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Comment by sph | Hacker News Reader

Number 1 reason why I want to see the United States of America and its very loud citizens get a taste of humble pie in this self-inflicted crisis of idiocy with global ramifications.

Even when discussing a war that's obviously gone out of hand with no easy resolution in right, there's still this air, this attitude from American commenters that somehow the might and brilliance of the US military will prevail in the end and they can restore their position as leaders of the free world. Meanwhile the rest of the world has waited 50 years for this day.

Let me have a little schadenfreude with my €2.20+ litre of petrol.

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> I want to see the United States of America and its very loud citizens get a taste of humble pie in this self-inflicted crisis of idiocy with global ramifications.

I sympathize with the sentiment even though I am American. The problem with this is that Americans are not a uniform cohort.

The people who deserve to eat humble pie in this scenario are neck deep in propaganda and their own inflated egos and will never learn any rational lesson from this despite how catastrophically it might go. The Americans who are paying attention and will understand the harm of this operation already know it's a fiasco and wish the country was doing anything but what it is doing.

> The people who deserve to eat humble pie in this scenario are neck deep in propaganda and their own inflated egos and will never learn any rational lesson from this

They will turn on someone or something they can blame.

100%. Scapegoating is a key pillar in the authoritarian playbook.

You're 100% correct, but this is true for the Iranians, Russians and all other "enemies". Most people are however forced into these views because it serves a purpose. You're not afraid of the enemy if they are presented as normal humans with plenty of internal disagreement.

a strong majority of the united states citizens are against the war, despite a full court propaganda press against the right and a no-kings distraction op against the left

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2026/03/25/americans-br...

don't confuse american citizens with the bought-and-paid talking & tweeting heads we are forced to live with

"No Kings" isn't a distraction, it's very tangible popular opposition, and they're certainly not in favor of the war?

It muddies the waters by focusing on divisive issues like immigration enforcement and de-emphasizing the war, preventing what could be a unified left-and-right antiwar movement.

Plain anti-war protests could draw significant support across the political spectrum, so divisive issues are inserted as wedges. Same thing that happened in the 60's, when the anti-war movement went from a coat-and-tie affair to a laurel canyon one.

If you think the No Kings movement is preventing a unified front against the war, you haven't been paying attention to the political discourse in the US since the rise of the Tea Party 15+ years ago.

man

There will be no public rapprochement between the right and the left pretty much anywhere in the world.

They are fed by entirely different media machines.

If you like, its a coordination problem where the various groups no longer have the commons of a shared reality to coordinate through.

It's not just the "media machines". These two sides have completely different moral values.

There is no anti-war movement on the right. The only time there is, is when a Right-winger is trying to win an election. Once said right winger inevitably starts a war, the pom poms come out.

If everyone just noticed that they have to vote left the world would be a paradise /S

You can't vote left in the US, there are no left parties and no left politicians.

Tucker Carlson is perhaps the most popular commentator on the right and has a significant following and he is adamantly anti-war.

There is a legitimate cross-ideology opportunity here that the war party (which spans both american political parties) is desperate to keep from materializing.

I think you are ignorant about the nuances of the US right. It is not a monolithic block anymore than the US left is.

Prominent right-wing figures who are against this war:

- Tucker Carlson

- Thomas Massie

- Candace Owens

- Marjorie Taylor Greene

- Rand Paul

- Steve Bannon

- Nick Fuentes

- Matt Gaetz

Honourable mentions:

- Joe Rogan (I know many people on HN would consider him right wing)

- Charlie Kirk (in the months leading up to his death he said it would be a "catastrophic mistake")

Trump's approval rating has dropped -16.7 points: this represents many of his core supporters bleeding away.

So Indivisible, which planned the protest, knew the US was going to attack Iran months in advance and plotted this protest to distract from it? What strategic masterminds! What opsec! The left always seemed so fractious and disorganized, but they were just wily, biding their time. But, why?

Seriously, I'm sure you're smart enough to know this is absurd. Just sit down and think about it a bit.

would you expect dr evil to give a good "mwahahaha" and a bow?

The recent protest isn’t what I’m talking about

From the Pew Research poll you linked above:

> Among those who consider themselves Republicans, 79% say they approve of how Trump is handling the conflict.

71% of Republicans say the decision to use military force in Iran was correct.

88% of Democrats say the U.S. made the wrong decision to use military force in Iran.

They don't even mention the country Iran or the war by name, because it's a DNC op and the DNC also supports war in Iran. They don't mention Israel or Gaza, because the main organizers and funders are Zionist. They have no concrete demands. It's a distraction, a release valve, controlled opposition.

Imagine being king of a gulf monarchy watching the "no kings" protests. Probably censored.

Will the citizens of said country do anything to prevent their government from doing this?

If no, then why does their disposition matter?

This. Much of the most prevalent messaging on both the extreme left and the extreme right tends to be from other countries posing as Americans. It’s also difficult to even form opinions lately as the amount of lying by all outlets is nearly impossible to sift through. All we really know is that right, left, black, white, gay or straight, nobody is actually on our side anymore.

The No Kings protests I saw were full of anti-war signs. I kinda assumed the whole protest was an anti-war protest primarily so I'm surprised to hear this take

It's an anti-Trump protest, so named because of how badly Trump wishes he was a king. The slogan (and organization, maybe?) dates back to at least the start of his current term.

Yes. I don't think that contradicts anything I said. It's the third major round in a series of protests and I believe this one was planned after Trump started a war against Iran. I don't think it's a stretch to say that opposition to war was a primary motivating factor for many that attended. I certainly would find that a reasonable conclusion from the signs I saw

Technically not contradictory, but it's pretty weird to call it an anti-war protest with no further qualification, when the overall emphasis, long term anyway, is clearly anti-Trump. Emphasis matters.

Every time someone criticises the USA for its atrocities and its ridiculous foreign policies I see this argument, that supposedly most people are supposedly against whatever bad thing is happening right now.

Yet, Americans elected Trump, twice even, and gave his party control over the other branches of government at the same time.

We'll see at the midterms how much the American populace really disagrees with what the government is doing.

If there is a midterm election

You'd think after 9/11 that the US would approach all of this with more forethought but the opposite seems to be the case.

When I was a child, I was part of a team playing a game against a team which was stronger than us. Each player from one team had to take turns taking the attack to the opponent's team. Every player in our team put themselves forward thinking they can do better, only to be slapped down.

The current administration's approach is something similar. They think that because they have managed to take over American politics and do as they please in the US, they think they can do anything they want outside the US as well. Previous administrations had more awareness of their limitations - but I guess we are in the FA of the FAFO phase.

One freedom denied to Americans is that we can not provide comfort to our enemies - this is punishable by death according our constitution, so we tend to err on unwavering support for our military always.

Many Americans may be absolutely against this horrible, barbaric, idiotic action in the Middle East, but they might wisely not want to talk about it.

So let me say "Thank you to all American troops for your service, God bless America. Our military is the only reason we have peace and freedom." - this is my official public opinion as an American and I would never have at least two witnesses catch me saying anything different.

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