There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

JD Vance opposes military aid, NATO membership for Ukraine. He's now Trump's VP pick

Vance is one of Trump’s most vocal supporters and an outspoken critic of U.S. aid to Ukraine.

. . .

Vance has said that it would be “completely irresponsible” for Ukraine to join NATO. He has also argued for the U.S. to focus solely on preventing Chinese expansion, even if that means sacrificing sovereign Ukrainian lands to Russia.

“Any peace settlement is going to require some significant territorial concessions from Ukraine, and you’re gonna have a peace deal, because that’s the only way out of the conflict,” Vance said in February.

MBFC
Archive

DoucheBagMcSwag ,

HERE COME THE FUCKING TANKIES

anticolonialist ,

Without tankies this place wouldnt exist, so yea we are gonna be here

el_bhm ,

Without fascism you would not exist either.

todd_bonzalez ,
@todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee avatar

It must be hard for the Tankies that developed Lemmy that most users dislike their communities.

It’s a shame that a regressive and thoughtless fringe ideology is attached to the project.

But make no mistake, Tankies didn’t invent federated social media or ActivityPub, they wrote a single piece of software. If it wasn’t Lemmy, it would be Kbin or some other project.

If the Tankies keep it up, they might find their software doesn’t get much funding or community attention, so there’s no reason to convince yourself that this place will continue to exist as a Lemmy-centric network.

rekorse ,

Lol this passive aggressive nonsense is the most american thing in this thread. If you people dont stop having your own opinion, us white folk might just stop funding your little projects! How big and important you are, we definitely wouldnt want to offend you.

Excrubulent ,
@Excrubulent@slrpnk.net avatar

I’m not going to be passive aggressive about it, there’s a simple reality at play here.

Lemmy is FOSS, so the moment that these tankies try to give themselves some backdoor or whatever to gain undue influence over the system, it will be discovered, forked and everyone will switch and they will be left out in the cold with nothing.

Maybe that’ll happen, maybe it won’t. Maybe they’ll get sick of only running pariah instances and take their ball and go home, except we can make a copy of their ball and keep going.

That’s why I’m happy to use the system, it’s an open ecosystem and no individual developer has the power to torpedo it, even if they are the founders. Their authoritarian tendencies can’t do that much damage in the long run.

rekorse ,

I was more talking about how you made it sound like the founders of lemmy are upset with the user base of it as a whole, and then said they are fake founders anyways because the real work was done before them by others, and then said if they keep it up (never said what they were doing to begin with) SOME PEOPLE wink**wink will stop supporting them financially.

Its just dripping with self importance and arrogance. Its an extremely american thing to assume that your viewpoint is the only valid and logical one.

Excrubulent ,
@Excrubulent@slrpnk.net avatar

You have me confused with someone else.

How very like a tankie to be unable to follow the basic and obvious facts of a situation. That’s necessary to become a tankie.

rekorse ,

Yeah I assumed the person defending the OP was the OP, my bad. What’s your excuse for being an asshat? Internet tough guy? You sound so big and in charge when you talk like that you know. Do you talk to strangers like that in person too? Can you share your other qualities so I can copy them? You are obviously an amazing person so please help me.

Excrubulent ,
@Excrubulent@slrpnk.net avatar

I’m not seeing anywhere you’re explaining that I’m wrong about anything here, so there’s nothing to respond to.

Unless… oh no. I’m being insulted. Better defend myself in the eyes of this internet rando.

rekorse ,

Call it even I suppose.

Objection ,

Tankies hate JD Vance too. The only reason he wants peace in Ukraine is to start shit with China. We tankies don’t want to make peace in one place just to fight somewhere else, we want peace and deescalation all over the globe.

JustZ ,
@JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

Okay that’s cool, what about Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea, out there starting shit with everyone?

Prior_Industry ,

If you just give them what they want, they go away. Simples 🤦

militaryintelligence ,

Appeasement. 60% of the time it works every time.

Prandom_returns ,

…which is basically enabling imperialism.

