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Trapped in Iran: My Summer as a Guest of the Revolutionary Guards
- Symbiote 7y agoI don't have an economist.com account, but the byline suggests it's from 1843 Magazine, which doesn't require registration to read: https://www.1843magazine.com/features/trapped-in-iran https://www.1843magazine.com/features/trapped-in-iran
- ThePowerOfFuet 7y agoThis is correct; they're the same piece.
- dang 7y agoWe've changed the URL to that from https://www.economist.com/news/2020/01/28/trapped-in-iran https://www.economist.com/news/2020/01/28/trapped-in-iran.
- HeWhoLurksLate 7y agoThank you, that was a good read.
- dmix 7y agoThere was a spy TV show produced in Iran and pushed heavily on the state run TV networks there that they used to help justify detaining reporters, very clever propaganda: https://apnews.com/c5348f244a6b484fa3678f39a12e3ceb https://apnews.com/c5348f244a6b484fa3678f39a12e3ceb I remember seeing a clip of an Iranian leader saying every journalist is a spy and if they aren't they should be because they "don't get paid enough". Gives you insight into their thinking, or what happens when you give the hyper-paranoid intelligence agency people way too much power (which the west isn't immune too).
- Pavarotti 7y agoThe CIA is well known for recruiting journalists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird
- duxup 7y agoWhat do you feel that means in relation to what the person you're replying said?
- MikeTheGreat 7y agoOn the one hand I'd like to encourage comments like this because I feel that thoughtful, introspective conversations are rare, it would be good to have more, and this seems like the sort of comment that might encourage such conversations. On the other hand I also want to snark off by something something like "Hi, Eliza!" So I guess I'll ask: was this a serious comment? (I genuinely can't tell)
- duxup 7y agoMy comment is serious.
- ehvatum 7y agoTo me: that it’s important to be aware of, because unaccountable selfish interests win by default.
- duxup 7y agoI don't think it is a mystery that a member of the press could be a spy / some have been. But I don't think that really means anything as to the post they were replying to when someone talks about the level of paranoia some folks have. I see these kind of posts where someone mentions something and you get these sort of "look one time(s) this thing actually happened" info bit gets posted with no elaboration. I'm not at all sure what that is supposed to mean. Support for the idea that "every journalist is a spy and if they aren't they should be"? If the intent is to justify that paranoia / those actions I'm not really sure that makes sense / you could justify just about anything then.
- derp_dee_derp 7y agovery clever propaganda indeed. our politicians do the same thing. Madam Secretary [0] was propaganda for Hillary Clinton Diary of a Future President [1] is propaganda for Michelle Obama [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madam_Secretary_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madam_Secretary_(TV_series) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diary_of_a_Future_President https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diary_of_a_Future_President
- knodi123 7y agoWow. Without some additional arguments backing that up, this looks really disgusting and misogynistic. I look forward to seeing some evidence that Diary of a Future President is a cynical piece of propaganda designed to aid the fortunes of Michelle Obama, in order to restore a bit of my faith in humanity.
- derp_dee_derp 7y agofunny how you didn't call out the OP and ask them for "some additional arguments backing" up their claim that the Iranian TV show was propaganda, but here you do when its American politicians. Isn't that a bit hypocritical? as for context, a good book on the subject is "manufacturing consent" by Noam Chomsky. In it he details how american media of all forms is used as a propaganda vehicle in order to shape and create the american public's politics. The TV shows linked are just applications of that strategy.
- AWildC182 7y agoSaying "what about that [falsely equivalent] thing over there, now read [HN meme book of the month]" isn't exactly a sound argument...
