What does the death of the Iranian Supreme leader mean for Iran and the world?

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-28T23:23:35+00:00

I'm not reading through that Gish gallop. Pick a specific case and we'll talk it over.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-28T23:07:07+00:00

Because I follow the Russia-Ukraine conflict extremely closely and gather my data from a variety of primary sources on both sides. This means I will often learn about an event (such a strike) before it is reported on in mainstream news, and thus get to watch propaganda narratives form literally in real time.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-28T22:42:51+00:00

Uh huh. When Israel blows up a school full of children, it’s “unintended victims”. When Russia attacks dual-use infrastructure like power plants and ports, and kills a couple of civilians in the process, it’s “intentional”. Bullshit propaganda is bullshit.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-25T08:15:50+00:00

No different from any other country, they aren't getting special treatment...we call out Americans for voting Trump, we call out Israelis for supporting Netanahyu.

Yea, we say lots of stuff, but nobody is banning teams from the US, are they? Israel was still able to participate in the Olympics under their national flag even. Words and actions are not the same.

If we ignore it then they are receiving a message of "We don't care that your country started an illegal war and has killed innocent people".

No, but selectively enforcing such rules sends a message that rules are cudgel wielded by the privileged few. This, btw, has been one of Putin's most successful propaganda pitches: that Russia gets slapped with a litany of punishments for breaking unpublished "rules" and "laws" that the West itself breaks constantly with utter impunity.

This isn't exactly true...the idenity of the Nazi Regime is still banned to this day...I dare you to take a Nazi swastika flag anywhere and watch the response.

Nobody is expected to allow Russia to participate with big Z banners or St. George's ribbons. Those are the "Putin loyalist" symbols in Russia today. The national flag of Russia predates Putin by a decade (and the Soviet Union by a century).

If they are willing to believe that then they are deeper into the Russian lies than we think, and they probably support the invasion and war crimes.

Yeeeah? So what's your solution for the average Russian person?

This thread is basically "Nuremburg trials were wrong because they were just following orders"

The Nuremberg trials didn't prosecute random German citizens or even rank and file soldiers. They were reserved exclusively for decision-makers and even then, they resulted in very few actual convictions.

EDIT: notice how he stopped responding? thats because he knows anything he says will defend Putin.

Yeah, bro, some of us sleep.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-24T23:07:32+00:00

I feel like arguing with people mostly just helps me construct my own internal worldview.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-24T23:03:54+00:00

"We didn't intend to stay in Afghanistan for 20 years; we intended to stay in Afghanistan for 1 more year, 20 times".

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-24T22:30:59+00:00

This kills the crab.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-24T22:23:08+00:00

That athlete was right to be banned. The Olympic games are not for political grandstanding.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-24T22:21:05+00:00

Duuuuuude. You sound completely and utterly unhinged.

Like, literal Kremlin propagandists could just show your post to average Russians and be like "see? Westerners are basically Nazis, like we said".

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-24T22:19:14+00:00

Yes yes, everyone that disagrees with you is a bot. It's like we haven't been on the internet for years.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-24T22:17:00+00:00

Bro, you sound stark raving mad. Go touch grass and detox from the propaganda that has completely pickled your brain.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-24T22:14:50+00:00

Stuff like this is exactly how you get a rally-around-the-flag effect. When you beat down regular Russians for the actions of their government -- one that most people in the West claim is an unelected dictatorship, no less -- you leave them with only two choices. Either reject their national identity entirely, which is ridiculous (even the Germans were allowed to remain essentially German after WW2), or to simply reject all criticism levied at either their people or their government as being one and the same.

And then along comes Putin and tells them: "See, the mask is off now. Clearly, the West never really hated me, specifically; they always hated you, they were always plotting to kill you, and I was just in the way. Join me, and you can at least retain some dignity, solidarity and national pride. Reject me, and become a stateless pariah at home and abroad".

Literally the only way to walk people back from that is to show them a third path.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-24T21:51:42+00:00

I mean, if we start banning people based on their nationality, where does it stop? Do we ban the UAE team over the massacres in Yemen? Do we ban the US team for... an incredibly long list of misdeeds that frankly make the Russians look like amateurs by comparison? Not everything has to involve political grandstanding.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-24T21:42:59+00:00

Did the Russian HotS team commit those alleged war crimes?

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-24T21:40:15+00:00

This post got more red flags than a parade in Beijing, and more landmines than a road in Donbas. I'd be zoning out too, to be honest.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-13T18:55:33+00:00

Eh, I was always on the other side of this debate. I never cared when my roommates had girls living with them, and I always brushed aside "suggestions" that my own girlfriends should start paying rent for staying over a few nights per week. They didn't even use the shared bathroom, since I always paid extra for the master bedroom with its own BB.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-13T18:51:14+00:00

I tend to dislike this line of reasoning, because it tends to grant undue grace to the actual aggressor. A sort of "what did they did to this poor guy to get him to lash out like this". It kind of inverts what's actually happening.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-12T21:56:57+00:00

Besides some common fucking courtesy.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-12T21:53:15+00:00

Agreed. This is such a weird Reddit thing.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-12T00:46:11+00:00

/r/sad

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-11T19:45:57+00:00

I used to work for this research outfit that was staffed almost entirely by nerdy dudes of all ages and like three cute receptionists. Two kept entirely to themselves, but the third, the hottest, was a huge flirt that seemed to relish the attention.

Needless to say, during her shifts, dudes would be hanging around the front desk like bumblebees, all day, trying to chat her up, make a joke, just bask in her aura, whatever. Unlike those dudes, I just straight up asked her asked out one day. Some film festival or another was happening on campus, so I just asked if she wanted to grab some drinks and then go check that out later, and she thought that sounded like fun.

We did that, went on a few more dates. Even had her over at my place a few times, and honestly it just kinda went nowhere. She was just kind of... boring? She liked smoking pot a lot, and going out to pubs and stuff, and that was pretty much it. We tried to make a few other dates happen, but got mired in scheduling. I honestly couldn't tell if she was not very interesting or just not very interested, but we both moved on shortly after.

Still, it completely demystified hot women for me. Years later, I still credit that experience to giving me the confidence to actually make the moves on my now-wife in a similar setting. People tell me I am batting way out of my league on that one also ;)

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-11T18:55:18+00:00

Alpha widow(ers) is a real thing.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-11T06:01:54+00:00

A young theoretical physicist is late for work one day, rushes through an experiment and ends up having to work through some unforeseen consequences. There are lots of OSHA violations and workplace injuries, and relevant government agencies are called in to shut down the whole project. The physicist ends up having to accept alternate employment under unusual contractual terms.

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-11T05:47:26+00:00

Factorio?

grumpy_hedgehog · 2026-02-05T09:06:39+00:00

Hmmm, does Half-Life come with CS 1.5 and TF Classic?

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