Objection ,

It’s wild how eager people are to look at the exact same people who lied us into Iraq and Afghanistan and say, “Yeah, I trust them to have the people’s best interests at heart when they lead us into another conflict.”

https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/07985775-e7d5-4f61-8fc6-1ec5f5680caf.jpeg

Prandom_returns ,

Not everybody on Lemmy is American and bound to American news. Some of us live near russia and know first-hand about what it is and what it isn’t.

I know, you americans are really good at “doing your own research”.

Objection ,

Not everyone who went into Iraq or Afghanistan was an American either, the leaders of plenty of other countries supported it too.

Also we’re talking about American politician JD Vance and what he wants to do regarding US foreign policy, so the history of US foreign policy is obviously relevant.

Prandom_returns ,

I’m not talking about JD Vance. I’m talking about very convenient to tankies and ruskies “we want peace and deescalation” when Ukraine is devoured by an imperialist, authoritarian shithead.

But again, you’re a self-proclaimed tankie, of course your gobbling authoritarian dick.

Objection ,

Can’t think of a time in history where both sides in a war didn’t claim it was about defense and security, whether it was or not. I remember when they said “Either we fight them over there or we’ll have to fight them here,” and went off to kill a million people in the Middle East, and then they lost, and now, where are all the terror attacks they said would happen? I remember too (though I’m not old enough to have lived through it) when they said if we didn’t go out and kill 4 million people in Vietnam, they’d keep expanding all over and eventually we’d be fighting them here. Well, we lost that one too, and nothing bad happened afterward. So forgive me if I’m just a little bit skeptical of the latest pretext for pouring ridiculous sums of money into the pockets of defense contractors so the rich can get richer while our schools, roads, and hospitals decline further and further into dysfunction.

I am a tankie, yes, because tankies seem to be the only people interested in spending less money on tanks and more on human wellbeing.

Prandom_returns ,

I always thought that “we want peace” and “stop the war” people were always the biggest morons alive. At least the people who support russian terrorism own up to it. They are intentionally evil.

After watching so many events unfold, Ukraine getting annexed, women and children raped, children separated from their parents and deported, Bucha massacred, schools and hospitals bombed, for no reason other than imperialsm, you dare to ‘both sides bad’ this.

From the bottom of my heart, fuck you.

So, now when Ukraine is annexed, etc., you’re advocating for “stopping war”. Which, unexpectedly, completely aligns with the wishes of terrorists. Oh, how convenient!

Objection , (edited )

I’m not the one who wants all that to continue. How many more lives must be senselessly thrown into a meat grinder just to move a line on a map?

If you care so much about it, why don’t you go volunteer yourself? Ah, but you don’t want that, what you want is for people to drive around, grabbing people off the street, and forcing them to fight your battles against their will. Because you don’t actually care one bit about the people’s wellbeing, you want to use them in pawns of the Great Game, which you seem to mistakenly believe benefits anyone outside of the 1%.

Anyway you’re not going to have any luck with that terrorist line. That’s literally the exact thing that they said about Iraq and Afghanistan, “You’re either with us or with the terrorists,” I’ve heard that shit my whole life. I wasn’t with them then and history has validated that completely. We’ll see how many people have to die this time before the liberals finally realize that war is bad, yes, even this time.

Prandom_returns , (edited )

You’re literally blaming the victim for war it did not started.

Somehow, in your head, defending what’s rightfully yours is senseless killing.

What you don’t, “surpsiringly”, seem to want is for russian terrorists to pack their shit and go to back to their shithole. Nah, “that’s impossible”.

In your dumb head surrendering to the imperialist bottomfeeder authoritarian is the only way towards peace. Which will last as long as the moron decides he wants more land and more suffering.

Again, the “peace” people are like the most brainless, who can’t seem to think one little step ahead. But of course, this “peace” is very convenient to the usurper which has not occupied the lands, and don’t really want to struggle to keep them.

Tankies continue to live up to their absolutely boneheaded image.

The war can end any second, if russia stops attacking and terrorising Ukraine and leaves it’s rightful lands according to international law. Go be a keyboard activist about that.

Objection , (edited )

I could not give less of a shit about Ukraine’s “rightful lands.” No, it’s not worth ordinary people dying to preserve the land of a reactionary state.

