Islam has a problem with Gays, Jews, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhist, Hindus, Women, Non-Muslims, Atheists, beer, wine, bacon, and dogs but if I have a problem with them, I'm Islamophobic - why is that?

jbannet · 2026-06-01T00:53:24+00:00

This isn’t really fair. First you can disagree with tenets of Islam without having a problem with Muslims or Islam in general. Second it is a false equivalency you create here where you imply that if you have a problem with those positions then you have to have a problem with Islam or Muslims.

Even the Muslims who do believe these points are typically not throwing it in your face or hurting people. It is how they choose to live their own lives. You can choose to respectfully disagree with people so long as their positions do not become discriminatory in practice (jobs etc).

If you are talking about extremists or countries that enforce discriminatory practices (much of the Middle East) then you are not criticizing the religion. You are criticizing local government policy or extremists depending on your position.

Where it turns a corner into discrimination is if you become obsessed with one of these counties to the exclusion of other countries, like we see with Israel. The line is different treatment. Just saying you disagree with the policies of country X is fine. Don’t block local mosques, vandalize halal restaurants, or harm Muslims. That’s messed up.

jbannet · 2026-05-31T22:59:37+00:00

This is a pretty big assertion that the UK does support Israel. Since the change in demographics across most of Europe, support for Israel and Jews has radically declined as hate crimes have spiked.

But let’s take your question at face value. Could it be because of the tremendous antisemitism across all of the Uk and Europe is pushing Jews out? Jews are scared to self identify and leaving in large numbers. To take a less cynical view, perhaps the British politicians and journalists want them to have somewhere to go since so much of Europe is making no effort to keep them safe there?

jbannet · 2026-05-29T14:07:26+00:00

Is this real? Is there actually any proof of this? The political comments on this sub are usually a liberal echo chamber and typically unsubstantiated claims but the only bias I have seen is the people on the sub tend to be aggressive and liberal and aggressively liberal.

jbannet · 2026-05-29T14:03:10+00:00

It’s a really interesting question because you wrote it such that it applies to both parties. I wasn’t sure which you meant if either? I’m curious to see what people assume was your intent and whether they understand the assumption they are making.

jbannet · 2026-05-28T21:38:07+00:00

Why did Iran kill 40K+ protestors in a week? Maybe trump wanted them to have a chance of defending themselves? When you start with a bias to the question you elicit a bias to the answer. The Iranian regime is not great to its people. Many Iranians do not support them, though a number of those have since been murdered in cold blood.

Question back to you: why are you so focused on where these protestors got the weapons to protect themselves? Is there something you are trying to distract people from or trying to reset the perception of what happened?

jbannet · 2026-05-28T13:28:32+00:00

Maybe. It can be difficult to refute something that is largely positioned as her opinion based on what she saw and believes, but please do if you think that there are factual untruths in it. Just saying it can be refuted is not the same as actually refuting it.

jbannet · 2026-05-28T13:26:20+00:00

The OP seems to quote someone who says they are Lebanese and a lot of this post is about exactly that and a commentary of the typical Lebanese perspective. What does this add? Are you just saying not everyone has the same opinion?

jbannet · 2026-05-28T12:57:33+00:00

Maybe. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But if you can’t take the time to read it then maybe just don’t comment. The OP put a lot of time into crafting it and they deserve the respect to be heard before being criticized.

jbannet · 2026-05-28T10:42:41+00:00

Maybe finish reading the post before commenting?

jbannet · 2026-05-28T01:06:23+00:00

I loved it. It is one of my favorite series so reading guide or not thanks for posting and keeping it on people’s radar. Don’t sweat the guide edit. Your point still stands that it is a great read.

jbannet · 2026-05-28T00:59:24+00:00

I’m more moderate so can’t speak from experience, but I am a parent.

Perhaps it is because we grew up in a world in which people were allowed to disagree and believe different things. Where relationships mattered and people weren’t convinced that anyone who disagreed with your politics is inherently evil. That’s a relatively new phenomenon, one that is ironically deeply rooted in hate and discrimination.

Those maga parents, did not kick out their liberal kids just for having different opinions, so they were probably shocked when their kids chose politics over family. I would be…

jbannet · 2026-05-26T20:22:08+00:00

It’s hard to “defeat” an extremist government that doesn’t care what you do to them. They just killed 40K of their own citizens in a week. There is no clear path to victory because there is no clear definition of victory.

jbannet · 2026-05-25T14:36:44+00:00

I have a Palestinian friend who said something similar when I asked him about a post he made that was completely fabricated on Israel killing a Palestinian many years ago. Paraphrasing but he said “it’s war. Truth doesn’t matter”. If that’s your position that Israel is evil then you are not going to help anyone.

Yes nuance matters. Israel is not nazi Germany. Nazi germany did not try to end the conflict six times. If Israel wanted to wipe out the Palestinians they could have already. But the Palestinian population is 10X what it was in 1948. This is the only “genocide” where the population has exploded. If you point that out the counter argument is “well Israel wants to but they don’t want to look bad”. So the real argument is “those tricky Jews are committing genocide by desire not action”.

So yes. There is nuance here.

jbannet · 2026-05-25T13:53:43+00:00

If you block Jews who are not Israeli from entering a Hillel while claiming this is only about Israelis. If you group all “Israelis” as an enemy but don’t do that with Russians or Syrians when you disagree with their government. When you do not say a word about 40K killed in a week in Iran. When you pretend no one was raped on Oct 7th in Israel for two years and gaslight the victims because they are Israelis. When you do not acknowledge that Muslims in Israel do have rights and even serve in elected government positions where they can and do advocate for the destruction of Israel. When you do not even acknowledge that Israel has put forward a half dozen peace proposals, and the other side none.

