Clark Bergenstein retweetledi
Iran claims that around 3,000 people were killed in riots it says were orchestrated and armed by the US, and it has published the names of those it says died in the US-backed insurgency. The US, by contrast, asserts that more than 40,000 people were killed in what it describes as a grassroots uprising.
Despite these sharply conflicting accounts, there has been no independent fact-finding process (names of victims that Iran allegedly omitted?) and little effort to facilitate open discussion to establish the truth. Instead, calls for transparency and verification are consistently dismissed outright, framed as denialism or labelled “pro-Iranian propaganda” that disrespects the victims. The premise is that caring about the victims of violence requires us to blindly trust the people who are very openly seeking to use this violence to legitimise wars that will kill thousands.
I am always amazed that there are grown-up people who buy into the notion that the US and NATO pursue foreign policies based on helping the oppressed people of the world, as opposed to dressing up geopolitics in the language of empathy and human rights.
In every war, we are denied a serious discussion and are instead placed into camps of “pro-this” or “anti-that” based on our willingness to repeat government talking points, while those shedding crocodile tears replace facts and arguments with emotional slogans and moralistic narratives.
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