Slashdot Mirror
Iran Cracks Down on Bloggers
Wired News is reporting that dozens of Iranian Bloggers have been met with harassment by the government and some have even been arrested for voicing dissenting views in recent history. The article takes a look at some of the bloggers who are fighting for their rights and how. From the article: "The Iranian blogging community, known as Weblogistan, is relatively new. It sprang to life in 2001 after hard-liners -- fighting back against a reformist president -- shut down more than 100 newspapers and magazines, and detained writers. At the time, Derakhshan posted instructions on the internet in Farsi on how to set up a weblog."
Boingboing has a guide to evading cesonsorware
Should be useful to Iranians, as the US firm Secure Computing is the company censoring Iran.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
I got my mail stolen, I am attacked using microwave weapons, psycotronic weapons and other advanced weapons and after 3 months of "Secret" police torture the army joined in and I am now also attacked regularly by directed energy weapons on aircraft.
So, what are the other effects of these energy and "psycotronic" weapons other than hallucinations and paranoia?
I hear that the private sector sells medicines that can render the body immune to such weaponry. You should look up SSRIs sometime.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
"The article takes a look at some of the bloggers who are fighting for their rights and how."
:D
Now, what exactly are those rights? I believe the only right you have in a state which is currently under the rule of Sharia ("Islamic law") is the right to remain *OBEDIENT* at all times.
This whole blogging business doesn't seem very obedient to me... so exactly what rights are they fighting for? A change of religion?
-pug
The cynic in me says that this story is a careful plant by the Bush Administration
Yes, because Slashdot is a proven shill for the administration. CmdrTaco is Bush Minister of Propoganda. I swear, sometimes I wonder how you people find your pants in the morning without help. Take off the tinfoil hat, it's out of season.
Democracy ? Where ?
Opposants arrested before the election, partisan commitee invalidating many opposants candidature, a "Supreme guide" able to veto or force a law...
Elections does not imply democracy.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
While the Shah and the US had some agreement (such as the idea that keeping left-wing fascism (i.e. socialism) and Islamic fascism out of Iran was a good idea), he wasn't the US's puppet. He tended to jerk the US around more than the US jerked his strings. Regardless, a very large and growing number of Iranians remember his rule as being very enlightened compared to the Islamic fascism which eventually took over.
. . . who are persecuted by their totalitarian government for exercising their natural rights than for the false bravado and excessive hubris of our own "dissidents."
What?
I just went to the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam and the strongest things that stood out are:
- The first freedom to go for anyone before total authoritarian dictatorship is the freedom of speech.
- Repressing government are usually very very afraid of the spoken word.
- Anne Frank's diary and history is one of the strongest evidences of the Nazi oppression and attempt to bring certain races to extinction.
Look at the Mohamed drawings issue. The extremists didn't really care about depictions of Mohamed. What their problem with those depictions is, is the freedom of speech. They are afraid they'll no longer be able to brainwash free people into stupid theocratic thinking. They are afraid that they will no longer be able to engage humans into blowing themselves up in order to fulfill a focus group god'$ prophecies.
Makes me puke that we don't even want to keep the freedom of speech around in the US but it makes sense why it had to be legislated. Everyone who tries to control someone will attempt to take that freedom of speech away.
To be fair, here in the U.S. is the choice of who runs for high offices really open to much choice? Democrat or Republican, many felt that both choices were awful (and I intend to agree). Pretty much the same can be said of any third party candidate, too. As South Park has explained so well, pretty much every election in history has been about choosing between a douche and a turd, when in reality you wouldn't likely ever choose either one.
There is a key difference, though, that I will openly admit. Voting for a U.S. president (or senator, or representative, etc.) is basically choosing which jark will try to screw you and censor you. In these elections, such as Iran's, IMHO, it's essentially about choosing who's going to try and kill who and censor you. (A bit of a generalization, I'll admit)
Leaders across the authoritarian states of the M.E. use "issues" like those drawings as a way to vent the frustration of their own people toward "the west." They manipulate whatever-it-is as a sort of social "wedge issue" to keep people angry at someone else. That's what the cartoons thing was about.
Think Gay Marriage. Gay Marriage is something we should deal with, okay -- I'm for it, basically -- but is it among the biggest challenges for our society when compared to economic, environmental, foreign, and every other kind of policy in this country being run with only the enormous multinational business interests at the table and nobody from any other perspective having a voice? The monied interests behind the old Republican party discovered after the civil rights movement that they could patch together a coalition of fearful social conservatives and keep those fears yoked up to the party's economic interests. When the rank and file get upset, lo and behold, there will always be a distracting social "issue" to motivate them again. (Janet Jackson's bustier popped open -- OMG! OMG! Society is breaking down! Election cycle -- Oh No! Pass a bunch of anti-Gay-Marriage amendments, it's a crisis!)
It's all about preserving authority, not about the specific faiths involved. Authoritarian religion turns to demagoguery like this to release pressure.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Hey, muslims may be seen as intollerant, but at least they don't go around killing people who convert from Islam to another religion. Now that would be intollerant!