Would be funny, but Iran is all bark and no bite. They might unironically get the crown for being the dumbest, most incompetent regime in the world, and that’s saying something because there’s a lot of regimes working very hard to get that glory for themselves. In reality, Iran can’t and won’t do shit. Closing the strait is their only real strategy of deterrence, and even that’s a double edged sword because if Trump gets replaced by anybody who’s even mildly competent, they can and will very easily rally the world into blaming Iran for the oil prices and has countries apply pressure on the IRGC that way. So Iran really only has two years to bring to a close or the regime is actually toast.

They can’t do it. Iran can’t do shit. It’s a poor, isolated country that’s ruled by an evil tyrannical regime filled to the brim with brain deeds theocrats. Trump’s stupidity and Netanyahu’s greed are the only things that are keeping them in power at this point. They have no legitimacy with the people at all.

Usually with regimes like this, they’re all bark and no bite. If they had the ability to carry out such powerful blows then they would’ve done them, but they won’t because they can’t. They’re trying to play psychological warfare while praying that they can manipulate Trump’s dumbass into giving them a favorable deal before the international community turns on them for closing the strait.

You underestimate them. Their capacity for evil is truly limitless. They’re one of the extremely few regimes out there that can give North Korea, Turkmenistan, and the Taliban a run for their own money when it comes to oppressing their own people.

I don’t think we necessarily disagree on principle, we just disagree in our conclusions. I don’t think what I’m calling for is hyper fixation. The cartel issue by far the biggest and most pressing issue in the country to the point where it’s existential threat, and yet it is completely neglected at the cost of the common people. Again, I don’t have an issue with laws like this, you’re right that any improvement is better than nothing. However, it does highlight the fact the president is tone deaf. She’s been in office for 2 years now, and she has largely followed in the footsteps of her predecessor, AMLO, in going soft of cartels, which is a mistake costing the country dearly.

You talk about improving material conditions makes things for the bad guys, but the bad guys here are not the government. Cartels directly worsen material conditions with their operations, they obviously don’t follow labor laws, and there’s nothing to counter their influence in the country. There’s shootouts in the streets that are akin to active warzones. The people who are saying I’m letting perfect be the enemy of good are delusional. This is like having a bear chewing on your leg in a national park while you scream in agony for a park ranger to help you, only for one to arrive and tell the good news that he’s revoking your parking ticket before leaving.

The state of Sinaloa has seen a 400% increase in homicides in 2025, do you even begin to comprehend how insane that is? Keep in mind, Sinaloa already had one of the highest homicide rates in the world in 2024 where homicides increased by over 80%? Right now Sinaloa is one of the most dangerous places in the world, and the thing is that it’s not even the worst state in the country. Other states like Colima and Guanajuato are even worse. A good 6 out of the 10 most violent cities in the world are in Mexico. In the crazy parts of Mexico, things are really bad.

Keep in mind, Mexican cartels don’t just mostly kill amongst each other like US gangs. The average people by a heavy price. They kill, torture, rape, extort, and corrupt everything. They effect every level of society. It’s not just drugs either, your thinking is way outdated. These cartels have expanded to also be the primary drivers behind human smuggling, human trafficking, arms trafficking, illegal mining, money laundering, counterfeit products, fuel theft (from both pipelines and distribution networks), agricultural farming (both legal and illegal), and the list goes on and on. This is on top of their usual protection rackets (read: extortion), drugs, and corruption.

For someone who sits far away from all this violence it sounds for poetic to suggest that the Mexican government stop fighting the cartels and instead “focus on the underlying issues”, but for the people that live there? That’s nonsense. They don’t have anywhere near the stability to start addressing things in such way. Their lives are in genuine danger, and they need active protection. It would be better if the Mexican government can address the underlying causes and fight the cartels head on, but they’re currently barely doing either.

I genuinely cannot fathom this mentality. Imagine being a Mexican living under the tyranny of the cartels and hearing your government say “sorry amigo, we’re not coming to protect your life that’s always in immanent danger, but hey, we did pass a law that will cut the work week by 8 hours, so cheer up eh? Hopefully this helps address the underlying causes and things will get better in 20 years, until then, adios.”

