This tech issue might be over my head. I would try a different browser to see if the problem persists but honestly at this point it’s going to be a troubleshooting process.
It is crucial to understand the weight and gravity of the term “genocide”. It is not a term to be thrown around lightly or used carelessly. The act of genocide is the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. It is a heinous crime against humanity and a violation of the most fundamental human rights.
Unfortunately, the term “genocide” has been misused and abused in recent times. The ongoing conflict in certain regions of the world has led to the misapplication of the term, especially in situations where it does not necessarily apply. The mislabeling of such conflicts as “genocides” is not only inaccurate but also disrespectful to the victims of actual genocides.
The Tutsi in Rwanda, the Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge, the Armenians by the Ottoman Empire, and Darfur are just a few examples of the horrific atrocities that have been committed in the name of genocide. These are real genocides with real victims, and to equate them with other conflicts that do not meet the criteria of genocide is to belittle the suffering and pain of those who have endured such atrocities.
It is important to distinguish between acts of violence and genocide, as the latter is a specific and intentional crime. The use of the term “genocide” inappropriately can have serious consequences, including the potential to undermine legitimate efforts to prevent and respond to actual genocides.
Therefore, it is essential to use the term “genocide” with caution and precision. Those who misuse the term, either intentionally or out of ignorance, do a disservice to the victims of real genocides and hinder efforts to prevent such crimes from occurring in the future.
This is good to keep in mind in general although I’m not sure how it’s relevant here. In fact, there are the definitional points from Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide quoted by the order in the body of my post. The point of this ruling by the International Court of Justice is that there is a credible case for genocide here according to the definition of Genocide which Israel explicitly agreed to.
It really is a matter of opinion since International Law isn’t really law… they’re more like guidelines.
There’s no enforcement mechanism. A whole bunch of countries never bothered to sign or ratify it. The US specifically is not a party to the statue that created the International Criminal Court and has plans to attack it and extract people if their citizens ever get caught up in it’s processes.
There’s no doubt that the ICJ has well-known limits in the enforcement of its decision, and countries have ignored ICJ rulings in the past (notably the US, as you mentioned). This to me is not a failing of the idea of international law regarding the prevention of genocide but a failing of nations who would rather exist in a world absent of law since they are able to use violence to inflict their will on others. The problem as I see it with this line of thinking is that abandoning the pretense of international law rather than attempting to bolster it as an international community makes all people in the world vulnerable. The status of nations who violate ICJ orders do not exist in a permanent state of their relative power and could suffer the consequences of a lack of international law when situations change and once-invulnerable bodies become vulnerable. I believe in the basis of the legal prevention of genocide by the international community.
This being so, I believe that there are other consequences for nations found plausibly guilty of heinous crimes in an official international court of law pertaining to laws partially written by the state of Israel itself. Israel depends a great deal on its international reputation. A reading of its history of strange bedfellows reveals this desperation. Being plausibly guilty of genocide is not good for Israel’s relationships or economy. If Israel is concerned about outside threats, scuttling itself in the name of persecuting Palestinians is not a reasonable path. Only the far-right sensibility that Palestinians are inherently unworthy of sharing a country with European colonists keeps Israel from ending apartheid and granting Palestinians full rights as citizens of a unified state.
That’s talent, writing a wall of text extolling the importance of accurately labeling genocide which simultaneously minimizes a genocide. This is beehaw so I’m going to keep my mouth shut and hope Hanlon’s razor explains your comment.
Came here to say this but you beat me to it. I bet some of it is because people were skimping on heating last winter. Now that the prices are back to normal I think people will heat (and cool) more again. I know I have not watched my heating as scrupulously as last winter (even though I use very little energy 😇)
Obviously not trying to downplay this HUGE humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but why does media/politics always frame these things like adult men aren’t victims also?
5000 civilians (women who have borne children) killed is just a statistic; 2 mothers killed each hour is horrific and brutal. Love the intent, hate the headline. I’m with you, I’d prefer they not attempt to ply me with “think of the children mothers” rhetoric. This is a humanitarian disaster; it’s a shame so many humans have been immunized to destruction and empathetic grief by religion.
It’s obvious why the media does it: because it resonates with people.
No one is going to argue that mothers and their children are out there keeping the war going, asking for it. They are incontrovertibly innocent, not a single edge lord is going to say "well yeah, but maybe they were making molotovs and committing war crimes.
Combine the patriarchal commodification of women and children together with the mindset of toxic masculinity that treats the death of a man cynically as both a removal of competition, and as a failure on their part to survive, and you get a subconscious mindset that anyone else will only care about deaths if they were women’s or children’s.