It’s so ridiculously easy to fool you into supporting wars. Literally the exact same playbook every single time and you’ll fall for it every single time. “We have to stop them here or they’ll keep coming,” heard it all before. Where are all the 9/11s, now that we lost in Afghanistan? It was bullshit then and it’s bullshit now. Some of us are able to learn from history. It’s unfortunate that others refuse to learn and keep repeating the same mistakes over and over.

It’s very funny that you call me a keyboard warrior, I still haven’t heard your excuse for why you believe in drafting others against their will to fight for a cause you believe in, while you cower at home. Almost as if you don’t actually care about the well-being of Ukrainians at all 🤔

Prandom_returns ,

Lol, there it is. Not a single word to condemn russia and its wankers. Get the fuck out of my sight.

Objection ,

The executives of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin thank you for spit-shining their boots.

Prandom_returns ,

Lmao shut it, putin’s butt-plug

andxz ,

I’ve been on the outside observing this escalating shit show for 8 years now and I think I’ve finally reached the point where I don’t even have the words to convey what I feel about the current state of American politics.

I mean, I know there’s a lot of history behind it etc., but just the past months? I don’t even…

I hope shit gets better for ya’ll, I sincerely do.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

don’t even have the words to convey what I feel about the current state of American politics.

It’s just fascism, volks.

ChillPenguin ,

Don’t worry. It won’t. As an American, I too have reached that point as well.

andxz ,

Still rooting for all the millions of you that I know are awesome people, but …yeah.

Pretzilla ,

Putin is behind all of it

andxz ,

I’m Finnish, so if there’s one thing I’m aware of it is Putin and his various machinations.

Randomgal ,

He’s not. He didn’t put a gun to the head of the judges que made the president immune to prosecution. He didn’t punt a gun to the politicians denying climate change. He didn’t call on Trump’s followers to storm the US capitol. All of that was the US and it’s people.

Putin was probably just cheerleading his puppets as it all happened. But make no mistake, seeds only grow in fertile soil.

assassin_aragorn ,

Don’t worry about it, a lot of us in the US feel the same. I’m just tired, boss.

JustZ ,
@JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

Another Russian stoogie.

Akuden ,

Not everyone who disagrees with war or your position on it is deep throating Putin.

lennivelkant ,

But someone that blatantly argues for Russia’s benefit probably has some ulterior motives. Doesn’t have to be deep throating Putin, money will probably do.

Krauerking ,

I mean it sounds like he wants chea p Russian labor and goods to compete with Chinese versions of the same.

He’s a Republican. He just wants to personally get rich and doesn’t consider or care what happens to other people on the way to it. Sacrificing half a country that isn’t his so that an oligarchy can turn around and sell back the oil, gas and coal of the land and potentially farm goods at a cheaper slave labor produced price sounds like shrewd business practice to him probably and figures it would get him on the good side of Putin a man with powerful connections.

He misses the mark that China and Russia are working together and you can’t really separate that to get one to hurt more than the other. But that’s getting to much in the weeds of his plans.

I know it’s hard but people generally aren’t some evil spy or some terrible monster aiming to cause destruction. A lot are just people. Self centered and uncaring of the pain they cause and sure they didn’t do anything wrong cause it was supposed to work out for them. People don’t need to get paid first to be awful.

Akuden ,

I’m not Republican.

Krauerking ,

Everyone uses third person pronouns to refer to Vance and the suddenly you can’t figure it out when faced with a counter argument?

Really? Are you for real?

militaryintelligence ,

They have Putin’s cock firmly up their ass but they tell themselves it’s just a turd.

Prandom_returns ,

Some of them just hate Ukranians for no reason?

Akuden ,

Not wanting to fund a war doesn’t mean they hate Ukraine or it’s citizens.

Prandom_returns ,

Okay, let me walk you through this.

You see a kid down on the floor being kicked by a bully.

Your ‘solution’ is to not intervene, because you’re ‘against violence’ ?

Fucking logic.

Akuden ,

Right!

Except the kid is across the world, and we don’t know them very well. Last we heard, they were one of the worst children in the world. Instead of asking the neighbors to pool money to build a boat to go save this kid, you go to all your neighbors and steal that money.

