In the AI propaganda war, Iran is winning | Hacker News Reader

In the AI propaganda war, Iran is winning

economist.com

34 pointshebelehubele18 comments

Since the beginning of the war, the American presence in the region has weakened, with military bases having their infrastructure destroyed or even being expelled and attacked by local groups, as in the case of Iraq. Many of the dictatorial regimes that are allies of the United States are learning that the United States will not effectively protect them if they host American military bases on their territory. This makes such bases a huge disadvantage, as they drag these regimes into a war they never wanted to start. Meanwhile, Iran has grown stronger by effectively controlling the Strait of Hormuz without anyone being able to stop it, while the American hope for a change of government in Iran to one more docile to its demands is further away than before the war.

To me, this looks something very close to "winning." Which isn't much of a surprise. The United States has never been very good at winning wars against those who can defend themselves. Of course, Iran cannot survive a total war with the United States. But a total war would also be too costly for the United States and the global economy, making such a scenario more difficult to pursue.

> allies of the United States are learning that the United States will not effectively protect them

Worse yet, the Americans are led by a guy who thinks with his ego first, then his wallet, then all other considerations later. He seems to be withholding resupply shipments of interceptor munitions to “get a better deal” from the same allies who wouldn’t have been attacked if they had not participated with the US in this optional war.

I doubt that the US would win a war that far away without their allies providing infrastructure and Trump has alianated all western allies. I believe he is even capable to end those alliances in the middle of a war, resulting in effectively closing down military bases in Europe that are essential for the US.

https://archive.is/20260418121450/https://www.economist.com/...

The team behind a pro-Iran, Lego-themed viral-video campaign

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47661065

Iran managed to spin an illegal invasion and killing a school full of girls against the opponent. Lead by the most clownish head of state in living memory. An amazing, deftly feat. Fill out with some hundreds of words and a mandatory word count about Theocratic, Murderous, Regime, Dictatorship, Propaganda, and you have your standard IR piece.

Maybe they watched Team America.

Yes, human consensus is fundamentally driven by herd mentality

I think what many people don't realize is that the target of this propaganda isn't the Iranian people, but American's and the west.

This isn't difficult to do with someone like Trump in power. They aren't shouting "Death to America" because they don't have to. They can easily position Trump as an enemy of the people, just as American's have done to the Ayatollah in the past.

In the West, I have always felt, we were in support of the Iranian people, but not the leadership which barely represented them. Now in the US, you have a similar dichotomy.

I don't think anyone in the west is hoping for a stronger Iran, but we're also not wishing for a stronger America.

Note: I'm Canadian, but have lived in the US and have much of my family in the US

> In the West, I have always felt, we were in support of the Iranian people, but not the leadership which barely represented them. Now in the US, you have a similar dichotomy.

Who are “we”? No countries has done more harm to the Iranian people than the USA and the UK.

USA and UK literally toppled their democratic government and installed a brutal regime so well connected business interests could steal the Iranian people’s oil.

Sanctions are most directly felt by the people. I think it is very hard to believe that the US has had the interests of the people of Iran at heart in any meaningful capacity for decades (if ever).

It's pretty obvious if you watch the videos that they're either targeted at the American people, or at Trump and Hegseth themselves.

Many people don’t realize that Lego Trump is targeted at Westerners?

> , the videos play up criticisms of Mr Trump that resonate with a global audience.

So nice of the Economist to start off by setting the stage as a free democracy versus a murderous dictatorship. The two are starting look more and more similar each day. Which one has killed more Iranian civilians recently? Trump and Hegseth are openly committing war crimes and threatening genocide while claiming it's not even a war.

The article could have talked all about the meme war and how successful Iranian is at it without first aggrandizing the US and villianizing Iran.

Zanny Minton Beddoes, the chief editor, is pro Israel

https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/grotesque-priorities-...

You could just have said "sane". I mean does anyone who thinks about it for 5 seconds seriously conclude Iran achieving anything in this war would be good for anyone?

> A joyless theocracy produces wittier videos than the Trump administration

"One joyless theocracy produces wittier videos than another joyless theocracy" would have laid bare the comparison, I guess.

But this isn't terribly surprising. One of the pillars of the Trump regime is people having grown tired of cloying propaganda that aims to live up to positive ideals (perhaps even earnestly), but then falls terribly short. It's been replaced with some sort of empathizing with the emotional struggles of an entitled dictatorial simpleton, not even claiming to do anything for any type of good reason, but rather just lashing out to exert some kind of mark on a world they don't understand. So traditionally-effective lofty-ideal propaganda just isn't in their wheelhouse.

If there had been some attempt to manufacture a casus belli in that context, then perhaps more Americans would look at the current war and end up identifying with the "totally unforeseeable" struggles of our local regime. But instead without feeling a need for any of this to have happened, we just see utter incompetence, graft, a puppet of Netanyahu, a distraction from the Epstein files (the likely reason for being a puppet), and so on.

That's the thing. Trump is wildly entertaining. He flirts with the joyless theocracy we have here, but he's not part of it.

It's interesting that he's finally gone to a place where the joyless theocrats aren't following. They're still happy that he's bombing The Adversary to bring about the Kingdom of Heaven, but they know he's not succeeding and it looks like God isn't helping. Meantime, the atheist money-worshippers don't like wasting money and prestige.

He needed a big win to offset the fact that his economic program isn't working. Up until now his supporters have always found excuses, but for once they're floundering.

Obviously his opponents hate it, and he should have been able to use that. It should be easy to accuse Democrats of loving Iran; he's been accusing Democrats of loving Muslims since forever.

I don't know that I would set Trump apart from the joyless theocracy. Yes, it's obvious that if he actually stepped into a church either he or the church would combust. But what is the substance of Trump's "entertainment" ? I've seen too many family members go through the process of growing old and becoming mentally incompetent (incontinent?) to respect his destructive entitled flailing as entertainment. So it seems like the core of his entertainment is the same fire and brimstone harm-the-"other" that is at the core of religious fundamentalism. Basically decades of reactionary talk radio boosted religious fundamentalism into the secular context, so now that people who don't even identify with religion are effectively religious fundamentalists.

As for whether the wheels are actually coming off the cart now or merely different dissent is being highlighted, I'm not going to get my hopes up. I've seen too much ignorant blind "but Republicans are better for $ISSUE" to think that reality is going to have a significant effect. I saw a comment here a week back or so describing the American body politic as thoroughly unserious, and it strongly resonated with me. (It applies pretty damn well to much of the errant groupthink of the blue tribe as well)

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