kadhim

What is your basis for the notion that the hospital complex was “bombed?” I see you guys casually throwing that word around and I’m not really seeing anything to support that sort of choice of wording. What do you mean by “bombed?” Exactly which hospital buildings do you claim are ruined smoking piles of rubble now? The following summary is quite friendly to the Palestinian point of view to the extent there’s a flag on the article. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shifa_Hospital_siege And all I’m seeing here is there was heavy fighting to gain access to the hospital complex (against those Hamas fighters who supposedly were never ever there). And several “projectiles,” some of which were apparently Israeli, struck buildings and caused a handful of casualties. 7-14 dead, depending on who you ask. In a complex where there were allegedly 50 000 people. That doesn’t seem to line up to the notion the place was intentionally “bombed,” does it? Lol. Who is taking a side? I’m not taking your side is what you mean to say. Let’s be honest here. So here’s the reality. I don’t know if you ever found yourself in a stats course. In stats there is something called hypothesis testing. You’re doing research, and you’re trying to prove something happened and that your evidence is not just random chance. So you have a null hypothesis. “Nothing to see here.” And then there is an alternate hypothesis. There is something to see here. You can have a general alternate hypothesis, which is basically, it’s not true that nothing is happening here. Or you can have a specific alternate hypothesis. This specific story is happening here. So in this case, one alternate hypothesis is that there was a Hamas command and control center there, or even the main one. Does the evidence prove that? I don’t know. There’s some ambiguity. But what we can say with confidence is that the null hypothesis of Hamas, that Hamas never had an active presence there. Is that likely based on the evidence? No. That is absolutely not believable, given the resistance faced on taking the hospital and based on the weapons found inside it. So whether or not Israel is exaggerating the meaning of what they found, they did find evidence of Hamas being there. Hamas was clearly lying. So again, why does that not impact your perceptions of the situation? Why does that not prompt some reflection? I like telling stupid people they’re wrong. It’s a guilty pleasure I’m trying, God willing, to wean myself off of.

I’m officially out of this conversation, but I am popping in to respond to this. I will ignore anything that comes after that doesn’t respond with substance. —— Don’t present something as a response if you’re not going to bother to answer the questions. If you can’t describe at least roughly what it would take to make you change your mind or reevaluate, it looks a lot like you’re not actually open to persuasion. If that’s the case, better to just be transparent about it. Similarly if your standard is something absurdly unrealistic, like, you’ll only believe it if Hamas patiently stays put, even after knowing the IDF is coming, and they get caught red-handed in the middle of a meeting. Though even then I imagine some of you would find excuses. You guys are very good at finding excuses. I think objective thinking people would take your “Israel didn’t claim militant activities, they claimed a command centre” and flip it around. Hamas claimed there was no militant activity at all at any hospital and that the idea is 100% hasbara. Unfortunately, to objective people, the evidence does not seem to support that null hypothesis. Because the normal, explainable number of Kalashnikovs and grenades and bullet magazines in a hospital basement or MRI room is … you want to take a guess? That’s right. Zero. Were Hamas lying when they say they don’t operate defensively or offensively out of hospitals? Clearly the answer seems to be yes. And operating militarily out of a hospital is also considered a “blatant war crime” just in case you’ve forgotten. And then the question is, why does that not affect your perceptions of the situation? If in fact you’re open to persuasion as you claim?

You’re welcome. Reminder that none of this is supposed to be a “fatwa” or anything. It’s just applying Islamic thinking to the question in different ways to try to reach for an clearer understanding. None of this claims to be THE answer.

^ I for one just want to express my appreciation for the local Shiachat Hoteps. They provide entertainment value, if nothing else.

You know, I don’t know much about soccer. But if a player went into the stands and burned one of the fans of the opposing team alive, I’d feel pretty confident in guessing that’s a red card, no?

By the way, in regards to Mr. Youssef’s claim, I just tried this out myself on the ChatGPT app on iOS. This is using the free access 3.5 version. Here is what I got back: If any skeptical explorers want to try it out for themselves, feel free. Caveat: I don’t know what version Mr. Yousef claims to have been using and when, and LLM-based chat models are not deterministic and results may vary from request to request.

Ok. Second goalpost question. Who are you considering a “neutral party?” Let’s name some names.

Ok. So I’m going to turn my snark off for a minute and ask a serious question. Can you guys clarify precisely what your objective personal threshold is in terms of how many guns would have to be found where you would believe serious militant activity was based there? Is it 100 guns? 1000 guns? How many Kalashnikov clips? How many grenades? Do you have an actual stable goalpost where you’re open to persuasion? Or is it more a matter you’re just never going to reconsider?

So? This is such an embarrassingly mindless argument. So now that Sam Altman is out and Mila Murati is in charge, is it an “Albanian company” or “Muslim company” now? This line of thinking has no connection to how the world actually works. Companies don’t have religions or ethnicities.

That the best you got brah? I think you should give it a REST.

You should warm up properly before you stretch that hard brah. You’re gonna pull a muscle.

No it wasn’t. What are you talking about? ChatGPT was developed by OpenAI, a company in San Francisco. What even is a “Jewish company?”

OBL’s “Letter to America.” Wow. That’s a blast from the past I wasn’t expecting to hear about again.

Did any of you honestly believe anyone was actually going to join Hamas in their suicide pact? You guys be sure to let me know if you need any help working through the stages of the grieving process on this. Thoughts and prayers.

It’s not my job or anyone’s job to re-litigate reality for you on this any more than it’s anyone’s responsibility to prove the sky is blue. Get over yourself.