#i debated even posting this because i know op won't care but it is insane to me that anyone has the nerve to say that the idf

[lettersfromthelevant]

You had me in the first half OP, not gonna lie. I genuinely thought this was going to be a post calling out the rabid anti-Israel bias that is present in Western media, and the fact that not a single news outlet is being held formally responsible for recklessly endangering Israelis and Jews around the world, but then I got sucker punched in the face.

This is the power the Israeli military has over the news

Do you not understand how fucking irresponsible this is?

I need Zionists to understand that the US military is not Judaism, and making the leap from "the US government exerts control over a lot of media" to "Jews control the media" shows more about you than me.

Clever attempt at trying to switch it from the IDF to the US military, even though you literally said, “This is the power the Israeli military has over the news.” You clearly have at least some idea that saying, "The IDF has power over the media", will lead people to interpreting it as, "The Jews have power over the media." No one criticizing you cares that you said the US government exerts control over a lot of media. We are specifically looking at the fact that you said the IDF exerts control over the media. Let’s get that straight.

All over social media there are people acting like Israelis are American citizens who can just "fly back to New Jersey" because we're all rich landlords. People are justifying their blatant support of a pogrom that resulted in the brutal rape and murder of 1,400 Israelis with antisemitic conspiracies; And you want to pretend that accusing the only Jewish state in the world of controlling the media is harmless behavior? That it isn’t somehow going to exacerbate the already wretched levels of antisemitism spreading everywhere?

It actually shows a lot about you, and I'm fucking tired of this trend where people look at Jews pointing out blatant antisemitic conspiracies and say, "if you see antisemitism, then you're the antisemite!" I honestly find it difficult to believe that you’re an Israeli, with how hard you’re pushing narratives that I see predominantly in goyishe or diaspora spaces, where Israelis are presented as devious “Zionist” manipulators that use antisemitism as a bludgeon. I’ve met a lot of self-hating Israelis in my time, but none so utterly stupid as to push a narrative that the IDF controls the media.

It should be clear to anyone with even a passing knowledge of Israel and the media, that Western media is extremely biased against Israel. If anything, this recent hospital travesty is just more evidence to prove that. The New York Times rarely, if ever, reports positively about Israel. I did not see one article from any Western news outlet about the Ashkelon hospital that got hit by rocket fire on October 11th. Why do Israeli hospitals getting bombed receive silence, while a parking lot in Gaza gets international attention not even half an hour after it gets struck by a rocket? The only reason you're upset these outlets edited their headlines is because it goes against your confirmation bias. You don't care about true news; you care about defaming Israel. And you'll platform harmful antisemitic conspiracies to do it.

Like oxford-comma said, as an unknown situation becomes clearer, news outlets are going to update their stories to corroborate new information. As it stands, the rocket responsible for the destruction at the hospital was caught on multiple different cameras from multiple different sources coming from Gaza. It is suspected to have been launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as the timeline of the explosion happens right alongside a volley of rocket fire launched from Gaza into Israel. This is not a new phenomenon. In 2021 alone, over 600 rockets launched by Hamas and the PIJ failed and fell back into Gaza. And as daylight broke, what was originally lauded as the “leveling of a hospital” that “killed 500” turned out to be a small crater in a parking lot with cars that caught on fire. It probably resulted in the deaths of no more than a few dozen people, if that.

I do think oxford was being pretty generous in his statement though because in my opinion, it’s deeply fucking unethical to just edit a headline quietly and never make an official public statement retracting the inflammatory accusations that had been made. Twenty years ago, journalistic dishonesty this egregious would have resulted in an on-air apology and multiple firings. You are complaining about the fact that the NYT is getting away with deceptive practices after they deliberately framed Israel as a war criminal. Moving past the deceptive usage of editing software, let’s talk about the fact that within 20 minutes of the explosion, the most important media outlets in the world were accusing Israel of a war crime based on the word of terrorists. The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza is run by Hamas. You know that right? Hamas is the governing body of Gaza and they assassinated the PLO leaders present in the region, meaning they control every government branch in the Strip, including the health ministry. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza somehow counted 500+ bodies at night, in smoke and flames, in less than an hour, and then what we are supposed to consider the most prestigious news organizations in the world just fucking ran with that. And you want me to believe Israel controls the media? Not one outlet even bothered to ask an Israeli official if it had been a deliberate missile attack. They took the word of Hamas, a registered terrorist organization, and ran defamatory headlines that resulted in so much global violence against Jewish temples, cultural sites, and people that Israel was forced to order all of its citizens to evacuate Turkey. They ran headlines that resulted in a sitting Congresswoman inciting another fucking insurrection in the U.S. capitol. Do you understand that? The most influential news outlets in the world blasted “Israel bombed a hospital” onto hundreds of millions of phones within 20 minutes before they even had pictures of the hospital site. The New York Times used an image of a bombed-out building from a completely different location because they jumped the gun that much. They were so eager to publish a story on Israeli war crimes that they didn’t even have a fucking photo of the war crime itself yet.

