For years I’ve thought of busting this famous meme, but I don’t think could do better than this video from ARI. It goes through each panel, noting that it’s either an outright lie or drops crucial context.
https://youtu.be/btVFgqkgkzw?si=YUIz503kVfv6lCdW
A few quick points:
▪️The first panel shows the bulk of the land green, despite much of it being unlivable at the time and not owned or settled. They just color it all green as some sort of collective rights claim for “Palestinians” which is invalid from an individual rights perspective and inaccurate from any sort of state control.
▪️The second panel never existed, but now the white and green switches from collective group claims to actual state control. It was the UN plan, but the day after Israel declared independence all the neighboring Arab states declared war and tried to obliterate Israel and send the Jews to the sea.
▪️Keep in mind, the invading Arab states were never trying to ensure a Palestinian state or any such freedom. They were trying to grab the land for themselves and send the Jews to the sea. If they had won, the land would be controlled by the autocratic states of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, etc.
▪️The 3rd panel is a lie. The green areas were controlled by Jordan and Egypt, they weren’t “Palestinian land” and those countries would have laughed at that claim back then.
▪️There’s no panel showing Israel taking Gaza from Egypt and and greatly expanding into the Sinai, which they used to strategically defend itself from Egypt trying to launch attacks in another attempt to send the Jews to the sea. But when Egypt stopped being a menace they gave back the Sinai.
▪️The last panel drops all the context that “Palestinian land” was just a series of warring factions with no ability to ever have a remotely functioning state. Because that wasn’t their goal. Their goal has never been to have a government that protects Palestinian rights and land, the primary goal and obsession (as always) is to throw the Jews to the sea.
A more accurate meme will be posted in the comments.
So many of these right wing accounts are just whiners now, this is a diatribe about automatic sinks and towels, the horror! As I explained in a prior post, most of the newer terminals have great bathrooms, some now have completely private stalls and plenty of them. The worst and most crowded airport bathrooms are invariably found in aging terminals that are decades old. It’s a reminder that airports were usually drab and uncomfortable.
I think the heyday of the air hand-dryers was like 15-20 years ago, where often you couldn’t find real towels. Now you can at least usually get real paper towels in airport bathrooms. Remember those old cloth roller towels that would go in a loop and somehow “clean” themselves? Yuck! Public bathrooms have always been gross, it seems some are deliberately having selective memories.
Airport food and drinks were always expensive, but now practically everyone brings those huge cooler flasks with them and fills them up. So not sure what he means that ...
I first critiqued this terrible take by looking at how food has actually improved substantially. Even though I said the same could be done in every category, people said “you’re only doing food.” So let’s do air travel and see why it’s not gotten better, not worse.
▪️Aircraft have greatly improved. Just 15-20 years ago, many domestic routes (~15%) were flown by turboprops like the Brasilia, Dash 8 or Saab. Now, almost everything is in jets, and most aircraft have WiFi. Some even have Starlink, where you probably have faster WiFi than your home. Most major airlines offer dozens or hundreds of movies and shows to watch.
▪️Newer designs like the 787 have lower cabin altitudes and improved humidity, which make a huge difference in passenger comfort on long haul flights. The first/business class international market has gotten very competitive globally, with many carriers offering excellent service and amenities. Pods, suites, showers, etc. Coach still sucks but is dramatically cheaper ...
This is the complete opposite of an empirical fact. The right has now joined the left in being pessimistic about the modern world and completely unappreciative of the amazing abundance we now have. I’ll just focus on food here, but you could do it for almost every category.
▪️Fresh produce used to be available only in season. In the winter it was canned or frozen. People used to send fruit for Christmas gifts, it was that much of a luxury good. Now, you can get giant, sweet berries year around in every grocery store. Corn on the cob in February. Not to mention once rare items like dragon fruit, heirloom tomatoes or baby bok choy.
▪️If you didn’t live on the coast, seafood was either not available, frozen, or extremely expensive. If you lived in the Midwest and traveled to coastal locales you would quite literally be able to eat food you had never seen. Salmon has become much more abundant and accessible. You can get fresh ahi at Walmart today. Sushi and oyster bars exist everywhere ...
