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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 22, 2024

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Dunno, but Iran has had several waves of very large scale anti-regime protests. I think you could prevent something exactly like the Mullahs taking back over if you just hand the government over to the right people. Iran isn't really like Iraq, it's a more developed place, even with the sanctions.

The current government of Iran has a very deep organization; just beheading it won't do. As for the protests, they're probably astroturfed Western-backed events anyway.

If Western governments had the reach to mobilize the failed protest movements Iran has had over the last decade, we'd have just overthrown the Guardian council and been done with it.

Setting up a few people to protest and then be suppressed by the regime is a far lesser problem than actually overthrowing the regime.

As for the protests, they're probably astroturfed Western-backed events anyway.

Do you have any source for that or did you just make it up? The government wouldn't need to be so draconian if it really thought it had broad support for it's policies. The Islamist faction gained power through a coup and quickly suppressed it's rivals who helped it gain power.

I guess it's a selected sample, but they seem very popular among the recent Iranian immigrants that I know, and they report widespread support back home.

That doesn't matter, it's impossible to prove that a particular movement is not astroturfed. False consciousness arguments are in full effect.