would argue that Muslims are, by default, required by their religion to make the hajj. You make it sound as if it’s opt in, but their religion mandates it with some exceptions.

Nah dude, the vast majority of Muslims never go to mecca. It’s not a mandate anyone enforces but yourself. I think only like 9% of Muslims ever actually get to make the trip.

In the exclusive economic zone, the coastal State shall have the exclusive right to construct and to authorize and regulate the construction, operation and use of:

(a) artificial islands;

(b) installations and structures for the purposes provided for in article 56 and other economic purposes;

© installations and structures which may interfere with the exercise of the rights of the coastal State in the zone.

There no language in the EEZ article that mentions “territorial military outpost”.

According to who?

In the exclusive economic zone, the coastal State shall have the exclusive right to construct and to authorize and regulate the construction, operation and use of:

(a) artificial islands;

(b) installations and structures for the purposes provided for in article 56 and other economic purposes;

© installations and structures which may interfere with the exercise of the rights of the coastal State in the zone.

Can you link what article that falls under?

Nah, there’s pretty clear rules. It’s just that the main power in the region tends to ignore them when it suits them. Again, how is the Philippine government breaking international law?

I think that’s more plausible than China’s claim that their exclusive economic zone stretches over a thousand miles off their coast, and supercedes both Vietnams and the Philippines exclusive economic zones…

What’s your point?

You seemed to be suggesting that what the Philippines is doing is breaking the rules of unclos, but you haven’t explained how.

but flouts it at every opportunity. International law for thee but not for me.

How? They are allowed to protect the resources in their exclusive economic zone. China on the other hand is still attempting to enforce a claim that was invalidated by international courts in 2016.

Seems like you might be projecting on the behalf of China.

And how exactly does China’s claim work within unclos? The shoal is only 190nm away from the Philippines and should be part of the Philippines exclusive economic zone. If there is any questions of legitimate territorial claim it would be with Vietnam not China.

Also, stopping any navigation within your own exclusive economic zone goes against unclos, let alone stopping navigation of a country in their own exclusive economic zone.

No, it’s not socially acceptable. Yes, I wish it were.

Like, does this mean you are afraid of other people you don’t know judging you, or that you or your friends find it socially unacceptable?

Either way that seems to be more of an individual problem rather than a social one. I am physically affectionate with my friends and have never been confronted about it by a member of the public , not that I would really care if I were. People be dumb, I’m not going to let someone else’s projected homophobia dictate my friendship.

Japan is still a fairly insular nation, especially in regards to the topic of history. During the Meiji restoration they basically rewrote their own history, which also kinda requires you to ignore or reshape everyone else’s history to suit your perspective. As a result, I doubt world history is very well covered in their public education.

Those half-naked men made another face on October 7th

You do know that only 3k dudes attacked Israel on the 7th, right? The people responsible for the attack are almost assured to be part of the 13k “militants” already killed in action.

there are still hostages in captivity.

You mean the people who’s family are literally begging the Israeli government to negotiate a safe return for? The people Benny has been ignoring to satiate his lust for Palestinian blood?

Using historical factoids to shield modern Nazi states

How and who exactly am I defending?

Just because you are engaged with colonialism or genocide, as Israel is currently doing, does not mean they are “modern Nazi states”.

The Nazi did not invent these things, and generalizing every form of colonialism to equate to Nazism does nothing but excuse the hundreds of years of European imperialism that came before them, and the decades of imperialism that came after.

Zionism and Nazism are incompatible.

You chose the word incompatible… I said they couldn’t be equated to mean the same thing.

It’s just academically dishonest to claim that Zionism, (which was largely a response to Nazism) is the same as Nazism.

If we begin to accept this definitional generalization it will come back to haunt us. What do you think the liberal world will say if Palestine were to free itself from occupation from the river to the sea?

Wouldn’t they in their retaliation be creating a nationalist ethnostate via ethnic based violence? Wouldn’t we be asking for a little context and nuance then? Or would we just check the same boxes and say they were Nazis?

you people found your angle to attack rhetoric you don’t like.

People who don’t ignore historical context?

comparing Zionists to Nazis is based on their nationalism and commitment to oppression and genocide.

Again, reductive. Based on your own criteria basically every powerful nation today can be accused of being a Nazis.

By that criteria the Han were Nazis when they overthrew the Manchus, the American governments were Nazi when they expanded west. When you lose definitional context, all of history and it’s lessons begin to become opaque.

By just saying any act of colonialism or ethnic violence gets lumped in as Nazism, it redirects the blame from those who committed the acts to generalized ideologies that you associate with the third Reich.

Zionism is about Jews having land.

