• Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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    1 year ago

    Wow, extremely wealthy country propped up by imperialism has a high happiness rating compared to extremely poor countries being stomped on by that same imperial war machine.

    Surely the poor countries are the problem.

      • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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        1 year ago

        Why not? Literally just give any explanation. You didn’t even try to explain in your first comment how “happiness” has anything to do with this.

          • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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            1 year ago

            I didn’t blame it on Israel, I said the imperial war machine. Israel the state is also the product of capitalist imperialism, but they are the beneficiary. I made that pretty clear I think.

            The poor countries on that list are all the target of structural adjustment policies, which basically say “you need to neglect your population and become indentured servants, and if you don’t we will fucking glass your country.” That last part about glassing them isn’t in the text, but it’s clearly implied by the context these policies take place in. Also the leaders are usually bribed so they will agree more readily.

            And just because Israeli citizens are “happy” according to some index that you’ve not actually shared, just insisted does exist, has nothing to do with whether the state is on their side. They are generally extremely wealthy people living in an extremely wealthy state that is propped up by US spending. The people who live there are expats from wealthy western countries, which is a privileged sample of a privileged sample.

            I’ll refer you to Hank’s Razor: “Anything that can be explained by socioeconomic status in a society, it’s probably that rather than the thing that you’re measuring.”

            This is almost certainly entirely socioeconomic status, directly influenced by geopolitics.

            Also, Israel’s genocide is not making their people safer. It is endangering them enormously. The state just can’t stop genociding because it’s been given a green light by the US imperial war machine, and that’s just how states behave when they have that kind of power.