I have friends who were abandoned by their parents and subsequently adopted. I lost a half-sibling with mental illness after their religious paternal family subjected them to actual exorcisms and other emotional trauma which eventually led to their suicide. My wife has a new 60-year old biological sister that she discovered 2 years ago via DNA. I have friends who cut ties with physically and sexually abusive parents. Family is quite mutable, we are under no obligation to hold fast to toxic blood relatives, and in many cases what we consider “reprehensible” depends entirely on how “reprehensible” the blood relative’s committed offenses are.

I’m going to assume you’re just arguing from extremely limited personal experience and save the long list of expletives I want to hurl at you on behalf of my friends and family because I’d prefer not to be banned from this community. Good day to you.

Trust me, most of us have tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried. Some certainly may have preemptively cut people out without discussion, but most of us have beaten our heads against a wall for almost a decade now, trying to convince them that we’re human beings with dignity who deserve respect. We just withdraw from engagement, piece by piece, until there’s nothing lost by just giving up. Cutting them off is usually the last and most consequential move, rather than the first.

The way people are writing off family instead of just talking to them is awful.

What makes you think we haven’t tried talking to them?

I’m not sure you’ll get that from any instance that allows politics, to be perfectly honest, as politics will tend to swamp all other discussion because it generates more traffic and discussion. I’ve spent time on microskiff.com (a boating forum), which is intensely right-wing, and it got so toxic they had to ban political discussion altogether. They have an open feud with The Hull Truth (another boating forum) which leans more left and attracts more voices who challenge conservatives. /r/Hunting was kinda conservative and generally policed itself, but that’s because the mod team nuked anything that went off the rails.

Conservative-friendly spaces usually stay functional one of two ways: either they create a conservatives-only safe space or they refuse to let conservatives be overtly conservative. As someone who was a Reddit moderator for over a decade, you’re kinda driving at the major gripe conservatives have with the open internet. They tend not to get a warm welcome not because they’re conservative, but because when they flock together they tend to get disruptive and toxic very quickly. So then the warnings, removals, and bans come out, and the toxic crowd crows about being “censored”, and the toxicity/pushback ramps up in an endless loop. It’s the same song and dance everywhere they go, unfortunately. The conservative-sphere is just too infested with toxic conservatives for non-toxic conservatives find breathing room.

Additionally, Lemmy the platform has a steep learning curve which limits it to a more tech-savvy audience, and these kinds of forums naturally attract more left-leaning users, so I don’t think Lemmy is the place you’re going to find much conservative traffic in the first place.

cAnCeL CuLtUrE11!!! fReEzE pEaCh!!!@

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on the ICC’s former prosecutor, including revoking visas and blocking property access, for investigating alleged war crimes by American troops in Afghanistan and Israelis in Palestinian territories. The U.S. lifted those penalties in 2021, with Blinken calling them “inappropriate and ineffective” at the time.

Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas) earlier this month introduced a bill to sanction the ICC — which targets individuals accused of war crimes, genocide and other international law violations — for investigating and prosecuting U.S. citizens and American allies, including Israel. Calls to pass that measure, or something like it, grew following the court’s announcement, even though the U.S. is not a member of court.

They’re telegraphing that they will declare war on the ICC (again) and dismantle whatever’s left of international guardrails if Trump wins, much to Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir’s delight. One can only imagine the shitshow to follow.

Israel ≠ Netanyahu

There’s a very big difference between what the broader Jewish community prefers and what Netanyahu’s right-wing government prefers. But, to be sure, the best way to make those one in the same would be to withdraw support.

If he turns on Israel, he will lose in a landslide. Of that you can be absolutely certain.

Either choice he makes does that. And Netanyahu knows this.

Not according to the source I linked. His split with Biden and the Democrats has been years in the making, and has reached a point of no return. He wants Trump, and he’s willing to drag Biden through the mud to get Trump. This is not according to Bibi, this is according to people who worked for Obama and Biden, as well as Democrats in Congress.

Netanyahu wants Trump and will continue to ignore all attempts to intervene until Trump is elected, at which point Gaza will be annexed, the remaining Palestinians will be killed or “relocated”, and he will pressure Trump to bomb Iran. The ICJ, UN, Europe, and Democrats no longer have any influence on the Israeli right-wing government. This is all for naught.

Bibi will name it Trump Alley or something else equally ridiculous, just like he did with the Golan Heights.

Never thought I’d see the day when this would become a satire about the left…

The world you guys live in must be a really wild place.

BoTh SiDeS aRe ThE sAmE!!!@

He’s already changing borders in the Baltics. If anyone thinks he’s stopping with Ukraine they’re an imbecile. After the Baltics are strategically surrounded, Georgia will be next. The northeast border of the Black Sea will be his next major fortification against NATO, all the way from Romania to Turkey.

And the inexorable march to WWIII continues…

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I mean, what does “defeat” even mean in the age of nuclear war?

Not in Michigan.