Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.

~Ford Prefect

I have tinnitus, and bought a Bluetooth audio sleep mask so that I could sleep with the TV off and not keep my partner awake. That in itself was a game changer, but on top of that, I sleep way better with my eyes covered and I use it now even when I’m not listening.

(It’s extra weird because I have thick eyelids and see black when I close my eyes even in a well lit room, so I never considered that I’d need one.)

That sounds like a policing problem?

It’s not Lebensraum though. Palestinians are literally being oppressed.
Why are you likening the Palestinian struggle for freedom from oppression to the genocidal machinations of the third Reich?

You said “it is”. And it’s still a huge leap to infer that the call for freedom of Palestine would require the mass murder of anyone.
The chant doesn’t say anything about harming anyone, and it doesn’t say that Palestine is/shall be the only territory between the river and the sea.
This whole furore about the chant is devoid of logic.

It’s not “from the river to the sea, murder all Jews”, though, now is it?
Seems a bit of a leap, what you’re saying there?

Totally agree. I’m British, so bearing responsibility for all the horrific and stupid shit the people in charge of the place I was born have done is especially unappealing. Abolishing Israel isn’t the answer, nor is blaming powerless Israeli citizens. Even worse is attacking the Jewish diaspora around the world as if they have anything to do with it, that’s clear and unambiguous racism.
Similar is the disgust for China/the CCP.
Fuck the CCP --> valid criticism
Fuck China --> ambiguous, could be either
Fuck the Chinese --> outright racism
The problem is the racist can hide behind the likes of the middle statement, using it as a dog whistle, and it can seem like it has huge support, even though most of the people agreeing think they are agreeing with the top statement.

Would you prevaricate thusly when speaking about, say, the third Reich? Or would you “delegitimise” that entire state? Maybe you should think twice before publicly “demonising” the Nazis?

Sometimes a “whole state” bears criticism. Israel does, right now, because it is committing war crimes with western support.

The 3D test unfortunately proves nothing. It would be very useful if we could prove criticism of Israel was coming from an anti-semitic place, but you can’t, because you can’t read minds. It’s one of the most insidious features of all racism: it’s very easy to hide. At the moment, though, it is fair to assume that a majority of the criticism of Israel comes from common decency and human compassion, because the IDF are dropping tower blocks on children in their thousands in “self-defense”. Anyone enabling those types of actions is the worst of humanity because of their actions and decisions, not because of which god they pray to.

Isn’t Israel quite happy to keep Israel and Judaism undifferentiated, though? They seem happy to conflate anti-zionism with anti-semitism, and even any criticism of the state of Israel, or support of Palestine as anti-semitism. With such broad and frankly ridiculous definitions, I’m not surprised to see a rise in so-called anti-semitism.

I wouldn’t be surprised if hateful people did take delight in the genocide Israel is perpetrating, but I don’t see it. And criticising genocidal actions doesn’t require hatred for the perpetrators in order to be valid. Anti-semites were clear to lambast Israel at any point in the past 100 or so years, even more so now. And so were normal people.

Here’s a criticism of Israel for you:
The rise in anti-semitism is primarily Israel’s fault.

Comments like this restore my faith in the internet

I hope you’re right. The opposition haven’t indicated they’re going to rescind anything yet. They’ve shuttled so far to the right in the last three years in a successful effort to woo the disillusioned “centrists” that it’s really hard to get a grip on where they stand ideologically. All that can be said is they will do anything and say anything if they think it will get them more votes, and they won’t commit to anything which might upset the centrists.

Very good point.

You’re missing the point/s

1. What they’re doing is illegal. It has to stop immediately and they have to be held accountable
2. What they’re doing is immoral and every barrier we can put up against it is a valid pursuit
3. Restricting Google to data held remotely is a good barrier. They shouldn’t be able to help themselves to users local data, and it’s something that most people can understand: the data that is physically within your system is yours alone. They would have to get permission from each user to transfer that data, which is right.
4. This legal route commits to personal permissions and is a step to maintaining user data within the country of origin. Far from being a “dead end”, it’s the foundation and beginnings of a sensible policy on data ownership. This far, no further.

You forgot “fully automatic”

Same. I’ve got thousands of hours in Skyrim. It’s my favourite game of all time. But I’m more into sci fi than fantasy generally and Starfield is shaping up to be everything I would’ve asked for. It’s taken over my life and I have no regrets. Bethesda smashed it again.