Liberal Forum

Doug1943 » 14 Apr 2026, 8:17 am » wrote: ↑

14 Apr 2026, 8:17 am

Getting back to the original topic, 'Left wing Iran supporters' ... I don't believe there are any, in the proper sense of the word 'supporter'.

There may well be 'left wing' supporters of the governments of China, of Cuba, of pre-kidnap Venezuela ... because these governments nominally consider themselves 'left wing'. (Although it should be noted that there are many Leftwingers who are strong opponents of these governments, as well. Like the Right, the Left is not politically monolithic.)

And, at the time of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, there were indeed Leftists -- in fact the great majority -- who did not understand that the Khomeini people meant what they said about imposing Islam on Iran. They believed that the Islamists would just be a temporary phenomenon, a diversion of the genuine anti-imperialist sentiment of the Iranian masses. They equated 'anti-imperialist' with 'left wing/democratic'.

But now, I would be very surprised to find someone who is at the same time a Leftist, and a supporter of the Iranian regime.

However ... you can be a political opponent of a regime, and also want it to defeat another country's attack on it. Most Americans, of whatever political persuasion, wanted to see the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union defeated, without becoming supporters of Joseph Stalin.

So of course most Leftists want to see Trump/Israel's attack on Iran defeated, without at the same time approving of the Iranian government.

There are plenty of things wrong with the Leftist view of the world. Conservatives need to attack the erroneous views that Leftists actually hold, rather than something attributed to them that they don't actually believe.