Live data from Hacker News

Iran abolishes morality police

hindustantimes.com

71–80 of 266 posts

Re: Iran abolishes morality police

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha, your comment got me thinking: is there a chance Democrats and Republicans will ever be voted out?

The party system in the US does feel rigged to entrench the two remaining parties in the US. My hope is dropping first past the pole and adding ranked choice will help break up the duopoly. Still, there are glimmers of hope now and again. Like Ross Pero running as independent or the Bull Moose party.

The GOP really suffered in recent Alaskan elections after they adopted Ranked Choice voting. So expect them to very loudly and strongly oppose it being adopted anywhere, with a lot of bad-faith arguments implying it's a form of electoral corruption/manipulation and holding it up as an example of Democrat trickery.

Re: Iran abolishes morality police

#72
post #50
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no real elections in Iran, since every significant challenger to whomever the Supreme Leader decides to support will be disqualified (e.g. Raisi's election).

You should consider doing research. Even Wikipedia gives a good start. As everywhere, maintaining power is a balancing act and has flowed between factions https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Principlists https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Reformists https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_pragmatists

These are factions, do you know what a faction is?

Re: Iran abolishes morality police

#73
post #22
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look what a happened in Egypt

Well they elected religious extremists who weren’t particularly keen about democracy either. I think democracy is more than just majority rule. Of course El-Sisi’s regime is not much better..

No post body was provided.

Re: Iran abolishes morality police

#74
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the fixation on the West? This is an entirely Iranian revolution, lead by their own people, with their own, very plain goals.

Because I presume the commenter talking about how this shows them being on their last legs is Western, but mainly because I've seen countless articles about how all this is basically a great opportunity for regime change. If you believe that there's no opportunistic involvement of the various Western governments here, (to the determent of the actual Iranians protesting btw), I have a bridge to sell you. I am a citize…

Western governments may not want a regime collapse in Iran. Westerners by and large do want a regime collapse and side with the people who are demonstrating for an end to the Islamic Republic regime. Spy agencies, defense ministries, and foreign affairs advisors my not want a regime change though.

One thing to consider is that the grand theft of state monies by the IRGC largely goes to Western banks.

Re: Iran abolishes morality police

#76

"The morality police [...] were established under president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, [and] began patrols in 2006." I didn't realize they were formed that recently; I thought it would have been created at the start of the regime. Yashar Ali (@yashar) on Twitter has been covering these protests extensively. I'm waiting for him to comment on this, but it doesn't appear he's awake yet.

Yeah the explicit morality police were established then and may be dissolved now, but it's not going to change the behaviour of (for example) groups like the Basij, a paramilitary youth group who roam the streets enforcing 'morality' through street violence.

I don't believe this represents any real change.

(edit -- One group or another has been violently enforcing dress codes in Iran since the revolution itself, the disbanding of any particular instance of this seems of little consequence, I have Iranian family and I have heard stories dating back to that time.)

Re: Iran abolishes morality police

#77
post #26

If you've been following Iranian social media, they don't want hijab reforms, they want this regime gone. And this is their Berlin wall moment.

Well, if you've been following Iranian elections you might reach the opposite conclusion... Now, I'm no fan of the Iranian regime, but I doubt you can make trustworthy conclusions about what the public wants from sampling posts on social media. (I wouldn't say that even elections are the end-all of what "the public wants".)

No, I think you could tell quite well what people want when they put their lives on the line to make a change.

Im sure there is a part of the population that is vested with the current system but that is generally a smaller part that is working in that system and which is somewhat propped up by manipulted rural masses who may also have had enough of this too.

Re: Iran abolishes morality police

#78
post #26

If you've been following Iranian social media, they don't want hijab reforms, they want this regime gone. And this is their Berlin wall moment.

Well, if you've been following Iranian elections you might reach the opposite conclusion... Now, I'm no fan of the Iranian regime, but I doubt you can make trustworthy conclusions about what the public wants from sampling posts on social media. (I wouldn't say that even elections are the end-all of what "the public wants".)

I wouldn't attach any meaning to an election that didn't allow most candidates to run, had the lowest turnout in history, and still ended up with a significant amount of blank/invalid votes, despite that being explicitly forbidden.

Re: Iran abolishes morality police

#79
post #26

If you've been following Iranian social media, they don't want hijab reforms, they want this regime gone. And this is their Berlin wall moment.

Well, if you've been following Iranian elections you might reach the opposite conclusion... Now, I'm no fan of the Iranian regime, but I doubt you can make trustworthy conclusions about what the public wants from sampling posts on social media. (I wouldn't say that even elections are the end-all of what "the public wants".)

Isn't the entire elections system built to reinforce regime legitimacy? All of the candidates have to be approved by the Guardian Council which is controlled by the Supreme Leader, so it's not like they have any threat to the regime itself. It's a way to appear willing to reform without actually reforming.
Post reply on HN