The movie Persepolis tells the story from the perspective of a teenage girl. Before the shah, Iran had a popular, democraticly elected leader who wanted to nationalize the oil fields, and their previous colonial masters (England) were not happy.
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Ok so the democratic government of Iran was overthrown by cia and bp. How is this a problem of popular mobilization rather than a problem of the US empire couping whatever hurts their profits? Shouldn’t 100% of the blame go toward the purveyors of brutal force and violence?
may 7, 2025, 5:25 pm • 0 0 • view
Rather than, as you ascribe it, a problem with the ideology itself? Sounds like the immoral, indecent, and downright barbarous ideology is imperial capitalism?
may 7, 2025, 5:25 pm • 0 0 • view
I think we are just having an academic debate over a finer detail, yes? It seems to me we are in agreement on most points. My point relates to figuring out how to keep despots from hijacking the reigns of power once they are placed in hands of kind hearted optimists.
may 12, 2025, 1:01 am • 0 0 • view
Yes I believe so. Which despots are you referring to? Because for Iran, as you mentioned, it’s not just random despots seizing power. It’s despots backed by cia and bp. Sounds like there’s your issue right there. Capitalism breeds imperial type behavior. Capitalism is the problem with socialism.
may 12, 2025, 12:46 pm • 1 0 • view
Not just Iran either. Nearly every middle eastern country has had a right wing military dictatorship at some point, installed by the U.S. or Britain. Countries that wanted to nationalize their resources or move in a more socialist direction (Libya and Egypt come to mind) were targets of coup.
may 12, 2025, 12:46 pm • 1 0 • view
The common denominator is *most cases I would say in the United States. It’s not the random despots. It’s the U.S. purposefully installing puppet regimes all over the world.
may 12, 2025, 12:46 pm • 1 0 • view
Also, the U.S. does resort to armed invasion when they don’t get their way through “soft power”. See Iraq Syria and Afghanistan for examples of the U.S. “stabilizing” the region, aka absolutely destroying all semblances of society and creating massive refugee crises.
may 12, 2025, 12:50 pm • 1 0 • view
After the great famine of 58-62, China embraced capitalism as the more effective way to deliver food to where it is most needed (as opposed to central planning.) USSR and CCP technically are/were state-managed capitalisms. I would argue the US is broken because of Dodge v Ford.
may 12, 2025, 2:00 pm • 0 0 • view
CIA/BP op backed installing the shah in the 1950s, I'm talking about the late 70s revolution, which began as a communist intellectual revolution and was hijacked by islamist thugs.
may 12, 2025, 1:53 pm • 0 0 • view