Anyone who wants to understand Iran must know a bit about its history, and about these two topics in particular: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d'état https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAVAK

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https://x.com/DeTahmineh/status/2009680255091405074? The Western liberal media is ignoring the Iranian uprising because explaining it would force an admission it is desperate to avoid: the Iranian people are rebelling against Islam itself, and that fact shatters the moral framework through which these institutions understand the world. Ideally, to cover an uprising is not just to show crowds and slogans. It requires answering a basic question: why are people risking death? In Iran, the answer is simple and unavoidable. The people are rising up because the Islamic Republic of Iran has spent decades suffocating every aspect of life—speech, work, family, art, women, and economic survival—under a clerical system that treats liberty as a crime. There is no way to tell that story without confronting the nature of the regime. Western media refuses to do so because it has fundamentally misunderstood Islam. Or worse, it has chosen not to understand it. Islam, in Western progressive discourse, has been racialized. It is treated not as a belief system or a political ideology, but as a stand-in for race or ethnicity. Criticizing Islam is framed as an attack on “brown people,” Arabs, or “the Middle East,” as if Islam were a skin color rather than a doctrine. This confusion is rooted in historical illiteracy. Western liberal media routinely collapses entire civilizations into a single stereotype: “all Middle Easterners are Arabs,” “all Arabs are Muslim,” and “all Muslims are a monolithic, oppressed identity group by white European colonizers.” Iranians disappear entirely in this framework. Their language, history, and culture—Persian, not Arab; ancient, not colonial; distinct, not interchangeable—are erased. By treating Islam as a racial identity rather than an ideology, Western media strips millions of people of their ability to reject it. Iranian protesters become unintelligible. Their rebellion cannot be processed without breaking the rule that Islam must not be criticized. So instead of listening to Iranians, the media speaks over them—or ignores them entirely.

Two days ago I had an upsetting encounter. We were having Sunday lunch at the house of my wife's son, and the son of his girlfriend and I got into a political discussion. This young man is about 20, has not been to university, and is a very pleasant person. Like most of his generation, his secondary education was very spotty (we live in the UK, yet he was unsure who Cromwell was), and he doesn't read much. Our conversation turned to the world situation, and he quickly opined that the world's problems were caused by 'the Jews'. And ... I'm not making this up ... also the Freemasons. And the Vatican. All apparently working together. He did NOT have an elaborated theory for his beliefs, nor any supposed evidence. He had picked up these beliefs from social media, mainly, it appeared, from YouTube. I want to emphasize that he is a perfectly normal, nice person. He didn't have any particular conclusions to draw from his beliefs, regarding what should be done about this conspiracy. The emotional atmosphere while talking to him was like what you would expect if you met someone who believed some eccentric but not insane theory regarding human history: say, that the Vikings settled in Michigan and remained for several generations before leaving. So.... now I've got to change his mind. I was careful not to scoff at him, and in fact praised him for being interested in what's happening in the world. I doubt he would read any books I gave him, but perhaps there are videos that could get him started on the right path. Or other material? I would be grateful for any suggestions.