Was reading from this cute paper RAND just wrote about the possibility of US national renewal to my buddy on the phone last night it's a real nice chaser to explaining the key reasons the USSR was crushed when it still had the potential to "muddy along" for years, which still held the possibility of a political and economic renewal. Like a lot of spooky writing it's a smooth mix of valuable or pertinent information, blatant lies, and misrepresentation that borders on self parody and projection.

It does not in fact reckon with the reason the USSR and the British empire both fell apart, the damn United States lol

Folks I don't think we're getting real industrial policy. We're getting more of the fourth reich. Easy bet I know

I think it's cute that Ken Klippenstein has such a reaction to the statement that came out of the Iranians post Soleimani's assassination, that the west has no heroes, only cartoon characters. He cannot help but compare the dead Iranian president to Wily [sic] Coyote. Of course they're wrong, we have sports champions and movie stars as well. And when they die in a helicopter or car crash it is absolutely not like Wily [sic] Coyote, no matter their personal statements or beliefs.

Because internet commentators want to pass off their uninformed xenophobia as advocacy for democracy and the people of countries they despise and want to undermine the national interest of. For instance Ken Klippenstein referred to the Iranian President as an authoritarian dictator.

and here you see the bailey of the motte and bailey strategy to defend regime change talking points. he's no longer a leader he's an "authoritarian dictator" a completely meaningless term which is only used to paint targets on the enemies of the west

you are just playing the good cop.

you didn't even know this guy was elected, did you?

I'm not super up to the minute on Iranian politics but this is not something to mindlessly celebrate because "dead billionaire lol" when Iran is in the midst of getting closer to Saudi Arabia and peeling them away from normalization with Israel in the process

he was a democratic strongman warlord

we've already been fed the "secret service agent's gun just went off lol and they blamed a guy because lolz"-style explanation in "sanctions killed him the heli parts sucked lolz"

i totally understand that maybe limiting production of military helicopters but it seems kind of far fetched it would result in poor maintenance on the heli carrying state leaders 🤔

Yeah, if anyone wants to do an effortpost explaining why I'm wrong to be uneasy about the death of a major leader of one of the few countries materially supporting the anti-imperialist struggle and a key partner for china and russia in the middle east, a country which has tenuous political gains being made with saudi arabia that further minimize the possibility of normalization with israel, i'm open to it. haven't seen anything like that in that thread

personally my default reaction ranges from yikes to check the helicopter dept for CIA

probably best reddit debunker-tier take is sanctions killed him via shitty helicopter parts. there are concrete steps that iran can take there to prevent this.

i'm guessing this helicopter flight was the only practical way to get to some mountain location and not just a joyride. they even have uber for helicopters here and in LA which is so stupid

• not white enough

• muslim

• peripheral country

• muh dictators

• arab spring essentialism

• ignorance of geopolitical struggle

lol protecting the rich from jet tracking... of course

That an interesting way of looking at it. If you can find any purity argument for why a politician wasn't progressive (he wasn't btw) then it's a good thing for them to just go up in a fireball. Politics by process of elimination! Say, Yemenis invited Jackson Hinkle to a Zoom conference. Maybe they should go die, too, because they're more backward than you and the removeds got to them first! Hell, my favorite Burkina Faso reporting account randomly veers into Christian grimposting about gay people (me).

Just ignore all context for why people are nervous about this in the first place (Iran is playing a critical role in breaking the illusion of US hegemony and this could even be a pointless assassination)! Woo hoo! Billionaire down!

It's not like this is going to make the political situation better in Iran if you view it that way. Now he will be memorialized for dying in the midst of a great struggle.