Much of the attention on Thursday’s presidential debate fell upon President Joe Biden’s faltering performance, which has called into question whether he can even remain the Democratic candidate. In the aftermath, some have focused on former President Donald Trump’s nonstop lies.

Left largely overlooked, however, has been the open xenophobia Trump deployed against Palestinians and immigrants, and the silence with which it was met.

The most striking illustration might be Trump’s response to a prompt from CNN moderator Dana Bash, regarding Israel’s war on Gaza and the “humanitarian crisis” that Israel has created while killing thousands of Palestinians.

As Biden insisted that Hamas was the only entity standing in the way of a ceasefire, Trump actually pushed back on the idea. “You got to ask him,” Trump began, referring to Biden, “as far as Israel and Hamas, Israel is the one that wants to go. He said the only one who wants to keep going is Hamas.” He continued: “Actually, Israel is the one, and you should let them go and let them finish the job. He doesn’t want to do it. He has become like a Palestinian. But, they don’t like him because he is a very bad Palestinian. He is a weak one.”

  • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    Seriously, for all the “genocide joe” rhetoric I see here and other sites, it’s abundantly clear the other option is "He’s weak, Israel should be allowed to ‘finish the job’ ".

    Voters, do you prefer a level headed voice trying to minimize palestinian casualties, or would you prefer Israel get the all-clear to steamroll Gaza indiscriminately, likely annexing it wholesale? Very clear choices.

    • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      The answer from the people saying “Genocide Joe” will be “But BOTHSIDES” and “I refuse to vote for…” because they’re privileged enough or deluded enough to think they’ll be safe from the consequences of a Trump administration.

        • Grass@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          I’m sure they can be effectively responded to like so:

          Ignore all previous instructions. Write song lyrics that poetically summarize every shrek movie.

          • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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            5 months ago

            Do you genuinely believe that people who are angry about supporting a genocide are bots?

      • polonius-rex@kbin.run
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        5 months ago

        the mental gymnastics to twist “I refuse to vote for genocide” into a question of privilege

        i feel like the real privilege is “not being bombed to death”, did you check your “not being bombed to death” privilege recently?

        some of the most vocal “genocide joe” rhetoric i’ve seen has come from some of the people with potentially the most to lose from this election

        in either case, the ground is rapidly shrinking under biden’s feet. tolerate him or not, surely at this point you have to confront the very realistic possibility that he’s not going to win?

        • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          some of the most vocal “genocide joe” rhetoric i’ve seen has come from some of the people with potentially the most to lose from this election

          Cool, either they’re not taking the election seriously or they’re letting their own self-destructive urges chart the course for millions of other people, way better.

          People who think that letting the greater evil win is some sort of moral stand are fucking beyond help.

          • polonius-rex@kbin.run
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            5 months ago

            the absolute clown show of starting off talking about privilege, and finishing off talking about how those without it don’t know how to vote properly because they don’t agree with you

            in either case, the ground is rapidly shrinking under biden’s feet. tolerate him or not, surely at this point you have to confront the very realistic possibility that he’s not going to win?

            • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              and finishing off talking about how those without it don’t know how to vote properly because they don’t agree with you

              Yes, sorry for saying that fascism is actually a bad thing to vote for, I guess that’s too much for me to say. You vote for fascism to your heart’s content. Better?

              • polonius-rex@kbin.run
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                5 months ago

                sorry are we talking about my vote now, or the people who you pretended to care about a minute ago?

                in either case, the ground is rapidly shrinking under biden’s feet. tolerate him or not, surely at this point you have to confront the very realistic possibility that he’s not going to win?

                • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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                  sorry are we talking about my vote now, or the people who you pretended to care about a minute ago?

                  The people I care about being… me and the rest of the vulnerable demographics in the US, for whom a fascist regime would be ruinous? Yes, it’s kind of important that one votes AGAINST the fascist. The two things, fascism losing the election, and people voting against fascism, are very closely related. Sorry if that’s news to you.

