In fact, capitalism works because people are selfish, but selfish in a different sense than what's usually meant by it. Not "selfish" in the sense of "doing only for oneself and doing whatever is beneficial in the short term" . That's actually quite detrimental to oneself. But rather "selfish" in the sense of actually doing what is in your best interest, in the long run And that means you generally treat people well, because people are generally a great value to you. That's what trade is : you trade something you don't value as much for something you do value more. And the person on the other side does exactly the same. Both benefit and as such wealth is created. And that doesn't exclude doing charity. Helping people in need is also something you get a benefit from. But it's voluntary. And that's the problem with those calling for "the common good". They often just take it by force.

I would argue that if we are talking about human rights, than Israel does have them, and they apply to citizens and non-citizens alike, regardless of religion or nationality. And in fact it protects those rights better than any of its neighboring countries. Certainly when we are talking about something like "apartheid", the concern is about those fundamental rights. But it's true that citizens have specific additional rights, such as the right to vote. That both are called rights makes the matter rather confusing ( and I suspect that's exactly why it is used by people against Israel) . However, even then Israel is pretty much the same is the rest of the world : if you are born in Israel, you are a citizen. And there is a process to become a citizen through naturalization. The only novelty is that Jewish from all over the world can also become Israeli and more easily than others. So one could argue that there's an advantage for jews in becoming a citizen, but that's kind of the point of Israel : to have a place for Jews where they can be safe. And that is necessary precisely because of antisemitism all over the world.

That makes sense to me. It was the moral arguments that starts my doubts on religion (Christianity in my case) and towards atheism too. ( in my case it was the Exodus story. I just couldn't accept that a supposedly benevolent god would kill firstborn babies).

Hi, I'm from Belgium. I'm an agnostic atheist For fun (well that's a though one, I like so many things) : Listening to music, having a good meal and drink with family and friends, playing video games, listening to podcasts. Oh, and I also love dogs ( unfortunately can't have one in my apartment right now) But here's a picture of parent's dog. Crazy ball of energy, and I love him so much