Uh that’s clearly a metaphor, the intended meaning being that the current generation of global elites has no reason to fear the masses because the masses haven’t done enough to make fearing them necessary. “All the world’s ills stem from lack of corporal punishment” is outrageous enough that you should consider the possibility that you misunderstood.

Who said anything about 6 years olds? We’re talking about physically abusing 60-year old warmongering gerontocrats.

The only way to teach any generation in power is spanking; the only difference between this generation and previous ones is that previous ones still remembered the last round of spanking.

Sir this is a Wendy’s. Even if everything you said was true (it’s not), it has literally nothing to do with what I said. The vast majority of the DNC supports imperialism whether you like it or not.

Remember the Houthi blockade? It’s not that simple.

Then it would actually make some Republicans non maga, start to move away from maga

Maybe but that would do little to actually prevent the US from doing evil shit, because US imperialism is bipartisan.

The nationality of the ships isn’t important.

It is; Iranian, Indian and Chinese shipping, among others, is being allowed through the straits. Also you’re right, but as long as America gets to just bomb them at any moment their existence is at risk, so they’ll want some kind of guarantee this won’t happen again.

has much stronger democratic institutions and systems to push back.

I strongly doubt that (the US system of checks and balances isn’t weak; it’s just thoroughly compromised), but also even the strongest fort is useless without soldiers to defend it. These systems are meant to help the elites protect liberal democracy; defensive democracy is useless (or outright counterproductive, see Germany and Palestine solidarity) if the elites don’t want to use it. There are ways for the masses to protect democracy, but those don’t happen in courts and legislatures.

Brexit had a backlash

Sure, but it doesn’t seem to have discredited its far right backers.

AfD winning would show how shit they are to other countries.

Never expect rightwingers to meaningfully engage with reality. If real-life demonstrations were enough, Trump’s victory would’ve destroyed all far-right politics everywhere. That said I’m not arguing that all European countries will go fascist, only that enough will do so that Europe as a whole will lose most of its international influence. There’s no way Britain or France for example can compete with Russia or China on the international relations front (France in fact is failing right as we speak in West Africa); it takes the whole EU to keep Europe a world power player.

The same far right rot—propelled by the same declining living standards and affordability crises—that’s destroying America from the inside is also spreading rapidly in Europe, and the only group in a position to do anything about it is the same corporate centrists who failed to prevent it in America. The fundamental cause of America’s ongoing collapse—the ruling class’s inability/unwillingness to restrain the excesses of the system against the working class—is essentially identical to what’s going on in Europe. Europe might not feel like it’s collapsing, but America didn’t ten years ago either.

which has been tacitly mostly kept off the table for, what, centuries?

It’s only kept off the table between peer or near-peer states. Global North countries often do it in the Global South where they don’t have to fear strong retaliation.

Kinda the former. We are witnessing the slow collapse of the US global empire (along with its European wing), and like other instances of hegemonic empires collapsing it’s not going to be pretty (think collapse of the Roman Empire) but it’s ultimately a system collapsing rather than society collapsing.

And the petrodollar, don’t forget the petrodollar. Don’t forget why America is in the Middle East in the first place.

Assassinating world leaders has always been normal if you’re doing it for Western capital.

Anand stressed Canada’s lack of enthusiasm for the US-Israeli assault, but at the same time described Iran’s response as reprehensible and a breach of international law.

The US bombs Iran into the stone age and it’s Iran getting criticized for breaking international law. Fucking vassal state. Also can you tell us what those “off ramps” are going to look like? Because “Uncle Sam stops this round of illegal bombings but you stay a pariah state so you can be bombed again next year” isn’t going to cut it.

If you want to debate foreign policy

The fuck you want me to debate? There’s no room for debating the morality of US foreign policy (which is 99% evil), which should be clear to anyone not willfully ignorant. Therefore, there’s only one non-scum course of action to take, and that is to get the hell out. Their ongoing cooperation with the US war machine makes them scum.

But “othering” and dehumanizing an entire group of people isn’t a serious argument.

I never dehumanized US soldiers; I simply called them scum, for the same reason most people would agree WWII Wehrmacht soldiers were scum.

the people you’ve never met, yet seemingly hate so much.

Do I need to have met Hitler to hate him? What about Netanyahu? Maybe Putin is actually a good person under all the death and destruction?

It can’t happen here.

-Person to whom it will happen.

I mean this (truthfulness aside) allows them to claim some attacks and reject others while also discrediting Israel (and by extension America). There’s no contradiction here.

You think the US military was out there distributing flowers before Trump came along? They’re all scum.

had diplomatically tried to prevent.

Saudi Arabia: Yeah right…

Yes but that’s not really what I’m saying. My point is that Starmer has been very clear (in his slimy lizard way) that the UK would be helping America.