> Israelis are not abruptly incompetent and culturally allergic to progress, with a predictable habit of grovelling to whichever tyrant comes next

I can't tell what you mean by this? Is it sarcasm? Is there another group who is like this?

Oh, I see. The parent comment was referring to russia, but the replies got so long that it's hardly noticeable. I should have mentioned it."

Still not sure what you mention. Hard to say that Israelis don't grovel to whatever tyrant comes next when they are currently ruled by a tyrant who would rather endanger his citizens and commit war crimes than gold and election he knows he'll lose. Also they have elected him over and over again despite how he endangers them and funded their current biggest enemy Hamas, in a cynical ploy to weaken his more moderate opposition at the time, the PA

I understand, but I don't perceive them as tyrants in the "Russian" sense. That’s not to excuse anything, of course. There’s this strange tendency among Russians to almost embrace suffering—and to try to drag everyone else down with them. It’s as if it doesn’t matter that they live in poverty or that their country is ravaged by oligarchs and mafia. What matters is that Russia is big and strong. That seems to be their default mindset.

But back to my original point. A few days ago, I happened to come across some pro-Israel propaganda, and honestly, I was stunned. It was just an Instagram profile claiming to be part of a pro-Israel lobbying organization, but the content was deeply disturbing. They were pushing a heavily distorted narrative, even going so far as to post photos and names of students, accusing them of supporting terrorism. It was all incredibly manipulative. The presentation was slick and more polished than rusias work of course, but the whole thing strongly reminded me of their methods.

Yeah unfortunately we thought the end of history would be the global spread of liberal democracies, but it's the global spread of this kind of stuff instead

To be honest, I think things have just become more visible and easier to interpret for those who are paying attention. I don't believe people have really changed.

The "end of history" theory today comes across, if not arrogant, then at the very least deeply naive.