Man, you are not a penguin. I am extremely confident that I could guess your identity traits accurately. In fact, I know I could, there was that slip up in an old post that a reader caught a couple of years ago.

But you're absolutely right, it shouldn't and doesn't matter. I don't care at all. I think I've established this pretty clearly over the years. And I don't think your identity traits have any bearing on the validity of your thoughts on this or any topic. But I know that some people do. As I said, I think I understand why you do it.

But the people in Gaza do not do it. Or any number of other things that we take for granted. There is no room for quibbling about identity politics or discussing the British Empire's part in this whole mess. They are being slaughtered by a genocidal regime that sees them as less than human. This has been going on for decades. And they are doing it with weapons sent by the West. They are receiving political cover for it by politicians in the West. And we, in the West are debating it like it's a philosophical issue instead of a genocide.

Putting ourselves in their shoes is not just a matter of rewording our existing biases in a tone that nods a little more sympathetically to their plight, it's recognising that the will to resist an occupier and an oppressor, the will to fight for justice for your murdered family members, is universal. It is fundamental to being human.

I think, even as a penguin, you can understand that. And while it would be a mistake to let this natural human emotional response colour your entire thought process about the conflict, it is a graver mistake to pretend our intrinsic human notions of justice can or should be set aside.