Then perhaps that isn’t a good field to be in, unfortunately. Or they would have to be underground. Just like if one can avoid joining the military if they don’t want to support the violence it enacts.
I mean, would YOU teach history if it was insisted you do some sort of “Alternative Facts” version of it?
Absolutely.
We have been tolerant and even supportive of oppressive regimes in the past and present because a stable governing power that can aid the US in its goals is more important than how that country governs.
It isn’t right or fair, but an ends to means. And honestly, we can’t do a lot directly to help. The alternative of playing World Police and forcing change hasn’t work out so well either. Change like that has to come internally. Half of the reason things are so messed up is from various borders drawn by the West that didn’t take into account the people living there. But even if they were redrawn, I don’t think they would end up with a bunch of democratic states.
Leaving a whole lot of other things aside, you’d agree in the abstract that if someone chooses to be a public face of a propaganda apparatus intended to advance some rather retrograde theocratic aims, while also choosing to not subject one’s self to those same kinds of restrictions, you’re open to some level of criticism, wouldn’t you?
Seems a lot like all the gay-hating republican politicians who fight to pass laws making our lives miserable then get caught with their rent boys hauling their luggage (holding their bags) while they’re on vacations. If you really think some shit is wrong for everybody else then why the hell is it ok for you to do it. That,“don’t do as I do, do as I say” bullshit really doesn’t work good for me.
Agreed on a lot of it; however, in this case it’s not reducing a culture to a handful of representative cases…its about a stereotype which admittedly has its own set of issues too. regardless of race or religion or culture…publicly conservative people can be found to have far more liberal private values. “behind closed doors” so to speak. My point is in we see it happen her and seeing it happen in Iran does not surprise me, and only helps demonstrate to me…yeah, we aren’t as different as some would like us to believe. We have some of the same hang ups and issues.
If by wonders, you mean making things worse, then sure!
What about the people who actually support the regime, though? At what point does an uprising become popular? There is plenty of evidence to suggest that many Iranians do support the regime. At what point does it become a popular uprising if the population isn’t entirely onboard with it?
I’m not going to say I’d be some hero because I don’t know what I would do. It’s easy to say that I’d be a hero and teach Howard Zinn on the sly. It’s a lot harder to actually DO that. I’m not going to pretend that I know what it would be like to do my job under that kind of pressure, because I don’t and it would be disingenuous for me to pretend otherwise. We also have no idea what this woman’s life is like and why she does what she does. We do know that she has enough freedom to go to Switzerland for a vacation.
Yet we claim to be supportive of democracy. We’re not.
I’m somehow more concerned with the situation of the Iranians who get told they can’t have a beer by someone who then flies to Switzerland to have one on the money made from the Ayatollahs.
Agreed. But the main reason I know Iranian culture is multifaceted is something I owe to Persian friends, and not to media coverage of Iran. For people whose only exposure to Iran is through these sorts of articles highlighting hypocrisy and corruption, I can certainly see how it cultivates a systemic bias that reinforces support for bad foreign policies. In the same way, I can understand why someone who only hears about how we in the US are fucking up would have a pretty skewed view of our culture and peoples.
You think she has the choice to oppose the regime and not be in jail? There are more circumstances that limit choices than just someone holding a gun to your head or not. Living in Iran limits her choices.
And do you think that this picture going public will be good for her? I’m curious to know if now that this is publicly floating around, she will keep her job and freedom. I doubt that making the regime look bad will be good for her career.
Of course they matter, which is why I asked the question in the abstract. Unless and until we put our cards on the table about whether what she is doing is good, bad, or something else in the abstract, then the discussion the possible mitigating circumstances is devoid of context.
In my opinion, this woman is doing something wrong and making the world a worse place by furthering the propaganda she does, and the fact that she’s also a hypocrite opens her to further criticism. Sure, maybe they have a gun to her head the moment she’s off camera and she has no choice but to advance the things she’s advancing, but the fact that she’s enjoying a vacation in Switzerland where she can drink a beer and expose some skin to the sun does seem to indicate she’s at least willing to reap the rewards of her behavior if not the cost.
We can condemn her as a hypocrite, but I fear that picture may cost her more than internet shame. She will likely lose her job, could face jail, and or literal lashing.
We can jeer all we like, but we just try to shame our hypocrites, not cause them physical harm.
But you’re making all sorts of assumptions about her circumstances, none of which any of us know, other than she is a TV host known for supporting the ruling regime and that she drank a beer without a hijab in Switzerland. We also know that in Iran, people lack the choices people in other places have.
Again, I’m thinking that the possible scenario is less drastic and more subtle than that. Force doesn’t have to work through violence. It can work through limiting choices available to people and controlling the ideological framework that people live within.
Is everyone who enjoys a privilege not afforded to others a hypocrite, then?
I don’t wish this woman any harm, but it’s probably worth noting that it’s not the people jeering that will cause her the physical harm, but the backward theocrats whose propaganda she advances.
