We all know she’s Persian, dude. She dressed up as Jasmine for Halloween and wasn’t banned for culture appropriation.
Nothing short of a blood bath? In HK, the protesters aren't exactly armed. In Iran, it's my understanding that having an AK-47 is akin to having a dog or a cat, something to keep you company.
The Parts Unknown episode where Bourdain goes to Iran is one of the best ones. Gives a really good perspective of how the Iranian people view America. Worth a watch.
What happened after the '79 revolution is the equivalent of all the Trump supporters not only winning the election for all time, but then having the ability to eject 50% (if not more) of the learned and wealthy people in the country while demanding we all go back to the roots of Christianity. It sucked then and continues to suck now. Most people with brain cells understand it sucks. Most of the country knows it sucks. But once a faction gains power, they tend to be loathe to give it up, and when they control literally everything? Well. It's very easy to say everyone should be rebelling in the streets. But when you have lived in a country where that is all you've ever known, and the world is getting sicker by the day, and you just want to carve out your own little space, it's hard to believe in another revolution, especially because a lot of the country still remembers the last one, remembers losing family members and people disappearing and deaths in the streets. To make matters worse, if it hadn't been for the US and the UK and a thirst for oil, the '79 revolution never would have happened. It's definitely easy from your place in the world to say they should rise up, but we know about all of our injustices at home and we just sit here waiting for it to get worse until 'revolution is inevitable.' Nobody wants to put their life on the line when it might not matter, here or there. There's never been less yelling though. Persians yell a LOT.
Well, you know what they say. Lower taxes, deregulation, and Islamic theorcracy. Really, what is the difference?
Revolutions that start out great and 100% justified often get subverted by religious nuts. The Shah was a tyrant who richly deserved to be overthrown; Khomeini came in later. The Tea Party was like a 1/1000th version of the Iranian Revolution. An actual right wing revolt in the U.S. would stem from grievances that shouldn't be considered conservative hobby horses (i.e., high gas taxes in rural areas), with the Jesus Crispies sweeping in after the first two weeks.