The outpouring of anti-semitism we have seen, the fear that British Jews are feeling, the utter unkindness - to put it at its absolute mildest - of stopping a van showing the pictures of hostages, of tearing down posters showing their faces and names - barely days after a vicious, violent and cruel pogrom is shameful. It should shame the perpetrators. It shames me that this should be happening here and that my Jewish friends, neighbours and relations are fearful and worried. Those who excuse it or do the usual whataboutery or turn a blind eye to it are, frankly, little better than those perpetrating it. What have we become?
I hope and believe that the vast mass of the British population are tolerant and welcoming.
There is always a minority of ill-wishers, so home-grown and others who have moved here since immigration policy was dramatically loosened some 20+ years ago.
The issue is that the silent majority have been cowed by the noisy shrieks of “racists” and “Islamaphobe” when they raise concerns about cultural norms and differences.
There is a clash of civilisations. Multiculturalism has been an unmitigated disaster for the west. If people want to move here they must accept our values and integrate into our society.
Multiculturalism is how we have a distinctive Jewish community. Or should we have forcibly converted them to Protestantism in the 19th Century?
Most (many?) Jews in the UK are fully integrated into our society. Integration doesn’t mean that they have to abandon their culture and traditions, faith or beliefs.
I am more troubled by some of the ultra Orthodox communities - I recall a radio programme a few years ago about the suffering of a female member of that community who tried to get divorced from her controlling and abusive husband.
There are fundamental principles that anyone who wishes to live in the UK needs to accept and abide by.
That is the same as other multicultural communities. Varying integration and customs, and varying integration (if we could even agree on what "integration" or "British Culture" mean).
Why not just be open and say that you don't like Muslims? Or do you also have a problem with Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Irish Catholics etc etc?
Because it’s not true
I have an issue with anti-Semites. With homophobes. With racists.
I don’t equate those groups with Muslims. Although it seems that you do.
The outpouring of anti-semitism we have seen, the fear that British Jews are feeling, the utter unkindness - to put it at its absolute mildest - of stopping a van showing the pictures of hostages, of tearing down posters showing their faces and names - barely days after a vicious, violent and cruel pogrom is shameful. It should shame the perpetrators. It shames me that this should be happening here and that my Jewish friends, neighbours and relations are fearful and worried. Those who excuse it or do the usual whataboutery or turn a blind eye to it are, frankly, little better than those perpetrating it. What have we become?
I hope and believe that the vast mass of the British population are tolerant and welcoming.
There is always a minority of ill-wishers, so home-grown and others who have moved here since immigration policy was dramatically loosened some 20+ years ago.
The issue is that the silent majority have been cowed by the noisy shrieks of “racists” and “Islamaphobe” when they raise concerns about cultural norms and differences.
There is a clash of civilisations. Multiculturalism has been an unmitigated disaster for the west. If people want to move here they must accept our values and integrate into our society.
Multiculturalism is how we have a distinctive Jewish community. Or should we have forcibly converted them to Protestantism in the 19th Century?
Most (many?) Jews in the UK are fully integrated into our society. Integration doesn’t mean that they have to abandon their culture and traditions, faith or beliefs.
I am more troubled by some of the ultra Orthodox communities - I recall a radio programme a few years ago about the suffering of a female member of that community who tried to get divorced from her controlling and abusive husband.
There are fundamental principles that anyone who wishes to live in the UK needs to accept and abide by.
That is the same as other multicultural communities. Varying integration and customs, and varying integration (if we could even agree on what "integration" or "British Culture" mean).
Why not just be open and say that you don't like Muslims? Or do you also have a problem with Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Irish Catholics etc etc?
Because it’s not true
Now fuck off
Golly, a tad unnecessary and unpleasant.
I agree. Very unnecessary and unpleasant of @Foxy to accuse me of “not liking Muslims”
The outpouring of anti-semitism we have seen, the fear that British Jews are feeling, the utter unkindness - to put it at its absolute mildest - of stopping a van showing the pictures of hostages, of tearing down posters showing their faces and names - barely days after a vicious, violent and cruel pogrom is shameful. It should shame the perpetrators. It shames me that this should be happening here and that my Jewish friends, neighbours and relations are fearful and worried. Those who excuse it or do the usual whataboutery or turn a blind eye to it are, frankly, little better than those perpetrating it. What have we become?...
...exactly the same as we were yesterday
I take your point, but the salient point is not how much has been detected but how little in compatison. Norway has 5 million people. NZ has 5 million. UK has 68 million. And yet the stuff circulating on Twitter is extremely small in comparison. Out of 78 million people, the number of incidents is extraordinarily small. And no doubt there will be others. A death here, an appalling sign there, a shouty politician, a bad tweet, and no doubt Jeremy Corbyn in his usual both-sides way. But there are 500 million tweets per day and there are well over a billion people in the West.