Fuckin’ a logic.

Prandom_returns ,

Oh, so you do hate the kid.

That clears it up, thanks.

Akuden ,

You’re welcome, glad you could put more words in my mouth.

Prandom_returns ,

I’m surprised there’s any space left in that mouth of yours.

SSJMarx ,

say something obviously true

85% downvotes

oh yeah, it’s .world time

echo ,

Yes, that’s kind of a pre-requisite to being on Putin’s payroll…

sudo ,

He’s clearly on Peter Theil’s payroll. Theil personally bankrolled Vance’s senate campaign and was the only one Theil funded that was successful.

If you keep making up conspiracy theories that every Republican takes orders from Putin, you’re going to miss their actual agenda. Shit like Project2025 isn’t Putin’s agenda. Thats a Koch project. Theil’s got his own techno libertarian eugenicist project that Vance is an acolyte of.

Blackmist ,

What’s the lead time on T-shirt printing these days?

Should I get the “Hang JD Vance” shirts printed now so I’ve got them ready to sell, or wait until Trump inevitably turns on him?

elucubra ,

3 to 10 days. Quantity? Colors? Cotton weight ?

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

Vance is going to push Trump down a flight of stairs his first five minutes in office. He’s going to invoke the 25th amendment so fast it’ll make your head spin.

The guy has absolutely no interest in being VP and his buddies in Silicon Valley are already chomping at the bit for a Techbro Coup. He’s not going to wait 3 hours much less 3 days.

vaultdweller013 ,

The concept of a Techbro coup is so fucking absurd to me. Like I can recognize it as a threat, but also I suspect it would last a whole of five seconds until you have a pile of Techbro corpses. Mostly cause Techbros are the dumbest motherfuckers and only have soft power, add on to the fact that nobody fucking likes them and well theres a good chance theyd be mulched.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

Like I can recognize it as a threat, but also I suspect it would last a whole of five seconds until you have a pile of Techbro corpses.

Plenty of the coups in Latin America and the Middle East during the 50s and 60s were sponsored by these bean-counters and their billionaire buddies working out of various right-wing think tanks. The Chicago School of Business produced legions of these fuckers and flew them out from Mexico City to Santiago to Brasília. The Saudi Crown Prince MBS has absolutely inundated himself with these freaks in his quest to build the world’s most technologically advanced shopping mall. New Zealand is currently drowning in Techbro fascism, after their local media was hijacked by the far right and the residents talked into electing a white nationalist government.

Hell, states like California and Texas and Florida are already thick with these ghouls. That’s a big reason why our energy prices are skyrocketing in these states. Techbros build these enormous power-hog data centers and jack up the price of electricity for everyone else.

Techbros are the dumbest motherfuckers and only have soft power

They have a great deal of institutional power through contracts with federal and state governments. They’re embedded deep in the post-War on Terror panopticon and own huge stakes in private media, so they get to dictate a lot of what we see and hear while distorting public outcries and SWATing political dissidents.

Techbros aren’t the brightest, but cops are way dumber and more easy to manipulate. And as our domestic budget increasingly becomes “Oops! All Cops!” that means obedience to the Techbro Establishment is how you make money and keep your job, especially as law enforcement.

That’s huge leverage in a system that already favors extremist ultra-nationalist white supremacy.

vaultdweller013 ,

Dont take my amusement as dismissal, its foolish to underestimate ones enemy. Everything you said is decently true, hell I should know my great grandfather helped run the proto Techbros out of the region back in the 70s. No the weakness of the fascistic Techbro is that they are inherently institutional, anything that works outside of it or doesnt follow procedures is inherently at an advantage against them. Do you really think Musk or Thiel consider that someone may just blow them up with a car bomb or shoot them point blank with a 12 gauge?

Their power is drawn from the institutions making them inherently a secondary power behind the actual fascist leadership. They have influence dont get me wrong, but it is unlikely that they could hold a fascist government together. The fascist respects strength, but the Techbros have none. They hide behind laws, money, and influence.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

They have influence dont get me wrong, but it is unlikely that they could hold a fascist government together.

