Why aren't the big news outlets covering the protests in Iran?
Protesters are being killed.
There's brutal killings from the regime.
They've gone into Sharif University right now,
which is one of the top universities in the world.
They've imprisoned the students, gunshots have been heard.
>> Maz Jobrani is frustrated over the fact that it doesn't seem as though there's
enough attention being paid to the protests that have been taking place for
several weeks in Iran.
These protests were sparked by the death of a young woman who was taken into
custody by the morality police in Iran for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly.
It was later discovered that she was dead.
The authorities claimed that she died due to a heart attack as a 22 year old.
But witnesses say that she was severely beaten in custody and
that's what led to her death.
Now, while that might have been the catalyst for the unrest that's currently
taking place in Iran, there's a lot more going on that is worth discussing.
There had been a lot of rage brewing as a result of these antiquated
religious ideas, social control, political censorship.
And it's all just kind of come to a point where Iranians are not only taking to
the street, they're refusing to call this a protest.
They're saying, no, this is a revolution, there is no turning back.
So the Ayatollah finally weighed in on this, he broke his silence today,
and here's what Ali Khamenei had to say about the unrest.
It's the US fault.
It's the West's fault.
It's not our fault for brutalizing people, especially women.
It's not our fault for engaging in the kind of disgusting political
censorship and oppression that we've been engaging in.
No it's the US fault.
But there is a bit of truth to that statement which I do want to talk about
because it's more nuanced than he's wrong, the US is great, the west is great.
We've done nothing wrong.
The US has played a little role in this with their economic sanctions against Iran
which has completely devastated the economic stability of innocent Iranians.
And this was after, of course, Donald Trump decided to rip up
the Iran nuclear deal which Iran had agreed to, had been following.
They had completely stopped developing their nuclear program.
There were safeguards in place to make sure that they were following through
on their promises.
But of course Trump came in, ripped that up.
And what do you think Iran is gonna do?
They're gonna go back to developing their nuclear program.
And so the sanctions have devastated people there and
it happened just before Covid.
And as we all know, Covid has been an economic disaster for most countries.
So it's just been one issue compounding after another after another.
Now let's get you the actual statement by the Ayatollah.
Speaking to a cadre of police students in Tehran,
Khamenei said that he was heartbroken by the death of 22 year old
Mahsa Amini in police custody, calling it a sad incident.
Really, do you really find it sad?
Why was she arrested in the first place?
However, he sharply condemned the protests as a foreign plot
to destabilize Iran echoing authorities' previous comments.
He says the rioting was planned.
These riots and insecurities were designed by America and
the Zionist regime and their employees.
Yes, yes, it was America that convinced the morality police in Iran
to take a 22 year old woman into custody and then allegedly beat her to death.
But I do want to get to the nuance in a moment.
John, I want to give you a chance to jump in first though.
>> Yeah, so I mean, I guess I'm jumping in as late in this now as he is.
His statement is terrible.
His statement is trash, but also everything that he or
any other representative government says,
you have to take it understanding that they have waited a very, very long time.
So anything they say is going to be obviously more suspect,
less effective than if they'd said it very early.
If you want to convince us that you think it's such a sad incident, maybe on day
one that would have worked if you'd shown like a little bit of sympathy or empathy.
Not weeks later, seeming only to mention it because the protests haven't yet
been absolutely crushed as you've been trying to do all along.
Then no, it doesn't count for literally anything.
The plot obviously is conspiratorial.
Why wouldn't it be?
Everything in politics is these days.
To hear some of the most influential people in Iran, in the United States,
in politics and media, nothing is organic.
Nothing actually just happens.
It's all planned.
Is everybody in government in meetings like all the time planning all this stuff?
How exactly would we get all of these young people in Iran to protest
day after day after day with the threat of imprisonment or death?
How would we convince them to keep doing that?
And honestly, as bad of an excuse as it is to say that it's a foreign plot,
let's say that it was.
So it's now on you to control what you can control, perhaps by no longer trying
to control what you've been needlessly controlling for literally decades.
You can't necessarily stop the economic damage of those sanctions or whatever.
That's an ongoing diplomatic problem that should be solved.
But when it comes to the morality police,
I kind of feel like that's within your control.
If you wanted to end that and released at least a little bit of the pressure on
the Iranian people, then perhaps they'd be a bit more sympathetic towards you when it
comes to the economic stuff.
But you're not choosing to do that.
You're just pointing the finger abroad and
pretending that that's the source of all of your problems.
The people of Iran know that that's not the case.
They know exactly what form of oppression they're suffering from.
>> Yeah, you're exactly right about that.
And so let me just get to the nuance that I keep alluding to.
The reason why the supreme leader, the Ayatollah has any power in the first
place is because of the coup the United States orchestrated in Iran.
So, there is some truth to the US having a role in
helping things develop the way they have in Iran,
which has been pretty disastrous for the people in Iran.