If you take anything from this, take this. You need three things to assess a datum; the absolute value, the relative value, and the threshold. In this context the absolute value is the number of incidents/tweets, the relative value is the number of incidents (or tweets) divided by total people (or total tweets), and the threshold is how many is usual.
As a society we are far too quick to draw conclusions from the pixels on our phone or tablet.
"Ukrainian reconnaissance spotted what they claim to be a Polutorka, a 1930s pre-WWII GAZ AA truck, used by Russians to assault Ukrainian positions south of Avdeevka."
… While the president expressed deep understanding of Israel’s moral and strategic dilemma, he pleaded with Israeli military and political leaders to learn from America’s rush to war after Sept. 11, which took our troops deep into the dead ends and dark alleys of unfamiliar cities and towns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
However, from everything I have gleaned from senior U.S. officials, Biden failed to get Israel to hold back and think through all the implications of an invasion of Gaza for Israel and the United States. So let me put this in as stark and clear language as I can, because the hour is late:
I believe that if Israel rushes headlong into Gaza now to destroy Hamas — and does so without expressing a clear commitment to seek a two-state solution with the Palestinian Authority and end Jewish settlements deep in the West Bank — it will be making a grave mistake that will be devastating for Israeli interests and American interests.
It could trigger a global conflagration and explode the entire pro-American alliance structure that the United States has built in the region since Henry Kissinger engineered the end of the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
I am talking about the Camp David peace treaty, the Oslo peace accords, the Abraham Accords and the possible normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The whole thing could go up in flames.
This is not about whether Israel has the right to retaliate against Hamas for the savage barbarism it inflicted on Israeli men, women, babies and grandparents. It surely does. This is about doing it the right way — the way that does not play into the hands of Hamas, Iran and Russia...
That excerpt doesn't actually explain why it would be a terrible mistake, other than shattering various illusions.
Some people just really don't like to have their shibboleths challenged.
When you read about how "shibboleth" came to be in the language, it was rather genocidal.
Judges 12:6
4 Jephthah then called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh.”
5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied, “No,”
6 they said, “All right, say ‘Shibboleth.’ ” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.
"Only" 4,200 Palestinians so far...
According to the same sources that reported 500 deaths from a hospital bombing . . .
Buddy is fucked unless he's added the HP8 tranny cooler from a Jeep Grand Cherokee. I towed 3,500kg at 100mph+ in my 335d after I did that. Keine Probleme.
On topic, another excellent article from @Alanbrooke. And there's not a lot I can add.
Except perhaps for two things:
(1) I think there is a more innovative work going on in China that @Alanbrooke probably gives them credit for. The speed at which they have been able to replace Western/Taiwanese/Korean supply chains in the smartphone space being one area.
(2) As China population ages, and as the government needs to provide for its population, the less they will run massive trade surpluses, and the less room there is for China to throw their weight around economically. They are going to find themselves constrained in a way that just isn't the case right now.
Should I bring up Zeihan on Chinese Demographics again? Yes. yes, I think I should
Comments
NEW THREAD
I have an issue with anti-Semites. With homophobes. With racists.
I don’t equate those groups with Muslims. Although it seems that you do.
...exactly the same as we were yesterday
I take your point, but the salient point is not how much has been detected but how little in compatison. Norway has 5 million people. NZ has 5 million. UK has 68 million. And yet the stuff circulating on Twitter is extremely small in comparison. Out of 78 million people, the number of incidents is extraordinarily small. And no doubt there will be others. A death here, an appalling sign there, a shouty politician, a bad tweet, and no doubt Jeremy Corbyn in his usual both-sides way. But there are 500 million tweets per day and there are well over a billion people in the West.
If you take anything from this, take this. You need three things to assess a datum; the absolute value, the relative value, and the threshold. In this context the absolute value is the number of incidents/tweets, the relative value is the number of incidents (or tweets) divided by total people (or total tweets), and the threshold is how many is usual.
As a society we are far too quick to draw conclusions from the pixels on our phone or tablet.
https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2018/10/21/a-nation-once-again-part-1-the-economics/
https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2018/10/21/a-nation-once-again-part-2-culture-and-politics/
https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2018/10/22/a-nation-once-again-part-3-lessons-from-abroad/
February 2023
https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2023/02/21/give-us-unity-but-not-just-yet/
https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2023/02/22/theres-life-in-the-old-dog-yet/
https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2023/02/23/one-year-on/
October 2023
https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2023/10/21/braving-a-new-world/
https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2023/10/22/xi-whizz-where-did-my-century-go/