For many years Iran was enriching uranium and various other countries were like, no pls.

This is a massive oversimplification but basically back in 2014-15 Iran agreed to stop trying to build nuclear weapons capabilities (and have increased surveillance of what it was doing) in exchange for lifted sanctions.

Trump of course undid all that, Biden tried to reinstate it, Trump seems to prefer to let Israel bomb Iran instead.

So in my view what has just been proven here (and in Ukraine) is if you trust the US and don’t arm, you will get attacked by your enemies.

The malevolence of US foriegn policy is woven like a tapestry throughout modern history.

I’m not sure that anyone has been mean-spirited enough to write a single source detailing all of it in one place, but perhaps someone else can suggest one.

If you want to know how it gets hidden from you, Manufacturing Consent is old but a good place to start.

I haven’t heard it myself but the Behind the Bastards podcast about Henry Kissinger is often recommended and probably covers a significant amount of US involvement in foriegn genocides.

Good point. I assumed they meant the films because the books were not any kind of technogical innovation.

It has implications for nuclear armament. Netanyahu needs a forever war to stay in power, and Iran is now further incentivized to arm itself to deter that.

Other countries in similar positions are seeing how having agreed to a non proliforation deal in the past with the US has panned out for Iran.

So more nuclear armament is probably more attractive to certain countries who don’t want to be the Iran or Ukraine of their regions.

George Washington could finally get some implants or dentures and stop stealing the teeth from slaves.

I love how you make it sound like the moon landing happened after LOTR.

Wait, really?

Unfortunately this meme is only part of it. Things like covering up Unit 731 didn’t even get mentioned.

Real.

A lot of this is really old so it’s the kind of thing my parents casually mentioned when I was growing up.

But then we learn the details at University, either in history classes or more broadly in any kind of discussion of colonialism, neoimperialism, etc.

None of us can stand up to its military power. It is the class bully.

In case they need a massive public distraction from something else.

This part’s interesting

Mary Dietz, in her essay “Trapping The Prince”, writes that Machiavelli’s agenda was not to be satirical, as Rousseau had argued, but instead was “offering carefully crafted advice (such as arming the people) designed to undo the ruler if taken seriously and followed.”[83] By this account, the aim was to reestablish the republic in Florence. She focuses on three categories in which Machiavelli gives paradoxical advice:

He discourages liberality and favors deceit to guarantee support from the people. Yet Machiavelli is keenly aware of the fact that an earlier pro-republican coup had been thwarted by the people’s inaction that itself stemmed from the prince’s liberality.

He supports arming the people despite the fact that he knows the Florentines are decidedly pro-democratic and would oppose the prince.

He encourages the prince to live in the city he conquers. This opposes the Medici’s habitual policy of living outside the city. It also makes it easier for rebels or a civilian militia to attack and overthrow the prince.

Machiavelli wanted a Republic, another inyerpretation is he put in a bunch of bad advice in the hopes of them taking it and being overthrown.

If anything, it shows how naive and credulous we became. Old photos with completely made up rubbish captions are now a staple of social media.

This. It’s literally no different, and the fact that so many people idolise this kind of hoarding shows how powerful the processes of hegemony are.

It would have been good if the Obama administration had at least walked back the massive erosion of freedom, civil liberty, and the breaches of international law that happened under Bush.

But it didn’t. No one has. Administrations from both parties seem to have kept it as a new status quo.

Yes. A lot of the Trump stuff is building on existing violations of international law that started with Bush II and were continued by each subsequent administration.

The UK countries and parts of Russia are both wrong.

They = keeps speaking their own language to you, but automatically make it 10x louder.

Its only the Parisians. If you start in English they rightly see that as rude.

But if you start in French they also hate it and are at pains to let you know how much your French sucks and how they couldn’t understand it.

Which, would be fair enough, but seems suspicious when the rest of France can.

The one for England is wrong anyway.

If you come to England and attempt to speak to them in bad English, you don’t get “no reaction” you get them shouting at you in the mistaken belief that raising their voices makes it easier to understand.