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Comment by Terr_

2 years ago

> An alternative explanation is that more people already have those views.

Treading a fine line here between Bayesian priors and stereotypes, but the worldwide Muslim/Jewish population split is something like 112:1. Obviously that's not going to be the same proportion on a given media-service, but it should still inform our expectations of what is the "default" state before theorizing about platform algorithm-tweaking or propaganda-campaigns.

This also presumes that any Muslim will be pro-Palestine and any Jewish person would be pro-Israel, a pretty strong statement given that entire communities within Israel are staunchly opposed to their ongoing actions against Hamas, which increasingly seem to be actually against Palestinian people, whom themselves also have a wide and diverse set of opinions about Hamas.

The war is shockingly unpopular on both sides of itself and seemingly the only people who are in favor of Israel's current plan of action is the Israeli government and the people who, for PR reasons, refuse to criticize Israel since Israel has done such an excellent job propagandizing people into thinking being anti-Israel in any way is synonymous with being anti-Semetic.

  • At least on the Israeli side, this is wrong. An enormous majority of people are convinced that the war is justified. 1200 dead; that would be the equivalent of 40,000 Americans. 240 kidnapped, with 137 still there. Hamas have proven their capabilities and determination. And then they say[1] that they intend to do it again. When someone tells you that they want you annihilated, and intend to attack you, believe them.

    [1] https://www.memri.org/tv/hamas-official-ghazi-hamad-we-will-...

    • Even assuming that's true and 100% accurate: shitloads of Americans after we watched three thousand people die on television were convinced that the best course of action was to "liberate" Afghanistan and Iraq, yet another set of quagmire armed conflicts that accomplished exactly nothing apart from destabilizing one state, destroying another, getting tens of thousands of American service people killed, and hundreds of thousands if not millions of Arab civilians killed, not to mention the incalculable damage to the economic prospects of two large middle eastern countries, the damage to their cultures, the damage to America in particular and the West in general's perception on the global stage, and the not only NOT VANQUISHED but in fact FRESHLY RE-ARMED Taliban! The fucking people we supposedly went there to eliminate in the first damn place, are now cruising around in American Humvees and capturing our assets that were left behind after the pull out.

      And we DIDN'T EVEN GET BIN LADEN THERE. We captured him years after entering the region, in PAKISTAN, a FRIENDLY state, with a single company of marines. No invasion required, no massive civilian casualties, and to my knowledge, we didn't give any terrorist groups a fresh fleet of well maintained vehicles either during that particular one.

      Like, at this point, if you still believe that the answer to these terrorist organizations is force, then you really need to bring some evidence to the table, because every time we go to places we are not wanted, and inflict our will upon people who do not want us there with fire and fury, we leave a decade later with an entire city's worth of PTSD afflicted soldiers, leaving behind billions of dollars in military assets, and accomplishing exactly nothing but giving the war profiteering class a fresh infusion of cash.

    • Of course they're convinced. They had their 11S to convince them of attacking a dense city full of people. The fifth military budget in the world by GDP wasn't able to detect a breach in a hyper secured wall with 24/7 cameras and reacted several hours later killing a lot of his own people. We need to carefully review and research the facts because this seems a reverse false flag event. A desired event for zionists in order to justify carpet-bombing a city to kill, displace and clear the zone for future settlers.

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  • > have a wide and diverse set of opinions about Hamas

    75% of Palestinians "support the military operation carried out by the Palestinian resistance led by Hamas on October 7th." 76% have positive views of Hamas (other armed terrorist groups have even larger support).

    https://www.awrad.org/files/server/polls/polls2023/Public%20...

    • I really wish people would stop citing pollsters with no pedigree. What is the Arab World for Research & Development? Who is funding them? Who is conducting their polls? Who staffs them? Are their results reliable?

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    • a standard situation where the leaders of a public are dictators and control education and media access, similar to russians’ support of their own terrorist leaders