Again, highly reductive. This is minimalizing the hundreds of years of pogroms across Europe and Asia the Jews endured, resulting in the inception of Zionism in the 1800s.

I wonder, who wanted to give Jews Madagascar? 😲

Did you not read? I told you it was one of the Nazi schemes to answer “the Jewish problem” while stealing their wealth to redistribute among party members.

I’m not saying you can’t correctly compare aspects of Zionism to Nazi Fascism. I’m saying that you can’t equate the two to be the same thing.

Zionism’s popularity among Jewish communities in Europe didn’t become popular until the rise of Nazism in Germany. It didn’t become popular in Asia until the Soviets began forced deportations after the doctor’s plot.

Ignoring the actual historical context, just logically it’s full of internal contradictions. If Zionism predates Nazism by a hundred years, wouldn’t they be the ones who invented fascism?

You are accidentally supporting actual Nazi propaganda about the Zionist intentions for turning Germany into their new homeland.

Again, I’m not saying that I support Zionism, I don’t even support fucking borders. It’s just that if we continue utilizing Nazism for every argument, it loses it inherent meaning, thus giving cover to actual practicing Nazis.

I do however think it’s important to discus how fascist governments create fascist governments. It’s actually something Hitler and mousseline talked about, that to fight against fascism a governments only response is to become more militaristic, and thus more fascist.

Cause the seems pretty nazi-like to me.

Again, highly reductive.

You can claim that modern Israel is a fascist state, and that fascist states behave in similar ways. However, just calling it Nazism ignores the working history of both political ideologies.

The whole point is that for one to equate Zionism to Nazism requires you to ignore decades of historical context. Furthermore, equating Ukraine to a Nazi state ignores the fact that the vast majority (up to 7 million) Ukrainians fought for the Soviet Union in WW2 against the Nazi.

No it doesn’t. Fascism as definition uses what suits them best and what’s give them power, they are opportunists. The church was a good way for them.

Lol, no true Scott’s man for secularism?

Hard to be nice colonialists though.

Again, are all forms of colonialism fascist…?

Ok , if you like to split hairs, biggest funders of the state of Israel and it’s colonies at its formation.

Splitting hairs? The whole point of me saying you’re being reductive is that you are ignoring large swaths of historical context.

biggest funders of the state of Israel and it’s colonies at its formation.

Israel was formed in 1948, three years after the fall of the Nazi party…

The largest state contributor during the formation of Israel was Britain. They were in control of Palestine at the end of the war, not Germany.

I think you are recalling the Nazis “attempt” to relocate Jews to places outside Europe, including places like Palestine and Madagascar . The Nazi made several schemes to deport “willing” Jews prior to WW2, in reality they were just schemes to seize assets before the Jews left the country.

Google generic fascism. And nazi support for Israel.

Perhaps read more material about Haavaar agreement than a quick Google search?

The Germans weren’t funding Zionism, the Jews being forced to leave the country were, and the vast majority of property seized from the Jews never made it to Palestine.

Well… The former is fascist state that expanded its holdings by specifically targeting the latter.

Aspects of Zionism (especially modern) can empower a fascist government, however Zionism as a whole started as a response to European racism.

You can only equate the two as the same if you ignore everything up until the 20th century.

Nazism is a secular form of fascism , Zionism is a form of theocratic fascism.

Both of these claims are highly reductive… Claiming Nazism was secular ignores the complicity of the church’s role in the Nazi party and the Holocaust.

Zionism isn’t a form of fascism, though it can be supported by a fascist government.

Biggest funders of Zionism was the third reich

Zionism has been a thing since the 19th century and continues into the 21st century, the third Reich only lasted 20 years… No the third reich was not the largest funder of the Zionist movement.

Not all bad geopolitical events can be defined as fascist.

Lol, It’s crazy that people have been misusing terms like Zionist and Nazi so frequently that they’ve lost their inherent meaning.

How exactly does one become both a Zionist and a Nazi?

You’re so propagandized that you are conflating two opposing ideologies.

No worries, there’s a lot of narratives about assange being pushed around lately.

As I said originally, I don’t think he deserves to be put in a black box or anything. But I do believe he’s a self important ass, who is probably extremely unpleasant to be around.

Most of my opinions on him were formed around how he treated his original team at wikileaks. He did release information that needed to released, but the way the dude released the information was against the wishes of his very capable (at the time) team, who were highly (rightly) concerned about endangering their sources.

Hell, his original security architect stole their servers and destroyed them afterwards because Assange was constantly going rogue and ignoring security protocols.

Any “journalist” willing to endanger their sources or their opsec for headlines and personal glory isn’t a journalist imo.