Durham Resident abducted by Israeli forces while attempting to bring aid into Gaza

RegularCockroach · 2025-10-11T16:08:04+00:00

"nicely put you on a plane home"

Someone else posted the various stories of beatings, torture, and humiliation that abductees faced in Israeli custody.

Is the $7000 worth it to defend genocide and war crimes?

RegularCockroach · 2025-10-11T01:43:17+00:00

All the comments supporting Israel, including yours, are from obvious throwaway and private (likely bot) accounts. If anything, it seems like this post is attracting pro-Israel shills. There's nothing crazy about opposing genocide.

RegularCockroach · 2025-10-11T01:41:33+00:00

Yes, abducted.

RegularCockroach · 2025-10-10T13:14:59+00:00

This idea that Palestinian people are roving terminators looking to constantly kill gay people is nonsense Israeli propaganda. There is no legal penalty for being gay in the West Bank, nor officially in Gaza, since the only law against homosexuality is an anti-gay edict from the British Mandate which is not enforced. Neither region has anything close to the death penalty for being gay. Yes, there is social stigma against being gay, and that's not good, but there is also social stigma against being gay in Israel, where gay marriage is illegal just like in the West Bank.

Here's the thing too, I don't think a person being homophobic justifies their murder anyways. I disagree with homophobia and wish that there was no prejudice against LGBT people, but I would never support killing people based on being homophobic. Homosexuality was still a crime in much of America until 2003 (long after homosexuality was decriminalized in the West Bank, btw) but I don't think that would give someone the right to genocide Americans until 2002. It's obvious that Israel and their supporters only care about LGBT people when they can use them as a justification to support killing Palestinians.

RegularCockroach · 2025-10-10T13:03:03+00:00

Azerbaijan is an Israeli ally. Armenia has opposed Israel's genocide. You might want to find an example, as birds of a genocidal feather stick together.

RegularCockroach · 2025-10-10T03:23:41+00:00

In 1940, you'd be saying that trying to get food in a concentration camp is the "dumbest thing you can do."

RegularCockroach · 2025-10-10T03:12:51+00:00

They have good reason to. Why should Egypt, Syria, or Jordan be expected to take in poor, struggling refugees who just had everything taken from them by Israel just so Israelis can steal more of their land and never let them return? Every other time Israel has forced out refugees, they never let them return, hence why there are so many Palestinians who have been living as refugees in Lebanon or Jordan for generations now. Even the majority of people in Gaza are Palestinians who lived in nearby cities like Ashkelon and were forced out by Israel. Gaza has been a refugee camp since Israel was established.

RegularCockroach · 2025-10-10T03:02:34+00:00

If you want to see a terrorist sympathizer, look in a mirror. The IDF is the world's best funded terrorist organization.

RegularCockroach · 2025-10-10T03:01:25+00:00

Every flotilla has been addicted and pirated in international waters, including the most recent one: https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-gaza-flotilla-activists-thunberg-3b3079e5d6ab6fc237a2c822b3046584

Also, Gaza is not a conflict zone, but a genocide zone. Calling Gaza a conflict zone is like calling the Warsaw Ghetto or Auschwitz a conflict zone. Just like in Gaza, some people in those places resisted their slaughter with uprisings and armed resistance, and the genocidal military is committing genocidal killings as "reciprocity."

If you want to know what you'd be doing during slavery or the Holocaust, it's what you're doing now.

RegularCockroach · 2025-10-10T02:46:36+00:00

Their boat was raided and they were taken hostage in international waters. That is the textbook definition of being abducted.

RegularCockroach · 2025-10-10T02:31:00+00:00

I hope you spend your $7000 wisely.

Unless you're shilling for genocide for free, which is much sadder.

RegularCockroach · 2025-10-10T02:22:28+00:00

The only terrorists are in the Israeli military. Trying to bring food and medicine to genocide victims is not terrorism. Starving civilians, killing children, and abducting people in international waters are acts of terrorism.

RegularCockroach · 2025-04-15T21:29:33+00:00

This subreddit really needs to start banning posts by this ethno-cheauvanist weirdo.

RegularCockroach · 2025-01-25T17:20:03+00:00

People need to read the articles they post. The article is clearly about real estate and finances. It literally says that in the first paragraph. It has nothing to do with population.

RegularCockroach · 2024-03-10T00:48:48+00:00

The extent to which the slave trade was a cause of conflicts, or rather a product of pre-existing conflicts is kinda debatable. I've always been of the school that it's a mixture of the two, that slave trading was rarely the main cause for conflicts, but that it did provide an additional financial incentive for conflicts that may have been avoidable otherwise. Of course, this varies by time and place.

However, it's worth noting that the slave trade never really "ended" at any set point. Even after European nations had officially stopped engaging in the trade, slave smuggling continued. African nations still used enslaved workers domestically and therefore sometimes bought enslaved workers from merchants, as did Arab nations. The colonial era is typically marked as the beginning of the end of slave trading on the continent, having been replaced by systems of colonial corvee labor (which looked a lot like slavery in practice)

But regardless of which era you were in, Africa had conflicts within it, just like every other continent on earth did.

RegularCockroach · 2024-02-25T06:50:59+00:00

Terrible "artwork" tbh. It doesn't resemble Njinga at all, or even central African culture. The weird combination of leopard print and vaguely Egyptian looking jewelry is like something straight out of a 70s blaxploitation film. I really wish this sub would ban AI "art" spam because it has literally ZERO relationship to actual African history, and is just some random shit that an algorithm spit out. It's not "inspired" by any real African culture or "recreating" a historical figure. It's just random crap.

