My friend, you are still confused.

I was giving the framing that comes from the billionaire owned western media oligopoly position.

that isnt my position

What gave you the idea that I’m dismissing them? I think you’re confused.

Good quote tho

I think the “temporarily embarrassed millionaire” idea is overstated, most people I interact with have a somewhat negative outlook on the economy and their future wealth.

I think the real issue is that no viable alternative is presented to most people.

The alternatives presented are Russian-style authoritarian oligarchy, Islamofascism, or a Venezuela-style “socialism” in which the narrative only focuses on poverty.

Saying “maybe people are the problem” is reductive and unhelpful. But I agree with you broadly, religion is just a system or a tool, it can be used for good or evil.

To judge if religion is a good system or a bad one, we can use a cost benefit analysis. This is what we have been attempting to do in this thread.

But when it comes to sensitive subjects like religion, many people have a tendency to avoid, overlook, and deny the associated costs.

Anti-science, misogyny, etc may be bad independently of religion, but they aren’t independent of religion. Religion is a source of these problems.

You can imagine a hypothetical religion that is simply a “social club” or whatever, but here in the real world religion comes with baggage.

Religion is why my cousin’s children have never seen a doctor in their life. Religion is why my gay friend in high school tried to kill himself. Religious indoctrination has led to lifelong shame and trauma in many of my friends.

And this was just from a “moderate” sect of Christianity- the millions living under fundamentalist religion have it even worse.

What you said is all true, but you are ignoring the negative aspects of religion.

Religious influence, both on their followers and on government, is anti-science, misogynistic, and anti-LGBT.

Religions are funded like pyramid schemes, with the most desperate and vulnerable as their victims.

Religious indoctrination is child abuse.

The world finding another oil and gas reserve is like an alcoholic finding a secret door to a fully stocked bar.

We’re probably going to drink ourselves to death.

Even if we overlook the unimaginable horror these humans are enduring, this is terrible policy.

Sde Teiman detention is now the world’s leading terrorist recruitment center, and I have little doubt that its graduates will be seeking revenge on the West with suicidal furor.

Yes the Ford F-150 can be used to commute, but you dont see UPS purchasing a new fleet of F-150s to deliver packages. People dont usually accept that level of inefficiency when the price tag is measured in billions.

My point was that the US has a variety of child-shredding and apartment-exploding warplanes that they would be happy to sell to Israel, so why did Israel choose the plane-destroying version instead?

Other commenters gave a good answer: these are likely in the F-15E family, which are equipped to shred children and explode apartments.

The F-15 is an air superiority fighter. It is designed to destroy other aircraft, and has little use in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

So when these are delivered in 5 years, who will Israel be attacking? Lebanon? Syria? Iran?

This deal feels more like a short-term bribe to keep the US military industrial complex on Israel’s side.

Biden lost my vote when he told the American people he saw pictures of 40 beheaded babies.

I still have hope he can earn it back- but that would require a significant, unlikely change in foreign policy.

I would start with MLK, collected essays, no one writes about protest more eloquently.

A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn gives a great broad overview.

Death in the Haymarket by James Green is a great history of the first decades of the labor movement.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Leadership in Turbulent Times goes in depth on LBJ and the civil rights movement.

On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau for the classic philosopher’s take.

We’ve Got People by Ryan Grim details the successes and failures of the movement in the last decade.

You should educate yourself on the history of protest. The media has always been a serious impediment. There was never an “entire population” uniting or a “simple goal that others could get behind”. It was always extremely difficult. It often looked hopeless. Many people were killed in the streets, and others were brave enough to replace them.

Overall I think feeling helpless in the face of monumental challenges is normal. But closing your eyes and telling yourself “nothing can ever change, so why bother” is self-soothing and pathetic.

Things can change, and you can be a part of that positive change if you put in real effort.

What are we gonna do, vote?

“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal” - Emma Goldman

In the last 100 years, protest movements have given us women’s suffrage, workers rights including the weekend and overtime pay, gay rights, civil rights, etc. History shows us that we can have positive change, but it’s not as easy as just voting.

We can see right now how protest movements are moderating the Democrat’s support of Israeli war crimes.

But don’t you feel a responsibility to the rest of the world?

Say if, for example, your tax dollars were funding an ongoing genocide and starvation campaign, wouldnt you feel a bit responsible to change that?

The document said several UNRWA Palestinian staffers had been detained by the Israeli army, and added that the ill-treatment and abuse they said they had experienced included severe physical beatings, waterboarding, and threats of harm to family members

So UN employees were abducted and tortured, then forced to repeat Israel’s propaganda line, in an attempt to justify their whole genocidal endeavor.

JDAM-equipped bombs hit a target with an error range of only 20 feet.

Israel has full air control, as well as numerous spy satellites to monitor Gaza in real time.

I believe the attacking force does care exactly where their strikes hit. This is deliberate.

Its hard to think of anything more heroic than going overseas to run a charity kitchen in a famine-stricken warzone.

The doctors say the government should first address pay and working conditions before trying to increase the number of physicians.

Imagine the returns if that wealth was invested in education and healthcare instead of yachts and empty luxury housing.