That's at least mildly redundant.

On the flip side.. where does the rhetoric of "working people in Iran/USA have xyz in common" get us either? Is it bringing us any closer to peace? No, because that kind of sentiment is irrelevant to geopolitics.

Ants from different colonies have a lot in common too yet they still go to war.

Side with nationalism cause *hands in pockets shrug*.

I didn't side with anything. We're talking about "where do we go with xyz rhetoric" and I'm just applying that to that specific line of rhetoric. It's equally aimless and fruitless as what LF said tbh. Iranians and Americans have stuff in common. Cool. What difference does that make??

Well, my position is that the utter irrelevance of the "workers unite" talk notwithstanding, the idea that "geopolitics" is divorceable from or anterior to ideology is every bit as ideologically-driven as insect metaphors.

More than happy to leave it at that, I'm here to talk about Siouxsie and the Banshees.

I didn't say geopolitics and ideology are divorced. I said the the sentiment that we're all just people is irrelevant to the geopolitical pressures which manifest themselves in actual conflict.

The Germans living under Nazi Germany had a lot in common with us too. Once again what difference does that actually make?

Well if you accept your place in the world under rich wealth extractors then it doesn't make any difference.

And if you don't...?

I would say that yes, military combat indeed collapses whatever ideas of shared humanity that we may have.

I wouldn't confound this with something as vague and incoherent as "geopolitical pressures" though. It can mean anything from "in order to prosper, Germans must carve vast territories to the east into their Lebensraum by ethnically cleansing and enslaving local populations, who they regard as biologically inferior" to "we need to renegotiate the terms of our access to this source of water."

Well if nothing else you don't become a boring, passionless lump who might as well be an accountant in a thrift store suit.