No it doesn’t, and I never implied that. But Zion, aka a place for Jews to live in peace, happiness and prosperity? Why not NYC? It certainly can be a Zion for some who look for one, I didn’t bother to go all “some but not all” for an off-hand quip.

I’ll quote myself:

I don’t want to make this a comparison, much less an Olympics.

I hereby formally concede. I want to win this even less than I wanted to start it.

Let me know when you walk by someone and they give a Nazi salute.

You’re asking a German whether that happens. Yes, yes, it fucking happens occasionally when abroad and I can’t even punch them right there in the gob for it because the self-defence laws abroad don’t tend to include insult. We also have actual Nazis here and they don’t tend to like it when you look like a punk.

I don’t want to make this a comparison, much less an Olympics. What I want to say is that I recommend against getting into the habit of assuming you’re the only one, or part of the only group, which experiences shitty things. You’re not alone, by a long shot. Especially kids are awful and will other you for every- and nothing just because they can. Least of all should you make it, even to the slightest degree, part of your identity: Standing up for justice doesn’t require self-victimisation, on the contrary, self-victimisation tends to obscure perception, lock you into tunnel-vision, isolate you from solidarity because why would potential allies give a fuck about your struggle if you can’t even see theirs. It’s all in all a bad, self-defeating and self-destructive, trip.

can be construed as offensive.

“can be construed”. You can construe anything to be anything if you try hard enough. I could say “Turkish Halva is better than Israeli Halva” and you could take offence at that, and interpret it as antisemitic (for the record: I can’t tell a difference). The Israeli music scene certainly sucks, by and large and maybe glossing over two or three bands you have the choice between escapist electronica and escapist electronica with fascist texts. Was that offensive enough?

This is some “I can tell racist jokes because my grandfather was half-black” territory.

I’m perfectly aware of the difference between Jewish jokes and Jew jokes. The former are actually good.

…and different ethnicities outnumber Jews pretty much everywhere? Or is this about Wall Street? To that I have to say that I’m simply not antisemitic enough to even think about connecting the two, had to wreck my brain for a bit what you might be trying to get at. Certainly more (ethnically) Christian bankers there than Jewish ones.

(And just so you know where I’m coming from: German, grandpa was prosecuted as “half-Jew” (barely enough “German blood” to not end up in a camp, also, Lutheran, great-grandparents not so lucky), I have family in Israel. Long story short: Taking the lessons from my ancestry together, there can be no non-anti-fascist Zionism because fascism is a tragedy also for the perpetrators. There’d never be peace. hevenu_shalom_aleichem.opus)

I said suggesting that New York is “Zion” just because of its Jewish population is a bad thing to say and I showed you the reason why.

…no you didn’t? You showed that there was a disparaging name for the Jewish community in New York. From that I infer your argument to be “NYC can’t be Zion because there exist at least some people that don’t like Jews to be there”, but, and you won’t believe this: There’s not a single place in the world where that’s not the case. Found a colony on Mars, it’d still be the case. It’s not a suitable way to judge a place’s suitability to be Zion. Few people being miffed at its existence, sure, but none? That’s just an impossible standard.

New York is host to the second most populous Jewish community, after Tel Aviv, before Jerusalem. That’s a fact, not some antisemitic conspiracy theory.

And now you stand here, introducing a derogatory term because… noone said it? What’s your intention? Make it more popular? Imply that the sentiment against Jewish New York would be any worse than existing sentiment against Israel? One has quaint strings up power poles and plenty of bagels, the other a genocidal maniac and convicted terrorist as minister of national security, I don’t think there’s a competition to be had, there.

The answer to “if you want to live in Zion” is “too bad.”

…or is it that you don’t want any more Jews in NYC?

Dude I gave up the moment I heard on the radio that the fucker killed Rabin. If you want to live in Zion move to New York.

…also, to the rest of the thread: If you think the US election was decided on Israel, please go outside and touch grass. Talk to people. You know, those flesh-and blood things usually found within metal containers on rubber circles that you rarely interact with. Ask them. Practically nobody in the US gives a fuck, and especially not enough of a fuck for it to be the #1 cause of things.

If it was just Poland they wouldn’t mind getting nuked if it means getting rid of Moscow. Ironically it’s being in NATO that’s holding them back.

We didn’t really stop importing Russian gas, there’s still long-term contracts if e.g. Austria refused to accept Russian gas they’d still have to pay for it. Situation is different with Germany as there Russia broke the contract, stopped deliveries even though Germany was paying, so the country got out of the long-term contract for free.

When it comes to self-sanctioning have a look at Russia sanctioning European food exports. Not that the Faroese would ever complain, of course, they’re selling tons of fish to Russia right now who can blame them their yearly GDP is like three patriot batteries.

How about getting rid of the gas dependency altogether?

