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Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

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Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#81

Post by rorroe53 »

mikestew wrote: post #28
gspencley wrote: post #15

> A children's block game is not going to help us build nukes or anything, so the sanctions excuse doesn't make sense especially since I already own it. While I agree with that sentiment, and while I admit that I don't know exactly what the sanctions entail, it is quite possible that this is a legal compliance issue and not strictly Microsoft's doing. And of course it could also be a "better safe than sorry" policy w…

It's not all about preventing the creation of nuclear weapons. It's also about making sure the common person in $SANCTIONED_COUNTRY feels the pain. User UncleEntity says it better than I could in a comment that is buried a few levels: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40158797

Iran is one of those dictatorships where the majority of the population already dislikes (or plain hates) the government, as we have seen in many demonstrations that have been extinguished through use of extreme violence by the regime.

Making life more difficult for ordinary Iranians isn't going to change anything as long as the army and revolutionary guard stay loyal to the criminals in power.

Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#82

Post by Alupis »

Spivak wrote: post #79
cutemonster wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people (in Iran) have been trying, but the dictators killed hundreds of people and put an end to that, for now at least. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahsa_Amini_protests > otherwise the populace can just ignore their government's foreign policy decisions It's a murderous regime. It's not a government that you can write letters to and vote away.

Which is why I'm surprised the response is "sanctions" and not topple the government and install western democracy. It's what the countries imposing the sanctions want to happen anyway. There's so much historical precedent for this working. If a consortium of Western militaries show up and say "join us fighting against your government or when we win you'll be killed/exiled as a traitor" the population will flip immed…

> It's what the countries imposing the sanctions want to happen anyway.

Perhaps that's what the countries wish would happen - but there's dictatorships all around the world that don't enjoy the pointy end of the international community's proverbial sanction stick.

Iran simply has to stop being an international nuisance and people would happily return to doing business there.

In the past decade, we've had two US Administrations that desperately sought to warm relations with Iran. Ball is/was in Iran's court, and so far they keep forcing people to punish them...

Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#83

Post by segasaturn »

Johnssmithss wrote: post #34
geff82 wrote: post #30

From my experience with and in Iran: every western sanction leads to more products and services from China. Life becomes a bit more difficult, yes. But the government does what it wants to do. And China essentially takes over the economy. At the expense of the West. Is the Western behavior wise? I do not know. Sometimes, I hear a "boom" in the air, coming from far away. Those are the bottles of champagne that Chinese…

Selling stuff to dictatorships is bad, even if you make money from it.

The U.S. President fist-bumped with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia last year... I don't think authoritarianism is at issue here.

Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#84

Post by Maken »

Alupis wrote: post #69
lupusreal wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their government says that America is an evil spiteful bully. The apparent truth of that claim has now been demonstrated to any Iranian who plays Minecraft. You think the result is more Iranians questioning their government? I doubt it.

There are plenty of Iranians alive today that were around before the current Iranian government. Iranian youth are also much more "aware" of global politics than any generation before them... I think it's difficult for most Iranians to not be aware of their government's decisions and actions around the globe... Besides - what alternative would you propose? Just pretend everything is ok and business as usual? Bomb the…

By that same rule, they are also aware of other governments' decisions and actions around the globe.

Concretely, the Reddit user is clearly aware of why this is happening and is blaming the USA government, not his.

Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#86

Post by rorroe53 »

Alupis wrote: post #69
lupusreal wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their government says that America is an evil spiteful bully. The apparent truth of that claim has now been demonstrated to any Iranian who plays Minecraft. You think the result is more Iranians questioning their government? I doubt it.

There are plenty of Iranians alive today that were around before the current Iranian government. Iranian youth are also much more "aware" of global politics than any generation before them... I think it's difficult for most Iranians to not be aware of their government's decisions and actions around the globe... Besides - what alternative would you propose? Just pretend everything is ok and business as usual? Bomb the…

I would suggest creating sanctions that hurt those in power, meaning mainly old bearded men who probably don't play Minecraft. Ordinary people have no power to change anything over there, they get shot if they try.

Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#87

Post by jandrese »

crowcroft wrote: post #80
ok123456 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, we're going to stop selling weapons to Israel?

Could you expand on this, my understanding was that Israel held relatively free and fair elections.

In some ways that makes it worse. When Hamas abuses the population we can at least say that the majority of people have never had a chance to vote for anyone else. In contrast the Israelis chose Bibi. This is what the majority of the population wants.

Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#88

Post by Capricorn2481 »

Johnssmithss wrote: post #60
swarnie wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Is one system provably better than all others and therefore must dominate? I personally find the idea of an Oligarchical Republic to be a bit batty nuggets... Do i get to trade? Am i up against the wall in your world?

If you are against democracy then yes you may be up against the wall. Tough luck.

The U.S. has certainly been against Democracy more than once.

Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#89

Post by tichiian »

phone8675309 wrote: post #77
tichiian wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sanctions may be a very weak measure when it comes to inciting revolutions. But in general, yes, sanctions against non-military goods do work to change the minds of greedy leaderships if they can be tailored to remove a sufficient part of their income. However, that is not always the case, e.g. in Iran it is rather a measure of the "we are doing as much as we can, more than sternly worded letters, less than violence…

> But in general, yes, sanctions against non-military goods do work to change the minds of greedy leaderships if they can be tailored to remove a sufficient part of their income. Why are they not working to bring about regime changes in Russia and Iran, and why did they not work to bring about regime change in Cuba and Iraq?

Because Russia and Iran have leadership that has other sources of income outside of the sanctioning west. Cuba and Iraq had that historically (with the eastern bloc as trading partners), and the regimes began to change (at least a little) when those sources for income vanished. That they didn't immediately disappear comes from the fact that the respective leadership is caught between a rock and a hard place: uncomfortable in power at home, but no safe place for comfortable exile available.

Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#90

Post by philippejara »

Alupis wrote: post #54
mikestew wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not all about preventing the creation of nuclear weapons. It's also about making sure the common person in $SANCTIONED_COUNTRY feels the pain. User UncleEntity says it better than I could in a comment that is buried a few levels: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40158797

> It's also about making sure the common person in $SANCTIONED_COUNTRY feels the pain. This is exactly it - otherwise the populace can just ignore their government's foreign policy decisions. There's consequences for being a bad actor on the global stage... and today that means no more Minecraft, of all things. Perhaps the OP can write a letter to their representative and pressure them to work on easing sanctions...

These aren't really consequences for being a bad actor on the global stage, these are consequences for being deemed a threat to the interests of the military superpowers and their close allies, this is a very important distinction.

The interests might at times be veiled under a discourse of "rights" or "democracy" or whatever and at times this discourse might even be valid, however the underlying reasoning for it rarely lies there as the kings and his friends are free to do whatever they please.

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