The Onion

Hey lurkers, the moment you see the phrase 'everyone knows that' stop reading and go look the thing up. Seriously, a single google search. Open a new tab and go google it. Click on a variety of sources. Be fair and also read the Al-Jazeera article, which last I heard still blames Israel. Don't let some rando on a social media site tell you what 'everyone knows'.

Now. Couples on the verge of divorce do this thing. 'Who the fuck cares about the details or about who's right in this particular instance. Let's zoom out into the grand, very well argued, story of why I am in the right, and you are in the wrong and also an asshole. Fine, you didn't snoop in my cell phone like I accused you when we started this argument, but you might as well have, and you've done worse before anyway'. This is very cathartic and gratifying, but it is not productive.

Why care about satire? Satire is a powerful force for exposing truth. All good satire has a grain of truth in it, and delivers that grain to the reader wrapped in a reductio ad absurdum: you believe X, but let's take that to its logical conclusion. Not so reasonable now. In this case: You believe Israel's denials, but let's take that to its logical conclusion. Not so reasonable now. I suspect you know this. I suspect if a satire argument attempted to deliver a payload you disagreed with you would also suddenly concede that things like this are more than just a prank, bro.

I also sigh deeply at the attempt to make this about a psychoanalysis of me as a person. This is the year of our lord 2023. Everyone is angry. I am sure you are also angry about plenty of things. This is not meant as a general defense of Israel, of the Israeli government, of Israeli opinions about the conflict. Rest assured that I know plenty about the exact moral failings of the Israeli public and the current ruling coalition, and could write about my grievances with them at length and in great detail. But this "we've decided who the bad guys are, inconvenient facts not allowed" mode of thinking -- no. I won't stand for that. Fuck that noise.