Well you're not them. And I never claimed my opinion matters, noticed I haven't even expressed my personal opinion

Yup, they deliberately try to provoke anxiety because if you have a panic attack they can book you for disorderly conduct. It's really cruel, especially for people with PTSD like you pointed out. A lot of veterans get arrested that way.

This comment thread is literally on an article about people in Iran rallying to his call for a mass demonstration. Read the room.

Are you in Iran right now, participating in their protests? Cause if not, you have no right to tell them who they should or shouldn't follow. That's your own unexamined colonizer mindset showing.

“The lack of a viable alternative has undermined past protests in Iran,” wrote Nate Swanson of the Washington-based Atlantic Council, who studies Iran.

“There may be a thousand Iranian dissident activists who, given a chance, could emerge as respected statesmen, as labor leader Lech Wałęsa did in Poland at the end of the Cold War. But so far, the Iranian security apparatus has arrested, persecuted and exiled all of the country’s potential transformational leaders.”

Keep waiting for your perfect leader, but the Iranian people are moving on without you.

Yeah, clearly that moral pedestal is too high for you to hear me. I don't know why I even bother...

Welp, I guess if I'm not allowed to join the "class consciousness/solidarity" then I might as well join the oligarchs. Sorry, I can't help you, I'm just stupid white man with the cognitive abilities of a kindergartener. Apparently I'm not welcome on this side of the class war. It's a damn shame, I really wanted to fight for things like universal healthcare and a livable wage that's tethered to inflation. But I won't be your punching bag just because our great-grandmothers didn't have voting rights.

Man, if I didn't know that "not all women" are like you, then I might even be tempted to become a misogynist...

They were probably trying to provoke him so they would have a reason to arrest him.

Cops shouldn't be allowed to touch civilians unless they have a reason to make an arrest.

Like if the only charge is "resisting arrest"... Why the fuck were they trying to make an arrest in the first place?

But they're professionals at making up bs charges. "Trespassing" in public... "Disorderly conduct" is somewhat of a catch-all...

Is there any credible reason to believe the US had anything to do with toppling Assad?

Or do you simply not believe an Islamic rebel group would be capable of a successful lightning offensive otherwise? Cause that's pretty demeaning if so...

If there were an option who has "done leadership in Iran," that person would be part of the current regime. Any potential grassroots leaders have been exiled.

This rhetoric that "surely there's a better [hypothetical] option" is the sort of perfectionism and ideological purism that dooms so many movements. Keep waiting for a hypothetical "better option," you might as well be waiting for a messiah.

The practical reality is that the crown prince is a figurehead that the liberation movement can rally around, and indeed they are rallying to his call. That alone makes him the best available option, as the momentum being generated is what's critical. To say "wait, why don't we wait for someone better to come along" only helps the ayatollah.

No, the DNC was too intent on taking the high ground and proving that they're not like maga. They fell into the trap that had been laid. Maga spouts nonsensical accusations, most of which are projection, so that once it comes to light that they're doing the thing, nobody is willing to accuse them because they already made it sound insane.

They've done this about many things, and it's unnerving how effective it has been. "Weaponization of government," "targeted political prosecutions," etc.

Now when you call it out they say "You didn't mind when your side did it." That's because the other side wasn't even doing it to begin with!

They effectively created the "both sides" -ism, because it obfuscates all the ways in which they're demonstrably worse.

I honestly think it's a downstream effect of putin's hybrid war against the west. FSB trolls aren't only focussing on radicalizing right-wingers (cause that's what Qanon was, let's be honest). They've stoked both sides, deliberately promoting discord and escalation, and they've effectively created an unmendable rift straight down the middle of the body politic.

So yeah, they seed all this divisive and violent rhetoric, using bot farms to promote it. Then it catches on and like a virus propagates itself throughout the collective conscience. All of the sudden safe online spaces for wholesome debate are rare, and everyone's at each other's throats, and even people on the left can't seem to agree on a course of action because these provocateurs and accelerationists are dominating the narrative.

It fools half the left into following that narrative, and it fools the right-wing into viewing the entire left as unreasonable and violent. It's kind of mirrored on the other side too. Growing up, I remember not every republican/conservative was a bloodthirsty racist. Surprising, I know. But now so many of them have caught the maga mind virus, and all the sane ones if there are any left are invisible. There certainly are anti-maga republicans, but they've lost control of their party.

Reactionary, sensationalist, and dehumanizing rhetoric is just too easy for people to fall into. It must have some deep-seated appeal to the reptilian parts of our brains (the limbic system, that is), because it defies all reason and empathy.

And there are adversaries with decades of institutional knowledge in psyops (disinformation, propaganda, and radicalization) who have been patiently exploiting this vulnerability for years. It's scary to think how this will impact the long-term evolution of the human psyche...

