Always gonna plug disc sports when threads like this pop up. Ultimate Frisbee is fun and if you live in even a minor city there’s usually a rec league to join. Has the best culture of any sport IMO, full of the chilliest most accepting people who are always looking for more people to join and with rec leagues people will sometimes go out to the bar after to hang out.

Disc golf is also great for meeting people if you’re not as into cardio. Can join tournaments and they’ll usually pair you up with people. Or just go solo to the course and occasionally someone else will offer to let you join their round or if you’re waiting with another solo at a hole you can offer to let them join you.

Both are also very cheap activities, Frisbee you just need cleats and to pay ~$50 for a rec league season. Disc golf is basically free once you get discs.

OP said he’s in car centric america, in my experience those are the only people who regularly ride bicycles.

Israel was able to pinpoint the location of top political figures extremely easy. That means that the civil society hates more the government than israel.

This shows more the competence of the mossad / CIA then broad support for Israel. They just need to compromise/ payoff one person at the top of the regime to get the ayatollahs location and then bomb it.

I think you’re vastly underestimating the hatred of Israel in Iran. It’s not like here in the US where people are just starting to come around to the idea that Israel is a bad actor despite the efforts of the media. In Iran the media has been constantly showcasing the atrocities of Israel and the plight of the Palestinians for decades. Even if that wasn’t enough they just bombed the country and started a war with no reason given. Even if some people hate the government more than Israel they still hate Israel, and if given a chance to decide their government, if this one falls, they will probably pick one that is antagonistic to Israel.

Same in Gaza and this is why Israel will never let there be elections in Gaza. They know that if people can vote they will vote for a government hostile to Israel, just like they did in 2006. They don’t want a government with popular support and legitimacy because it’ll make them look even worse when they bomb them.

Yes the Ayatollah massacred his own people, but that sadly is the logical move for an authoritarian regime. Building nukes and making the sanctions that cripple the economy which created the unrest permanent is not the best strategic move, as mentioned above. They want to get a deal done, it’s just trump / neta yahu will take nothing but complete capitulation.

They’re enriching uranium and denying inspectors because the US dropped out of the deal and they’re trying to bring them to the table. If the US is going to impose sanctions and put pressure on them they have to put pressure back on the US . Otherwise the US can just sit back and wait for the regime to collapse under the weight of crippling sanctions.

Under the JCPOA Iran never failed an inspection, it wasn’t until Trump dropped out of the deal that they stopped allowing them in, and if another deal is reached there’s no reason to believe that they’ll violate it.

If you look at the iranian regime as rational actors instead of crazy religious fanatics then all this starts to make sense. They can’t afford to be crazy religious fanatics, they have to make the best strategic moves because their regime is teetering under the weight of both external and internal pressures. The fact they’ve managed to survive this long is a testament to their capabilities. This is not to say their regime is good in a moralistic sense, it’s not, only that it’s good at keeping power.

Yes, and a lot of Iranians support their government, or want a theocracy that’s even more paternalistic. If the regime falls now you’ll most likely see either a military dictatorship take over to suppress the various conflicts and contradictions in the country, or those conflicts flare up into a civil war between theocrats and Democrats similar to Syria. Israel wants the civil war because a military dictator is still probably going to shoot missiles at them, arm Hezbollah and Hamas etc. while a civil war all the missiles are fired within the country.

Israel doesn’t want a unified Iran, whether under a democracy or dictatorship, because Iran is mostly unified under their hatred for Israel due to its various crimes.

Trump is torn between the neoconservatives like Rubio, formally bolton etc, and Israel that want regime change and his own unwillingness to go full troops on the ground. The neocons successfully get trump to blow up Obama era deals designed to keep the peace by catering to Trump’s ego telling him he can get a better deal than Obama, in reality they don’t want a deal and want to escalate but this is the best they can get.

So trump goes to the negotiating table only to find out that Obama’s deal is the best he can get. Frustrated and unwilling to admit Obama was just as good a negotiator as him he begins to blame the leaders for their intransigence. The longer this goes on the dumber he looks for blowing up the original deal and not being able to get a new one, all the while Iran is enriching more uranium to try and push the US to accept the old deal.

Then Venezuela happens and he comes up with a new plan, if you can’t change the deal you can at least change the negotiating team. He can take out the leader, use them as a scapegoat for the long stalled negotiations, sign the same deal and call it a win. Maduro repeatedly said he was willing to play ball with Trump but it would be on similar grounds to the Obama era deal but trump couldn’t go back to the US and say he re-imoosed all these sanctions for nothing, so he took out Maduro, got a reason to declare victory and went home.

My guess is he’s trying to do the same here, say all the issues with negotiations were because of the Ayatollah, sign a new version of the same deal with Trump branding like the USMCA , declare victory and head home.

Is Israel gaining something that I’m not seeing? Destabilization the main goal?

