Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit | GordonS's commentslogin

This is very informative - just wanted to say thanks!

No, according to both Iranian government estimates and the US Department of State, around 99% of the population are Muslim.

[0] https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-r...


Imagine lecturing an Iranian about Iran. smh

Because Iran claims foreign-backed terrorists were behind all the murder and destruction - backed by Israel, the US and UK.

Mossad has openly said they have people in Iran, and Israeli media has said they've sent weapons to the "protestors" in Iran. Senior figures in the US government have alluded to the same.

Many videos have been published by Iranians online, which certainly do not show "peaceful protestors" - they show gangs of masked men beating random civilians to death, fire-bombing buses and ambulance; they show leaders dishing out weapons and satellite comms devices, and trained men using assault rifles to attack civilians and the police.

We've also seem video of over a million Iranians marching in Tehran in support of the government, and in protest of the foreign-back terrorists.

And we have the MSM happily parroting any death figures they get, from anyone... even if they are literally from Pahlavi's mate or a CIA "human rights" group based in Langley!

We should all be more sceptical when our media and governments try to gain consent for war, and we should be asking who stands to gain - it's certainly not us, the people.


The Islamic theocracy in charge of Iran is deeply unpopular due to its repression and severe mismanagement of the Iranian economy. It has cut Iran off from the Internet.

"We should all be more sceptical"

This is very ironic coming from someone who actually believes anything the Iranian theocracy says. They are even less honest than Trump.


> The Islamic theocracy in charge of Iran is deeply unpopular due to its repression and severe mismanagement of the Iranian economy

Here's a way of saying that in a less propaganda'y way: "The Iranian government is unpopular because of the impact of US sanctions, which have made the lives of ordinary citizens mucher harder than they need to be."

> It has cut Iran off from the Internet

Because foreign-backed terrorists were using Starlink terminals to communicate, and the security services needed to find them, and stop them; at least, that's what Iran claims, and it at least makes sense.


Iran's economic problems include massive resource diversion to IRGC enterprises, funding for foreign militias (Hezbollah, Houthis, Iraqi PMFs), and systemic corruption that predates the harshest sanctions. The Rial was already collapsing under Ahmadinejad's mismanagement. They have refused to invest in modern water distribution infrastructure. Attributing it all to sanctions is the regime's own preferred narrative.

Iran has cut internet access during every major protest 2017, 2019 (where they killed 1,500+ protesters in a week), 2022 after Mahsa Amini. The pattern correlates perfectly with domestic unrest, not with any "terrorist" incidents. The Starlink justification appeared after they'd already established the shutdown. You're taking their post hoc rationalization at face value.

You accused me of propaganda, then in the same breath presented the Iranian government's exact talking points as reasonable alternatives. That's the irony I was pointing out. You're not being skeptical you're being selectively skeptical, which is worse than being credulous because it masquerades as critical thinking. If you want to argue the US has done bad things in Iran (1953 coup, shooting down IR655, etc.), sure. But "the regime isn't that bad, actually" requires ignoring their own documented behavior.


The Iranian government is unpopular because of the impact of US sanctions, true, but those sanctions did not come out of nowhere. They are largely caused by the actions of the Iranian government. So that government does not get a pass because the pain comes from sanctions. It's still the consequences of their own actions.

That doesn't prove who went around murdering police officers and random people, and destroying hospitals, banks, police stations and ambulances - it only proves it happened at all.

It does prove who did it; when you see police officers, Hamas mercenaries, and IRGC forces shooting at people using machine guns, and then demand "bullet price" from the families of the dead before they return the corpses of their loved ones...

Please do share these supposed videos. Except, they don't exist, do they?

> Hamas mercenaries

Literally LOL'd at that! What an utter load of nonsense.


There's a Persian saying that goes: "You can wake up an asleep person, but those who pretend they're asleep can't be awaken." I feel sorry for you, have a nice day with your ignorance.

You are an absolutely terrible person

Isn't HRANA funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a well-known CIA front?

IHR have around the same numbers, and isn't associated with the CIA. Valid concerns, but here you have multiple sources.

Is it really a gotcha that CIA is pushing money towards orgs that are in opposition to a US adversary? Is the French resistance during ww2 tainted because they received support from OSS?

Kind of. The US isnt helping push back a horde of Nazi invaders this time.

They're trying into install a literal monarchy on behalf of a regime which is guilty of committing a Nazi style genocide.

Probably a little skepticism is warranted on their casualty figures.


Israel's genocide is anything but Nazi-like.

It's more ethnic cleansing via conflict than it is industrial racially targetted murder.

Remember Israel has millions of "Arab Israelis"/Palestinians living in Israel proper.