You want me to believe that the IDF controls the media and the U.S. government, when they can’t even prevent news outlets and sitting Congresswomen from accusing them of war crimes? Excuse me?

there is no unbiased reporting on Israel/Palestine. Our only accurate source is the civilian journalists

You’re right. There is no unbiased reporting on Israel-Palestine when it comes to mass media outlets. The only people we can rely on to be truly objective are independent journalists. You know what independent news journalists were saying the night of the attack on the hospital? That the rocket came from Gaza. People were already aware that there was a volley of rocket fire from the PIJ or Hamas, that it was going to pass by the hospital, and when the explosion happened, they used local news cameras to see that it was a failed rocket from Gaza. Independent journalists got the story right within the same amount of time it took professional multi-billion dollar news agencies to publish blood libel instead of doing their own data analysis investigation, as any professional news outlet should have done.

It’s pretty fucked up that you don’t think the journalists on the ground in Israel are truthful, what’s the deal with that? Do you not like that they're reporting on the dead babies and raped girls and mutilated corpses? Does that not fit your narrative? What’s doubly fucked up is that you point out the independent journalists in Gaza, but it’s clear you’re trying to insinuate that Israelis are killing them. Meanwhile, reporters have been complaining for years about Hamas constantly threatening them and torturing them for reporting about the atrocities Hamas commits against its civilian population. I think if you cared so much about reporters in Gaza that you would maybe point that out. There is no freedom of the press in Gaza. There is freedom of the press in Israel. It's why shit heads like you are allowed to complain about the Israeli government and not get beheaded for it, but Gazans are tortured in basements if they are caught discussing Hamas war crimes.

Before this is reposted and I am accused of being a self-hating Israeli citizen and Jew

Not only are you self-hating, you're also a fucking kapo.

I don't usually talk about Israel/Palestine, but as an Israeli citizen who doesn't support genocide, I need to speak out.

We're seeing, on a massive scale, news websites release articles saying "Israel bombs hospital in Gaza" and revising it to "Israel, Hamas trade blame for hospital bombing in Gaza". Every single news site is doing the same thing.

New York Times, original headline:

New York Times, new headline:

Business Insider, original headline: Hamas says Israeli forces bombed a hospital and killed hundreds of people. The UN has documented dozens of other attacks on healthcare in Gaza." New headline:

Reuters, original headline:

Reuters, new headline:

Politico, original headline:

Politico, new headline:

Boston Globe, original headline:

Boston Globe, new headline:

Financial Times, original headline:

Financial Times, new headline:

Daily Beast, old headline:

Daily Beast, new headline:

Every single news site is changing their headlines, but instead of admitting the correction as is done in every single other instance of this updating, they are acting as if this was always their headline. Note the repeated use of "Hamas and Israel trade blame" in the new headlines. This is the power the Israeli military has over the news, the control the US government exerts over every outlet, and the proof there is no unbiased reporting on Israel/Palestine. Our only accurate source is the civilian journalists being killed in Gaza and having their access to the outside world cut off.

(Before this is reposted and I am accused of being a self-hating Israeli citizen and Jew, I need Zionists to understand that the US military is not Judaism, and making the leap from "the US government exerts control over a lot of media" to "Jews control the media" shows more about you than me.)

[umnvatra]

About Zhongli's state in the game right now..

I just want to vent(?) and let out my thoughts about this whole ordeal as a Zhongli simp. Take note that if you are someone who has Zhongli or wants Zhongli/is planning to roll for Zhongli and wants to read this post, be prepared. Because as much as i hate to say it, this one is gonna be harsh. I wish it wasn't, but the truth really hurts and is also something that i struggled to accept sjdjdjchsk

Ngl i'm probably going to get hands thrown at me because of this post but i really, really want to vent about what Mihoyo did to his character. This week has been a roller coaster when it comes to Zhongli. From being super excited for his release, being elated getting him, to being absolutely devastated at all the comments and information that had come out prior to his release.

Basically, as a 5*, Zhongli is very underpowered and underwhelming. This is something i hadn't noticed myself because my Zhongli still didn't have a proper build and weapon yet, but when i did, i felt my own happiness plummet at the weight of the reality.

