Kys, Fotzenfritz

And in this society, there are a lot of people who hate their leaders. Like, since 2019, there have been three large waves of protests. And each time between 500 and 3.000 people were shot, if we are to believe the numbers issued by the government. And people still go out to protest. That is not normal for a society.

Iranian State Media goes through a lot of effort to show the mourners and not people who celebrate. Western media does the opposite. Both perspectives (there are only mourners or there are no mourners) are propaganda.

Libya was held together by Gaddafi, whether one liked him or not. The IRI is much more entrenched and is not based on such a cult of personality. This regime won’t fall, just because an old ghoul croaked. I want neither the Shah nor the IRI for Iranians. And as I have stated repeatedly I do not want this war. Yet I won’t stand here and pretend that the death of a theocratic cunt doesn’t bring me joy.

What I want to say is that Khamenei was neither universally loved nor universally hated. Iran, like any society, is multifaceted.

I think that dismissing the joy parts of Iran felt after Khamenei died as mere propaganda is dumb. And labeling all of these people as Mossad agents or dumb imperialists is also dumb. To me and the Iranians I know, it’s good that he died. The way he died isn’t good, the intervention isn’t good, does that make me an imperialist?

Please just read what I wrote. I do not think this war is a good idea. Iranians are getting slaughtered by two fronts, it’s not “western propaganda” to say that people are happy to see their overlords die.

I am aware, that this is a limited sample of Iranians. It’s better than what most people on lemmy have.

There are pro-government rallies and there are anti-government rallies. Because like any country, Iran is not a monolithic block in which all people feel the same about everything.

I still have contact with people in Iran. They are in a very weird state between happyness and terror. They mourn the senseless death of 160 children, they cheer for the long awaited death of IRI goons. They fear the bombs on civilian targets and are indifferent to bombs on IRGC and Basij sites.

“his government was defending the people of Iran from Israel and the US” is propaganda in itself. Just from a different government. I don’t know where you live, but for the Iranians I’ve come to know, many of the things that I took for granted just aren’t normal. Dancing in the streets, wearing whatever I want, eating in public during Ramadan, saying your government is shit - all of that carries penalties in Iran. Almost everyone I know there has had one or more members of their family beaten or punished for such infractions.

And now they are faced with choosing between two powers who both tell them: “We are liberty, we are self determination, just help us”, while both of them just want to subjugate them.

Did I say that anywhere? Is it so hard to believe that people actually don’t like the regime AND don’t like being bombed? That people were fucking Happy about the old cunt kicking the bucket while being upset about children dying? Is that too complex a thought?

They were celebrating the death of Khamenei.