Iranian Protests

[Jacob]

Looks like some Iranians are taking to the streets against the regime: https://twitter.com/r_siavosh/status/1571929876420071428

[The Brain]

Good luck.

[Admiral Yi]

After the various shitshows in the region I'm no longer investing emotional energy in Middle Eastern democracy.

[Valmy]

The Iranians, or at least a vocal minority, hate the regime and seem to do this every few years. Without a crack in the security forces or the ruling class it won't go anywhere but the fact this keeps happening doesn't bode well for Iran's government over the long term.

And it certainly does not mean whatever replaces it will be good or even something marginally better.

It's certainly a tenuous situation in a tenuous region full of tenuous situations.

[Jacob]

Day five: https://twitter.com/dpatrikarakos/status/1572282574780895232

The trigger, by the way, was the morality police beating a woman - Mahsa Amini (22) - for wearing "the wrong kind of hijab". She died shortly thereafter from her injuries.

[Berkut]

Good for them. Would love to see something really come out of it.

But emotionally, I am with Yi.

I truly want to see this kind of thing suceed, but mostly it seems to fail, or if it suceeds, some other crazies take over anyway.

And then everyone blames the US regardless.

Makes it hard to invest much emotionally.

[Jacob]

I know some folks aren't emotionally invested in Iran, but I'll post updates and bits of interest as (if) they appear.

Women cutting her hair in protest against Mahsa Amini's death, while the crowd chants "death to the dictator": https://twitter.com/GEsfandiari/status/1572268954684653571

[Admiral Yi]

I said I'm not invested in democracy in Iran.  I'm invested in Iran because the chicks are hot.

[Jacob]

I said I'm not invested in democracy in Iran.  I'm invested in Iran because the chicks are hot.

I have no beef with how you manage your investment strategies. You do you

[Berkut]

LOL. I am always happy to have someone like you Jake ping me with interesting news updates.

[Jacob]

LOL. I am always happy to have someone like you Jake ping me with interesting news updates.

[celedhring]

Everyone I have met from Iran (and who isn't an emigré, who also hate it) hates the regime with passion. Obviously anecdotal, but here's that.

I also met once a guy that worked in the Spanish embassy in Tehran and had some pretty good anecdotes, like how he'd attend "clandestine" parties where women came in wearing full-body veil and would have their cocktail dresses under it.

[The Brain]

My impression is that the typical Westerner is much more exposed to the Tehran middle and upper classes than to the typical Iranian. My impression is also that the Tehran middle and upper classes are not representative of Iran as a whole, any more than middle and upper class New Yorkers are representative of the US.

[Tamas]

My impression is that the typical Westerner is much more exposed to the Tehran middle and upper classes than to the typical Iranian. My impression is also that the Tehran middle and upper classes are not representative of Iran as a whole, no more than middle and upper class New Yorkers are representative of the US.

Yeah you go to Budapest and talk to young middle class folks there, by and large they will be near-perfectly Westernised and firmly anti-Orban. The farther you go from Budapest though, the more of the Eastern dystopia you are going to encounter.

I imagine this must be even worse in a place like Iran.

[grumbler]

Yeah you go to Budapest and talk to young middle class folks there, by and large they will be near-perfectly Westernised and firmly anti-Orban. The farther you go from Budapest though, the more of the Eastern dystopia you are going to encounter.

I imagine this must be even worse in a place like Iran.

Yeah, I've read a couple of travel-type books on Iran, and this is the way those authors described it.  That's also the case in places like Turkey.