- derp_dee_derp 7y agopointing out hypocrisy is not a false equivalency, but nice try. also, you calling a foundational work in propaganda theory a meme book isnt exactly a sound counter argument, either. Here, educate yourself: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent
- vkou 7y agoThere was also a prominent spy show[1] produced in the US that seemed to be intended as propaganda for normalizing torture. That morally bankrupt practice was portrayed as effective, expedient, cathartic, and the only solution to all the bad men that will come get us, because they hate our freedom. If you're looking for ethical integrity, you should probably stop turning to spy shows for it. They are loud, dumb, and tend to be sickeningly nationalistic. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_(TV_series) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_(TV_series)
- hindsightbias 7y agoNot even spy shows. It’s weird to see Blue Bloods (an NYPD show) celebrating their 10th anniversary season. I stopped watching after the first episode where a cop tortures a suspect and his father (the police commissioner) lectures his daughter (a district attorney) about the differences between torture and enhanced interrogation. And the commissioners whole schtick is principled, conservative law-and-order...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- elfexec 7y agoThat's because it's true from time to time. Journalists, diplomats, NGOs, academics, etc are the top spy vectors. Do you really think russia is killing "journalists" because they are journalists or because they are spies or worse? Do you think the Saudi's killed kashoggi because he was just a "journalist" or because he was something else? Every major news/media organization in the world ( west, east, south , north ) are tied to the state. Whether you talk about the NYTimes or BBC or Xinhua or RT or Al Jazeera or [fill in the blank], they are all state organizations. Of course this doesn't mean all journalists are spies. Most are just mindless grunts working for a paycheck like everyone else. But the journalists who are sent to iran, china, russia, etc are more likely than not tied to the state in one way or another.
- duxup 7y agoThe internal political wonkiness where the Guard makes their own policy and other departments don't want to play along is amusing.
- dcolkitt 7y agoThat's how mafias work though. The mafia don has to keep his underlings paranoid and distrustful of one another. Otherwise they might conspire to overthrow him. It's a never-ending game of deceit, gaslighting, capricious violence, and palace intrigue. It's also why these organizations are so dysfunctional. All of these machinations stand in direct contrast to the principles of effective management. Transparency, alignment of incentives, pooling of resources, cross-training expertise, and clear communication are all impossible to achieve in that kind of environment. The difference between Tony Soprano and Jeff Bezos is that if you stab Tony Soprano in the back, you have a pretty good shot at becoming Tony Soprano. Same story holds true for authoritarian regimes. In democracies, the mandate to rule comes from popular approval. Simply conspiring to depose the ruler is not a viable path to power. Yet in Iran, China or Russia there's nothing to stop this besides fear and paranoia in the regime. In a healthy org, it'd be nuts to have two divisions working at cross-purposes against each other. Yet in mafias, we see this kind of behavior all the time. For example, Hitler was notorious for giving different generals contradictory orders. Clearly it has some adaptive utility within that context.
- droithomme 7y ago> don't want to play along As a detainee/possible hostage, he's in the category of a guest who is not free to leave, and not a prisoner who has been convicted of a crime. It's very important in Persian culture to treat guests well, better than your own family members if possible. What he describes, being put in a decent hotel, having his expenses covered, and being free to explore the city in a sort of mandatory extended vacation, is characteristic of Persian culture. I'm pretty sure he is aware of the protocol and thus was never too concerned for himself.
- duxup 7y agoI don't think the start of it fits that description, let alone the danger hovering over it all considering the outcomes of other folks who were detained.
- hodder 7y agohttps://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-firefox https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-firefox https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome
- jaboutboul 7y agoseems like The Economist has circumvented bypass-paywalls...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- hodder 7y agoWorked for me
- catalogia 7y agoJust disable javascript. The article loads fine without it. Most articles on most websites load fine without javascript; I find it productive to have uMatrix block all javascript by default.
- WarOnPrivacy 7y agoAlt link https://www.1843magazine.com/features/trapped-in-iran https://www.1843magazine.com/features/trapped-in-iran
- maverick2007 7y agoAll these politics and political games are such a shame. The Tehran that the author describes seems like a really vibrant city that I'd really like to visit and experience. But I never will for fear or something like this happening, becoming some tiny pawn in a much bigger game. And I wish that Iranians could come to the US and visit NYC or SF and see our culture. Then we might realize that the other side is something more than the strawman that media or government portrays them as.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- MisterTea 7y agoI once went on google maps and looked around Tehran. I found pizza shops and other very familiar things. I sat there with same conclusion: we're not that different. just trained to hate each other because a bunch of megalomaniacs want more power and money.
- selimthegrim 7y agoAsk a Baha’i that.
- tonyedgecombe 7y agoThey have the largest bookshop in the world: http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/worlds-largest-bookshop-opens-tehran/ http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/worlds-largest-...
