International events

[DireWolfSpirit]

4 hours ago, Loge said:

Ain't no such thing as the original with a building that old and construction work that took centuries to complete. They started remodeling before the building was even finished. As Ran mentioned, the pre-fire state was the result of extensive remodeling in the 19th century. The church had no spire before 1859, so a modern design would have been just as (un)original as the old one. 

 

Sure, but I think theres a plethora of terrible "modern" commercial building crud that is only designed to be economical, quick and durability, aesthetic beauty and artisan crafting is skipped for efficiency.  Thats the big concern that people do not want, they are crimes to architecture when considering the care of something like a cathederal or castle restoration.

We dont want sheets of shitty gypsum replacing plaster and spackel work, we dont want chinese pre-fabbed panels replacing master craft mason work, we dont want some shitty vinyl resplacing beautiful copper cornice entrances and julian awnings.

You can go cheap or you can go correct with integrity.

Im confident the cultural heirs of things like the Fredericksburg Castle will come to the correct conclusions and kindly ignore the efficiency over quality pressures.

God I hope so anyway.

[Bironic]

Ongoing protests in Georgia against a new law pushed by the government against so called "foreign agents" (modeled after the russian law). The protesters have the backing of the prowestern President (head of state) and last year when the government first proposed this law they had to backtrack after long protests. Hopefully they manage to do that again...

[The Anti-Targ]

8 hours ago, Bironic said:

Yes this is my experience with Iranians abroad as well… the period between 7th and 9th centuries (the Arab conquest) is see as akin to the fall of the Roman Empire and the „dark ages“ that followed. There is also the fact that there seems to be some sort of „revival“ of pre-Arabic-Islamic culture/religion as well as non „orthodox/statal“ Islam amongst Iranians and more generally Iranian peoples(such as the Kurds) abroad as well, with less participation in mosques and more interest in things such as Nawruz, Parsism/ Zoroastrianism, Yezidism, Baha’i, Mutazila etc… 

Just a point of clarification, Baha'i is POST-Arab-Islamic not pre.

I don't see large numbers of people getting into Baha'i given to do so means confiscation of your business, inability to get any job in the public sector, harassment of your employer if you have a private sector job, expulsion from school / university, possible imprisonment, torture and execution.

[House Balstroko]

12 hours ago, Bironic said:

Yes this is my experience with Iranians abroad as well… the period between 7th and 9th centuries (the Arab conquest) is see as akin to the fall of the Roman Empire and the „dark ages“ that followed. There is also the fact that there seems to be some sort of „revival“ of pre-Arabic-Islamic culture/religion as well as non „orthodox/statal“ Islam amongst Iranians and more generally Iranian peoples(such as the Kurds) abroad as well, with less participation in mosques and more interest in things such as Nawruz, Parsism/ Zoroastrianism, Yezidism, Baha’i, Mutazila etc… 

It’s also rooted in the fact that Persian culture is ancient and predates Islam. That being said, the diaspora also represents a particular segment of Iranian society as a whole. It’s hard to tell whether those views are as widespread from within the country itself. 

[The Anti-Targ]

In my anecdotal experience the Iranian diaspora is very patriotic, but many left Iran because of the current regime and they rather look forward to the day the Islamic Revolution comes to an end.

One of the most interesting things about watching Alexander on Netflix is learning a bit about the last days of the Persian Empire that he smashed to pieces. It was a great empire that had its glory days, but as with every empire in history it became corrupt, complacent and stagnant and fell to pieces when the right person came along to bring it down.

[Bironic]

4 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Just a point of clarification, Baha'i is POST-Arab-Islamic not pre.

I don't see large numbers of people getting into Baha'i given to do so means confiscation of your business, inability to get any job in the public sector, harassment of your employer if you have a private sector job, expulsion from school / university, possible imprisonment, torture and execution.

True, Babism/Baha’i is a more recent development. I was not talking about Iranians in Iran, but from my experience with Iranians that live abroad (for a variety of reasons). And amongst them there seems to be an interest in basically everything (Persian) that isn’t the official statal version of Islam. 
There are some western polls and media reports that this is also the case in Iran itself, though I admit I have no idea if those surveys are very representative, since as you said things such as apostasy are subject to the death penalty and other forms of punishment and repression.

[The Anti-Targ]

I'm impressed you know of Babism. That's not a widely known aspect of Baha'i history.

