great article! many are too afraid to support those who fight back against those who attack and oppress them because, in their eyes, it no longer makes them the "perfect" victims whose martyrdom is the price of some mythical innocence. decolonial struggle is born out of the extreme violence of imperialism, which is never "clean" or "pure" in the way overly simplistic good vs evil narratives are created to be. all colonial subjects have a right to violence and all nations deserve the same right to imperfection that the rest of the world is given (it's also much more difficult to focus on these things when you're under constant economic and literal warfare by the richest and most violent country on earth), and policing their struggle from across the world is a transparent demonstration of both ones ignorance and arrogance.
What this misses is that Iran is an imperialist force just like America and Israel. It has proxies like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Syria, the Houthis in Yemen and on and on. It's not the on your face type American imperialism but it is still imperialism.
This is not an innocent girl in school fighting a bully. It's an evil weak bully fighting an evil strong bully.
I've heard people argue that Iran's proxies are 'resistance', and I find it to be nonsensical. Yes, Iran's official foreign policy is 'defensive' but so is America's, with propaganda words like 'deterrence' and 'national security.' Imperialism disguised as 'defense' has been around since the Roman empire.
I do support Iran's right to defend itself and it absolutely should. Otherwise, it's just a free pass for the US and Israel to do whatever the hell they want. If the weak bully teaches the strong bully a lesson that's good, but I'm not going to cheer for them 24/7.
The long-term solution to imperialism is a global police system. The UN tried to fill that role after the second world war. It has succeeded somewhat; it's definitely been better than the league of nations. But for the most part it has failed.
What I'm saying is that we need an organization that has UN like goals but actually gets things down. Otherwise, geopolitics will forever boil down to a depressing bloodbath of imperialists against imperialists.
Your comment reads as someone whos main source of information comes from CNN. Imperialism isn’t just “supporting allies” or backing armed groups. It means projecting power to dominate other countries—through occupations, regime change, military bases, and economic control. The United States maintains hundreds of overseas bases and has invaded or intervened in multiple countries in the last few decades. Israel maintains a decades-long military occupation over Palestinians. Those are textbook imperial structures.
By contrast, Iran has no global base network, no foreign occupations, and nowhere near the capacity to dominate other regions. What it does is pursue asymmetric deterrence—supporting movements that already exist in conflicts rooted in occupation or war. Hezbollah, for example, formed in response to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and Hamas operates within the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Calling them merely “Iranian proxies” erases the local struggles that produced them.
You can criticize Iran’s alliances, but equating them with the global military and political dominance exercised by the U.S. or Israel stretches the term “imperialism” to the point where it stops meaning anything. If every regional actor resisting a stronger power is labeled imperialist, the concept becomes analytically useless.
Oh, really? You'll be pleased to know that the last time I watched CNN was two years ago.
I'm not 'equating' Iranian imperialism with American imperialism. I already acknowledged that they are different.
You are correct in that Iran's proxies come out of local struggles but at the end of the day, they still act like proxies.
Iran does not militarily occupy any country, but its proxies do. It has never done regime change in the classical sense, as in invading a country and overthrowing the government, but it has supported the Houthis' attempt at overthrowing the Yemanes government. Iran doesn't have a powerful local economy to begin with, so it is impossible for them to economically control countries like America does.
Imperialism does not have to only be about 'occupations, regime change, military bases, and economic control.' As you said, it's about power projection. Proxies are absolutely a projection of power.
Iranian imperialism is more indirect than American imperialism unless you artificially narrow the term down to a classical Western way of doing it. Ironically, the first empire to ever use proxies in recorded history was the Persian empire more than two thousand years ago. The more things change the more they stay the same.
There’s nothing wrong with them being proxies, Iran has the right to protect itself. How many US bases are there in west Asia ? Iran is in west Asia since forever, but what are US bases doing there, therefore Iran has the right to have allies too.
Why never talking about what Israel did and still doing in the area ? Why not talking about US, but it’s always Iran and its allies ( axis of resistance ). Knowing that they are locals and have been in west Asia since forever and didn’t represent any threat to anyone .
The axis of resistance isn’t perfect ofc, but they have the right to defend themselves, and none has the right to get in their internal affairs .
I mean ask yourself why does Iran have those proxies at the first place
And regarding Hezbollah, they are appreciated by most Lebanese ( since they are the ones who freed Lebanon from Isnotreal in 2006, and since they are the ones protecting Lebanon ) and I dare you to give me one proof that they are doing wrong to Lebanese people.
shut up boi, having these kind of conversations as we literally see the us and Israel commit atrocities Iran has never come close too is just so slow for todays world.
