Cross's Examinations

The last 15ish years have seen so much ink spilled on the Vanillish line, on gen 1 designs, etc etc, but I think it bears repeating how easy it is for a Mons game to stick to charismatic animals like mammals and birds and dinosaurs and pets. And pokemon does have that (we have, what, six cat lines? more if you count regional meowths) but it also makes sure to add, like. A crinoid. A bagworm. A bell. Creepy humanoid mushrooms, a sand castle, a big iceberg.

And in a way it's true. Israel's not rounding people up by the millions and shoving them into killing factories.

Yet.

Israel's not disposing of the bodies at such a pace the smoke can be seen for miles.

Yet.

But what does Israel do that makes them comparable to the Nazis? Let me count the ways.

Zionism is little more than Lebensraum with a Jewish coat of paint.

The notion of "Greater Israel" which is Israel's plans to annex and colonize the entire Middle East is nearly identical to Hitler's plans for a "Greater Germanic Reich." A large section of the land in the middle east dominated by an apartheid ethnostate where everyone else has to be "removed."

Einstein compared the deluded and deranged fantasizes of Zionist parties to the Nazis as early as the 40's.

Israel sees literally any threat, no matter how small, as an existential one. This is a core tenet of fascism that many holocaust survivors have commented on.

Just as Jewish people have their own term for the horrific and unforgivable genocide inflicted on them, so too do the Palestinians.

IDF Soldiers have straight up told people their job makes them feel like a Nazi.

Quote from Israeli general Yair Golan - "If there is one thing that is scary in remembering the Holocaust, it is noticing horrific processes which developed in Europe, particularly in Germany, 70, 80, and 90 years ago, and finding remnants of that here in Israel among us in the year 2016."

Quote from Israeli defense minister Moshe Ya'alon - "The ideology of "Jewish supremacy", which has become dominant in the Israeli government, resembles Nazi racial theory."

Moshe Feiglin, a right wing Israeli politician, unironically quoted Hitler with regards to his opinions of the Palestinians - "As Hitler, may his name be erased, once said: 'I cannot live in this world if there is one Jew left in it,' we could not live in this land if even one such Islamo-Nazi remains in Gaza, and not before we return to Gaza and turn it into Hebrew Gaza." You literally can't make this shit up, they're out here quoting the bastard.

Tamir Pardo, former head of Mossad, compared the settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank to Nazi pogroms - "My mother was a Holocaust survivor, and what I saw reminded me of the events that happened against Jews in the last century.

And that's only a small list. The comparisons between Israel and the Nazis most frequently comes from Holocaust survivors, Jewish scholars, and Israel's own military commanders. The people committing this second Holocaust know this is exactly what they're doing.

Comparing Israel to the Nazis and the ongoing genocide of the Palestinians to the Holocaust is a neutral statement of fact.

Lasers have a lot of uses! Measuring things, heating things, cutting things, entertaining cats, particle physics. Lasers are pretty cool. Very versatile, very useful, potential to be very powerful.

Someone shows up one day and says "I have developed a never before seen technology! I call it a Death Star."

And it's a 3.4mW laser. Well no, we haven't seen this exact size of laser much since that's not really standard, but that's a bit of a misnomer, and I wouldn't call it new -

"HOLY SHIT GUYS! This Death Star is so entertaining! My cat loves it and it has such a nice color!" The Death Star becomes a viral novelty, and is mildly entertaining, as laser pointers often are.

Somehow, seemingly overnight, this leads to mania. "Lets stick lasers in EVERYTHING! The public loves them!"

More companies make 3.4mW lasers to jump on the bandwagon. Everyone that makes anything vaguely mechanical starts sticking lasers into their designs.

Everyone is calling them Death Stars. Any time there is a "Death Star innovation", it is just that they made a bigger laser.

Ford's next truck comes out and it has "Death Star integrated headlights", where they have just stuck giant lasers in place of their previously functional headlights.

An electric toothbrush is now "Powered by Death Stars" and shoots a laser at the tooth its cleaning. You think that maybe this could have actual applications as a sanitizing device if you're being generous, but when you actually look at the product, its laser has no purpose but to point at the tooth and drain the battery.

Mechanical products across the board get noticeably worse as everyone starts stuffing lasers in places where lasers have no right to be.

The lamp business gets in on it. "Here's a Death Star powered lamp!" These guys haven't even tried to stick a laser in their damn lamps. They've just started calling their light bulbs Death Stars and hoped you bought it before you could tell the difference. You at least appreciate that they haven't ruined their lamp about it.

Death Stars are lauded as the solution to all the world's problems. If it's not working, you should stick a laser in it! That'll fix it, everyone says. Once in a blue moon, it's even true! Weather prediction is really good now. But most things are garbage. Like "Death Star powered washing machines". What the fuck does that even mean?

Meanwhile, since all functioning mechanisms are being replaced with lasers, problems start showing up. All mirrors now cost $1000+ dollars, because the whole supply is being used up to make more lasers. The earth heats up, because everyone's blasting lasers at everything. People keep going blind, on account of all the lasers.

You, in fact, study optical mechanics. You know what a laser is, and how it works, and that it was invented many years before any of this nonsense actually started. People keep asking you about Death Stars, since surely you must know so much about them.

You explain that this is not really what lasers are for, except you have to call them Death Stars now, and that they're causing a lot of harm, so you don't like them much.

"Oh, but they're still such new tech!" they reply. "They'll figure out how to make Death Stars that don't burn your eyes out soon, and then it won't be an issue anymore!"

Somewhere, deep and buried, you remember lasers being used in particle accelerators, or in telescopes, or in laser cutters, or funny cat videos. They are, in fact, still interesting. Still cool.

But by this point they have replaced roads with "Death Star Powered Pathways", which are just laser pointers propped up on tooth picks pointing vaguely through the forests.

And you think you are going mad.

And they are still just FUCKING LASERS.

Here's the problem with that: When teachers like you make videos about how your students can't read, you're making videos about YOUR incompetence.

Your students can't read because for the last 20 years you stopped teaching children phonics. You started teaching them to read by guessing the next word based on context clues in the story. And that has been your curriculum for decades.

It is an awful way to teach children to read, it has been debunked more often than anti vaccine rhetoric, and any teacher still teaching that way is a fucking moron.

Don't tell me you aren't, because you ARE, and this is the ONLY reason American children struggle with literacy.

As my children and I were getting ready for bed, we heard a commotion and calls from residents of the Al-Salam neighborhood urging us to evacuate.

The occupation forces had threatened to bomb the residential block where my children, husband, and I were displaced. We left our tent and fled into the street in the darkness of night to save our lives😭😭 amidst the screams of children and adults, a mixture of terror and panic gripping our hearts. A violent explosion shook the area, leaving behind immense destruction. 😞

Nothing is the same. 😭😭 Everything is destroyed. 💔😭

The entire place, including the tent, was damaged 💔 Please donate towards its restoration 🙏🍉

💔 Please donate via the link 🙏🍉

👇👇👇

I always thought that was extremely flawed thinking, because stuff like this might freak some people out but others are gonna be like "I'm going into the thorns. I'm gonna go in there, it's calling to me."

The idea that this would work would have to be backed up by an actual example of someone laying out rocks in an ominous way that makes civilizations over thousands of years just leave it alone.

And then I realized