cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7813361

I want to dispel the narrative of Iran being evil; that they were mowing down protestors (lol) and some ways to convince people to uncritically side with Iran in this conflict

books are fine, but I read too slowly for me to actually get ready fast enough Western narratives contradicting itself would be a good start Maybe common views? I just need a guideline so I don’t get caught flat on my ass looking for citations on something I wasn’t prepared for, thanks

  • amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml
    10·
    17 days ago

    There are probably some around who have specific sources to point to (I don’t have a good recollection in this case offhand), but I think to an extent, you have to push back from the standpoint of proof for the extraordinary claims that the western empire is making. Like if somebody comes to you and says, “I heard the sun blew up today”, should your job be to go find proof that the sun did not blow up? Or ask them for proof that the sun blew up?

    You can also point to the empire’s history with this stuff. There’s a clip from decades ago of a former CIA agent who talks about the atrocity propaganda techniques they were using: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1tfkESPVY

    Not a lot has changed there, fundamentally. They’re still doing the same kind of thing. Main difference is it’s maybe a bit sloppier now than it used to be? I don’t see much else different.

    And it’s not that they make up everything 100%. They do things like try to manufacture crises through currency manipulation, through sanctions, through terrorism, through seizing on local discontent with the government to try to spiral it into a coup, and so on. It’s kinda like that line in the movie The Music Man. “They’ve got no problems here.” “Then I’ll have to invent one.”

    If people of a country are generally happy with their government, the empire will go to work to try to create the conditions that make them unhappy. If people are at all unhappy with their government, the empire will seize on it to try to create fractures and division.

    And, importantly, when a state like the US brutalizes protesters as it is known to do, neither it nor its western allies blink an eye. None of them make weighty statements about violations of human rights, the need for sanctions, military intervention, and so on.

    But if a government the empire has targeted lifts a finger against one of its own citizens, whether real or invented whole cloth by western “sources”, all stops are pulled out. Demands are made for their leaders to be deposed, disarmed, and so on. The empire acts like single-minded anti-state anarchists with regards to governments it wants to depose and then acts like rabidly pro-repression “rule of law” fascists with regards to governments it agrees with.

    This is something people need to understand and internalize beyond any one country. The empire is full of epic amounts of bullshit. The main consistent through-line is that of the factual consequences of the western empire’s “interventions”, the millions of civilians they have murdered over decades (more and longer if you count colonialism stretching back). The western empire loves to murder civilians and call it “freedom”. Freedom from what? From continuing to be alive? The idea that this empire has any business lecturing other countries on what “evil” is… well, to use a religious analogy since the west loves its Christianity, it’s sort of like Satan lecturing on how to be a good person.

    • shreditdude0@lemmygrad.ml
      6·
      17 days ago

      I’ve straight up just told them using the shit they’ve been bombarded with online lately: “the Epstein government and clique?” or “the fascist government that is deputizing chuds within ICE and sending people to concentration camps, whether they’re citizens or not, with no due process of law?” The thing with these libs is that they fucking forget so goddamned fast. All the bullshit, all the human rights abuses, all the suspension of constitutional rights, essentially; they forget it all so damn quickly. They think perhaps these are anomalies in their democracy (ignoring every single decade and its respective litany of crimes since even before the nation’s infancy). These people have been so thoroughly corrupted to only understand the real world through all of their combined senses at once; it isn’t enough for them to only see or hear the testimonies of the oppressed subgroups of working people. They would have to be at the direct receiving end of the fascist boot, it seems. They quickly forget about systematic slaying of black, queer, and brown folks, not to mention the economic cruelty dished out to American households at an economic level. When it shows up on their feed, they are empassioned with such a rage… one that fizzles out far too quickly, though. They can only begin to see the US government for what it truly is only when it aims its cannons inwards. How quickly have they forgotten about the Imperial Boomerang.

      • amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml
        5·
        17 days ago

        Yeah, that’s a helpful thing to go with, I think. Both israel and the US’s current admin are pretty unpopular, so if we’re talking to somebody who is in the camp of viewing them negatively, we can remind them of that when talking about whether to take seriously the narratives that are coming out of the empire.

  • TechnoMaoist@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    7·
    17 days ago

    I’ve found FAIR to be a good media criticism site that links extensively to their sources. That said, some of their criticisms are aimed at opinion columns rather than headlines. I only read them on occasion, so I can’t vouch for the site as a whole.

    For Iran, they posted two articles last month

    https://fair.org/home/leading-papers-call-for-destroying-iran-to-save-it/

    Stephens is citing people’s outrage against the US government killing a protester as a reason they should support the US government inflicting more violence against Iran. The logical corollary to that would be that if you’re opposed to Iran suppressing anti-government forces, you should therefore be in favor of Tehran launching armed attacks to defend protesters in the US.

    https://fair.org/home/us-media-keen-on-iranian-unrest-less-so-on-us-and-israels-role-in-it/

    And on January 16, the Times of Israel conveyed comments by Tamir Morag, political correspondent for the right-wing television station Channel 14, according to which “foreign actors” were arming the Iranian protesters. The Times observed that Morag had been “careful in his report not to explicitly implicate Israel in the alleged weapons transfer,” but had been “more flippant” on social media