XPost: alt.society.liberalism, alt.politics.republicans, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: ac@alt.net   
      
   It’s hard not to notice the sharp contrast we witnessed over the weekend   
   between the anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests and the   
   demonstrations taking place in Iran.   
      
   Well, maybe it is hard for some.   
      
   Here’s DNC Chairman Ken Martin doing his best to squeeze out a   
   comparison between the two events.   
      
   “In Iran, brave protestors confront a far-right theocratic regime that   
   crushes dissent and denies basic freedoms,” Martin wrote. “Here at home,   
   tens of thousands are marching after the fatal ICE shooting of Renee   
   Good- demanding justice, transparency, and an end to an unchecked   
   federal force that takes lives and tears families apart.”   
      
   This absurd statement was widely mocked on social media.   
      
   There’s a sharp distinction between the protests in the U.S. versus   
   what’s happening in Iran. I wanted to say this was “needless to say,”   
   but apparently it must be said with so many Westerners clearly divorced   
   from reality.   
      
   On the one hand, you have the obviously brave Iranian protesters who’ve   
   taken to the streets even though their regime has been comfortable   
   jailing and executing dissenters who have committed no other crime other   
   than speaking out in opposition to their rule.   
      
   The Iranian mullahs have, according to multiple reports, attempted to   
   violently crack down on the protests engulfing multiple cities across   
   their country.   
      
   The number of protesters killed is over 600, according to estimates on   
   Monday afternoon.   
      
   Some of the videos and image coming out of Iran right now are   
   remarkable.   
      
   Even where protesters are only detained, they are very likely to be   
   executed by a regime noted for jailing and killing religious and   
   political dissenters.   
      
   Now, I genuinely don’t know where the Iran protests are going. This   
   could be another moment of false hope. Accurately ascertaining the level   
   of discontent in Iran is difficult given that information in and out of   
   the country is tightly restricted. Not to mention, even if there is a   
   popular turn against the regime, bravery is simply not enough to topple   
   a government committed to staying in power that has mostly monopolized   
   the use of force.   
      
   There is no Second Amendment in Iran and little political freedom of any   
   kind to speak of, and it seems the regime is willing to escalate   
   violence to stay in power.   
      
   What this means for the U.S. and what President Donald Trump’s response   
   will be is still unclear, but it’s hard not to have sympathy for people   
   putting their lives on the line against tyranny.   
      
   It’s a different story here in the U.S., where woke mobs in Minnesota   
   and elsewhere are not just protesting, but actively impeding law   
   enforcement. Unlike the Iranian protesters, they’ve taken to the streets   
   with the absolute support of cultural elites.   
      
   The Golden Globes Sunday night was filled with leftist moral preening   
   about standing in solidarity against ICE and the allegedly authoritarian   
   Trump administration (which isn’t doing so good at “dictatorship” if it   
   allows these events to take place on national television without   
   interference).   
      
   And isn’t it interesting that the people protesting Israel and the U.S.   
   for apparently being so awful to Palestinians in Gaza have suddenly gone   
   quiet about what’s happening in Iran?   
      
   Right now, according to them, it’s the anti-ICE protesters who are   
   oppressed—even though in America they have the right to participate in   
   elections, speak their mind without fear of arrest, and can lawfully   
   protest policies they don’t like.   
      
   Yes, you can’t hit a law enforcement officer with a 2,000-pound vehicle   
   without potential consequences. I don’t see that right enshrined in the   
   Constitution.   
      
   Some Americans (and perhaps more than a few non-Americans) on the Left   
   have decided that losing an election is intolerable and that a federal   
   government enforcing immigration laws they don’t like is somehow   
   illegitimate.   
      
   It hasn’t helped that many prominent Democrat politicians and lawmakers   
   signal it’s fine to impede law enforcement, creating the deadly   
   situation leading to the ICE shooting of Renee Good.   
      
   The Left’s activists have essentially, and maybe even unwittingly,   
   courted death or serious harm by attempting to impede border   
   enforcement. In one case that has led to tragic consequences and may   
   lead to more.   
      
   This is not meant as a dismissal of the Left’s current freak out. The   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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