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Slack closes account of an Iranian user living in Canada

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Re: Slack closes account of an Iranian user living in Canada

#121
post #19
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone I have ever met that has been to Iran absolutely raves about it. I've never met a single person that didn't extend their stay, and doesn't rate it as hands down the best country they have ever been to. It's very, very high on my list. But if you have an American or British passport you currently can't go without an escort. (I'm an Overlander, I drove AK-Argentina and am now driving right around Africa. I've…

This sounds a bit interesting, extending trips doesn't sound like a common occurrence, but you say you met 200+ people that did just that?

Oh, extending is super-common. Once you're in a country it's really easy to extend your visa, even if was hard to get in the first place.

I extended in Angola when getting a visa there was hard, I extended it in Mali, Zimbabwe, just looked into it in Ethiopia, etc.

Of course, as Overlanders we have our own vehicles are I'd say 50% of us are not time limited [1], so we just stay as long as we want in countries we like.

[1] NOTE: Many of us - me included - are money limited, not time limited.

Re: Slack closes account of an Iranian user living in Canada

#122
post #74

As an outsider, I am really surprised by how deep-rooted America's hostility is towards Iran. Shi'ite Iran certainly has human rights issues, but as far as terrorism is concerned the majority of them are orchestrated by Sunni groups. 9/11 hijackers, Al Queda, Islamic State, Paris attackers - are all Sunni.

On the other hand the regime supports destabilizing groups throughout the middle east. They want to contend to be the main influence there along with Saudi.

They also from time to time threaten oil supplies and threaten Europe with restarting their missile programme. They’ve been quite nettlesome.

However, with more energy independence the present US administration seems to be disengaging from the ME, in contrast to the last two admins,

Re: Slack closes account of an Iranian user living in Canada

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree about going to the self-hostable path. I would add as an alternative, looking for non-US products, maybe from neutral countries. As someone mentioned in the twitter thread, this could happen to any product: Google, Facebook, even taking the bus!

Neutral countries? What’s a neutral country?

It's Switzerland.

Re: Slack closes account of an Iranian user living in Canada

#124
post #96
post #74

As an outsider, I am really surprised by how deep-rooted America's hostility is towards Iran. Shi'ite Iran certainly has human rights issues, but as far as terrorism is concerned the majority of them are orchestrated by Sunni groups. 9/11 hijackers, Al Queda, Islamic State, Paris attackers - are all Sunni.

Iran is an easy enemy for the US government to offer to its citizens. Because of the fairly harsh anti-US rhetoric circulated by the Iranian government to its citizens since the revolution (itself because of our previous support of the Shah and current support of Israel) for purposes of maintaining power, it's easy to say "Look, Iran hates America." The Shia / Sunni distinction is largely lost on the average American…

To be completely fair about the last point, immigrants you meet in the US are not a representative sample. I say this as an immigrant myself. The Bangladeshis and Pakistanis I’ve met in the US are educated and relatively liberal, having gotten through our immigration filters. But the beliefs and attitudes of people back in the country are totally different. For example, American muslims are slightly more liberal than americans as a whole on homosexuality, and 60% of Americans say society should accept homosexuality. In Pakistan it’s 2%: http://www.pewglobal.org/2013/06/04/the-global-divide-on-hom...)

Also relevant: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiM...

Re: Slack closes account of an Iranian user living in Canada

#125
post #83
post #74

As an outsider, I am really surprised by how deep-rooted America's hostility is towards Iran. Shi'ite Iran certainly has human rights issues, but as far as terrorism is concerned the majority of them are orchestrated by Sunni groups. 9/11 hijackers, Al Queda, Islamic State, Paris attackers - are all Sunni.

Most Americans have as their only understanding a picture of Iran in their minds of the overthrow of the shah and IEDs in the past 14 years of war. Very few Americans would even understand that Iran isn't like the rest of the ME and has a very different history. Americans in general aren't well educated about the ME and the ethnic and religious differences there -- even the past 17 years of war there haven't tipped t…

Most americans would be surprised that the situation for womens' rights, while not ideal, is significantly better in Iran than in the nation of our "good friends" Saudi Arabia. By very nearly any metric: Number of women with professional educated jobs, number of women with bachelors degrees or masters degrees from large, recognized universities, number of women who drive their own vehicles independently around their home cities without male accompaniment, etc.

Re: Slack closes account of an Iranian user living in Canada

#126
Welcome to the brave new world of the "cloud": you data, business, money, most intimate secrets and livelihood is at the whims of a foreign corporation that will stop at nothing if it means 2 cents more on their bottom line, or gets them on the good side of a government entity.

You have no rights, you have no intrinsic human valuu and you have no means to fight for yourself.

Re: Slack closes account of an Iranian user living in Canada

#127
Its quite simple: don't use Slack. Its a walled garden and there will always be incidents like this for as long as people don't appreciate that these companies don't have any commitment to you, for as long as you are just using their services for free.

Use IRC. Its not nearly as walled off.

Re: Slack closes account of an Iranian user living in Canada

#128
post #74

As an outsider, I am really surprised by how deep-rooted America's hostility is towards Iran. Shi'ite Iran certainly has human rights issues, but as far as terrorism is concerned the majority of them are orchestrated by Sunni groups. 9/11 hijackers, Al Queda, Islamic State, Paris attackers - are all Sunni.

* cough * Israel * cough *.

cough AIPAC cough

You just have to see those anti-Israel boycott clauses that people have been talking about recently. And on the other hand, no problems with Saudi Arabia because they are friends with Israel. America is Israel's whore. It's sad when you come to think of it.

Re: Slack closes account of an Iranian user living in Canada

#130
post #74

As an outsider, I am really surprised by how deep-rooted America's hostility is towards Iran. Shi'ite Iran certainly has human rights issues, but as far as terrorism is concerned the majority of them are orchestrated by Sunni groups. 9/11 hijackers, Al Queda, Islamic State, Paris attackers - are all Sunni.

* cough * Israel * cough *.

This. It's sad how much influence they have on American foreign policy.
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