Dr. Gonzo

I’m not even sure it’s really a western value. It’s just the idea of forced secularism tbh & in places like France, it’s also rooted in just not liking Muslim people. I think religion has no place in modern society - but obviously people are still religious and that’s got to change naturally with time & educating people more rather than by just trying to force it. Free societies value freedom and choice. I think the hijab is fucking stupid and oppressive but banning it takes freedom and choice away from religious people.

This government is the furthest thing from secular, so theoretically it shouldn’t have any of the same people in charge. Who knows what will happen. These protests have been happening every so often for as long as I’ve been alive basically. This is the longest they’ve gone on for though, by far.

The goal of the protests at first was for equal rights but now it seems to have shifted to wanting a secular government.

Nah the Shah wasn’t really even close to a socialist - he even banned a few big socialist/left wing parties in his time. And his relationship with the left always needs to be put back in the frame of reference of how his dynasty was restored to power in the first place. From a MI5 & CIA led coup that took out National Front’s democratically elected government - which was going to nationalise their oil industry so they could sell oil at the same price as their neighbors. So a lot of the country never really saw his rule as legitimate in the first place. There’s a lot of reasons why the Shah’s time fell apart. He did not have a particular free society - it had similarities to today’s Iran, but it wasn’t even close to as extreme. But there was lack of political freedom, heavy censorship, a secret police (SAVAK) that beat and tortured. He tried banning hijabs (which imo is just as bad as mandatory hijabs, I think religion is stupid but people should have a choice in a free society) & reducing the political influence of the clerics. That pissed off the religious right. Being a U.S. puppet and going hard after left wing parties and groups made him really unpopular with the left. The 70s were a time of really bad economic times and a lot of people that weren’t incredibly wealthy saw their lives get much harder. The Pahlavi wasn’t a particularly good or competent leader… and was pretty corrupt and didn’t really care too much about the optics of opulence while many of the country struggled. So regardless of political ideology, a lot of people just didn’t like him because they felt their lives get worse and things got harder. He ended up losing the support of most people other than the ultra wealthy & military officers (though he lost a lot of support in the enlisted). As a US puppet he made the mistake of cozying up to one party while ignoring the other for a number of years. So when Carter took power and Iran was a big part of the OPEC pricing that created petrol shortages in the US… he didn’t have the same loyalty to Pahlavi as Nixon did. They shared the same Sec of State I believe, Kissinger, who had a good relationship with the Shah. Carter opposed Kissinger’s suggestion that Pahlavi use the military on protestors - the Shah didn’t do that. Imo it was his incompetence and corruption that was his downfall. It’s one thing to be an unpopular puppet government, but if you alienate potential leaders of the puppet master… you only have yourself to blame when it comes crashing down. There’s also this to further complicate things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter's_engagement_with_Ruhollah_Khomeini?wprov=sfti1 The first government after the Shah’s reign ended was different to what Iran has now… but the Iran-Iraq war and some pretty brutal purges that took out the left leaning opposition and the last remaining leaders of National Front & large chunks of the military. And led to the creation of the IRGC. But that’s why the diaspora is mostly made up of people who are super pro-monarchy or very left leaning, aside from the educated people post revolution that are just getting the fuck out because they’ve got highly sought after skills so they can. I don’t understand the people in the west who’s family left that are wanting the Pahlavi’s to be back in power. I don’t see what the point is, surely a democracy is more ideal than a monarch.

I do but I had to wait most of my life to see it happen so I wouldn’t be surprised if we never win it again while I’m alive. So might as well go for 3 of the best midfielder I’ve ever seen and hope for the best.

I'd fire up the cloaning machine and get 3 prime Steven Gerrards.

Enough to sign at least 2 good midfielders, but maybe 3.

Whens this world cup starting? I think the break would do us some good. I also hope FSG are ready to spend money on reinforcements now... but I really doubt they are

They’re not

Id rather not get into Europe at all than be in the Europa League or the shit version of the Europa League. Either way I think not getting top 4 is a disaster

Honestly can’t wait for this fucking season to be over

There's so much to unpack in it. 1.) Calling for removal of "rinos" - even though he's in support of republicans that are really nothing like a traditional republicans... and are really just republican in name only (which is where the term "rino" fucking comes from) - he might be more right-wing than republicans traditionally were... but that doesn't make traditional republicans rinos; if anything it's absolutely the other way around. But honestly that's just a flaw in America's political system that doesn't really function properly if you've got more than 2 parties tbh. Same thing with the democrats in America. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Joe Biden wouldn't be in the same political party in most countries - but they are in America because the system doesn't really work properly with more than 2 parties. 2.) Being racist is "screaming" about other people being racist. Not... you know... saying or doing racist things. Honestly, this just comes off as being annoyed that people get called out for being openly racist in 2022. 3.) That Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who a lot of right-wing people are absolutely obsessed with for some reason (I think they want to fuck her but know she'd say no, tbh), is getting "dropkicked" in her district... is not what any of the polling indications seem to be predicting: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-election-forecast/house/new-york/14/ - also her opponent has NO ENDORSEMENTS, which in the US is the sign of a nothing candidate 4.) "83% of America disagrees with the democrat position on abortion" - first, the democratic position - as far as I can tell - has been to go back to the way federal abortion laws were before the Supreme Court changed things. Secondly... it's just not even close to an accurate statistic: https://apnorc.org/projects/public-holds-nuanced-views-about-access-to-legal-abortion/ - most Americans are in favour of abortion 5.) the "transgender fantasy" - as though gender issues are the driving political force of one side of US politics. Here's the democratic party platform: https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/ - surprise, surprise... not ONE SINGLE FUCKING MENTION of transgender stuff (other than wanting to make sure they're treated like humans, which is fair... because they're humans. And to prevent suicides amongst them) - it's a minor social issue, not a driving part of any party's platform. As someone living here yes, I think the US has a lot of problems... but it's bizarre and hilarious to see someone out of the country think they've got a good read on the political pulse of the US while being so far off from being accurate. And why the fuck is he so invested in the culture wars the US right-wing is so intent on using as distraction issues to get people to not think about the economic and political issues (that voters, regardless of political party, tend to find lots of unity in)? It's basically a case study on why people shouldn't get their news from anything affiliated with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, or at least look at various other sources before trusting what any News Corp media outlet has to tell you.

