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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   18225 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026

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A tiny note on the war

In the previous thread, I got some pushback for suggesting that not only did the US strike the Iranian school in Minab, killing 170 children or something like that, but perhaps it did so intentionally (or at least without remorse for the possible consequences of erroneous targeting). I admit that wasn't fully sincere. I realize that, even morals aside, there is no perceived military value in bombing children, at least not for the US (I do think Israelis may target children of IRGC officers out of their usual Bronze Age blood feud sentiment, Oct 7, Gaza and all, seen enough of their remarks to this effect; but then again they don't operate Tomahawks).

Well now the question on it having been an American strike appears settled. As for the intent – it's not so straightforward:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has gutted the Pentagon oversight offices that would have investigated the recent strike on an Iranian girls’ school — a move that has degraded America’s ability to protect civilians amid its largest air campaign in decades.
The Pentagon chief last year slashed offices that didn’t contribute to his goal of “lethality,” including the group that assists in limiting risk to civilians, known as the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence. Around 200 employees who worked on the issue, including at that office, have been reduced by about 90 percent, according to two current and former officials and a person familiar with the effort. The team that handles civilian casualties at Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, has dropped from 10 to one.
Hegseth can’t close the offices because they are approved by Congress. But he has managed to make them nearly inoperable, according to the people, as the Pentagon investigates its responsibility in what could be the worst U.S.-led killing of civilians since 2003. Iranian state media said the strike killed about 170 children and 14 teachers.
“The fact that our secretary of Defense, that our Central Command commander, cannot actually tell us whether or not they dropped a bomb in this location, that is so unbelievably unacceptable,” said Wes Bryant, the Pentagon’s former chief of civilian harm assessments until last year. “It just points even more to recklessness in this, in the entire planning and execution of this campaign, the fact that they don’t have any idea.”

Does it matter if there was no intent if the United States, as of now, also has a revealed preference to not bother with minimizing such risks, in favor of «lethality» and some zany Judeo-Christian nationalism courtesy the power-tripping macho TV host Pete Hegseth? I believe it does, but marginally; about as much as those girls matter to Lethal Pete. I rest my case.

More to the point. It's remarkable that there's so little discussion of contemporary historical events on here. I won't criticize anyone, be the change you want etc.; but what we are seeing is pretty astonishing from the culture war standpoint. Could someone like Pete be imaginable as the Secretary of War – no, Defense – in 2023? 2019, even? 2016? It looks as if the politically dominant culture of the United States changed overnight. Does everyone just like it too much to find the change worth commenting on?

The war is coming home, as people predicted and feared.

The perpetrator of Michigan Temple Israel attack, the winner of Most Ineffective Terrorist of the Week prize (so far), was, unlike perpetrators of Old Dominion University attack and Buford's Backyard Beer Garden attack directly connected to the current war - he was Lebanese whose family was killed in recent Israeli bombing.

Results: one broken door, one injured security guard, thirty law enforcement officers suffering from smoke inhalation and probably marginal tens of million more in cash and weapons going to Israel. One million Lebanese who were expelled from their homes by Israel will still be never let back.

Reminder 1: Highly trained Iranian sleeper cells exist only in Tom Clancy novels.

Reminder 2: Both Epic Goat Beard Man and cutting edge science are right, individual terrorism does not work, even in the rare cases when it works.

Want to change the world? Organize, educate and agitate both elite human capital and the masses, today you can do it from your comfy room. One persistent shitposter can have bigger effect than all lone wolf shooters and bombers combined.

edit: links linked properly

One persistent shitposter can have bigger effect than all lone wolf shooters and bombers combined

Depends on who the shooter shoots. If Thomas Matthew Crooks had slightly better aim we'd live in a radically different world

That shit was so cinematic I am in the pre-I Want To Believe phase, I am ready to alienate all my friends and family by making this one conspiracy my whole identity.

I joke of course, but there is for sure a market position waiting for whoever initiates the zapruder film industrial complex about this one.

His aim was basically perfect; Trump moved his head.

That's why you don't shoot at the head!

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