Fascinating post. It's been remarkable to watch the sparks of shifting media, new technologies, changing demographics, and other factors coalesce this week.
Iran is a pro-terrorist state - at least its government amounts to that - you can read more about the history of terrorism in that region and the world in general at www.coldwar.net - and the book Cold Warfare II: Political Terror. The USA did not always treat Iran right, but that is no excuse for executing people it considers politically and socially undesirable - or backing global terrorist groups - or for that matter striving to develop nuclear weapons. During the Cold War Reagan said he imagined a world free of nuclear weapons - the number of US nuclear weapons has dropped considerably - Iran is wrong to try and build more, the world does not need them any more than it needs a hole in the head.
While internet search data may prove a useful research tool in future elections, one can only hope that it will be wielded with more skill than is displayed in the conclusions drawn above. The writer's inferences are largely based on the unsupported assumption that google searches imply political support. The breaking news provided by the Berkman Center's map of the "Persian" blogosphere is that there are a diversity of opinions on Iranian blogs - an astonishing finding only because "conventional Western wisdom... had assumed that the Iranian Blogosphere was dominated by secular, reform-oriented bloggers opposed to the governing regime." Though failing to offer any nuanced political analysis, this article and the press surrounding it do provide a classic case study in the cutting edge field of cyber-Orientalism.
Fascinating post.
ReplyDeleteIt's been remarkable to watch the sparks of shifting media, new technologies, changing demographics, and other factors coalesce this week.
This puts an interesting angle on it all.
Iran is a pro-terrorist state - at least its government amounts to that - you can read more about the history of terrorism in that region and the world in general at www.coldwar.net - and the book Cold Warfare II: Political Terror. The USA did not always treat Iran right, but that is no excuse for executing people it considers politically and socially undesirable - or backing global terrorist groups - or for that matter striving to develop nuclear weapons. During the Cold War Reagan said he imagined a world free of nuclear weapons - the number of US nuclear weapons has dropped considerably - Iran is wrong to try and build more, the world does not need them any more than it needs a hole in the head.
ReplyDeleteWhile internet search data may prove a useful research tool in future elections, one can only hope that it will be wielded with more skill than is displayed in the conclusions drawn above. The writer's inferences are largely based on the unsupported assumption that google searches imply political support. The breaking news provided by the Berkman Center's map of the "Persian" blogosphere is that there are a diversity of opinions on Iranian blogs - an astonishing finding only because "conventional Western wisdom... had assumed that the Iranian Blogosphere was dominated by secular, reform-oriented bloggers opposed to the governing regime." Though failing to offer any nuanced political analysis, this article and the press surrounding it do provide a classic case study in the cutting edge field of cyber-Orientalism.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I just discovered this side of google. There are always so many surprises.
ReplyDelete