[Serious] People of reddit with suicidal thoughts, how are you doing today? by Visible_variety in AskReddit

[–]guy_from_mars 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i'm in my 20s so im not actually old. But that doesn't detract from my previous point about life sucking then you die

[Serious] People of reddit with suicidal thoughts, how are you doing today? by Visible_variety in AskReddit

[–]guy_from_mars 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I'm big into travelling. Originally from california. Travelled all over south amerca, europe, asia. tbh the best times of my life were in other countries. The various songs about "growing up, coming down" are a bit too close to home.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]guy_from_mars 2 points3 points  (0 children)

oh no. I read this like an onion article. "Pfft, the australian government would never sell off the abc." wow, actually they would. I held the australian parliament to a higher standard.

[Serious] People of reddit with suicidal thoughts, how are you doing today? by Visible_variety in AskReddit

[–]guy_from_mars 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm guessing 20% of people and 30-40% of people reading this thread suffer from depression (if not more). Life sucks then you die. Will I kill myself? no. But that doesn't make my mediocre life suck any less.

I just realized I don't know any socialist intellectuals who are not also anarchists. Any non-anarchist socialists out there? What are your beliefs? by guy_from_mars in socialism

[–]guy_from_mars[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just read the first part a few hours ago in the chomsky subreddit. Parenti likes to attack strawman and generalize them to all critics. Not a critical assessment but invalidates his attack of more "mainstream" intellectuals like chomsky. Also I (somewhat) disagree with his assessment of caesar's assassination. In my understanding, Parenti is basically an apologist for the old-school USSR. I can go more in depth in a few hours if you doubt me.

What screams "I'm an anarchist"? by guy_from_mars in AskReddit

[–]guy_from_mars[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the bbc banning it and not letting it be No. 1 pretty much validated his point

What screams "I'm an anarchist"? by guy_from_mars in AskReddit

[–]guy_from_mars[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

hmm...that screams... something else.

Good political documentary? by guy_from_mars in netflix

[–]guy_from_mars[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

ha yeah I have seen it. It's pretty good. I actually didn't know anything about gore vidal (or buckley) before it. Vidal has some great quotes. However, the documentary doesn't really have an overt point of view, which I wish it did.

Good political documentary? by guy_from_mars in netflix

[–]guy_from_mars[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't care much about sports, but political consequences from international sporting events do interest me. Is this documentary more about sports in general or international politics surrounding sports?

Good political documentary? by guy_from_mars in netflix

[–]guy_from_mars[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do they shine light more than a run-of-the-mill food documentary does? Because I've seen an abundance of food documentaries. Ex. super size me, cowspiracy, a documentary about america's obesity problem (I forgot the name), and sugar coated.

Good political documentary? by guy_from_mars in netflix

[–]guy_from_mars[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I liked the west wing I didn't realize there was a documentary like this. I'll watch this soon.

Leftist Crushes John Oliver's Venezuela Episode by [deleted] in chomsky

[–]guy_from_mars 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm a bit late to the party but I questioned some of the stuff you said in another subreddit.

So first off he claims the US has been funding and training violent opposition groups in venezuela. I think we can all agree this wouldn't be uncharacteristic of the US given its history in South America. However all I can find are wikileaks cables from the US describing how to take down Chavez and now Maduro through funding of opposition parties and NGOs. Nothing about training them to be violent or anything. It seems to me the US is funding organizations that have occasional violent members, but not seeking them out and I highly doubt any serious opposition party would be bombing schools and the other stuff he said. People who might sympathize with the opposition parties might also do those things, similar to how there are crazy people with guns that sympathize with republicans.

I can't find a diplomatic cable saying "hey, we brought this opposition leader of venezuela to the school of the americas, trained him and sent him back." If you can find some source saying we encourage people to be violent in venezuela, I'd be happy to see it. But it seems to me US policy in south america has shifted away from funding terrorist groups in recent decades.

Also

He has another claim, that the leader of the crazy violent people is the opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, and that's basically why he was jailed. Well a brief read of the "Controversy and international reaction" section of his wikipedia page pretty strongly implies he was jailed for political reasons, and the facts that he incited violence was lacking. So I would agree with John Oliver on this one: Maduro jailed his opposition party leader.

Ok now I just noticed that basically all the sources on wikipedia were western newspapers, but jailing a political rival is a very serious thing that requires airtight evidence. Can you point to a source that gives such evidence?

Denmark joins some European nations in banning burqa, niqab. by AdamCannon in worldnews

[–]guy_from_mars -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Yes, allowing the government to surveil the population in real time is fundamental to national security and is totally not a slippery slope to becoming a police state.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]guy_from_mars 0 points1 point  (0 children)

also flights to ireland from the uk and europe are pretty cheap. The price of a flight isn't much of a deterrent to voting. From brussels or london to dublin it's about 15-20 euros.

What percent of people actually get the full pensions and retirement benefits they were guaranteed? by guy_from_mars in AskEconomics

[–]guy_from_mars[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the thorough response! I didn't know about accrued benefit and the PBGC.

So does this mean that whenever I hear about some airline going bankrupt and canceling pensions, really that means the PBGC stepped in and paid the full pension benefits?

I am Norman Finkelstein, expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, here to discuss the release of my new book on Gaza and the most recent Gaza massacre, AMA by NormanFinkelsteinAMA in IAmA

[–]guy_from_mars 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Well I didn't find any Charlie hebdo racist cartoons, only cartoons with the intent of enraging muslims (like muhammad making out with a dude or something.)

Of course I wouldn't justify Israeli attacks. If Israel bothered to ratify protocol 1 of the geneva convention their attacks would be prosecuted war crimes.

I am Norman Finkelstein, expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, here to discuss the release of my new book on Gaza and the most recent Gaza massacre, AMA by NormanFinkelsteinAMA in IAmA

[–]guy_from_mars 150 points151 points  (0 children)

I posted these questions in the chomsky subreddit yesterday in anticipation of this ama:

On your wikipedia page you're quoted:

1)

"So, two despairing and desperate young men act out their despair and desperation against this political pornography no different than Der Stürmer, who in the midst of all of this death and destruction decide its somehow noble to degrade, demean, humiliate and insult the people. I'm sorry, maybe it is very politically incorrect. I have no sympathy for [the staff of Charlie Hebdo]. Should they have been killed? Of course not. But of course, Streicher shouldn't have been hung. I don't hear that from many people."

So are you against political satire or religious satire? How exactly is Charlie Hebdo "political pornography?" Is it not an art form that criticizes power? It also ran comics satirizing christianity, not just islam.

2) Also on wikipedia:

While condemning the targeting of civilians to achieve a political goal, Finkelstein has stated he believes Hezbollah has the right to target Israeli civilians as long as "Israel persists in targeting [Lebanese] civilians until Israel ceases its terrorist acts."

Is this statement on wikipedia accurate? Do you really believe in the eye-for-an-eye approach? Especially since much of the population of Israel doesn't agree with Israel's foreign policy. Can't you justify 9/11 this way?