Wrong. Iran isn't an imperialist state. Do your research properly. Hamas, hezbollahy, houthis all are resistance forces. They aren't some terrorists, okay? Those were created to defend their own homeland and they're still doing it fearlessly. So hence proved that Iran is the resistance to imperialism.
Hezbollah is in Lebanon and Not Syria, hamas and Hezbollah aren’t proxies of Iran. They are resistance groups that are defending their land and homes from Zionism and occupation .
Hamas existed years before the Islamic republic.
I invite you to learn more about the region’s history before spreading misinformation
I'd also like to mention that Hezbollah has many many moral pitfalls. There's a reason why so many Lebanese hate them. Hezbollah is how Iran controls Lebanon from the inside. The way they deal with locals isn't pretty. There's intense suppression and the armed wing has built an environment of fear.
You're right, Hezbollah is in Lebanon, not Syria. I knew that but wrote the wrong thing by accident.
Hamas existed long before the Islamic republic, yes, but that has nothing to do with it being a proxy of Iran. Proxies are vessels you control. Just because Hamas wasn't created by Iran doesn't mean it isn't a proxy of Iran.
How exactly is Hamas a 'resistance' group?
An organization that open fires on civilians, and takes hostages is a terrorist organization at best. Hamas killed at least 36 children on October 7th. This is resistance?
Zionism is irrelevant here. That's wrong is wrong. It doesn't matter which side did it.
Every single respected human rights organization on Earth says Hamas committed war crimes on October 7th. Take Amnesty international for example, I read a decent bit of their reports on both October 7th and Israel's genocide on Gaz. The evidence is clear.
I'm not saying you can't use violence to fight back. But there are clearly better examples of anti imperialist violence.
One person I can think off the the top of my mind is an Indian revolutionary Bhagat Singh. He killed British officers, not British children. He's a hero to me and most people in the subcontinent.
As for Hamas, Palestinian cause didn’t start in 7th oct, 7th October was the result of decades of oppression. I promise you since 1948 Isnotreal has been killing, torturing, kidnapping civilians. Why don’t you mention that. I invite to take a look on how people in West Bank ( there is no resistance group there) are being treated by the entity, I invite you to do some research about how Palestinian hostages are treated in Israeli prisons. If you wake up in the morning and your father disappears without any reason then comes back dead ( or maybe he never comes back) or you wake up and all your family members have been killed in a strike, then you will understand why 7th oct happened. Probably you will even participate.
I don't mention it because it is irrelevant. Israel has opressed Palestinians for a long time. Does that mean intentionally killing 36 kids is 'resistance'?
You can go on and on about how Israel did this and that, you could probably even explain why October 7th happened. But an explanation is not a justification.
I can tell you about how this and that childhood trauma of a serial killer led to them murdering people and it still wouldn't justify his deeds.
Even if I would do the same thing if I was in the shoes, it's again irrelevant. Most Germans during the Holocaust didn't fight back against the Nazis. If you and I were in their shoes, the overwhelming odds are we would tolerate Nazis. Does that make it moral? Absolutely not.
Never justify present atrocities by past atrocities. It is a moral abomination.
I will justify them, my country was colonised too and our revolution started by bombing coffee shops (civilians) and I’m still proud of our revolution and ancestors, cause those civilians took my grandparents house and land . None forced them to settle in stolen houses and a stolen land and agreeing on oppression of the other side.
You know what ? You are too privileged that’s why you’re talking about morality. If we’d speak about morality we’ll start “ why are they there on a stolen land “? It means they did something illegal. Since law didn’t do anything about it they used violence. Just as Naley did with bullies.
Before 7th October Palestinians were forgotten by most people (some didn’t even know about the Palestine cause ) it had to happen.
If you are proud of bombing innocent people, including kids, I have nothing to say.
I'm not sure what 'privilege' has to do with any of this. Why'd you even assume someone is 'privileged' based off of something they wrote on the Internet?
My country, Bangladesh, was also colonized. We had many revolutionaries. Kazi Nazrul Islam, Khudiram Bosu, Surjo Sen, Subhas Chandra Bose and many more.
I'm proud because although they used violence, none of then bombed civilians in in coffee shops or murdered children in the name of 'resistance." I'm even more proud because they still managed to free us from British colonialism.
That's what real resistance looks like to me and Hamas definitely does not fall under it.
