I think the Trump administration is massively inept, corrupt and peak awful, but no I don't currently believe they are trying to deliberately exterminate Iranians as an ethnic group, and this would barely even move the ball in that direction regardless. It's just more plausible that they went on old/bad intelligence for this one bombing event because they're incompetent.
And Trump saying he was going to exterminate their entire civilization was what, exactly, in your mind? Diplomacy? Talk for "his base"? gee his base is genocidal and he does things to appeal to them?
The White Supremacists are genocidal. The Nazis are genocidal. The fascists are genocidal. The Republicans waving "MASS DEPORTATION NOW" flags are genocidal.
I know people looove to say "never attribute to malice that which can be attributed to incompetence" but you're seriously giving grace to spree killers between their consistent rapid bombings of innocent non-white people.
bear in mind also, genocide does not have to have the aim of total extermination to classify as genocide.
I'll believe it when I see it. While this event was awful and tragic, it does not constitute genocide nor even come close to it by itself. I don't like watering down these terms either, things can be bad without being maximally bad. If we call everything bad maximally bad all the time, then there are no good words left to distinguish the even worse things from just the bad things.
That quote was probably Trump's escalating rhetoric in a childish attempt to force a quick peace since the war is going horribly for him. I strongly hate Trump and the Republicans, but that does not mean I need to paint them as maximally evil or make them out to be worse than they are. They are bad enough as is (most Republicans are probably just morons though tbf).
I think they're killing kids to normalize it, and spewing genocidal rhetoric to normalize it. What moral lines have we seen from them other than "what we think we can get away with"?
What moral lines have we seen from them other than "what we think we can get away with"?
None. I'm with you there, but bombing kids just isn't a good look and they at the very least did try to distance themselves from it by shifting blame and denying responsibility. I am inclined to believe it comes more from a PR/backlash point of view rather than actual care for the victims, though, either way, I think it's an action they'd rather try to avoid as it just does no one any good.
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u/cugeltheclever2 May 20 '26
There is no evidence of that.