First, I want to say that this post is not about sharing my views on any conflicts or politics happening in the Middle East. It is about free will and how to treat people knowing we don't have free will, even in extreme situations.
I feel like there's an obvious and disturbing paradox in Sam's views on free will and his views on the Israel-Palestine conflict, or on jihadism. It seems to me like his views on free will carry a very apologetic angle on people's behaviour, which I agree with. We don't have free will and we can't do otherwise than what we did and that applies to everyone, including murderers and rapists.
If this is true, then punishment and rewards make no sense whatsoever, and that applies to jihadists or Palestinians who voted for Hamas as well (I'm not saying they're the same — I'm simply bringing up groups that Sam talks about a lot). Let me make myself clear: I do believe that the issue in the Middle East is very real and that something has to be done about the situation, but how can deliberate violence be the answer if no one has free will? People, without free will, have already been radicalizing themselves for years how can more violence be the answer?
Of course, I do agree that if Israel put their guns down, multiple groups would probably attack them, and for that reason I understand they cannot do that but I feel like they could have minimized the violence by a lot. The fact that Sam is very apologetic about the violence being imposed on the Palestinian people, and on any other population suffering because of this whole situation Lebanese, Iranians (which I know is a very different situation), and others makes no sense given the views he holds on free will. How can you be okay with people suffering like that if you don't believe in free will?
I guess that, to me, the realization that no one has free will has brought me more empathy than anything else. I don't understand how we can treat even the biggest monsters as though they are not human or not conscious letting them rot in cells without ever seeing the sun, let alone killing them.