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Comment by jeffbee | Hacker News Reader

Recently I've met some intensely stupid kids in the city of Berkeley who keep showing up at city council hearings to shout and bang drums and demand that the city pass a pro-Hamas resolution condemning Israel. It's jarring because half these fools are somehow mixing the Palestinian scarf and rainbow flags, unaware, apparently, that Hamas would throw them off the tops of buildings for the crime of being gay.

Young people are spending way too much time on tiktok and hardly any at all on critical thinking.

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I was not there, but a couple of subtleties about what you wrote that I'm sure you are aware of, but you glossed over, and are perhaps important on your narration:

  - A condemnation of Israel is not necessarily pro-Hamas
  - A palestinian scarf is not necessarily pro-Hamas
  - A person with a rainbow flag is not necessarily gay
  - A palestinian is not necessarily pro-Hamas, or pro-hanging gay people.

> - A person with a rainbow flag is not necessarily gay

This is true in a meaninglessly technical way I guess, but any average well travelled american adult woudld agree that if you see a student-aged protester at a city council meeting in Berkeley with a rainbow flag, there is a really high probability that their rainbow flag attire is meant to show support for LGBT causes.

Context. Critical thinking. Use it.

I'm sure you understand the difference between what you cite ("gay") and what you infer from the flag ("meant to show support for LGBT causes"), so perhaps we even are of the same opinion :)

I'm not the OP, so I didn't cite anything but their point seems to not be dependent on the difference in any way.

You cited my comment here:

> - A person with a rainbow flag is not necessarily gay

In my previous comment, I only referred to text of the immediate parent comment (your first).

Please be candid when interpreting what you read, it is a good practice!

He's right. Please can we have less of this misguided pedantry?

I meant I'm not jeffbee.

  - opposing genocide directed at a population is not an endorsement of any, much less all, policies of any government that claims to represent that people.

Is "pro-Hamas" how they describe their actions, or how you describe them?

A person who demands a cease-fire in an asymmetric war in which Hamas did the first strike is pro-Hamas.

That’s absolutely false.

I can be disgusted at both. I can be more disgusted at how much more terrible Israel’s destruction is AND be disgusted that Hamas attacked in the first place. And still not be pro-either-side.

The amount of death and the kind of death happening is disgusting. Period.

I think the “stupid” ones, to borrow your word, are the ones refusing to see that.

My question is wrt to labels that are self-prescribed, or not.

It's also clear that Israel are too cautious about civilian casualties, meaning the war doesn't just affect Hamas.

Aren't too cautious you mean? Because I've just seen how they treat their prisoners and had Flashback of ISIS.

My opinion listening to Ukrainian civilians and Palestinian civilians, the difference is that at least Russians don't claim to be 'moral' or 'careful', while cheering while an empty UN school explode.

Yes, I meant aren't too cautious.

Hamas and Israel have been continuously at war since Israel fostered the creation of Hamas to split the Palestinian opposition and have an enemy that was easier to use to justify not making peace than the PLO.

"Palestine = Hamas and being against Israel is pro-terrorism." critical thinking, indeed.

and i guess we shouldn't advocate for saving innocent lives, because some members of the same population don't support gay rights? incidentally, how do you feel when gay people in your country protest for equal rights?

Those places have always been anti-war.

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