I don't care if he is strong as a support or a dps, and no i don't want him to necessarily be good at being dps. But this will include a lot of stuff regarding damage because he is a five star with nuking potential. It's also this way because he is THAT underpowered. Even having him be a very good support would be a blessing, but as it goes, he is not.

First it was the comments in Youtube videos, arguing with each other about how bad/good he was. Those comments made me question a lot of things. But i felt absolutely crushed when Jinx and Tuner uploaded their stream of their Zhongli and Xinyan testing.

For those that don't know, Jinx and Tuner run a youtube channel where they test many things in Genshin and provide objective information about them based on the results of their testing. When i saw how incredibly disappointed and frustrated they were with Zhongli, i felt really, really sad. After all, they provide maths. Not only are they one of the genshin youtubers that i trust but they also study characters closely and tell you if a particular 5 star character is worth pulling for or not. And you guessed it, they concluded that Zhongli was NOT worth pulling for as a five star character because he is so heavily underpowered.

Then there comes the arguements presented.

Majority of people thought that Zhongli was going to be more of a support character rather than dps, and i could see why, but ironically he has more potential as a phys carry. And this information comes from the testing that Jinx and Tuner made.

However

Xiangling is still a better physical carry than Zhongli especially when you take into account the abilities she can use while attacking. Zhongli's pillar has questionable energy recharge generation, something that i too had noticed. Every tick of the pillar does NOT guarantee an energy, and it drove me crazy. Meanwhile you have Xiangling who can easily bring out energy with Guoba if she so wanted.

And you need C6 Zhongli in order for him to heal like Noelle too by the way. And Noelle is a 4* that is guaranteed on your first time playing the game. 👁

Zhongli's shield is good for sure, but then you have Noelle who can shield + heal. In terms of stuff being done, Noelle's is better. Zhongli's shield is strong yes, but it can STILL disappear after one or two hits from enemies (at least from our experience in higher AR. I have no idea if the same applies to lower AR).

Now for his meteor. Yes, his meteor is good. Not only is it spammable, but it deals great damage as well. BUT THEN you have Ningguang who can be a better burst spam and possibly deal more damage than his could do (remember, Ning has a lot of jades that could each deal 1k if built properly). The duration for petrification is 3 seconds too, which, a lot of people argue isn't enough time (personally, i have no problem with this since i do not mind it much). And apparently his meteor got nerfed because it does not increase geo damage and phys damage as it used to in the beta testing with petrification.

How about his ability in being able to break shields by holding E? Truth be told, i expected that he was going to be able to explode all shields in one go, but it does not work for every one of them apparently. Shields by hilichurls do break with just one E hold. But the ones by Mitachurls don't. I also tried breaking the Geo Hypostasis's pillar using his E hold and it did not break immediately. This could differ however. 👁 I'm still not sure if its because i have not properly built him right for breaking them or not. And about Stonehide Lawachurls... it's the same as the Geo Hypostasis pillar. The geo shield does not break immediately.

I'm not saying all this because i am mad at Zhongli. Rather, i am disappointed at what Mihoyo did to him. I am absolutely happy to get Zhongli. He is the one character i had been looking forward to for MONTHS. I saved resources in advance for him and even held off on leveling up my current team so i could dump all said resources on him when i get him. I stayed as AR35 for many many weeks because i wanted to level him up properly before ascending my World Rank. I think he is super fun to use especially with his burst and i absolutely adore the animation and when he crosses his arms and does his 'osmanthus tea' monologue at the most random times with his lil hand gestures. Even just listening to his voice while being idle fills me with so much happiness. There is so much joy in getting him. Which is why i am very disappointed at Mihoyo for how they butchered his character.

After Jinx and Tuner made their video about the results of their testing with Zhongli, i was genuinely saddened but i gradually came to accept the truth. It sucks, it hurts, but it is the truth. Even they said that they wanted Zhongli to be a GOOD character, but he is just insanely underpowered right now. You can invest resources into him and make him work, but compared to 4* and the other 5*, it takes so much effort. To make him decent, you'd have to level his stuff up so much but that also applies to four star characters and they perform better than him. Husbando > meta yes, but i gotta say that it still stings when my underleveled Xiangling and Fischl could do a much better job being a dps and support respectively than him when he's many levels above them.

Which brings me to the main point of this post.

Why was Mihoyo scared of making him strong? OP? Why did they nerf him so much? He is a 5* character Mihoyo, make him be STRONG at something. It's why he's a five star. But no. They watered him down so much to the point where even four star characters can do his own job better than him. His pillar doesn't even deal damage upon being destroyed just like Geo MC's. The range of his pillar's resonance is too small, and given the fact that his auto attacks can push enemies (except for the bigger ones of) or can be easily walked out of range to is 👁👄👁

And it deals criminally low damage. Like, why? Why not rack up the numbers? What is the problem????

