The blocking begins.

Several years ago, I said that I had a strict policy of never blocking people on the basis of philosophical and political differences.

I have been dropping a lot of, "From the river to the sea." people.

Here's why I'm being intellectually consistent.

Intelligence and honesty aren't philosophical or moral values, they're character traits.

I might be able to tolerate an actual member of Hamas on my feed because, believe it or not, Hamas has been fairly honest. They believe in the passage in the Hadiths about the stones and the trees calling for Jewish blood. They haven't been hiding that they want to kill all of the Jews. They haven't even been lying about using their own people as human shields. They've been out and proud about loving death more than we love life, and seeing the population of the Gaza as useful pawns.

It's there supporters in the west who are lying for them.

It's almost expected that I'll see a "free Palestine' post accompanied with a rainbow flag and solidarity -- if not membership -- with the LGBTQ+ community. Some of these people might be stupid enough to know that they're calling for the destruction of the one state in the country that allows you to be gay or trans, and having it replaced with a nation that wouldn't even allow you to be a Methodist. Most of them aren't that stupid; so, most of them are lying.

Maybe they have an ethical argument that lying is okay if it leads to something greater. Sometimes that's valid. If you're hiding Anne Frank in your attic, and the Nazis come looking for her, it would be immoral to tell the truth. But, that's a rare case that these people aren't subjected to.