Personally it impacted me in a way that I have lost faith in humanity.
Everybody talks, but no body cares, no body takes serious actions. Kids, women, elderly, whole families are being killed for almost two years and no body gives a shit.
Millions of people trapped in a land and moved from north to south from south to north like animals, have you seen videos of starving people running in masses to get food from aids thrown from the air? I can’t beilieve such things are happening in 2025! Sometimes I think, what would I do if I was put under such circumstances? How much hate would I accumulate? What if something happens to my kids? What if I see my kids starving in front of me and I can do nothing about it?
Also big companies, they only care about money, ethics and morale do not exist, they only care about money money and more money.
Countries fighting for women rights in Iran and Saudi (which I agree with) but at the same time, those same countries don’t say anything about the killing of innocent people, pure hypocrites.
Those “innocent people” elected terrorists for leaders, who committed an atrocity, which started a brutal war with their more advanced neighbour, which, predictably, they lost.
Those “innocent people” cheered in the streets as captured Israeli girls were paraded in front of them, bloodied from rape.
Those “innocent people” videoed it on their smartphones and shared it with the world so we could see exactly the kind of people they are.
And what we see today is the unfortunate reality of losing a war, just like in Nazi Germany, where over 2M civilians lost their lives because their nation invaded its peaceful neighbours.
I guess the lesson here is that it’s best not to invade other nations and rape, massacre and abduct thousands of their innocent civilians.
The events of October 7th were an atrocity. The illegal settlements and extrajudicial killing of Palestinians prior to October 7th was an atrocity. The launching of rockets into Israel were atrocities. Israeli citizens cheering and watching from deck chairs while white phosphorus was dropped onto Gaza was an atrocity. And this ongoing slaughter, starving of civilians, murder of people waiting for aid in designated humanitarian areas, targeting of doctors, journalists, aid workers, double tapping of hospitals, missile strikes on other sovereign states who are hosting negotiations... Those are atrocities. The whole history is riddled with atrocity on both sides.
The only way out of this, while retaining some shred of humanity is through diplomacy, upholding international law, and centring the role of civil society and the huge numbers on both sides who want a peaceful, just coexistence.
The whole thing is sickening. Also hard to see how this can possibly improve Israel's security in the long term.
Come on man, try to put yourself in others people shoes and have a bit of humanity otherwise the hate cycle will never end.
I never thought that people should be killed because of an election, today almost 50% of Gaza people are <18 which means they were not even born when the elections of 2006! are we saying that 1M are responsible for what is happening to them? Also, in the future the same argument could be used against the other party blaming them that they elected a far-right party, both parties should settle down and end this hate cycle once and for all.
And please we are in 2025 we are not in WWII anymore, if it happened to germany doesn’t justify making it happen again.
Don’t you think that what is happening will lead to a generation that hates their neighbours even more?
If I were in charge, I would create the circumstances that prevent poverty, create work, and encourage cooperation between both nations hoping that time will heal the hate and anger that both sides accumulated over the years, this requires wisdom and patience from the political party that is smart enough to understand that neither party can redeem the whole land for themselves.
But as long as each party refuses to accept the other, regardless if they say it publicly or not the hate will never end.
Gaza Sky Geeks [0] is/was a startup accelerator or tech hub in Gaza, with backing from people from Mercy Corps, Google and Microsoft. Needless to say, their activities have been severely interrupted by the violence since October 7th, 2023. I'm subscribed to their email newsletter, and the updates are heart-breaking.
If anyone from Gaza Sky Geeks is reading this, please consider sharing those updates on your blog as well as on your email newsletter, so that they can be shared more widely.
In my personal life, it has had a rather significant effect; although still trivial compared to those in the region.
I'm Jewish, and opinions in my extended family about Israel have always been in tension; but this war has brought it to an untenable level. I've stopped going what had previously been the normal Shabbat and holiday dinners, in favor of smaller ones with family that is less pro Israel (and very staunchly anti Netenyahu). Even there we more or less avoid the topic. Our less Passover sedar involved a very thinly veiled discussion about the war, which did not go particularly well.
Professionally, there has been much less of an effect. I work for a US defense contractor. For the most part, we avoid talking about it. From the little conversation, I have had, there seems to be a general morale drop; but that might be a selection effect with who I am willing to talk to about it.
