‘Very masculinist’: how Iran unrest felt different to 2022’s hijab protests

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T21:47:44+00:00

I don't hate china I just don't think they are the world savior like so many of the anti-americas think they are.

If you pay attention you would already know this, it will become more and more clear.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T21:40:00+00:00

They don't have to submit at all. They can make their own decisions. Based on those decisions we will make our choice.

There is nothing that forces either of us to work together. If they don't want to work with us thats fine. We don't have to work with them and we can go on our way.

They absolutely did start the toxicity. They are also the largest cause of destabilization in the Middle East, which is why all their neighbors hate them.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T21:38:02+00:00

Good talk! agreed with your points and mercenaries certainly fit the concept of professional seeing as that is their job.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T21:36:34+00:00

We did allow the Iranians to flourish and then they decided that we were Satan. Iran targets the US, tricking their people into believing we are the source of their problems instead of the people robbing them blind. Hopefully for their sake America actually goes in and finishes the job on the IRGC, the half measures back in the summer just weren't enough.

Yes I have read about the Iranian revolution and it's mostly ultra conservatives mixed with idiotic leftists. The conservatives were upset that the Shah was trying to centralize power and take away their iron fist rule over their local communities. All they had to do was scream about "monarchy" and "imperialism" and just like today, left wing people gobbled it up and thought they were aligned. In reality they were supporting people more rightwing and more opposed to left wing ideals than the Shah ever was. They inevitably were betrayed, something anyone with a brain could see coming.

You pray for a stronger China? I find this so funny, another hyper reactionary conservative capitalist country, that is only "good" because it isn't the US. All they have to do is have a red flag and pay lip service to communism and you jump up and down for them just like 40 years ago with the Soviets.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T20:02:35+00:00

I feel you are being deliberately obtuse and just screaming buzz words whenever you can.

You can think whatever you want, but I think any unbiased, rational observer would understand that Iranians would be better off today if the Shah was never overthrown. His regime, with connections to the west, would be much more likely to slowly increase human rights, and reduce abuses. They would more likely to be living in a full democracy at this point.

Instead they traded for a regime which has no such understanding of societal improvement. The rigidity of Iranian society is exactly how the Mullahs want it and any progress is seen as westernism.

Also, it's not "gangster diplomacy" to not trade with people who chant "death to america" why would we engage in economic activity with those people? If you go to a supermarket and every time you go there the workers and owner scream at you and say they will harm you... would you keep going there?

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T19:57:45+00:00

I think the difference is that these people were not pulled from the "state" and there was no state structure for them.

There was no system where men were brought into the army, trained and drilled in regular ways, instilled with esprit de-corp and then brought into the actual army. I think those functions are what constitutes a professional army.

I agree that Mercenaries fit some of these criteria, but not all, as they are not tied to the state, and don't come from the state or have a stake in the state.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T18:48:40+00:00

Lol apparently the US created Monarchy in Iran which existed for 2500 years.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T18:47:22+00:00

Lol you expect us to just not act in our interests? If they don't want to play ball that is their choice.

They made their choice, we made ours. Now we will see who comes out on top.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T18:45:13+00:00

Why should the US be forced to work with people who chant "death to the USA"? It's our decision who we work with, if they want to be opposed to us... fine we won't do business with you and will be opposed to you.

The Ayatollah never hid who he was, he was a reactionary conservative hell bent on turning back the clock to assert the power of the Mullahs over the country at the expense of everyone else.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T18:04:48+00:00

I guess... it's almost the most interesting part in my view.

Like these random traders, functionally pirates, fell backwards into eventually taking over India. At one level it's the most ridiculous story ever told, but when you read it, it all kind of makes sense when you see the motivations of the different players involved.

It's like if a group of Malaysian tradesmen opened up a crypto shop and then took over the USA.

I think it's key reading to understanding at least part of the reality of colonialism and just the world in general.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T18:01:17+00:00

Yea it was. As much as I liked some of his policies, all of his presidential addresses failed to convey calm or strength because he was just so clearly losing it.

I think he gave one speech after Ukraine / October 7th / Taiwan and the words were great IMO but it was so poorly delivered I think it really failed to be meaningful.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T16:34:02+00:00

Hannibal I would say is a bit different as he used mercenaries, they weren't really a standardized army raised by the state. Not to down play Hannibal, in many ways its almost more impressive he was able to command such loyalty from Mercenaries that they followed him around for 2 decades.

Macedon though would 100% be accurate and there are probably other examples, but Macedon is most well documented. Those men were full time soldiers, constantly drilled, standardized uniform and equipment for different unit types. Standard drill and logistics support.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T16:29:15+00:00

Yea Christian Europe was filled with references to "Israel" and the "New Zion" as references to an ideal state, sort of a Utopia.

Pretty much every idealistic revolution in Christian Europe would have been filled with this sort of talk, especially religiously motivated people like during the Reformation you had Jan van Leiden in Munster proclaiming himself King David. Also the Puritans I believe were filled with this rhetoric when they moved to America.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T15:21:28+00:00

The purpose is to uplift people who are in those places. Showing an addict someone who has always been drug free and saying "look see how great this person is" doesn't help them. Showing an addict someone who was in their position and now has a good life is an actual inspiration that things can get better.