The Nazis didnt go from 0 to industrial scale slaughter either. They also planned for ethnic cleansing by deportation to Africa first.

The salient features are mass slaughter and land grabs motivated by a racial supremacy based ideology. In these respects they are identical.

Those Arabs dont feel entirely safe living as second class citizens in a society where UN recognized genocide of their brothers and sisters goes unpunished and chants of "death to arabs" have become louder every day.


Yes. It's anything but genocide too unless you redefine genocide in some idiosyncratic way that suits your particular world view.

> In Scotland, there are some days when there is one traffic car covering an area the size of England,

Scotland is smaller than England, so this makes no sense.

Furthermore, anyone who drives regularly in Scotland knows this to be completely false - there are plenty of traffic cops around (sometimes incognito too), and they are sometimes even seen waiting in rural and semi-rural areas.


Again, there are not. The number has fallen significantly...I am not sure what you are arguing with (or why). You can just check because the number of police and the number of traffic police is reported. If you just Google, you will see that the current staffing level for overnight in Scotland is two cars for traffic police.

I live in a rural area, I have done so for two/three decades. When I moved here, you very often saw police doing speed checks because I live in an affluent area and the police would come out if you asked the right people. I don't think I have seen that for fifteen years. Again though, the data is that the number is way down since consolidation...which was the point and stated aim of the policy.

Hilarious to see pearl-clutching when people point out the SNP has been doing this after complaining about the Tories. This is why the UK is so shit, reality doesn't matter, just politics.


> Hilarious to see pearl-clutching when people point out the SNP has been doing this after complaining about the Tories. This is why the UK is so shit, reality doesn't matter, just politics.

I'm not sure where this tirade came from; I wasn't arguing in favour of any political party.

But getting back to the matter of traffic police - I have eyes, and I can see traffic cops with them. I have family in the force elsewhere in Scotland too, so I know that what you're saying simply isn't true. I really don't know why you are making this false claim.


I have a spider phobia, and struggled not to put the book down at first!

But the concepts and writing are excellent... really engaging stuff. And by the end of the book I'd learned so much about spiders that I honestly felt less scared of them! Definitely not cured by any means, but a year on and I still fear them less than I used to.


I’ve only read the first one. My main thought was ‘I wish he could write people as well as he could write spiders’ :)


I think humans and spiders and octopus and viruses are for him just a background for the object he wants to narrate. In difference to many other fiction where the persons are the objects. I also missed a human part of it.


If you want more spiders from him (actually, a spider-man), in a fantasy setting, I recommend Spiderlight. Just a fun novella that feels like a D&D campaign, works great as a palate cleanser.

I find his writing style really enjoyable, to the point that I really need to dive into his entire repertoire now.


Unsurprisingly, Tchaikovsky is a tabletop gamer and his first series, Shadows of the Apt, was derived from a game he GMed in college.

And I agree, everything hes written has been worth reading.


I had much the same experience, coming out of it with much less fear about jumping spiders in particular. Now they don't really bother me.

Didn't really do much for all the other species though!


Scotland?


Yes. Aye aye, fit like, chiel?


Nae bad, nae bad min!

So, not just Scotland but North East Scotland? (I'm in the shire myself, previously Aberdeen)


The first time I was in Scotland (from the US), the folks I was there to visit though it would be amusing to send me down to the pub below their flat to order dinner for us all. Off I went. But after accusing each other of not speaking English, I realized there was no way I was going to be able to communicate with the guy behind the bar. My friends laughed uproariously when I tucked tail and came back unsuccessful.


Funny thing is, I remember it being as bad in the other direction - first few times I went to Texas with work, almost everyone seemed to struggle to understand me, seemingly no matter how "properly" I tried to speak!


I used to work with a woman from Scotland, and relatively soon we pretty much came to the understanding that I would only understand 1/3 of what she said, but it was okay because she just spoke 3 times as much...


I used to live at the other end of Aberdeenshire, right out in the countryside. I never get up there now. Not even Aberdeen although I plan to visit some time. Haven't been in years.


Because that's plainly not what they are always doing. And the aggressive, racist unprofessional, downright dangerous way ICE are going about things is simply shocking.


That 12,000 number is utter make believe - an X account (you can guess who backs it) make this claim, got boosted and got over 1M views... and then they deleted the post. But the damage is done, of course.


Absolutely all your comments are shilling for Iranian dictatorship. Are you paid by Iran? Sorry I have a bad news for you, you will probably never receive the next paycheck since IRCG and terrorist mullahs regime is probably falling in the next weeks


The 12,000 number comes from Iran International's Editorial Board, not some random twitter user:

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202601130145


Even sources in the Iranian security forces say 2000, which is nothing to scoff at.


Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: