Iran, protests, and modern technology

[giza]

Comments

[truekaia.livejournal.com]

win

[simbab.livejournal.com]

Fuck, really? This whole Twitter-will-save-Iran angle was already some kind of nadir for the self-absorption of Web 2.0, but that guy had the gumption to add cutting edge commentary a la Family Circus to the whole sorry mess.

Well done, Walt Handelsman. Hey, I hear that Congress doesn't do anything and they're corrupt! A+ MATERIAL, BABY.

[giza.livejournal.com]

I think you might be reading into that a little too much.

[simbab.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware that was possible, given the fact that people literally believed nasty internet messages would bring down a corrupt religious dictatorship.

It's just made me want to chew my nails through to watch people say the things they have about this, with no apparent shred of awareness as to the ridiculouslessness of their statements.

I think a lot of people are going to be regretting a lot of things written over this. That, or (more likely), the delete button's going to be seeing a lot of use.

[giza.livejournal.com]

I think that communication, blogging, pictures, etc. will certainly help to bring to peoples' attention what goes on over there (or in any dictatorship). It may be a bit much to say that this single issue will take down Iran's current political system, but I think it will be a hole in the proverbial wall.

Seriously, what's with all this hostility?

[simbab.livejournal.com]

Seriously, what's with all this hostility?

There is none, not directed at you. My frustration is with people's naivete regarding world politics.

Someone pointed out the similarity to the Apartheid protests of the 1980s. A lot of feel-good wanking, but when Apartheid came down in 1994, it had nothing to do with sing-along songs and everything to do with internal politics in South Africa and effective economic sanctions.

[giza.livejournal.com]

I can't help but wonder, have you ever run for or held any political office?

Just curious, given your statements here.

[simbab.livejournal.com]

I can't help but wonder, have you ever run for or held any political office?

What does that have to do with anything?

Seriously, I don't know.

[mapdark.livejournal.com]

:D

[mapdark.livejournal.com]

You know , I dislike people like you who think the governments are so powerful that people in general never have any pwoer in changing things.

Call me naive , but I like to think people CAN change things and that the fate of the world is not completely out of our control.

[neillparatzo.livejournal.com]

I, too, think Twitter's importance in the Iran mess is vastly overblown.

But then, I think Twitter's importance in everything is overblown.

[texywolf.livejournal.com]

Is this a thing where they replace all the guns with I-phones, and everything is renamed to twitterwars? Hmmm.....SUICIDE TWITTERER!

[simbab.livejournal.com]

You know , I dislike people like you who think the governments are so powerful that people in general never have any pwoer in changing things.

That's a ridiculous overgeneralization of what I said. I never said "never", I'm sure that someday, the Iranian people will have a hand in bringing down their government.

It's mostly the wanking from the American side that bothers me.

Call me naive , but I like to think people CAN change things and that the fate of the world is not completely out of our control.

It's possible, sure. It's also not wrong to be realistic about any given situation.

The fate of the world is not out of "our" control, in this situation the fate of Iran is in control of Iran, and for the West to meddle would be stupid.

[giza.livejournal.com]

Errr... let's not confuse legitimate protests with fanaticism. Big difference between the two.

[thraxarious.livejournal.com]

which is why I am really thinking the republicans are idiots for insisting we "act tough" on Iran right now, despite how its only rhetoric and how Iran will just use it to crack down and 'justify' its actions against meddling nations.

Acting tough won't fix things, won't change things, won't stop them developing nuclear weapons. Anything we do in response to it is definitely meddling in their internal politics.

The only thing that will change things is if the military/police decide they don't like the current regime anymore.

[simbab.livejournal.com]

The nuclear weapon thing is big, and it's something that not only the Republicans, but most Americans misunderstand.

Having nukes is a big point of pride for Iranians of all stripes, not just hardline religious nuts (believe it or not they all aren't). They see it as a point of national pride, a way to be taken seriously on the world stage. The nuke program is widely supported in Iran and if we were really serious about winning the support of the Iranian people we might back off the hardline rhetoric about those nukes.

I realize it's a real Catch-22 situation but it isn't like North Korea where you have crazy dictator who just wants them for his own crazy reasons. The Iranian people want their leaders to do this, even if they don't support a lot of the other crazy policies they have.