[DireWolfSpirit]

I was recently reading about some of that persecution of the Baha'i in Iran.  They were bulldozing cemeteries and attempting to erase any cultural trace of some Baha'i communities.

[Zorral]

10 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Alexander on Netflix is learning a bit about the last days of the Persian Empire that he smashed to pieces.

Yet, smashed to pieces, from the era of Assyria to Rome to the Eastern Empire and Islam, it managed to reemerge under different names and titles, over and over.  Until, perhaps in the era of the Mongols, it was finished for good -- with the exception, perhaps, some of the elements that made up the Mughal empire in India. That is of vast interest! 

[TheLastWolf]

Voting (First Phase 160 million eligible voters across 102 of the 543 total constituencies) began in India today exactly an hour ago. Largest democratic elections ever. We do tend to break our own records every 5 years lol.

Cast my first vote, expectedly in vain, but hopefully not. 

Till June 1, then counting and results on 4th.

Edited April 19 by TheLastWolf

[Impmk2]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/apr/19/middle-east-crisis-live-updates-iran-israel-today-explosions-isfahan#top-of-blog

Fuck.

[KingintheNorth4]

31 minutes ago, Impmk2 said:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/apr/19/middle-east-crisis-live-updates-iran-israel-today-explosions-isfahan#top-of-blog

Fuck.

This is all escalating quickly and I don't like it one damn bit. 

[DMC]

No reports of casualties yet.  *fingers crossed*  US officials don’t seem surprised or overly concerned.  All this posturing though…

[The Anti-Targ]

So, Israel has titted Iran's tat, I guess we should be expecting an Iranian tat in the coming weeks.

Potential silver lining (though feels a bit gross calling it that), but perhaps the escalation between Israel and Iran will help Ukraine in that Iran will be less able to supply Russia with the hardware it needs to keep prosecuting its war of aggression.

[Makk]

So far Iran is playing everything down and saying no damage so that is hopeful as long as Israel doesn't overdo it. 

[kissdbyfire]

3 hours ago, Makk said:

Israel doesn't overdo it. 

Israel overdoing a response? Impossible, would never ever happen. /s

[Kalbear]

Seems like a pretty good response. Iran appears confused about it, it sends a message that unlike Iran Israel can do significant damage if they choose and Iran can do little to stop it, and there's no sign of otherwise large scale outrage. If Israel was going to strike back this seems like a good choice for deescalating.

[Werthead]

The attack was so limited that Iran seemed embarrassed by the idea of retaliating against it, which is amusing.

However, the attacking drones/missiles (nobody is clear on what they were) sailed passed Iran's antique AA systems (#buyrussian) and were only intercepted apparently quite close to their potential targets (Isfahan airbase or the nearby nuclear sites), possibly because Israel had them loitering rather than proceeding directly to the target.

If deliberate, that's a genuinely subtle use of military power by Israel, a sentence I did not think I'd be typing.

[DMC]

1 hour ago, Kalbear said:

Seems like a pretty good response. Iran appears confused about it, it sends a message that unlike Iran Israel can do significant damage if they choose and Iran can do little to stop it, and there's no sign of otherwise large scale outrage. If Israel was going to strike back this seems like a good choice for deescalating.

Yeah it seems oxymoronic to call an airstrike deescalating, but this appears to be.  Also seemed to piss off Bibi’s far right, Ben Gvir calling it lame on X.  When you’re pissing those guys off, you know you’re doing something right.

[Werthead]

Some analysis now that Israel was targeting the early warning detection radar in Isfahan which is tasked with picking up incoming missiles aimed at the Natanz nuclear facility. Unofficial US analysis is that the radar system was completely destroyed through three direct hits from air-launched cruise missiles. Iran's AA systems failed to engage until the missiles were practically on top of the target.

I've seen some speculation that the missiles were launched from inside Iran's radar detection net by an F-35, which would confirm the long-circulating rumour that Iran's Russia-bought S-300 and S-400s cannot see or lock onto F-35s in flight. But that's very speculative. It would make more sense to launch them from well outside Iran's radar.

That's a lot of messaging to the Iranian regime in one strike, and of course the worry that Israel deliberately took out the radar to deliberately take out Natanz itself in a follow-up strike. That would be extremely dangerous, with an unknown capacity for nuclear contamination of the surrounding area (with Isfahan just to the south and Tehran not far to the north).