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Iran’s regime often invokes anti-imperialist rhetoric
Iran’s regime often invokes anti-imperialist rhetoric —positioning itself against Western powers and Israel —to legitimize its rule and deflect global criticism, while simultaneously deploying the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to suppress ethnic minorities like Kurds and Baluch through executions, discrimination, and underdevelopment.socialistproject+2 Rhetoric vs. Practice This anti-imperialist posture, often amplified via IRGC-controlled media like Fars and Tasnim, portrays the…
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Simulacrum in the Context of Iran
In Jean Baudrillard’s philosophy, a simulacrum (plural: simulacra) refers to a representation, image, or sign. It not only copies reality but eventually supplants or precedes it. This leads to a state of hyperreality. In this state, the distinction between the real and the simulated dissolves. Baudrillard describes this as a progression through four orders. It begins with faithful reflections of…
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The Iranians simulacra (part of a series
Jean Baudrillard’s concept of simulacra describes representations that evolve from faithful copies of reality. They eventually become self-referential simulations. This process culminates in hyperreality where the distinction between real and simulated collapses. This framework applies insightfully to Iran’s Islamic Republic, where state propaganda creates hyperreal narratives that mask repression and sustain power.wikipedia+3 Baudrillard’s Four Stages Baudrillard outlines four phases of…
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Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation posits that in postmodern society, representations replace reality, resulting in hyperreality where the real and simulated blur. He identifies four phases of simulacra, each distorting reality further. Propaganda manipulates public perception, creating self-sustaining illusions. This phenomenon, amplified by digital media and advertising, complicates political engagement and genuine discourse.
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The Manufactured Abyss: Why Markets Parasitize Social Ties in Israel
The Manufactured Abyss: Why Markets Parasitize Social Ties in IsraelWe often talk about capitalism as an abstract force that “arrives” and replaces old ways of living. But as any sociologist will tell you—and as Mark Granovetter famously argued—economic action is always embedded in ongoing networks of social relations.The crisis we are seeing in Israel today, particularly the explosion of organized…
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The Televised Cult: Reading Forced Confessions Through Lifton Tags: #IranProtests2026 #Lifton #Psychology #ForcedConfessions #Totalism
Here is the full application of Robert Jay Lifton’s Eight Criteria of Thought Reform to the current strategies of the Islamic Republic. In our previous draft, we focused on the six most visible ones. Here are all eight, applied specifically to the regime’s current crackdown and the psychology of the “Islamic Republic” as a totalist system. 1. Milieu Control 2.…
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The Imperialism of the “Anti-Imperialist”: How Dictators Hijacked Woke Discourse Tags: Semantic Terrorism, Post-Colonialism, Iran, Critical Theory, The Left
(Intro) If you listen to the spokespeople of the Islamic Republic—or Russia, or Syria —you might mistake them for sophomore sociology majors at a liberal arts college. They speak fluent “Theory.” They don’t talk about “crushing dissent”; they talk about “protecting indigenous sovereignty.” They don’t talk about “censorship”; they talk about “combating Western cultural imperialism.” This is not an accident.…
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The Hyperreal War: Baudrillard and the Iranian Simulacrum
In January 2026, Iran’s regime uses a digital blackout to create a hyperreality, presenting a false narrative of resistance against Western capitalism while suppressing real protests. State media fabricates a “Global South vs. Global North” struggle, effectively neutralising actual violence through manipulated imagery, blurring the line between reality and simulation.
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The Digital Total Institution: Semantic Terrorism under the 17-Day Blackout
By Elifelet Sara LavieThe current 17-day digital blackout in Iran is not merely a “disruption of service.” Sociologically, it represents the transformation of a sovereign state into what Erving Goffman termed a Total Institution.In a total institution—be it a prison, an asylum, or the “sheltered” environments I study in my thesis—the state enforces a breakdown of the barriers between the…
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The Anatomy of a Blackout: From Symbolic Violence to Semantic Terrorism in #IranProtests2026
#IranProtests2026. Category: Theory / Current Events / SociologyTags: #IranProtests2026 #SemanticTerrorism #Bourdieu #Foucault #DigitalRights #SociologyThe Void and the WeaponIn social theory, we often discuss Symbolic Violence—the quiet, structural way power shapes our reality through language and norms. But what happens when that silence is forced, and the language is turned into a high-explosive weapon?During the current #IranProtests2026, we are witnessing a…
Leafy sees 