Also, more specific to this conflict, Israel is actively framing any adult male (and many male minors) as being a potential combatant, and using that to dismiss their deaths as not bad. Pointing out that they are killing so many women and children (not just minors, but children) is also being done to make it harder for them to claim that their attacks are all or even mostly killing combatants.
Was he living under a rock prior to the visit? One of the worst ethnic cleansings in modern history is happening there right now, and that’s when he decided to visit?
Lot of talented highly educated people as well. There are some difficulties though, namely in regards to how… complicated the legal situation is for companies and investors is. It’s very much a system where the bureaucracy is so thick that you need someone who has connections to get through it all.
This is not to say that laws in India should be changed to suit the needs of foreign investors, just that the internal complexities make it difficult market to work in as a foreigner. Perhaps that’s for the best given the history of foreign “investment” and “business interests” in India.
Not that I am OK with how China is dealing with these things, but this is not exactly an LGBTQ+ issue. As per the article, the reasons for the arrests are kidnapping, not any law against being gay. In fact, China has essentially civil unions for gay people who want to be in a recognized relationship.
Ironically, in this case, it’s not a government problem but a societal one. The older generation is very conservative. They set the tone for a lot of censorship. So while your free to be gay or whatever, you can’t talk about it or make media about it. This is to not offend the older generation.
The older generation can inflict immense damage on their children as the article points out. If you disobey your elders like your parents, the police will tend to favor the elders as we see in this article.
As a cultural issue, this has kind of been the case since Confucius times. China is kind of famous for over controlling and overbearing parents. And in this case, the government backs them even if the official policy is to let them be. For example in 2017 China ruled that gay conversion camps illegal. Yet the problem still persists in 2019.
Of course as per usual, when the government doesn’t know what to do, it tries to censor everything and hopes it goes away on its own.
Like I said, not OK with it, but we should all be aware what it is and be aware of biased reporting from the news.
Did you read the article beyond the first paragraph? ONE case was related to a ‘kidnapping’ accusation. The rest of the examples have been about systematic persecution of LGBT related parties
While China has a law against domestic violence, it fails to adequately protect victims, especially LGBTQ+ people, say advocates, with crimes often dismissed as family affairs
And
Li Tingting (left) and Teresa at their wedding reception in Beijing, China, July 2015. Li, 25, a prominent rights activist announced their marriage in an effort to push for LGBTQ rights in China
As well as it gives several examples of abusive families who manipulate the law to attack those who help their children. Like the trans woman who tried to protect the run away trans woman.
I said it’s not good. But it’s not the government pushing this. It straight says so in the article in the quotes I’m posting.
As per the article, the reasons for the arrests are kidnapping
As I pointed out, kidnapping is a side issue, and unrelated to the majority of the cases.
this is not exactly an LGBTQ+ issue.
But it’s not the government pushing this.
From the article:
In recent years, China’s LGBTQ+ community has been swept up in the Chinese Communist party’s broader crackdown on civil society and freedom of expression. In May 2023, a well known LGBTQ+ advocacy group in Beijing announced it was closing due to “unavoidable” circumstances. Last February, two university students filed a lawsuit against the education ministry after they were punished for distributing rainbow flags on campus.
In 2021, the founder of another group, LGBT Rights Advocacy China, was detained and released on condition that he close the organisation, which shuttered shortly after. That year, dozens of social media accounts associated with university campus LGBTQ+ movements were also shut without warning. Shanghai Pride, the country’s longest-running celebration for sexual minorities, ended in 2020.
How is this not directly caused by the govt, and ‘not exactly an LGBTQ+ issue’?
I’ve already talked about it. When China doesn’t know what to do they censor everyone. But there are still gay bars and gay pride has gone into dance clubs.
Heck, they censored one of their most popular videos games genshin impact because it was too sexy. They censor straight sex too. In fact you could argue if they didn’t censor gay pride it would be preferential treatment.
Hell your quote literally says it.
Chinese Communist party’s broader crackdown on civil society and freedom of expression.
Look, if the LGBT population is being persecuted for being LGBT, that makes it an LGBT issue. If others are being affected as well, that means there are multiple, and broader issues, but that doesn’t make it any less an issue for the LGBT population. And it is very much being pushed by the govt.
Again it’s not about LGBTQ. It’s anything to do with dressing different or talking about sex. That’s why boy love films are so popular in China. They dress them in fancy traditional garb and have sexual tension but no kissing or sex. Hell some of them got so popular they got onto Netflix.