The only time Israel became an open topic of discussion was after the pager bombs. Even then, it was pretty much a professional "and this is why we have so much red tape around supply chain management".
How can you not support Israel defending itself against its terrorist neighbours who literally wrote in their Charter that their purpose is to annihilate the Jewish state?
For how long must Israel tolerate the rockets, the invasions, the rape and abduction of its civilians before it decisively and absolutely seeks to prevent this happening again?
How can Israel prevent future atrocities without completely rooting out Hamas from Gaza, where it is heavily embedded in the population?
My workplace has become very tense as most of us are pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist, but our CEO and investors are very aggressively Zionist. Internally we debate if we should quit, or stay and "fight" the best we can. I think in general there's the sense that we shouldn't let the Zionists chase us out of our jobs, especially when most people don't support their cause.
On a personal level, I boycott all Israeli products and companies, including companies that do business with Israel (to the best of my ability, I still need an alternative to NVIDIA).
On october 8th there was already anti-israeli sentiment at work (i am Israeli, living currently in USA). The only person that asked me for my well being was Palestinian guy who lives here as well.
Foreign Students are come and go anyway. Unlike in USA they can't stick around in Israel.
Israeli tech companies raised record amounts in Q2
I don't consider myself part of the HN crowd, rather just someone with a waning tech background and persistent interest in many things. I'm unaffiliated with any identity regarding the conflict. A mere American, dizzy and uneasy.
Personally, the effects for me, coupled with Ukraine, instill a sense of illness. I deliberately avoid the numbers as I would the flu. My delusions of a wonderful world are presently reserved for intoxicants and occasional suspensions of disbelief which come sparsely. The tension surrounding the topic, however, is palpable.
I wish you the extensive discussion the subject deserves.
It has made it clear to me that humans do not have any real ability to act on morality in our advanced society. I actually thought that in a sufficiently advanced society, like the one we have today, that we would be beyond certain things. I've gotten the lesson that this iteration of humanity really is forked from that previous iteration of humanity, and that the "moral" part of the codebase was never actually enhanced.
But I also thought we were kind of beyond outright corruption and jingoism too. That these societies that you think are sophisticated and educated are actually not different at all from the sensibilities of societies that crucified people, enslaved people, wholesale eradicated people, economically suffocated people ...
There's nothing about our advanced society that has markers of advanced character, certainly not advanced moral character.
To be fully clear, if you show me a cohort of high school graduates from this year, with wonder in their eyes and a lot of talk about "the future will be good and just", I will absolutely give no credence to it. They are branch of this long torrid code base, and the romance of us as a species is mostly over in my heart (IDGAF how many rockets we launch into space, and how cool AI is). This is not a new type of epiphany, as I'm sure many people were broken throughout history exactly like this. If you believed the young people of 20-40 years ago that their innocence would persist and they would truly build a better world, you got catfished. None of us were ever going to be really different than the shitheads from yesteryear, and the dark truth is this will probably be the case long after our current iteration has mostly passed on.
In short, human innovation and energy is something I no longer believe is sufficient enough for building a sound world anymore. I falsely believed scientific and infrastructural advancement would be enough to keep lifting society. It's clear we morally platued quite some time ago, while technology has trended way way up.
It really opened my eyes to the lack of actual interest in reality. The number of people willing to believe what they're told by social media or by the popular kids far exceed those who would try to understand the situation.
It fascinates me that it's become so popular to defend people from reprisals for their own elected government's actions.
I also found it really interesting that over a thousand Israelis were killed, yet the people I work with immediately started saying that any kind of response was totally unfair to the Palestinians. Not a single word of compassion for the Israelis who were killed. But I guess that's not a trending thought.
first sentence in article: "I watched as the goal of mainstream journalism shifted from describing reality to ushering readers to the correct political conclusion."
Personally it impacted me in a way that I have lost faith in humanity.
Everybody talks, but no body cares, no body takes serious actions. Kids, women, elderly, whole families are being killed for almost two years and no body gives a shit.
Millions of people trapped in a land and moved from north to south from south to north like animals, have you seen videos of starving people running in masses to get food from aids thrown from the air? I can’t beilieve such things are happening in 2025! Sometimes I think, what would I do if I was put under such circumstances? How much hate would I accumulate? What if something happens to my kids? What if I see my kids starving in front of me and I can do nothing about it?