Already in the works, though for the time being (until fusion) Europe will be dependent on imports for energy and chemical feedstock but in the future that’s going to be ammonia (aka transportable hydrogen) from e.g. Canada and Namibia, produced by gigantic amounts of new solar and wind installations.

Also even though fusion is slated to finally arrive in the 2030s (Max Planck is now getting into commercialisation so yes it’s serious) it’s probably going to be a while before it’s price-competetive with renewables from places really suited for renewables, especially when we’re not talking raw electricity but stuff that can be transported more easily. So those investments abroad won’t be instant write-offs.

The majority of Taiwanese don’t want the status quo, but prefer kicking the can down the road over the autonomous mainland provinces throwing a fit.

I can think of the example of learning how to use a defibrilator, which has become a standard for any person graduating highschool in my country.

You know what? I almost wanted to write “consider it a part of school” in my original comment. Probably should have.

It also doesn’t have to be all at one time, back in my days I did about a weekend a month over three years. In one year I got all my necessary hours from a single two-week course camp: Because I wasn’t at home at all during the time those were 14x24 hours even though the course load was what six hours weekdays, the rest party. Meaning to say: Don’t picture military basic with a drill instructor. Noone has ever accused catastrophe defence to be disciplined unless sirens are blaring.

Not to mention: In many places, particularly villages, it’s practically mandatory anyway: Everyone, at least if male, becomes a fire fighter. You don’t have to stay on for regular duty but you gotta learn the basic ropes so that if shit really hits the fan you know how to help. It’s actually more about re-kindling that kind of attitude in cityfolk.

There’s another reason to say “hell no” to it: People who don’t want to fight suck at fighting. Conscripts are a headache to officers.

What I would be in favour of is mandatory service, though – if you want, and only then, in the military, but the default “I don’t care where I end up” would land you somewhere in catastrophe relief, learning how to operate a field kitchen and how to reinforce a dike. Basic paramedic training, such stuff.

Catastrophe relief is even more reliant on reserve forces than the military when shit hits the fan, and when it does it generally drowns in volunteers – trouble being if people have no training you can’t use them for much more than filling sandbags. Knowing how the organisational structure works and having some experience operating within it is worth tons on its own, even if you have no specific skills that are needed. Also evacuating a city is way easier if the city broadly knows how to evacuate itself. Triage is way easier if you have an army of people capable of dealing with the easy stuff.

Go ahead, go outside onto the streets, and proclaim “I want lots of people murdered. The more we murder, the better. We really should get started now, what are you waiting for” and see where that’s going to end, even in places like the US. Then realise that showing the Nazi salute expresses that exact same thing.

There’s no such thing as non-criminal fascism. Thus advocating for it is advocating for, condoning, approving etc. of crimes which is a crime literally everywhere, rightfully so.

Fascism is not an opinion, it’s a crime.

You were describing me, rather than discussing the issue.

I have been discussing the issue. You failed, repeatedly, to acknowledge developmental psychology 101, that is, you didn’t discuss the issue. Thus, to work towards the possibility of a discussion about the original issue, I expanded the discussion to your person.

Because unless and until you realise that you’re doing your darndest to not look at relevant factors there can be no progress. And with this I’m actually out.

I reject the idea that only a fully mature frontal cortex is capable of restraining someone from murdering a teenager. Even a radically undeveloped frontal cortex is more than capable.

And I suppose you’re a neuroscientist, behavioural psychologist, and generally smarter than literally every single person working in juvenile justice.

Everything else in your last comment is an ad hominem, and doesn’t need a response.

No. I was describing your character as I inferred from your behaviour, I was not making arguments based on it. Learn your fallacies: “You are a numpty, therefore, you are wrong” is ad hominem. “You are wrong, therefore, you are a numpty” is not.

“Choose”. There it is again. Read up on what the frontal cortex does. You’re ignorant and unwilling to rectify it.

If I were mean I could now claim that’s a choice on your part. But, no: You simply lack the self-control necessary to do your research before you form an opinion and post it online. That little step back, saying “wait, is this right”, that “should I consider this impulse more closely before acting on it”. You’re lacking it, and by golly our 15yold is lacking it. He has an excuse, you, presumably, are old enough to have a fully developed frontal cortex.

Please, again, read up on developmental psychology, and what the prefrontal cortex does. The alternative, for you, is to effectively have zero empathy for anyone younger than the early 20s. Whether they murdered or stole a cookie or broke a toy.

I’m out of here lest sounding like a broken clock.

His upbringing isn’t relevant to the issue.

Why? Because it would put blame on the adults? Because you want to, at all cost, deflect responsibility from the ones in the position to provide warmth without there being a burning village?

I call that spineless.

He isn’t owed any societal protections for deciding to kill someone.

Why, then, are the adults owed social protections for deciding to turn him into the kid he became? And yes I used “decided” deliberately here: If he decided to become a murderer, then the adults can’t claim that “it was an accident”, “we didn’t mean to” when it comes up to turning him into a murderer.