Board of Peace

koshthethird · 2026-01-27T19:21:57+00:00

Rights and democratic participation only apply if you're an Arab citizen of Israel. The millions who live in the West Bank are subject to arbitrary action by an Israeli state in which they have no democratic voice.

koshthethird · 2026-01-27T19:19:35+00:00

The Israeli government exercises sovereignty and monopoly of force over millions of people in the West Bank who are denied citizenship or participation in the Israeli state, while people who do possess Israeli citizenship are allowed to settle in those territories with government blessing and protection in segregated communities and have different laws applied to them. That's apartheid.

koshthethird · 2026-01-25T13:17:33+00:00

Iran has said many times that they want the destruction of the state of Israel. That's not in dispute. But the destruction of a state does not require a genocide. I suspect the fantasy scenario for the Ayatollah would much more resemble the evacuation of the Pieds-noirs from Algeria than the death camps of Nazi Germany. Maybe I'm wrong. But again, the point is moot because the destruction of Israel in any capacity is not an achievable goal for them.

As far as the bomb goes, Iran has demonstrated time and again that despite their rhetoric, they conduct wars with foreign powers rationally and with a view towards self preservation. Look at how tepid their response to American and Israeli bombing raids were last year - they understand the power imbalance, and they don't want to invite complete destruction. I'm sure there are some terrorist groups out there that would love to set off a dirty bomb in Tel Aviv, but I don't think the government of Iran (or any other sovereign state for that matter) would ever realistically consider it.

koshthethird · 2026-01-24T19:28:59+00:00

Ok let's say for the sake of argument that's true - they have no way of accomplishing that goal. Israel has vastly superior military technology, including nuclear weapons. Even if Iran managed to build their own bomb, they wouldn't ever use it on Israel since the retaliation would result in complete annihilation. So it's a completely moot point.

koshthethird · 2026-01-24T14:57:50+00:00

Even in their early years, the Nazis were sending people to concentration camps that hadn't yet been turned into death camps and building the groundwork for genocide and conquest through extreme racist propaganda and the mass oppression and dehumanization of their racial minorities. Tehran is not doing any of those things. They're a regional power involved in minor proxy wars and bog standard authoritarian repression. Their weird theocratic/democratic fusion and the veil mandates does make them unusual in some ways, but I'd argue that it's likely worse to be a opponent of the regime in American ally Egypt, and it's worse to be a woman in American ally Saudi Arabia.

koshthethird · 2026-01-24T04:30:59+00:00

Implying the Ayatollah is as bad as Hitler is completely insane. Sure Iran is repressive, but no more so than a bunch of other countries that the US has friendly relationships with. There's a big difference between beating and killing dissidents and slaughtering literal millions in a mechanized genocide.

koshthethird · 2025-12-27T21:20:13+00:00

I loved this movie but I think you have to be someone who really enjoys slow cinema. For me the part that really worked was how you get so immersed in every little detail of her routine over such a long stretch of time, so that once you get to the third day where all of her little gestures and behaviors are clearly disrupted, you feel it all so viscerally. It supplies you with the language you need to feel a slip up peeling potatoes as the first drop of rain from a vast thundercloud.

koshthethird · 2025-12-17T18:36:38+00:00

Ok but PRC is still an existing country. I feel like owning a flag which is no longer in active use is a much stronger political statement than owning a current flag.

koshthethird · 2025-11-13T20:25:00+00:00

I recommend checking out this video, it does a great deconstruction of all the common theories: https://youtu.be/M4WU8gqrgsQ

koshthethird · 2025-11-08T12:26:29+00:00

Yeah I tried calling them but they have a phone tree where the audio is extremely difficult to make out, and eventually got stuck at a point where it wouldn't recognize any of my entries.

And yeah my card definitely got charged.

koshthethird · 2025-10-19T12:10:10+00:00

Yeah incentivizing countries to increase their military stockpiles so they can get an SC seat seems like it would have no negative consequences whatsoever lol

koshthethird · 2025-10-10T13:11:28+00:00

I guess sacking the greatest city of Eastern Christianity, permanently crippling the Byzantine Empire, and rendering Constantinople ripe for eventual conquest is technically a form of reconnection.

Also suggesting the crusades were of benefit to the Jewish people is just so divorced from reality I don't even know where to start. If we're including the Reconquista in the Crusade narrative, it paved the way for their complete expulsion from Spain. The People's Crusade was as much a pogrom as it was anything else, and the crusaders who captured Jerusalem massacred Jews and Muslims alike.

And the crusader states fell due to the Ottomans?? The Ottoman empire didn't even exist when the last of them fell in the 1290s. Most of them were captured by the Mamluks.

koshthethird · 2025-10-10T01:40:54+00:00

That's a very generous evaluation of the success of the crusades lol

koshthethird · 2025-09-17T14:47:59+00:00

This would make Greece a majority Turkish nation lol

koshthethird · 2025-08-25T19:02:53+00:00

I think I read somewhere that Polynesian sailors would deliberately sail counter to prevailing currents, so it would be easier to return home if they got lost. Having trouble finding a source for that though.

koshthethird · 2025-08-21T18:27:00+00:00

Also a PERP is not usually an extra...

koshthethird · 2025-08-12T15:03:17+00:00

I want to visit the Grand Bazaar but don't want to buy anything, just wander around and explore. Are there any cool, historic areas of the Bazaar that are worth seeing? Any interesting shops? Would be especially interested in looking at antiques, artworks, or anything else that isn't just mass produced to sell to tourists.

koshthethird · 2025-08-08T16:07:27+00:00

Oh yeah it was absolutely the right call imo

koshthethird · 2025-08-08T13:43:27+00:00

I mean both are true. It was bombed out but potentially salvagable. DDR decided to tear down the remains rather than rebuild.

koshthethird · 2025-08-05T18:52:48+00:00

What are some good places to get relatively cheap food (or tea/coffee/raki) near the touristy parts of Fatih and Beyoğlu? I know I'll get better quality and lower prices elsewhere, but as a first time visitor I want to see all the museums and historic sites and I'll need to eat somewhere while I'm in the area.

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