No, no, no you dont understand. This time the humanitarian concerns of neocons is real and definitely not a pretext for regime change.
I was speaking to a Nicaraguan co-worker a few days ago about the current situation in Nicaragua and the general geopolitical situation in Latin America as whole. She seems to be in her 50s so I ask about her memories regarding the Contras and Sandinistas. I shit you not, she actually spoke positively about the Contras; she said if the Contras were around today, Nicaragua wouldn’t be in the situation that it is today. She goes on to say that her dad was falsely accused of being a member of the Contras.
While I understand that the situation with her dad may have traumatized her, it is mind-boggling that she praised the U.S.-funded death squads.
What’s the lie about Ukraine? That one seems pretty cut n dry (for international relations anyway)
What’s the lie about Ukraine?
Yaroslav Hunka scandal leaps to mind. But farther than that, it was the same old “it’s not going to be a quagmire”, “it’s not just about propping up the US arms industry”, “we have to fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here” line we’ve been hearing in every international theater.
Even the bit about Trump being “Putin’s Puppet” falls apart on any amount of historical interrogation. Trump was selling anti-tank missiles to Kiev as far back as 2018, three years before the Donbas invasion. He’d laid a bunch of sanctions on the country the first year he took office.
Then, as soon as Biden took office, he’s the one weak on Ukraine, according to the GOP.
Both parties egged their own supporters on by insisting the other party wasn’t Pro-Ukraine enough. Both parties insisted the other faction was “Communist”. Both insisted the other was a fifth column, trying to disarm the US from within. It was always and forever bullshit.
I thought it was clear that Trump is in Israel’s pocket via Epstein and riches?
I’d also argue that Russia is doing the same military testing with this “war” (proxy testing and/or their own). They’ve certainly take territory and are also agitators in this situation.
Hi.I’am from iran please ask me anything that you have doubt about it and i probably able to show you evidence. (Sorry for bad English)
From what I have read Iran doesn’t seem like a very good place to be these days. A lot of violence is shown, especially against women and girls. Religious extremism also looks quite scary to me. My question is how do you feel about your country and how is it different from the way it’s being represented in the media? (Assuming you track western news I guess).
Thank you for taking questions, I hope you and your family are safe and cared for.
Hello, thank you for your beautiful questions. I will do my best to answer your questions. The problems of religious extremism began in the early years of the Islamic Revolution. It has always had three basic aspects:
- The violation of women’s rights
- Economic problems
- Anti-war and the illusions of Khomeini and Khamenei to take away the rights of Muslims and destroy America (from the first day of the Revolution) and Israel
I will give you examples of each of these problems, so that it may be of more help to you. 1- About the violation of women’s rights. My mother said that in high schools, early in the revolution, they would put razors between the napkins and the toilets. So that if someone used lipstick and wanted to wipe their lips, they would cut them. If men wore short-sleeved shirts, they would paint their bodies. There were many illogical and even ineffective methods ( also for government itself) . Gradually, men and women were able to gain some freedom with freedom of thought and social culture, but the hijab was still banned.
The second thing: I once read here that someone said that Elon Musk and Trump are as crazy as Khomeini. Khomeini had a famous saying in the days of the revolution: Economics is for donkeys…
And I don’t need to say that our country, even though I earn $0.3 per hour as a simple worker (buying 10 eggs costs $1, almost a little more), spends its treasury on destroying countries like Israel and America.
Third case Since the first day of the revolution, there has been no change. Every day in the queues of Iranian schools, people say, “Death to America and Israel,” even though we are all fascinated by their world full of wonders and freedom. There is no end to it. There is evidence that shows that the Islamic Republic has given the country’s water budget to Palestinians who were killed for the past 4 years. I once mentioned this statistic to my high school teacher, but he didn’t give me a grade, even though high school was for brilliant talents.