That’s just fascism generally speaking. You either liberalize or you fail. A paranoid personality cult of an administration can’t last long without people Operation Valkyrie-ing each other, as evidence by Trump’s ear going missing last weekend.

But in the meantime, you get to restructure the liberal order so that your people are in charge when the dust settles.

vaultdweller013 ,

The point I am trying to make is that to even get to the point where they can set shit up for the future they first must get past the first hurdle of consolidation. Very few Techbros can develop the personality cult required, even the ones with a personality cult are still not strong enough in personality to grow it, look at musk for an example. They are dangerous but mostly as the backers of a fascist, by themselves theyre less dangerous than a sleep deprived redneck with a shovel.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

Very few Techbros can develop the personality cult required, even the ones with a personality cult are still not strong enough in personality to grow it, look at musk for an example.

That’s why they introduce guys like Vance, though. He’s a great front-man for the operation because liberals continue to treat him as just another moderate midwestern politician. And he’s proven his star power, with his movie and book deal.

They are dangerous but mostly as the backers of a fascist, by themselves theyre less dangerous than a sleep deprived redneck with a shovel.

I guess we’ll see…

vaultdweller013 ,

Yeah I feel like we agree and its just down to specifics and minutia at this point. Good discussion though dude.

sudo ,

I think you’re taking “coup” here too literally. Its implied that it’ll be a political coup, not an actual violent one.

PsychedSy ,

Picture of him.

DON’T MISS

TheReturnOfPEB ,

I didn’t know that India was big into Hitler. But now his wife’s actions make more sense.

haaretz.com/…/0000017f-f880-d460-afff-fbe61fe2000…

sudo ,

This is a very BJP / Mohdi / Hindutva thing. Not India as a whole but it is popular enough. These Hindutva people also unironically praise Israel and Zionism. They see Israel as they ethno-state model they want to be, plus they both hate Muslims. (The Israeli response to this “fuck off, you’re more brown than arabs”)

Knightfox ,

Hey but both sides suck and it’s not worth voting this year.

StaySquared ,

Good. No more war. No more foreign aid. We need to focus on Americans and America.

Jamil ,

He still wants to send all the aid Israel will not ever want to commit genocide.

StaySquared ,

Unfortunately the U.S. belongs to Israel.

And fkin lol @ people downvoting:

No more war.

No more foreign aid.

We need to focus on Americans and America.

Holy moly, some of yall are insufferable.

DarkNightoftheSoul ,
@DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz avatar

we heard you the first time. get down voted twice ig

Prandom_returns ,

If you think US can sustain itself without foreign products, you’re high on your own farts. Open a window to the basement, get some fresh air.

StaySquared ,

I never said anything about trade… wtf lol

Prandom_returns ,

Holy shit, can you not think just one little step ahead?

StaySquared ,

You jumped to the conclusion that I’m asking for some kind of self imposed trade embargo. You’re pretending to, “think one little step ahead”… you fkin with a game of checkers, I’m on 4D Chess. GTFO. lmao

Prandom_returns ,

Yeah. I can see you’re not the sharpest hoe in the shed.

Playing 4D chess… As the pigeon.

AngryCommieKender ,

Last time we did that we had 2 world wars back to back

StaySquared ,

Can you expand on that? Seems conflicting.

A policy of no war, no foreign aid and especially focusing on America and everything in it… how did that lead to world wars?

rowanthorpe ,
@rowanthorpe@lemmy.ml avatar

I’ll answer the “why would it now lead to disaster” part, and by shuffling names, places, & contexts around I believe much of that can be obliquely backported to the same question with respect to runup to the world wars of yore.

USA’s multi-decade cultural imperialism and dogged pursuit of economic hegemony led to it imposing itself as a global barometer and gatekeeper (despite being famously incompetent at both). The upshot is that now, even though philosophically it would be wonderful for the US to finally stop enforcing a petrodollar-driven serfdom on so much of the world in the name of “infinite (US economic) expansion”, pragmatically speaking a magical and abrupt “pull out” would be wildly irresponsible, much like yanking an arrow out of a wound in the direction from which it entered (causing a Jackson Pollock’s worth of collateral damage). That would largely be because the sudden power vacuum would not be able to be filled in time by other countries (who are under-resourced due to aforementioned hegemonic squeezing), leaving not enough people to “not tolerate the intolerant”, leading to explosive expansion of the “ignorant bullies masquerading as politicians” brigade (not unlike Hitler’s opportunistic power-grab while the politicians who should have been the ballwark against him hubristically sat on their hands). See: ournationalconversation.org/…/explaining-the-para…

