Iranians out in force protesting their government...

[walldude]

There is a world media blackout but a few little snippits are coming through..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8398615.stm

Dozens of people are reported to have been arrested across Iran after violent confrontations between security forces and anti-government demonstrators.

In the capital Tehran, police and militiamen used batons and teargas, and witnesses said there had been gunfire.

The protests, led by Iranian students, were over the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and suppression of academic freedom.

It appears to be the most widespread unrest in Iran for months.

Foreign journalists were banned from reporting on the rallies, and the Iranian authorities closed down mobile phone networks and severely restricted internet access.

[Echo In Light]

1. "world media blackout" = don't send signals that seed the public mind elsewhere!

K&R

[Subdivisions]

2. I think I heard earlier today that 5 protestors from the last uprising

have been sentenced to death. Yet, there they are protesting again...without fear.

Which just goes to show what cowards we are in this country.

[Nictuku]

4. They were hanged by the neck...

I saw a photo of it in a youtube, and it will haunt me the rest of my life.

I support the students!! There is a Time Magazine 'Vote for Person of the Year' where you can vote for the Students:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1939691_1939704_1939715,00.html

If you do too, vote the students up, and (some) of the others down.

[Kievan Rus]

5. We won't demonstrate here unless American Idol or Dancing With the Stars is cancelled

Bread and circuses.

[Chulanowa]

6. I wouldn't called it cowardice.

I'd call it infantilism, and I would blame the hippies and other toothless protesters inspired by them. They meant well, I'm sure, but they took the peaceful methods of King and Gandhi, and then forgot to back that approach up with an "or else." Since they kind of missed the bus when it comes to America's protest ethic, their kids got stuck with this same outlook, and it's been getting meeker and milder ever since, until the point where an American protest is twelve people with signs complaining to each other in a park.

If I had my way, I'd teach every single American about their society's history between 1890 and 1950. Show 'em what an American protest looks like.

[walldude]

7. What the fuck are you talking about?

The hippies got beaten, gassed, some were killed at Kent State, and they weren't all "hippies" This has to be the most brass balled line of bullshit I have ever heard. If I had my way I'd drop your ass off at Kent State circa 1970 and dare you to fucking learn something. But it's ok I'm sure you have led several protests where your life was in danger :eyes:

[Chulanowa]

9. You're not going to cry, are you?

'Cause I hate seeing children cry, even flower children.

What the fuck I'm talking about is that you guys had no teeth to your protest. Kent State? Okay, four dead, nine injured, and what was accomplished? Seriously, what happened then? Nothing stopped, nothing changed. Why? because you bunch earnestly believed that, if you just wished hard enough, magical fairies would appear and make everything just great.

Know why Martin Luther King was so successful, walldude? It wasn't so much because of his peaceful methods. It was because his peaceful methods and approaches were basically the only thing stopping ten million very angry people from exploding. You guys took that... and hten stripped away the "or else". I'm sorry, but you can have all the scathing chants, the witty placards, and every goddamned John Denver Song you can think up, and unless you have an "or else" you're not going to get a fucking thing done.

Unfortunately, this mentality of "If you wish hard enough, it'll happen" (best expressed in John Lennon's snotty-assed message, "war is over; if you want it" - Yeah sure John, we just weren't wishing hard enough I guess) was passed down to your kids, then to their kids (and for some of you, their kids' kids) as the "best" way to protest - mill around, sing something limp, wear birkenstocks (or crocs these days), and then go home and brag about how much you pretended to accomplish.

Your parents and their parents, when they didn't like something, shut down entire swaths of the country.These people in Tehran are closing down the city. They're beating back police officers. it's Kent State times ten every day there during these protests. Everywhere around the world, protests are motherfucking protests. people in the streets, stopping commerce, shoving the cops aside, and making hteir unhappiness known.

Here in the US, a protest is a couple people circlejerking and then meekly dispersing when the cops tell them to. This rather distressing trend has its roots in a generation that believed they could change everything by doing nothing.

[cynatnite]

12. A DUer took this photo at a protest...

It was towards the end of a protest that drew thousands of people and it was one of many. I'd hardly call that a circlejerk.

[Chulanowa]

15. It was as effective as one

Maybe a little less, 'cause after a circlejerk at least everyone goes home happy.

You cannot pretend that holding a protest where all you say is "give us what we want or we'll mill around some more and ask again" is going to achieve results. It. Doesn't. Fucking. Work.

[Echo In Light]

13. "John Lennon's snotty-assed message?"

:wtf:

[Chulanowa]

14. Yes

"War is over, if you want it"

Yeah. Guess you guys just didn't want it hard enough, did you?

And that bed-in? Yeeeeeah.

Besides. McCartney wrote all the good songs.

[cynatnite]

11. Well, geez, who are all those cowards I saw on CSPAN...

over the years protesting in the streets?

[tabatha]

3. Their courage is admirable in the face of brutality.

[walldude]

8. kick for the night timers

[rollin74]

10. I admire those students in Iran

they are risking their lives every time they take to the streets.