I want to roll my eyes every time I see somebody take this stance, not simply because it is tiresome and it takes no courage to say, but mostly because it ignores the context. Every time. It not only overlooks how and why neocolonialism lead to Hamas, it overlooks why Hamas would resort to crude tactics like taking hostages (as if the Zionist régime was always open to dialogue), it overlooks why a substantial percentage of Palestinian adults support Hamas, it overlooks the decades of atrocities that Zionist authorities have been committing against the Palestinians since day one, and most of all, it overlooks the overwhelming amount of power that the Zionist ruling class has in this situation.
My response: fine, you don’t have to like Hamas, but to focus on condemning it repeatedly is to lose sight of the very conditions and the ruling class that gave rise to Hamas in the first place; it’s a bland inaction that gets us nowhere. If you say ‘Hamas is the real problem’ or ‘Hamas is just as bad as the IDF’ then I’m afraid that you have missed the point completely.
Why though? In its current state, whether they (the people) support their government or not, they don’t have a say in political decisions made by said government, so the differentiation is really important. Otherwise, if we treat them as one in the same, we would make a mistake of believing in “collective punishment”, which is the exact tactic Isn’treal uses.
because usually they mean by this is that they actually hate the people too
peoples who say “hate the government not the people” usually do hate the people too. It’s like when incels say they are “nice”.
Oh, okay, got it. I just don’t remember people using this rhetoric before, or might have missed it.
It’s used by liberals when talking about countries western propaganda told them to hate. I see it as a way to gaslight themselves into thinking they totally aren’t racist against chinese/arabs/russians even when they are openly calling for bloodshed on them specifically and calling them slurs.
What about class division? Can you oppose your government while supporting your people?
Yes you can but you’re missing my point here. What I’m saying is that liberals who say that don’t mean it and just say it to convince themselves that they are totally not being racist/warmongers when they say shit like all chinese are potential spy or the us should nuke Beijing and other deranged things like that.
Understood. As written, your point was more general and untrue regarding leftists. Not sure why Parent comment got disliked so much
You mean like when we say “Death to 🇺🇸”?
The difference is whether the government is benefiting the proletarian class or not. In the US, it should be self-evident that it isn’t.