I have friends in the US that want the US government destroyed, there are people in the southern US that think the south won the civil war. Who cares?

Every government in all of human history has had its detractors and supporters, more detractors probably exist in expatriated communities, their existence does not really prove anything.

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RiverStone 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I’m not sure what your point is. Are you suggesting that anti-regime Iranians are a minority?

I’m not sure if we have good statistics on this. So everyone may have a different perspective.

All I can say is this: I’m married to an Iranian woman, and through her I’ve met many Iranian expats, and I’ve talked to her family members within Iran.

I think you’ll find that Iranian expats are pretty unanimously against the regime. That’s millions of Iranians. My in-laws who lives in Tehran are anti-regime, along with every single person on my wife’s side of the family: aunts, uncles, cousins. Everybody.

Thousands of protesters were killed opposing the regime. And that’s just the latest protest.

This is a regime that will kill women who don’t cover their hair correctly. Dancing and singing in the street is illegal.

Don’t be concerned on behalf of the regime. This is a just war supported by Iranians. You are on the right side of history to kill people who hang protestors and force little girls to cover every part of their body.

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3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

[deleted]

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CapricornNoble 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

>That’s millions of Iranians. My in-laws who lives in Tehran are anti-regime, along with every single person on my wife’s side of the family: aunts, uncles, cousins. Everybody.

How do you square this with the absolutely massive pro-government rallies that we've seen all across Iran for the entire duration of the conflict? Millions of Iranians opposed to the regime, in a country of 90 million+, might still be a fringe minority.

If you asked some American expat their thoughts on MAGA, and they responded "China should bomb MAGA rallies so we can be free from the Republican party, my whole family in the US agrees".....that person would be considered a fringe lunatic, even if Trump's regime has record-low approval like it does now (and rightly deserves, I hope he is impeached and jailed).

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RiverStone 5 hours ago | parent [-]

We have limited data on this. There have been surveys, but survey data isn’t always very accurate.

Here was one survey that showed 81% disapproval of the Islamic Republic: https://gamaan.org/2023/02/04/protests_survey/

In a country of 90 million, if the regime has 20% supporters, that’s 18 million supporters.

Tehran population is 9 million, 20% of that is 1.8 million.

So it’s easy to understand why you might see videos of hundreds or thousands of regime supporters in the streets. That doesn’t mean they’re the majority.

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krainboltgreene 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Hey man, 60% of americans disapprove of the current government, that doesn't mean they want to nuke Washington DC.

	▲	RiverStone 29 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		All I can tell you is to go talk with Iranians. I don’t know where you live, but every major city has an Iranian expat community. All I’m trying to communicate is the conversations that I’ve had with my Iranian wife, her expat friends, and my in-laws in Tehran.

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CapricornNoble 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Mint Press News has a good article about why Gamaan's methodology is unsound:

https://www.mintpressnews.com/gamaan-iran-polling-regime-cha...

	▲	RiverStone 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Thanks, I hadn’t seen that article before. Interesting read. My take is that GAMAAN likely overstates the opposition, but all surveys on Iran are imperfect, not just GAMAAN. I know Pew has done surveys in Iran, but didn’t directly ask if people support the regime. I personally believe that the opposition group is larger than the regime supporters. I think there’s enough data to infer that. But I’ll also admit that there’s probably a sizable percentage of ambivalent/non-revolutionary Iranians who would just be satisfied with a better economy.

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dionian 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

the No Kings movement doesnt seem to care about Ayatollahs