Apart from the usual "this is something important that is happening" (which is not quite HN "intellectual curiosity" territory, what is striking is the use of what I assume is a V for Vendetta mask - with Red and Green daubing.
That is like ...nothing, then you have like no idea how omnipresent this type of pop culture is (for good or for worse). Of course iranians watch these types of movies and of course an iranian hacker would be aware of the mask symbolism
Maybe that was the intention but it doesn't really look like a Guy Fawkes mask at all though, other than being a white face mask. Eyebrows and eye cut-outs are different, it has a full beard, it's not a v-shaped face, etc.
Don't know about CIA conspiracies but I'm sure Saudi Arabians will protest Hijab mandates one day. Freedom is amazing and every human craves it at some level.
Freedom is amazing , true. But I am afraid you could be over optimistic saying that everyone craves it. Unfortunately many people have short-term goals that are more important for them than freedom…
Ah yes, the typical astounding secular definition of freedom, equating it with nakedness and vices. I’ll tell you something, the vast majority of the Saudis are proud of the Hijab and their Islamic faith that promotes purity and decency. We don’t want the western definition of “freedom” thank you very much, we’ve seen where it leads
Given the recent split between the USA and Saudi Arabia over crude oil production targets, I wouldn't be surprised to see similar hacking of Saudi news feeds by 'domestic protestors' and a new US State Department focus on 'human rights and democratic reforms in the repressive Saudi dictatorship' coming up pretty quickly.
This would be a radical shift from US behavior during the Arab Spring, when the USA gave a wink and a nod to Saudi tanks rolling into Bahrain to crush the pro-democracy protests there.
[edit] Here's a story about Saudi Arabia, hijabs, and death threats to women (2016). Let the revolutions begin!
> "A woman in Saudi Arabia has sparked outrage after posting a photo of herself on Twitter without an abaya or hijab, and is now facing calls for her execution."
This is a very simplistic view of the tensions in the region, which have been ongoing for decades. Just as the US has reason to retaliate against Saudi Arabia, many other places could also have reasons to push the ruling family out of power and gain influence.
It also fails to account for the autonomy of the people there. Is it really so hard to believe that they are rebelling against authoritarianism?
Even if there is an interest to empower the people to oust the regime, wouldn't it be fomenting on already existing unhappiness?
Interestingly, the same can be said of unrest anywhere- undoubtedly the agendas of several states will always align with weakening their competitors/adversaries.
When you consider the things everyday people care about and strive for, it can be argued that any party interested in destabilizing another nation would play to those aspirations in such a way as to further their control- this is true of almost everywhere, it is not exclusive to any one people or any one institution, and it can be seen in every region. In any given place, if you take a close look, there are varying levels of influence from foreign powers- often with the goal to secure economic goals or obtain natural resources.
The basic deal between the US and SA is, in exchange for supplying the global oil market, the US will overlook SA's dictatorship, human rights abuses, and involvement in 9/11, and will supply them with weapons. If SA stops upholding its side of the deal, I would expect the Arab Spring would suddenly find its way to SA. Or, perhaps first, the US would support a coup against MBS to replace him with a more compliant member of the House of Said.
People read too much into the recent production target cuts. An important thing to consider is that OPEC+ has been failing to meet their targets by about the same amount for several months now, and most experts seem to believe they lack capacity, not the will to produce.
[+] [-] lifeisstillgood|3 years ago|reply
How culture spreads is ... fascinating.
[+] [-] jagaerglad|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] system16|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] master_crab|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mgdlbp|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Kukumber|3 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] unknown|3 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] nayaketo|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|3 years ago|reply
Religious flamewar is particularly hellish and particularly avoidable. Let's avoid it.
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33141230.
[+] [-] uquercia|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Slava_Propanei|3 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] seer-zig|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eklapm|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] uni_rule|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] photochemsyn|3 years ago|reply
This would be a radical shift from US behavior during the Arab Spring, when the USA gave a wink and a nod to Saudi tanks rolling into Bahrain to crush the pro-democracy protests there.
[edit] Here's a story about Saudi Arabia, hijabs, and death threats to women (2016). Let the revolutions begin!
https://tribune.com.pk/story/1251171/saudis-call-execution-w...
> "A woman in Saudi Arabia has sparked outrage after posting a photo of herself on Twitter without an abaya or hijab, and is now facing calls for her execution."
[+] [-] fritztastic|3 years ago|reply
It also fails to account for the autonomy of the people there. Is it really so hard to believe that they are rebelling against authoritarianism?
Even if there is an interest to empower the people to oust the regime, wouldn't it be fomenting on already existing unhappiness?
Interestingly, the same can be said of unrest anywhere- undoubtedly the agendas of several states will always align with weakening their competitors/adversaries.
When you consider the things everyday people care about and strive for, it can be argued that any party interested in destabilizing another nation would play to those aspirations in such a way as to further their control- this is true of almost everywhere, it is not exclusive to any one people or any one institution, and it can be seen in every region. In any given place, if you take a close look, there are varying levels of influence from foreign powers- often with the goal to secure economic goals or obtain natural resources.
[+] [-] ProjectArcturis|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] futhey|3 years ago|reply
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/opec-mi...
[+] [-] avgcorrection|3 years ago|reply
It would be much more suspicious if the US govt. started to support the Iranian govt. all of a sudden.