I’ve been negative on what’s going on in Israel for a long time, but I admit I’m not overly motivated to go into the streets and clutch my pearls in dismay.
The Canadian govt and organisations in general, to my understanding, aren’t really giving a ton of weapons for use in this crap. And clearly, our government’s stance has basically zero weight with other countries at this point – especially with the USA trying to annex us / starting preparations to conduct a Russian style invasion (they’re listing ‘fentanyl’ as a WMD next, so that they can use the tiny amount that crosses their border as an excuse to invade their neighbours it seems).
The issue of the USA falling apart, given its historic central role in most western/democratic pushes, is a bigger issue for most of us, than the deterioration of an area that lacks democracy. I mean, the USA’s authoritarian trend is what’s enabling Israel to do these things in some ways. The states falling apart is also a lot more ‘directly’ impactful for citizens in western countries – we notice when the USA decides to wage an economic war against us, more than we notice the atrocities occurring on the other side of the world.
There’s also only so much time you can dedicate to ‘protesting’, in between working a regular job to provide for your basic necessities. People’re tired man, and focusing on the protests that mean the most to them.
heh, your edits are kinda hilarious when you note that the position you’ve ‘agreed’ with has just ~15 upvotes, while the two noting its a ‘dangerous by default’ thing each have like 50 or 100 upvotes. Men gave you their perspective, and you choose to ignore it. Most guys agree on what that sort of behaviour typically is – and even if it is the left over covid habit, that’s still a “this person is wearing a mask and likely wants to stay distant from others, I should walk in the mud because they’ll think I’m a threat if I get too close”… is still in the ball park of walkin in the mud cause he wants to show he’s not a threat.
A large number of men have internalised all the negativity expressed in the media about our gender over the last few decades. Lots of the ones who’ve resisted / refused to do so, have gone the extreme right / alpha male BS route, trying to aggressively push back against it in a rather sad way. I reckon its partially because progressive / left leaning approaches don’t typically allow for any dissenting voices on things like gender, and are heavily influenced by feminist ideology: masculine sexuality and traits are the enemy. Caucasian males in specific, is one demographic that’s always pretty safe to dunk on in pretty well any scenario.
I’d phrase it a bit differently though, I think, in that its more risk avoidance than threat internalization – even if one follows the other. Like I know guys who get anxiety if they’re asked to work a shift with just one other coworker (female) on site - I’ve had the same concerns personally. It’s not because we think we’ll slip up and accidentally assault the woman or something. It’s that we’re worried we’ll say something / do something that the woman will take offense to, there’ll be no witnesses to support our side, and the standard of today is “believe the victim (if its not a male victim)”. Avoiding being in that situation/getting anxiety over it, isn’t an internalization of being a threat, so much as it’s wanting to avoid the potential risk of something that’s shown in many media circles constantly.
Nodding hello and saying good morning / afternoon is something I reserve typically for older men, usually white or asian. Any other demographic tends to net a negative response more often than naught. Like imagine if every other person you said “hello” to quickened their pace to get away from you or shot you nasty looks – you’d prolly stop doin it too. I’ve even had X’s who said they thought that behaviour was an attempt to ‘pick them up’, which I definitely don’t want to mis-convey. I still say it back if someone says it to me, but I can’t initiate without it re-enforcing a negative male stereotype. That pleasantry was killed off like a decade or more ago, in part because the onus to maintain it shifted away from men… and women didn’t really want to take the step to keep it goin. I mean, you didn’t exactly say “g’mornin” to the mud walker guy to let him know it’s all good, did you? ;p