The country of Iran, under the shadow of the Islamic Republic, is primarily seeking freedom from its own people. Unfortunately, I do not have much access to Western news, but I must tell you this to convey the badness of Iran. In recent times, over 20,000 Iranians have been killed, and I was at the protests for two days. I saw three people killed with my own eyes. And they took money from the families to deliver the bodies of these people. so this is what iran really look like from inside. sorry i use translate it was large text.
Thank you for such a detailed response! It is quite a bit to take in, I guess I had hoped that Iran was much better and that the media had exaggerated what was going on. I’m sorry to hear that you were at the protests and witnessed your comrades be murdered. That would definitely fuck me up a bit.
Thanks dude. I think they’re gonna be gone soon, iran gets better
That’s a future worth living for
How’s the internet access in the country right now? Only people with starlink get to connect at all?
so for now we can hardly find some proxy config for access to internet. in general i can say 6/10 of people have access but we have some problem. in past 5 years they try to make Iran internet to intranet you can read about it here : https://powell-software.com/resources/blog/difference-between-intranet-and-internet/ in the one of the firsts day of Protests (Jan 8 2026) they change our access from internet to “iran intranet” and also closing telephone lines(They wanted the protesters to have no access to calls, so that they would no longer be able to communicate with each other even by calling.), and this status continued for 13 day i guess. and from then until now they filter some of proxy protocol like vless, but this mfs can every time they want change this conditions to intranet.i hope i help ,sorry again for my english.
I heard Reza Pahlavi is wildly popular in Iran right now and Iranian locals are enthusiastic about seeing the Shah returned to power. Is this true?
I’ve seen street interviews showing the opposite. Link to a video on Reddit
There’s monarchists who do in fact support him, but they’re not the majority by any means.
Its so easy to believe iranian tv show. Did you know how many people in iran even look at this kind of program? It so hard to believe for foreigners that iran news network is so opposite from people. Like in this network they are showing in last day people celebrate some kind of religious event(نیمه ی شعبان). Do you really think it’s possible for people who, according to Iranian news networks, killed at least 3,000 people to celebrate and be happy? Or can you believe that these same networks say that all those who were in the protests were mercenaries of America and Israel. These are what these news networks say. It is not difficult for a foreigner who does not know these issues to believe these issues, but someone who is in Iran does not need to see these propaganda programs of the regime that are produced with the our money.
How do you explain between 2 to 3 million people rallying to support the government in Tehran?
Did you know how many people live in tehran? It’s around over 10 million. Did you know how many people in this kind of gathering got paid?
The Islamic Republic has completely destroyed the basis of our lives with this. If you go to their meetings, they will give you coupons or various things. While ordinary people are struggling in poverty (as I said, I earn $0.3 an hour), they encourage people to follow suit by giving them points. For example, a very simple and even humorous example: The former President of Iran, Raisian, when a worker of a company that was under the control of the Islamic Republic told him about the problems of life, he asked him: Did they give you lunch? As a child, I was tempted to join the Basij (its one of the organization of the Islamic Republic) because they had a swimming pool, free food, and other facilities.
Do you know that this crisis is only fueled by material conditions, based on illegal international sanctions? That sanctions kill over half a million people worldwide? That despite sanctions, Venezuela’s economy started recovering and that’s when their president got kidnapped?
I’m not claiming the Islamic Republic is popular, I don’t like the Islamic Republic, but literally look at what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya! That’s gonna happen to you and your people if you allow for a regime change. The reason why many Iranians prefer their current, bad government over the regime change is because they understand this.
There needs to be an end of all sanctions so people like you have a space to breathe and combat your government in your own terms, so that instead of ravaging the country and selling it for scraps to western capitalists you have a sovereign government with better funded services and more freedoms. The idea that the people who are still carrying out the complete extermination of Palestinians, the people who turned Libya into a slave market, could even INCIDENTALLY care about you is not grounded in reality.
I wish you strength for what’s coming, you don’t deserve any of this to happen.
this is very joyful that you ask about this. I was at the protests when people were using these slogans.