StaySquared ,

Well, the U.S. doesn’t have to worry about enforcing the petro-dollar, because the Global South is pulling away from the petro-dollar. The U.S. is going to have to start looking into opening up those oil reserves that Biden closed and bringing jobs back to America that were exported to other nations. Self sufficiency, at least more so than current, needs to be the goal. The world, outside of the Western World, is turning its back on the U.S. and rightfully so… sooner or later so too will the Western Powers turn their backs on the U.S.

I agree though that an abrupt pullout like Biden did in Afghanistan is a stupid fkin idea and should be done gracefully.

AngryCommieKender ,

Manufacturing jobs, and most other low wage jobs, never left the US. That is a lie fed to you by your wage slave masters. The US currently manufactures 300% more products than we did in 1972 which was the last year of the golden age of the 20th century US. The wage slave masters automated those jobs, so we do triple the production with 1/100 the workforce.

We are already self sufficient. Isolationism will not help any of your stated goals, and will cause global instability.

StaySquared ,

So I work in the IT industry… almost everything IT related, some portion of it has been exported overseas. Same goes for the customer service industry.

AngryCommieKender ,

Sounds like you need unions. One of the many reasons I left IT was the complete lack of unions.

Objection ,

Vance doesn’t want that, he just wants out of this particular conflict so he can start shit somewhere else.

StaySquared ,

God forbid.

Objection ,

Yes, it would be bad to start another war somewhere else.

abbotsbury ,
@abbotsbury@lemmy.world avatar

It’s not mutually exclusive, which of his policies are actually focusing on Americans?

Prandom_returns ,

Lmao, living in a glass house during a hail.

“Let’s focus on not getting hit”

pineapplelover ,

Wait why isn’t Mike pence vp? Am I OOTL?

Emerald ,

Umm, very. Look up “hang Mike Pence”

politico.com/…/trump-expressed-support-hanging-pe…

pineapplelover ,

The article says he supported Biden winning. Oh noooooo a fair and equal election, no wayyy

ours ,

Oh no, the guy said no to Trump refusing to break the law during the January 6th “oopsie treason failed uprising” so he burned that bridge.

Can’t have people blatantly respecting democracy and the rule of law, that’s not how the possible future felon-in-chief rolls. (But yet somehow it’s the democrats inciting violence against him, hum.)

Lucidlethargy ,

This is Trump’s exact stance as well. He’s been VERY clear about this, but idiots in the conservative camp seem to deliberately ignore it.

MehBlah ,

I thought the maggots wanted to leave NATO.

FiniteBanjo ,

They do, but they also don’t want other people in it, either.

gardylou ,

Putins favorite, JD Vance.

hamid , (edited )

deleted_by_author

    •
    vxx ,

    And you should just give up your home to everyone that wants it.

    hamid , (edited )

    deleted_by_author

    •
    vxx ,

    Can you tell me the country? I want to educate myself.

    hamid , (edited )

    deleted_by_author

    •
    vxx , (edited )

    Wasn’t USA siding with Phalavi against Khomeini?

    I think you might have to point into another direction in that case.

    Objection , (edited )

    Yes, the US backed Pavlavi, they’re the ones that gave him power over the more democratic system they had before. He hunted people (primarily leftists) down with secret police and ran the country terribly, as the resource colony it was, to the point that the conditions were created for a revolution, and since most of the leftists had been killed, the fundamentalists were able to take advantage of the situation.

    vxx ,

    I don’t think I should even reply to this pile of disinformation.

    Objection , (edited )

    It’s literally recorded history. Read any history book about Iran (I recommend All The Shah’s Men), or even Wikipedia. The historical record is not “disinformation” just because you’re ignorant of it.

    vxx , (edited )

    History, yes.

