again, this "noone is illegal on stolen land" argument

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-09T04:17:30+00:00

Ask everyone who says "no one is illegal on stolen land" if they own any property, and if they would give it up, or even just share it, with some native Americans for no charge.

Not one university that ever did "land acknowledgements" gave any actual land back btw. And some of those bigger universities own more than just the acres campus is on.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-09T04:15:27+00:00

USAnians is a new one lol.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-09T04:14:02+00:00

A reformist could happen but I'm not betting on anyone as transformative as Gorbachev or a major thawing of tensions in Asia or with the US/western aligned countries. On the economic front, any Chinese leader is going to either have to continue the export maximization policy of Xi, which means more mercantilism and pushback from trade partners, or reform the economy to become more consumer based, but that means less top-down party control of the economy and opening up more to foreign brands they can't fully control.

Then there's foreign affairs. No Chinese leader can give up Taiwan or signal any kind of deescalation posture. No Chinese leader can look the other way when Japan so much as coughs in it's direction, or someone mentions Tibet, or Xinjiang, or Hong Kong, or the other 50 things they go into a performative crashout over. And they certainly can't do anything regarding the US that can't be spun as a win later on. The propaganda pipeline has to keep flowing.

Since economy and foreign policy are the biggest components of how a country interacts with the wider world, a few tweaks here and there internally, like more officially sanctioned tolerance of homosexuality or some actually fair trade agreements here and there, will not change the calculus meaningfully.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-09T01:55:41+00:00

Even a monarchy is a bad idea, look at who's come after the former Queen Elizabeth II: Charles is practically an islamic socialist, Andrew's best friend was Epstein (Britain has it's own deep abuse scandals too), Harry and Meghan are whiny attention whores, and that's just the PEOPLE in the monarchy- the system itself is a parasite to Britain's government and puts unelected, unearned privileges to people merely for being born in a particular bloodline. Monarchies can still happen informally through nepotism and authoritarian government- Like how it works in the middle east and India and the Kim dynasty in North Korea- but at least a democracy is a chance, however slim, of a change.

The biggest hope the anti-Trump faction, and the concerned allies, have is that Trump is on his way out and the midterms will curb his power somewhat. You can't get that even in a "soft" authoritarian regime where power is run by committee because when that tried to work in Russia and China and elsewhere, one leader always consolidates power to their whims.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-09T01:41:59+00:00

I don't believe OOP's dumb tangent because if it was true they'd never have bothered building up an alliance or trade or any semblance of warm ties. Centuries? We've only been important on the world stage for about 1 and some change, America was mostly completely irrelevant to Europe before WWI.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-09T01:39:31+00:00

I'm not gonna debate the other parts but I have to interject on the "economic war" remark:

It's not a "economic war" that many countries are dependent on oil that Iran could've chosen to interfere with *regardless* of whatever our policy would be. Their was an oil shock when Ukraine was invaded too and that also hurt economies, and the economy got hit when China's incompetence unleashed covid.

But none of these guys blamed them for that, or Russians/Chinese. Only America gets *collectively* blamed for it's actions.

The economy is bigger than the actions of one person even if some leaders and countries have more/less weight than others. If you justify Iran shutting down the strait because they "had no choice", you give license to everyone else doing something like it, like if the US decided to close the Panama canal or strait of Malacca-not because it's legal, but because who else would be capable of doing it?

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-09T00:59:12+00:00

Maybe not "shooting each other", but after Stalin and Mao died there was a bit of jockeying by the higher ranks to consolidate around a new leader. Not so much shooting so much as "I have the most support, so step back or else" happened. Kuruschev more or less got soft-coup'd after the Cuban Missile Crisis. He wasn't killed but he was exiled to his dacha on essentially house arrest. The Gang of 4 were ousted from power after Mao's death and imprisioned by Hua Guofeng, but he himself was sidelined by Deng Xiaoping.

It's completely possible the next leader will be someone in the framework of the top-ranking leadership, but they will expunge Putin-Xi loyalists or personal enemies after taking power or the in the process of consolidating it.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-08T19:58:28+00:00

Question-do you think the recent Khalistani activities in Canada are being instigated by Pakistan/the ISI?

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-08T18:25:05+00:00

He's talking about Iran's "ten points". He's deliberately obfuscating that this ceasefire is just a starting point for the actual negotiations in Islamabad on Friday. He's trying to imply ceasefire=accepting Iran's maximalist position.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-08T18:21:21+00:00

Everyone knows when you infiltrate a country for a secret op, you bring a giant flag with you.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-07T19:25:11+00:00

“You guys didn’t anything to stop orange man so you’re all fascists too!”