In the abstract sure, but in reality context is everything. Would you celebrate countries like Israel or Russia passing similar labor reforms? Probably not, and rightfully so, because those countries clearly have much bigger, more pressing problems going on… like active wars and genocides. Mexico is not that far off, the cartel situation is truly something that is that disproportionate and bleak.

It’s not all or nothing. This law is fine in of itself, but in the context that it’s in, it comes off as tone deaf from the president. This would be like Putin legalizing recreational marijuana while their invasion of Ukraine is still ravaging the Russian economy. In a vacuum such a law is fine, but in the real world there’s a giant elephant in the room that waiting to be addressed.

You would be right if we were talking about normal crime and violence, but we’re not. The cartels aren’t made up of poor people who are committing crimes out of desperation. The people who are in the cartels do the most horrific things just to join, and once they join, they’re in for life. They have very organized hierarchies that keep a strict order, that’s why they’re massive crime syndicates.

They abduct people from their houses, they assassinate politicians, they hold public executions, burn down businesses who don’t pay extortion fees, they torture people they kidnap, they rig elections, they put their corrupted judges and politicians in power, and the list goes on and on. They’re even starting to control the country’s biggest industries. For example, there’s a good chance that the avocadoes you buy from the store came from a cartel controlled farm. Things were bad before, but they’re especially bad now with the Sinaloa cartel being fractured. There’s a lot of cartels competing for the top spot and things are ugly, really ugly. Some of the cartels are especially brutal just for the sake of it like Jalisco New Generation.

Mexico is a very unequal country. The nice areas are very nice. They’re safe, peaceful, have tourists, and are relatively wealthy. But the bad areas? They’re not even controlled by the government, they’re ruled by the cartels. They have so much violence that Mexico as a whole is considered a major war zone by the ACLED. You would think that president would prioritize something this pressing, but she gets offended at the very thought of her doing something about the cartels. Her predecessor, AMLO, did the same thing and he is widely regarded as a cartel stooge. She’s now being increasingly viewed in the same light.

That’s already a problem in Mexico. American immigrants have been moving to the nice parts of Mexico, and they have been inflating the ever living fuck out of the prices there. American money is unmatched, and no Mexican business is going to dumb enough to let it slip by. They’ve been increasing prices and catering to Americans to the point where Mexicans are being squeezed out entirely from the equation.

There are parts of Mexico city where Mexicans are completely priced out. People with houses in the nice parts try to sell them to Americans to get more money. Developers are building condo buildings that cater to American styles, and they’re entirely branded and marketed in English. Businesses in the area notice the increase in Americans walking around and jack up their prices to get a share of the pie themselves, which leads Americans to get another part of the city that’s still cheap to get the most out of their money repeating the cycle. Americans have already been doing this to countries like Spain, Portugal, and Italy, but now they’re doing it to Mexico too.

This doesn’t mean anything because a lot of work in Mexico is informal and done in cash, and so these changes won’t have an effect on the people who need them the most.

Besides, the country is going through an existential crises right now with the cartels ripping the country apart. A lot of people are already criticizing her for not focusing on the most pressing problems, and they’re right. This is nice in theory, but things like crime and violence have gotten so out of hand that parts of the country are unlivable for the average folk. She’s being increasingly regarded by Mexicans as another cartel stooge in office.

I’m not trying to convince you dimwit, I’m calling you out. But the fact that you didn’t get that tells me all I need to know

Oh hey, it’s the “capitalism is founded on the idea of workers owning their workplace” person.

I wasn’t stating an opinion then, that’s literally the case. You denying reality is your own problem, not mine.

Shitty article has link to non shitty source.

A shitty article that links to a non shitty source still means that it’s a shitty article from a shitty source. The non shitty article that’s linked should be the one that linked because it’s the one the that higher quality. The Irish Mirror actually hired people to do real journalists to do real journalism, and the authors of that article clearly did their jobs well. They’re the ones who should be rewarded with the internet traffic and recognition, not a shitty activist page that lazily rips off the work of others and slaps a clickbait headline on it. I know it’s a foreign concept to you, but to normal people this is called having standards.

