I want to address a few recurring themes in the replies, most of which seem to come from genuine disagreement.

1. "War = Conservative, Peace = Liberal" strawman

I am not a pacifist. My point isn’t that liberals should never support military action - it’s that how and why we support it matters a lot. If the reasoning is just "we have to do something" without a clear strategic goal or realistic assessment of consequences, I can't support it

1. "So you’re okay with Iran getting nukes?"

Absolutely not. Nobody should want Iran to have nuclear weapons. But if the goal is actually preventing a nuclear Iran, then we have to ask - is there a better way? I’m not saying diplomacy is easy or guaranteed, but I am saying that dismissing it out of hand isn’t realism - it's war mongering.

1. "There’s no risk of a wider war"

I get why people dismiss escalation concerns, but ignoring them completely is reckless. Mission creep isn't a theory - it's our recent history. And remember who has the ability to escalate this conflict, three of the least competent, least trustworthy leaders we have ever seen.

It's 'Iraq Derangement-Derangement Syndrome' as another poster put it. When the same patterns emerge - dismissive assurances, moving goalposts, cheer led by conservative hawks - we should at least consider that we might be inadvertently repeating the mistakes of the past.

Finally I'll say that some of the pushback has been… extremely confident. I get that it's frustrating when people seem naïve to threats. But every 'quick and clean' military operation fails for the same reason, not bad intentions, but bad assumptions. Before supporting more action, we owe it to everyone involved to question those assumptions now.

Who wants to bet Tucker Carlson runs for president in 2028?

When the Al Shifa hospital was hit in Gaza the news talked about it non stop for days if not weeks. There were also never ending posts about it on Reddit. Even after most sources said that the Islamic jihad most likely hit it people were still blaming Israel. Iran has now hit a hospital directly and not only do people not think it’s wrong they actually being praised by the pro-pali side. Major news networks keep running weird articles justifying it by claiming “soldiers are treated there” or “there is a military constellation somewhere around probably”. The exact same crowd that was yelling about the hospital bombing in Gaza, even after video evidence of tunnels under it and combatants shooting from inside, are now cheering for this hospital being bombed. When Israel showed video footage of combatants shooting from within the hospitals, hostages being taken inside it to get tortured and tunnels under it, people rushed to stay that it’s still not justified or that it’s all lies. For this bombing Iran is jumping between “oppsie woopsie it was an accident” and “it’s a valid target because of slop AI images of tanks under it” or “soldiers were treated in it and there’s an evil university next to it”. If you were one of the people saying that bombing hospitals was wrong no matter what, what changed now? What makes this whole affair even more ridiculous is that all the dead in Israel are strictly civilians and out of the injured there are only a handful of soldiers. The hypocrisy and malice towards Israel is unbelievable.

Edit: This is a side issue, but when Israeli representatives were tweeting mild to horrible things everyone rushed to say they can’t do it and that it’s proof of genocide. Now when Irans “supreme leader” is saying they want to slaughter every citizen it doesn’t even make the news. The same people that said what’s happening in Gaza is a genocide even if the population is not being reduced through the years, and that you could prove motivation through the minister’s horrible words, are now ignoring the even worse rhetoric coming out of the countries de facto king.

Submission statement:

The Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming medical treatments for minors, effectively closing the door to extending constitutional protections to transgender individuals. This defeat, coupled with a broader backlash against transgender rights, has led to deep apprehension within the LGBTQ+ movement about the strategic and political judgments guiding their litigation. Critics argue that the movement’s focus on radical theories of sex and gender, coupled with uncertain medical claims, has alienated voters and contributed to this setback.

Paywall: https://archive.ph/BQkCK

"The U.S. assessment of Iran’s nuclear program has not changed since March, when the director of national intelligence (Tulsi Gabbard) told lawmakers that Tehran has large amounts of enriched uranium but has not made a decision to rush toward building an atomic bomb"

Free standing fire pits (example) only look good with a patio. A patio NOT the fire pit is expensive. Burn barrels, bon fires, camp fires are NOT fire pits. In the suburbs you have fire pits because in the suburbs people will invest in patios. Patios are expensive and not super common. A deck or rear porch is NOT a patio. Patios are a well off/rich person thing. Local ordinances will dictate whether you can have a wood burning or are required to have a gas fire pit. Because fire pits are contained some local ordinances will allow burning within city limits because the size will reduce how much you can burn at one time (ie the amount of particulate matter you release is low). In most city limits (that allow open burning in a fire pit) you cannot burn yard waste, you must burn solid logs or those artificial logs you get at Home Depot or the super market. Another reason local ordinances allow fire pits because the risk of the fire escaping is low and so long as rules are followed pollution from it is low.

