Congressional staff say the mood inside the Capitol is tense, stifling and bewildering as members brush off their constituents’ outrage.

  • bioemerl@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Politicians have armies of statistics and pollsters to study people’s opinions and feedback.

    They carefully choose a demographic groups they choose to appeal to, and they pick issues that will allow them to capture enough people who will begrudgingly support them as possible.

    They don’t need the 1500th phone call saying the exact same thing as the last 1400 to understand who they’re representing and what their opinions are.

    There are times contacting your representative in this way is important. When your road is fucked up or your local company is doing something they shouldn’t and nobody in the media or on the internet is talking about it.

    Or sending a letter, answering a poll, so that their data people can sit and count them to figure out what they need to do in the next election cycle.

    • teft@startrek.website
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      1 year ago

      There are times contacting your representative in this way is important. When your road is fucked up or your local company is doing something they shouldn’t and nobody in the media or on the internet is talking about it.

      But not literal genocide?

      • bioemerl@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        The representative is very well aware of what’s going on in Israel and is very aware of the protests and the opinions people have about it. You’re not informing them, and you’re not actually contributing anything by spamming them with phone calls about it.

        And if you want to see literal genocide, let the Palestinians rule “from the river to the sea”. What they do to the Jews will make isis look like children in terms of their cruelty.

          • DarkGamer@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            let the Palestinians rule “from the river to the sea”.

            Palestinian /= Hamas.

            Unfortunately that sentiment is not unique to Hamas.
            According to polling, the majority of Palestinians want to:

            • Destroy Israel, which is what, “from the river to the sea,” means (70%)
            • Deny Jews equal rights in their one-state solution (76%)
            • Continue violent resistance, reject peaceful solutions (52%)
            • Employ guerilla/terrorist strategies to do so (58%)
              • DarkGamer@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                So that justifies genocide? Because just over half have been terrorized enough to not be willing to forgive?

                Well, advocating for actual explicit genocide and oppression certainly makes one’s cause seem less noble. I was pointing out that Hamas aren’t the only ones who want Palestine, “from the river to the sea.” It’s a popular Palestinian sentiment. Perhaps that’s related to why calls for cease fire are going to voice mail.

                One can make a case that Israel is also performing a genocide, but they themselves deny that it is. I think it’s more accurate to say that Israel is under attack by and defending itself from a belligerent monoethnic nation. It’s a big stretch to claim that this makes defense against it genocide. If wiping out Arabs were their motivation and not pacifying a belligerent nation they would be behaving very differently. 20% of Israeli citizens are Arab with full rights, after all.

                • Nudding@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  One can make a case that Israel is also performing a genocide, but they themselves deny that it is.

                  Actually some member of government are starting to admit that it is a genocide. Wonder what your next excuse will be?