I didn’t want to direct this question to Americans specifically because, at this point, other countries have shown support to Israel in one or the other way. If my country was financing this, I would be taking the streets. Shit, I’m right now in the hospital but all I can think about is protesting anyway just to feel I did something to stop this madness.

Are you doing something about this? Are you feeling unsettled? How do you feel about all this mess?

EDIT: So, buying Chinese stuff takes the USS Gerald Ford to Gaza’s coast. Also, TIL that that chocolate my cousin gave me when she was 20 and I was 5, (delicious stuff!) made me a slavist-ish. The fact remains, this genocide is being paid and supported by taxpayers money; of course, I was hoping that most of us didn’t pay taxes wishing for this. Thank you all for your responses, some of them were hard to swallow.

  • FluffyPotato@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    My country has been voting to condemn Israel’s treatment of Palestine in the UN until 2022 but they will probably vote the same now. As far as I know my country doesn’t support Israel monetarily either so I’m pretty happy.

  • state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    I feel that taking one side over the other without allowing for any nuance in that complicated clusterfuck over there is disingenuous. I feel very sorry for all civilians caught between the many murderous assholes in that region, but I can’t fully support one group while completely condemning the other. Acting like it’s a black and white issue is so very wrong and not helpful.

  • ctobrien84@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I mean, if you’ve purchased chocolate in the last century, you’re supporting slavery by your logic. Same for many other commodities, but most people know about diamonds. You could be protesting your entire life, justifiably, about many things. Most people in the world cannot consume without inadvertently causing harm and suffering somewhere in the world. It’s nice that you’re now thinking about it though.

    • selokichtli@lemmy.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      I believe you are taking my question out of context. I didn’t start thinking about this just now. Ultimately, not every company owns representatives in the state. Yes, I believe we should be careful about what we consume and who’s behind those products, but it needs to be in the power of the states to control the best practices to produce goods; it is not reasonable for an individual, for one citizen, to ask for this. It is different with our governments, we can and should demand for them to represent us with dignity. As individuals, we can demand accountability for their decisions taken in our names. Companies don’t represent us, governments do.

  • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    If my country was financing this, I would be taking the streets.

    If I took to the streets over this, I would make protestors look bad because I have no experience, no social skills, no support network, and I’m a terrible rhetorician, especially when I am angry. Additionally, my family is fast to call the cops and has promised me that they would cooperate with the police if I ever got on their radar, so my presence would be a security culture issue.

    Are you doing something about this?

    Well, I have chosen not to work for companies that participate in such genocides, which is not a completely vacuous statement because they have sent me recruitment emails to design their fucking missiles! But frankly, I am fighting my own battles right now. I am desperately trying to find work. I am constantly fighting insurers to pay for the few times I ever muster up the courage to use my insurance. I am fighting my own goddamn family who will throw me to the fucking wolves if I can’t afford the rent. I am fighting the urge to walk off into the woods and fucking die of embarrassment at having accomplished so little at my age.

    So no, I’m not really doing anything. I’ll cop to that. I’ve copped to worse, and at least for now I can live with being a hypocrite. Sorry if that’s unsatisfactory.

    Are you feeling unsettled? How do you feel about all this mess?

    I fucking HATE America, I fucking HATE world governments, and this just adds to the list of reasons why. Unsettled doesn’t even begin to cover it.

  • magnetosphere @beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I don’t like it one bit.

    The government sees it as a strategic need to have a strong ally in the region. That view will not change, at least not anytime soon. The Pentagon considers it a national security issue, which puts it beyond politics. Unfortunately, I have to live with that.

  • GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Americans are the biggest donors, but Britain, Germany, and to a lesser extent Australia and Canada, and a handful of non-German EU countries also give Israel a lot of money.

  • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I love genocide. I just wish there was some way I could actually vote for it. Instead I’m stuck voting for the closest option which does none of what I want but fortunately both sides support Israel killing Muslims in mass.

    I’ll put this here because people are dumb as hell /s

  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Call your congressperson and senators. They might not listen to just you but the more people call the more their positions can be moved.

  • agitatedpotato@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    Defeated and hopeless mostly. Almost the same as I felt funding the war in the middle east after looking at the casualties and reading testimonies from US soldiers. It’s long weighed heavily on me that half of every dollar I’m required to pay to the government is used to kill people who have nothing to do with me, especially as someone whose worked since he was 16. The war in the middle east was met with the largest protests in US history at the time and nothing changed. We then elected a democrat who was given a noble peace prize, he kept the war going and killed many civilians with drone strikes. I don’t even own a house and the rate at which my savings are stacking up, there’s not much I can even afford to do. Welcome to the machine.

  • dirkgentle@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I don’t mean to derail the conversation, but it pains me to say that Europeans have been financing the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh by buying Azerbaijani oil with almost no repercussion.

    • selokichtli@lemmy.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      Do you feel represented by one of the political parties you may have in your country? Would they act in a general agreement with your own convictions?

      • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m an anarchist with no political representation. My country (US) has never been in agreement with my convictions. I don’t expect it to in my lifetime, but I am disappointed it isn’t even headed in a non-authoritarian direction.

        • dumdum666@kbin.social
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          I’m an anarchist with no political representation. My country (US) has never been in agreement with my convictions.

          Well this shows that not everything about the US is bad.

  • Aatube@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Leading question.

    Edit: For an actual “answer”, some people are in fact taking it to the streets. For your favorite country you can search for it and if you don’t want to do that here’s an article for the US. While you may argue that we should’ve expected this, at the time of financing all we know is that there was a first strike and people were angry. Now it’s different, at least in my local circle.

    Either way, this should not be a question for asklemmy. It should be in the politics community or something.

  • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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    1 year ago

    Depends on the genocide. For Isreal I’m fine with it because I think anyone would do the same in their position.

    • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      Depends on the genocide.

      No it literally fucking doesn’t. Doesn’t matter what happened before or what happens after. Genocide is never justified. Fire hot. Water wet.

  • robot_dog_with_gun [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    and supported by taxpayers money;

    nah our national taxes don’t pay for anything, a sovereign government prints fiat money before anyone pays any tax and part of what gives that money any real value is that it’s accepted as payment for debts owed to that sovereign.

    • GaveUp [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      They print money for the government budget but that massively inflates the money supply so to counterbalance that inflation, they destroy all the money that was paid in taxes by their citizens

      Taxpayer money funding government budget is fairly accurate

      • robot_dog_with_gun [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Taxpayer money funding government budget is fairly accurate

        you can print money up to the natural resource+ labor output of a nation-state and nobody is printing that much money.

        where did the 20,000 per person per year for all those years the US spent on its wars in iraq and afghanistan come from? it wasn’t tax revenue.

        • GaveUp [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          It wasn’t all tax revenue but taxes were definitely necessary for the US economy to not collapse while funding the war machine