In January, citizens led one of the largest civilian protests in Iran’s history, calling for changes in the current regime's control of the state. The people of Iran protested primarily for a change to the current Islamic dictatorship, as well as economic justice by storming the streets of Tehran, ultimately forcing a reaction from their government due to the sheer size of the protest. One month later, UN experts suspect a current civilian death toll to exceed 20,000 casualties, with the Iranian government suspected as responsible for these killings.
Tens of thousands of ordinary Iranian civilians lost their lives protesting for what they believed in. They put their lives on the line to try and build a better future for their children and country by taking incredibly heroic steps for which the protestors should be praised for the bravery it takes to speak out against corruption.
But something still feels off.
It feels like only now that these protests have received massive press coverage, especially by Western media outlets, people have started to understand that the Iranian Government doesn’t accurately portray the opinions of its people.
This is not exclusive to Iran. Assumptions within geopolitics are incredibly common and oftentimes lead to false realities that negatively stereotype populations of people.
We tend to associate populations with the same political opinions as their ruling government, and even once it is known the population doesn’t support its governments actions, the population is still oftentimes punished through economical attacks or military actions as if they're responsible.
On Feb. 28, Israel and the United States organized an attack on Iran, bombing dozens of cities between Urmia in the north and Chabahar in the south, in the name of liberation. One of these attacks hit an elementary school in southern Iran, killing at least 60 children.
A common course of action when trying to punish a country's government results in the death of innocent civilians. While propaganda is pushed down our throat that these actions are for the good of the people, tell that to the parents who must dig their children’s limbs from the rubble of concrete.
We saw this same course of action during World War II, with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is extremely immoral and unfair to punish citizens of a country through war and destruction because of their country's political actions. Simply grouping the people of a country directly to their government assumes complete unwavering support and removes the humanity that innocent children possess.
As of March 2, President Trump's approval rating sits around 39%. As many of us in America are aware, governments don’t always need support from their citizens to make highly controversial decisions, so punishing the people who reside in the country with missiles and nuclear weapons makes too many rash assumptions.
This is not where the issues of assumptions within national politics ends though.
Countries, and at times entire continents, are stereotyped in an attempt at understanding foreign cultures. These false ideas propel incredibly racist ideologies and are difficult to overturn. A relevant example to this problem comes in streamer IShowSpeed’s recent tour of Africa.
So many Americans and westerners are taught that Africa is an uncivilized continent devoid of “progress,” social success and civilized humans that don’t behave “civilized" manner. Despite being in the 21st century, racist propaganda about Africa’s inability to become “civilized” still finds its way into the minds of countless impressionable people. That’s where the aforementioned streamer IShowSpeed comes into play.
Using his platform as one of the largest streamers in the world, the 21-year-old streamer spent an entire month traveling across the continent, exposing the beauty of the continent to his young audience that may have never had the chance to see these sights without him. Speed showed his audience that the Western propaganda revolving around Africa’s inability to succeed is false and that the continent is home to both success and beauty.
Speed shone light onto a continent that is typically seen through our Western view of what progress means. He showed young children and adults that our view of Africa is detached from reality and that the continent is home to countless humans that aren't accurately depicted by their government, showing the importance of detaching civilians from their government.
It’s incredibly important to understand the difference between a country's government and its citizens. Although geography and cultures may differ, it isn’t the border of a nation that defines you, but instead the integrity of your person. Stop the incessant bombing of people around the world. The quarrels of world leaders over ruling power should not represent the people of their population.
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