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It might do that too, but access to information is just so utterly critical, and exponentially moreso in circumstances where government brutally cracks down on
by nomilk 8mo ago
It might do that too, but access to information is just so utterly critical, and exponentially moreso in circumstances where government brutally cracks down on it, as we saw in Egypt during the Arab Spring and we're seeing in Iran presently.
- jasonvorhe 8mo agoThen again, Egypt was definitely driven by Western agitators, as was the case Iran recently. Iran probably got Russian tech to trace starlink users during the blackout which put a target on many Western assets in Iran. I'm not saying the Iran government didn't also kill and torture independent actors nor that I support state violence (against its citizens, in this case). Just saying that any government will use violence to stay in power and to ensure regime change doesn't happen outside of whatever system the state upholds.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- linkregister 8mo agoEvidence to the contrary abounds regarding Egypt. Secretary of State Clinton famously rejected the popularly-elected Muslim Brotherhood government and pledged support to Mubarak. This tacit approval led him to have a successful coup against the popularly elected government. If by "western" you meant some other power then you should be specific. Western as a term is imprecise and can be interpreted differently depending on the audience.
- ch4s3 8mo agoThe claim that Iranian protesters were western agitators is a pernicious lie.
- roenxi 8mo ago[flagged]
- ch4s3 8mo ago> If they didn't have a hand in the protests, that seems like a stunning failure on the part of the US State Department to support their own policies This is nothing but evidence free speculation. What you’re doing is undermining the validity of the protest movement and parroting the line of the Iranian government. It’s disgusting. Take this shit somewhere else.
- roenxi 8mo agoIt's hardly evidence-free, this stuff [0, 1, 2] has been making international news headlines for months. And the last time the US was involved in toppling Iran they used paid-for protests [3] so it is barely speculative to say they'd do again what worked last time. That is just common sense on their part. If they haven't done that, then people will be fired in the US executive for incompetence because that is the cheapest way to achieve their rather clear goals of rolling Iran's power structures. If you don't believe that they did that, who do you think is responsible for that failure on the US government's part? It is unfortunate that the US's actions right now undermined whatever validity you feel the protests had. I certainly agree it is disgusting - and also bad for US interests so it is curious why they're doing it. Take it up with them if you have a problem with the idea, I'm not a US general or policy maker. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Israel_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Israel_war [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_strikes_on_Iranian_nuclear_sites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_strikes_on_Irani... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_buildup_in_the_Middle_East_during_the_2026_United_States-Iran_crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_buildup... [3] https://theconversation.com/how-the-cia-toppled-iranian-democracy-81628 https://theconversation.com/how-the-cia-toppled-iranian-demo... / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9ta...
- ch4s3 8mo agoNone of that is evidence of the us stoking protests, and that article about the 1953 Coup is so inaccurate it’s laughable.
- NuclearPM 8mo agoAccess to information is dangerous when the information is controlled propaganda.
- ceteia 8mo agoWould educating people instead and giving them more options for information, not be better than banning access to information?
- whattheheckheck 8mo agoFor real... the species is not going to last long if a subset of it gets to control the information flow of the other part... literally unsustainable
- ffsm8 8mo agoIntuitively yes, but it's possible that this is one of our biases speaking From my memory (might be mistaken) there have been attempts to somewhat study this via polls etc, and determined that coverage via propaganda (specifically Fox News) is less helpful then randomly guessing what actually happened... But ymmv, social studies are always hard to trust, because it's borderline impossible to prove cause and effect
- ceteia 8mo ago[flagged]
- ffsm8 8mo agoYour phrasing implies someone spook out against that, but nobody did?
- AnthonyMouse 8mo ago> From my memory (might be mistaken) there have been attempts to somewhat study this via polls etc, and determined that coverage via propaganda (specifically Fox News) is less helpful then randomly guessing what actually happened... Ironically the studies of that nature are often themselves a form of propaganda, because it's entirely straightforward to structure the study to produce your preferred outcome. There is a well-known human bias where people use information they know to try to guess information they don't. If you're given three random people and the only thing anyone has told you about them is that one is a drug addict and then you're asked to guess which one is a thief, more people are going to guess the drug addict. So now all you have to do is find a situation where the thief isn't actually the drug addict, let the media outlet tell people which one is the drug addict, and you'll have people guessing the wrong answer a higher proportion of the time than they would by choosing at random.
- exe34 8mo agoWill it work when the US government is the one cracking down, banning interviews, etc?