The more i think about it, the more i can see the points that people have been pointing out. If the issue of energy generation with his pillar is RNG based, then that's simply screwed up. It already adds into the lists of problems that doesn't help with how underpowered he is. And as i am writing this post rn, there are lots and lots of Chinese players enraged about how weak he is as a 5* and causing HUGE fights in forums. People in the genshin subreddit had been debating again and again over heated arguements about his abilities. Even if you visit the genshin subreddit today and check every post about Zhongli, you will see people in the comments mention stuff about how he performs in the game and his abilities.

Mihoyo, give him a buff. I know that giving buffs isn't your thing, but there is honestly thousands and thousands of people expressing their disappointment and anger in how weak you've made him. He is a fan favorite. I love him. Majority of the genshin fanbase do. His character is really good and it hecking sucks that he is having major difficulties in fitting in on the game right now. He deserves better. Make him strong. Buff him. Adjust some of his abilities. Literally give. our. geo. dad. justice.

Those who don't care about damage is probably rolling their eyes at my rant rn but given how objectively weak he is compared to the other characters in game, it won't hurt if he gets a buff.

When the survey for Zhongli and Xinyan comes, rate him low. I know. It sucks. It's despicable. Even i hate it. But that is why we have to do it. If we become honest to Mihoyo about how much weak they made him, then maybe they are going to consider buffing or adjusting his abilities.

I'm sorry for the negative post. There is still hope for geo dad. He is incredibly fun to use but if you are debating on whether to pull for him or not, my answer would be

If you absolutely love him as a character, go for it.

Otherwise, just wait for now. Because his state in the game isn't looking so good at the moment.

For those that already have him and are also disappointed or saddened by what happened, take comfort in knowing that tons of people are still using Zhongli (including me who went through such roller coaster of emotions lmaoaoaoa) regardless of the information that he is behind in terms of being a dps and support. And that there is still hope for him (WAIT FOR THE SURVEY AND RATE HIM LOW YO 😭😭😭 IT WON'T GUARANTEE THAT MIHOYO IS GONNA BUFF HIM BUT WITH ALL THE PEOPLE RAGING RN THERE IS A HIGH POSSIBILITY THAT THEY WILL LOL)

Have some goofy screenshots that i took while playing as Schlongli

[siryouarebeingmocked]

I literally don’t care to talk to you about this.

Yes, obviously.

That's why your first post, directly to me, was desperately trying to change the subject from OP's specific (stupid and wrong) claim to generic Israel Bad™ sentiment.

You're not here for an actual discussion. You're here out of partisanship.

The idea that people who are disgusted at Israel’s blatant and obvious violence must support a terrorist group who killed and raped is insane.

See, here's the thing. It doesn't do you any good to use detail now, after I criticized you. It just seems insincere.

Especially when you spent more words detailing what you see as Israel's wrongdoing in a single paragraph than you have in this entire second post.

Even if I charitably assume you don't support Hamas and Hezbollah, you still came onto this post to defend the "team" of OP, which is still a stupid post.

And you refuse to actually discuss OP.

I could provide you with links to the things I’m talking about but why would I bother? You’re just going to say it’s lies anyway. The scale of each side’s atrocities is not in Israel’s favour.

Ah, yes, the classic. "I won't provide evidence for my claims, because you won't believe it!"

Okay, so why did you make them? Were you just expecting the claims alone would be persuasive, because they worked on you?

The only "atrocities" you have acknowledged explicitly were Oct 7th, and you apparently didn't even know Hamas has been doing the exact same thing you claim Israel was wrong for, also for decades.

You were either ignorant, or lying.

Why should anyone reading this believe your assessment of which side is worse?

The difference, of course, is that Israel goes out of its way to reduce enemy civilian casualties - more than any other modern military in history, by some reckonings - while Hamas a) deliberately and directly attacks Israeli civilians, and b) hides behind Palestinian civvies, so Israel can't strike back without risking innocents.

Oh, and they "overestimate" casualty numbers, and include child soldiers as just "children". And, possibly, sometimes include adult militants.

I think there was one case where they blamed Israel for striking a hospital, and evidence indicated that Hamas rockets might've hit the hospital by accident, and then they lied about it.

Also, the reason people provide proof in a debate, even if the other guy won't believe it, is so the onlookers can see and make up their own minds.

I'm not doing it now, because I'm lazy. But only physically. Not intellectually.

Like some people.

I'm muting notifications now. You seem upset, so you should probably do the same.

Have a nice day.

So we are at Stage 2.