Also big companies, they only care about money, ethics and morale do not exist, they only care about money money and more money.
Countries fighting for women rights in Iran and Saudi (which I agree with) but at the same time, those same countries don’t say anything about the killing of innocent people, pure hypocrites.
Those “innocent people” elected terrorists for leaders, who committed an atrocity, which started a brutal war with their more advanced neighbour, which, predictably, they lost.
Those “innocent people” cheered in the streets as captured Israeli girls were paraded in front of them, bloodied from rape.
Those “innocent people” videoed it on their smartphones and shared it with the world so we could see exactly the kind of people they are.
And what we see today is the unfortunate reality of losing a war, just like in Nazi Germany, where over 2M civilians lost their lives because their nation invaded its peaceful neighbours.
I guess the lesson here is that it’s best not to invade other nations and rape, massacre and abduct thousands of their innocent civilians.
The events of October 7th were an atrocity. The illegal settlements and extrajudicial killing of Palestinians prior to October 7th was an atrocity. The launching of rockets into Israel were atrocities. Israeli citizens cheering and watching from deck chairs while white phosphorus was dropped onto Gaza was an atrocity. And this ongoing slaughter, starving of civilians, murder of people waiting for aid in designated humanitarian areas, targeting of doctors, journalists, aid workers, double tapping of hospitals, missile strikes on other sovereign states who are hosting negotiations... Those are atrocities. The whole history is riddled with atrocity on both sides.
The only way out of this, while retaining some shred of humanity is through diplomacy, upholding international law, and centring the role of civil society and the huge numbers on both sides who want a peaceful, just coexistence.
The whole thing is sickening. Also hard to see how this can possibly improve Israel's security in the long term.
Come on man, try to put yourself in others people shoes and have a bit of humanity otherwise the hate cycle will never end.
I never thought that people should be killed because of an election, today almost 50% of Gaza people are <18 which means they were not even born when the elections of 2006! are we saying that 1M are responsible for what is happening to them? Also, in the future the same argument could be used against the other party blaming them that they elected a far-right party, both parties should settle down and end this hate cycle once and for all.
And please we are in 2025 we are not in WWII anymore, if it happened to germany doesn’t justify making it happen again.
If Gaza were rid of the Islamist terrorists that lead then then it would be better for Israel and also much better for the innocent youth of Gaza.
Unfortunately there is no way for the innocent youth of Gaza to rid themselves of Hamas. In fact Hamas actively endoctrinates the youth.
The only way for Gazan youth to be saved from a cycle of terrorist-led hatred is for Israel (or another developed power) to remove the terrorists.
Don’t you think that what is happening will lead to a generation that hates their neighbours even more?
If I were in charge, I would create the circumstances that prevent poverty, create work, and encourage cooperation between both nations hoping that time will heal the hate and anger that both sides accumulated over the years, this requires wisdom and patience from the political party that is smart enough to understand that neither party can redeem the whole land for themselves.
But as long as each party refuses to accept the other, regardless if they say it publicly or not the hate will never end.
Gaza Sky Geeks [0] is/was a startup accelerator or tech hub in Gaza, with backing from people from Mercy Corps, Google and Microsoft. Needless to say, their activities have been severely interrupted by the violence since October 7th, 2023. I'm subscribed to their email newsletter, and the updates are heart-breaking.
If anyone from Gaza Sky Geeks is reading this, please consider sharing those updates on your blog as well as on your email newsletter, so that they can be shared more widely.
[0] https://gazaskygeeks.com/
In my personal life, it has had a rather significant effect; although still trivial compared to those in the region.
I'm Jewish, and opinions in my extended family about Israel have always been in tension; but this war has brought it to an untenable level. I've stopped going what had previously been the normal Shabbat and holiday dinners, in favor of smaller ones with family that is less pro Israel (and very staunchly anti Netenyahu). Even there we more or less avoid the topic. Our less Passover sedar involved a very thinly veiled discussion about the war, which did not go particularly well.
Professionally, there has been much less of an effect. I work for a US defense contractor. For the most part, we avoid talking about it. From the little conversation, I have had, there seems to be a general morale drop; but that might be a selection effect with who I am willing to talk to about it.
The only time Israel became an open topic of discussion was after the pager bombs. Even then, it was pretty much a professional "and this is why we have so much red tape around supply chain management".
