Iran was robbed, but can keep their heads high

[Prowess]

with all due respect, none of these statements by the players support the idea that they're pro-regime, or that they're sympathetic to the regime. these 2 statements are pretty neutral.

i have no doubt that 2-3 (maybe even 5-6) of TM's players come from more conservative backgrounds and/or are pro regime. shojah's comments were pretty clear...no debate there. i also agree that these players had the opportunity to use their platform to make a powerful stand...and that sure, some of them selfishly chose their careers and comfort instead of committing career suicide / putting themselves at risk. It's funny that people portray sardar as a hero when he was omitted for his UAE photo...his comments in support of the people on social media were echoed by many other members of the team, who were allowed to play and who fans/pahlavists give no credit to.

I truly believe that the anti-TM inferno, which started during the mahsa protests, is largely a result of an organized information warfare campaign, propagated by foreign actors, opposition groups, and ESPECIALLY that foul shamless Saudi propaganda channel Iran International. They've been spewing so much baseless, absurd anti-TM talking points and propaganda that it's hard for anyone watching not to fall into it....just look at International/pahlavist twitter's ABSURD, bad faith lie that mohebbi's gun celebration was a threat against fans in the stadium(and the fact that many javgeer Iranians fell for it) as one small example of the coordinated, organized, bad faith campaign against this team...btw, if you bought this lie, you're naive and part of the problem (no offense)

It's the same old playbook they've always used against us: our emotions. They're using our grievances and sadness and hatred toward the regime - all of our emotions - to manipulate us into turning against one another and destroying one of our historic pillars of unity (team melli).

if you'd like, ignore all the noise and just focus on the outcomes:

1) team melli has effectively become an ENORMOUS divide between iranians, a divide that's fully on display at the world's biggest sporting event, covered by all major media etc.

2) iranians are literally physically attacking one another

3) the diaspora - instead of uniting and rallying against the regime, are as dysfunctional as ever, and TM has become the most recent (and a very powerful) cause of that division

I always asked myself how it was possible that iranians, in 1978, all collectively lost their minds and destroyed the beautiful iran that Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had built...but throughout this world cup, it became obvious to me as I saw the power of propaganda applied against an emotional people like us

Excellent analysis 👏 Our emotions are our achilles heel. Especially when we resent something, our confirmation bias becomes sky high and we fall for it hook, line, and sinker. We iranians pride ourselves on being “zerang,” yet we devoid ourselves of critical thinking, nuance, and healthy skepticism, when we become blinded by hate.

Ironically, it is the non-iranians with no skin in the game, no resentment or trauma, that can often give good contextual rational analyses from a bird’s eye view.

[Artaxerxes]

oh boy. i cant believe people actually think this. ridiculous but when bad faith actors like pahlavist/MEK twitter bots, Iran International and zionist propaganda pages keep repeating lies, some people are going to believe them.

Like you belive the regime propaganda then i assume?

Where do you stand really?

"Pahlavist/Mek, zionist, Iran International "

You almost sound like that ape Marandi.

Never once do you take up I.R, are you a regimi eslatalab or maybe a chapi?who just loves to throw shit on everything but the regime, where do you stand really? Dont be shy.

[FeLFeL]

oh boy. i cant believe people actually think this. ridiculous but when bad faith actors like pahlavist/MEK twitter bots, Iran International and zionist propaganda pages keep repeating lies, some people are going to believe them.

Pahlavi Bots, Zionist Propaganda, Iran International, wow you really got this all figured out. Thank god Ramingeles showed up and cleared everything up for us guys. He saw thru all the lies that we were blind to see. As if everything that's happened in my life time was simply just an illusion. You're right all the children who died, all the children who were orphaned, all the parents who lost a child, all the brothers who lost a sister or brother - the millions of lives lost during the BS wars, all the hungry ppl in Iran as we speak, Mahsa Amini, Neda Agha Soltan, ... I can go on forever, this was all just fake news fabricated by Reza Pahlavi himself, with the help of Bibi and Morad Veysi of course. Thanks for clearing it all up for us. We can all go home now.

[Artaxerxes]

Pahlavi Bots, Zionist Propaganda, Iran International, wow you really got this figured out. Thank god Ramingeles showed up and cleared everything up for us guys. He saw thru all the lies that we were blind to see. As if everything that's happened in my life time was simply just an illusion. You're right all the children who died, all the children who were orphaned, all the parents that lost a child, all the brothers that lost a sister or brother - the millions of lives lost during the BS wars, all the hungry ppl in Iran as we speak, Mahsa Amini, Neda Agha Soltan, ... I can go on forever, this was all just fake news fabricated by Reza Pahlavi himself, with the help of Bibi and Morad Veysi of course. Thanks for clearing it all up for us. We can all go home now.

Spot on! These regime enablers are more disgusting than the regime itself