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First they came for the Iranians

scottaaronson.com

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Re: First they came for the Iranians

#371

Post by whenwillitstop »

helpfulanon wrote: post #35

What's more worrisome is how fervently anti-science the new administration is. Academics may eventually be persecuted in the US across the board - as they are already at the EPA, USDA etc - and regardless of citizenship. I firmly believe anyone with a brain should begin making contingency plans to regroup somewhere like Australia or Japan, outside of the reaches of far-right populism. An Erdogan-style academic purge…

This couldn't be farther from the truth. People branding the current administration like this are destabilizing the country. The media in this country is on an ideological witch hunt, and you are proliferating it.

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#372

Post by smnrchrds »

owaislone wrote: post #212
thret wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saeed Malekpour is still in prison, that alone for me makes Iran a no-go country. http://thenextweb.com/me/2012/01/19/death-sentence-for-irani...

Iran is horrible. It's a nightmare to live but it's much much better than Saudi

As an Iranian, I have to say it's mostly boring. This article, originally written about Malaysia, hits close to home:

https://tompepinsky.com/2017/01/06/everyday-authoritarianism...

What you hear in the news about Iran is not its everyday life. Imagine if you lived in a country where the only news you saw in the media about the US was violence and police brutality and just all the bad stuff. How would you have imagined it would be like to do something mundane, for example go down the street to buy some milk? You would have imagined that you would get mugged for sure, maybe shot during mugging, then tased by the police that decided to arrest you when you called 911 for an ambulance, and handed a million dollar bill for the hospital stay, and then you have to spend the next 30 years in a for-profit prison as a slave getting constantly sexually assaulted.

The interesting thing is Iranian media portrays the US in the same caricaturistic ‎manner that the US media portrays Iran. My family were legitimately concerned about my safety when I announced my intention to go to Texas for a PhD. Probably as worried as you would be if you had to move to Iran.

(I ended up going to Canada instead, so it's all good.)

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#374

Post by gspetr »

csomar wrote: post #301

Wow. This is more hostile than I ever imagined. Banning 70 million people from Iran when there is no terrorism link for the country is, at best, idiotic. (Iran is anti-ISIS and apart from its conflict with the US has no precedent of terrorism) I'm really speechless.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_and_state-sponsored_terro...

In July 2012, the United States State Department released a report on terrorism around the world in 2011. The report states that "Iran remained an active state sponsor of terrorism in 2011 and increased its terrorist-related activity" and that "Iran also continued to provide financial, material, and logistical support for terrorist and militant groups throughout the Middle East and Central Asia."

This is not a report from a Republican administration but Obama's administration.

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#375

Post by PopsiclePete »

CptJamesCook wrote: post #112

People seem more upset that Trump is not letting people into the country than that Obama has been dropping bombs on 6 of these countries. I'm not wild about the Trump immigration ban on these countries, but I really, really hope he ends these wars.

You can be mad at both things, or none. You don't have to pick or choose one over the other. I can be hungry and thirsty at the same time, or I can be tired and also have a mean sun-burn. The two issues are pretty unrelated.

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#376

Post by guard-of-terra »

EdHominem wrote: post #360
guard-of-terra wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who decides for me what's a threat and what is not? Isn't there the same sort of people who during Communism decided whether I need any sausage or can go without?

Reality. I'm not saying the threat is low and you should suck it up, I'm saying the threat is nonexistent.

It's your freedom to say that, and my freedom to not agree with it.

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#377

Post by qubex »

StavrosK wrote: post #196
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On behalf of my fellow Americans, please allow me to offer you our deepest apology. Please know that most of our country doesn't hate or fear you. We will continue to do everything we can to fight this policy and others like it.

> We will continue to do everything we can to fight this policy and others like it. You say that, but I'm afraid the implication might be "short of doing anything that matters". Where are the protests? Why aren't people in the streets? Don't make the same mistake Germans did under Hitler. The government relies on each step affecting few enough people that nobody will be bothered enough to march, and after a thousand…

I'm afraid that even protests won't carry much weight against the tone-deaf bunch of corporate-funded cadre of bigoted politicians this electoral cycle has ushered into power on a narrow but fanatic power base. The first occasion for actually affecting matters will not arise before the next Congressional electoral cycle. The whole world is stuck with these people doing whatever meets their fancy for the next two years at least... and even then changing course will depend on the dejected silent majority somehow snapping out of their apathy and voting to say that enough is enough — that same silent majority whose apathy led to the fanatics getting their way a few months ago.

Needless to say, I'm not optimistic.

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#378

Post by gspetr »

Vintila wrote: post #233
cavisne wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

when it comes to Islam Japan goes well past "far right populism". It's not a coincidence there's less than 70k Muslims in Japan.

Genuine question, is there an anti-muslim immigration policy in japan or some other force at play?

That does not seem to be the case: http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/16347/is-islam-b...

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#379

Post by guard-of-terra »

TorKlingberg wrote: post #178
guard-of-terra wrote: post #5

I come from a country which can't keep its le^Wborders closed in front of anyone. So I pity those students a bit, definitely, but otherwise I'm jealous for this policy. It would address my immediate pain had it been implemented here. And yes, I do care more about my own life in a country I am a citizen of, and safety of my relatives, than about people you call "aliens".

What "immediate pain" are you suffering?

People from a different culture coming to where I live without invitation, not adjusting to local norms, trying to bring their own norms with them and force those on local population, doing horrible crimes and, most often, escaping without punishment or after a "slap on a wrist" to return later for more.

Like, "severing child's head and walking around downtown with it, blood dripping, while screaming ISIS claims" horrible.

I would really like to stop that, bonus points for sending as much of them home as humanely possible, and then holding people who let this happen in the first place direly accountable.

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#380

Post by moomin »

akamaozu wrote: post #207
guildwriter wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So one of the things I've learned as time has progressed as a software engineer is that the more time I spend programming, the more I realize how incompetent I am. The amount which I do not know just seems to grow and grow and grow. For me the same thing has come from politics. I've spent a lot of time reading and listening to not only NPR, the NY Times, The New Yorker, but also right leaning sites like Drudge, Insta…

Case in point: Some fervent Christians don't have a problem with gay marriage. Nobody meets God's standard; feels pointless to wage war on anyone else who doesn't when we don't either.

The thing a lot of conservatives miss here is that, for a lot of progressives, gay marriage is a moral imperative. Not caring isn't good enough if you're still happy to vote for someone like Mike Pence.
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