مرگ بر خامنه ای
translate : death to khamenei
مرگ بر دیکتاتور
translate : death to dictator
این اخرین نبره پهلوی بر میگرده
trans : this is the last war pahlavi gonna come back
جاوید شاه
eternal shah
دل های ما خونی اع خامنه ای کونی ع
our heart is bleeding , khamenei is p*ssy(honestly it’s not mean that but please tack it form me)
so i think persian guys like reza. and it so popular in iran(I also really like he). how many of iranian people does not like reza somthing like 1/15 . people jock about it : like bro when reza gonna come back? it’s tack so long.
The thing I think is that Iran is indeed an authoritarian theocratic regime and killed 3000 people confirmed by themselves, but so is Israel. The problem is the ipocricy in the judgement of a nation that should before look at it self and get that it’s not better than others. But we all know this
Most of those were civilians and security forces (2427 out of 3117). The other numbers floating around seem completely made up by NGOs and western media so it’s hard to know if there are more dead rioters.
how many is too many?
I agree, that’s why we all should condemn the western sanctions that made the local currency collapse and led people to starvation and violence
How many western regime change operations that inevitably create magnitudes more casualties is too many? Because that’s the “solution” that’s being talked about, not some actual people’s government
I’m not sure I understand the question, if you mean whether I trust any numbers the answer is no, but the government numbers are a good minimum estimate.
If the question is whether I support the Iranian government uncritically, the answer is also no, but based on past history it’s still an extremely stupid idea to support an intervention.
I believe Iranians deserve a break from the illegal sanctions that keep them struggling, once they can breathe they’ll decide in their own terms if they wanna reform or overthrow their government or whatever else.
Typical imperial core chauvinism. They know their governments are evil but still cling hard to the idea that they’re the best therefore every non western aligned country must be even more evil.
“If my country is evil while calling itself the leader of the free world, other countries must be super evil”
Palestine also.
can you post the latest Time Magazine cover and point out its pushing war propaganda again ? thank you
They’re telling the truth about Iran killing huge numbers of their own citizens to crush the protests. It was in the 30000 range like a week ago. They are lying that they actually care about that.
What was the lie about Ukraine?
Russia didn’t invade Ukraine?
There’s a few to choose from. Like the war started in 2022. Ukraine doesn’t have a nazi problem. Euromaidan didn’t have any western interference. Zelensky doesn’t have Epstein ties.
I know we like to spread misinformation online on this here .ml instance, but that might be too much even for you. Also, everyone knows that the war technicality started in 2014 when putin did the first invasion, I don’t even understand what kind of gotcha that might be
I believe Iran is going through a new worker-led revolution and that the current theocratic regime is certainly gunning down protesters and the US is scared of what’ll happen if the workers rise to power so they want regime change instead.
It started with a currency crash (which is most likely a result of US manipulation). That failed, because the Iranian government didn’t immediately oppress business owners whose demands (not to sell at a loss) were found to be reasonable.
Then at least four different groups (including monarchists and Kurdish separatists) started killing civilians, police forces, setting mosques on fire, and so on (there’s footage for all of this, if you have the stomach to watch it).
The Iranian government responded to that by shutting down the internet, and with force. When they shut down the internet the riots more or less stopped, which signals that the operations were conducted from abroad, the obvious candidates being the US and Israel.
Furthermore, there have been millions of Iranians rallying in support of their government all over their country, which makes sense as foreign led violence can only push you closer to your government.
You can’t have a workers revolution without an organized vanguard and class consciousness. This is just old school terrorism by reactionary groups supporting a regime change to install a US puppet, like we’ve seen time and time again.
I make no moral judgement on the government’s action, I’m just recounting the timeline of events.
TACO
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I’m no fan of American imperialism either but the regime in Iran is actively massacring their civilians on a scale never before seen during protests, I have Iranian friends and they know full well that America and Israel don’t have their best interests at heart, and yet they still want them to intervene because they don’t see any other way for change to happen. My Iranian friends don’t even really like Reza Pahlavi but he’s the most significant figure in these protests and so they’re supporting him purely in solidarity with the people.
