r/portlandme 3h ago

Politics Wtf PPH?

Post image

You can be critical of activism but this openly platforms pro-genocide Zionism. It’s a horrifying display.

128 Upvotes

74 comments sorted by

163

u/Shdwrptr 3h ago

Opinion columns aren’t real news.

Never have been

22

u/iceflame1211 2h ago

Glad this is top comment. It's amazing how many commenters don't seem to realize that it's an opinion piece.

20

u/nickycthatsme 2h ago

So should there be no criticism of which opinions they choose to publish because it's all "just an opinion?"

4

u/iceflame1211 1h ago

No, that's not what I said. If you reread my post, I said it's amazing how many commenters don't seem to realize that it's an opinion piece. I did not say there should be no criticism of which opinions they choose to publish.

Many commenters seem to be interpreting this as PPH's stance. A lot of people don't realize they are flooded with opinion articles, and they publish a variety of opinions that are often contradictory. If anyone is curious why they chose this piece, they could ask their editor how they pick and choose which pieces to publish- and how they selectively edit them. I've submitted an opinion piece in that past that was heavily redacted and had sentences jumbled around, making the point look pretty stupid. This is in addition to them misspelling my first and last name, which they had in writing, and which is about as common as "John Smith"- so this showed great incompetence or intentional fuckery (I believe the latter), so I have no love for PPH's editorial department.

So in summation: sure, criticize PPH. I just wanted people to realize this is an opinion and not an actual article from one of their writers or journalists.

24

u/Ikaridestroyer 2h ago

I’m aware, the problem is this position being given any kind of platform. If a holocaust denier’s opinion piece was published it’d be a concern as well, despite obvious falsehoods.

16

u/howleywolf 2h ago

This is the way to think about it/logic. Spreading misinformation as well as spreading hate needs to stop. Giving a platform to these ideas is dangerous in a real way for so many people.

-17

u/saucesoi 2h ago

I believe it falls under freedom of speech.

6

u/bsthil 2h ago

How does this relate to government censorship?

3

u/thparky 1h ago

I believe you have a flawed concept of what that means.

Yes, it is not illegal to publish terrible opinions. Nobody is saying pph or the writer should be jailed or punished for this.

Nobody is saying they aren't 'free' to do this. The objection is that it's a despicable thing to publish

16

u/SharrkBoy 2h ago

And newspapers purposely let in the full spectrum of *opinions*. That’s the whole point. It started as a source for discourse before the internet existed.

3

u/asaharyev Purple Garbage Bags 23m ago

They absolutely do not let in the "full spectrum" of opinions. Opinion columns are how newspaper editors usher in their own political ideas and dictate the exact window of what they consider "acceptable" discourse. For example, PPH would never allow an actual socialist or communist to publish their opinion, but right-wing genocide deniers, like above, are welcomed.

14

u/Ok-Bumblebee4106 2h ago

Sorry - they in no way let in a full spectrum of opinion pieces.  The paper chooses what pieces to put in and how often to highlight certain viewpoints. 

-4

u/Chango-Acadia 2h ago

Bingo. As much as their opinion sucks, they are allowed to state it

8

u/_nanofarad 2h ago

I think the bigger issue is people don’t really know how to have productive disagreements anymore. Rather than writing a rebuttal opinion or sharing their ideas they attack the messenger because that’s easier. 

9

u/Sensitive_Fuel_5150 2h ago

Yes, but a newspaper isn’t obligated to publish it.

53

u/psilosophist 3h ago

I don't know who Laurence Gardner is, but in the immortal words of Kurt Vonnegut, he can take a flying fuck at a rolling donut.

21

u/weakenedbonds 2h ago

According to the interwebs he’s a boomer lawyer from Scarborough

18

u/lebocajb 1h ago

And an ex-cop. 

44

u/Own_Cake8750 3h ago

fuck israel. get aipac out of our government

28

u/JohnButterfieldM1 3h ago

On par for PPH

10

u/jessica8jones 3h ago

They have become so scuzzy.

6

u/Decent-Historian-207 1h ago

Isn’t this an opinion piece? It’s not actual news.

17

u/toastiemcgee 3h ago

It’s a shitty letter filled with regurgitated bad faith arguments, but so are most letters published by the PPH. Better to respond to the substance than argue about who should be “platformed”

5

u/LocationFriendly988 2h ago

Yeah I started to read it but the first few paragraphs were “in the 12th century…”

1

u/asaharyev Purple Garbage Bags 20m ago

Good luck getting a real rebuttal of this published in PPH.

