Oh yeah the standard comparison between western liberal republics versus "theocracies" and "single party system totalitarian regimes". Meanwhile most of NATO is still nominally ruled by hereditary monarchies (the United Kingdom of King Charlie that still doesn't have an official constitution isn't just England, Wales and Scotland, it includes Canada, Australia and a ton of former colonies abroad), socially progressive key allies in Scandinavia that make bag from arms manufacturing are almost all still ruled by kings, the USA itself only introduced a presidential term limitation after Roosevelt did four consecutive terms but act like this is now abnormal universally as if all countries have or should have term limits, the few Catholic majority allies like Spain, Portugal and Italy have the Pope as their spiritual supreme leader that has his own private sovereign country with his private army, bank, intelligence services and religious-fascist organizations internationally like Opus Dei that infiltrate governments and have vast political and economic activities etc, not to mention that the Vatican has never seen any repercussions for sheltering and aiding Nazis after WWII, all of whom sought refuge in CIA backed South American dictatorships or "liberal democratic monarchies-colonies" like Canada and Australia etc.

Somehow the US constantly tries to export democracy in every other place except its own allies that need it the most. There are even tax havens (global financial crime hotspots) like Monaco and nobody cares about the lack of democracy there. It's a tragedy that Murica cares so much for the world that all these allies must wait until they also get some democracy. It's an absolute tragedy.

Can you imagine someone ever saying that the Vatican is a theocracy? It literally is though. Or that Saudi Arabia or Brunei aren't democracies? That's easier. But try saying that Denmark and the Netherlands are also monarchies? Or that Iceland had to gain independence because it was basically a colony? Unthinkable. So it seems it's perfectly fine having any system you want as long as you're a US lapdog.

We could also think about Northern Ireland and why Murica doesn't invade to liberate the Irish from the illegal Brit occupation, that would be even funnier since apparently Brits oppose landgrabs and imperialism on principle and since always hence why they got so involved in expanding NATO in Ukraine and opposed bad unfree capitalist republic no-monarchy Russia.

What the hell is the imperial core?

It’s the “always the same map” countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_countries

Feel free to educate me if you have more information than me but my understanding is Iran was a nice happy country then the U.S. and Britain helped overthrow their government to get a pro oil authoritarian, then the Islamic revolution happened and it turned into a theocracy which shortly after began doing things like treating women as second class citizens

The reason that the first things that come to your mind about Iran are authoritarianism and theocratic patriarchy is because our governments, think tanks, and corporate media have spent the last 35 years beating these thoughts into our heads. There’s certainly some truth to them, but they greatly exaggerate & incessantly repeat them. And they only do this to the countries they want to regime change. They don’t do it to allies or vassals who treat their citizens as badly or worse. And they want to regime change these countries not for any humanitarian reasons but because they’re not being sufficiently subservient. They don’t actually give a shit about the Iranian people’s or women’s freedoms, any more than they give a shit about Palestinians’ lives. They’re always working to manufacture consent for the various regime changes they want to prosecute.