General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: They've been dehumanized. [View all]Beastly Boy
(9,952 posts)Just because so few are saying this doesn't make it any less true.
There is a certain narrative being promoted in the media (and how this is being accomplished is another untold story worth paying attention to) that leaves the criminals out of it.
You can see the residue of this narrative in your post. It expresses concern for all lives on both sides, yet this concern is preceded by an implicit absolution of responsibility for taking those lives on the only side that keeps engaging in the activities that put civilian lives at risk, the only side that can end this criminal practice at will and spare thousands of lives, but does not. The rationale for this oversight is rather perplexing: you don't see civilians being exploited as human shields anymore because so many of them have been killed.
I have no doubt that this narrative is not entirely of your own making - I've hear it from a multitude of sources, with only slight variations. It lacks reason and sense. As a point of departure, it takes for granted a grossly oversimplified and distorted picture of the nature of civilian casualties in Gaza. It presumes this picture, without explanation or room for questions, to be the only accepted framework in examining these deaths, it denies the significance (or in many cases the existence) of the parts left out of this narrative, and it inescapably leads those who buy into it to a single, one-dimentional and entirely false, conclusion: But... Israel.
And in this fatally flawed narrative, "both sides" serves no other purpose than an obligatory disclaimer to insure plausible deniability.