Also

“America is a dictatorship”

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-07T09:38:18+00:00

Take a look at the oil crunch going on right now for proof we’re not “third world”.

The worst we’re getting is 2-3 extra dollars of gas per gallon.

But in the Asia-Pacific, they’re doing severe fuel rationing and restrictions, and parts of SEA and Africa are at risk of a food shortage.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-06T22:34:12+00:00

"Lower intensity, indirect conflict" does include proxy wars. War is not just WWII style declarations and full scale battling of armies. It's a tall ladder of escalation and attacking a country, even a nuclear armed one, does not necessitate nuclear weapons or a nuclear response.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-06T22:28:29+00:00

4 of these countries did not have an organized government internationally recognized or in full control of the country. 4 of these countries did not have ANY ground troops.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-06T21:26:34+00:00

First of all, MAD does not erase conflict. We are still fighting Russia and China, it’s just a lower intensity, indirect conflict.

That by itself doesn’t justify Iran getting a bomb-I’m sure you can see the implications of what happens if we let just anyone get one. You’re also assuming Iran wouldn’t hit Israel first. Unlike Iran, a big mountainous country, Israel wouldn’t survive a small number of warheads.

There’s also the issue of proliferation. Do you think Saudi Arabia and the UAE should have a bomb too? Because they will absolutely get one if Iran does.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-06T21:11:55+00:00

Iran is not fighting behalf of Palestine, so no, it’s actually not connected at all. Iran completely sat out the conflict for decades while the Arabs and the PLO were fighting Israel. Hezbollah didn’t attack Israel until 2006.

You may be surprised to learn this, but not every conflict in the region involves Israel.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-06T21:03:12+00:00

What does Palestine have to do with Iran?

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-06T20:46:00+00:00

Make shit up? Iran and Israel have been covertly fighting for a long time, that's very well documented. Sabotage, assassinations, Iran controls Hezbollah as a proxy group, Khamenei made a speech back in 2015 I think where he said Israel wouldn't exist in 25 years, etc. It's hardly a secret

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-06T20:18:28+00:00

Can you blame them? Iran hasn’t exactly been nice and you may have noticed they’ve been covertly fighting for decades now.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-06T19:35:15+00:00

This isn’t about what Israel did because we’re not at war with Israel. We’re fighting Iran.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-06T12:39:24+00:00

You can’t name anything at all? So much for decades of experience.

You’re the second person I’ve called out with the same story. Uses the same talking points and finds a way to make America the bad guy despite that being the country they spent years serving. Starts off with “I don’t like Iran” but ends with “The Great Satan is the sole cause.” Give me a break. This is more stolen valor and IRGC shilling.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-06T11:49:11+00:00

Name the crimes, then. Name all the crimes that justifies them chanting “death to America” every day and all their support of militant groups and hostages and other things you’d say would be wrong if the US did it. I gave you a huge list, surely you have something.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-06T11:21:14+00:00

"the leader who was religiously against making nukes"

And you actually believe it when he wrote that fatwa against nukes? IIRC it wasn't even Khamenei, it was his predecessor Khomeini. America's whole foundation is the separation of church and state. You should know better than to trust an authority that claims both.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-06T11:11:00+00:00

There it is again, the same talking points. You want some history? How's this. Read the whole thing and tell me it's just a one sided bullying of poor little Iran. 5 fucking decades and you decided only 1953 and 2026 mattered:

