408
Inside Iran’s protests: ‘Either we overthrow the regime, or we are destroyed. We have nothing left to lose.’
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2026
408 points (97.4% liked)
World News
52683 readers
2062 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF OCTOBER 19 2025
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I'm not saying it is not credible, just that if a regime change is really what the Iranian people wish, having the support of an evil country doesn't change their legitimate aspirations.
Unfortunately this is impossible to know with the current regime, so the only solution is to topple it and hope for the best. But ultimately the Iranian people have to be the ones to choose, not the mollahs, not the US, not Israel.
No. You're upside down. It's not that the Iranian people have the support of an evil regime. It's that if the Iranian people succeed in toppling their government, Israel will dominate the Iranian people and the Iranian people will not be able to express their will. And when the Israelis and USians put their puppets in place, if the Iranians protest, the they'll be brutally suppressed and the death toll will be massive.
The only solution is to topple the aggressors the first. Then and only then is mass Iranian self determination able to be secured.
Well, they are already getting brutally suppressed, what difference would it make? There are no chance of regime change right now, so batter take a chance for improvement than wait like a good sacrificial lamb for better days that will never happen as long as the mollah are in power.
Have you seen Gaza? Libya? Somalia? Syria? Iraq? Afghanistan? That's the difference.
Incorrect attribution of cause. The problems in Iran are caused first and foremost by the siege - brutal sanctions from the US and Europe have caused 10x more deaths than violence from the government. When the seige is broken, then Iranians will have the safety they need to actually prosecute the revolution they need for self-determination.
Because you think that the Mollahs will stop using tanks and machine guns on protesters because the sanctions would be lifted? No, they will use that to reinforce themselves with more weapons, new technologies, and be an even bigger threat for the whole region.
Ooooh, you're an imperialist! Got it.
No. The Iranian government is not in the business of killing as many people as they can. That's Israel and the US. And the way we know that the news reports about what's happening in Iran are lies is because the claim is that Iran is able to kill 10x as many people per day as Israel was able to kill in Gaza at the height of their offensive.
Maybe you think you don't agree with American imperialism, but this is what you sound like:
It's been openly stated in Western media why the Iranian people are protesting - economic hardship. It's also been stated that the reason for the economic hardship is US economic sanctions. And it's also been stated that the reason for the sanctions is to goad the Iranian people into demanding regime change. And it's also been stated that the reason to goad the Iranian people into regime change is to reestablish the dominance of US interests over Iran.
https://apnews.com/live/iran-protests-updates-1-12-2026
Associated Press. In black and white.
You would do well to actually consider the real world instead of arguing about vacuous morality while only consuming Western propaganda.
And yes, groups like the Human Rights Activists of Iran are Western propagandists, funded by the CIA and US State Department through the NED, with headquarters in Fairfax, VA, about 15 miles from CIA HQ.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/revealed-the-cia-backed-think-tanks-fueling-the-iran-protests/290638/
Ah, the good old strawman. Demonize your opponent to try to get the "upper hand".
I'm well aware how the US sanctions affect the population and what is its objective. I condemn them as much as you do. But you seem to be blind on one very important thing: how it affect the population VS how it affects the elites.
The elites of the regime lives good lives, barely affected by the sanctions (other than not being able to go to most westerns countries). Spending billions into missiles they spend without much result (so much that even a missed impact on Israel soil make the whole west headlines). To what gain? Meanwhile you got a population that tries to live, some just survive considering the little they got. I won't say they are worst than the US at taking care of the general population well-being, but they sure aren't much better.
You got in both cases powerful leaders doing every evils to stay in power, even knowingly helping their adversary in order to keep them breathing (Bibi and the Hamas), and keep the fear of the other alive.
All I wish for the Iranian people is a life free, without both mollahs and outsides diktats. You won't get that from the mollah. I'd doubt you'll get that from the US either, or any imperialist power (Russia, China). But if the Iranians people are as resilient as they were under the US sanctions and the mollah regime, I believe they can do it.
Literally the only way the Iranians were able to throw off the imperial yoke was to establish the theocracy. That's the historical reality. The Iranians already went democratic and they got fucking owned by the imperialists. Why do we think it's going to be different this time when the US just fucking bombed them less than 12 months ago?
The Iranian missile program is one the most efficient in the world. It is completely indigenous, not relying on foreign governments to keep their deterrence systems in place. Each piece of material produced in Iran is produced by Iranian workers, and can be up to 90% cheaper than equivalent munitions of their adversaries. The idea that missile production is why Iranians are in trouble is ridiculous. It's literally one of the key reasons Israel and the US don't feel confident enough to go for a full frontal assault on the country. The job of the government is national defense and Iran was doing a good job at that until last year when Israel dealt a devastating blow, and the only thing that stopped Israel going further were the Iranian's missiles.
If you think Iran is helping Israel in order to create the political theater they need to control their people, you are lost in delusion.