- TomVDB 7y agoThere was this British guy who drove from Beijing back home on a Honda C90 moped. His video about Iran is heartwarming. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LEgowbzSc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LEgowbzSc
- zenmaster10665 7y agoawesome vid - thanks
- keiferski 7y agoIran has an incredibly rich culture that is (quite literally) thousands of years old and includes fantastic works in everything from poetry to painted miniatures to philosophy. The current political situation there is really a tragedy for world culture. I hope it becomes easier to visit within my lifetime.
- yingw787 7y agoWow, this man sounds like a really good sport and knows how to enjoy the present :) I wish I could be more like that.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- grecy 7y agoI've driven from Alaska to Argentina[0] and right around Africa[1], and I've met a bunch of people that have explored a lot more of the planet than I have. Without fail, every single person that has been to Iran rates it their number one country, and the one they most want to go back to. The people are so friendly, the culture so rich, the landscape and architecture so stunning. I absolutely can not wait to go. [0] theroadchoseme.com/expedition-overview [1] theroadchoseme.com/africa-expedition-overview
- yodsanklai 7y ago> I absolutely can not wait to go. I would like to go too. Unfortunately, I also travel frequently to the US and visiting Iran would make further trip to the US potentially problematic.
- mrtksn 7y agoJust get a fresh passport after the trip, with no Iranian stamps. You should be fine unless you are person of interest to intelligence agencies.
- aliceryhl 7y agoThis is a bad idea. Just get a visa. I did that and had no issue with getting the visa nor entering. Do not try to break immigration law — you can easily get permanently banned from entry if you lie to immigration officials.
- wnscooke 7y agoSerious question: is it only the political or military leaders who wish to see Israel wiped off the face of the earth?
- adrianN 7y agoGiven that even in "civilized" western countries there are a few percent of the population who really don't like Jews, I doubt that only Iran's leaders want to get rid of Israel. The data also seems to suggest that antisemitism is more prevalent in Iran than in a lot of other countries: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/90093/1/MPRA_paper_90093.pdf https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/90093/1/MPRA_paper_90093.pdf A final analysis then shows the extent of Antisemitism in different countries of the world, ranked by denominational groups, and based on the World Values Survey data. While in our 28 countries with complete data Protestants in Uruguay, Canada, and Argentina and Roman Catholic regular Sunday Mass Church attenders in Argentina, Canada and the United States are the major denominational communities with the lowest global rates of Antisemitism, Muslims in India, Iran and Iraq are the most antisemitic religious groupings of the world.
- blululu 7y agoThank you for providing a solid citation on public opinion. As someone who grew up in a heavily Persian neighborhood (mostly Jewish and Baha’i) I was rather surprised to see the number of Iranians who would not want a Jewish neighbor (guess that’s why my neighbors lived in America instead). One thing to note is that the official policy of Iran is anti-Zionism - not anti-semetism. Jews have a long history in Iran and are afforded special minority rights. (The Baha’i not so much)
- dmurray 7y agoI downvoted for equating anti-Israel sentiment with anti-semitism. There are lots of other reasons to dislike Israel.
- adrianN 7y agoAh yes, that's something that always annoys me too. Sorry for that. But I think the implication in the direction anti-semite -> anti-zionist is pretty strong, so for this particular question I think that surveys about antisemitism provide a good basis for discussion. I'd assume that anti-zionists form an almost perfect superset of anti-semites. edit: or maybe not, you could imagine someone who really doesn't like Jews and wants to send all of them to Israel.
- gumby 7y agoIf you don’t want to read the whole essay, skim down to the section that describes daily life in Teheran. It’s really fascinating.
- alistairSH 7y agoVery Kafka-esque. The whole thing is so bizarre.
- auiya 7y agoThe writer seems to exhibit copious amounts of Stockholm syndrome for his captors. From that standpoint it was a successful intelligence operation on their part. Iranian intelligence can likely count on him as an asset to answer questions over the phone for them in the future for some time.
- calcifer 7y ago> The writer seems to exhibit copious amounts of Stockholm syndrome for his captors. Or, perhaps, he knows his own feelings better than random commentators on the Internet?
- auiya 7y agoDrawing empathy from the victim is a common technique in interrogations such as this. The victim is wholly unaware it's happening. This is clearly the case here, the author makes no mention of being self-aware of these techniques.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- aj7 7y ago“The synagogues were packed. At 1am Iran’s largest synagogue still teemed with families. At 2am the congregation swayed in prayer for Israel and its people.”