I appreciate this perspective but you're conflating yourself (as the otherwise innocent victim of a bully) to an extremely powerful regime who's been violently opressing its own people for nearly half a century. Regardless of what your opinion is on this war, this perspective misrepresents and oversimplifies a much more nuanced and complex situation.
Did you read the entire article? She’s acknowledging that sometimes you need
violence and pacifism or being the perfect victim doesn’t accomplish jack. It’s pretty obvious one is the lesser of the two evils when you turn your critical thinking skills on.
One might even read your comment rightfully assume you’re actually talking about the United States. Also the oppression of Iranians started with the shah just an FYI before you attempt to eviscerate me.
No need to be so defensive my dude. These power hungry lunatics are running our world on all sides & turning us against each other.
All I'm saying is downplaying one villain by comparing them to the victim of a bully doesn't capture the truth of this situation. I very well could be talking about the US - that's the point. All of these opressive regimes are bullies and we (regular people) are the victims.
I only got through the first paragraph and thinking to myself that I must really be a pacifist because not once in my lifetime of being bullied did I think to retaliate. Interesting. Continues to read now.
I definitely remember I got into a physical altercation with another girl in middle school too. She was in my friend group and not bullying, but she kept trying to use karate moves on us and one day she bit me and I slapped her. We got detention, but then that's the last I ever remember that happening with her again.
My first grader already went through two rounds of another kid harassing and bullying him, trying to egg him on into fights. He tried to do the right thing when he could, getting a grown up for help, telling them to stop, etc. But it kept going on and he was ignored, for weeks. Finally he hit back hard enough and then HE was the one in the wrong. I told them they had to keep those kids away from him PERIOD. It stopped with those two but ever since then they've kept a target on him. He is punished at a higher rate than other kids for the same thing, bc it's a "pattern."
Personally, this is the most helpful piece you've yet written, Naley. America's over, Iran's saving us all and it's past time we witness, then get to healing, the sneakiest middle school wounds. Bless, if anything, the revelation of it. Redemption's already here.
great article! many are too afraid to support those who fight back against those who attack and oppress them because, in their eyes, it no longer makes them the "perfect" victims whose martyrdom is the price of some mythical innocence. decolonial struggle is born out of the extreme violence of imperialism, which is never "clean" or "pure" in the way overly simplistic good vs evil narratives are created to be. all colonial subjects have a right to violence and all nations deserve the same right to imperfection that the rest of the world is given (it's also much more difficult to focus on these things when you're under constant economic and literal warfare by the richest and most violent country on earth), and policing their struggle from across the world is a transparent demonstration of both ones ignorance and arrogance.
What this misses is that Iran is an imperialist force just like America and Israel. It has proxies like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Syria, the Houthis in Yemen and on and on. It's not the on your face type American imperialism but it is still imperialism.
This is not an innocent girl in school fighting a bully. It's an evil weak bully fighting an evil strong bully.
I've heard people argue that Iran's proxies are 'resistance', and I find it to be nonsensical. Yes, Iran's official foreign policy is 'defensive' but so is America's, with propaganda words like 'deterrence' and 'national security.' Imperialism disguised as 'defense' has been around since the Roman empire.
I do support Iran's right to defend itself and it absolutely should. Otherwise, it's just a free pass for the US and Israel to do whatever the hell they want. If the weak bully teaches the strong bully a lesson that's good, but I'm not going to cheer for them 24/7.
The long-term solution to imperialism is a global police system. The UN tried to fill that role after the second world war. It has succeeded somewhat; it's definitely been better than the league of nations. But for the most part it has failed.
What I'm saying is that we need an organization that has UN like goals but actually gets things down. Otherwise, geopolitics will forever boil down to a depressing bloodbath of imperialists against imperialists.
Your comment reads as someone whos main source of information comes from CNN. Imperialism isn’t just “supporting allies” or backing armed groups. It means projecting power to dominate other countries—through occupations, regime change, military bases, and economic control. The United States maintains hundreds of overseas bases and has invaded or intervened in multiple countries in the last few decades. Israel maintains a decades-long military occupation over Palestinians. Those are textbook imperial structures.
By contrast, Iran has no global base network, no foreign occupations, and nowhere near the capacity to dominate other regions. What it does is pursue asymmetric deterrence—supporting movements that already exist in conflicts rooted in occupation or war. Hezbollah, for example, formed in response to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and Hamas operates within the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Calling them merely “Iranian proxies” erases the local struggles that produced them.
