Iranian Election

[tanukichu]

Pretty much everyone else has said what I would have said in this thread. I haven't been able to follow as closely as I'd have liked thanks to being preoccupied with finals. Pretty much this sums up my thoughts on it:

I'm totally against american imperialism, but I'd much rather see us do something now than to kill hudreds of thousands of civilians later on because we fear that the country has nuclear weapons, like we did in Iraq.

Ok...I'm very dumb when it comes to technology, I'm assuming constantly refreshing the page will cause it to crash? I have it up and running now.

And I have the green filter on my Twitter, my location is Tehran. I'm thinking of switching my timezone as well.

[rtw88]

Refreshing the site constantly will flood their bandwidth, and should eventually crash the site.

[hexrecords]

I haven't followed this issue as much as I probably ought to, but whenever I see a story like this dominating headlines it makes me wonder a few things- is it a slow news day that a protest somewhere is a running headline for a few days straight? Is the opposition candidate that apparently won the popular election someone that shares U.S. interests and therefore the American media is making him look like the underdog?

I'm just thinking that since 'legit' mainstream media is not being allowed in the country that news sources here are free to make assumptions on things, or spin the story in a certain way?

I know the U.S. isn't on good terms with the current leader there, maybe new guy is someone with our interests in mind and thus we're backing him?

Just food for thought I suppose.

[steventangent]

I've been telling people this would happen. Honestly, I figured the hard-liners would have put a stop to this by now.

Either they're going to come out victorious (which is likely), and they're going to clamp down on civil rights even further to keep tensions from boiling over again, or the government is going to do what they can to make these people feel as if some sort of compromise was reached.

Either way, even if it does come to a stop, the tensions will still be there. This movement is comprised heavily of young people - people who have come of age recently that are either too young to remember the Islamic Revolution or were born after it completely. And that group is only going to grow.

As for what the US should do? Honestly, I think we shouldn't be meddling. Every action has a reaction, and either way, the standing government in Iran is going to win this one. We're finally thawing diplomatic relations, and it would be a mistake to fuck it up now.

[mcm1610]

The whole country is comprised of young people. Lots of elder people were offed during the Revolution, and to build future soldiers, having children was encouraged, and that's exactly who is around right now.

[sgoodcore]

I haven't followed this issue as much as I probably ought to, but whenever I see a story like this dominating headlines it makes me wonder a few things- is it a slow news day that a protest somewhere is a running headline for a few days straight? Is the opposition candidate that apparently won the popular election someone that shares U.S. interests and therefore the American media is making him look like the underdog?

I'm just thinking that since 'legit' mainstream media is not being allowed in the country that news sources here are free to make assumptions on things, or spin the story in a certain way?

I know the U.S. isn't on good terms with the current leader there, maybe new guy is someone with our interests in mind and thus we're backing him?

Just food for thought I suppose.

Wow, you're a cynical man my friend. CNN has reporters in the area but they're only allowed one story a day and are sequestered in hotels.

As for it being news, the revolt of an entire country against its leadership is pretty big news regardless. I don't think this is being made in to something bigger than it is.

[dante3000]

America is an odd place, when we hold elections it's national news not only here but in many other countries. I've talked to people (Ben Conoley, I'm looking at you) who have mentioned that America's election was better covered in Canada than Canada's own election. Yet, we seem amazingly oblivious to other countries political systems and processes. I'm actually thrilled that something that deserves media attention (like the uprising in a country that has been pretty oppressive for sometime) is actually getting that attention.

Mir Hossein Mousavi is getting a lot of mention because he was a former prime minister of Iran and is actually a very reformist candidate who has even gone so far as to speak to Iranian women during the campaign, something that the incumbent would never do. For the results to come back as damning as they were looks suspect and the fact that they are refusing recounts or even to really let other people look at the results makes it all the more suspect.