• Aequitas@feddit.orgBanned from community
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    2 days ago

    Do you read the fine print for “Deutschland verrecke” or “Death to America” as well, or does that only apply when it comes to Israel?

    Tell me: when Islamists in Iran, Afghanistan, or Iraq chant “Death to America,” do they simply mean the dissolution of the United States? Of course not. They mean the death of everything American, including American people. At least, that’s how I’ve always interpreted it. If you think that it’s really just an anarchist critique of US statehood, I would find that remarkable. “Deutschland verrecke”, on the other hand, is a phrase used almost exclusively by Germans. Context matters, as I wrote above.

    you get confronted with this on a fairly regular basis

    I don’t. And I’m in a lot of English subs.

    I refuse to believe that they don’t know this by now

    Even if that were true, which I doubt, there is still the possibility that some people will not accept your interpretation, but one of the others. The sentence could, for example, come straight from the neo-Nazi scene. And since you don’t know who is behind a post on the internet, ambiguities lead to problems. Especially when one of the interpretations calls for the death of people.

    because the rest of the international Left understands just fine what this slogan means.

    However, Feddit.org is not a left-wing, but rather a general instance like lemmy.world. I am also relatively certain that the sentence would be moderated away on lemmy.world as well.

    Nobody claims that this is the only way

    Yes, your previous poster claims that deleting and prohibiting such posts is “policing anti-apartheid ethnostate press against a current active genocidal state.” This ignores the fact that objective, unambiguous and clear criticism is perfectly acceptable and, in my experience, even represents the majority opinion (which says a lot on a general instance). To conclude from the rejection of “Death to Israel” that Zionism is supported here is not only logically incorrect. It is intellectually lazy, exaggerated, malicious, and, yes, childish.

    • thirdworldistWMD@lemmy.zip
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      7 hours ago

      Death of everything American, including American people.

      Based


      This user is suspected to have relations to Russo-Chinese state media and Marxist sympathies, please report any suspicious behavior to https://cia.gov/

      • Aequitas@feddit.orgBanned from community
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        4 hours ago

        @AntiBullyRanger@ani.social @Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com

        You said that the possibility of an interpretation of “Death to X” other than yours would be bad faith. But here you can see that this is not the case. Yes, I know this guy is just a sad edgelord. But because everyone knows that this interpretation above also exists, everyone also knows that it is ambiguous. It’s meant to be. Pointing this out is not bad faith, but simply describes why the sentence is also rejected by many on the left.

        • Spectrism@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 hour ago

          You made that comment with your interpretation, and someone agreed with that sentence on its own. How the fuck does this prove that “Death to X” can be interpreted as killing all people of X?

    • DiscoAssBlazer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 hours ago

      when Islamists in Iran, Afghanistan, or Iraq chant “Death to America,” do they simply mean the dissolution of the United States? Of course not.

      No, dumbass. This is just orientalist bullshit, I don’t even know what Iraq is doing here, you just don’t know what you’re talking about.

      Khamenei literally said otherwise. It’s a normal saying in iran, they even say it about traffic.

      At least, that’s how I’ve always interpreted it.

      Vibes based analysis, huh? Maybe try reading shit next time, instead of pulling racist bullshit out your ass.

      And, yes they have every fucking right to be pissed at Israel and the USA. Why wouldn’t they? The USA overthrew their fucking government in the 1953 for BP oil, and because they dared nationalize their oil industry. Israel is committing a genocide and colonizing Palestine, and have been fucking over/invading their neighbors for decades now. Not that your European ass would know shit, of course.

      • Aequitas@feddit.orgBanned from community
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        7 hours ago

        Calm down and don’t accuse me of things I haven’t said dummy. Of course Israel is committing genocide and of course the USA is a criminal country. Where did I give the impression that this wasn’t the case?

        And no, Islamists want people dead, including innocent civilians, as evidenced by their actions. I was just trying to express this in a less confrontational way for small-minded people like you. Even if one considers attacks on innocent civilians in Israel, the USA or Europe to be justified, which is disgusting enough, Islamists also kill innocent people in the Middle East. Be it in Rojava, as was the case a few weeks ago, or anywhere else. How pathetic can you be to side with these people because of your justified rejection of Israel or the USA?

        The fact that you call me a racist also shows me that you still cannot distinguish between religion, origin and ideology. So kindly shut the fuck up.

