Macron really going out of his way to fuck over the French people, eh? Calls snap elections right after the far right wins big in eu elections, then refuses to follow the will of the people when said election backfires.

Part of my thinks the left will be better off in opposition, though.

I don’t know how to confirm this myself but I have read and heard that before anything else, after it was known Hamas fighters were inside Israeli territory, the IDF first move militarily was to start bombing Gaza. No one can argue honestly that the IDF defends Israelis - its literally just the most reactionary of religious Zionists that they serve.

Secular Jewish Israelis? Nah they can fend for themselves for a few hours, we’ve gotta attack Palestinian civilians, says the IDF. And that’s not even bringing up that 20% of Israeli citizens ARE ARABS, some of whom were also attacked in their homes in Southern Israel 10 days ago, but of course the same people calling Hamas human animals will go after them next (not to suggest they aren’t already, only that Gazans face more immediate extermination).

The impression I had gotten from interviews (Al Jazeera, the Guardian, Haaretz) was that Israeli civilian police were there and exchanged fire with Hamas but that it was HOURS before they came across any IDF personnel. I’ve been focusing on this less as the time goes on and the catastrophic situation in Gaza gets worse and worse, so maybe further sources have come out regarding the Nova Festival.

Regardless I would like to see consequences to the people who authorized a festival so close to Gaza in the first place…

Earlier this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken deleted and replaced a post on X, the former Twitter, in which he mentioned Turkey’s calls for a ceasefire

God, they even KNOW what’s right and then scramble to make themselves wrong

Hope these are accurate! PiS’s actions towards democracy and free press are sickening

Damn right when the premium plan is going up (at least in my country)

Yes, let’s escalate the conflict further, surely this will save lives!

Invading Russia = making political inroads into their historical sphere of influence. The “existential” threat to Russia is that it loses its historic colonial outposts.

If the rules of “secularism” disproportionately impact people only of certain religions then that is displaying favoritism, implicitly saying “this religion is approved, this religion is not”. That’s not very secular.

I get what you’re trying to say - historically “Muslim garb” was just “desert garb” suited to the dry heat but I do also think these terms have some religious connotation now.

What really grinds my gears in this is that actual Muslim feminists, not just white knight crusaders (and i pick that word deliberately) Europe are out there and people who claim to be worried about how Islam treats women could you know, listen to their perspectives instead of just assuming European “secular” values are objectively better.

So who then?

So now its “secularism is when some religions are better than others?”

No, secularism is when no hijab ./s

And who gets to decide?

It’s conveniently targeting one group and their religious expression. It’s different when they do it to themselves, like in Turkey before the AKP took power and started weakening secularism there.

Literally doing Gods work with comments like these. Thanks for the context and insight.

https://lemm.ee/comment/3033256

I had the same dire thought, but this comment really made me take a breath.

Hahaha epic

Kids have already protested these changes. Not to mention this goes all the way up to University, where adults are.

Does that mean that I grew up in a fascist west? Before diversity and inclusion were a thing anyone talked about?

No, because the political context of the 80s was different – there wasn’t a ban on it in your childhood because there was no such thing, even if some of the ideas and policies existed, they wouldn’t have been labelled “EDI” or “DEI”. The current move to explicitly ban these policies and offices from schools (and punish corporations for having it) is in reaction to a shift in mainstream American political discourse.

I don’t understand how fascism just POPS into the discussion

It doesn’t – the DeSantis Administration has continually built up a reputation of authoritarian governing methods combined with right-wing economic and social policies. IE: Fascism, or at the least, overt right-wing authoritarianism.

He governs Florida the way Erdogan governs Turkey, or Viktor Orban governs Hungary, attacking political opposition and consolidating power. He has removed 2 democratically elected District Attorneys and appointed his political allies in their place, including one who lost the election to the removed official. His political appointees are currently reshaping a public college into a “Hillsdale of the South”, after the private Christian college in Pennsylvania or somewhere. That college was previously a haven for trans and gay people. The Florida State Guard is shaping up to be a 21st-century version of Brownshirts, answerable only to the Governor.

I’m from the 80’s. It didn’t feel fascist to not grow up with diversity and inclusion classes You also grew up in a far less polarised time, which isn’t to say you grew up in a time when “racism was defeated” or something, just that more openly violent bigotry wasn’t tolerated. While I don’t exactly think that US presidents of the 80s were egalitarians who honoured the Civil Rights movement, they said all the correct things publically, condemning right-wing violence unequivocally.

Also, there aren’t “classes”. I believe you’re conflating things like critical race theory and EDI. Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are more of an institutional outlook that tries to consciously account for the fact that people hold certain prejudices that might lead them to pass up someone more qualified for the role. Most American corporations have DEI initiatives, even though most American corporations are still run by white men. It’s just that those white men are now thinking “Well, what other perspectives can we bring to the company to make us more competitive, and what are we taking for granted that might be impacting our business?” It’s not ideological, in fact, most of these corporations donate to business-friendly candidates of both parties. Public organizations can have these initiatives too, which is why you hear about it in schools and universities, but it’s still more about the teachers and workers of the school and not the classes.

And of course, the materials that go into solar panels and other renewable tech (lithium ion batteries) also appear out of thin air and isn’t extracted in environmentally degrading ways…