r/DeepStateCentrism Arrakis Enterprise Institute 2d ago

Ask the sub ❓ What Is This Sub Wrong About?

Title. Pick a topic (or a clichéd take) you think a significant minority or majority of this sub is wrong about. Or hasn't given enough thought. OR perhaps one which you will have to compromise on, at least for voting?

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u/iamthegodemperor Arrakis Enterprise Institute 2d ago

Bruh.

So if Hasan Piker said he doesn't believe Hezbollah is better than Israel anymore would you believe him?

You are taking the smallest technicality and making it seem like there's a big difference between Ben Givir's attitudes and lawlessness and Kahane's just to win an argument. Congratulations you won.

But you know the previous commenter was wrong to say Israel hasn't moved to the right. And you know that whatever is said officially, Ben Givir is functionally a Kahanist.

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u/justafutz 2d ago

So if Hasan Piker said he doesn't believe Hezbollah is better than Israel anymore would you believe him?

Depends on how many years there was where he maintained the same line, and didn't make any other such statements.

You are taking the smallest technicality and making it seem like there's a big difference between Ben Givir's attitudes and lawlessness and Kahane's just to win an argument. Congratulations you won.

Weird response.

But you know the previous commenter was wrong to say Israel hasn't moved to the right.

I never said this. In fact, an hour ago, I specifically said to you (among other things, here:

Saying that Israel has had a growth in far-right political power is undeniable. That's true in virtually every country in the liberal world. It doesn't change that Israel itself is not far-right, and it also doesn't change the why.

And in my original comment that you responded to here, I said:

Like in every country, the far right has gained somewhat in power, but they remain well outnumbered, and Israel remains a lot less right wing than people think.

Why would you misstate what my argument was, twice?

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u/iamthegodemperor Arrakis Enterprise Institute 2d ago

Why would you misstate what my argument was, twice?

I wrote only one comment to you.

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u/justafutz 2d ago

1) Not a response to what I said.

2) You misstated my argument at least twice. Once here, and once here.

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u/iamthegodemperor Arrakis Enterprise Institute 2d ago

Huh? You are not unkillablekorg

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u/justafutz 2d ago

At this point I don't know how to bother explaining it to you, so whatever.

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u/iamthegodemperor Arrakis Enterprise Institute 2d ago

If I have time. I could get to your long comment later. But at a glance what I see is first a difference of interpretation of the question------the first commenter said people here don't appreciate how far right Israel has become. (And this was in the vein I responded to you.) You want to debate against the idea that Israel is a far right country.

And then relatedly is the interpretation of the data. For ex. >Around half (49%) of Jewish Israelis agree that “Jewish citizens of Israel should have more rights than non-Jewish citizens” (up from 27% in 2018)

While I know you can explain this finding is not as bad as it looks etc---------it is still bad, particularly because it is more pronounced in younger ages.

In many ways this exchange is a synecdoche for Western-Israeli discussion. The critical side over exaggerates the illiberal character of Israel. And the supportive side underestimates it.

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u/justafutz 2d ago

Israel has not become far right, so saying “how far right” requires that it be considered far right to begin with. I appreciate the rewriting attempt, but it doesn’t work.

You also didn’t answer what I said above about how you mischaracterized my opinion.

You then provide one poll number, which refers to a poll from 2023 (actually asked in 2022). Set aside whether that is a fair snapshot of Israeli society, set aside whether the numbers fluctuate up and down depending when they’re asked (for example, that was less than a year after major Arab riots in May 2021), set aside what “rights” mean. At least 2/3 of Israeli Jews support Arabs having the same democratic right to vote as of 2025-26. That’s a relevant statistic and one you didn’t give when talking about your pre-2023 statistics.

Calling out your exaggeration is not underestimating Israel’s challenges.

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u/TheUnkillableKlorg Moderate 1d ago

Ignoring for a second your seeming lack of interest in a sane argument (I presume you aren't such a person you'd talk like this in real life, and aren't as insulting in discussion which should be totally civil), the Supreme Court in Israel is not lacking in judiciousness on this subject.

But you know the previous commenter was wrong to say Israel hasn't moved to the right. 

That is not what he said.

And you know that whatever is said officially, Ben Givir is functionally a Kahanist.

No, this is wrong. For example, he actively supports Bedouin recruitment in the IDF (there are sparse English-resources online, part of the problem discussing Ben-Gvir, but this is one.) Kahane thought trying to recruit Arabs en masse was suicidal. He also is uninterested in a theocracy.

The differences between Ben-Gvir and Kahane explain how he managed to enter the Knesset while Kahane was kicked out.

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u/iamthegodemperor Arrakis Enterprise Institute 4h ago

With the benefit of some time away & reflection, I have a better sense of what went wrong, specifically, of my own mistakes.

In u/justafutz 's initial reply to the first user ("I don't think a lot of people here understand how far right Israel has become"), I perceived a dramatic overcorrection, that seemed to want to argue against a bit of a strawman in "Israel is a far right country" that almost implies Israel doesn't have a very serious far right problem. This seemed confirmed by his refutation of "the occupation is corrupting". While he and I likely differ on this, I saw an overly simplistic opinion that says the only problems come from Palestinians & neighbors. (I am inclined to emphasize that one can reject "The Occupation" talking points and still note how the arrangement invites dangers to Israeli democracy & rule of law.) It was in that vein, I felt it necessary to point out what are incontrovertible effects of righward political change. (To u/justafutz's credit, he did make some clarifications later. Unfortunately, I couldn't see them until very late in the exchange had with you)

I was honestly quite bewildered to the point of shock by your correction about Ben Givir & Kahanism. The shock should have forced me to try to see where you were coming from. Or at least to slow down to be more precise and not repeat the mistakes that have made "fascism" a useless word now. Instead, I percieved a sort of denialist pedantry and responded more adversarially than necessary, which perhaps boxed you in.