Here’s the main Chinese propaganda mouth piece promoting it.
right, but you do understand that these things are interrelated. not all anti-LGBT policies explicitly target only LGBT people. if you restrict dressing “differently” and talking about sex, the people who dress differently or have different kinds of sex (queer people) are systemically disadvantaged when compared to straight and cis people. and if there’s bigotry in your society, there’s no guarantee that these restrictive policies are going to be applied to everybody equally.
like, bathroom bills don’t have to mention trans people to target trans people exclusively, because very few other groups of people have the motivation to choose a bathroom that doesn’t align with their assigned sex at birth. if you restrict a behavior queer people are statistically highly likely to engage in, the fact that it could also impact other groups doesn’t make it not a queer issue.
Yes, but they are applying it equally. They are banning all mentions of sex, not just queer sex. They are censoring anything that shows too much skin, not just queer dressing. This is why I pointed out them censoring a video game made for kids. Basically they said a leotard was too revealing.
The problem isn’t the enforcement. The problem is the reporting. As society there reports against the LGBTQ more than other ones. Again, that’s not the government doing anything unequal or targeting. Which is why I said it’s not exactly an LGBTQ issue. It becomes one because of the older conservatives.
look, if the realities of a system or policy are statistically more likely to target queer people, it is a queer issue lol. restrictions on discussing sex publicly disproportionately affect those who are sexual minorities, because all “legitimate” channels for learning about sex are usually targeted for heterosexual couplings. there’s a reason why queer people have a vested interest in sex education. modesty laws are also more oppressive for queer people by their nature.
anything that regulates how people dress also regulates gender expression, because clothing in most of the world is gendered. there are things that women wear that men can’t, things that are “too much skin” for women and not men. if you legislate what people can wear, you have a very good tool for targeting queer folks, even if it theoretically could also be used to target other kinds of self-expression. you can’t make a modesty law that isn’t also anti-queer by extension, because modesty as a concept is defined by patriarchy, heteronormativity, and cisnormativity.
Yup, most of the world has gendered clothing. But this is China, where for decades they rejected that. Their school uniforms still rejects gendered clothing.
It’s only relatively recently come back from Western fashion.
They’re literally trying to fight against what your talking about to such a degree that even your normal concept of gendered clothing is different. And I know that’s hard to wrap your head around, but that’s exactly why I’m saying, it’s not exactly what you think.
*Edit: Let’s look at this from another angle. China has been trying to enforce gender neutral ideas for some time, like gender neutral clothing. All this push for gender equality has lead China to become the home to the most female billionaires in the world.
So it’s in China’s position that while not great now, by constantly pushing gender neutral laws and trying to prevent sex being displayed in public, they’ll create equality.
As you point out though, that often leads to oppression and other terrible side effects.
I’m saying, I do not believe i personally understand the situation enough to make a judgement call. I just want people to be aware of what’s actually happening and not that it’s some kind of governmental anti-LGBTQ+ push. It’s China trying to be China for better or worse.
Yeah, it’s almost as if people don’t want to have kids when life is complete dogshit and the future only ever looks worse. But hey, maybe that mandatory optimism thing they’re trying to enforce will turn it around. Don’t believe your eyes and ears, everything is wonderful!
Fuck it. Hope the great filter eliminates us with extreme prejudice before we get off this rock and ruin more fucking planets.
Everything points to humanity already having overcome the great filter, and for Elon’s family, bodyguards, and indentured serfs, to colonize Mars in the near future.
This reluctance to tie the knot is worrying policymakers grappling with a decline in births and a rapidly aging population in a country that was once the world’s most populous, and where marriage rates are closely tied to birth rates as unmarried mothers are often denied child-raising benefits.
I heard the CCP wanted birth rates to climb. That’s not how you do it. The slowing economy doesn’t have to have this effect on young people. The Chinese government has a much stronger ability to manage these effects than democratic free market economies. I hope they would manage to use that.
I did not fully get from the article what exactly it is that makes marriage too expensive? Surely getting a marriage certificate is not prohibitively expensive? And shared / dual income would make it easier to stay on top of finances…
In order for a man to marry they need to own their own home & have a decent car. This is the societal norm in today’s China, without these things the women’s parents will not approve & they are still a confucianist society to a point, so eloping is quite rare. Now in Shanghai the home owning part is not so easy :-) Though the article is not great, because the “wealthy” part doesn’t make much sense.
(wealth starts with owning a large home, while driving a “Benz”)
Bet good money to see a full court press from China discouraging turnout in the 2024 election.
A Trump win is far better prospects for them being able to invade Taiwan before the demographics of it become impossible to overcome than a Biden win, and white TikTokkers aren’t gonna be convinced to vote Republican, expect a LOT of disinformation about how Biden doesn’t do anything or how he’s exactly the same as Trump and any other crock of shit you hear the twits spit out whenever they want to explain why not voting isn’t handing Trump the win or why doing that isn’t a fucking first order act of betrayal of the disemprivileged.
