I think the government in Iran gets their power as other antidemocratic authoritarian regimes do— by using a small number of violent people to intimidate other

I think the government in Iran gets their power as other antidemocratic authoritarian regimes do— by using a small number of violent people to intimidate other normal citizens and punishing them severely for protesting or campaigning for change. Americans seem likely to experience something similar fairly soon, which might perhaps increase the general level of empathy for Iranian citizens in threads like this.