Skiluros

It was brutal, there was a thick cloud of smoke over the city around 6 am.

ML is a giant shithole that unfortunately hosts some normal communities (although I think the normal communities are slowly moving off ML).

Beyond double standards (which definitely exists, some perhaps on a subconscious level, some premeditated) there are also practical considerations with operating in Iran for foreign journalists (and their local handlers).

No, I don't think you are racist for that comment alone (even if this is not a mere translation misunderstanding).

That being said TechTakes (awful.system) has lots of interesting content, but sometimes poor moderation principles.

I've seen them delete people's comments on TechTakes for not fully agreeing with orthodoxy on a completely different instance. This was in context of a discussion side-thread about whether trans community in non-english-speaking countries would agree with every single initiative from the english-speaking trans community.

This is a trash-level source. Some of their news headlines:

NATO risks nuclear catastrophe with attack on Russian airports.

This wasn't a NATO operation, it was a Ukrainian one and russia has "warned" about nuclear war at least for 50 times (they have a deep understanding of useful idiot types in the west).

I’m not sure that just dropping multiple bombs in the same spot wouldn’t work.

I have no clue whether this approach would or would not work. I am assuming the question would be how many times you need to drop bombs on the same location to target the facilities.

I was just going the info in the article saying that haven't touched Fordow.

Sounds like the strike was significant, but not decisive. In particular, they can't target the plant in Fordow.

If anything Israeli action reduces the likelihood of any deal and increases the possibility of the aytollahs quickly rebuilding nuclear infrastructure (article implies they have the capability) and going full nuclear.

I can't speak for Lemmy, but I had a very different opinion on say things like prevalence of local corruption compared to the average American when I lived there (and this was under the second Bush and Obama, so not that recent).

I will admit, the US seems very far from "end is nigh" (I don't mean this in a positive sense, it can get infinitely worse, I know from practical experience), but that doesn't mean regressive tendencies aren't broad and have deep roots (completely unrelated to Trump's direct actions).

Again, treat this as a perspective of a foreigner who lived in the US for multiple years and visited regularly before COVID. Just an alternative perspective of sorts.

I thought I don't know any modern rock/metal hits because I stopped listening popular music around 2005 or so. I guess my assumption was wrong.

But I also think 90s and early 2000s were probably the peak for the American music industry in terms revenue as share of cultural spend and in broader significance.

That being said it was a different time, I think there are less "hits" in terms of broad listening these days in general.

I am not saying there wasn't any progress (perhaps even a lot), but from my impressions living in the US there were serious regressions in terms of democratic governance and rule of law (in the broad sense of the term, not US specific).

Just my view from my time living there.

Definitely, it's not a straight line.

But a country regressing on a more or less permanent basis in the medium to long term is not unheard of.

I am not American, but I have lived there.

The impression that I got is there has been a level of regression in rights in the US in the past few decades (going as far back as the 70s, i.e. before Trump).

Enablement of mandatory arbitration clauses de facto removes your ability to fair civil trials and force you to use a USSR-style kangaroo court. Legally allowing unlimited campaign donations by oligarchs undermines universal suffrage.