Comment by wott | Hacker News Reader

Comment by wott | Hacker News Reader

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Themes:

1 United States: masters of the Universe

2 China: evils commies, but biggest capitalists

3 India: H-1B source

4 United Kingdom: mother of colonial masters

5 Japan: funny robots

6 Russia: evil soviets conquering the free world

7 Canada: mounted police

8 Germany: nazi cars

9 Australia: other indigenous people genocidal colonists, but more discrete

10 France: messy/ordered, free/binding systems no one understands; Parisss

11 Israel: origin of half of the problems of the world, but nothing can be said against them for they are friends of the masters (even masters cannot say anything), so let us talk about drones

12 Spain: collapsing tomayto economics

13 Brazil: bikini crimelords, evil socialists

15 Pakistan : like H-1B, but terrorists

16 Netherlands: technical devices for growers

17 Sweden: boring devices

18 Greece: collapsing goat economics, might become evil socialists

19 Italy: romantic bunga-bunga

20 Ireland: collapsing potayto economics, less Irish than 4th generation American-Irish masters.

21 Mexico: builds and feeds Silicon Valley

22 Switzerland: safe, safes, savings

> 9 Australia: other indigenous people genocidal colonists, but more discrete

Psst. Discrete is when you're doing math with integers and exploring non-continuous phenomenon. Discreet is when you're trying to keep a low profile. Pass it on.

> 11 Israel: origin of half of the problems of the world

Certainly involved in half the problems, but is it the origin or is it the destination of the problems? One way or another: some day long after they're finally vaporized by atom bombs, history will surely look back on us and wonder what was wrong with humanity in our day and age (while pointing fingers about the next brewing crisis, obviously)

Israel is neither involved in half the problems of world nor is it the cause of most the problems with which it is involved.

Look at all the problems of the world. The vast majority have nothing to do with Israel. This holds by a count of problems as well as by weighting by magnitude or people affected. (Certainly it is featured in the media more often than other conflicts.)

As for the problems with which Israel is involved, I don't want to start a political discussion, but I must dispute wott's assertion and say it is more a target of violence than an instigator.

I had to look up the origins of these words and they both derive from the latin "discretus". So this makes me wonder why there isn't one spelling only. It couldn't do more harm than the verb "to read".

Interestngly, in German, there is only one spelling and pronunciation for both.

Same in Spanish

And Portuguese (unsurprisingly).

> Israel: origin of half of the problems of the world, but nothing can be said against them

Over its 120 years (so far), the entire Israeli-Arab conflict (with 6 countries participating directly) has caused roughly 100,000 deaths[1]. That is a terrible, regrettable cost, but it pales in comparison with the 5-year-old Syrian civil war[2], the decade-old Mexican Drug War[3], or the nine-months-long Balkan wars[4] -- all unrelated to Israel, and just a sample of relatively recent world conflicts. So the fact that you think this relatively small (though long-lasting) conflict is the origin of half of the world's problems shows that there's plenty of "saying things against (or for) them" going on.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab%E2%80%93Israeli_conflict

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Civil_War

[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War

[4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkan_Wars

> 11 Israel: origin of half of the problems of the world, but nothing can be said against them for they are friends of the masters (even masters cannot say anything), so let us talk about drones

How on earth can Israel be the origin of half of the problems in the world? Anyone who knows a tiny bit about geopolitics knows how untrue this is. And Israel gets bashed all the time on the internet, tv, newspapers and even universities where they dedicate whole weeks criticizing this tiny country. How can you say "nothing can be said"? And how ironic that this comment is one of the most upvoted, contradicting itself. Last but not least, saying that Jews control the masters is basically, well you know Godwin and all that.

I'm myself from Syrian/Muslim origin and I know Israel is not perfect, but I am sick of everyone blaming everything on them. We need to take responsibility and recognize our own mistakes so we can fix them instead of blaming everything on the juice. Seriously, stop it. And yes, Israel does build amazing tech so it deserves to be mentioned in here for that reason, not because "we can't say anything" about its politics.

OK, not half the world's problems. Half of the USA's international problems. And if you are American, USA===World

... And I am ;)

Still not true.

"13 Brazil: bikini crimelords, evil socialists"

I dont think you actually read something about Brazil here on HN, something like that will be better:

13 Brazil: zika virus, weak economy and bad politicians

As a Swedish citizen I am a bit offended by 'Sweden: boring devices' and yet at the same time I agree with you.

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