Formerly known as Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani, Al-Sharaa is the co-founder of ISIS and founder of Jabhat Al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda.

Well that’s a lot of wrong in one sentence. Al-Sharaa was a member of ISIS back when it was Al-Qaeda in Iraq (this was during the insurgency when their mission statement was shooting US soldiers). He gets conveniently arrested just before it becomes ISIS and is only let go in 2011, after which he does found Jabhat Al-Nusra. Jabhat Al-Nusra was part of Al-Qaeda, but they stopped doing that in 2016. Frankly an outlet that’s willing to bend the truth this far is barely worth reading.

“Mainstream politicians” didn’t suddenly change and become less competent than before.

Maybe, but they’re less restrained due to the death of radical labor. There’s a reason social welfare in most of Europe develops to more or less its current state between 1945 and the 80s and just stops there.

This is especially true in East Germany, where living standards have risen dramatically since the fall of communism.

Actually increases in standard of living have proportionally basically the same in all of Germany since then, but also that doesn’t make the housing crisis or insane energy prices sting any less. Radical politics in general takes off due to a perception that the mainstream politics isn’t doing the job.

The other half belongs to their rich backers.

AfD winning is a grave moment for Europe, but nobody should be listening to mainstream politicians about anything since they’re half the cause of this mess.

There are many actual legal actions taken against AfD and AfD members already, including a period of time where AfD was not allowed to receive briefings regarding national security, something that is a right for all members of the Bundestag.

But nothing to actually solve ordinary people’s problems and show that there’s a way other than fascism. In the absence of that, defensive democracy is nothing more than theater.

people vote for because they are unhappy with the current situation. Caused by Covid, Ukraine War, Russian energy sanctions against EU before the Ukraine war that was very damaging to German industries, and now Eu sanctions against Russia that have similar effect. Followed by the damage on energy supplies like wood pellets from the Ukraine war, and on top of all that Trumps ridiculous tariffs and the effects of the Iran war. This is at the same time we have increased competition from China.

Yeah, it’s all those evil foreigners. It can’t be the awful mismanagement of the political establishment. Housing crisis? No way.

PS: The impact of Ukraine on energy prices is a direct consequence of EU countries slow-walking decarbonization.

The person breaking the lock and leaving deserves about as much blame as the burglar.

Intellectual property is stupid exhibit bajillion:

Why does the West not decouple from China right now?

Even if EU countries were willing to back Ukraine to the hilt (which they aren’t), there are many ways do to so that are more effective than picking fights with China.

Internet atheists never cease to impress me.

Nitpick: You (or the original creator) mean Muslim poets. “Islamic” describes ideas and the like, not people.

Yes it’s all a conspiracy, not people who don’t like Zionism.

Given that primaries are ongoing, this is exactly the time.

Think of all the stuff we’d have if we would spend money on having cooler stuff for us.

Realistically it’d just go to the military-industrial complex. As with most things in the first world, the amount of cool stuff you have is a matter of political will, not available funds.

As well as my government (Russia) have no reason to hide or skew the number of casualties our bloody “leader” caused. Right?

Except it does have a reason to skew the number of casualties.

I don’t believe in the honesty of the tyrannical regimes.

Without a concrete reason to doubt them in this case, or evidence that they’re lying, what you believe in is frankly irrelevant. If they’re reliable enough for the UN, they’re reliable enough for me; what’s your evidence that they’re lying?

Why aside?

Because this is something that changed after the Shah. The other things didn’t, that’s my point.

Instead, its global database relies on states self-reporting their national figures.

And do we have reason to doubt Iran’s figures? They have no reason to fake them, and in any case the decline from 2014 isn’t something you’d find in doctored data. Besides, again this isn’t Afghanistan; the Iranian regime has no problem with women’s education.

Implying that hating America is radical and not just a perfectly normal response to its behavior in the region in general and Iran in particular.

If outlets were to be believed, major cities like Tehran featured a cosmopolitan atmosphere with active café culture, Western fashion, and mixed-gender socialization.

And how much if at all did that change in the meantime? With a source please.

Women gained the right to vote in 1963, pursued higher education in large numbers, and worked in professional fields like law, medicine, and government without any mandatory dress codes.

Still do on all counts, dress code aside, though I have to question how important the right to vote is under either brutal dictatorship. For instance here’s how the women’s tertiary education graph looks like, noting that the Shah was overthrown in 1979. This is Iran, not Afghanistan. Also in general “modernity” under the Shah only penetrated into the upper class of society; ironically the vast majority of women saw more improvement in hallmarks of women’s rights (education and such) under the Ayatollahs.

Yeah that’s true, but “Islamic takeover” is quite a bit broader than that. If I was reading too much into it then my bad, but there’s this idea on the internet that Iran was wholesome and secular before the Ayatollah showed up with their evil Islam (not to defend the Iranian regime obviously).

That ignores… literally everything about how the EU actually functions. The EU has a few good decisions under its belt, but for the most part the it’s absolutely controlled by lobbyists, and the decisions “kneaded by many hands” tend to be produce weakness when decisive action is needed (see: Ukraine).

It was, but now it’s even more so. Even the Iranian ruling class has internal divisions, and America’s naked aggression has empowered the more aggressive faction (I wonder why). Also you say “Islamic takeover” but, like, what religion do you think most Iranians followed before 1979?