this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
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Here's the process as I understand it (please correct my errors):

  1. USA likes Israel, a lot for some reason
  2. "Israel" attacks Iran. This whole thing is being done with the USA's airplanes though.
  • Why does the USA love Israel so much?
  • What's the logic here? Not just the conspiracy. But why now? Why at all? Is Israel gaining something that I'm not seeing? Destabilization the main goal? What's the USA gaining here?
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[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 3 points 36 minutes ago* (last edited 34 minutes ago)
  1. Republicans since the 60s have only ever had two ideas: invade countries and lower taxes on the rich.

  2. Trump is surrounded by republicans and is a 90 yr old narcissist. He either has dementia or doesn't give a fuck what happens

  3. he has reached new levels of unpopularity due to his status as an epstein style sex predator of kids, his killing of americans in an attempt to punish 'santuary cities' by violating the constitution using ICE as a political tool, as well as tariff bullshit.

  4. trump when in a pinch tries to do a new "newsworthy event" to reset the news cycles. Often it will be some advisor of his that has the idea. Its clear that being surrounded by republicans "invade iran" is probably a regular mantra.

  5. he needed a new diversion and "invade iran" was one of the few ideas left.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 47 minutes ago

Gives them a pretense to give money to the weapons industry -> weapons industry has higher profit -> stock goes up -> Dow Jones is over 50k, which makes their other crimes legal.

[–] blueworld@piefed.world 1 points 28 minutes ago* (last edited 24 minutes ago)

This is a great question and one that is worth diving into a bit, but not necessarily by me. There are a plethora of answers here with some insightful and some less so backgrounds. I suggest that you dig into some outside sources and potentially you can work through the complexity of the answer as history often is.

I’m sure others have some great references as well, but given this crowd I’d suggest some youtube videos. I also suggest some recently written long form articles in foreign affairs which is always good for understanding context, as well as a few books.

RealLifeLore:

Related:

Also Foreign Affairs has some good long form pieces:

Book wise I recommend:

  • Worlds Apart: A Documentary History of US-Iranian Relations, 1978–2018 by Malcolm Byrne and Kian Byrne offers a meticulously curated collection of declassified documents tracing pivotal moments in bilateral tensions, including the Iranian Revolution and nuclear negotiations

  • Axis of Empire: A History of Iran-US Relations by Afshin Matin-Asgari examines America’s Cold War hegemony, the shah’s regime, the 1979 Revolution, and Trump-era escalations, including the 2025 US-Israel attempt at regime change in Tehran

  • Iran’s Perilous Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons by David Albright uses Mossad-seized Iranian documents to detail clandestine weapons efforts, assassinations of scientists, and cyberwarfare like Stuxnet

[–] redsand@infosec.pub 11 points 2 hours ago

THE FILES WERE MADE TO START WARS. This multinational blackmail campaign has been running since the 80s to let a handful of rich men(and Ghislaine and her sister) control countries, industries, resources, borders and anything else they want.

Also a bunch of billionaires want more money, feudalism, Skynet, the literal Rapture, and other competing bad ideas.

[–] Paragone@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

"Why is the USA attacking Iran?"

Trump's insecurity:

By associating with "biblical" Netanyahu's "Israel", he gains "validity".

By bombing someone, he gains "authority".

By pretending that his-regime's actions benefit the protestors in Iran, he gains "humanitarian credibility", while warring against the people living in the US's own Democrat states.

By doing all this NOW, he deflects from his being an Epstein-associate who's on evidence for crimes against women, & girls.

See the PATTERN, not just some single-aspect of it, & then it makes more sense.

_ /\ _

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 15 points 3 hours ago

Well, this one ought to lead to a calm discussion.

[–] Pratai@piefed.ca 61 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

You’d be amazed at what a cabal of pedophiles will do to protect their secrets.

[–] maniclucky@lemmy.world 16 points 4 hours ago

The word is horrified, but yes.