        • DiscoAssBlazer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          6 hours ago

          No shit they want people dead, you’re saying “death to Israel/America” in general somehow has islamist roots, it’s literally a normal saying in Iran dumbass.

          I was just trying to express this in a less confrontational way for small-minded people like you

          actually

          Again, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. I have provided two links backing my point, so far you have used vibes to treat your position as absolute truth.

          which is disgusting enough, Islamists also kill innocent people in the Middle East. Be it in Rojava, as was the case a few weeks ago, or anywhere else. How pathetic can you be to side with these people because of your justified rejection of Israel or the USA?

          No shit? I’m not defending them, I’m calling out your bullshit saying Death to X is literal, which no the fuck it isn’t.

          The fact that you call me a racist also shows me that you still cannot distinguish between religion, origin and ideology. So kindly shut the fuck up.

          You lumped in Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq all at the same time, you realize how little in common Iraq has to Afghanistan and Iran? You just mindlessly wrote US state dept enemies from the fucking 2000s, and again, you didn’t respond at all to the links literally disproving your bullshit completely lmao. Sit on a stick, Saurkraut

          Most usages in the middle east of “Death to X”, are not literal and it’s embarrassing seeing morons never grasp this lol. Even Wikipedia mentions this, not a mention of this hypothetical “islamist usage” you’re talking about. You don’t know what you’re talking about and that’s okay, just know when to shut the fuck about things you have no clue on 👼

          • Aequitas@feddit.orgBanned from community
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            4 hours ago

            you’re saying “death to Israel/America” in general somehow has islamist roots

            Once again, you are accusing me of something I neither said nor intended.

            No shit they want people dead

            So why all this stupid hostility? Then you agree with me that when Islamists say “Death to America,” they don’t just mean the American state. My argument all along is that the phrase “Death to X” is ambiguous, is used ambiguously, and prompts different people to take different actions. To be honest, I don’t know what there is to discuss. Even here in this thread, you see people who agree with the “death to US Americans” interpretation rather than “Dissolve the US”. The same applies to “Death to Israel.” Hamas, for example, also does not follow the interpretation that you would like to consider the only sensible one when it kills innocent civilians in Israel. If that’s not literal, then I don’t know what is. I provide empirical evidence that suggests a literal interpretation, while you simply post links that demonstrate that there are other interpretations as well. Which precisely underscores my argument of ambiguity. Do you just want to burn straw men here?

            “Death to Israel” will always be ambiguous. It is a slogan intended to provoke. At least when it is used by Muricans (or other westeners). And then tears about the evil and intentionally wrong interpretations of the other side are shed when the provocation succeeds, which was the plan from the outset. It’s the same tactic you hear from Karoline Leavitt every other day. Here in Sauerkrautland, the fascists are doing the same thing, of course. But it’s a pathetic tactic for leftists. That’s why you mostly hear it from internet edglords or armchair revolutionaries.

            • Unruffled [they/them]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 hour ago

              Here in Sauerkrautland, the fascists are doing the same thing, of course.

              Are they? Or are you just bringing the same brain dead energy as US centrist libs who like to claim that anti fascists are the same as fascists somehow? The one thing most Germans can agree on is that Israel “has done bad things” but that the Palestinians are “terrorist scum” who deserve whatever punishment Israel dishes out. That’s your Zionist mindset in a nutshell.

              […] But, by pushing anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, and anti-Palestinian laws to the political forefront, AfD has already mainstreamed its agenda and changed the country.

              The right has pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable, manipulating Germany’s culture of reckoning with its past into a commitment to defend Israel at all costs and no matter how extreme its actions. This proxy nationalism is defended by an unholy alliance of right, left, and center. Almost all German political parties, media, police, citizenship authorities, and even universities and cultural institutions are working together to suppress activists, scholars, and even the UN’s special rapporteur.

              “I was really shocked by the political pressure on the universities and the anti-Palestinian racism, and I intend to write a report about it,” Albanese, the U.N. rapporteur, told Drop Site after the event. “It’s clear that there is racism against the Palestinians here, negating their identity.”

              Under the mayoralty of Kai Wegner of the conservative Christian Democrats—whose party is predicted to lead in Sunday’s national elections—the city of Berlin has turned into a flashpoint for cracking down on pro-Palestinian speech, with protesters regularly brutalized, including Jewish students at a university occupation and women at marches protesting violence against women, as well as at a memorial for people killed by a right-wing terrorist.

