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Islamism is the true Persian culture.
Nah, that's Muslim colonizing. Look up Zoroastrianism.
Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown
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Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown
#92Many are protesting because of the sanctions, considered war crimes, imposed by the west onto them. The US and its allies have attacked the currency and the availability of goods for the common Iranian. This is how regime change works. This is what is happening in Cuba as well. You starve and disenfranchise the average person to make regime change by internal bad-actors more successful. Therefore many citizens protes…
I think it's right and honest to admit that this is one of the methods that sanctions are supposed to work. But it's also not the only method - and framing the intent as inducing "regime change by internal bad-actors" is also a very slanted way to articulate intent, as well as what is happening on the ground.
On the other hand, without being on the ground, we cannot really say what the real balance of grievances are.
Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown
#93Sorry about the whataboutery but it's "funny" how chaos in non Western-allied countries gets so much coverage, even when it doesn't affect us, but shit like the people of France's New Caledonia trying to get independence doesn't: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6S1AFh88PE I didn't even know about that, just that it was a beautiful place and looked it up one day to fantasize about a potential future vacation, and saw…
> but shit like the people of France's New Caledonia trying to get independence doesn't
They had 3 referendums since 2018. So it seems nobody is stopping them from leaving if they wanted to...
Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown
#94“To simplify greatly, the strategy of non-violence aims first to cause disruption (non-violently) in order both to draw attention but also in order to bait state overreaction. The state’s overreaction then becomes the ‘spectacular attack’ which broadcasts the movement’s message, while the group’s willingness to endure that overreaction without violence not only avoids alienating supporters, it heightens the contrast…
This seems to only have a good track record in places with a democratic tradition. Some dictators have figured out you can just imprison and kill the opposition, and keep doing this until there is no more opposition.
The Khomeini government is not going to just say "oh, you're right" and change. Neither will the Kim or Putin governments. Sometimes - sadly - violence is the least worst answer.
Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
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What, since released, internal memos or journals from mid-century civil rights leaders have revealed that destroying the constitution was their objective? Seems like a stretch.
I believe the civil rights leaders themselves were mostly genuine. I think they were used as useful idiots on a couple instances to support the two most destructive policies of the US.
(1) Secession. This was used for evil in the form of slavery. But it is the most powerful check of federal power by the states we had. The fact it could be used for evil did not mean it is better to get rid of it.
(2) Expansion of the interstate commerce clause to mean basically anything. A main argument for why this can't be reversed is that it would destroy the civil rights acts, which acts upon even intrastate business. Rather what should have happened is 15th amendment should have been written to apply to private entities as well, instead of blasting away the interstate commerce clause.
Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
My impression is that protests in the West are largely MAGA aligned and focused more on regime change. Totally different target audience. Observe “MIGA” slogans and Trump’s face in this video from Los Angeles https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=20T6XrrLdiA&pp=ygUYbG9zIGFuZ2V... Edit: Also, the Left seems to more often pick sides when its one ethnic group oppressing another, as identity politics is prominent in their messag…
If anything it feels more surprising that the foreign protests aren't getting more coverage. They've been huge, it seems.
Inside Iran the message is similar: get Donald Trump’s attention. And the stated goal of the action is to reinstall the Shah as the head of a caretaker government who pinky swear promises to let the people choose how they want to be governed. This is problematic for civic minded Westerners for obvious reasons.
Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Generally in global politics if you are just killing your own people everything is cool. People don’t really get into it until you cross borders.
People seemed to care about the Myanmar and Chinese genocides. Muslim victims. Non-muslim oppressors. But Central Africa, Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, etc? Extreme suffering. But the activists don't activate.
> Myanmar
Did they? It was occasionally in the news but that's about it.
Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
> non-violence Armed Baloch and Kurdish groups have been boasting of firing on Iranian police. The police are firing back. Hard to call them non-violent when they openly boast about armed attacks. Who knows where they are getting their weapons, with western countries also openly declaring their intent to destabilize Iran.
The Baloch movement is orthogonal to the students movement. Jaish al-Adl would continue bombing Iranian police stations regardless of who's in power in Tehran as long as India maintains operational control of Chabahar Port, Chabahar-Zahedan Railway, and INSTC. Similarly, the BLA and BNA would continue bombing Pakistani police stations regardless of who's in power in Islamabad/Pindi as long as China maintains operatio…
There is some crossover otherwise agencies wouldn’t have killed Sabeen Mahmud.
Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown
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Idk, I’ve never seen any left wing folks actively support the Iranian regime. I think the difference is what you noted, the US support for Israel vs. intervention in Iran. I, and many I know, would love to see the Iranian regime fall, just not via US regime change which tends to make things worse.
That's because most left wing Americans don't support the Iranian regime.
People that ask "where are all the students on campus that were protesting Gaza" do so because taking action on injustice, in a way that demands accountability from their leaders, is an uncomfortable idea. For them, the purpose of taking action is largely to signal moral outrage, and making an aggrieved post on social media is the beginning and end of praxis on an issue. And if that is your mindset, why wouldn't you make an equal amount of posts about Iran as you would for Gaza? Since they are both Things That Are Morally Bad.
What they don't understand is that for people that e.g. protest in person, protesting isn't a quaint, feckless action merely meant to signal one's care about an issue to the right people. Rather, it is an action with a goal to effect specific change of behavior on a particular issue from a specific group of people (usually leaders in power that are beholden to the protesters). If you are American and protesting US military support for Israel based on the conflict in Gaza, there are practical, material, direct cause-and-effect reasons to make that argument towards your elected representatives; the same is simply not true for the Iran situation (which the majority of the US government is already aligned with bombing yet again).
It's just such a strange point of view to interpret lack of action on a particular issue as tacit support.
Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Iraq now is a lot richer and freer than it was under Saddam Hussein.
Is it richer than before western sanctions? It is always the same story: Look how poorly the regime manages the country! Never said: The country is under such sanctions/blockade that any western country would have already folded long ago.
That's very hard to answer considering Iraq spent most of the 80s in a very costly and extremely brutal (and even more pointless) war with Iraq.