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No, we didn't do away with debtor's prison. Consider for example, being jailed for not paying child support. We didn't do away with slavery either (it's just that we use prisoners as slaves).
The reason we still have war is because war makes some people rich. If all rich people were a casualty of war we would put an end to wars once and for all. So I propose that when a leader starts a war he must lose an arm or a leg. Or he has to give up his wealth and personal property. All wealthy people investing in any company behind weapons should lose a limb. That's how we end this problem of endless wars. I don't want to live in a world where they dress animals like people.
Do you know what happens when you propose this idea to a Hitler? A Mussolini? A Saddam Hussein? A Putin? They chuckle, pat you on the head, say something like, "What a cute progressive." And then they go about invading Poland or Ethiopia or Ukraine or wherever else they want. And if any of your idea came to fruition, they pretty easily take over Poland or France or Kuwait or Ukraine--perhaps without firing a shot--because we don't have a defense industry. Brilliant.
Could you please be more specific about what claims Steven made and why they're wrong? Like could you grab a direct quote out of the video and provide the counter evidence that shows him to be wrong? Not asking for every single thing he said, but just one good one. You sounded like you were close to doing this in your original post, but it was tough to track exactly what was being said.
Yes Ukraine matters, but despite that Joe Biden John McCain and Lindsay Graham chose it for a proxy war against Russia, and turned it into a massive graveyard. They don't care. This proxy war was decades in the making. Sick !
I regard @Steven Pinker as one of the most important thinkers, as so do many other. But unfortunately smart people sometimes have some areas where they stray fare away from reality, and so he does in this talk. Unfortunately the whole talk of Pinker has so many problems, and is so totally wrong that I´m not able to correct it. He is correct that the numbers of people killed has gone down since WWII, but there have been significant wars since WWII, also since 1953, I remember him saying that there have not been such since 1953, Iraq attacking Iran would be one. A whole country has been almost removed from world map, Palestine, even if Palestine was not fully formed as a country, when large part of territory of Palestine-to be was given to a still ongoing settlement project. 1/3 of the population of North-Korea was killed by USA. USA has been at war every day for how many decades now? How many millions have been killed? At least 15 millions. USA has been involved in something like 70 coups, with devastating effect on hundreds of millions of people. This has been backed by western countries ... The violence has changed, and it has reduced, but it is absolutely not disappeared. What Steven Pinker did not show, was why the Russian military actions in Ukraine does not fit into this new picture. Pinker also stated many things that are obviously wrong about the conflict in Ukraine. It is correct that Russia is redrawing maps, annexing territory, but this is not arbitrary territory for Russia. It is not happening totally against the will of a clear majority of the people of the annexed territory. Opposite of Palestine, the people in the territories mostly asked to be protected, or annexed by Russia. This does not make it automatically right, but it is important part of the situation.
" not happening totally against the will of a clear majority of the people of the annexed territory" Disingenuous claptrap. The people of these territories have already voted against a union with Russia, in 1991. Nor did a majority in these regions ever vote in favour of Russian aligned parties after that. However they vote NOW is irrelevant, under the guns of the FSB, criminals and extremists.
A whole country was almost removed from the Earth multiple times, you're right--Israel. There never has been a country called "Palestine." Do just a little historical research. Read a book written by someone other than Chomsky. Ancient Israel and Judah were subdued by the Romans. The indigenous inhabitants---the Jews--weren't thrilled and rebelled multiple times. The Romans being the Romans, they said enough! kicked out almost all the Jews and renamed the place--wait for it--"Filistinia" after the Philistines in an effort to de-judaize the place. They renamed Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina. "Filistinia" transliterated into English over the years comes out as "Palestine." It later became a province of various Muslim empires, some of whom, like the Ottoman Empire, used the term "Palestine" because, well . . . why not? But it was never a country and there never was a Palestinian *people* the way there is a Jewish people, a Polish people, an Egyptian people, or a Syrian people. After WWI the Brits take control of Ottoman Palestine, theoretically to prepare a "Jewish National Home" for independence or self-rule. Multiple Arab states are created after WWI. If they weren't enough, the Brits reluctantly put forward multiple plans to split ex-Otttoman Palestine into a Jewish state, as they're legally committed to because of their Balfour Declaration, and yet another Arab state. Guess who always accepts the partition plans? It begins with a "J." Guess who always rejects them--the Arabs of Palestine and later the new Arab League. Before 1947 Arabs and Jews of British Palestine called themselves "Palestinian" they way I call myself a Michigander. It's where I live (Michigan). Neither Jew nor Arab thought he belonged to a Palestinian *nation.* That was the invention of charlatan Yaser Arafat (perhaps a hero of yours) in 1964. Israel, one of the first members of the UN after the initial founding members in 1945, is the legitimate and legal successor to the Palestinian Mandate. The West Bank and Gaza Strip exist on maps only because thats where the fighting stopped in 1948. Both places were "occupied territory" long before any Israeli soldier stepped foot in them. Egypt controlled Gaza and Jordan controlled territories west of the Jordan, in former Mandate Palestine. Neither state had any legal right to those territories. Israel, of course, is a modern day restoration of the independent Jewish state. After WWI, an independent Poland was also (re)created. The Finnish people--very distinct from Russians--won their independence, as did the Baltic states. And so on. If Israel was named "Jew Land" it might be a little easier, I guess, for you to understand it is the homeland--and independent state--of the Jewish people. Just like, you guessed it, Poland is the homeland/state of the Polish people, Finland the homeland/state of the Finns, Japan the homeland/state of the Japanese, and so on. It's actually quite simple. What is tragic is that in 1948, three years after the end of the Holocaust, the near extermination of the Jewish people, the Arabs of British Palestine and their brethren in Arab states launched an attack on the nascent Jewish state, attempting to finish what Hitler started. And in 2023, the Arabs of Gaza tried again.
Indeed the very countries who still seek their nation's glory above all, instead of prosperity for their peoole, all are threatining their neighbours, and/or are engaged in active war.