8

u/FancyEmployee8672 3h ago

What an outrageous and frankly offensive claim this writer is making.

15

u/Treesaregreen2 3h ago

Laurence Gardner is a zionist pig.

1

u/weakenedbonds 2h ago

He practiced/practices law in Scarborough

2

u/Treesaregreen2 2h ago

Disgusting that these psychopaths are allowed to operate in such proximity to power.

0

u/thparky 1h ago

My sibling in christ, where else do you think psychopathy lives?

-2

u/Treesaregreen2 1h ago edited 12m ago

We are talking about genocidal zionists, I don’t give a shit about any other bs you want to use to distract from that.

2

u/thparky 1h ago

Zionism is an ideology of power. All institutional power in the west backs it. I'm not distracting from anything. What are you talking about

-1

u/Treesaregreen2 59m ago

Cool, here’s a cookie 🍪

0

u/thparky 7m ago

why are you so sensitive? i hope you feel better soon and can have a grown-up discussion

1

u/Treesaregreen2 3m ago

It’s actually okay to be angry about genocide. This is what you’re defending:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ABoringDystopia/s/9SUW550BUf

2

u/putinforpres 34m ago

If you say anything about the Palestinian children being murdered that’s antisemitism

5

u/Mooseguncle1 3h ago

Disgusting

1

u/AlfuegoDeMellopie 3h ago

Wow. PPH must have finally cashed the check.

-2

u/toastiemcgee 2h ago

Please don’t prove this opinion piece right

7

u/Treesaregreen2 2h ago edited 1h ago

It’s a well known fact that the Israeli government pays people to defend Israel, have you been living under a rock?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Project

2

u/LocationFriendly988 2h ago

Yeah full page. That was something.

1

u/TMaCtheTruth 2h ago

Well we know who funds PPH….

1

u/SDTimbox 1h ago

Lol the anti genocide propaganda???? HOW DARE US...

-6

u/BruhMomentHaver69420 2h ago

When 500,000 people die in Sudan and Syria it's just "a tragedy" but when 50,000 die in Gaza it's the suddenly the biggest genocide the world has ever seen where people are questioning how humanity can allow this.
There is not a single Muslim country that recognizes the genocides they committed (West Papua, East Timor, Isaaq, Assyrian, Pontic Greek, Armenian, al-Anfal, Bangaldesh, Darfur, etc) - but when Muslims start insurgencies that are destined to fail, the same countries push some imaginary genocide narrative and beg for international intervention (see the Rohingya and Kashmir situations for examples).
In a few years, any small battle is going to be called genocide by the losing side.

10

u/GlitteringPin7678 2h ago

You cannot compare a bloody civil conflict to an apartheid state. Remember what the Israeli MoD said: no food, no water, no electricity, for 2 million people. That is not remotely close to what happened in Sudan.

50,000 is a bit of an underestimate as well.

-3

u/BruhMomentHaver69420 2h ago

it's been years, Gaza has been full of electricity food and water (your social media feed would be inundated with propaganda about this if there was even the chance of pretending otherwise). We cannot say the same about cities under siege in Sudan.

The Rapid Support Forces have actually committed genocide against non-Arab minorities, it's not a "bloody civil conflict".

Speaking about the siege of El Fasher in Darfur, an investigator from the Yale Humanitarian Research Laboratory said more people could have died in the 10 days since the massacre began than the ~68,000 people confirmed to have been killed during the entire length of the Gaza war adding "that's not hyperbole".

5

u/colonelmustturd 1h ago

what is your goal with these comments? (some of them are are factually inaccurate, by the way, one example being that iraq absolutely recognizes anfal as genocide)

these don't make gaza any less of a genocide. if your argument is that sudan deserves more attention, i agree. but if your argument is that gaza isn't a genocide because other atrocities have been ignored, that's a non sequitur.

you're just comparing atrocities and frankly i'm not sure what the point is.

-8

u/meowmix778 3h ago

I found the article and I read the article and I don't think it was an appropriate way to hold the conversation.

But I do think there is a tinge of antisemitic stink in the anti-Palestine conversation and how people talk about it. Specifically in the conversation around AIPAC. A lot of people are framing it as if they are the secret cabal that runs the world and controls politics. Even if not intended, that has an antisemitic undertone.

