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Learn about ARI’s decades-long perspective on Iran
The post ARI Resources on the American Conflict with Iran appeared first on New Ideal - Reason | Individualism | Capitalism.
"Religious fanaticism and radical subjectivism are two sides of the same false coin. One enables another:"Radical subjectivism annihilates metaphysics.
"The religious fanatic fills his 'void of reality' with his arbitrary assertions (God, miracles, angels, devils, afterlife, etc).""Ideas have consequences - and in today's volatile world (March 2026), with US-Israel strikes escalating against Iran, regime continuity under power broker Ali Larijani, Russia's enduring war footing in Ukraine, and multipolar fractures everywhere, the intellectual foundations rejecting liberal democracy in favour of "higher duty" and civilisational destiny stand out starkly.~ Paulius Lebedevic [hat tip Stephen Hicks, Quote-Unquote Marrk-Goldblatt]
"In Russia, Alexander Dugin supplies the metaphysical fireworks: a heady mix of Heidegger, Nietzsche, and traditionalism remixed into Eurasianism and his "Fourth Political Theory." ... Duty isn't optional-it's ontological, an existential imperative justifying sacrifice, expansion, and absolute obedience to the state as civilisational guardian. ...
"[And so] with Iran, where Ali Larijani -- the current top power broker effectively steering the regime ... -- is a genuine Kant scholar ...."Operating within Shia theocratic-revolutionary Islamism, Larijani's Kantian toolkit emphasises deontology: i.e., absolute duty over personal happiness or utility, and reason's limits that 'make room for faith.' This lends philosophical rigour to prioritising collective obligation to the Islamic Republic-categorical imperatives of regime preservation, anti-hegemonic destiny, and order -- over Lockean individual liberties or empirical critique."Lethal force against dissent or external threats? Not mere power grab, but duty-bound necessity to sustain the higher moral-political order.
"The parallel is striking: Both reject the British Enlightenment path (Locke, Smith, Mill) that grounds secular democracy in individual rights, free markets, and a limited state that serves citizens.Dugin does it with apocalyptic, anti-modern mysticism and civilisational clash. Larijani does it with measured, pragmatic deontological reasoning adapted to clerical-authoritarian stability.
"Russia gets the wild-eyed prophetic theorist; Iran gets the calculating insider philosopher. Yet both scaffold regimes where the individual is subordinated to a transcendent collective fate - whether empire or revolutionary faith—precisely when global power shifts demand such justifications.
"Philosophical coincidence? Or a deeper pattern in how anti-liberal thought sustains authority amid crisis?"~ Paul Steeper from his comment 'In Our Current Geopolitical Moment - A Contrast of Anti-Liberal Scaffolds: Dugin's Eurasian Destiny in Russia vs. Larijani's Kantian Duty in Iran' [hat tip Stephen Hicks]
Welcome to the party, pal!
The “Party” is journalistic corruption, the kind that sank the public’s trust in Legacy Media. The “Pal?” Jon Stewart, who was once a left-leaning comedy host, now exists on the far-Left like his peers.
Stewart is best appreciated on the Right for occasionally telling it like it is. He interrupts his DNC talking points with the truth, like when he suggested that a Chinese lab responsible for virus research might have sparked the COVID-19 pandemic.
For that simple truth, the Left skewered him relentlessly. His fans did the same when he hinted that President Joe Biden may not be as, how you say, “sharp as a tack.”
So he keeps the truth telling to a minimum now.
That didn’t stop him from connecting some obvious dots about the media on his most recent podcast episode. Stewart brought up the Russian collusion hoax, the scam that paralyzed President Donald Trump’s first term in office.
No one has been held responsible for the massive lie, nor has the press seemed interested in pursuing the truth. Heck, the journalists who won Pulitzers for covering a Fake News story won’t even give their prizes back.
Stewart brought up the subject with Ali Velshi, a host on the far-far-Left MSNOW network.
“So, for instance, we’ll go back to, like — there’s always that rush of, like, ‘Now we’ve got Trump, and the Mueller report, and it’s Mueller time,’ and all these things. And the hype machine that generates that, whether it was for action in Iraq or accountability through these special counsels — that it raises an expectation of its audience … The more you run on that hamster wheel, or gerbil wheel … I wonder if that begins to numb your audience to consequence. And is that where the trust has been lost?”
The Stewart of yore might have kept going, blasting the media for a cacaphony of lies tied to the. collusion hoax. And, by extension, Velshi and friends who pumped up those lies.
His station’s highest-paid star, Rachel Maddow, has a lot of explaining to do on the subject alone.
Instead, Stewart meekly suggested the Legacy Media may have lost trust with the public as a result.
Ya think?
John Nolte at Breitbart News has a constantly updated list of modern media scandals. Reporters got these stories wrong, again and again, and most were aimed at taking down a Republican figure.
None targeted the Left.
Here’s a very partial list – please follow the link for a fuller version.
The Russian collusion hoax remains the grandaddy of said list, but even the “Very Fine People” hoax should have been enough to tell consumers the media will lie to push its agenda.
A few people got red-pilled by that realization.
Stewart can’t tell the full story. He can only lurk around the margins for fear that he’ll lose his liberal base entirely.
The “whole” truth would force the press to turn on Stewart, too. And that’s not an option, either.
Instead, he’ll tip toe around the truth on a story that should have been told several years ago.
That’s the best this faux news man can do, given the tenor of the times.
The post Jon Stewart is Late to the Party. Again appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
OURS OUR CHEAPER, TOO: U.S. Hits Iran With Iran’s Own Drone Design and I Can’t Stop Laughing. “All for the price of a nicely appointed Chevrolet Equinox.”
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