Written on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 9:05pm by Alan Bedenko | 6 Comments

Perspective

Blogging from my house outside Buffalo won’t make Iran free. Re-Tweeting something off my iPhone won’t make Iran free. These things may help inform people or make them interested, but the work of making Iran free lies with the Iranian people, and they’re doing a very good job of it under very tough circumstances.

But there are some people who think that a well-timed, well-worded Tweet will make a difference in Tehran, or that changing their avatar will stand for “freedom” or “liberty”.

They don’t. It’s narcissism to think that they do.

They may make you feel important and special, but a change in avatar or well-placed hashtag won’t overthrow Ayatollah Khamenei, won’t undo the apparent stealing of an election, and doesn’t make you a freedom fighter. It makes you a wannabe.

Somehow, the entire Eastern Bloc managed to fight for, and win freedom in 1989 without any damn Tweets.

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6 Comments

  1. Chris Smith says:
    June 15, 2009 at 10:33 pm

    In the several weeks leading up to the election, so many of these newly minted, self-appointed foot soldiers in the Iranian Revolution had nary a word to say about the upcoming election in Iran. Especially from that guy, whose twitter stream is filled with ill-informed inside baseball, echo chamber baloney.

    New media can indeed be a powerful tool and we are seeing that as the real people on the ground use it as an organizing tool for protest and dissent.

    New media can also be pointless drivel from people who ought just stick to things they know and understand. Repeating dumb statements and poisoning legitimate discussion with talking points gleaned from the fringes of logic is not what new media should be about.

    However, the right wing has made twitter a tool for just such an end. Primarily because 140 characters allows them to focus on glib, nasty soundbites and not policy or reasoned thought/debate. When I consider that guys like Ali Akbar and Matt Margolis are some of the leading lights of the “new” conservative movement in America, I sleep better at night. These kids are so poisonous and willfully stupid that people wouldn’t follow them out of a burning building, much less take them serious politically. They are successful only in messaging to those who already agree with them, they have no idea how to reach out to people who don’t already share their ideas.

    So, tweet away boys.

  2. Brian says:
    June 15, 2009 at 11:11 pm

    Wanna push the Iranian citizenry over the edge? Wanna guarantee that the governemnt will completely lose control and the Iranian people’s quest for freedom will prevail?

    I am dead serious in suggesting that the BEST way to accomplish this, is by sending them porn. Lots of porn. Nothing too crazy at first. Just basic stuff. After the government shows signs of being undermined, we can kick in with the foot fetish and S&M stuff.

    GAME OVER.

  3. Mike Walsh says:
    June 16, 2009 at 12:27 am

    Ron Jeremy could slip right in there unnoticed.

  4. Ben McD says:
    June 16, 2009 at 5:41 pm

    Evidently some people disagree with the OP.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_wl396

  5. Christopher Smith says:
    June 17, 2009 at 12:19 am

    @4, I think you need to re-read that article again. It has nothing to do with the original post. Nice try, though.

  6. Adam K. says:
    June 20, 2009 at 9:48 pm

    What about typing in green?

 

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