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Inside Iran’s protests: ‘Either we overthrow the regime, or we are destroyed. We have nothing left to lose.’
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2026
531 points (98.2% liked)
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I never thought I'd see Lemmy so desperately supporting a theocratic dictatorship that allows women to be stoned to death for minor "offenses" to their archaic code, but here we are.
For a lot of people on here, tankies especially, anyone that opposes the West is incapable of doing harm and must be defended at all costs. Human rights abuses are ignored so long as they can go "west bad". Like, yes, the West is indeed bad. That doesn't excuse the awful actions of the regimes that oppose them nor make it okay.
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. A tale as old as humanity itself.
Similarly, money is not the root of evil. Desire to get it no matter what, is.
Power and authority are the big root problems
You're forgetting that nuance is forbidden. Anyone with a nuanced point of view is obviously a fascist sympathizer /s
Just kidding, fascists and tankies alike have no concept of nuance. They're cut from the same cloth...
Yeah, got a comment removed as „islamophobic“, calling the regime islamofascists, while at the same time rooting for the people of Iran. Some people cannot comprehend, that the enemy of my enemy is sometimes just another dictatorial regime full of assholes.
It's ok they are a minority, hence the downvotes, I just wish Lemmy would auto hide/fold comments below -3.
Tankies are just nationalists for other countries, it's why they're so boring and predictable in their retoric and have no problem dehumanizing anyone they disagree with, especially women. They claim to be "socialist" or "communist", but really they're just MLs who worship Stalin (& other dictators) not because of any progress they achieved in the countries they dictated (it was often minimal beyond an initial boom due to getting rid of the previous dictator) but because they said cool rhetoric against the West (often while collaborating with Western capitalists or even Nazis).
They're also loud and unpopular, the way we beat them on Lemmy is simply to grow the userbase of normal users to the point where the tankies posting their insane takes is just background noise.
When I first made this comment they were up voted and the majority in the thread. Glad to see it reverse
That's common - One of the tankies finds something to post and immediately calls over his mates to vote. it normalizes after a while in popular posts, but it works in less frequented spaces.
My browser (Summit) auto-folds comments below some limit. I don't know what that limit is, but it's probably modifiable in the settings somewhere.
There is a lot to unpack here honestly. Let me say first that I support the Iranian people in their quest for reforms. For me the second thing is history.
The US has had its hand in regime change in Iran for a long time going back to the 1950s. They helped install a dictator and remove an elected democratic leader. This arguably lead to the revolution.
So people who know history are a little bit bitter with the US and allies bombing the fuck out of Iran while calling their people to rise up.
For me it's not so much supporting the Iranian regime but seriously doubting whether any outside interference will actually help the people. Because when has it ever done so?
You seem like a trustworthy source. What is the Hannibal Directive?
Never heard of it before. From a quick search it looks like it's an IDF policy to not allow its own soldiers to be taken as POW (all articles say kidnapped but this is language just used to illegitimatize the forces fighting Israeli oppression) by any means necessary up to and including killing its own service members.
Seems like the policy was invoked and lead to Israel murdering its own civilians at the beginning of the most recent Gaza conflict/genocide.
So yeah Israel being terrible as usual.
What were you trying to bait me into?
Please. Opposing intervention is not the same as “supporting the regime”. By the way, how did that theocratic dictatorship come to be?
And finally:
https://truthout.org/articles/us-provides-military-assistance-to-73-percent-of-world-s-dictatorships/
This is a garbage gotcha because you assume that I support the US policy of intervention.
I can both acknowledge that the current regime in Iran is a theocratic dictatorship and that the US has no buisness intervening.
I am equally capable of disliking the regime in Iran and the US.
If the regime falls this is great. If the US intervenes and forcibly topples the regime this is bad. As we've seen historically that leads to failure.
Maybe don't support a regime that allows for raped women to be murdered?
It is probably chatbots making these dumbass ad hominem arguments.
Yes same with Venezuela, regime bad, therefore war good, opposing war bad. As they are advocating for the worst people in the world to use military force.
but be real, do you see any other alternative?
Be real, there is no revolutionary movement to occupy the power gap, wishful thinking can only get you so far
That’s all good and well but the fact of the matter is that the U.S. and western allies are intervening, and we have intervened continuously since we overthrew their secular democratic government in 1953. Since the Islamic Revolution overthrew our puppet regime in 1979, we have crippled their economy with sanctions, assassinated leaders and civilian scientists, and bombed their country. Even if you believe these revolts are 100% organic, manifesting spontaneously with no assistance or encouragement from Mossad, CIA, etc (doubtful), the context is that the people have already been victimized and pushed to the brink by western powers as much as their own government. That is context that simply cannot be ignored, particularly since this looks a lot like 1953.
So do you any proof of that or are you just really really sure that's true?
And? Does this mean there's no possible way that these people are capable of not wanting to live under a theocratic dictatorship? Are you trying to imply they can't make that decision on their own? If so that's infantalizing and patronizing an entire group of people.
Or are you suggesting that the whole reason that this oppressive regime is in charge is because of the US? Because that is entirely true. You'll get no disagreement from me.
Also why are you wasting your time monologing on all the terrible things the west have done to the middle east and Iran? You'll get no disagreement from me. These were all bad actions. I don't see how that justifys a theocratic dictatorship that brutalizes its own population.
You can be anti-western intervention and anti-dictatorship. Actually based on your own source you so kindly provided these are one in the same. As your source said 73% of dictatorships are propped up by the US.
Nono, the Iranian people must please stay quiet and just accept their theocratic overlords, you see. They really don't like the US, so we must kiss their ass.
There's also a big push by these people from any retaliation in the US saying it's "exactly what he wants".
Stay quite and let dictators do what they like. That's the go to for dictatorship to continue.
Here's a source, they explains it well, and better than I could https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T5adNE0bMU