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 70 points 6 hours ago (7 children)

Israel allows the U.S. to maintain a foothold in the Middle East and have an influence in the region (which is plentiful in natural resources like oil), that's the gist of it. The U.S. also has a large Jewish community that is generally pro-Israel (not all of them, but many are. In recent events, many Jewish groups in America are now condemning Israel for their war in Gaza, starving the population, all that heinous stuff)

Iran's government has made it clear that they don't like Israel's existence (due to their displacement of Palestinians, various war crimes, that sort. They also don't like that they are so heavily American influenced). They don't like the U.S. either, as they believe that they are an imperialist power that wants to take advantage of the Middle East. That is one reason that the United States deems Iran an enemy. Note that Iran's government's viewpoint is not necessarily the same as those of the Iranian people. Additionally, the state of Iran funds many proxy terrorist groups across the Middle East, all of which do terrible terrorist things, which the U.S. doesn't like at all (especially when they do terrorist things against American citizens living in the Middle East).

Israel and Iran's rivalry (and you can include the Saudi Arabia, UAE in this too) is mostly down to wanting to be top dog in the Middle East, having the most influence and power, and it doesn't help that they have very different beliefs (not just religion, different styles of government, different policies, that sort)

TLDR:

U.S. supports Israel for Middle East influence

U.S. don't like that Iran's government is anti-America and anti-Israel, and they don't like that they support terrorist groups either

Israel competes with Iran for power in the Middle East, and have very different beliefs

Please note that I am not trying to incite a political debate. America and Israel has done bad stuff (war crimes, imperialism, etc), Iran has done bad stuff (terrorist proxies, political repression, etc), both are bad in my book.

[–] mkwt@lemmy.world 16 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

They don't like the U.S. either, as they believe that they are an imperialist power that wants to take advantage of the Middle East. That is one reason that the United States deems Iran an enemy.

In 1953, the CIA and MI6 effectively ended representative democracy in Iran when they backed a coup d'etat that deposed Iranian prime minister Mohammed Mosadegh. Mosadegh had tried to audit the books of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (which later became a division of BP).

The 1953 coup resulted in the Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, ruling autocratically and with heavy support from the United States. This status continued until 1979, when an Islamist revolution deposed the Shah and installed the Islamist government led by a clerical Supreme Leader that exists today.

In 2013, the CIA released declassified documents that showed that the CIA planned and carried out the 1953 coup using all kinds of abhorrent tactics, including bribery of public officials, astroturfed paid protesters, and false flag operations.

So hopefully that explains why the US is "the great Satan" to Iran, and why Iran keeps spouting "death to USA" rhetoric.

[–] IronBird@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago

yup, anyone who seriously questions why so much of the world hates the US has nwver opened a history book. there are many many reasons, damn near all of them generally coming back to a sovereign nation trying to check the US's extractive, unsustainable, capitalist-colonialism

[–] protist@mander.xyz 24 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

This is way bigger than just Israel, most of the Gulf Arab states hate Iran and would love to see its government fall. They've been funnelling literally billions of dollars to the Trump family since just before he took office again. The Qataris, Emiratis, Bahrainis, and Saudis are all openly bribing Trump, and this attack is almost certainly at least partially, if not mostly, driven by their talks with Trump behind the scenes.

[–] Lodespawn@aussie.zone 26 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Iran also hates the US for past CIA fuckery that got them to their current policy nonsense

Them, and about 100+ other countries.

[–] RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world 12 points 6 hours ago (10 children)

So why was NOW the time? What's the USA really gaining here with these strikes?

