So many western Marxists suffer from a political malady: McDonald’s Marxism. You look at another nation patiently and strategically navigating the existential threats imposed upon it by US empire and whine like a spoiled brat when they don’t immediately go for broke and take an insanely stupid suicidal escalatory path because YOU want total armed revolution and you WANT IT NOW and you DEMAND that someone else MAKE IT FOR YOU and you DON’T CARE if it’s not currently available at this location or if it’s a seasonal menu item or if the soft serve machine is broken, YOU WANT IT and therefore THEY SHOULD HAVE IT and if it takes more than FIVE MINUTES you will throw a tantrum and get so angry that you SHIT YOUR PANTS. Shut the fuck up! Shut the fuck up!!!

If you live in the imperial core and you don’t like what decisions a certain anti-imperialist government makes under the duress of your genocidal racist rapist government, you don’t get to publicly criticize them. I’m sorry, you just don’t! It’s shameful, you should feel gross and ashamed by it! Shut up and organize. Learn your neighbor’s name. Find out what who’s hurting YOUR community and organize with them to struggle against that oppressor. If you’re doing anything right, you’ll start to see how fucking hard it actually is, how many compromises you’ll have to make, how many sacrifices you’ll have to make, how many risks you’ll have to take - and even then, you’ll still be risking just a tiny FRACTION of the risk you demand of communists in the periphery in order for them to remain compliant with your ridiculous standards of ideological purity.

And btw, everyone's favorite squirrel reached the peak of this brand of western chauvinism back in June 2025, where they said with utmost certainty that once Ayatollah Khamenei was martyred Iran would immediately fall into a Balkanized failed state which is why they had to escalate to total war NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW. They ranted for days about this, screaming that the window for major countermeasures was permanently closing and if they didn't establish deterrence RIGHT THEN by closing the Strait and bombing Israel and GCC countries' vital infrastructure, the US would strike and Iran would be FINISHED. They even had the gall to call Iran's strategic patience "suicidal". What we know now, however, is that Khamanei's martyrdom precipitated the very conditions in which Iran's recent historic military achievements became possible. And while we will never know what was going on in his head at the time, judging by his actions and how he decided to spend his final days, it seems like Khamenei may have known this to be true! Contrary to zei_squirrel's arrogant, prescriptive, Henny Penny apocalyptic prognostications, Iran did not immediately implode into anarchy upon Khamenei's martyrdom: they exploded with rage, unified across every community squirrel insisted were hopelessly divided, and struck back at the perfect moment with remarkable precision on every front. They waited as long as they did because they needed this exact level of escalation from the US and Israel to have casus belli to strike back. Iranian leadership clearly knew they were held to a far different standard than almost any other country (even by many of their own citizens), and that in order for western vassals, European imperialists, and ambivalent allies to do what Iran needed them to do (or not do), something truly beyond the pale would have to happen to them. They couldn't simply respond with proportionate force back then, despite having every right to. Iran would need something bigger to unite their people around the common cause of defending the nation, and a situation where NATO imperialist partners would have no pretense that could justify them joining the fray. So they had to be strategic. They had to be patient. That's right: Iran is where it is now not because they abandoned strategic patience, but rather BECAUSE of strategic patience. They prepared decades to be ready for this moment, whilst knowing something cataclysmic would have to happen to them before being able to finally shift the balance. This is a kind of wisdom, discernment, self-restraint, and patience that the vast majority of us raised and miseducated in the west lack - and I do not exclude myself from this indictment! We in the belly of the beast are intentionally surrounded by distraction and programmed from birth for instant gratification. Even when we are able to think critically about the best possible course of action, we often lack the self-control to build, to plan, and to WAIT for the right time to act. Thank God Iran has strategically patient people carrying out the Ramadan War, and not terminally online armchair experts with irritable, impulsive western dispositions!

It is also quite telling that western chauvinists like zei_squirrel have already abandoned any hope for the Bolivarian Revolution, buying into the doomer propaganda spread by the Trump administration and State Department-fed capitalist media outlets. These flaky brats treat revolutionary movements like toys - they exist solely for their personal amusement, allowing them to live vicariously through heroic figures upon which they can project their dreams of accomplishing something actually meaningful. And just like a spoiled child treats their toys, they throw these movements out once the novelty wears off or a tiny part breaks. "I'm done playing with you." As if revolution is a game. As if building revolution is comprised merely of courageous, all-or-nothing battles. As if there aren't fallow periods or an occasional need for strategic retreat; as if incredibly difficult choices and awful compromises never have to be made. Good Guy just has to fight Bad Guy and Good Guy will win because they are Good, and if they ever choose not to fight then they are cowards (and you know what, come to think of it, maybe even a new Bad Guy???). But that's not how revolution works. And you'd know this if you've ever actually spoken to someone actively engaged in it. It's not a decisive victorious battle, it is a process. It requires more than just an inspirational leader, it requires entire communities - which takes TIME! Time on a generational - not yearly, not monthly, not daily, not hourly - scale. People like zei_squirrel and other western leftists, despite being relatively well-versed in revolutionary history, still struggle to analyze certain political developments because of that McDonald's Marxist Breaking News Brain. These western leftists have no TIME (that is: no patience) to wait and see. If a besieged government doesn't immediately respond the way you want them to, something must be DEEPLY WRONG. If an anti-imperialist nation makes concessions under extreme pressure to serve near-term existential crises in a way that you don't agree with, it's because that nation's leaders have BETRAYED the cause. There's no consideration for long-term thinking, because much of the western left is incapable of contemplating the risk and consequences of an action beyond the time it takes to get from the drive-thru menu board to the service window. Revolutionaries cannot afford to think or act this way. This is why so many of the millions of Venezuelan communards continue to support Delcy Rodriguez and the PSUV - because they understand why the acting president and the administration are making these difficult choices, because they're living and making decisions under the same conditions and operating on the same long-term strategic thinking. They're also making decisions based on the fact that they were literally just invaded and had their democratically elected president abducted and is still held hostage with his wife! So yes, people act differently when there's a gun pressed to their head because they have to - even when they're not afraid. And those choices - from your comfortable, safe remove - may seem foolish, even traitorous to you. But we should, at a bare fucking minimum, have the humility to withhold judgment and not constantly question the commitment of those who have that proverbial gun pointed at them - particularly when it's a gun wielded by our own government.

Just very weird to think this is some kind of nail in the coffin https://x.com/nicolasmaduro/status/1435249610113667072?s=46&t=U3YYTq1PKjf8V_9TEV7ULw…