General Discussion

the IHRA however I still think their caveat about a criteria of leveled at more than one country still holds. I mentioned Zionism in the fashion I did because of it being an item that should be able to receive discussion and critique not for whether it is good or bad/right or wrong. I have no disagreement that some people will conflate things that shouldn't be or that much of the discussion about things in the world. My major concern, like always, is the idea of governments restricting the things that can be discussed or how they are discussed. The US has a long history of racism, antisemitism etc. and of repression of debate and discussion despite our 1st Amendment. The Red Scare would be an example where instead of a full and open discussion of all of the aspects of Communism the people in the US were purposely intimidated and repressed. The government became afraid of it's own people having a discussion of what this was, whether it adhered to Marx etc. or not, what were the possible ramifications for us etc. We should have been able to have that without the heavy repression and propaganda.

Unfortunately when it comes to the Middle East the vast majority of Americans get their idea of what things are from a narrow view/range of sources rather than a wide view/varied sources. No matter if it is about Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia etc. I feel it is one of the main reasons we have such a large percentage of young people who are susceptible to the people like Joe Rogan, RFK Jr. etc. similar in fashion to the people who only watch Fox News all day and night or only listen to hate radio.

Such people are not open minded about learning or having discussions and they don't want to be. Part of what they want is to have someone reinforce their insulated view and allow them to be more and more hardened into their shell and mindset. I'm sure you would agree with me that closed minds are a worldwide problem and it has gotten worse I think and not better in some areas of discussion.