Here’s the original article in case anyone was curious. Gives more details and USAToday’s utterly garbage mobile site is somehow still better than whatever the hell the independent is doing

“If you won’t let us open it, we’ll close it” I just. Iran can’t keep it closed, the US proved that. The US can’t keep it blockaded, Iran proved that. God damn, all this idiotic posturing would be fucking hilarious if it werent for all the dead people.

The RIM-7 doesn’t even have that justification for being green; its a short range anti-missile (and super cost effectively, anti-drone…) system. It isn’t used to blow people up directly.

So he finally gets something even an infant could spin into something his base would consider a “victory” out of this whole Iranian travesty and he immediately blows it in a fit of ego???

I just. I don’t even know what to say about this one beyond “god fucking damn this guy is just constantly finding new depths of stupid to plumb”

Oh nooo, my pride my pride etc. etc.

Hey listen, I’ll happily take being able to correct your cringe pro-america propaganda without risking your tediously damp ire in response. Sounds like an absolute win to me, please feel free to block away.

Oh no you’re still saying mean things about americans to try and bait me how will I surviiiiive oh my wounded pride oh u so mean how dare u.

Seriously it’s getting embarassing to watch you behave like this. This is getting under your skin to the point that you’re even starting to sound like trump. Just stop dude, or I shall be forced to mock you a second time.

Ooo, declaring victory instead of addressing any of the substance, trump will be so proud of you!

Anyways I think you’ve demonstrated there’s nothing of value to be gained from entertaining your ravings, blockin’ ya (actually no, on second thought just taggin’ ya as a moron in cass I see you trying to pull this BS on anyone else) and moving on.

Oh my gosh you’re back! How brave! And with fresh, nearly plausible denials over just making a mistake.

Listen even if you were talking about the AP article, which you clearly weren’t, it was still obviously not the article I was talking about. Just… own the mistake, dude. Maybe we could get somewhere if you were capable of that kind of reflection. As it stands tho, all my previous points about the futility of me discussing anything with you stand proudly undaunted.

Alas though, ultimately your strategy of “start by repeatedly insulting the other person and then act all huffy and stomp your lil’ feet when they refuse to play your game” continues to not win me over. But good luck next time!

Oh no you weren’t, come on with this.

The AP article is neutral or pro-china, it has no fearmongering or ‘china-bad’ in it at all, and it has nothing to do with US think-tanks. You very blatantly got it confused with another poster in this thread, the one who posted an anti-china article from the think-tank ECFR, and responded like that’s what I was talking about.

Again: You cannot keep the details straight in a tiny comment thread. Why would I waste my time trying to further explain how the trump admin lied about the extent of the influence the US holds over TikTok? The article you posted clearly lays it out. If you won’t trust in (or apparently remember) your own sources, what hope do I have in penetrating the misasma of propaganda you’re so happily submerged in?

TikTok closes deal to split US app from global business

That’s the headline of your article, the one you said had nothing to do with the sale. It also has no ‘china bad’ or fearmongering - it barely discusses china at all. You’re just making shit up and trying to gloss over when you’re called on it.

Seriously you can’t even keep the details straight in this extremely short conversation, but I should act like your insights into geopolitics are worthwhile to consider?

The article I was referring to was the one about the tiktok sale. That you just linked.

“I’m gonna insult you for a while, misrepresent your position then act like I’m going to be reasonable by asking for you to elaborate on your opinion”. Classic.

That article beautifully highlights the problem - you really have just swallowed the propaganda line that it’s a US app now, without doing any research into what the handover actually entailed.

Well no, clearly it’s not the entire world - but you sure did.

It’d depressingly telling that you’re trying to use “americans” to dismiss this when you’re just straight up swallowing the US propaganda about the tiktok sale… and presenting that as somehow the pro-china position. Perplexing.

Mmm. Yes. Very. That’s exactly how it worked. You can trust the Trump admin, they for sure didn’t misrepresent how the deal worked when they explained it.

Somehow I’m skeptical of how organically popular pro-chinese trends are on tiktok. It’s like trying to use youtube views to gauge the popularity of google products…

More on these whackjobs (via wikipedia):

In January 1941, Stern attempted to establish an agreement with the German Nazi authorities, offering to “actively take part in the war on Germany’s side” in return for German support for Jewish immigration to Palestine and establishing a Jewish state. Another attempt to contact the Germans was made in late 1941, but no German response has been found.

After the assassination, the new Israeli government declared Lehi a terrorist organization, arresting some 200 members and convicting some of the leaders.

Just before the first Israeli elections in January 1949, a general amnesty to Lehi members was granted by the government.

In 1980, Israel instituted a military decoration, an “award for activity in the struggle for the establishment of Israel”, the Lehi ribbon.

They reaaaaaally hated the brits (which is admittedly based) but had just the worst takes besides that. The allies with germany thing is possibly being overblown though - from everything I have read it was very much a known attempt to save the lives of the diaspora before the Final Solution was implemented. A bad and spectacularly racist way to approach it, but not one that’s completely without understandable motivations given what happened next.

Explosive Media, known in Persian as Akhbar Enfejari, has denied it is backed by the Iranian government and its videos have reached millions of viewers across a range of social media platforms.

Speaking to the BBC, the head of Explosive Media, who referred to himself as “Mr Explosive”, said his team consisted of fewer than 10 people and that the Iranian government was a “customer” of his company.

NGL, confusing article. Not even sure why it would matter?

Here’s a screenshot of the archived tweet, if that helps:

But if you read the article, Iran did attack the ships (launched a drone at them).