[–] IronBird@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

all these other comments are giving far too much credit to those in-power in the US right.

the only thing that matters to republicans, all establishment US politicians really (and especially any taking $ from AIPAC), is that their lines go up. once capitalism reaches a certain point, the best way to make your line go up is to just start breaking shit.

this the republicans role within the larger US economic/political cycle. they act to actively try to crash the US economy every time they're in power, as they're abject disaster capitalists....smart people have to hedge when instability threatens their bottom lines, disaster capitalists run around throwing rocks at windows. those that can't keep up and go out of business are just bought up as distressed assets by those that have been around the block a few times.

everything these sociopathic cunts do is ultimately used as a way to extract liquidity out of the US's stock/futures/bond markets (purposefully unregulated, relative to most other markets around the world)....every...single...time.

trump is ultimately just an incredibly easy tool for the real powers that control the US to enact their disaster capitalism as they see fit

follow the money, it is the only thing actually sacred to capitalists (extra so for american capitalists)

[–] Borger@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Distraction from the Epstein files, amongst other things. I straight up call this the Epstein war.

[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

To bring detail to this, the Republican Party has been wanting this for a long time. Some want the oil control, some have fanatical religious beliefs (encouraged by the greedy oil-wanting ones) that want to see Israel win because it brings about the “end of days” and they will be “raptured” into heaven (body and all) while the rest of us foolish non-believers perish in hell.

Trump and Co. are using this desire of theirs to make them happy with him, distracting from the disgusting crimes that are coming to light about him. They won’t remove him and his criminal cabal from power if he keeps them happy by giving them the things they’ve always wanted, so they get to keep living and be in power as long as those freaks are happy.

As ridiculous this sounds, there are many many people in power who would oppose removing Trump, and have the ability to crush any dissent that would do so outside of the process of law, which they currently control through state violence. So, it’s not so easy as “fuck you guys, you’re insane, we’re not listening to you anymore, he’s gone” since they hold all the cards and that leads to a much bigger conflict for control of the most powerful nation on earth.

Ironically, the current state of Iran is a good analogue for what happens when a sudden power vacuum appears, and we don’t want to be ruled by a Christian cabal any more than we want what we currently have.

As much as we deserve it after all this, I sure hope we don’t find out; if only for my own sake.

[–] Kyouki@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago

As well as calling Iran attempted to influence elections while Trump tries to get national emergency powers enacted so he can cancel elections.

[–] FistingEnthusiast@lemmy.world 24 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Israel has some real, incontrovertible dirt on Trump that they are holding over him

He's also desperate to have the US at war so he can suspend elections, because he knows that he will be hurt by the midterms

He's also pathetically insecure, and history has traditionally looked back fondly at wartime leaders like Churchill and the like. He's hoping for that

And the worst motivation, but one that I sincerely believe is accurate, is that he wants to use nuclear weapons. He wants to be remembered as a president who pushed the button. He's a child, and he wants to play with all the toys

I hope he dies before he can do more harm

[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 5 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

I.have no.idea what they'd know.that isn't public already. In the past I'd say the Epstein connection but that's all public. What the fuck could be in the files we don't know about?

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Only half of the files have been released.

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 4 points 4 hours ago (1 children)
[–] UniversalBasicJustice@quokk.au 3 points 3 hours ago

And text only thus far. The Epstein files aren't emails, they are TERABYTES of CSAM and worse videos and pictures.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 hours ago

Murder, rape, pedophilia directly linked to government.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Distraction. Americans have a long history of supporting any asshole as President the second they declare war. As long as the war is "over there" and with other's kids.

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 11 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

In the past, there have been moves against Iran (sanctions and the sort that are worsening their already mismanaged economy) but the recent strikes have been down mostly because Iran doesn't really have any allies that are able to support them should they get attacked. Russia has their invasion of Ukraine that they are grinding soldiers in, and the Assads have been overthrown in Syria. Their bad bad economy also means they have lots of domestic issues too, making them super vulnerable.

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 6 points 6 hours ago

and many of the naughty Iranian proxies have also been weakened through a hellfire of Israeli and American bombing, like the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

[–] zxqwas@lemmy.world 8 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Russia is impotent to act. Iran had recent protests indicating that the regime is weak. China has not done anything preemptive and can't do anything now because it's too late.

