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PaperclipPerfector  7d ago (text post)   32839 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 9, 2025

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There might tension between USA and Iran, but depending on the situation countries can make up quickly. Vietnam normalized relations quite quickly, right after a brutal war that left most of their country in ruins and millions dead. But in this case for better or for worse, the US is fanning the flames of antagonism against Iran. The fact is that the US is constantly messing around with Iran's business, far far more than the Iran is able to mess with US business.

Iran has no blood feud with the US. Their people and culture have no multi generational conflict with the US. If the US just let Iran do whatever it wants, which to be fair includes many quite terrible things, then I really think that they would be willing to forget past injustices and not bother trying to mess with a country halfway around the world.

Iran has no blood feud with the US.

Iran certainly has a blood feud with the US. The people of Iran as a whole may or may not (depends on just how bad the Shah was, and how much they blame the US for that), but the current leadership (as a class) does. They encourage chants of "Death to America". They refer to the US as the Great Satan. When someone tells you in no uncertain terms that they are your enemy, it makes sense to believe them.

It is true that if Iran were to just do whatever it wants, they likely would mess with the Little Satan (Israel) first. I don't know if the Ayatollahs are even crazier than the Kims, and would nuke Haifa and Tel Aviv as soon as they got the bombs. But it's definitely a possibility.

They encourage chants of "Death to America". They refer to the US as the Great Satan. When someone tells you in no uncertain terms that they are your enemy, it makes sense to believe them.

Why? It makes about as much sense to me as believing any other political slogan.

Believing it 100% uncritically? No.

Taking them into account? Yes.

If politician campaigns on promise to introduce communism you should take into account their win is likely to result in them stealing things you own.

There is no doubt that Iran is currently hostile to the US, but the kinds of statements issued by countries currently engaged in hostilities tend to be pretty deranged generally, so I don't know if what they're saying should be enough to take them as expressions of genuine irreconcilable hatred.

They have been consistent in both expressing "Death to America" and calling the US the "Great Satan" since the formation of the current regime.

What I'm saying is: yeah, and? Propaganda against hostile states can get pretty deranged, that doesn't mean a given regime actually believes it.

Discounting them entirely makes no sense either.

Sure, they shouldn't be completely discounted.

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