• dead [he/him]
    hexbear
    66
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    I'm not sure this really belongs in the dunk tank and it's incredibly annoying to me when people post things that they haven't read/watched.

    I'll start with the bad things about the video. He spends like a minute talking about a video of hamsters, but thankfully he didn't make any sexual jokes about the hamsters. He usually makes some joke which sexualizes animals or references furry porn in every video. He also talks about a bag that was removed from amazon because it said "Merry Ham-mas!", just like some shitty Christmas merchandise that was supposed to pair the words "Ham" and "Christmas", people confused it with Hamas.

    He also explicitly says that he's not going into the history of the region. He says that he won't talk about the holocaust or the nakba or how Palestinians became displaced in Gaza and the west bank. I think this would have been important information for american liberals. He tells the audience to google it.

    He mentions the 1200 Israelis who were killed on October 7 and he says that 11000 Palestinians were killed by Israel since October 7. It feels like he spends more time saying that Israeli citizens have suffered but then he says that Palestinians have suffered twice as much as Israelis have.

    He makes the claim that neither Hamas or Netanyahu represent the interests of their civilian populations. He says that Hamas was elected in 2006 and that was before like 50% of Gazan civilians were even born. Then he says that 76% of Israelis want Netanyahu to resign according to some poll. He says that Netanyahu gave cash funding to Hamas in the past. He talks about How Netanyahu incited the assassination of his political opponent Rabin, to become elected. He says Netanyahu has always been "hard right" politically.

    He then puts blame on the United States. He calls the US the 3rd party involved in the conflicts and says that the US gives the Israeli military almost $4 billion every year.

    He talks about the inhumane living conditions forced on Gaza by Israel and plays clips of Israeli officials denying that the conditions are inhumane. He says that Israel is downplaying the suffering that they are inflicting. He plays interviews with Gazan children who have been victims of Israel attacks. This footage I think will be especially powerful to evoking some empathy out of liberals. Seeing the Gazan children suffering is really sad.

    At the end of the video, he says that Biden and Trudeau are refusing to call for a ceasefire. He says that continuing the bombs will create more extremist. He says we need peace and ends the video by saying that Israelis and Palestinians have to talk out their differences.


    I think overall it is not bad. It's mid. It's going to show his audience some of the many atrocities that Israel has committed. He does do somewhat do a "both sides" narrative, but he also says that Israel is twice as bad.

    I think it would have been better if he went into the history of the Israel occupation. Historical analysis is always important.

    My biggest criticism is that the ending of the video is very weak. Usually when John Oliver makes segments, he finishes them with like a big surprise ending. When he made a video about how companies would resell medical debt to debt collecting agencies, he announces that he bought a bunch of medical debt and then forgave it, pennies on the dollar. I would have expected John to tell his audience to donate to Palestinian relief fund or to pressure their government representatives to call for a ceasefire. He just says that Palestinians and Israelis just need to sit down and talk it out. This is really disgusting because in this conflict, Israel has all of the power and Palestine has nothing, Israel is clearly the aggressor. An oppressed people can not simply "talk it out" with their oppressors.

    • Orannis62 [ze/hir]
      hexbear
      33
      7 months ago

      Then he says that 76% of Israelis want Netanyahu to resign according to some poll

      Lmao nobody tell Oliver that this is because he "let Oct 7 happen" not because he's too hardline

      • MattsAlt [comrade/them]
        hexbear
        23
        7 months ago

        Isn't it also now because he's preventing the military cabinet from preemptively striking Hezbollah?

        Approval ratings are ok sometimes, but using them to say the population wants this to end is bad journalism

    • @the_kid
      hexbear
      31
      7 months ago

      thanks for watching so we don't have to rat-salute

      thankfully he didn't make any sexual jokes about the hamsters. He usually makes some joke which sexualizes animals or references furry porn in every video.

      I'm glad he fired Vaush as a writer, there was one episode where he went on this like 5 minute thing about fucking a horse or something.

      the rest of it sounds about like what you'd expect from a liberal. "Hamas bad, but they're terrorists that don't represent Gaza in any way and both sides at fault, but Israel is going a little too far"

      • dead [he/him]
        hexbear
        15
        7 months ago

        I have to make a correction to my post. At 3:51 in the video, John Oliver says that Yoshi from the super mario universe "would be good in the sack" and shows an image of Yoshi with tongue far extended. So John Oliver does reference having sex with an animal in the video.

    • GenderIsOpSec [she/her]
      hexbear
      24
      7 months ago

      My biggest criticism is that the ending of the video is very weak. Usually when John Oliver makes segments, he finishes them with like a big surprise ending. When he made a video about how companies would resell medical debt to debt collecting agencies, he announces that he bought a bunch of medical debt and then forgave it, pennies on the dollar. I would have expected John to tell his audience to donate to Palestinian relief fund or to pressure their government representatives to call for a ceasefire. He just says that Palestinians and Israelis just need to sit down and talk it out. This is really disgusting because in this conflict, Israel has all of the power and Palestine has nothing, Israel is clearly the aggressor. An oppressed people can not simply "talk it out" with their oppressors.

      reminds me of a talking "expert" head i saw on the television discussion panel saying stuff like "well they have to talk it over, but right now isnt the time to have those talks." like lmao, what the fuck does that even mean, you wet tissue-paper limp-wristed dickhead!

      fucking wish that the shithead has to shovel up his kids into a plastic bag and then some genius goes: "well you just gotta talk it out with the people who put your kid into a bag, even though you have literally no power in this situation."

    • star_wraith [he/him]
      hexbear
      19
      7 months ago

      He also explicitly says that he's not going into the history of the region. He says that he won't talk about the holocaust or the nakba or how Palestinians became displaced in Gaza and the west bank. I think this would have been important information for american liberals. He tells the audience to google it.

      fwiw, I have had a couple people in my life who know absolutely nothing about Palestine ask me what was going on, because they know I care about it. I also know with them, if went into the history of it all first I would probably lose their interest and/or they would have a hard time tracking it all. So in order to keep it very basic, I just started with the notion about how the Palestinians have no say in how their lives are run and how what they live under is the textbook definition of apartheid. That was enough to convince them that Zionism is bad. That’s how awful just the current situation is for the Palestinians - that even without the historical context, it is so incredibly brutal and unjust that no person with an ounce of humanity can support Israel. I don’t know if that’s what Oliver was going for or not.

      • JamesConeZone [they/them]
        hexbear
        14
        7 months ago

        He also talks about a bag that was removed from amazon because it said "Merry Ham-mas!", just like some shitty Christmas merchandise that was supposed to pair the words "Ham" and "Christmas", people confused it with Hamas.

        I-was-saying

      • hotcouchguy [he/him]
        hexbear
        8
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        Yeah, I've noticed a lot of libs and centrists who have every instinct to "both sides" it, but just can't manage to because the occupation is so violent and so indiscriminate. They easily agree w a ceasefire now. To them, I think a ceasefire is just the fastest way to get the carnage off their screens and go back to not thinking about the middle east.

        I've also noticed a lot of people on the right who would normally love bombing brown people, but also can't quite get on board so they're now the ones giving up, mumbling something about "both sides" and awkwardly changing the subject. It's kind of strange seeing people who are normally maniacs behave so cautiously. They know its indefensible and just don't want to be associated with it.