    • Unruffled [they/them]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      17 hours ago

      You are the one assuming phrases calling for the death of a nation state are a literal call to genocide everyone inside that nation state. That’s the worst possible bad faith interpretation of that phrasing one could make. Yes it’s one possible meaning, among many others. Yet despite everyone here telling you your interpretation is bad faith and that’s not what we mean by it, here you are insisting your interpretation is the only possible correct one. I don’t know if the German language is just very literal about such things, but that’s simply not how English works. Essentially what you and Feddit.org and Germany itself has done, is to mischaracterise that phrase by redefining it according to your own biases, and then banning the phrase on the basis of your own definition. That’s what is lazy and malicious and childish.

    • Spectrism@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      Islamists may be fine with some civilian casualties, but I have no reason to believe that this is their main goal. Even the actual large scale attacks against the US so far (11-9) were directed towards the nation and its economy (WTC, pentagon, capitol) and not some random civilian hotspot. Then again, this wasn’t simply a religiously motivated attack and not every Islamist is the same, some may be more extreme than others, but to me the past events and expressions that I know of have not shown a clear intent to kill all Americans. I don’t think it’s really an anarchist critique, just a critique against the countless atrocities committed by the American governments and a call for systematic change, as in “Tear America down, then rebuild it into something that can’t just meddle in other countries politics and kill our people as it pleases”.

      The fact that “Deutschland verrecke” is coming from Germans doesn’t change anything about the situation, because ironically this one is sometimes accompanied by a “Bomber Harris, do it again!”, which actually is a call for killing civilians, coming from Germans themselves. But without the second slogan, I also wouldn’t think that this is a call for killing all Germans, no matter if it’s Germans or anyone else saying it.

      I don’t. And I’m in a lot of English subs.

      Have you blocked some instances or communities? Because I know for a fact that discussions around this are a somewhat regular occurrence, even with the instances feddit.org is federated with, because I was able to see them as well when I was there. It may not discussed as much anymore as it was up to a year ago, but still occasionally flares up, IIRC it also came up again in the db0 thread about the vote for defederating feddit, but I may be wrong here.

      The sentence could, for example, come straight from the neo-Nazi scene.

      Unlikely. Neo-nazis may be against Jews, but they’re generally very pro-Israel. Which is only logical, because ethno-nationalism is kinda their thing, and “better have the Jews over there than here with us”. Just take a look at right-wing and literal Nazi Twitter accounts and take a shot every time you see an Israel flag in their name or bio. You’ll probably pass out drunk in just 5-10 minutes.

      However, Feddit.org is not a left-wing, but rather a general instance like lemmy.world. I am also relatively certain that the sentence would be moderated away on lemmy.world as well.

      It still has an overwhelmingly left-leaning user base but yeah, fair point. And lemmy.world is the pinnacle of liberal garbage, so wouldn’t surprise me. Still, there are a lot of instances that are general-purpose or focused on other non-political topics without misunderstanding this slogan.

      Yes, your previous poster claims that deleting and prohibiting such posts is “policing anti-apartheid ethnostate press against a current active genocidal state.”

      They’re not wrong. Of course there are more objective ways to go about this, but that doesn’t change the fact that moderating such posts is useless policing (hint: “policing” doesn’t mean “not allowing one side to post at all”) against a side objecting to genocide and the existence of settler-colonial ethnostates. And if you’re so sure that it’s not a zionist instance, you could try voicing the opinion on Feddit that Israel shouldn’t and doesn’t have the unquestionable right to exist. I’m very curious if this more neutral way of saying it with no ambiguity about the killing of civilians will get removed. If it will be, which I’m almost certain about, it’s a zionist instance. But I’m open to be proven wrong.

      And sorry for slightly leaving the discussion at hand here, but with a societal, online and media landscape that has basically no issue with supporting Israel and the IDF or even being in favor of supplying (more) weapons to Israel, which has the known implication of more bloodshed in the real world, happening right now where thousands of innocent civilians, many of them children, are dying every month, we’re seriously making a fuzz about a slogan that simply calls for the dissolution of a state at best, and is ambiguous to the political illiterates at worst? This is insane, and I mean this in the literal way.