Quote:I stopped posting to the Politics sub-forum for quite some time. However, I think it's time for me to begin sifting through the tumultuous back and forth of this forum
I'm not here to change anyone's mind. But you guys know me. I've talked to most of the posters that visit this forum. I think it's important for you guys to realize why some "libtards" behave the way they do. So here's my story.
I was born in the USA. I was born at the Presbyterian Hospital on Central Avenue in the city of Albuquerque, NM. The reason I was born in Albuquerque was because my dad was on a school visa to earn his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of New Mexico. This was around the late 70s. My dad was born in Tehran, Iran. At the time he was granted his educational Visa, the US had a good relationship with Iran. After I was born, my Dad earned his PhD and wanted to go back home to teach and help Iran prosper.
He began his professorship at the University of Tehran in 1978. I was still just an infant. But even in 1978, [BAD WORD REMOVED] was getting crazy. Students were pretty [BAD WORD REMOVED] off at the Western ideology and wished for nothing to do with having ties to the West, especially the USA. My dad, a brand new PhD from the USA, was targeted by these ideologues. These ideologues believed that anyone from the West was the enemy and would destroy Iran. They hated my dad, not because of what he was, but because of where he came from. Even though my dad only wanted to help educate them.
He began to get death threats. 1978 Iran, from what he has told me, was a powder-keg. A populist powder-keg. People in Iran were [BAD WORD REMOVED] off. Mostly because they felt they were being over-run by outsiders. They felt that they were losing their identity. They hated the fact that the West was coming in and taking the country in a direction they felt was foreign. Protests were rampant. And the protesters wanted to ensure Iran would remain for Iranians. The protesters also were able to co-opt the highly religious within the country. The protesters made a strong push that Western ideology was against the teachings of God. They changed the minds of the religous to view anyone that was pro Western capitalism and neo-liberalism as being anti-religious.
Those that were for Western ideals were apathetic, they didn't care. Alot of them had some sympathies to keeping Iran more Iranian and less western. Populism is something that the middle class Iranians also felt. They weren't very religious, but the economic changes that were happening in Iran set up a sense of uncertainty for middle class Iranians. So as more and more demonstrations occurred that railed against western ideologies, the Iranians that felt capitalism and libertarian economic policies were best, stayed silent. After all, it's not very popular to say that a nationalistic point of view is dangerous.
As the tide began to turn towards religious fundamentalism, my dad decided to take me, my baby brother, and my mom and get the hell out of there. He realized earlier than most that an authoritarian movement had begun that would be hard to turn back.
He left his professorship in Iran to come back to the USA. Back to Albuquerque, where he earned his PhD. He left before me, my mom, and my brother got out. He had to leave us about 6 months before we left in order to tie down my mom and my brother's VISAs. I was already a citizen of the USA because I was born in Albuquerque, but my brother and mom weren't citizens and didn't have VISAs. So as the poop hit the fan, my mom left Tehran to go to Amsterdam as my dad was in Albuquerque fighting to get our my Mom and brother's VISAs granted. It was a crazy time for my refugee family. It was one that I wish never happened, but here we all are.
So I'm a US born citizen. And I've been to Iran. And I have family in Iran. My family in Iran is similar to most Christian families. They celebrate the main holidays, but they are not insane with religion anymore. But they are now stuck in a country that started out by wanting to make Iran "great" again. That's how all these movements start. The revolutionaries in Iran, the Ayatollah Khomeni, said he wanted to make Iran great again. He wanted to ensure that Iranians were well paid, well employed, and safe. He suckered the entire country, and messed that country up big time. He shut out people from coming into Iran. To this day, I cannot go into Iran anymore without fear of imprisonment. I can only see my cousins that live in the USA or Canada.
My dad hates Iran now. He sacrificed his time and energy to earn a PhD in order to go back to Iran and help modernize that country. And the morons in that country pooped all over modernized progress.
And now he we are. The country that is supposed to be the beacon to progress. The beacon to modern life. The beacon to freedom.
Here we are. That shining city on the hill. Behaving just like the Ayatollah Khomeni and his populist nationalists behaved back in 1978-1979. As a US citizen that has visited Iran, someone that knows how messed up that government is. To see our government behave just like them, with one Executive Order... It saddens me. It makes me cry.
I feel sorry for those that think Trump is doing the right thing. I feel sorry for them like I do for the kids that threatened my dad in Iran. My dad was telling them to study, to learn and to be patient. But instead, they hated my dad.
History.
History repeats itself. Sometimes not just over time. But over continents as well.
The_Anchorman
I truly feel for your families plight. I have several friends and business associates from Muslim Majority countries. I also know many people that fled the Iranian revolution to become contributing members to western society.
Having said all that, the sympathy that I feel for your families plight does not excuse your flawed, and frankly irresponsible analogy!
Did Trump Take Iranian hostages with plans to parade them around for a year to embarrass Iran? Did Trump bomb and kill Iranian soldiers in a proxy war? IS Trump propping up a strong man using chemical weapons against his own people that is causing this whole mess to begin with?
Nationalism and populism? Really. You want to try and make that stick? The reality of the wahabist and Salafist revolutions in the middle east has to do with the fact that the last 1400 years has taught us that fundamental Islamic culture is incompatible with western Ideology. Free Markets and Free societies is like a surreal dream that those parts of the world keep trying to wake up from violently. That results in the hanging of gays from cranes and the imprisonment of political or religious dissidents, not a 90 day travel ban.
For whatever reason, people seem to fail to blame leaders of Iran, Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and the like for the inordinate violence and terrorism sweeping across western society and instead want to demonize any western head of state with the Temerity to stand up and declare that we as a society do not have to commit SUICIDE just to show how inclusive and tolerant we are!