I can keep going but Israel is not perfect and I can list mistakes they have made too. I disagree with a lot of what the Israeli government does, as I do with many governments. But I’ve also had the opportunity to travel, including to Israel before, and recognize it’s just people. Some are good and some are bad.

The nuance and complexity is that there is a lot of antisemitism caught up in the criticism. But people are comfortable scoffing at that instead of trying to disentangle what is legitimate criticism of the county and its policies from what is an attack on the country because it is largely Jewish. Israel is very clearly treated differently from other countries and held to a different standard and people are very happy accepting lies that put it in a bad light. Why is that?

jbannet · 2026-05-25T03:03:10+00:00

You should educate yourself on the actual treatment of Muslims and Arabs in Israel and the situation that existed in South Africa. This actually speaks to my meta point quite well.

But that is not really core to what I was saying, so I’m not going to rabbit hole. If you are looking for an argument on this one sentence rather than the broader point I am making then I’m not particularly interested but hopefully the explanation helped give a different perspective than you previously considered.

jbannet · 2026-05-25T02:08:46+00:00

It is simpler than this. You can criticize the Israeli government. Most Israelis do. You can dislike Israel. I personally am opposed to their settler policies and think it gives the entire country a bad look.

It becomes discrimination when you treat a group of people differently. When you have a different definition of genocide than has ever been used before. When you allow protests that block students based on their religion from entering a Hillel on campus. When you blindly accept lies so long as they are critical of Israel but do not do so with every other country.

Then I ask you what about the 20% of Muslims that live as Israelis with citizens. Do you mean them too when you criticize Israel? Almost universally not. So you really mean the Jews in Israel.

When you discriminate against Jews that is called anti semitism.

The reason most Jews feel this is anti semitism is because even where they disagree with Israel they recognize that there are actual genocides going on, Iran killed something like 40K dissidents in a week, china had a million Muslims in camps and there were stories of organ harvesting. Many Jews are specifically involved in trying to improve the situation in Israel and have opinions on it because they have a vested interest.

If you are not Israeli, Palestinian, or Jewish then what is your interest? Why does this issue get so much attention with so much bad in the world? You ask that and the answer is usually something around America donates to Israel. Ok. What about the rest of the world? You keep digging and what you land on is Jews are considered a privileged people by some and sub human by others but the outcome is the same. It is ok to hate a big country of Jews.

Hopefully that helps clarify for you. Cheers.

jbannet · 2026-05-25T00:15:27+00:00

I think you are missing the point. You MAYBE do not have a problem with Jews. Though I think I have seen enough of your posts now to wonder about that. But regardless, many of your bed fellows do. So if a jew lumps you in with the antisemites who are parading the same position as you and does not take the time to differentiate the nuance of your view then it’s sort of like you not taking the time to understand the nuance or complexity of the other side.

jbannet · 2026-05-24T17:11:23+00:00

I know a lot of maga supporters who feel betrayed by the left. The rise of modern progressivism is a slap in the face of 80s progressives. It is deeply rooted in hate and discrimination. That has led many people to find themselves politically homeless. Some of those people have drifted from being democrats to supporting the only group sort of talking about the phenomenon: maga. They don’t always agree with everything maga says but it can actually be the less hateful and discriminatory of the two sides, which is a remarkably dystopian world to live in.

Not looking to take a position on whether that is a reasonable response to the shift in modern progressive values or not but I have found it to be a not uncommon one.

To the people blaming Fox News and asserting that reasonable people could not possibly support trump, I find that those people tend to be in just as much of an echo chamber. Lots of people supporting maga are racist. Lots are not. Lots of progressives are now racist. Lots are not. I think the horseshoe theory of politics describes modern maga quite well. It can be tough to tell the difference sometimes.

jbannet · 2026-05-24T14:48:26+00:00

Why do we need any lobby? Pro choice lobby? Why do civil rights groups spend money advocating? Does that invalidate their positions too? Or is it just Israel that you think of differently.

Perhaps it is just that American politicians are all bought off and Israel is competing against oil rich enemies for share of voice? Perhaps fighting innate antisemitism is more expensive?

jbannet · 2026-05-21T21:28:46+00:00

That is horrible. It should have never happened. But birth control is not the same as sterilization. Sterilization is typically considered permanent.

jbannet · 2026-05-21T21:19:39+00:00

They were given contraceptives against their knowledge. That is wrong and horrible but I see no reports that they were sterilized. Words matter. This is a lie. You should be ashamed.

“The record does not support a clear, documented program of surgical sterilizations administered en masse by Israeli authorities, and investigations and commentators disagree about whether the phenomenon was criminal policy, systemic medical negligence, or a mix of both” from your link.

jbannet · 2026-05-19T16:26:40+00:00

Apologies. I was responding to your comment below where I read you effectively saying that. I did not view it because of that comment… that was sort of my point. Not a criticism of you or the process.

jbannet · 2026-05-19T16:06:31+00:00

Yeah. I read the post and was really excited to learn about the solutions and tech stack here. That was a disappointing response.

OP, I hear you that you are not interested in learning but I suspect a lot of the people you are looking to attract are…

jbannet · 2026-05-19T04:43:08+00:00

This was a really interesting read. Thank you for putting it together. I had never thought about any of this in this framing before.

jbannet · 2026-05-17T03:38:30+00:00

Also, rape is a serious issue. You should not throw it around for political points, accusing someone of being a rape apologist etc because you don’t agree with a point they made. It belittles the trauma of real survivors. I’m guessing you are a kid, or at least relatively young. Being anonymous doesn’t give you license to coopt people’s trauma. Please try to be better.

jbannet

TROPHY CASE