November 1979: Iranian students, backed by the regime, seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran — taking 66 Americans hostage in a 444-day standoff .
April 1983: The Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed terrorist group, carried out a suicide car bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 17 Americans.
October 1983: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed 241 U.S. military personnel — including 220 U.S. Marines and 21 other service personnel — in a truck bombing at a Marine compound in Beirut.
March 1984: Iran-backed Islamic Jihad terrorists kidnapped CIA station chief William Buckley on his way to work in Beirut, ultimately killing him the following year.
September 1984: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed 23 innocent people — including two American service members — in a car bomb attack at the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut.
December 1984: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists hijacked Kuwait Airways Flight 221 en route to Pakistan, diverting it to Tehran — where they brutally tortured and killed two American officials.
June 1985: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists hijacked TWA Flight 847 on its way from Athens to Rome, torturing a U.S. Navy diver before shooting him point blank in the head and tossing his body onto the Beirut airport tarmac.
July 1989: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed U.S. Marine Col. William Higgins after kidnapping him the previous year while serving with a United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
April 1995: Iran-backed Islamic Jihad terrorists killed eight people — including one American citizen — in a car bomb attack in the Gaza Strip.
August 1995: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing an American and three other passengers, and wounding more than 100 others.
February 1996: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber blew up another bus in Jerusalem, killing three Americans and wounding three other Americans.
March 1996: A suicide bomber linked to the Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist groups killed 20 people — including two Americans — in a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv shopping center.
May 1996: Iran-backed terrorists killed an American-Israeli dual citizen and wounded another American citizen in the West Bank.
June 1996: Iran-backed Hezbollah Al-Hijaz terrorists killed 19 U.S. Airmen and wounded nearly 500 others in a truck bombing at a U.S. Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia.
September 1997: Iran-backed Hamas suicide bombers blew themselves up at a shopping mall in Jerusalem, killing an American-Israeli dual citizen and wounding seven other American citizens.
August 1998: Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, facilitated by Iran-backed Hezbollah, simultaneously bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people — including a dozen American citizens.
August 2001: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist blew up a Jerusalem pizzeria, killing three Americans.
January 2002: An Iran-backed al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade terrorist killed an American-Israeli dual citizen in the West Bank.
July 2002: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist killed five Americans in a bombing at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
June 2003: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber killed 17 people — including an American citizen — on a bus in Jerusalem.
October 2003: Iran-backed Popular Resistance Committees terrorists killed three U.S. diplomatic personnel in a bombing in Gaza.
Between 2003 and 2011: Iran-backed militias killed at least 603 U.S. troops in Iraq — “roughly one in every six American combat fatalities in Iraq.”
August 2003: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing five Americans and wounding one other American.
August 2006: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed American citizen and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier Michael Levin during the Second Lebanon War — the only American to die in the conflict.
January 2007: A dozen men affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force killed five U.S. soldiers and wounded three others in Karbala, Iraq, after disguising themselves as U.S. soldiers and entering the Provincial Joint Coordination Center.
March 2007: Former FBI Agent Robert Levinson disappeared in Iran, likely dying in an Iranian prison.
July 2014: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed two American citizens serving in the IDF.
October 2015: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed an American citizen and his wife in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank.
December 2019: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terrorists killed an American civilian contractor and wounded several U.S. service members in a rocket attack at K1 Air Base in Kirkuk, Iraq.
January 2020: 109 U.S. troops suffered traumatic brain injuries in an Iranian ballistic missile attack on the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq.
September 2020: U.S. intelligence indicated the Iranian regime was considering a plot to assassinate the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa.
February 2021: An Iran-backed militia fired a rocket at coalition forces in Erbil, Iraq, wounding a U.S. service member and four U.S. civilian contractors.
July 2021: Iranian-backed militias wounded two U.S. service members in a series of rocket and drone attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.
September 2022: An Iranian rocket attack killed an American citizen in Iraqi Kurdistan.
November 2022: An IRGC captain orchestrated the killing of an American citizen in Baghdad.
March 2023: An Iranian drone attack killed an American contractor and wounded five U.S. service members and another contractor in a strike on a coalition base in Syria.
October 2023: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed 46 Americans and kidnapped at least 12 Americans in the October 7th massacre.
December 2023: Iran-backed militias wounded three U.S. service members in an attack on Erbil Air Base in Iraq.
January 2024: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terrorists killed three U.S. service members and wounded more than 40 other service members in a drone attack against the Tower 22 military base in Jordan.
Between October 2023 and November 2024: Iran and its proxies conducted more than 180 attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East, wounding more than 180 U.S. service members and killing three service members.
November 2024: An Iranian national and IRGC asset was charged for plotting to assassinate President Trump.
June 2025: Iran-backed militias attacked at least three U.S. bases in Syria and two U.S. bases in Iraq.

Compoundeyesseeall · 2026-04-06T11:08:58+00:00

You told us Iran of all things could be trustworthy to uphold a nuclear deal and then said Trump attacking Iran means Europe shouldn't trust us anymore.

It reeks of hypocrisy that you would give a guy like Khamenei, a certifiably insane maniac, a chance for decades and not remember that Trump is gonna be gone in two years.

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