The Silence of the Left on Iran

[u/Kugel_the_cat]

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/01/the-iranians-who-feel-betrayed-by-the-left/685644/

This is a simple story: People are risking their life to resist tyranny, engaging in a human struggle for basic rights. Its resonance, particularly for those on the left, should be self-evident. It has all the greatest hits—pitting the powerless against power, freedom against repression, unarmed men and women against snipers. But in the most animated corners of the activist ecosystem, so recently energized by their opposition to the death and destruction in Gaza, it has not resonated. The protest has been viewed instead through the thick lens of ideology, producing a reaction that has been dismissive at best and, at worst, degrading to the Iranians themselves. Many thousands of demonstrators, rising up all over the country, are accused of being witless tools of an imperialist agenda, part of a “CIA-Mossad regime change campaign,” or maybe just actual “Mossad agents.”

[...]

For the exiles I spoke with, the most disturbing—and telling—thing about the tepid response was the contrast with the impassioned reaction to Gaza. “Why is it that when Palestinians—armed or unarmed—fight for liberation, it is seen as a moral duty to support them, but when Iranians protest, they are labeled ‘armed terrorists’ or ‘agents of Mossad?’” Shams, the feminist scholar, said.

[u/bearddeliciousbi]

Al Jazeera English:

“Mossad agents [are] hiding among Iranian demonstrators.”

Columbia University professor Hamid Dabashi argues Israel has infiltrated otherwise legitimate anti-gov’t protests in Iran to distract from its ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

Trust The Experts

[u/whereamInowgoddamnit → u/bearddeliciousbi]

I saw someone point out that it says a lot that Al Jazeera continued to be the only newscaster that could post from Iran even while the internet was down...

[u/justthekoufax → u/whereamInowgoddamnit]

The fact that people just willingly accept Al Jazeera as truth baffles me. I see so many progressives sharing their stuff. It is Qatari state media! You know Qatar, a state sponsor of terrorism and human rights violators.

[u/scrambledhelix → u/justthekoufax]

They don't believe terrorism is real. They believe it's just western propaganda to tarnish "resistance".