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Comment by culi | Hacker News Reader

I've heard the same from many Iranians I know. Western media presented the protests as an attempt to overthrow the order but it seems many protestors were simply calling for reform.

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> seems many protestors were simply calling for reform

I mean, when you would have literally death penalty for attempt to overthrow the order, of course you will be "simply calling for reform".

According to Gallup, Iran's approval ratings of its leadership are as follows:

  2018: 45% approval vs 49% disapproval (net -4)
  2019: 44 vs 53 (-9)
  2020: 43 vs 51 (-8)
  2021: 50 vs 46  (+4)
  2022: 44 vs 51 (-7)
  2023: 43 vs 52 (-9)

https://news.gallup.com/poll/611210/iran-votes-lukewarm-lead...

We don't have numbers after that but I find it hard to believe a large majority in a country with middling approval ratings would suddenly want to completely overthrow their leaders in just a few years.

Generally I agree; i doubt that there is a large contingent of Iranians in Iran who are cheering for bombing and complete collapse of their civilization. However it’s not out of the question that the approval of the government could have plummeted precipitously within a couple of years - there’s lots of precedent for that across the world (UK conservatives come to mind, George W Bush 2nd term as well)

Sure, absolutely. And I'm sure it did plummet. But Bush or the UK conservatives weren't overthrown in a nation-wide revolution. To get something like that you need massive widespread disapproval that's been going on for at least a decade. That just isn't the case in Iran. It's been a pretty middling approval rating for years

Frankly, you sound like an Iranian bot. It's obvious that the Iranian government's approval ratings are, at best, around 20%. Measuring government approval ratings in a country where there's no freedom of speech, no political freedom, and where criticizing the regime is subject to mass executions is simply stupid.

Just out of curiosity, according to your methodology, what's Kim Jong-un's approval rating among North Koreans? 99.98%?

> Just out of curiosity, according to your methodology, what's Kim Jong-un's approval rating among North Koreans? 99.98%?

You're just being insincere. I clearly posted GALLUP.

Maybe you're handler forgot to turn on the ability for you to see and read links.

> Frankly, you sound like an Iranian bot. It's obvious that the Iranian government's approval ratings are, at best, around 20%.

This is not at all obvious... I've only seen one poll that indicates such a low approval rating - it was from GAMAAN, which uses highly questionable polling techniques

1. reaching out to people on social media, then asking them to share the poll with their friends 2. Repeatedly asking the same people to take different polls, effectively polling the same sample over and over again. 3. Asking users of ONE VPN provider, which is hardly representative of Iranian population.

Even looking at their cross-tabs in their report shows how out-of-whack their sample was:

https://gamaan.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Iranians-Polit...

Only 13% of those polled were in lowest third of income. 53% of those polled where in top 40% of income. Only 29.0% of those polled indicated religion was important in their life, compared to 69.4% from the World Values Survey. Hilariously, they use that as an indication that their poll is somehow more accurate than World Values Survey, Gallup, etc.

GAMAAN is also headed by Tony Blair, one of the most notorious interventionist Neo-cons of the past 30 years.

I trust Gallup way more than GAMAAN here.

> no freedom of speech, no political freedom, and where criticizing the regime is subject to mass executions is simply stupid.

Your view of day to day life in Iran seems clouded by propaganda. Try talking with someone who actually lives in Iran and ask them what they think.

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