Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown • Hacker News Board

Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown

#241

Post by JumpCrisscross » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 5:49 PM UTC

mothballed wrote: post #150

kryogen1c wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im certainly sympathetic to #2 being one of the greatest unconstitutional practices of the modern US government, but is its genesis really the civil rights movement? There were many settled cases about interstate commerce before the Civil rights act, like Gibbons v. Ogden. https://www.britannica.com/money/commerce-clause/Interpretat...

You're absolutely right -- it's not really the genesis per se on #2, just one of the modern weapons used. Civil rights act is one of the main weapons used today to explain why we can't wind back interstate commerce clause, creating a sort of legal suicide pact where the interstate commerce clause interpretation is held hostage if you want to keep your civil rights. That is, the CRA was arguably one of the most import…

> when I mention rolling back the interstate commerce clause one of their main go to is that they're afraid I will destroyed the CRA and that's why they can't do it

I'll be honest, I've literally never seen this argument in any hall of power. And I know quite a few folks who believe in overturning Wickard.

The CRA, as currently interpreted, is more than fine on equal-protection grounds.

Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown

#242

Post by JumpCrisscross » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 5:51 PM UTC

martin-t wrote: post #185

stickfigure wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Don't say sadly. Don't further the indoctrination that violence is bad. It is a tool, it cannot be good or bad. States are the most prolific users of violence (even more when you also count potential/threatened, not yet materialized). Anyone who wants to claim that violence is bad has to oppose the existence of states. Violence is risky, dangerous, unpredictable, costly, etc. But those are practical and legal, not mo…

> Don't say sadly...It is a tool, it cannot be good or bad

It's not just a tool, it's also a human action. An action that exacts consequences on its victim and its wielder. Necessary and regrettable aren't exclusive.

Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown

#243

Post by JumpCrisscross » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 5:54 PM UTC

stickfigure wrote: post #94

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #7

“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.

> seems to only have a good track record in places with a democratic tradition

"All that said, there are very obviously regimes in the world that have rendered themselves more-or-less immune to non-violent protest. This isn’t really the place to talk about the broader concept of ‘coup proofing’ and how authoritarian regimes secure internal security, repression and legitimacy in detail. But a certain kind of regime operates effectively as a society-within-a-society, with an armed subset of the population as insiders who receive benefits in status and wealth from the regime in return for their willingness to do violence to maintain it. Such regimes are generally all too willing to gun down thousands or tens of thousands of protestors to maintain power.

The late Assad regime in Syria stands as a clear example of this, as evidently does the current regime in Iran. Such regimes are not immune to an ‘attack on will,’ but they have substantially insulated themselves from it and resistance to these regimes, if it continues, often metastasizes into insurgency or protracted war (as with the above example of Syria) because the pressure has nowhere else to go" (Id.).

Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown

#244

Post by dyauspitr » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 5:55 PM UTC

philwelch wrote: post #125

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #7

“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 works against relatively liberal governments. It didn’t work for the Tiananmen Square protestors in 1989 or for the intermittent Iranian protestors of the past couple decades because those regimes were willing to suppress those protests with overwhelming force. Fortunately, the Iranian protestors are likely to have some overwhelming force on their side soon.

I’m glad it didn’t work in 1989 because China would not have become the technical behemoth it is now if those protests had succeeded. At the same time I don’t want China to succeed and export its brand of capitofascism purely because I don’t think most other countries can find their benevolent dictator. The cognitive dissonance is wild right now.

Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown

#245

Post by gambutin » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 5:55 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #226

gambutin wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it fair to call it colonialism instead of occupation?

> Is it fair to call it colonialism instead of occupation? EDIT: Nvm.

I was referring to the Arab conquest of Iran after 633.

Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown

#246

Post by hunterpayne » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 5:56 PM UTC

don_esteban wrote: post #152

Galaxeblaffer wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One big thing your missing is that there simply is no way imaginable that a regime change can happen without the US, it's simply impossible at this stage. I can certainly understand why many if not most Iranians want the US to intervene, it's simply the only way regime change is ever going to happen.w

I have lived through regime change in Eastern Europe in 1989. A year before the change, one cannot imagine the regime change. And yet, it did happen. Bloodlessly (except Romania). Any external meddling would have probably made it much bloodier. You can be assured most Iranians do NOT want US to intervene. How many Americans want China/Russia to intervene to 'help' you get rid of Trump? Get off your high horse and use…

Empathy in this case apparently meaning allowing continued funding of terrorism across the ME and continued killing of any and all political opposition inside of Iran. So empathetic you are. Also, I'm totally sure your memories of what life was like when you were 5 are totally and completely accurate and captures the entirety of the geopolitical realities of the situation.

Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown

#247

Post by bigyabai » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 5:57 PM UTC

fortzi wrote: post #222

dataflow wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> all my friends who posted non-stop about supporting Palestine > I'm saying if you were a very vocal pro-Hamas activist Palestine ≠ Hamas Pro-Palestinian ≠ Pro-Hamas If you genuinely don't believe a significant number of people support the former but not the latter, I... don't even know what to tell you. It certainly says a lot that you can neither distinguish these two nor believe anyone else sees a distinction. >…

Maybe you should ask a few Palestinians before making such statements. Polls made by respected Palestinian surveyors show immense support for Hamas by Palestinians [1]. If you dig inti the polls, you’ll find great support in continuing the armed conflict. I’ll add: to the last man standing. While I agree with you that Hamas and the Palestinians are not one thing, Hamas would not be able to operate the way it did (and…

Even still, that data does not refute the parent's point that you are making a false equivalency.

Polling Israeli or US citizens on the extremist groups they support would be similarly dishonest; organizations like ICE, Blackwater and Irgun cannot be fairly conflated with their respective populations regardless of how the majority feels.

Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown

#248

Post by pessimizer » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 5:57 PM UTC

hunterpayne wrote: post #170

mvdtnz wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iran is totally and completely irrelevant to the lives of the vast majority of people in the West.

Iran is the major cause of political instability in the the ME. They are the primary funders for the 3 most active terrorist groups in the ME if not the world. Every single westerner pays more for things because of the instability Iran funds.

They are the only supporters of majority Shiite populations who live under western-supported Sunni and Wahabi dictators. They are a Shiite theocracy surrounded by hostile Western-supported Sunni theocracies.

> Every single westerner pays more for things because of the instability Iran funds.

This is simply a lie. Every single Westerner pays vastly more for things because they spend trillions propping up illegitimate middle eastern dictators in order to keep their natural resources cheap and accessible for sleazy western middlemen to mark up.

Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown

#249

Post by jmyeet » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 5:58 PM UTC

icegreentea2 wrote: post #92

Atlas667 wrote: post #10

Many 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.

"Sanctions" are just a sanitized way of saying "forced starvation" and "denying basic medical care" because that's what happens. For Cuba, this has been going on so long that the CIA documents about the effect of sanctions and a blockade itself has been declassified (in 2005) [1]. When faced with a UN report that estimated 500,000 children had been killed by US sanctions in 1996, then UN Ambassador and later US Secretary of State Madeline Albright famously said "the price was worth it" [2].

And sanctions don't actually work. Not against enemies anyway. Just like Cuba has endured 60+ years of sanctions and Russia has endured Ukraine-related sanctions, enemies have or build an economy to be resilient to the sanctions to the point that the regime survives, even thrives in the face of perceived exteranl threats.

Probably the only successful use of sanctions was South Africa. Why? Because apartheid South Africa was an ally so the BDS movement crippled the economy.

And most of the time sanctions have no other reason than the affected country dared to not be exploited by the West and Western companies.

[1]: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79R00904A0008000...

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iFYaeoE3n4

Re: Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown

#250

Post by appreciatorBus » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 5:58 PM UTC

Betelbuddy wrote: post #176

appreciatorBus wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So the mods at HN allow us too read about other countries protests, but not in the U.S.? I guess if all those illegal immigrants had oil, it'd be okay? > Despite how dark and sinister you've made everything sound, you've mostly just rephrased what I wrote, with a lot of pejoratives. In that sense, you're right—there isn't much disagreement here. You just think we're wrong and bad to run HN the way we do, and that's…

That is a totally different argument, than the one you were making.

Ok, how about….

95% of the moderation at HN is just the accumulated actions of your fellow readers who upvote, downvote, flag and vouch for stories and comments. If you don't like their choices or their politics, maybe try Bluesky?