"The Bulwark is home to a fairly broad spectrum of political views. We’re pretty good with nuance. And we’re great at understanding what we don’t know and where our epistemic blind spots are."
Ehhhh, kinda.
Re: the conflict in Gaza, I've repeatedly pointed out that every single Bulwark contributor with the exception of Will Saletan has bee…
"The Bulwark is home to a fairly broad spectrum of political views. We’re pretty good with nuance. And we’re great at understanding what we don’t know and where our epistemic blind spots are."
Ehhhh, kinda.
Re: the conflict in Gaza, I've repeatedly pointed out that every single Bulwark contributor with the exception of Will Saletan has been conspicuously silent about Israeli misdeeds and about the disproportionate impact of the counter-attack on Palestinian civilians (both in Gaza and the West Bank, even though Palestinians in the West Bank had nothing to do with the Hamas attack).
I've pointed this out at least 1-2 x a week for the last two months in the comments section. JVL actually replied to one of them and said that IF it could be proven that Israel was engaging in collective punishment (a war crime) by cutting off food, water, electricity, and fuel to the entire civilian population of Gaza he would call out that malfeasance.
Problem with this reply by JVL was that Israel openly and proudly announced the above (obviously not using the words "collective punishment" as that is an unambiguous war crime, but proudly advertised the substance of the conduct) as of October 8, 2023 (at least 1-2 weeks prior to JVL's response).
I've yet to see or hear (in a podcast) anything from JVL since, actually living up to his commitment to call Israel out for this specific conduct.
It's therefore kinda difficult for JVL to proudly state that Bulwark contributors are aware of their "epistemic blindspots", when JVL in particular has repeatedly ignored people pointing out this particular pro-Israeli bias (not just by me, but by many many other commentators).
It's also a little bizarre given that his respected colleague Will Saletan has repeatedly raised these same concerns about the Israeli government's conduct in this war. So I would ASSUME that JVL has read and/or listened to at least some of Saletan's content over the last two months. At this point even calling JVL's approach to Israel willful blindness would be a stretch.
I think they have stepped back from this topic. I am no expert on this subject or war/conflict in general, I just feel that the world should have learned by now other "default" actions besides "they came onto OUR LAND and killed x people, so we're gonna go onto THEIR LAND and kill double." Etc. We should all have a general respect for life & want to see conflicts resolved in ways that allow innocent people to start over & heal, instead of create deeper hate and despair. The current leadership in Israel does not bode well for resolution.
It's so very disappointing that this response is so predictable that I literally called it on October 8.
I did the math to show that October 7, 2023 wasn't just Israel's 9/11, it was faaaaar worse on a per capita adjustment, it was closer to 15 x 9/11 which is devastating. But I also cautioned that restraint was crucial so Israel didn't make the mistake of invading Iraq for no reason, or the various other abuses of human roghts that followed (e.g folks have been in GITMO without trial and/or charges even laid, for over 2 decades).
And I also used the example of using air strikes which kill entire wedding parties, etc. which rather than help Israeli security, make it more perilous (effective recruiting tool).
And thank you, I'm glad someone is reading my posts!
Horrendous fact is that last week, Palestinian Gaza resident death numbers hit 20k. I did the math, means that over the course of 74 days, Gaza has been hit with the per capita equivalent of 13 x 9/11's EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Which gets us to this absolutely horrendous figure: 74 x 13 = 962
Meaning that as of last week, Palestinians in Gaza had experienced the equivalent of 962 September 11's.
"The Bulwark is home to a fairly broad spectrum of political views. We’re pretty good with nuance. And we’re great at understanding what we don’t know and where our epistemic blind spots are."
Ehhhh, kinda.
Re: the conflict in Gaza, I've repeatedly pointed out that every single Bulwark contributor with the exception of Will Saletan has been conspicuously silent about Israeli misdeeds and about the disproportionate impact of the counter-attack on Palestinian civilians (both in Gaza and the West Bank, even though Palestinians in the West Bank had nothing to do with the Hamas attack).
I've pointed this out at least 1-2 x a week for the last two months in the comments section. JVL actually replied to one of them and said that IF it could be proven that Israel was engaging in collective punishment (a war crime) by cutting off food, water, electricity, and fuel to the entire civilian population of Gaza he would call out that malfeasance.
Problem with this reply by JVL was that Israel openly and proudly announced the above (obviously not using the words "collective punishment" as that is an unambiguous war crime, but proudly advertised the substance of the conduct) as of October 8, 2023 (at least 1-2 weeks prior to JVL's response).
I've yet to see or hear (in a podcast) anything from JVL since, actually living up to his commitment to call Israel out for this specific conduct.
It's therefore kinda difficult for JVL to proudly state that Bulwark contributors are aware of their "epistemic blindspots", when JVL in particular has repeatedly ignored people pointing out this particular pro-Israeli bias (not just by me, but by many many other commentators).
It's also a little bizarre given that his respected colleague Will Saletan has repeatedly raised these same concerns about the Israeli government's conduct in this war. So I would ASSUME that JVL has read and/or listened to at least some of Saletan's content over the last two months. At this point even calling JVL's approach to Israel willful blindness would be a stretch.
I think they have stepped back from this topic. I am no expert on this subject or war/conflict in general, I just feel that the world should have learned by now other "default" actions besides "they came onto OUR LAND and killed x people, so we're gonna go onto THEIR LAND and kill double." Etc. We should all have a general respect for life & want to see conflicts resolved in ways that allow innocent people to start over & heal, instead of create deeper hate and despair. The current leadership in Israel does not bode well for resolution.
I have enjoyed your posts.
It's so very disappointing that this response is so predictable that I literally called it on October 8.
I did the math to show that October 7, 2023 wasn't just Israel's 9/11, it was faaaaar worse on a per capita adjustment, it was closer to 15 x 9/11 which is devastating. But I also cautioned that restraint was crucial so Israel didn't make the mistake of invading Iraq for no reason, or the various other abuses of human roghts that followed (e.g folks have been in GITMO without trial and/or charges even laid, for over 2 decades).
And I also used the example of using air strikes which kill entire wedding parties, etc. which rather than help Israeli security, make it more perilous (effective recruiting tool).
And thank you, I'm glad someone is reading my posts!
Horrendous fact is that last week, Palestinian Gaza resident death numbers hit 20k. I did the math, means that over the course of 74 days, Gaza has been hit with the per capita equivalent of 13 x 9/11's EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Which gets us to this absolutely horrendous figure: 74 x 13 = 962
Meaning that as of last week, Palestinians in Gaza had experienced the equivalent of 962 September 11's.