How can you not support Israel defending itself against its terrorist neighbours who literally wrote in their Charter that their purpose is to annihilate the Jewish state?
For how long must Israel tolerate the rockets, the invasions, the rape and abduction of its civilians before it decisively and absolutely seeks to prevent this happening again?
How can Israel prevent future atrocities without completely rooting out Hamas from Gaza, where it is heavily embedded in the population?
My workplace has become very tense as most of us are pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist, but our CEO and investors are very aggressively Zionist. Internally we debate if we should quit, or stay and "fight" the best we can. I think in general there's the sense that we shouldn't let the Zionists chase us out of our jobs, especially when most people don't support their cause.
On a personal level, I boycott all Israeli products and companies, including companies that do business with Israel (to the best of my ability, I still need an alternative to NVIDIA).
You touched on the key tension here
The VC community, weighted by AUM is profoundly Zionist.
I worked at one of the most prominent funds and 4 of my coworkers (American) literally relocated to Israel for ideological reasons
You can't bite the hand that feeds even if it's morally right.
On october 8th there was already anti-israeli sentiment at work (i am Israeli, living currently in USA). The only person that asked me for my well being was Palestinian guy who lives here as well.
Foreign Students are come and go anyway. Unlike in USA they can't stick around in Israel.
Israeli tech companies raised record amounts in Q2
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-israeli-tech-companies-ra...
I admire your courage in asking these questions.
I don't consider myself part of the HN crowd, rather just someone with a waning tech background and persistent interest in many things. I'm unaffiliated with any identity regarding the conflict. A mere American, dizzy and uneasy.
Personally, the effects for me, coupled with Ukraine, instill a sense of illness. I deliberately avoid the numbers as I would the flu. My delusions of a wonderful world are presently reserved for intoxicants and occasional suspensions of disbelief which come sparsely. The tension surrounding the topic, however, is palpable.
I wish you the extensive discussion the subject deserves.
It has made it clear to me that humans do not have any real ability to act on morality in our advanced society. I actually thought that in a sufficiently advanced society, like the one we have today, that we would be beyond certain things. I've gotten the lesson that this iteration of humanity really is forked from that previous iteration of humanity, and that the "moral" part of the codebase was never actually enhanced.
But I also thought we were kind of beyond outright corruption and jingoism too. That these societies that you think are sophisticated and educated are actually not different at all from the sensibilities of societies that crucified people, enslaved people, wholesale eradicated people, economically suffocated people ...
There's nothing about our advanced society that has markers of advanced character, certainly not advanced moral character.
To be fully clear, if you show me a cohort of high school graduates from this year, with wonder in their eyes and a lot of talk about "the future will be good and just", I will absolutely give no credence to it. They are branch of this long torrid code base, and the romance of us as a species is mostly over in my heart (IDGAF how many rockets we launch into space, and how cool AI is). This is not a new type of epiphany, as I'm sure many people were broken throughout history exactly like this. If you believed the young people of 20-40 years ago that their innocence would persist and they would truly build a better world, you got catfished. None of us were ever going to be really different than the shitheads from yesteryear, and the dark truth is this will probably be the case long after our current iteration has mostly passed on.
In short, human innovation and energy is something I no longer believe is sufficient enough for building a sound world anymore. I falsely believed scientific and infrastructural advancement would be enough to keep lifting society. It's clear we morally platued quite some time ago, while technology has trended way way up.
same, the genocide does not impact me directly in any material sense, but it changes how I see the world and human beings fundamentally.
It really opened my eyes to the lack of actual interest in reality. The number of people willing to believe what they're told by social media or by the popular kids far exceed those who would try to understand the situation.
It fascinates me that it's become so popular to defend people from reprisals for their own elected government's actions.
I also found it really interesting that over a thousand Israelis were killed, yet the people I work with immediately started saying that any kind of response was totally unfair to the Palestinians. Not a single word of compassion for the Israelis who were killed. But I guess that's not a trending thought.
first sentence in article: "I watched as the goal of mainstream journalism shifted from describing reality to ushering readers to the correct political conclusion."
https://www.thefp.com/p/friedman-when-we-started-to-lie
I guess it raises the bigger question - Why do Western leftists align with Islamists?
What is it about misogynist, homophobic, violent religious supremacists that appeals to the Western leftists so much?
Could it be they share a common enemy - the West?