All my friends are sharing posts by influencers claiming what’s in the title even though a quick google search verifies that it is false. I never realised just how dangerous social media could be until now.

Googling the title at the time of posting this you will see a few mainstream media articles on Iran sentencing a single protestor to death for setting a government building on fire, now I don’t support the death penalty but that is a far cry from the claim in the title. A few fact checking websites are saying that the claim is false and that only one person has been sentenced to death. But below that are an ocean of niche “news” websites that appear to make their money from pure outrage claiming that Iran is going to go through with this.

My prediction is that people will flood to these “news” websites after seeing the social media posts, boosting their traffic and pushing them to the front page of google. After this more credible sources will cite the propaganda websites, and in a week’s time this will be a widely accepted fact. When eventually nothing actually happens everyone will have forgotten about it completely, the only difference will be new sanctions against Iran and more money to the US military.

  • @Shrike502
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    181 year ago

    Wonder if this would be used as a pretext for an outright invasion

    • @aworldtowin@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I believe Iran is similar geopolitically to Venezuela, where because of how vital they are Russia would be willing to defend them in an invasion. Under Trump there was prep for invading Venezuela and Russia sent weapons there and said if US invaded they would then be at war with Russia, and Iran is not only 3x the population of Venezuela but also even more significant geopolitically. That said, it may be the plan of the imperialists to get Russia to put more resources towards Ukraine so that Russia would be less able to help allies like Iran. Is it a coincidence things are heating up in Iran just as Russia announces their increased troop mobilization for Ukraine? I personally think not.

      • @Shrike502
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        31 year ago

        Of course it’s not a coincidence. There’s a world of difference between “willing” and “able”. And frankly it’s easier to convince volunteers to go fight in Donbass than n Tehran

        • @aworldtowin@lemmy.ml
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          21 year ago

          Definitely, though I think because of Iran’s population and military power Russia may not need to send troops to successfully defend it. Just weapons, tech, etc. People underestimate Iran imo. There is a reason despite being one of the world’s largest oil producers the US didn’t even dare invade them when Russia was destroyed and basically a US puppet, while they invaded Iraq alone twice and sanctioned them to mass death and are currently occupying Syria’s oil rich regions. It’s all about internal sabotage and color revolutions when it comes to Iran. The US would need a full scale invasion with a draft to defeat Iran assuming it had even a small amount of Russian backing unless it got serious backing from nearby allies, perhaps a puppet govt in Pakistan + turkey + the gulf countries.

    • @PolandIsAStateOfMind
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      191 year ago

      I doubt it, invasion was ruled out in 2020 already and situation did not improved for USA since, it just seems like standard colour revolution consent being manufactured.

        • @PolandIsAStateOfMind
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          121 year ago

          Maybe? Depending on how much traction this can get inside Iran.

          I meant more the traditional murican tactics where they are assembling their usual same map coalition for colonising countries, for them the claims don’t have to be anything close to reality, they just need to make their libs eat it (not hard).

          • @Shrike502
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            41 year ago

            True, true. I was thinking more in terms of using supposedly independent actors - various Islamist groups, nationalists, etc

        • stasis
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          71 year ago

          i guess so :(

      • @CountryBreakfast
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        131 year ago

        The tail wags the dog. The MIC is trying to grease the warpath. Sometimes politicians can resist the bait (like with Obama’s redline) other times they take it happily.

        • @PolandIsAStateOfMind
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          21 year ago

          That too is the longstanding US thing. Like USA-Spanish war 1898, the pretext for it was explosion of the battleship USS Maine. Back then both Spain and even US Navy said it was accident (theory vindicated later when its sister ship had almost the same accident, but survived, it was a design flaw), but media pushed the sabotage theory hard and the war actually started.

      • @PolandIsAStateOfMind
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        1 year ago

        Although that hasn’t stopped them before.

        It did actually. Trump was gearing for attack on Iran, but they shot down their stealth drone and shown they can defend themselves, so US backed down and even finally sacked Bolton who was at the very center of the warmongering against Iran. Though US later assassinated Soleimani to have the last word, as the petty little bully shits they are.