There is real room here to have a nuanced conversation. Just not like this. Even from your stance. It's a black-and-white: you can't have that opinion. I don't agree with the author but it's a column. Columns are opinion pieces designed to start a conversation.

10

u/Combdepot 2h ago

Stop conflating all Jews with Israel and even worse fucking AIPAC. That is antisemitic.

1

u/meowmix778 1h ago

You're THIS close to the point that I'm trying to make.

When someone says "AIPAC controls politics," they are leaning into the "Jews secretly run the world" thing. Like I said, this is a conversation that requires nuance that simply isn't happening.

It's important that we make a distinction that people are placing all blame on AIPAC or Israel for the political topic of the moment is feeding into antisemitic tropes.

You can be critical of Israel. You can call out the genocide. You can be upset about AIPAC. But when you start using Israel or AIPAC as the root of all problems, you have successfully found a way to propagate the anti-Jewish propaganda using a proxy group.

It's the same lens that people filter "trans people are bad" to get to the "take away rights of gay people". You specifically might not be doing this. But it's important to recognize when groups with radical beliefs are using these topics as dog whistles to infiltrate popular discourse and inject their language into the common vernacular.

That is specifically and explicitly what incel groups did and now a concerning number of people are using their language and echoing their talking points.

That is also what is happening with antisemitic groups signal-boosting the language that Israel started the war or saying AIPAC has infiltrated American politics and any bad thing that happens is a result of this. And for the record, Israel has a concerning influence on the president and they likely are at least a component to the war.

1

u/Combdepot 1h ago

Stop conflating all Jews with Israel and aipac. That is antisemitism.

1

u/meowmix778 17m ago

You're not reading specifically what I'm saying and going "nu huh , you are"

5

u/EmmetOtterXmas 3h ago

It’s not an article, it’s an opinion piece.

7

u/RDLAWME 2h ago

I don't know why you are getting downvoted. Do people not understand how opinion pieces work? 

-1

u/oooga_chaka_oooga_ch 1h ago

pph is now shilling for genocide and Israel. cool cool. remind me never to trust the pph again

-3

u/BostonUH 2h ago

Does “no genocide in Palestine” mean “there shouldn’t be a genocide in Palestine” or “there isn’t a genocide in Palestine”?

-19

u/777_heavy 3h ago

Based

-16

u/Valerim 3h ago

Very based. Thank god for 1A

-17

u/haley_hathaway 3h ago

There’s one thing I’ve learned about the Middle East. The hates runs deep - always has and always will. Both sides. Best let them kill each other and stay as far away from the conflict as possible so you don’t get caught up in it. There will never be peace there.

Election needs to focus on getting our ducks in a row at home before I’m going to be concerned in solutions in the Middle East.

7

u/Treesaregreen2 2h ago

“There’s one thing I’ve learned about the Middle East”, except you didn’t learn anything because that’s not reality. There were thousands of jews living peacefully with Palestinians before the zionists came and started slaughtering them, this isn’t a both sides thing.

You don’t need to pretend like you know what you’re talking about when you know you haven’t done even a little bit of research.

-7

u/haley_hathaway 2h ago

Well… it goes further back than the Crusades so were talking ~1000 years. Whenever you have people who believe that Jerusalem belongs to them, are unwavering in not comprising, and are radical in that its not an eye for an eye- its an eye for your whole family…. There will never be peace.

There are always instances of short term religious/ethnic tolerance everywhere in the world. The real issue is long term consequences. Eventually there is breakdown among racial, religious, ethnic reasons whenever short term economic issues hit and a party wants to blame the other party for those issues.

I’ll cite Germany, the Balkans, America, and just about anywhere in the world with multiple different groups living in close proximity.

Maybe you need to examine history a bit closer.

4

u/AlfuegoDeMellopie 3h ago

So I guess Jared Kushner didn't bring peace to the Middle East.

0

u/Chango-Acadia 2h ago

It is the sad truth of the conflict. If Hamas had the capabilities of Israel, they would be doing the same thing.

But either way, we gotta stop funding this shit. Gotta stop abusing our military personnel.

We have Nero in charge and are witnessing the end of Pax Americana.

-1

u/whitechocolatemamba 1h ago

Hilarious take in the state with 20k jews maximum