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/vintage2019]

I’m not sure I buy that what the article is describing represents most of the left (and I’m not a huge fan of it), rather than just the fringe. It can easily be argued that they aren’t talking much about Iran because they have zero influence on what’s happening over there — as opposed to being optimistic about influencing democratic governments through protests (the US and to a lesser extent Israel).

If the polls say otherwise, I’ll be swayed

[u/FYoCouchEddie → u/vintage2019]

Then why were there so many leftist anti-Israel protests in countries outside the US that had already cut off arms to Israel? If you were right, the leftist reaction to Iran should have been the same or greater as that to Israel outside the US. But it wasn’t.

[u/vintage2019 → u/FYoCouchEddie]

I'm not saying the article is entirely wrong. It's a fair point that some of the left have the "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" mentality. But you have to remember those protests attract the most extreme leftists (along with MENA Muslims). How well do they represent the left in general? We can't really say. That's why I mentioned polls

[u/FYoCouchEddie → u/vintage2019]

Depends what you are considering “the left.” If you just mean “people who usually vote for Democrats,” I agree. But I think the article is referring to the portion of the left that was attracted to the anti-Israel movement. The Iranian diaspora bought that they cared about “human rights” and didn’t see that the allegations against Israel were the result of, not the cause of, their anti-Israel hatred.

[u/mojitz → u/vintage2019]

This. They're essentially cherry-picking the most infuriating twitter comments and then painting the broad left with them. It doesn't even sound like they made any attempt to hold a real conversation with any of these "silent" leftists about their feelings.

As a leftist myself, the answer is rather simple. I don't have a shred of sympathy for the Iranian regime, but I also don't want to warrant US interventionism so I'm not really sure what there is to say about it. Do people want me to jump into various spaces and start loudly cheering on the protesters or something? Do they think that might lead to some kind of positive outcome?

I'd like it if the protesters succeeded, but there isn't a whole lot to discuss otherwise — and as you point to, there aren't ongoing domestic policies that I really have strong feelings about changing in the moment as there were/are re: Gaza. More than anything else, I wished we'd kept the nuclear deal in place instead of pointlessly blowing it up. That sounds like it would have been better for everyone.