Bad idea to be gay in Palestine… its worse than that, try life-threatening

https://www.equaldex.com/region/palestine

https://www.humandignitytrust.org/country-profile/palestine/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_the_State_of_Palestine

https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-israel-immigration-west-bank-gay-rights-ce95f6903faf461502cc0800b272b159

In the words of Golda Meir, Israel’s former prime minister, “Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us” and “if the Arabs put down their guns there would be no more fighting. If the Israelis put down theirs there would be no more Israel.”

Israel would like a two state solution, and offered as much in 2000 and 2008. Unfortunately the Palestinians do not feel the same way, they are not interested in peace, only extermination, they will settle for nothing less than Holocaust II. Hitler’s Mein Kampf is a perennial top seller there, many Palestinians dont think he went far enough.

Take a look at the Hamas Covenant 1988

This line in Article Thirteen says it all;

There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad.

Yes, Israel is not always “good” and they have committed some atrocities over the years. Neither side is “good” but one side is definitely less evil

Well this gives me an idea for a terrific and efficient way to filter out migrants who will clearly be problematic in modern Western societies

Good intentions but information poor

OK, I’ll bite. Keep in mind I am not from the USA, so what qualifies as “conservative” in my country is likely considered less so there. This is an adapted version of what I wrote when I was in a similar forum at reddit

I’m a conservative nationalist populist, with somewhat more emphasis on the latter. I am also - get this - a libertarian authoritarian. Confused? I’ll explain.

I believe strongly in live and let live. You do whatever floats your boat, as long as it doesnt harm other people or unduly interfere with their enjoyment of life. Want to smoke dope, wear a furry suit 24/7, identify as polyamorous genderqueer otherkin? Wear a Confederate flag shirt? All at once? Knock yourself out, you do you, and I’m completely OK with that.

But as soon as you start interfering with other people, be it their freedom of speech, their lifestyle choices, or their autonomy, we, as in the state can and should come down on your ass in the most punitive, draconian way possible, your rights be damned. Just like any good authoritarian leader would. If you cannot respect the rights of others then why should you expect yours to be respected?

You respect and abide by the laws of society and its citizens, and contribute as and where you can, then you deserve the same rights as anyone else.

The specific issues that I would probably lean more “conservative” on;

1. Law and order - I agree that there is far too much focus on punishment - on both sides of the debate. Sentencing needs to be about risk management, not punishment. That needs to be the primary driver. If risk can be alleviated by rehabilitation, well and good, and in many cases that can be done. But there is a minority of offenders who can never safely be released back into society, and need to be permanently isolated. I am in favour of rehabilitation if it is going to successfully remove that risk - with the emphasis being on the word successfully, because too often offenders are released upon the public when clearly whatever rehab has been undertaken has not worked. This applies especially for child molester paedophiles, the “treatment programmes” for paedophilia are pretty much snake oil, much like all the “reparative therapy” out there for gay people, and for not totally dissimilar biological reasons. I am extremely sceptical of the long term outcomes of all these “treatment programmes”

2. Strong borders - for a whole host of cultural and environmental reasons, I believe immigration into all developed countries needs to be closely controlled and regulated. I dont object to manageable levels of immigration, but we should be selecting in favour of immigrants from cultures that are not heavily misogynistic, homophobic, or with extremely high levels of corruption, and that ideally share some cultural and linguistic background. Of course an individual may be leaving a country with an unfavourable culture because they are not compatible with it, in which case they are more likely to be compatible with ours, e.g. an atheist wanting to get out of Saudi Arabia. Which neatly segues to…

3. Islam - especially as a gay man, I feel it needs to be acknowledged that Islam is problematic, and more so than any other major religion (barring Scientology which is even worse but thankfully much smaller). It has a few attributes which make it so, one being the lack of separation of church and state, another being the way it treats it’s apostates (i.e ex-Muslims and those in sects that deviate from mainstream Islam). Of course not every Muslim is problematic, a good many arent (especially in the USA where many have come from more educated backgrounds to start with than those in Europe etc), and we need to separate the faith overall from its individual adherents.

4. Free speech is necessary for a free society, including that which we despise. The test for me with this is those fucking Holocaust denier cunts who I loathe with a passion, but I do not want to see them prevented from spewing their shit as much as it rarks me up, because if they are stopped, who’s next? Still hate those cunts though.

5. Israel - I am an unabashed Zionist, and I make no apologies for that. Of course Israel is far from perfect, but it has the best human rights for LGBT people in the region by far (not that that is a particularly high bar) and manages to be a passably functional democracy in a region where those are few and far between while being in a state of siege and constant low level warfare with most of its neighbours. Of course its flawed! But those that criticise Israel while ignoring the far worse human rights violations of every other country in the region need to pull their heads out of the arses to be blunt.

6. Welfare - I support a welfare state, but I do think that the one we have now performs poorly in that it does not adequately help those that really need it most and is far too easily abused. A large part of the problem is that the vast majority of benefits are paid out in cash to the accounts of beneficiaries, with no control on how it is used/ spent. While this is not a problem for many, perhaps most, a substantial proportion of beneficiaries spend the money on feeding their addictions - in other words, it makes all of us enablers. I have seen this first hand, with several different individuals. This is hugely counterproductive, as it feeds into increased costs in health and justice sectors, while completely failing to actually help those the welfare is given to. This needs to change (the details of which are for another post on its own!)

Funnily enough all of the above does actually work for some people, but it should absolutely never be the first or only option. When peole ask me if they should use medication, therapy, or 12 step programmes I would say all of the above

Yes, referring someone to AA if they know it will not work for them is just stupid. AA may work for some people but it cannot and should not be the only referral or treatment option - medication is going to be a better option for many. Unfortunately its much the same here

Yes, Disulifram is the oldest of these, been around many years, and some chronic alcoholics just drink over it and power through the hangover

Naltrexone is the one I have heard most positive things about, never even heard of Acamprosate before.

Unfortunately when I was in a relationship with an alcoholic some years back Disulifiram was the only thing doctors here were even aware of.

Apparently they regulate brain chemistry - from the article;

Long-term alcohol abuse causes dysregulation in brain chemistry and neural function that can last for months or even years after the initial period of detoxification. Perfectly sober patients, who are well past the detox phase, often experience crushing levels of anxiety, insomnia, irritability, depression, loss of appetite, and anhedonia (the inability to take pleasure in any aspect of life). Addiction experts now believe these post-withdrawal symptoms are a driving force behind chronic relapsing.

I’m not sure how applicable these would be for nicotine addiction however, the article mainly discusses alcohol and drug addictions

I hope you’re right.

Yes, I hope it has been making China have second thoughts about invading Taiwan

I do like to see uplifting good news stories like this

It is more likely for women than it is for men - male sexual orientation tends to be more fixed. Men who “become gay” were likely always predisposed to it or bisexual at the very least. The causative biological mechanisms for male and female sexual orientation are different, and in the case of women, less clear

I hope the original poster in the screenshot was suitably embarrassed.