Hotter, Badder, and Unpopularer Takes

[BP🌹]

If M4A is ever enacted, those who used to work for health insurance companies should receive no retraining or special assistance of any kind. They're the ones who chose to work for such an evil industry.

[BP🌹]

I kind of want Democrats to hemorrhage support among South Florida Hispanics.

[BP🌹]

I don't care much about marijuana laws because even where it's legal, it's so regulated that it's still cheaper if you have a plug.

[BP🌹]

The word 'terrorist' needs to be retired. If it was ever a useful term that was consistently applied, it certainly isn't now.

[BP🌹]

If Trump has caused as much damage to American institutions as his biggest critics allege, that's a good thing because those institutions were garbage anyway.

To be clear: I despise Trump, but I think TDS is real, and don't like spending so much energy on criticizing him because he's only one person and one aspect of a wretched system.

[BP🌹]

The degree to which anti-Chinese bigotry contributes to some Western discourse about China is under-discussed.

yes, I promise I'll be done soon - I just have some unfinished business to attend to

[BP🌹]

The world would be a much better place today if the Soviet Union still existed.

[BP🌹]

Do you also think that the Soviets were the Good Guys in the Cold War? (Well, after Stalin died, of course.)

Generous assumption.

[BP🌹]

North Korea has a right to exist.

[BP🌹]

Palestinians are often criticized for demanding more from Israel than has been demanded of any other country in history (particularly with regards to the refugee issue), to which I say that isn't our fault that other nations haven't been as assertive of their rights.

[BP🌹]

Palestinians are often criticized for demanding more from Israel than has been demanded of any other country in history (particularly with regards to the refugee issue), to which I say that isn't our fault that other nations haven't been as assertive of their rights.

As someone who is sympathetic to how badly Palestinians get treated I want to be fair to say that the real source of criticism of Palestinians has to do more with the toleration of the religious extremist/“this is our holy land begone infidel”/“Israel should be wiped off the map” crowd

Ironically, Israel had a role in Hamas' creation. It's their Frankenstein monster. It was in the 80s, around the time of the First Intifada, and they thought they'd sow division among Palestinian factions and use Islamists as a counterweight to the secular PLO (which was the predominant faction at the time). And Israel is never going to try to dislodge Hamas from Gaza because the group is extremely useful for their propaganda, and for the Israeli right to get votes.

[BP🌹]

You can't be a good socialist if you:

-Believe America is a good actor in the world, and/or

-Genuinely value America's liberal (i.e. bourgeois) democratic institutions, such as the constitution, instead of seeing them as an obstacle to be overcome

Being a good socialist means good at being a socialist. Bad socialists may genuinely want socialism, but take other positions that hinder its development.

Of course, most self-proclaimed socialists in America are actually succdems.

[BP🌹]

I’m a Palestinian nationalist in that I believe in the rights of sovereignty for the Palestinian people, excepting the territories internationally recognized as Israel’s, and I’m a Zionist in that I believe in the rights of sovereignty for the Israeli people, excepting the internationally recognized Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank.
(#moderatehero, doesn’t think we should be racist against Israelis or Palestinians)

A two-state solution isn't incompatible with Palestinian nationalism, but do you support the right of return for refugees?

[BP🌹]

The idea that anti-Zionism is inherently antisemitic because it means that Jews should be the only people in the world without a state is incredibly dumb because actually, most ethnic groups are stateless, and they're not entitled to one either.

[BP🌹]

The idea that anti-Zionism is inherently antisemitic because it means that Jews should be the only people in the world without a state is incredibly dumb because actually, most ethnic groups are stateless, and they're not entitled to one either.

Ideally, all minority ethnic groups would have states. If you think it doesn't matter whether or not an ethnicity is stateless, look at the fate of the Kurds and ask yourself if the same thing would've happened if they'd had a Kurdish state and Kurdish institutions on their side. Maybe things would be going similarly but it at least would've been a fairer fight.

Full Kurdish independence sounds nice, but I think that it would end badly. I'm against Balkanization in general.

A better comparison would be the Roma, who are in a similar situation as Jews were (dispersed, not a majority in any place, and a long history of persecution). I wouldn't support them setting up a colony somewhere and oppressing the indigenous people.

Of course, we should do away with nation-states entirely.

[BP🌹]

I also don't see the comparison of Zionism to Kurdish nationalism above as valid because to me, Zionism isn't a form of nationalism, but rather an extension of Western imperialism that masquerades as nationalism.

[BP🌹]

At this point, Liberal Zionists are even more of an obstacle to Palestinian rights than their (more) right-wing counterparts.

[BP🌹]

Saudi Arabia is a natural ally of the United States - but that says a lot more about the former than the latter.

[BP🌹]

Being an anti-Assad hawk yet also being soft on Iran (or vice-versa) makes no sense. Yet for some reason, it's fairly common.