If You Want Freedom and Democracy For Iranian People and All Peoples, You Must Start By Admitting What America Is and Does
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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1953 Iranian coup d'état
12 min read
The article's central historical argument rests on the CIA-orchestrated overthrow of Mossadegh. This Wikipedia article provides detailed context on Operation Ajax, the British and American motivations, and the long-term consequences that shaped modern Iran.
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Iranian Revolution
13 min read
The article traces a direct line from the Shah's overthrow to Khomeini's rise. Understanding the 1979 revolution's phases, the various factions involved, and how the theocracy consolidated power provides essential context for the current protests discussed.
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Iranian Green Movement
10 min read
The article mentions years of protests against the theocratic regime. The 2009 Green Movement was the most significant modern Iranian protest movement before the current unrest, offering parallels and context for understanding Iranian dissent and government response.
I’ll tell you guys something - I am never surprised by the degree to which Americans are willing to be irrational about their government, its history, and its relationship to freedom, including and especially some of my readers, but I confess it’s particularly jarring right now.
After all, we literally JUST kidnapped Nicolas Maduro and, rather than instituting elections or even making a wave towards democracy, we hand-picked a successor from within his own regime and explicitly told the world we were going to rule the country for as long as we wanted in order to access its oil. That was a few weeks ago! There is of course very very very little good about Donald Trump, but it’s convenient that he just says the quiet parts out loud, and what he has said, explicitly, is that we have no intention of allowing democracy in Venezuela and that we’re there to exploit its oil reserves. Look up his quotes and see! Trump is a sublimely evil person, just a complete moral failure in every respect, but it’s ultimately good that we can be adults and discuss what’s happening in Venezuela honestly. We don’t care about Venezuelan democracy, we’re going to run the country as long as we want, we’ll never allow a government hostile to the United States or its monetary interests to rule no matter how popular, and we’re doing it for the oil. At least we can have honesty, for once, about why this country does what it does. We don’t care about democracy and human rights, we never have, and we’re not about to start now.
And what fries my noodle, what I find just gobsmacking, is the number of people from all across the political spectrum who believe mere weeks after the Venezuela intervention that the United States is going to intervene in Iran in a way that leads to authentic and real Iranian democracy. My friends, what part of American history, including extremely recent history, do you not understand?
What’s happening in Iran? There have been protests against the ruling theocratic regime for many years, but the war with Israel, endless sanctions, and ongoing economic collapse have left the regime more vulnerable than years. There is, in fact, a base of support for the regime in the country, numbering in the millions. (This is true of any regime that is disfavored by the United
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