Best case protests reignites and replaces the regime with something less US hostile. Worst case denies China cheap oil and Russia some war materials for a while.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

China? Why would China give a fuck about Iran?

It's 2026, not 1980.

[–] zxqwas@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

They don't really care about Iran other than that they are useful for annoying the US and they have oil they are forced to sell at a discount due to western sanctions.

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[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 4 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Note that America's support for Israel has exist since pretty much when it was founded after the end of WWII by Britain, this certainly isn't a new thing. As for the dislike of Iran, that has been a thing for ages too (see the coup against the democratically elected leader when they were against American business interests, Iranian revolution that propped up the new government and had Americans living in the embassy taken hostage by protesters)

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[–] fizzle@quokk.au 20 points 6 hours ago

There's a complex set of reasons but my take is:

Trump needs a national emergency so he can implement restrictions on voting in November. He's already cited election interference in 2020 and 2024 as the reason for the invasion. He will use this to issue executive orders banning mail in voting and to ensure ICE are present at polling booths.

Additionally, Trump is very easy to manipulate. If a couple of other leaders like Bibi and Putin said "hey everyone would think you were so amazing if you flattened Iran right now", he would do that, 100%. Some people are saying that someone is blackmailing Trump because they have the unredacted Epstein files, but I don't think you really need that to manipulate Trump.

[–] Peruvian_Skies@sh.itjust.works 35 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

To distract from the Epstein files and make Trump's handlers money on oil.

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[–] Solitaire20X6@sh.itjust.works 12 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

POTUS Donald Trump intends to use America's wars with Iran and Venezuela as justification for cancelling the US midterm elections for Congress. That will prevent the hugely unpopular Republicans, today all Trump Nazis, from losing power.

It shouldn't work; the US has had plenty of wartime elections, and the POTUS should not have that power, anyway. But US law means nothing to today's Republicans or the Nazi, Donald John Trump.

Trump will decree the midterms cancelled; blue states will tell him to fuck off, while red states will agree. Half the country won't even prepare their polling places. The whole mess will go to SCOTUS, and in flagrant disagreement with the US Constitution that they're sworn to uphold, they will side with Trump. The midterms will be cancelled. The 2028 POTUS election will similarly be cancelled. The Republicans will remain in power without the support of the majority of the US population, and Trump will be a full-fledged dictator and POTUS for life, free from prosecution for his numerous crimes.

Trump is the most powerful and successful criminal in US history, and his iron-fisted reign of terror continues because the Biden Administration was too feckless to bring him to justice when they could. If Trump wasn't POTUS, today he would be in jail or house arrest, and barred from further participation in US politics because of his J6 insurrection. But he is POTUS, and he's all too happy to abuse that power to the fullest to remain a free and happy Nazi.

[–] Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 8 points 5 hours ago

Let's not all forget that Israel is not finished eradicating Palestine, but now everyone is looking at Iran. Violence in Gaza will again escalate but now with no coverage because a bigger war has started.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 14 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Oh you are new to this? America has always been on Israel side, for decades. Its their proxy for operations in the middle east.

[–] erusuoyera@sh.itjust.works 15 points 6 hours ago

“[Supporting Israel] is the best $3 billion investment we make. Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.” US senator Joe Biden, 1986.

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[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 7 points 6 hours ago

Broad strokes explanations:

  1. USA likes Israel, a lot for some reason

The US like many other countries support the existence of the Jewish state. That's a direct result of the Shoah. And then it got more complicated real fast. Wars, annexing the west bank, aggressive settlement and displacing the people who have lived there for ages, the Gaza wars, etc. - it makes it impossible to support it all.

  1. "Israel" attacks Iran. This whole thing is being done with the USA's airplanes though.

