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> These being the only ones whose populations are worth having empathy with.…It seems you'll need to find another way to promote the "Israel's suffering is uniq

by dash2 2y ago

> These being the only ones whose populations are worth having empathy with.…It seems you'll need to find another way to promote the "Israel's suffering is unique" narrative. HN norms are to assume the best interpretation of your collocutor. This isn’t doing that.

aguaviva 2y ago
Then you should assume the best interpretation of my intent, as well. The commenter was really quite clueless when they said "No Western country in recent times has gone through something even remotely similar to what Israel has gone and is going through." To the point that we're forced to ask ourselves if it's even possible for someone be that clueless. It's also difficult to read that statement other than as suggesting that there must be something awfully special about what Israel is going through. Especially when suffering literally 30x-100x greater (depending on your choice of metric), also ethnically targeted, has been happening right there in the same time zone, just a few notches up (and in a thoroughly Western country which Israel has extensive cultural and ancestral ties with). It's not like it hasn't been in the news. And nevermind the suffering that has been happening in countries right next to Israel. Because they aren't Western and so don't matter. The mind simply boggles.
- dash2 2y ago
  This simply repeats the mind-reading and assuming-the-worst of your original comment.
  - aguaviva 2y ago
    Well, we disagree about the assuming-the-worst part, then. I think mine was fair enough take, given what they said vis-a-vis the actual state of the world in the past 15 years or so. Or at pretty much any time since the State of Israel has existed. As for understanding and inferring the intent of others -- it's an essential life skill, last we checked. Not sure why you'd try to knock it, when evidently it's a normal human capability that we all make use of to one degree or another, pretty much all the time. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind If you think I'm reading too much into their words, then you'll need to provide specific substantiation for this claim. Otherwise your remark is basically a shallow dismissal.

by dash2 2y ago

aguaviva 2y ago

Then you should assume the best interpretation of my intent, as well. The commenter was really quite clueless when they said "No Western country in recent times has gone through something even remotely similar to what Israel has gone and is going through." To the point that we're forced to ask ourselves if it's even possible for someone be that clueless. It's also difficult to read that statement other than as suggesting that there must be something awfully special about what Israel is going through. Especially when suffering literally 30x-100x greater (depending on your choice of metric), also ethnically targeted, has been happening right there in the same time zone, just a few notches up (and in a thoroughly Western country which Israel has extensive cultural and ancestral ties with). It's not like it hasn't been in the news. And nevermind the suffering that has been happening in countries right next to Israel. Because they aren't Western and so don't matter. The mind simply boggles.

dash2 2y ago
This simply repeats the mind-reading and assuming-the-worst of your original comment.
- aguaviva 2y ago
  Well, we disagree about the assuming-the-worst part, then. I think mine was fair enough take, given what they said vis-a-vis the actual state of the world in the past 15 years or so. Or at pretty much any time since the State of Israel has existed. As for understanding and inferring the intent of others -- it's an essential life skill, last we checked. Not sure why you'd try to knock it, when evidently it's a normal human capability that we all make use of to one degree or another, pretty much all the time. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind If you think I'm reading too much into their words, then you'll need to provide specific substantiation for this claim. Otherwise your remark is basically a shallow dismissal.