    …m.wikipedia.org/…/Anglo-Soviet_invasion_of_Iran

    en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi

    In 1963, Mohammad Reza introduced the White Revolution, a series of economic, social, and political reforms aimed at transforming Iran into a global power and modernizing the nation by nationalizing key industries and redistributing land. The regime also implemented Iranian nationalist policies establishing Cyrus the Great, the Cyrus Cylinder, and the Tomb of Cyrus the Great as popular symbols of Iran. The Shah initiated major investments in infrastructure, subsidies and land grants for peasant populations, profit sharing for industrial workers, construction of nuclear facilities, nationalization of Iran’s natural resources, and literacy programs which were considered some of the most effective in the world. Shah also instituted economic policy tariffs and preferential loans to Iranian businesses which sought to create an independent economy for the nation. Manufacturing of cars, appliances, and other goods in Iran increased substantially, leading to the creation of a new industrialist class insulated from threats of foreign competition. By the 1970s, Shah was seen as a master statesman and used his growing power to pass the 1973 Sale and Purchase Agreement. These reforms culminated in decades of sustained economic growth that would make Iran one of the fastest-growing economies among both the developed world and the developing world. During his 37-year-long rule, Iran spent billions of dollars’ worth on industry, education, health, and military spending and enjoyed economic growth rates exceeding the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. Likewise, the Iranian national income rose 423 times over, and the country saw an unprecedented rise in per capita income—which reached the highest level of any point in Iran’s history—and high levels of urbanization. By 1977, Mohammad Reza’s focus on defense spending, which he saw as a means to end foreign powers’ intervention in the country, had culminated in the Iranian military standing as the world’s fifth-strongest armed force.[5]

    Objection ,

    The first link is about a different incident. During WWII, the Allies were concerned about the possibility of Iranian oil falling into the hands of the Nazis, and they also wanted to set up a supply corridor to connect themselves, so when the Iranian king that Britain had installed refused to cooperate, they invaded, deposed him, and instituted his son in his place. However, the monarchy was still bound by parliament at the time, until the US overthrew the prime minister and granted the shah absolute power, accountable to no one.

    I didn’t expect to find an unironic monarchist on here. It’s true that he instituted some programs over the course of his 37 year reign, but they weren’t nearly enough, the country was still a dictatorship and people were very unhappy with living under his rule.

    TexMexBazooka ,

    I agree with a lot of what you said, but the US inventing Islamic fundamentalism is a comical take.

    Abrahamic extremists have been useful idiots of those in power for thousands of years. The US is just the latest to take advantage.

    The real problem there is religion is poison

    hamid , (edited )

    deleted_by_author

    •
    TexMexBazooka ,

    Theocratic hello hole say what?

    InternetUser2012 ,

    Can you imagine this clown being president when the rapist with 34 felonies is deemed unfit for office or has a McHeartattack?

    ShittyBeatlesFCPres ,

    This presupposes he believes in anything. I haven’t read it because everyone said it was garbage but I’m pretty sure he wrote his memoir about “Appalachia” when he grew up near Dayton, OH.

    HawlSera ,

    He also cosplayed a poor person to speak to rich people about how “We poor people have horrible habits!” in what I can only refer to as a minstrel show for the privileged.

    HawlSera ,

    He also cosplayed a poor person to speak to rich people about how “We poor people have horrible habits!” in what I can only refer to as a minstrel show for the privileged.

    JustZ ,
    @JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

    That’s a pretty good description.

    Spedwell ,

    I haven’t read it either. There is however a If Books Could Kill episode about it that is very worth listening to.

    vxx ,

    I find it weird that his teacher pushed him to write his memoires in college. Who writes his memoires this early and why would a teacher push him to?

    SwingingTheLamp ,

    I read it. It was not garbage, it contains useful insights. I recommend that people read it to understand politics. BUT, NOTE, CAVEAT: Approach it with your critical thinking cap on. The author is an unreliable narrator, which is unorthodox in a work of non-fiction.

    Excrubulent ,
    @Excrubulent@slrpnk.net avatar

    “Unreliable narrator […] in a work of non-fiction” is a fascinating way to say, “liar”.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • [email protected]
  • random
  • lifeLocal
  • goranko
  • All magazines
    •