The international situation is the biggest argument against Trump. Another 4 years of incompetence and self serving is something we cannot really have right now without huge consequences. Kind of feels like all the arguments in the US are just a distraction from the bigger issues.
She is also feminist and lesbian and has an Uyghur girlfriend, which was blatantly published by Vice after promises not to do so, which suddenly put her on the radar 😭 It’s a shame because I have big respect for her and her content.
I don’t really understand why China is so against LGBTQ+, I don’t think they have any religious basis for this. But I assume it has a lot to do with their demography crisis (rapidly falling birth numbers). Even though it seems counterproductive to me, them being against LGBTQ+ does not really make it disappear, I think facilitating IVF for happy LGBT couples to raise loved children would be more productive. But anyway…
I was curious about this as I read a few BL Manhua. It was pretty well accepted since at least the Han dynasty, and has been argued that westernisation during the Qing dynasty is what introduced the opposition towards it. I mainly just read about it on this Wikipedia page so I could also be completely wrong ^ - ^ `
Being in the infosec space and seeing her blow up back in 2017-2019, I’m shocked it took the CCP this long to come down on her. She always kept any political criticism at arm’s length, but her not being the Beijing-approved image of femininity was always going to make her a target in Xi’s China.
I wouldn’t call it freedom. If she’s treated like other “security threats” within China, then she does not have freedom to travel. She’s likely limited to her city at most, perhaps even just a small area within and has to regularly report to local police. Think of it like probation for people convicted of actual crimes in the West, except without court order, for an unlimited amount of time and with the constant threat of being tortured/disappeared looming over her head. If Xi ever feels like tightening the thumb screws on the Chinese people even further, she’d probably feel the effects before many others. All of this comes with social consequences, as many friends and business partners will be scared away.
Ironically, I think censoring these kinds of innocuous influencer types is probably a counter-productive move by the CCP (as far as their fascist goals go) compared to silencing actual out-and-out political activists.
I think it’s easier for people in China to accept the silencing of active political dissidents and shrugg them off as “probably extremists”, but censoring a popular entertainment figure forces people in China to ask the question “Why?” which only really leaves the one conclusion; that they’re living in a techno-fascist state. That’s the question the CCP doesn’t want people asking.
I don’t think they have any religious basis for this.
The same applies to Russia. You can say something similar about ultra conservative Catholics, since the Pope has called for tolerance. Yet, they would rather denounce the Pope than tolerate LGBTQ+.
The key idea is that bigotry is not driven by religious affiliation, but rather by authoritarian attitudes. That’s what’s common between China, Russia and the ultra conservatives in the US. Tolerance of LGBTQ indicates freedom and liberalism in some sense. And both are challenges to the stakeholders of authoritarianism. They want a world where people live within the framework they dictate - and thus the bigotry.
Not really. Russia has a strong orthodox influence. They suppressed it during the soviet times but it is back in full force.
You can say something similar about ultra conservative Catholics, since the Pope has called for tolerance. Yet, they would rather denounce the Pope than tolerate LGBTQ+.
That’s a small splinter group though. Most catholics are pretty open. Even Ireland allowed gay marriage now by popular vote.
The key idea is that bigotry is not driven by religious affiliation, but rather by authoritarian attitudes. That’s what’s common between China, Russia and the ultra conservatives in the US. Tolerance of LGBTQ indicates freedom and liberalism in some sense. And both are challenges to the stakeholders of authoritarianism. They want a world where people live within the framework they dictate - and thus the bigotry.
Aha that does make sense. The LGBTQ movement is indeed very progressive and liberal. I do think there is often a religous component as well (though that seems to be missing in China) but this sounds like a good explanation.
Speaking at someone who actively tells you they’re not listening, while still handing them money and weapons and other resources, and then throwing up your hands and going, “They won’t listen! There’s nothing more I can do!” is purely performative.
Put the aid on the chopping block, or it’s just hot air.
The aid cannot be on the chopping block. You know why? Because it was guaranteed through Congress until 2028.
Usually these aid bills fly through Congress with 0 fanfare, so it’s not shocking that a long term aid package was passed in 2022 or some shit for a bunch of years.
If absolutely necessary I can figure out the dates. But it’s years.
All of a sudden everyone seems to know things about foreign policy without actually looking into any of it.
Biden has pushed for supplemental aid, and he doesn’t have to. He can signal that he’ll veto any additional aid. He can certainly put pressure on Democrats to repeal already-appropriated aid, and he’d even pick up a number of Republicans on that. I also seem to remember a thing where Trump was blocking delivery of approved aid to Ukraine (with the illegal part being that it was for a quid-pro-quo), so stopping aid is certainly possible for a president.
But instead he’s pushing for more aid to Israel’s military. So once again, performative.
news
Active
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.