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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 6h

Really depends on what it is that someone is trying to say, describing a Polish king as "democratically elected" in the 16th century is definitely a lower standard for saying the same of Richard Nixon (or Leonid Brezhnev by the Politburo lol)

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 6h

I feel like most of the reason I hear people praise it is because of Star Wars allegedly using similar shots?

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 6h

Definitely a question of degree IMO, eg British political history has involved a very slow and rocky path of democratization over the centuries. Elections in the Appenzell canton pre 1970s should definitely be seen as less democratic than others in peer countries of the time.

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 6h

I would hesitate to say that e.g. Henrik Verwoerd was "democratically elected" in apartheid era South Africa when the supermajority of people ruled under his laws didn't have the franchise, but that's probably a matter of degree

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 6h

The fact that the US system had multiple parties to contend elections (with genuine differences between each other and were not subject to the policies of a "Supreme Leader") definitely puts that electoral system a notch above Iran's, but yeah lots of regimes have elections without being democratic.

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 7h

How is this different from what already happened? AIPAC pushed hard to get a Trump win and got what they wanted.

Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 7h

Comparing contemporary Iran to 1940s USA demonstrates that both regimes are not real democracies yeah

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 10h

Honestly this might be real, those dudes are theatrical enough that you can never tell

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 10h

Concept: guy in the Mojahedin-e-Khalq who insists on calling the Iranian government the "Khomeinist Entity"

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 10h

Yeah but why are we talking about Kyrgyzstan now

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 10h

Not everyone chose to live under the Islamic Republic- Baha'i people have really had a hard time of it.

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 10h

Sounds based

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Reposted by Mr. Miso Paste

Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 10h

I don't like Khamenei and hope the ulema of Iran make a better choice next time but I think the overwhelming focus on the only Shi'a state is indicative of underlying anti-Muslim sentimen.

Remain In Hell Without Despair @daphnelawless.com · 10h

Iran has a right to exist as a state with equal rights

a smiley face with a big smile and a big mouth

ALT: a smiley face with a big smile and a big mouth

media.tenor.com

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 10h

"should undocumented people get healthcare?"
"Yes"
"So you think this is a popular political position??? You're going to get us crushed in 2026 and 2028!"
There are far left positions that are definitely unpopular, but it's a bad faith non sequitur to conflate elections and a personal opinion

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 10h

This guy is an unusually obvious example of a common rhetorical trick. Specifically, to advocate for a right wing policy but then back away and write "I really care about not making people vote for Republicans, so that's why I want this evil thing"

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 10h

Do you support poor people starving if they don't have the right passport

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Reposted by Mr. Miso Paste

😱🩸Spooky SpectreKILLoquy 🎃🔪 @caulimovirus.bsky.social · 11h

we eradicated smallpox by doing exactly that

Philip Crawford 🌐 🏗️ 🚲 @philip.health · 11h

Should we give free healthcare to all people in the world, regardless of where they live? They are people as well.

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Reposted by Mr. Miso Paste

Ian Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social · 11h

Du Bois basically did a version of this in his bibliography in Black Reconstruction

BIB L I OGRAPH Y
STAN DARD - A N TI-NEGRO
(These authors believe the Negro to be sub-human and congenitally un-
fitted for citizenship and the suffrage.)
Burgess, John W., Reconstruction and the Constitution, 1 866-1 876.
Coulter, E. Merton, Civil War and Reconstruction in Kentucky.
Davis, William W ., The Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida.
Dunning, William A., Reconstruction, Political and Economic .
Eckenrode, F. Hamilton, Political History of Virginia During Reconstruc·
tion.
Fertig, James Walter, The Secession and Reconstruction of Tennessee.
Ficklen, John R., History of Reconstruction in Louisiana.
Fleming, Walter F., Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama.
--, Documentary History of Reconstruction, 1 906, 1907.
Hamilton, Joseph G. de R., Reconstruction in North Carolina.
Hollis, John Porter, The Early Period of Reconstruction in South Carolina.
Lonn, Ella, Reconstruction in Louisiana after 1 868 .
Ramsdell, Charles W., Reconstruction in Texas .
Rhodes, James F., History of United States from the Compromise of 1 850.
Scott, Eben G., Reconstruction During the Civil War.
Staples, Thomas S ., Reconstruction in Arkansas .
Studies in Southern History and Politics . Inscribed to William Archibald
Dunning.
Carpet-Baggers in the United States Senate. By C. Mildred Thompson.
The Literary Movement for Secession. By Ulrich B. Phillips.
Negro Suffrage in the South. By W. Roy Smith.
Some Phases of Educational History in the South Since 1 865. By Wil-
liam K. Boyd.
Southern Legislation in Respect to Freedmen, 1 865- 1 866. By J. G. de
Roulhac Hamilton.
The Federal Enforcement Acts . By William Watson Davis.
The New South, Economic and Social . By Holland Thompson.
Grant's Southern Policy. By Edwin C. Woolley.
Taylor, Richard, Destruction and Reconstruction.
Thompson, Clara M., Reconstruction in Georgia, Economic, Social, Po-
litical, l 805-1 872.
Wooley, Edwin C., The Reconstruction of Georgia.

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 1d

Making the I/P conflict about whether the people involved are white is a baffling level of America brain. It's like if a Sri Lankan were trying to figure out which side is Sinhalese and which side is Tamil

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah I mean seems hard to dispute that it can be part of an ideology at the very least (eg the USSR under Lenin closing mosques and turning them into museums and pig barns).

Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 1d

Anyways, at risk of giving too long a reply here, there isn't that much value to describing atheism as a unified belief with specific doctrines. Soviet anticlericalism is really different than most atheists in China or Vietnam, as is the degree to which they are missionizing or dogmatic.

Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 1d

I would dispute that atheism is _usually_ what could be categorized as a religion, but these are semantic arguments that don't reveal useful information. It's very similar to the Evangelicals who will say that they don't "believe" things because they "know" things- it's just obstinate word play.

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 1d

As an atheist, this seems like a really dumb point that this guy is making. Believing that something does not exist is still a belief! Most sensible people "lack belief" in certain descriptions of the world (eg belief in a flat Earth) but being a "round Earther" is a belief, just a correct one.

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 4d

Thiessen having a good chuckle about his fired liberal colleagues - some of whom he worked with for 15 years - is a good reminder that token conservatives at mainstream news outlets are/were there to destroy them, not to contribute to them.

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 4d

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Mr. Miso Paste @meatraffle.bsky.social · 2d

Threatening us with a good time?

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