Fucking asshole gets in the dude's face and then tells him to back up. Fascist.

These people don't want to hear about reality, they just want to complain while proposing no practical solutions, and call anyone a coward who doesn't express uncritical willingness to immediately resort to escalation.

The moment they get a figurehead, they'll tear him or her down, because they're allergic to any semblance of authority. They keep talking about a revolution, but they'll never organize effectively because they're allergic to the ideas of discipline and hierarchy.

I believe in leftist socioeconomic policy, but man is there an over-representation of imbeciles who seem to be dominating the narrative. It's no wonder the right-wing thinks we're all MLs. Any leftist who's not an ML is either afraid to speak up, or gets trashed whenever they do.

It's fucking hopeless, I fear. And then they get upset when we say our only hope is to vote in a lukewarm Dem. I'd love to see more progressive candidates winning, but the left shoots itself in the foot every time because they'd rather have reasons to complain than actually work on solving any problems.

I don't know what their long-term plans are. Anarchy? As if that would be any better for women and vulnerable minorities?

Keep blaming people for doing nothing while you're also doing nothing. It seems to be working for you.

I tried to stop fascism from taking over, but I was too powerless. I viewed that as a necessary difference to make, and I couldn't do it.

Now people online are acting like it's a moral failing if I don't take action now. It's too late, dunces. People should have listened when I was trying to warn them.

Also, I'm tired of being blamed for systemic racism/sexism or whatever just because I'm a white man. I've never been near the levers of wealth and power. But I'm an easy target, and that's all people care about.

They say things like "you're not being targeted" while simultaneously making whatever excuses to justify why it's somehow okay to denigrate me and if I have a problem with that then somehow I'm the bigot.

It's not fair, but it sure seems like a lot of people are convinced I do owe the world...

Except this time there's actually some evidence of tampering worth looking into, and there's been no investigation. Whereas investigations were conducted last time and there was no evidence.

Election data was uploaded over starlink, and Elon Musk bragged about winning the election for trump. He also openly paid people to vote republican.

And there were some weird requirements in some districts for wifi-enabled surge protectors, whatever that was about.

And Dominion voting machines were bought by a trump sycophant.

And there were multiple districts in swing states that voted blue down the ballot except for the presidential election.

All in all, these are anomalies at least worth investigating, especially since some bs claims of fraud warranted investigations in 2020. But no, there was no investigation in 2024.

So you're saying "there's no proof," but how would there be "proof" if an investigation was never conducted?

You said

actions and comments impact differently across these strata

implying that women's feelings matter, but men's don't.

You also said

Don't try that equivalency

implying that women denigrating men is somehow different from men denigrating women

And it's all in the context of you coming to the defense of someone who basically said "cis men should be excluded from class solidarity." And then laughing about men feeling "triggered" and "mansplaining" in the comments.

So how would it be different if I said "oh, haha, a woman got triggered and now she's trying to womansplain."

Unless you see the similarity there, there's no way my tiny voice will reach you up on that high moral pedestal you're on.

You've basically been derailing this whole time. I called out someone's bigotry and you said "but what about all those times men were bigots!" Well, we're not talking about those times in this thread because that isn't what this conversation is about. Nobody is saying that's okay either, but apparently you can't handle a man telling a woman that it's not okay for her to be a bigot either, and you felt the need to come to her defense.

That isn't even a remotely accurate comparison. More like some assholes in the neighborhood are burning people's houses down, and someone from a completely different neighborhood is saying "burn their houses down or you're a coward!"

Colleges will admit anyone, and pass them too, because it's a business...

It would have been nice if they had published this before the election. It might have made a difference.

I kept trying to tell people Biden's policies were intelligent, but it would take time to see the quantifiable result. It's hard to cite sources that haven't been published yet. Science moves too slow to keep up with a four-year electoral cycle.

And now all this progress will be undone and worse due to anti-intellectualism taking the helm. Typical...

Unfounded personal attacks? This entire thread is about you and one other person claiming it's completely okay for you to denigrate an entire demographic of people. One which happens to include me.

But now you feel personally attacked when I say I can't take you seriously because you're just as bad as a misogynist?

If I were to make denigrating comments about women, and you were to call me a misogynist, would that be an "unfounded personal attack?"

You can't even see your own biases. You're the one whose argument is rife with logical fallacies. And you don't even realize that you're the one being childish. So much projection out of you. And no, saying that isn't an "unfounded personal attack."

Oh, so this isn't your country? Then it's none of your business. Go be a provocateur somewhere else.

If the person I voted for had won, we wouldn't be in this mess. So it's not my responsibility. Stop victim blaming.