The enemy of my enemy is my friend

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Haunting image shows pile of abandoned shoes after Iran’s bloodthirsty regime burned protesters to death: ‘Iranian Holocaust’

“They belonged to people trapped after regime forces set the historic bazaar on fire and shot those trying to escape. The imagery is unmistakable — an Iranian Holocaust unfolding in real time.”

The victims of the Rasht massacre had reportedly surrendered to security forces before being slaughtered, according to Iran Human Rights (IHR), a Norway-based NGO.

Footage of the aftermath, shared by the rights organization, also shows the burned-out, smoldering remains of the bazaar.

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Iranian doctors reportedly say protest death toll over 16K: ‘Genocide under the cover of digital darkness’

Iran remains under an internet blackout since Jan. 8, when authorities all but cut ordinary Iranians off from the outside world, allowing security forces to act with impunity.

“The mass killings started right after the internet blackout,” IHR’s founder, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, told British newspaper the Observer.

Iran has remained under an internet blackout since Jan. 8, when authorities all but cut ordinary Iranians off from the outside world, allowing security forces to act with impunity.

Among the scenes of brutality that have emerged from behind the regime’s sensors is footage showing government forces firing on people in the capital, Tehran, on Thursday.

The disturbing video shows demonstrators running for their lives as they are sprayed with bullets during protests at the city’s Second Sadeghieh Square, VOA’s Persian news network reported.

It comes as the death toll from the protests, which began last month initially in response to soaring costs of living, is now feared to have topped 16,000.

That alarming figure, far exceeding the roughly 3,000 verified by activist groups, was detailed in a new report from doctors on the ground, the UK’s Sunday Times reported.

Part II

David Strom: The Shameful Silence of the Left on Iran

Nobody on the left seems to care because the Ayatollah is not Orange. Orange Man is the center of the universe for them. All evil has its origin there. Rapists, murderers, terrorists, and the like are, compared to him, the good guys. Iran sits on the UN Human Rights Council, which chastises Israel far more than all other countries combined. The UN might murmur a bit about the mass slaughter of Christians in West Africa, but Israel must be eradicated because...Jews. 

And of course, it is not just the United Nations. Few leftist groups will say a word about human rights abuses in Iran because Iran hates the West, and the "colonialists" of the West deserve whatever they get. And if it takes a few Iranian women's deaths to keep Iran opposed to the West, clearly it is worth it. 

You would think that, of all the ideologies in the universe, liberals could unite in opposition to Islamism. But you would be wrong. Radical leftism is not driven by a vision of the good or of human rights; it is a purely negative phenomenon built out of hatred for Western values. 

Liberals are thrilled by the calls for justice and human rights, but don't seem to notice that the actual passion is behind destruction and violence. It's not that leftists hide their intentions. They are quite open about them. 

Strom concludes his post with an observation that I’m sure many readers will reject, but one which I agree with, because it fits exactly with what I’ve encountered when attempting to get past my few liberal friends’ TDA.

It's just that liberals only seem to hear what they want to, and share the belief that Orange Man is bad, so those opposing him must be good. 

In one way, you could argue that Trump plays into this latter tendency. He is obsessed with trolling the left, and he gets the response that he wants. But he doesn't seem to get that there are a lot of people whose main objection to him is his style and temperament, and that their sympathy for the left is driven by the blind rage they feel toward him. 

I'm not saying their blindness is Trump's fault; we all have a responsibility to base our opinions on rational considerations. Iran is objectively evil and should be easy to condemn, regardless of the fact that Iranian leaders hate Trump. 

Leftists actively support Iran because it is a key ally in the fight against Trump; liberals tolerate this support because they are so distracted by their own hatred of Trump that they don't even seem to notice that the left supports regimes and groups, such as Hamas, that are objectively evil. 

No doubt you could ask a thousand liberals what they think of the Iranian protests and 950 would support the people in the streets; if you ask them why their favorite leftist organizations like the UN and Doctors Without Borders seem passive in the face of atrocities, they likely wouldn't even have noticed. 

It is a moral blindness, and I think driven by their obsessive focus on Trump.