We went against their political will and
engaged in regime change on behalf of business interests.
And so there's accuracy if he had made a statement like that.
But of course he's not gonna make that statement because that's what led to his
power and he doesn't want to give that up.
>> You're right, but you're being way too generous.
That is not what he's saying.
He's saying this protest, okay.
>> No, but this protest, John,
protests are never only about the thing that sparks it, right?
So you have the yellow vest protests in France.
It wasn't just about one tax.
It was about all of the neo liberal policies that were squeezing workers
in France that just led to the unrest in response to that one spark,
that one final spark, right?
And I think that's what we're seeing in Iran as well.
There's frustration obviously over these insanely conservative
religious standards that they have there, the oppression.
There's been frustration brewing over that.
But there's also a lot of an anger over how people are doing economically.
And it's US foreign policy 101 to implement sanctions.
So people like the regular citizens of that country get so fed up that they
start fighting for a revolution or they start pushing for regime change.
It's like one of the tactics the US gets involved in.
I don't agree with that tactic because I don't think the US should be meddling in
the political business of other countries.
I think that it should be organic.
And look, I'm 100% in favor of these protests.
I want them to live in a freer society, a better society.
But there is a small role by the United States, and
I would be lying to the audience if I didn't mention that.
That's what I'm trying to say.
>> I get what you're saying and the general point about these social movements
not necessarily being about the one thing can be true.
But I also think that in each of those you could try to sort of plot in
a qualitative sense.
But how significant is the initial spark?
This isn't just about her death perhaps, as tragic as it is.
But about the system of social and
cultural control that doesn't necessarily encapsulate all of the concerns clearly.
If you listen to the protesters, it doesn't.
But it's also more than enough by itself.
If that was the only thing,
I think that that's enough to generate a social movement like this.
And yeah, like, again, he's not making the point
that this is the obvious end result of decades of American.
You're making a nuanced point that's based in history and make sense.
He is not listening to people's actual concerns and trying to convince them
you've just been manipulated by the Americans who we literally won't even
allow you to access the internet to listen to what the Americans are saying.
They can't hear us right now.
And so like that's not gonna work.
That's just not a convincing argument at that point.
>> 100%.
And let me just be clear, I mean, he's not a good faith actor,
he's not an honest actor.
Of course, he's just trying to place the blame on external factors
rather than maybe reflecting on how he has taken part in brutalizing people in that
country over whatever religious morality or standards of morality he might have.
But I do wanna also just the young women who are out there taking
their hijabs off and really putting themselves at so
much risk are so incredibly brave.
I'm so inspired by them.
I do want to go to one more video here because in this video,
you'll see female students,
they're at an all female school, taking their hijabs off.
Swinging the hijabs over their heads while chanting, and it's in Farsi, so
let me just translate it real quick.
They're chanting death to the dictator.
So let's
take a quick
look at that
video.
>> [NOISE]
>> It's just incredible.
And I mean thousands of people have already been arrested for
taking part in these demonstrations.
it's hard to pin down the exact number of fatalities.
Amnesty International put out a number that says dozens of people,
upwards of 50 individuals have died, including 5 children, but
the number is probably higher than that.
Some of the protesters have been met with live ammunition,
it's just what you would expect from a terrible, oppressive regime.
And they're still willing to put their literal lives on the line to fight for
a better future.
>> Yeah, it's obviously incredibly inspiring.
And I know sometimes I think even our fans get annoyed at how much time I spend,
especially on the Damage Report, responding to incredibly fragile
broken men freaking out about everything involving women.
About women in the military, whether it's Tucker Carlson,
or She Hulk comes out and they just start crying for literally weeks.
And The Woman King comes out and Ben Shapiro hides under the covers for
a full weekend.
The reason that I freak out so much about that is when I see those scenes,
and we've been seeing them now for a couple of weeks, it is a reminder
that should not be necessary of how much women are capable of.
How brave and strong and big and effective they can be, and
these guys don't want that.
They want humanity to face its future with an arm tied behind its back.
Not all of us working together as best as we can be, as free as we can be,
accomplishing everything that we can do.
They don't want that.
They are on the side of the oppressors.
In Iran, here, it's the exact same thing.
We see that and we're inspired.
Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro see that and they're ready to start crying again.
They do not want women to be inspired.
They don't want them to see those those scenes.
They don't want them to see fictional depictions.
We should all be cheering this sort of bravery.
>> I could not agree more and I think the biggest miscalculation
I have personally experienced by conservative men is
the effort to underestimate the capabilities of women.
I think Dennis Prager learned that lesson the hard way last week,
just putting that out there.
But to the women of Iran, to all the people who are fighting for
more rights for a better future, more power to you, solidarity.
I just love that they're fighting and we'll stay on this story and and
update you guys as we learn more.