I like how out of touch with reality the post genuinely is

Try opening it in incognito mode whenever you get run into a paywall and it MIGHT get you around it. Theres also websites out there that you can copy paste the link in to get passed a paywall. But websites have been getting better at stopping those from working.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/26/us/texas-guns-permitless.html absolute pack of morons Texas: let’s make gun ownership even less regulated! Then gun crime inevitably skyrockets & they’re all upset about the uptick in gun violence. Texas: Why would Biden do this?! Also the shit they’re pulling guns out over is absolutely ridiculous. They’re acting like it’s Red Dead Redemption…

Big day in Iran to mark the 40th day since Mahsa Amini was murdered by the government's "morality" police for improperly wearing her hijab: Thousands march to where she is buried despite several road closures to the site. Eventually basijis open fire on the mourners. Strikes and demonstrations in the Tehran bazaar - first time that's happened with these protests Shah Cheragh, a mosque/tourist attraction in Shiraz, was the site of a deadly shooting where at least 20 died and over 20 are critically injured. The government is claiming it was Wahhabi terrorists, protestors are claiming it was 3 basiji gunmen. The government is using this as an excuse to encourage people to stop having mass gatherings - which seems a little suspicious (along with the whole timing of everything) University protests, which have been large already are absolutely massive right now. The government increased the number of security forces at most uni campuses ahead of the 40th day since Ms. Amini was murdered - but the protests at unis have been overwhelmingly large. Some of the shit I've heard and seen from my family has been absolutely outrageous. Shocking scenes. I hope the IRI is overthrown and that hell is real so Khamenei can join the Shah and Khomeini there.

Never should have had that first and last wash lol wtf he smoked animal shit and ate roadkill and lived to be 94?!

Fallout 3's story is great. Without giving too many spoilers, it starts off like the film Taken... but inverse. Your dad is Liam Neeson, you're meant to go find him.

Fallout = good Except Fallout 76 = shite

Absolutely, there are some absolute classics in the series. It basically takes place in an alternate history America that's somehow further into the future than we are... but the 50s culture never really went away & microcomputing never took off. The US and China have a war that lasts a few minutes as the world is nuked to hell... and each game starts off with you several hundred years away from that war in the post-nuclear armageddon world that emerged from the aftermath. Fallout 1 and 2 are very different to the newer Fallouts. It's one of those isometric 3D RPGs, so you've got a top down view of your character. The games are dated, but they are really fun & have good stories & better RPG elements than a lot of RPG games out there. But if you haven't played those old 90s isometric games before... I think it can be a bit of a struggle to enjoy. Fallout 3 is after Bethesda bought the series & is kind of the modern rebirth of the Fallout games. Idk if you've played any of the Elder Scrolls games... but they've basically made Fallout in a similar way to those games. Fallout 3 is brilliant - but also very dated... the shooting mechanics are clunky as fuck. It makes you appreciate using Fallouts VATS system rather than the traditional way of shooting people in a video game. Fallout New Vegas is even better (and made by the same people that did Fallouts 1 and 2 + that Outer Worlds game I talked about & the Wasteland Series... plus another RPG that is very popular that I can't remember the name of - I'd argue they're the best RPG developers in the US) - it's notoriously buggy though (there's a mod that basically patches it lol) and it's got the same similar clunkiness issues of 3. But they're excellent games with excellent stories. Fallout New Vegas is absolutely fantastic tbh. And while they are really dated, they've been out for a while and have a huge modding community. So you can sort of modify the game by installing a few mods. In my experience though, too many mods at once can absolutely break the game. Fallout 4 is a further modernisation... although they sort of shat on the RPG element of the game to make it a bit more accessible to the masses, so some of the choices you have don't have the same kind of consequences or variety that the other games provided. Where it makes up for it though is the gunplay no longer feels like absolute dogshit to anyone that's played any sort of modern shooter at all. It's not so dependent on VATS (although I still used it constantly). Don't worry about what VATS is - they'll explain that to you when you start playing one of them. They added some shit I absolutely do not care for - like the crafting and settlement building. Fallout 76 is shite though, online only and sort of their take on World of Warcraft. All in all though, very enjoyable games - I'd highly recommend them.

Yeah that's it

Looks like space Fallout, excellent. Although another Microsoft publisher did an excellent game that was basically a space fallout... I forget the name of it, but it was great (although very short).

Wonder if Sunak’s first order of business is to ban the sale of lettuce

If it goes nuclear I’ll probably be a nice tidy pile of radioactive ash

Keeping the IRGC and their proxies busy right now seems like a good thing for most Iranians tbh