Yes, Israel doesn’t want regime change because they know hatred for Israel is so broad that it will survive a regime change, especially one triggered by a war of aggression started by them. They want to turn Iran into the next Syria and get them to turn all of their ire inwards instead of at them.

By doing this Israel wants a more friendly government.

Israel knows there will never be a friendly government to them in Iran, Israel knows that hatred for Israel is broad and will survive a regime change, especially one triggered by a war of aggression from Israel. They’re hoping to turn Iran into the next Syria, keep them fighting amongst themselves so they can’t turn their ire towards them.

Unless you are a lover of Islamist fundamentalism or a stern believer in international law, there is nobody who is rooting for these bastards to stay in power.

I’m fine with them staying in power, yes if the alternative is a liberal western democracy then it’d be great if they were overthrown, but that’s not realistic. If you look at the real alternatives by looking at the region the current regime isn’t that bad, there are elections and women can vote, compare that to the Gulf monarchies or the other dictatorships and theocracies in the region.

The most likely outcome if this regime falls isn’t a democracy, it’s a decades long civil war that probably ends with another form of Islamic dictatorship just like in Syria. This is what the US and Israel want, because both of them recognize that hate for them and desire for a nuclear bomb to protect themselves from them is broad enough that it will survive a regime change so the best option is to turn all Irans energy inward into fighting amongst themselves. This is also the worst possible outcome for the Iranian people.

No, that works on stuff recommended on my home, but for this, the popular episodes section on the explore tab, there’s no option.

This is mildly infuriating, it’s meant to show things people find offensive or objectionable. If you don’t want to see offensive or objectionable shit block the sub. There’s no way to remove this section on my explore tab, or even down vote or say I don’t want to see episodes like this.

I like money going to the YouTube creators I watch, and don’t want to watch ads and don’t want to have to set up a ton of different patreons to donate directly. Got a solution for that?

Thanks, I’ll give it a try!

The top 50 list is actually why I was there, I like to check it occasionally as I do like pop and some mainstream hip hop. Previously this popular section was just some hip hop podcasts/ videos that I ignored, but at least it was somewhat based on my music so it’s not purely top 50 on the app, idk why it threw this one at me.

This wasn’t on the home page it was on the explore page, where it shows the top 25, new releases, trending etc.

I think my music interests would probably point to me being a guy

Yes, idk who can listen to this for ten hours and whether they have any brain cells before or after.

White feminists*

Black feminists wanted to talk about class and racism, it’s just the media didn’t give them a microphone to talk about it…

There’s a common myth over here that coffee can stunt a child’s growth. A myth I only today learned was false after researching it for this comment.

It’s the fourth largest economy in the world, and 11th in population, and is a major cultural exporter. If not Japan then what countries are important enough to invest time in?

Can slacktivism work

IMO no, You’re way less likely to reach anyone outside your bubble online unless you have a large broad following , and even then you’re mostly broadcasting to an echo chamber. The algorithms are working against you, they don’t want to show you nuanced takes from the other side that’ll make you think and stop scrolling for a second, if they do show you takes from the other side they’re going to show you extremist rage bait that is easily dismissed by a funny caption.

That’s why I think phone banking , which can be done through software too even if you don’t have a phone, is better. You’re calling random people, and more of them are less into politics than the people on social media who are seeing political content, so they are less entrenched and more open. I guess you could also get to these people through social media but you’d have to fight against the algorithm to get out of the echo chambers and into the more moderate general spaces.

In general I think you need to focus on and put energy into things you can change for the good. If you are unable to change others minds then you can still focus and put energy into changing yourself for the better. You can focus on changing your mind for the better, learn an instrument, a new skill hobby etc. that you can see yourself getting better at. Or you can focus on changing your body for the better through exercise and diet.

For example if you want to fight climate change and probably improve your health with more fiber and can control your diet then switching to a vegetarian diet can be a way to change your body for the better. You can also learn to cook vegetarian food which will build a new skill and improve your mind, a skill you can clearly see / taste you getting better at.

Tough spot, but some suggestions I can think off the top of my head:

for organizing: come election time you can phone bank from home. Find a progressive cause or candidate you believe in and they’ll usually have a system set up and script for you to call or text and a list of phone numbers. This can also be an entry point into the campaign to volunteer to do other things and you can explain your situation

For exercise:

• you can buy some weights online and use those along with body weight exercise to work out. I mostly do cardio so I’m not too familiar but I’m sure there are plenty of guides online

• walk a dog. If you don’t have a dog you can probably find a neighbor near you who would be happy to have there dog walked. Idk how restrictive your living situation is but I’d hope that walking the neighbor’s dog would get you permission.

• try vr if you can afford it, some of the games will get you moving and sweating and are pretty fun, there are also guided workouts as well.

Whatever you do just start a regiment that you can do and keep to it. You probably won’t see progress for a while but if you do keep on it and make it a habit you should start to notice your mood improve.