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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   17940 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 3, 2026

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This is an unfalsifiable position. “If your argument was right, it would convince me. But I won’t allow it to convince me, therefore it can’t be right.” It could simply be the case that a large number of people refuse to admit that Iran has lost, which is actually very common in the history of war.

It could simply be the case that a large number of people refuse to admit that Iran has lost, which is actually very common in the history of war.

Can you name another example of this common occurrence?

Wars where the losing party refused to surrender long past the point of inevitable defeat:

  • Paraguay in the War of the Triple Alliance
  • Nazi Germany 1944-1945
  • Jewish resistance after the fall of the Second Temple
  • Siege of Nanking 1864 Taiping Rebellion

Wars where the winning party (or parts thereof) thought they were losing, or going to face much greater resistance than they in fact did:

  • Israel before the Six Days War
  • Gulf War 1991
  • US after Gettysburg
  • Battle of Jutland

It is really not that hard for the losing party to be delusional or the winning party to be dismayed.

Here, the US has total air naval and space superiority, Iranian strength is diminishing, Iran’s economy is collapsing, America’s is almost unaffected, Iran suffers catastrophic military losses, America suffers almost none at all, trade through the Straits is picking up and Iran is becoming weaker and weaker at stopping it. And yet a large part of the commentariat is not just skeptical but actively reversing cause and effect or reading unvarnished Iranian propaganda. Not to put too fine a point on this but: it’s really not hard to imagine a lot of people believing something that is demonstrably false.

Isn’t this basically the origin of the post WWI “stab in the back” myth?

The idea that Germany was actually winning but elements inside the country betrayed the German army.

I mean it is technically true that elements within Germany betrayed the German army. Germany was not winning and these elements included things like 'other parts of the German military', but the German revolution really happened.

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