It’s a very complicated and nuanced situation and it can’t really be reduced to a meme like this without losing important context.
You don’t need to know much about Iran at all to know for a fact that US intervention will make it worse, you just need to look at Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Palestine, and every other “repressive dictatorship liberated by US efforts” to see the consequences of invasion.
The protests in Iran are happening because people are literally dying due to impoverishment caused by western sanctions causing the local currency to implode. Focusing only on the government reaction during a period of military buildup Against Iran amounts to atrocity propaganda, however well-meaning your intentions are. It’s meant to create mixed feelings about the invasion amongst progressives “look at how dictatorial they are”
You’re absolutely right that I have mixed feelings and am conflicted, I would love to say with 100% confidence that “Iran is different” but I can’t.
Part of the protestors anger is impoverishment caused by sanctions, it was certainly a big factor in this protest and at least a minor factor in every other protest.
But conversely these protests are also fueled by discontent with the treatment of women.
They’re also fueled by the thirsty people who are suffering from poor water management policies that ignored traditional irrigation methods in favor of the western approach of spraying huge amounts into the air to grow water hungry crops in a famously water scarce region. Fuck even Israel was egging on the protestors with the promise of sending water experts once the regime is gone.
I’m not supporting America invading but I do think that there are real humanitarian issues that need to be addressed.
What upsets me most is not that the rest of the world is silent and only “brave and compassionate” America is speaking against them, its that the Iranian people only have America to turn to, that the only countries that are “on their side” (from the view of the public) are America and Israel.
This regime is so quick to label any unrest in the country as foreign meddling but they themselves are the cause for half of the problems.
(also thank you for engaging me in good faith)
Believe me, I’m a communist, there’s nothing I wish more for Iran than a secular socialist government, land reform, LGBTQ and women’s rights, economic equality… Unfortunately, the west destroyed their most recent chance at this with the total sanctioning and military intervention against Mosaddeq, because British Petroleum’s interests in the region were more important than the lives of Iranians. CIA paying mafias to perform protests against the government, MI6 paying actors to destroy private property and pretend they were communists, military blockade of petroleum exports… The whole suite.
This is why I reject so much further western meddling. If Iran is to have a socialist government, it will be by itself without meddling, and the point of focus from the west should be, IMO, preventing sanctions and military action against the Iranian people. However bad the Iranian government is currently, the only alternative for now from what I see is ISIS or Israel, and neither is better, it’s the sad truth of geopolitics.
“My Venezuelan friends are celebrating”
Imagine having a nuanced opinion? Crazy
Nuanced, like celebrating civilians from your own country being bombed 🤓
Nuance is when your opinions about other countries always coincidentally and conveniently line up with what the US government wants. Very nuanced, you incredible free thinker you.
Hahaha you’re literally doing the thing. Good stuff
How many countries do you have to destroy before you stop falling for regime change justifications?
Don’t misunderstand, I’m not American, I don’t support America, in my personal and professional life I’ve been making every reasonable effort to decouple my life from America (hence why I’m on Lemmy)
I didn’t even say that I support America invading.
The reality of Iran is that every few years since the 1979 revolution the people become discontent enough to start protesting, and every time the government harshly cracks down on those protests, and in both the process and the after math, many people are killed by the government for protesting. That’s an oversimplification but serves to illustrate my point.
My knowledge and understanding is based on my Iranian friends, who fled the country as refugees and left their friends and families behind, because of the oppressive government.
Those same friends do not like America, but they aren’t left with any other options but to support America. Not a day goes by that they don’t complain about the willful ignorance of the European Union and the world at large for being silent, only last week did the EU even decide to label the IRGC as a terrorist group.
The UN and international courts should be the ones trying to intervene and at the very least stop the regime killing tens of thousands of their own people.