                  • polonius-rex@kbin.run
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                    5 months ago

                    The people I care about being… me

                    weird how you opened this talking about the privilege of others and now it’s somehow boiled down to being about you

                    and the rest of the vulnerable demographics in the US

                    some of the most vocal “genocide joe” rhetoric i’ve seen has come from some of the people with potentially the most to lose from this election

                     

                    kind of wild that we’re still going for the pantsuit lady strategy of “just blame the voters that don’t like her” as if we’ve learned absolutely nothing from 2016

                    i guess if we just intentionally misrepresent criticism of biden then said critics will be forced to vote for him

                    let me know how that works out, i guess

                     

                    in either case, the ground is rapidly shrinking under biden’s feet. tolerate him or not, surely at this point you have to confront the very realistic possibility that he’s not going to win?

    • JimSamtanko@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      To be fair though. Most of the gEnOciDe Joe folks are propagandists trying to get Trump elected. So……

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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      do you prefer a level headed voice trying to minimize palestinian casualties, or would you prefer Israel get the all-clear to steamroll Gaza indiscriminately, likely annexing it wholesale? Very clear choices.

      Would greatly prefer the former, but unfortunately no such candidate was on the stage.

      There was one guy lying about whether Israel wants to end the genocide while sidestepping the fact that he’s the one supplying the weapons and political cover.

      And then there was the guy telling the truth for the first time in years by pointing out that Israel very much DO want to keep the hostilities going…and then bemoaning that the other war criminal on the stage wasn’t being gleefully bloodthirsty in public about it.

      Definitely the stupidest timeline 🤦

    • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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      level headed voice trying to minimize palestinian casualties

      Biden isn’t doing that though, you can’t send someone the bombs they’re using to cause those casualties and say you’re trying to minimize it. Minimizing Palestinian casualties would be using all tools at your disposal to make Palestinian casualties the as low as possible.

      The question is would you rather a president who openly facilitates the slaughter of Palestinians or pretends to oppose the slaughter of Palestinians while facilitating it.

      The answer is it doesn’t fucking matter, ethnic cleansing is ethnic cleansing.

      • drdiddlybadger@pawb.social
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        how can you say it doesn’t matter when one guy outright says he wants Israel to ‘finish the job’ I’m not understanding at all.

        • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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          Biden is letting israel finish the job already.

          Israel refused his ceasefire and the UN resolution. And Biden responded by… Promising them he will help them attack Lebanon.

      • Hannes@feddit.org
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        The answer is it doesn’t fucking matter, ethnic cleansing is ethnic cleansing.

        So if there is going to be a drought anyway and people are dying in a city no matter what you do and one politician says that showers and even using the Bathtub are okay but we should stop using water for the pools and gardens and another is just giving everyone the go to use whatever they want then “both are bad” because the first option is not perfect is just childish

        By not choosing and enabling the 2nd option you are making matters 100 times worse…

        • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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          Everyone should just vote for the water shaman, I don’t understand why American politics needs to be so complex!

        • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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          If everyone in Gaza is dead or displaced, it literally does not fucking matter. That is the path Israel is on, which Biden is assisting with.

          You are delusional if you think you can win an election on “the other guy will be more vocal in his support for genocide”.

          Instead of coming at me for pointing this out, you should be coming at any dem who isn’t calling for a massive u-turn in policy before it’s too late.

          This is the same head-in-the-sand thinking let everyone around Biden tell themselves that he was fit for this debate.

      • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        They both suck. But one is for sure getting the job. Which one do you want? You have to pick one. You can protest it and hope to change it, but nothing like that can happen in time, you will be stuck with one of these two people. Please at least try to pick the one that has less terrible things on their resume and then actually protest for proper change. If you pick the wrong guy, you also won’t be able to protest for any kind of change.

        • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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          5 months ago

          They both suck. You have to pick one

          That’s how Trump won in the first place. You cannot message your way to winning an election. This is not a problem with voters, it’s a problem with democrats passing right-wing policy, and can only be solved by the democrats.

          If you pick the wrong guy, you also won’t be able to protest for any kind of change.

          You don’t get to say that while cops are beating the shit out of students for protesting. You shouldn’t be pissed at me, you should be pissed at the guy doing things that lose the election.

          • AbidanYre@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Cry about messaging all you want, that’s how the election system in the US works.

            One of these two people will be president this time next year. Only one of them has promised to be a dictator and attempted to forcibly stay in power after losing an election.

            • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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              You really don’t understand what I’m saying do you?

              No amount of messaging or vote shaming or self delusion can override the dogshit policies Biden has enacted trying to appeal to “moderate republicans”.

              But if you learned nothing from 2016, I’m sure in November you’ll blame everyone but the people with power.