# I Pit Babale **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 7, 2025, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738 "2025-04-07T14:59:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 54
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1061 "2026-09-15T10:31:37Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > And I and most people I see using the terminology are too young to have the visceral reaction to the level DSeid did, and thus I did not anticipate it being that bad for him. For that, @DSeid, I am genuinely sorry. Uh, no, that’s bullshit. I’m much younger than you are and have a “visceral” reaction as well. It’s not about whether you are “old enough”. 🙄 > [@BigT](#): > > They’ll also ask why Holodomor denial is considered acceptable, for example. Holodomor denial is _not_ acceptable, except among tankies and vatniks. If a young person is wondering “why is Holodomor denial acceptable”, that young person _is hanging out with the wrong fucking crowd_. > [@BigT](#): > > They’re very highly empathic. Only towards some people. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1062 "2026-09-15T11:59:02Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > > [@BigT](#): > > > > They’ll also ask why Holodomor denial is considered acceptable, for example. > > Holodomor denial is _not_ acceptable, except among tankies and vatniks. If a young person is wondering “why is Holodomor denial acceptable”, that young person _is hanging out with the wrong fucking crowd_. I had to look up the word “holodomor”, but I’m familiar with the event it references. I had no idea there were people who denied it. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1063 "2026-09-15T12:09:57Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > If I knew of another genocide that people passionately care about in the same way that the Gazan genocide protestors care about that genocide, I would have referenced that instead. It has not seemed like other Dopers comparing to either of those things have gotten this visceral a reaction. There have been a lot of genocides in my lifetime. Why is this the only one that people you know care passionately about? > [@BigT](#): > > And I and most people I see using the terminology are too young to have the visceral reaction to the level DSeid did, and thus I did not anticipate it being that bad for him. For that, @DSeid, I am genuinely sorry. I’m not sure exactly what you are referring to here, I’ve lost the thread. But I’m guessing the people who have a visceral reaction are likely “Jews with some family connection to the Holocaust”. Not “old people”. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1064 "2026-09-15T12:16:21Z")
I’m guessing that the fact that the US government has been supporting and continues to support the situation in Gaza has a lot to do with the strength of the interest in it. I mean, there’s still a lot of attention on other pogroms (eg the Uyghurs) but my representatives don’t seem to be actively promoting most of them. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1065 "2026-09-15T12:19:28Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > There have been a lot of genocides in my lifetime. Why is this the only one that people you know care passionately about? It’s the human tragedy with the greatest PR campaign, the one where the two opposing sides are most familiar to western society, the one most “televised”. It’s biblically relatable even to those who’ve never read their bible, much less the actual history of the Levant. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1066 "2026-09-15T12:36:58Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I had to look up the word “holodomor”, but I’m familiar with the event it references. I had no idea there were people who denied it. It’s extremely common among the “America Bad” crowd, probably because it’s an extremely bad thing they can’t blame America for that their greatest anti-American heroes committed. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1067 "2026-09-15T13:10:11Z")
You know, as my friends all scramble to get citizenship anyplace other than the US, they ask me if i can’t swing citizenship in some European country through my ancestry. “My ancestors all fled Russia”, i reply. Not one person has suggested i attempt to establish Russian citizenship. And a friend who was born in… Hmm, it was probably still the Soviet Union, is trying to get rid of her Russian citizenship. When people directly compare the US and the Russian hegemony today, in real, immediate terms, I’ve yet to hear a vote for Russia. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1068 "2026-09-15T13:16:39Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > When people directly compare the US and the Russian hegemony today, in real, immediate terms, I’ve yet to hear a vote for Russia. I’m glad to hear you don’t know any tankies. I’m sure that’s easier in your age group than mine. It seems like the moment people grew up with no personal experience of what the USSR was like, they completely forgot how horrible it was. A couple of years ago I had my sister in law tell me that she trusts the CCCP more than she trusts the US government. This was under Biden, and she is definitely not a rightwinger. So believe me when I tell you that I am extremely jealous of your ability to go through life without running into any tankies or vatniks. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1069 "2026-09-15T13:27:24Z")
My friend with dual Russian/US citizenship is probably not older than you. I had friends who were undergraduates out protesting the Israeli violence in Gaza, back at the beginning of the war. I’m on a lot of private discords run by people in their 30s, and some in their 20s. I don’t think it’s age, I think you hang out with a bad crowd. But on the flip side of age, my husband’s grandparents (on the Jewish side) were Communists, and huge fans of the nascent Soviet Union. They had a family vacation there when my husband’s mother and uncle were children, before WWII. I heard stories about that trip from both of them. (The, er, highlight was that my MIL decided to swim in a ditch somewhere, and caught… I forget, but she was hospitalized for at least a week and her mother’s hair went white. My MIL was 4 or 5 at the time, her brother was older.) My husband’s uncle, as an old man, still supported the Soviet Union, although he said it had gone astray. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1070 "2026-09-15T13:44:22Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I’m on a lot of private discords run by people in their 30s, and some in their 20s. I don’t think it’s age, I think you hang out with a bad crowd. Then I’m certain you _have_ seen this pro-Russia stuff, but may not have recognized it as such because just like the pre-2016 Nazi online spaces, there are lots of dog whistles. Are you telling me that Hasan Piker streams aren’t shared in these communities? He’s the single largest left wing content creator online. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1071 "2026-09-15T13:56:51Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > It’s the human tragedy with the greatest PR campaign, the one where the two opposing sides are most familiar to western society, the one most “televised”. It’s biblically relatable even to those who’ve never read their bible, much less the actual history of the Levant. …as Gyrate has already pointed it out, it has nothing to do with any of this but to do with the fact that governments worldwide are materially supporting the atrocities happening in Gaza being committed by Israel, and governments and private actors are actively punishing people that speak out about it or try to stop it. The only people running PR campaigns are [Israel](https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-just-quintupled-its-pr-budget-to-730-million-experts-say-it-wont-work/) to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1072 "2026-09-15T14:06:06Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > It’s the human tragedy with the greatest PR campaign, Yep, Arafat was quite literally trained in propaganda by the USSR and all of the same talking points they taught him - settler colonialism, genocide, ethnic cleansing - come from. It is [very well documented and even noted at the time](https://www.jta.org/2001/12/23/lifestyle/is-arafats-doublespeak-a-strategy) that Palestinian leaders like Arafat only adopted this sort of language for exterior consumption. Which is why it’s beyond silly when useful idiots like Banquet Bear fall for this bullshit hook, line, and sinker. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1073 "2026-09-15T14:08:13Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Which is why it’s beyond silly when useful idiots like Banquet Bear fall for this bullshit hook, line, and sinker. …do you condemn the killing of Refaat Alareer? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1074 "2026-09-15T14:09:53Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > sEtTlEr CoLoNiAlIsM, gEnOcIdE, eThNiC cLeAnSiNg Look, everyone, he’s doing the alternating caps thing! That definitely proves he has a compelling argument and isn’t just pulling stuff out of his ass again to deflect from the ethnic cleansing he continues to support. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1075 "2026-09-15T14:12:07Z")
I also added a link, which thanks to Discourse’s handy feature of tracking the number of clicks, I can tell you didn’t bother to click on before shitting yourself in public once more. Here it is again, if you’re also too stupid to find the scroll wheel on your mouse: > [@Babale](#): > > It is [very well documented and even noted at the time](https://www.jta.org/2001/12/23/lifestyle/is-arafats-doublespeak-a-strategy) that Palestinian leaders like Arafat only adopted this sort of language for exterior consumption. But that tracks with the level of intellectual honestly and rigour you’ve displayed in every post on this topic, so I’m hardly surprised. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1076 "2026-09-15T14:13:02Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > > [@Babale](#): > > > > sEtTlEr CoLoNiAlIsM, gEnOcIdE, eThNiC cLeAnSiNg > > Look, everyone, he’s doing the alternating caps thing! I read **Babale** ’s posts, but typing like that is telling me that that post is not important. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1077 "2026-09-15T14:14:11Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > I read **Babale** ’s posts, but typing like that is telling me that that post is not important Then I’ve successfully conveyed to you exactly how I feel whenever I see people disingenuously or stupidly using those terms 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1078 "2026-09-15T14:17:50Z")
That said, in the interests of ending this sidebar which is even more boring than the usual buzzword bingo is, I’ve edited my post to remove the alternating caps. Hope that helps 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1079 "2026-09-15T14:21:46Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > I also added a link, which thanks to Discourse’s handy feature of tracking the number of clicks, I can tell you didn’t bother to click on before shitting yourself in public once more. Yes, I’m aware that you posted a link to an irrelevant point to support your deflection from the ethnic cleansing you continue to support. You know that Arafat died in 2004, right? And thank you for the nod to my intellectual rigour and honesty; I regret I cannot return the favor. > [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > it has nothing to do with any of this but to do with the fact that governments worldwide are materially supporting the atrocities happening in Gaza being committed by Israel, and governments and private actors are actively punishing people that speak out about it or try to stop it. Case in point: Robert Kraft (billionaire buddy of Trump, Netanyahu and Epstein ) forced Ed Sheeran to drop Macklemore from his concert tour under threat of having the whole tour cancelled because Macklemore kept saying “Free Palestine”. Gotta silence those critics of Israel every way they can… > [@Babale](#): > > Then I’ve successfully conveyed to you exactly how I feel whenever I see people disingenuously or stupidly using those terms 🙂 You feel like you have to post something profoundly idiotic to distract from your support for those things? Yes, we are aware, even without your abuse of the caps key. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1080 "2026-09-15T14:24:23Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > But that tracks with the level of intellectual honestly and rigour you’ve displayed in every post on this topic, so I’m hardly surprised. This is very funny coming from the guy who supported the Trump and Hegseth war and then hasn’t talked about it for more than 5 months… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738.md?page=53) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738.md?page=55)