You can criticize Iran’s alliances, but equating them with the global military and political dominance exercised by the U.S. or Israel stretches the term “imperialism” to the point where it stops meaning anything. If every regional actor resisting a stronger power is labeled imperialist, the concept becomes analytically useless.
Oh, really? You'll be pleased to know that the last time I watched CNN was two years ago.
I'm not 'equating' Iranian imperialism with American imperialism. I already acknowledged that they are different.
You are correct in that Iran's proxies come out of local struggles but at the end of the day, they still act like proxies.
Iran does not militarily occupy any country, but its proxies do. It has never done regime change in the classical sense, as in invading a country and overthrowing the government, but it has supported the Houthis' attempt at overthrowing the Yemanes government. Iran doesn't have a powerful local economy to begin with, so it is impossible for them to economically control countries like America does.
Imperialism does not have to only be about 'occupations, regime change, military bases, and economic control.' As you said, it's about power projection. Proxies are absolutely a projection of power.
Iranian imperialism is more indirect than American imperialism unless you artificially narrow the term down to a classical Western way of doing it. Ironically, the first empire to ever use proxies in recorded history was the Persian empire more than two thousand years ago. The more things change the more they stay the same.
Omerged the bad proxies. Can’t take you seriously with that American empire language.
There’s nothing wrong with them being proxies, Iran has the right to protect itself. How many US bases are there in west Asia ? Iran is in west Asia since forever, but what are US bases doing there, therefore Iran has the right to have allies too.
Why never talking about what Israel did and still doing in the area ? Why not talking about US, but it’s always Iran and its allies ( axis of resistance ). Knowing that they are locals and have been in west Asia since forever and didn’t represent any threat to anyone .
The axis of resistance isn’t perfect ofc, but they have the right to defend themselves, and none has the right to get in their internal affairs .
I mean ask yourself why does Iran have those proxies at the first place
And regarding Hezbollah, they are appreciated by most Lebanese ( since they are the ones who freed Lebanon from Isnotreal in 2006, and since they are the ones protecting Lebanon ) and I dare you to give me one proof that they are doing wrong to Lebanese people.
shut up boi, having these kind of conversations as we literally see the us and Israel commit atrocities Iran has never come close too is just so slow for todays world.
Wrong. Iran isn't an imperialist state. Do your research properly. Hamas, hezbollahy, houthis all are resistance forces. They aren't some terrorists, okay? Those were created to defend their own homeland and they're still doing it fearlessly. So hence proved that Iran is the resistance to imperialism.
Hezbollah is in Lebanon and Not Syria, hamas and Hezbollah aren’t proxies of Iran. They are resistance groups that are defending their land and homes from Zionism and occupation .
Hamas existed years before the Islamic republic.
I invite you to learn more about the region’s history before spreading misinformation
I'd also like to mention that Hezbollah has many many moral pitfalls. There's a reason why so many Lebanese hate them. Hezbollah is how Iran controls Lebanon from the inside. The way they deal with locals isn't pretty. There's intense suppression and the armed wing has built an environment of fear.
Hezbollah is literally the only thing standing between Lebanon and baby killing rapists. You’re full of shit unfortunately.
You're right, Hezbollah is in Lebanon, not Syria. I knew that but wrote the wrong thing by accident.
Hamas existed long before the Islamic republic, yes, but that has nothing to do with it being a proxy of Iran. Proxies are vessels you control. Just because Hamas wasn't created by Iran doesn't mean it isn't a proxy of Iran.
How exactly is Hamas a 'resistance' group?
An organization that open fires on civilians, and takes hostages is a terrorist organization at best. Hamas killed at least 36 children on October 7th. This is resistance?
Zionism is irrelevant here. That's wrong is wrong. It doesn't matter which side did it.
Every single respected human rights organization on Earth says Hamas committed war crimes on October 7th. Take Amnesty international for example, I read a decent bit of their reports on both October 7th and Israel's genocide on Gaz. The evidence is clear.
I'm not saying you can't use violence to fight back. But there are clearly better examples of anti imperialist violence.
One person I can think off the the top of my mind is an Indian revolutionary Bhagat Singh. He killed British officers, not British children. He's a hero to me and most people in the subcontinent.
As for Hamas, Palestinian cause didn’t start in 7th oct, 7th October was the result of decades of oppression. I promise you since 1948 Isnotreal has been killing, torturing, kidnapping civilians. Why don’t you mention that. I invite to take a look on how people in West Bank ( there is no resistance group there) are being treated by the entity, I invite you to do some research about how Palestinian hostages are treated in Israeli prisons. If you wake up in the morning and your father disappears without any reason then comes back dead ( or maybe he never comes back) or you wake up and all your family members have been killed in a strike, then you will understand why 7th oct happened. Probably you will even participate.
