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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026

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No peace deal with Iran

Can I just point out that 21 hours seems too short for negotiations? I don't think the talks were done in earnest, at all. The 150-page JCPOA took almost 2 years of frivolous negotiations and lasted just as long. A 21 hour session in the middle of an active conflict is not very likely to reach a better equilibrium that both parties are happy with. Iran carried bloodstained schoolbags of kids killed in the Minab strike on the flight to Pakistan, they were certainly not there to surrender. I suspect the administration (or at least Vance) already knew this, and deliberately structured one-sided terms intended to be rejected so Trump can attempt building political scaffolding for escalation and blame Iran ("Look, we offered Iran a peace deal and they chose not to accept it"). Meanwhile, the Israelis have been busy!

Between accepting one of the greatest strategic defeats in decades, and trying to prosecute a horrific war amidst historic energy and food prices, we remain stuck with the latter.

As far as I can tell the "negotiations" were just an excuse to avoid having to carry out "Power & Bridge Day"

The current cunning plan is to blockade the blockade and prevent Iranian or Iranian-approved ships from leaving. One might give this plan more credit if a month prior the same admin hadn't given Iranian oil sanctions relief under the pretense of reducing the pressure on oil markets. To flip-flop now guarantees the worst of both worlds: Iran still made billions from selling into the oil price spike and now the market is going to be hammered going straight from "peace in sight!" to "Strait even more closed than before!"

At least some oil bulls will get to eat lobster

Iran can’t do anything their money because we destroyed their military

Strait is still closed, you are impotent to resolve that. Genocidal threats, begging for help, counterblockades, general pathetic thrashing. Any timeline on actual solution? This is a costly chimpout for the rest of us.

Wasn’t America supposed to have surrendered and accepted terms by now? I thought mining the straits was supposed to be some death blow to American empire but apparently Trump is fine with blockading it himself

Your only rejoinder to the fact that America is losing is the fact that it hasn't surrendered yet? By this kind of logic, if I told you the US accepted a strategic defeat and begrudgingly pulled out of Iran, you'd still claim it's a victory because the Iranians didn't conquer the moon.

  • America destroyed 80-90% of Iran’s military in weeks
  • Lost one pilot and pulled off an unprecedented military operation within Iranian territory that made a mockery of Iranian integrity
  • America now controls a near-majority of global oil supplies while other countries face a deficit
  • America is about to blockade the straits itself, which was supposed to be Iran’s leverage against America

Sure yeah America is losing I’m sure we’ll surrender any day now

America destroyed 80-90% of Iran’s military in weeks

80-90% of what?

80-90% of missiles? No.

80-90% of drones? No.

80-90% of IRGC troops? No.

80-90% of fast attack craft? No.

And Iran has the largest missile arsenal out of any single other country in the entire Middle East... I actually wonder if I'm being trolled or not.

My understanding is that the US is depleting it's stockpiles and it's causing concern amongst the administration. Especially because our high tech conventional arms rely heavily on advanced guidance and strike systems, which are in turn dependent on accessing key supplies of rare Earth metals that are overwhelmingly found in China. Restocking and resupplying these munitions isn't a walk in the park. Those supply chains are extremely fragile and the dependencies on them is enormous.

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Yeah... I'm definitely curious to know where you're getting your news from so all of these claims can be vetted.

Just to take one of your points as an example, I assume this is the rescue operation of the pilot in question that you're referring to? I hope you'll forgive me for doubting official statements made on this matter; because I'm not buying it. The massive show of force is highly disproportionate for a discreet personal recovery mission.

There's precedent for the US pulling out the stops in rescue operations.

It's definitely possible that the entire story isn't being told, but the rescue mission wouldn't be unprecedented.

I actually like history legends videos but he's definitely a pro russian shill. You have to take everything he says with a massive dose of salt.

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The US government and mainstream news companies are reporting we infiltrated Iran to rescue our guy. You are not going to bait me into trusting some pimply YouTuber instead and I am not going to watch a 23-minute video to find out if he says anything interesting. Frankly this is embarrassing. It’s always possible if not likely that the official story covers up deeper truths but if you don’t believe basic facts about the war there’s nothing for us to argue about. Maybe the Iranians are marching on Washington as we speak.

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