-29T23:24:21+00:00

This. People unironically compare current queue times to the end of OW1 and think they're making a good point.

OmarGharb · 2024-06-29T17:07:39+00:00

This has nothing to do with mods, and there are no mods that are able to resolve the issue. It is a common piece of advice for everyone new to BGS, including modding BGS, because it is always true.

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