I don't mention it because it is irrelevant. Israel has opressed Palestinians for a long time. Does that mean intentionally killing 36 kids is 'resistance'?
You can go on and on about how Israel did this and that, you could probably even explain why October 7th happened. But an explanation is not a justification.
I can tell you about how this and that childhood trauma of a serial killer led to them murdering people and it still wouldn't justify his deeds.
Even if I would do the same thing if I was in the shoes, it's again irrelevant. Most Germans during the Holocaust didn't fight back against the Nazis. If you and I were in their shoes, the overwhelming odds are we would tolerate Nazis. Does that make it moral? Absolutely not.
Never justify present atrocities by past atrocities. It is a moral abomination.
I will justify them, my country was colonised too and our revolution started by bombing coffee shops (civilians) and I’m still proud of our revolution and ancestors, cause those civilians took my grandparents house and land . None forced them to settle in stolen houses and a stolen land and agreeing on oppression of the other side.
You know what ? You are too privileged that’s why you’re talking about morality. If we’d speak about morality we’ll start “ why are they there on a stolen land “? It means they did something illegal. Since law didn’t do anything about it they used violence. Just as Naley did with bullies.
Before 7th October Palestinians were forgotten by most people (some didn’t even know about the Palestine cause ) it had to happen.
If you are proud of bombing innocent people, including kids, I have nothing to say.
I'm not sure what 'privilege' has to do with any of this. Why'd you even assume someone is 'privileged' based off of something they wrote on the Internet?
My country, Bangladesh, was also colonized. We had many revolutionaries. Kazi Nazrul Islam, Khudiram Bosu, Surjo Sen, Subhas Chandra Bose and many more.
I'm proud because although they used violence, none of then bombed civilians in in coffee shops or murdered children in the name of 'resistance." I'm even more proud because they still managed to free us from British colonialism.
That's what real resistance looks like to me and Hamas definitely does not fall under it.
even if you lose the retaliation - they'll at least think twice next time for sure lol
I appreciate this perspective but you're conflating yourself (as the otherwise innocent victim of a bully) to an extremely powerful regime who's been violently opressing its own people for nearly half a century. Regardless of what your opinion is on this war, this perspective misrepresents and oversimplifies a much more nuanced and complex situation.
Did you read the entire article? She’s acknowledging that sometimes you need
violence and pacifism or being the perfect victim doesn’t accomplish jack. It’s pretty obvious one is the lesser of the two evils when you turn your critical thinking skills on.
One might even read your comment rightfully assume you’re actually talking about the United States. Also the oppression of Iranians started with the shah just an FYI before you attempt to eviscerate me.
No need to be so defensive my dude. These power hungry lunatics are running our world on all sides & turning us against each other.
All I'm saying is downplaying one villain by comparing them to the victim of a bully doesn't capture the truth of this situation. I very well could be talking about the US - that's the point. All of these opressive regimes are bullies and we (regular people) are the victims.
It’s a fair comparison. Iran is singled out by regional allies to the United States and Israel.
Brilliant!
I only got through the first paragraph and thinking to myself that I must really be a pacifist because not once in my lifetime of being bullied did I think to retaliate. Interesting. Continues to read now.
I definitely remember I got into a physical altercation with another girl in middle school too. She was in my friend group and not bullying, but she kept trying to use karate moves on us and one day she bit me and I slapped her. We got detention, but then that's the last I ever remember that happening with her again.
My first grader already went through two rounds of another kid harassing and bullying him, trying to egg him on into fights. He tried to do the right thing when he could, getting a grown up for help, telling them to stop, etc. But it kept going on and he was ignored, for weeks. Finally he hit back hard enough and then HE was the one in the wrong. I told them they had to keep those kids away from him PERIOD. It stopped with those two but ever since then they've kept a target on him. He is punished at a higher rate than other kids for the same thing, bc it's a "pattern."
I have been there many times, and have also chosen violence as a final yet firm F*** you form of defence..Bless for sharing this sis! x
❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
Literally word for word. Seeing you stand on business the way you do is inspiring. LONG LIVE THE RESISTANCE AGAINST US IMPERIALISM AND ISREAL.
Personally, this is the most helpful piece you've yet written, Naley. America's over, Iran's saving us all and it's past time we witness, then get to healing, the sneakiest middle school wounds. Bless, if anything, the revelation of it. Redemption's already here.