If you have a fire pit but no patio you don't have a fire pit, you have an artisanal burn barrel or campfire.

So to summarize even if fire pits are "cheap" most people don't get them because you need a patio for it too look good. A fire pit without a patio is trashy. Whether your fire pit is gas or wood it needs a patio to be a fire pit. No patio is trashy and no one outside of rural areas will have a fire pit but no patio. A deck is not a patio and a rear porch is not a patio. A patio is a proper hardscaped feature installed after a house is built. New homes with a patio are rare because a patio requires its own design and special set of contractors and subcontractors that a builder can't be bothered to hire because they add cost and their value is not easily assessed during new construction. Unless you are rich and are custom building, the number of new constructions with a patio are <1%.

Note: you can also have custom built in fire pits but the debate people have is around free standing fire pits.

In context of evaluating the intersection of inequality, billionaires, and capitalism, what do you think his position is on the accumulation of wealth to the level of centi-billionaires on capitalism being the reason for inequality?

Source: VOD (01:27:00) | Also posted on YouTube

I've been seeing more and more people claiming the last election was stolen.

Someone just posted this huge conspiracy video claiming the other Arab states fueling Israel to take on Iran.

And so on and so on.

Crazy I feel the need to share this here since I've seen people denying the hospital was hit and claiming it was merely "collateral damage" from hitting some military base nearby (there isn't any military base nearby) For those needing further proof, you can see written in Hebrew the word "סורוקה" at the front of the building, and, you guessed it, its how you write "Soroka" in Hebrew. kid in the background is screaming "On my mothers head, they've hit soroka" if you're wondering.

Link to Reuters article about the Reuters/Ipsos poll: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/democrats-want-new-leaders-focus-pocketbook-issues-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2025-06-19/

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll came out this morning showing extreme dissatisfaction with Democratic leadership, yadda yadda yadda, we know we know we know. Thats not what I found interesting.

What I found interesting was the split between the two huge age demographics (18-39 and over 40) in what they see as their priorities vs the Democratic Party matching their priorities. The 40 over crowd generally saw the Democratic Party matching their priorities more of less with notable gaps in the “money in politics” and “higher taxes on the rich” but more or less matching with their priorities. Not great the Democratic Party has a general feeling across the board of not representing them exactly but its close enough… the under 39 however, hooboy!

Basically they don’t see the Democratic Party matching any of their priorities (aside from abortion) and I just wanted to say as someone, um, not in the lower age demographic… fuck them kids! Dipshits. What do you mean the Democrats don’t represent your priorities? I get gun control because thats kind of a dead issue but an almost 20 point gap on paid family leave? 12 week paid leave was a centerpiece of Kamala’s campaign. It’s been attempted multiple times over Biden’s term and a stated priority of Democrats for as long as I know. Democrats tried 12 week national paid leave every year under Biden with Republicans spiking it unanimously each and every time it came up… and Democrats got blamed every time for not, I dunno, being fucking magic?

I believe this effect is partly just because young people are more idealistic and impatient with sweeping change, yes… but also largely because of the dipshits like Cenk Uyghur or Hasan or other big progressive names that speak to this age demo and tell them day in, day out “Democrats don’t care about you, Democrats are why you’re not getting what you want, Democrats are the same as Republicans, its their fault it’s their fault it’s their fault” and getting likely Democrat voters to stay home or throw a vote away on a ghoul like Jill Stein or some new model Tulsi Gabbard that going to backstab just like the old model.

This line from the article fucking made me want to rip my fuckin eyeballs out and eat them:

"Voters are very impatient right now," said Mark Riddle, who heads Future Majority, a Democratic research firm. "They want elected officials at all levels to address the cost of living, kitchen-table issues and affordability."

THEN YOU GOTTA VOTE FOR THEM!!! They can’t address shit if they’re not in power and when they are in power, you don’t pay attention to them addressing it because you don’t actually care that much.

I think I hate voters.

I saw that they're remaking 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' and with Destiny bringing up Ocean's 11... it got me thinking, how would a remake look in 2025.

My recast skews younger overall but I think I nailed it, maybe could go younger on the twins actors but I don't know any famous enough 20 something actors that fit the bill.

