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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 28, 2026

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'We destroyed the Iranian navy' = we blew up some destroyers but didn't open the straits, nor are we straying near their shores because then we'd be in danger.

'We destroyed their missile factories' = missile production and firing continues anyway. So it wasn't functionally destroyed, was it?

'We destroyed their nuclear facilities' = damage done is so ineffectual that the US starts another war 9 months later. Nor were they making warheads. If they wanted to make warheads, they'd simply make them like North Korea did. The Israelis and Americans have been hysterical about Iran's nuclear ambitions for 30 years. It's not credible or serious to still maintain that Iran sought nukes but mysteriously remained 6 months, weeks, years away this whole time.

motivated reasoning

This is not the first idiotic Middle East war over imaginary WMDs. It's not the first time the US has massively overinflated what they've achieved with bombing, lied to everyone about how the war is actually going. Basic pattern recognition is sufficient to discern what's going on here.

imaginary WMDs

I see. So all those news reports over the years, going back to the 90s, about Iran's obvious efforts to build nuclear weapons. And US efforts to stop them, which included Obama's JCPOA. All of that was imaginary to you? Who made up all of thoe news reports then... was it the Israelis? So yes, motivated reasoning for how you're spinning everything else.