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What a fantastic excuse not to try. It’s not that you’re blisteringly ignorant, it’s just that everyone around you is mentally defective.
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Amazing how every documented historical fact that’s inconvenient to the genocidal US narrative suddenly became Kremlin Propaganda overnight. Those evil Russians must have a crystal ball, because boy do they end up being correct a shitload of the time
I am more than happy to have a discussion, I’ve tried to outline my views and understanding of the situation in a clear and concise way and I invite any and all questions made in good faith.
My personal politics do not even remotely align with America, even on Iran I’m fully aware that America has only selfish intentions, and am appalled by it.
This is the first time in my adult life that I’ve even considered an invasion to be in any way beneficial (which would only be a by-product in this situation) But the Iranians around me are telling me their choices are either:
- get shot, arrested, executed by their own government
- or invite a foreign power who might give them a little more personal freedom while milking them dry of their oil and resources
Please tell me what you think the international community should be doing? After Russia it’s already the most sanctioned country in the world, and those sanctions have contributed to the discontent that fuels these protests.
This is the first time in my adult life that I’ve even considered an invasion to be in any way beneficial
Liberals oppose every war but the current one.
But the Iranians around me are telling me
They’re expats or n generations removed. They’re not in Iran, don’t know what’s really going on there and don’t speak for those who are and do.
Please tell me what you think the international community should be doing?
The international community:
After Russia it’s already the most sanctioned country in the world, and those sanctions have contributed to the discontent that fuels these protests.
Correct, and that’s exactly why the “international community” shouldn’t be imposing illegal sanctions in the first place. They’re not imposing collective punishment on the Iranian people out of the goodness of their hearts. They care about Iranians exactly as much as they care about Palestinians, namely: not a rat’s ass. Despite the bleeding heart rhetoric, the sanctions are for furthering imperialist interests, predominantly those of the US and Israel. They want regime change that vassalizes Iran.
Jeffrey Sachs: Engineering Iran’s Unrest
It’s certainly not diplomacy and it’s not coercion. It is war conducted by economic means, all designed to produce an economic crisis and social unrest leading to a fall of the government.
Thanks for applying your preconceived political label to me, very reductive. I don’t use American political labels like that and if you want to get an actual idea of my stance ask specific questions.
They’re not expats, they’re refugees that left as soon as they turned 18, and spent years living in Turkey with other Iranian refugees. It was the best place for them (more open socially but still easy for them to get to) to live until Erdogan started becoming more aggressive with deporting refugees and they had to leave Turkey too. Their parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc are still there and are in active contact. Thank you again for making a sweeping generalisation instead of asking a question or even reading my other comments.
You’re right that sanctions are a form of economic warfare, totally agree that it only truly hurts the people. But tell me this, can economic prosperity translate into a better life for the people when women are beaten and abducted on the street by the government funded morality police? When by law a womans life is worth half that of a man? When a man can exploit that to get away with murder by killing a woman from a poor family that can’t afford to pay for him to be punished and are forced to accept compensation payment from him? When all women are legally owned by their fathers and husbands?
This most recent round of protests was sparked by economic woes yes, but what about the Green Movement? What about the Mahsa Amini protests? Mahsa Amini especially you should be aware of, it was only 3-4 years ago that millions across the country were furious about her death in police custody for not adhering to mandatory hijab rules. And yes, after protesting for months, after hundreds died and thousands were arrested, and multiple individuals were executed, the government graciously relaxed the hijab rules. If you’re from the west looking in that story ends in a nice little neat package. If you’re a woman in Iran then that brief whiff of freedom doesn’t last long, and slowly but surely that freedom is gradually eroded until you’re back where you were before the protests. The only existing remnant of that is the fact women in rich parts of the cities wont be immediately abducted by the morality police for having a little hair on display.
Please to anyone else replying, approach me with enough respect to read my paragraphs before deciding who I am and what I think.
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