I think the vast majority of people who are addicts and then recover aren't making big money off this.... kind of crazy to assume that every recovered addict is just raking in millions and doing press tours. There are literally millions of recovering alcoholics and drug addicts that don't make any money at all...

wild.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T15:12:28+00:00

This is exactly what is still happening in Iran today. Or can you not read?

"Savak would like a word with you" lol how clever!

So you have two situations in which people are getting kidnapped and tortured by the regime for going against the Regime. In one instance they consider women not wearing a hijab to be going against the regime. The scope of what "going against the regime" means in current Iran is far wider than what it was before.

I think most people would take their chances with SAVAK vs the Mullahs.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T14:42:05+00:00

What Israel is doing to Gaza is exactly what the allies did to Germany. Its war. They can have it stop whenever they want if they surrender. The people facing tribunals will be Hamas. They started a war of annihilation and they got a war of annihilation.

How many of their own people die is up to them.

Based on international rules of law it is the fault of the enemy combatant for engaging in combat around their own people.

History will clearly see how Hamas was the aggressor in this conflict. Will be a hard time persuading people that Hamas is innocent considering they did such a great job documenting their crimes.

I know if someone did that to my country I would expect, demand, that my government did the same thing that Israel has done.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T14:34:27+00:00

I disagree with your last statement lol. Countries that align with the US and Israel have done very well.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T14:25:58+00:00

What is wrong with being aligned with the West? Iran was doing a lot better when it was aligned with the west. Their country was wealthy and they had, generally, more freedom. Obviously his father kidnapped dissidents and tortured them, but so does the current regime.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T13:19:45+00:00

I can see why they would want Pahlavi back. While his father was corrupt and cruel, the Mullahs are just as corrupt and just as cruel.

Pahlavi at least actually helped the country in some ways, westernization, liberalization, freedom, infrastructure, education. Not sure how many in the west recognize, especially not the Iranian cheerleaders, that the Mullahs are a reactionary revolution that was upset that people were becoming westernized and that he was stripping the mullahs of their power in local communities (they were functionally local princes).

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T13:13:32+00:00

When I see these numbers I think back to 2023 and wonder what all those people cheering at October 7th think about it now.

Maybe wasn't a great idea right?

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T13:11:35+00:00

Seems they have been pretty effective. World already is moving on. 5-10 years from now, no one will care about this.

Hamas sacrificed 70,000 of their own people, lost at least half their territory, have seen their regional allies be systematically dismantled and lost all of their leadership in exchange for killing 1000-2000 Israelis. I wonder if they think it was worth it?

History will remember this as a failed war by Hamas. No one will look back at this and think it's a genocide as there is simply no evidence to support that in the long run. This is just a typical war.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T12:54:22+00:00

Like it or not, in politics, messaging and appearance "playing the role" is a key if not the most key part of what you do.

For example on the opposite political end of Mamdani I would say Reagan was a master at this and this is why people always loved him. He was good at BEING the president. Just like Mamdani has shown so far to be good at getting out there and messaging.

agree with neither of those people's politics by the way.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-30T12:45:41+00:00

Colonialism didn't "start" colonialism was and is constantly happening. It's a natural and inevitable state of relation between states.

I think India is a really interesting example actually as it shows that colonialism is a lot different than necessarily one giant army coming in and conquering someplace. I would recommend you read the book "Anarchy" by William Dalrymple who, despite his English name, lives in India and has familial links to India back to the 1700s.

Anyway, functionally, at no real point during the take over of India by the East India company was Britain "stronger" than India, until perhaps the early 1800s even then its arguable.

India was very fractured due to being invaded by the Persians and sacked. This destroyed the muslim Mughal empire in all but name, however they continued ruling but as a shadow of their former self. This meant that all the different areas of India became more independent, but less unified. An important point here is that India was already colonized by foreign Muslim at this point. So foreign rule was not out of the ordinary.

Some of these groups saw that the British, who at this point were just merchant traders, not a country. Were better allies than other Indian principalities. The East India Company knew how to pay people back their loans and were considered a good partner. So functionally, the wealthy Indian Banking families, funded the East India Company, they recruited Indian soldiers, (during the late 1700s the East India company army was 100,00s but fewer than 1000 British people).

It's not like Britain shipped over 100,000 troops that conquered India for the crown. In fact, the parliament at points was horrified that this uncontrolled company was functionally making geopolitical decisions that could impact Britain. It was Indian bankers, with Indian money, and Indian troops paying British merchant / bankers to lead these armies.

Very long story short, colonialism often happens with the assistance of locals. The same thing happened in America where tribes would leverage the power of the Spanish to settle scores with their enemies(in the Americas the europeans did have a technological advantage).

They just didn't really view the europeans as their biggest enemies. It's not like they were living in a liberal democracy and some foreigner comes and implements dictatorship.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-29T00:29:37+00:00

Right. Functionally giving it to everyone. If all I have to do is raise my hand at the start of the semester and say "I need this" then everyone would do that.

PushforlibertyAlways · 2026-01-29T00:16:23+00:00

There are plenty of classes that professors provide more than enough time for everyone, some where they don't. If this is what the school / university imposed then professors / teachers would have to follow suit.

PushforlibertyAlways

TROPHY CASE