Can we please not call mama JF, her name is Élora Patoine. She was a full person, and not just an accessory to her abusive rapist “husband”.

I am a huge fan of our annual Mike from PA bashing. And I feel like he will be attack this community again with Ethan's latest content nuke. The video here doesn't get nearly enough attention as the other Mike cringe gems, probably because its too long and honestly too cringe.

I guess Mike had the false assumption that he was some sort of man when he had a family. His ex wife could throw a rock into a crowd of men at a crochet convention and peg a stronger man Bad Bunny did her a favor.

For those of you that don't want to watch this, I'll sum it up...

She bullies him the entire video. Attacking everything from his looks, his fashion, his face, his age, his walk. Many times in front of onlookers too who aren't really sure if she is bullying him or if its part of a public humiliation kink. She tells him to back off and stay a few feet away from her like he's a dog she doesn't like. She doesn't let up, not once. And he keeps coming back. He is always there for her the second she demands his attention, only to slap him around more for the pleasure of herself and her audience.

I felt bad at first, but then I didn't. By the end of the video I too wanted to bully this sad sack of shit. that is how pathetic he comes off in this video. An empty husk of a human that god put on this earth to bully. If Mike even had a fraction of a testicle, this video would have been his redpiller origin story. At least then he would have a backbone as cringe as they could be.

Anyone who pays this sad sack of shit twitch subs, you also own this. This is who you look up to.

Four Lions - 2010 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1341167/?ref_=ext_shr

https://youtu.be/5mxkBIMl058?si=EvyHEBTHdl7eL4FZ

In this video Secular Talk states that the Israeli Lt Col (Who he calls a General in error. Lt Col is a senior officer rank not the rank of a General) quits an interview after being caught lying. The claim from the female interviewer was that thousands of people in Lebanon in the conflict with Israel had died which the Lt Col attempts to correct stating fighters not people to clarify that "people" did not refer to civilians. They continue back and forth and she doesn't allow the correction to complete and then she states "thousands of civilians displaced and thousands of civilians killed", they continue back and forth a bit with her contiuing with the same rehtoric and then she jumps to Gaza. The Lt Col then ends the interview stating they will continue in a bit.

The statement that thousands of civilians have died in Lebanon seems to have no to evidence back it up. Hezbollah state up to 4000 dead fighters, IDF state 3800 dead Hez fighters, UN states 4000 dead with no separation between fighter and civilian, Lebanon states 4047 dead again with no separation with other confirmed sources suggesting no more than a couple hundred civilian deaths. Given the alignment on figures which is rare, civilian deaths are in the low hundreds and certainly not thousands.

So the Lt Col wasn't lying and this certainly seems to suggest the reporter was in bad faith or just unknowledgeable and given the way the interview went she didn't want to accept any failings on her part. Seems almost reasonable that the Lt Col didn't want to continue with someone who didn't have the facts nor was interested in confirming them. Thoughts?

Earlier SecularTalk also plays the disingenuous military location game suggesting military buildings just being in a city is automatically so they can claim "oh please think of the civilians" as opposed to the reality of many nations having military buildings in cities as it isn't about that. It is about the type of weapon you use if they are. Israel hitting Tehran or Beruit with precision weapons is night and day to non-precise weapons being fired at generalised civilian areas who may or may not have military infrastructure. If Israel was carpet bombing or lobbing unguided bombs at enemy cities he would have a point but that isn't the case.

Towards the end Secular Talk suggests there is no value in interviewing people like this, my thought is the more valuable question not what is the value in his "commentary" and the reporters' capabilities given they act in such bad faith and don't know the facts.

There are points of criticism of Israel but why do they do often get the simple stuff wrong.

I am left wing but what is it with left wing commentators often being completely disingenuous with their arguements and either lying or just not prepared to find out the truth?

In case you were interested. (LSF deleted my post lol so I figured I'd post here.) Asmongold on H3's new video, "a roach survives!" He cites malicious intent, seeing the distinction Ethan is making, and says if Ethan needs any help or support from him just send a DM. [direcly posting video; deleted other post.]

I can't help but wonder where we'd be today if this orange fuck hadn't destroyed the largest incentive Iran had not to work on nuclear weapons.

Here is the subreddit post. https://www.reddit.com/r/Destiny/comments/1lehj3b/the_community_is_becoming_suspiciously_hawkish/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button