No quotation marks necessary; this is a joint operation from everything I've read. The US has the biggest and most well equipped military force on this planet and does a lot of the heavy lifting.

Israel has a lot to fear from Iran. Iran has been a dick and has strong missile capabilities that they do not hesitate to launch at Israel, possibly overpowering their air defenses. Iran has funded and equipped lots of militias fighting Israel, like Hezbollah in Gaza.

Upon the mullah revolution, Iranians stormed the US embassy in Teheran, killed people and held another bunch hostage. The US became the #1 enemy of the Iranian regime. Between Israel and the US there is no love lost for the Iranian regime.

  • What's the logic here? Not just the conspiracy.

There is continued unrest in the country; the majority of the Iranian people are fed up with their government. The timing is right in so many ways. A weakened Iran, leaders who dgaf about international law, the need for the US and Israeli leaders to score a win. Also, elections held while at war have a tendency to cement the incumbents in power.

But why now?

Israel's Netanyahu is under pressure for corruption and the war in Gaza. 47 is under pressure with failing approval ratings, Epstein, etc. A successful military operation can help both leaders improve their image for upcoming elections.

Why at all? Is Israel gaining something that I'm not seeing? Destabilization the main goal? What's the USA gaining here?

The world will be better without an Islamist authoritarian government in Iran. Israel and the US have already destroyed Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions last year. The regime is on the ropes with unrest in the country. Israel is getting more secure if the mullahs fall. Unless you are a lover of Islamist fundamentalism or a stern believer in international law, there is nobody who is rooting for these bastards to stay in power.

Iran is also an enemy of the Saudis, another close ally of the US. The calculus would be that a newly liberal Iran, maybe even democratized, would be a stabilizing factor in that region.

The biggest problem is that since Germany in 1945 no regime change has worked.

Broad strokes, all of this. The whole truth is more verbose and nuanced.

[–] ccunning@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)
  • Why does the USA love Israel so much?

U.S. politicians love Israel for their campaign contributions.

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 5 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (3 children)

It's a part of an infinite proxy war between the USSR and their successors Russia and China, against the interests of the USA and Europe.

Iran is a puppet state for China, currently, and they provided weapons and funds for Hamas leading up to the October music festival attack and capture of hostages reigniting the war and consequently the Gaza Genocide. Previously the Russian backed Syria was also a key player but they collapsed recently due to civil war (revolutionaries partially funded by the USA and UK).

Israel is supposed to be the USA's "puppet state" in the same vein, but tbh they're so rogue and don't fuckin listen on anything and they've got so much economic ties to Russia such as Abromovich steel and international distribution that they're just a bad friend that the USA is stuck with because the second best friend they had in the region, Afghanistan, fell due to Trump incompetently releasing 5,000 Taliban fighters from US Custody, and number 3 is Iraq and the USA spent a long time waging war in Iraq for virtually no reason due to Bush incompetence and oil executive greed but I guess we're sort of cool for now.

The USA and NATO often cooperate with Saudi Arabia as a way to fight extremism in the region, though they're not US allies and they are often much more aggressive than the USA are in their tactics.

Basically, the cold war isn't over.

Oh, and, forgot to mention the "why right now" part. Yeah, so, Iranians were revolting against their leaders like a month ago because of famine and drought hitting the region. Now's just the perfect time to strike.

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[–] CactusEcho@piefed.social 4 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

The only answers i can give you without conspiracy theories:

But why now? Why at all?

The top of the Iran administration (khamenei and top military generals) decided the meet in person. Israel found out and bombed the shit out of the building. That's why khamenei and top military generals all died in the beginning of the war.

The negotiations were progressing in a good rhythm and it caught the US (Israel informed US right before the bombing, but there was nothing US could do) and Iran of guard.

Is Israel gaining something that I’m not seeing?

Iran is the only close country that still keeps an aggressive stand against Israel (mainly by using hezbollah as a proxy). By doing this Israel wants a more friendly government.

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