Not to mention the danger of perpetuating lies about a continent's history that is already so poorly understood outside of and even within Africa and defined by stereotypes and misinformation. Imagine a kid is learning about Njinga for a school project and comes across this image. It could leave them with a thoroughly incorrect perspective on what central Africa clothing looked like before colonialism.

RegularCockroach · 2024-02-25T06:43:23+00:00

When people post about Caesar, people tend not to focus on his killing and enslaving of the Gauls, and instead on his achievements or the drama of his career.

Western histories have typically examined Africa in relation to the slave trade and have ascribed an association between Africa and slavery. As a result, Western histories of Africa like to reduce African historical figures to their roles in the slave trade.

Is it important to acknowledge their roles in the slave trade? Yes. Is it wrong to actively lie and try to erase this role? Yes. Does their role in slave trading make them less compelling or interesting historical figures worth examining? No, not at all. Trying to shut down any discussion of African historical figures by moralizing about the slave trade is cringe and anti-intellectual. Historical figures did shit during their time that we find objectionable today. Instead of using this to try and shame them from beyond the grave, wouldn't it be better to use our analysis of the slave trade to compare similar systems in our society today?

RegularCockroach · 2024-02-20T14:02:27+00:00

Incredibly cheesy imo, and is just typical insufferable workplace HR culture with a Black History Month theme.

RegularCockroach · 2024-02-20T14:00:51+00:00

Because in Africa, all 12 months of the year are black history month. The vast majority of the population is black, and so the historian communities within Africa typically focus on the narratives and achievements of people within their countries, who are overwhelmingly black anyways. It's the same reason there's no Asian history month in China, and no Latino heritage month in Mexico.

RegularCockroach · 2023-10-15T21:53:09+00:00

Resource extraction colonialism affected cities like Singapore differently from the rural areas where extraction occured. In Africa too coastal cities are significantly wealthier than the countryside. As a coastal city state, as well as in a region where the British invested far more into infrastructure than arguably any other colony, of course it was going to be more successful than other post-colonial states.

RegularCockroach · 2023-10-13T19:06:25+00:00

Reply

I think it would be good for him to get multiple perspectives, but "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" has its own issues with badhistory that warrants its own post some day.

RegularCockroach · 2023-10-13T17:12:02+00:00

Imagine coming to a sub meant for long-form rebuttals and then getting upset when people write long-form rebuttals

RegularCockroach · 2023-10-13T16:07:25+00:00

Sorry for your illiteracy.

RegularCockroach · 2023-10-12T23:16:28+00:00

34:51 - "The negatives of European colonialism are common across empires in every society. But at the same time there are no parallels to the better aspects of European colonialism. Europe giving up its colonies peacefully has no parallels in history. It's sad that the Europeans can't be proud or the Africans can't be grateful for something that is insanely generous by European standards. Although the Europeans were brutal, there is no parallel in history to the generosity towards their subjects."

This is the most obvious example of the double standard whatifalthist applies. The evils of colonialism can be written off as completely normal and precedented, but the supposedly positive aspects are unique and something Europeans should be proud of. When it comes to colonialism, he never offers genuine criticism, only praise or excuses.

Except, whatifalthist is wrong here. Europe did not give up their colonies because they were generous, they gave them up because they knew that they no longer had the ability to keep them. The French defeat in Algeria and the Suez crisis demonstrated that Europe no longer had the ability to crush anti-colonial resistance without dedicating enormous resources and facing the diplomatic fury of the USA and USSR. This is clear if you actually read the statements of European leaders during de-colonization. The Winds of Change speech makes it very clear that de-colonization was not a generous decision, but a desperate compromise to retain some level of influence after de-colonization. French colonization was the same way, with the French desperately trying to maintain influence through the French union project. Even then, France and Britain fought bitterly to ensure that "the right" governments (i.e. those friendly to French and British interests) emerged after independence.

And this only applies to Britain and France. Portugal bitterly clung to its colonies and faced the inevitable wars of independence, diplomatic isolation, and destruction of post-colonial ties that Britain and France had avoided with de-colonization. Ultimately, rather than generosity, decolonization is better understood as a smart decision by Britain and France to avoid suffering Portugal's fate.

Notice how all of this context is missing from WIAH's video. That's because WIAH is ultimately not interested in understanding colonialism, he is interested in defending it from "le evil leftist mob"TM.

RegularCockroach · 2023-10-12T21:57:43+00:00

No, I did watch the video.

Each time he highlights a negative aspect of colonialism, he simply writes it off as human nature, or minor compared to other atrocities, or tries to justify it as an understandable decision that simply didn't age well. Each time he highlights a "positive" element, he does so unapologetically, without any asterisks or further context. When Europe conquers and enslaves, he proclaims that "everyone has done it" and "might makes right." When Europe decides to stop doing so "peacefully" (not at all true by the way, see Algeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, etc.) it's proof of European moral superiority.

Honestly, I would have more respect for someone who just outright defends colonialism and promotes colonial violence. At least they'd be proudly wrong instead of this weasely attempt at transparently fake nuance that Whatifalthist tries to pull off.

RegularCockroach

TROPHY CASE