If you critical thinking skills were as developed as you think they are, you could click on it.

The irony here is so thick its almost solid that it’s a shame you’re dumb to get it.

Ignore the evidence, discredit the messenger, and lie through your teeth.

This is literally what you’re doing. The lack of self awareness is shameless. I didn’t ignore shit. The OP made a conspiracy theory statement that I asked to them to explain because they clearly posted conspiracy theory bullshit. They made two specific claims that I called out. First, they specifically said that Epstein was Mossad agent, which they failed to prove. Second, he made a string of lies about the Finders group/cult/movement/whatever. He said that they were Mossad/CIA operations to traffic kids to pedophiles and that this evidence was public and well known. I have very thoroughly demonstrated he’s a liar and all his claims are wrong.

I literally linked the public information in my comment and spelled out how the public information he’s talking about directly disproves him and his claims. His comeback was to give a literal chatgpt generated article on some substack that’s run by shmucks who are trying to fearmonger people into buying gold and silver from them. Even then, the AI article is literally a restatement of the wiki article it has zero new information that the wiki article didn’t have. How do they respond to me calling out their lies? They started calling me a fucking pedophile. That’s not ignorance, that’s just malicious misinformation.

It’s completely insane that you’re even willing to entertain low level conspiracy theory level bullshit as fact, not on the basis of accuracy, but on the basis hatred. Demanding clarity and accuracy is not an endorsement, it’s fucking accountability. Do you honestly think that calling out this moron for spreading misinformation means I’m endorsing child rapists? What kind of brain dead notion is that? Fuck Epstein, anybody who’s associated with him, and all other child rapists. You they won’t get a shred of sympathy from me. Are you really going to stoop so low that you’re going to endorse McCarthyist accusations from people who lack basic critical thinking skills? Like what are you even doing?

The thing is that my request thus far hasn’t changed, and it won’t change because I’m ultimately in the right. I asked for OP to provide evidence that actually prove their claims as he stated them. I don’t want a conspiracy theory justification where I have to connect magical dots that don’t exist or open my third eye and see a bigger picture that’s not there. Their second claim about the finders has already been debunked, but if they, you, or anybody else can provide real evidence that actually shows that Epstein worked for Mossad or any government agency in an official capacity to traffic kids like they claimed, then please show it to me and I will gladly concede. Until then, I have no reason to believe conspiracy theories on the basis of “dude, trust me.”

Making death wishes in general shouldn’t be tolerated, I think that’s a basic principle to uphold.

That may be, but he still right. The frontlines are proof. Russia has failed to capture significant amount of territory in 3 over years. All the changes have been comically minor relative to the manpower and resources used, and so far this year, Russia has actually been losing more territory than they captured.

You’re a pedophile

I can’t agree with that. The world needs less conspiracy theories out there. We have way too many floating around.

Said the schmuck who’s been disingenious this whole time with my extremely straightforward point. When it finally came time to address it directly, you danced around like a clown and then gave yourself a soft exit by clutching your pearls over some no name British left wing grifter. Your projections thus far have reflected your actions.

Oh my goddd!!! Owen Jones??? How could I be how foolish and not know who that is? Silly me, of course it’s Owen Jones on Substack.

Now Substack is a site that’s notorious for having its userbase be mostly political grifters, but that can’t possibly apply to the great and almighty Owen Jones.

But first, who the fuck is Owen Jones? You can’t possibly expect people to know random schmuck grifters that you fangirl over.

Owen Jones (born 8 August 1984)[2] is a left-wing British newspaper columnist, commentator, journalist, author and political activist.[3] He writes a column for The Guardian and contributes to the New Statesman, Tribune, and The National[4] and was previously a columnist for The Independent. He has two weekly web series, The Owen Jones Show and The Owen Jones Podcast.

Well well well, looky what we got here. It looks like I was right all along. Now explain to me again how this guy is supposed to invalidate my points about the quality of sources and journalistic standards? If anything you’re proving me right here.