The Suicide State [First Half]

Murtaza Hussain, senior reporter at Drop Site News, comes on the show to talk about the war in Iran. But (of course) we end up talking about Israel—and how they’re scrambling to keep war in the Middle East going at any cost.

Nota bene: this was taped on July 3rd. Since then the ceasefire between the US and Iran—in so much as there was one—has collapsed.

Also discussed: when the goal is the creation of chaos, ethnic religion, draining down the bank of moral capital, the strength of a diasporic people is that they’re not all concentrated in one place, moving from offshore balancing to Israeli hegemony, don’t forget the evangelical component, underestimating the continuity of Persian civilization, the state of Israel as pastiche, “you’re into the Abrahamic or you’re not,” TM-ing ideas, how Mamdani doesn’t ever have a cunt-y moment, how the institutional memory of the Catholic Church puts everything in perspective, suppressing the student protests is suppressing future elites at their most impressionable moment, “Israel is trying to race to the end of history,” using Gaza as a verb, and the real question: is Iran coming out on top here?

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