A bunch of individual lawsuits or even a class action lawsuit is woefully inadequate for the task of holding ICE agents accountable for their crimes. It’s going to take revolutionary tribunals administered by councils of civilians. Even a “reformed” state will let them get away with it if we don’t take matters into our own hands.

All gender affirming care that is or has been provided to minors at scale is reversible. The standard for providing gender affirming care to minors is puberty blockers and social transition, never anything permanent like surgery. Personally, I don’t see any cause for concern about potential harm to minors from providing gender affirming care, but I do see the harm that is done to them when that care is denied and find it far more concerning given that a common result of that harm is the most permanent and irreversible outcome possible, suicide.

I appreciate the poetic word choice even if yucandu doesn’t lol.

We’re not blaming Europeans, we’re acknowledging that we are Europeans and that our current society and culture are rooted in European settler-colonialism. As a white man born in America I can trace my roots directly back to Europe, and our culture and political system reflect those roots. If that makes you uncomfortable then perhaps you should do some self-reflection.

^ This is what anti-intellectualism sounds like.

I’ve never known anyone on meth to write such a thoughtful analysis of the United States’ European settler-colonial origins.

There will never be a perfect person to lead a progressive movement, there are only those imperfect people who take up the mantle. If ever you’re dissatisfied with your choices you should consider taking up the mantle yourself.

Bruh

You did not warn me that he was also cosplaying a sexy leather-bound version of Aang from Avatar The Last Airbender and I was not prepared.

Loosen control over women by controlling what women are allowed to wear because the clothing she wants to wear comes from a culture that controls what women are allowed to wear. Great job liberating women from having to make their own choices, you’re such a hero.

All these Silicon Valley tech bros have been reinventing religion over and over again for years while believing themselves secular rationalists.

I think most who would leave have already left.

In case you’re genuinely curious and not trolling, I’ll explain. Parties in the US are not fixed around a particular ideology or set of stances, but have changed frequently throughout history and often take completely opposite positions from their past iterations. Many historians like to divide US political history into eras called party systems to indicate when parties are roughly cohesive and when they go through major changes, and during the civil war era we were in the Third Party System. During the third party system the Democratic party’s base was made up primarily of white southerners (though there were northern supporters as well) and after the civil war they fought against Reconstruction in order to uphold white supremacy (the only issue that united Democratic voters in the north and south at the time).

Though there isn’t consensus among historians yet, many consider us to be in the Seventh Party System now, so as you can imagine a lot has changed since then. I’ll let you do your own reading on that topic.

You (plural)

You’re lumping me in with a group I don’t identity with because you’re so dogmatic about your beliefs that you think anyone who contradicts them must be the enemy. I’ve said repeatedly that I don’t support the war and that I oppose imperialism and yet you keep arguing as if I am in support of it. You speak about Iranians as if they are hapless pawns unable to think for themselves, insisting that the only reason they would protest against their government is if foreign intelligence agencies directed them to, which is actually a very colonial and condescending mindset for you to have. For an anti-imperialist, you sure like to dismiss the agency of people who are themselves victims of imperialism.

You’re ridiculous. The people I support are the Iranian people themselves, who did in fact protest over women’s rights. Even if the goal of Mossad’s support for the protests was to destabilize Iran in preparation for the US invasion, that does not make the protesters “pro-NATO forces,” nor does it mean women’s rights are nothing but a pretense. While that’s certainly the case for Mossad, the protests were undeniably carried out by the Iranian people themselves to advance the cause of women’s liberation.

I never said I supported the invasion, you’re putting words in my mouth. I said women’s liberation is a good reason for people to rise up against their government, which is what an insurrection is. The US invasion of Iran is an act of imperialism intended to subjugate and exploit it, not an insurrection.

Two things can be true. Personally I think women’s rights are a great reason for insurrection.

Jeffries can shove his tax credits up his ass.

I’ve actually already seen this video, and it doesn’t change my stance. Iranian leadership has a choice in how they respond to foreign manipulation and they do not have to respond with repression of their own populace for fear of their adversaries taking advantage of social unrest when they could instead reduce social unrest by making concessions.

I agree with all of that except for the inevitability of repression in a society under siege. Yes, that is a historical trend, but it’s also a choice that leadership makes, and it’s the wrong one. If the Iranian government made concessions on women’s rights, queer rights, etc. while holding firm on national sovereignty it would reduce the level of negative polarization the Iranian people have towards their government giving Mossad less to work with to destabilize Iran.

But the protests for women’s liberation were real, and the Iranian regime shut off the internet during those protests in order to suppress them. Even if Mossad was involved in stirring up that unrest it does not justify the state crackdown, nor can it be denied that there is grassroots support for women’s liberation in Iran. If you want your country to be less susceptible to manipulation by foreign agents your best bet is to give the people what they want so that they aren’t negatively polarized against their government in the first place. Every injustice enforced is an exploitable weakness that your adversaries can seize upon.