caitlin reveals some nefarious zionist practices;

They keep telling you October 7 happened because Hamas hates Jews because they don’t want you asking questions about Israel’s actions which provoked the attack.

The October 7 attack was unquestionably provoked by Israel’s extensively documented abuses of the Palestinian people, but whenever you say this you get Israel supporters shrieking “How dare you JUSTIFY the actions of Hamas?? Nothing could JUSTIFY such a savage attack!” It’s a good example of how empire apologia in the 2020s largely consists of deliberately conflating the words “provoked” and “justified”.

Whether or not the October 7 attack was justified is a mental judgement; the answer to that question will always necessarily be entirely comprised of subjective opinion. Which means if the empire apologist can drag the debate kicking and screaming into the question of whether it was justified they’ve actually got a leg to stand on, since then they’re only dealing with feelings and opinions. If you keep the focus on the unassailably factual claim that the attack was provoked then they’ve got nothing, because the facts are all squarely against them.

Keeping this distinction conscious clears up a lot of imperial spin, whether you’re talking about the Hamas attack, Russia’s entirely provoked invasion of Ukraine, or the war the empire is trying to provoke with China over Taiwan.........more.......