That’s naive. Trump was a near-inevitable symptom of late stage capitalism, not a stroke of dumb luck.

and directly perpetrated by people who were the descendants of those victims and keepers of those memories

Not quite. Israel is predominantly populated by Jews of Middle Eastern or Eastern European descent who had nothing to do with the Holocaust. There are plenty of Holocaust survivors and their descendants, but Israel was built and remains predominantly shaped by people who didn’t experience the Holocaust. In fact, quite ironically, Israel basically stole and keeps stealing a lot of Holocaust survivors’ reparation money.

canceled a workshop about the “fragility of democracy.”

Tbf, this is a good way to educate people about the fragility of democracy.

True, but tbf they do have a lot of Ws. They also have a lot of Ls, but that’s not the subject of this conversation.

I hate to defend Iran, but the Iranian regime is in fact very rational. This is easily apparent when you strip away the religious aspect and look at what they actually do. In all direct confrontations with Israel or the US (at least during Khamenei’s rule, I’m not so sure about Khomeini), Iran has responded with measured actions aimed at de-escalation while saving face domestically and internationally and discouraging further aggression. Your image of Iran seems to be built on Western propaganda more than reality (again, I am not saying this to defend the Iranian regime).

Otherwise there would have been an end to sanctions years ago.

Uh… the sanctions are for daring to control their resources contrary to Western capitalist interests. Iran could be the most secular, most democratic country in the world and Western countries would still find a reason to sanction it. Besides, remember JCPOA? It was the US (and by extension the West) that reneged on that deal. Hell, remember the reason the Islamic Republic exists in the first place? Iran, quite rationally, wants to be an independent regional power not subordinate to anybody’s interests (and, again quite rationally, especially not Western interests). This directly contradicts the Western (especially US) demand that all Middle Eastern states be subordinate to their interests and pro-Israel. There can be no reconciliation between these positions (yet Iran tried anyway, see: JCPOA), so securing its position by force is the only realistic prospect, and frankly you can’t argue with results.

And an end to murdering dissidents and protestors.

Here you seem to be conflating rationality with morality. The Iranian regime is evil as fuck, but it’s rationally evil. Murdering challengers to one’s power is very rational from the perspective of a regime primarily concerned with its own survival. See also: the CCP.

The world is safer with less nukes.

The world is safer with no nukes and infinitely unsafe with infinite nukes. It’s appealing to extrapolate from this that less nukes -> more safety, but that’s an unjustified leap of logic. For example take the case of one nuclear state vs two nuclear states. If there’s only one it can force its will on other states, but if there are two they can keep each other in check and drastically reduce the possibility of nukes actually flying.

Oh you’re right I did.

FYI, when you block someone on the Fediverse you simply stop being able to see their comments and posts. They can still see and interact with anything you post.

What. The. Fuck? Libya under Gaddafi didn’t have fucking slave markets you can’t be fucking serious. Also foreign countries dropping bombs isn’t a “revolution” anymore than Soviet-backed regimes in Eastern Europe were revolutionary.

Are you not capable of learning from history? Again, you could’ve said the same thing about Libya. Does Libya in 2026 look like a thriving democracy to you? Then why do you want to do the same thing in Iran?

The solution with the least harm would be for the USA and other NATO allies to help the Iranians overthrow the despots and cut ties with China.

Only if you don’t take into account harm for Iranians in your idea of “harm.” What you’re describing is basically what happened in Libya.

Tbf the US never had that much power, soft or otherwise, over China. The US is (very fortunately) hemorrhaging soft power, but even if they weren’t China would be jumping at this opportunity.

$2 billion isn’t how much it costs to bring them back; it’s how much it costs to bring them back without making any concessions to Iran. There was always the option where they’re brought back through negotiations with Iran, which would’ve cost far less than $2 billion.

It’s… really not. Outside of key historically American-friendly regions, Trump is just seen as another imperialist ghoul running America in a long line of imperialist ghouls running America.

Did you really draw a whole world map just for this? Respect, man/woman/compadre.

There is no military long-term solution, nor does there need to be. “Don’t try to overthrow governments you don’t like” sounds like a pretty good long-term solution.

Uh… why? They don’t get anything substantial from closing it, and it’d earn them the enmity of half the world when they’re clearly trying to end their pariah state status.

Praise be to Allah

Constantine converting on his deathbed moment.

The vast majority of Congress either agree with his actions wholeheartedly or agree in principle and are only opposed to the incompetent execution. Imperialism is bipartisan.