Communism is inherently a political/economic ideology. Capitalism is primarily an economic ideology with political implications.

No, extreme is the further away an ideology is from centrist/moderate ideologies. At one end of the spectrum is fascism, at the other is communism.

Actually, it sounds more like you’re dismissing a standard political spectrum model to make communism sound less extreme than it is. Would you feel better if I used the word ‘radical’ rather than ‘extreme’?

No, it’s because communism is an extremist ideology. You literally can’t go farther left on the political spectrum than communism. That is the very definition of extremism.

By the way, capitalism is not a political ideology. It’s an economic one. I am a capitalist, but a centrist Libertarian one. I used to consider myself left of center, but the insanity of the left since Oct 7, 2023, has caused me to shift right of center.

I didn’t realize that was even open for debate…

We need less criminalization of speech, not more.

All forms of extremism are bad.

Sorry, copied but forgot to paste https://www.buzzsprout.com/2221234/episodes/15894912-chapter-26-introducing-muslim-zionism

I was wrong, it was Einat Wilf from the episode in her podcast where she talks about an article she co-wrote with two peace-oriented Arabs shortly after the Abraham Accords were signed. The whole episode is worth a listen, but the particular comment I referenced comes up around 10:15.

Would love to read more about this if you have a reference or link!>

It was mentioned on a podcast, but I listen to a lot of them so I can’t quite remember which one it was on. I’ll have to go back and find it.

Some ambiguity here - did you mean folks disliking Hamas (which I provided the survey showing it’s at 52%) or folks who like Israel (using folks who dislike the US as a proxy, suggests less than half).>

I mean Palestinians who are willing to coexist peacefully with Israel. It isn’t just about whether they like Hamas or not, it’s about their ultimate goals.

The CSM article gives me some hope but I find it very odd that the mainstream media doesn’t seem interested in the story. The one article you can find about Gazans resisting Hamas is in the Christian Science Monitor. Bari Weiss (I think it was her) recently told a story about approaching the New York Times with an idea for an article on this very subject because she had done an interview with a Gazan who was speaking out against Hamas and in support of peace with Israel, and the NYT responded, “Nah, we’re not interested.” Almost as if Western liberal media is suppressing those stories to promote a particular decolonization narrative of the conflict…

I don’t doubt that there are some out there, all I’m saying is that I haven’t seen anything to suggest they’re not a small minority. Oppressed people have protested publicly in many other countries but we don’t hear anything from the Palestinians against Hamas. Why don’t we hear anything about underground Palestinian peace movements? Where are the videos of people denouncing Hamas? They’ve been decimated by the IDF and now Sinwar is dead, so why aren’t people taking to the streets to celebrate?

There is literally nothing analogous about Israel and the colonization of the Americas, but for the sake of argument let me ask you this:

Do you think First Nations people (as we call them in Canada) would be justified in carrying out an endless campaign of terrorist violence against Canadian and American citizens in the futile hope that we would all decide to pack up and leave? If several hundred of them decided to maraud through towns in rural US or Canada, butchering entire families, burning people alive, sexually violating women, and then took a couple hundred people hostage, would your attitude be, “Meh, we did take their land.”

Then you’re not paying attention.

If that were the case then they wouldn’t have forcibly removed the Palestinians from their own lands stripped them of their homes and livelihoods.>

Are you referring to 1948, during the war started by the Arab League to destroy Israel? If the Arabs had accepted partition in 1937 or 1947, there wouldn’t have been a war. There would be a Jewish and a Palestinian state coexisting to this day. Zionism is nothing more than the belief in Jewish self-determination in our ancestral homeland. That’s it. It does not preclude anyone else’s existence or self-determination. That’s what defines Palestinian nationalism, not Zionism.

You’re welcome to explain to me why I’m wrong.>

As I said above, Israel didn’t start the war that led to the Nakba. The Arab League of Nations did. They lost that war. Twenty years later Egypt declared war again and Israel launched a pre-emptive strike to end it quickly. Six years later Arab countries attacked again, this time on the holiest day in Judaism. Israel won that war too. And now we have the war of 2023-2024, whatever it will be called, which was once again started by Hamas’s barbaric invasion and Hezbollah’s sympathy attacks from the north. There is a clear pattern in this history, and I didn’t even include the Arab violence against Jews that pre-dated 1947.

I hate it because it’s existence comes at the expense of others and they don’t seem to even want to stop.>

Except it doesn’t. See my first response above. The Arabs/Palestinians have had many opportunities to pursue peaceful coexistence and have chosen violence every time. That is simply because they refuse to accept the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East. There was no Palestinian nationalist movement until Israel was created. It is literally defined by its opposition to Israel’s existence.

Here’s one thing I can say with absolute certainty: If there was a magical way to eliminate the genocidal threats facing Israel and bring about peace in the Middle East without a single civilian death, Israel would take that option. Israel haters won’t accept that because they’ve been brainwashed to think that Israel is itself a genocidal threat, intent on taking over the Middle East. Which, for many people, is a reflection of some underlying antisemitic sentiments.

such as Gazans and Palestinians who just want to sit this one out and live their lives> I will be honest, though. I’m not sure how many of them would fit in this category. And that’s something I’m struggling with because I used to consider myself fairly left-wing and quite tolerant and respectful of diversity. But I just haven’t seen much if anything over the past 100 years to suggest that there is a critical mass of Palestinian people who are interested in peaceful coexistence. Quite the opposite, actually. But I think the coming days and weeks following Sinwar’s death will be very telling because this does represent the best opportunity the people of Gaza have since Israel’s withdrawal in 2005. Will they choose a different future for themselves, one that focuses on hope and peace? Or will they choose to continue the cycle of violence?

So are the Palestinians.> I didn’t say they weren’t. That’s the difference between the two sides in this conflict. The vast majority of Jews have always been willing to share the land with the Palestinian people, while the anti-Zionists refuse to accept that.

Yes you did.> Really? That’s your counterargument, a Wiki reference to the Nakba? You really know nothing about the history, do you?

And were being kept in the worlds largest open air prison.> Blame Hamas. There was a time before Hamas took over Gaza that Israelis and Palestinians freely moved across the border. That changed when Hamas started turning Gaza into a terrorist base.

Listen, you clearly know nothing about Israel and Zionism. You’re just blinded by hate and whatever crap you see on TikTok or you learn about from your keffiyeh-wearing college buddies.

LOL, does Israel look weak and vulnerable to you?

Jews are indigenous to the land. Do you know what’s underneath the mosques in Israel? Jewish temples and artifacts dating back thousands of years.

And we didn’t start any of the violence. None of it. Arabs rejected the presence of a Jewish homeland in the Middle East and have been trying (and failing) to destroy it for 100 years.

Once again, the Palestinian people have received billions in foreign aid. They are supported by Iran and Qatar, which are two pretty damn wealthy countries.

You clearly know nothing about Zionism. You are making generalizations about a movement and a people based on the behavior of a small number of extremists. Do you know what that’s called? Bigotry.

And I hate to disappoint you, but anti-Zionist Jews are a very, very small fringe minority. So when you say, “I don’t have a problem with Jews, I have a problem with Zionists,” you’re basically saying, “I don’t have a problem with all Jews, just most of them.”

They have basically destroyed Hamas.

They are kicking the crap out of Hezbollah.

The Iranian regime is significantly weakened.

Some of the world’s most barbaric terror leaders have been eliminated. Nasrallah is dead. Sinwar is dead.

Remarkable successes. Unfortunately some civilians have paid the price, but that’s what happens in war.