Iran’s New Fake Inventions: Time Machine, ‘Islamic Google Earth’

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/04/iran-time-machine/

by upquark • 13 years ago

15 8 13 years ago

ChuckMcM• 13 years ago

Ok, so I get the theory that Nigerian scammers make their outrageous claims because they want to target really gullible people and not have smart people be too concerned that others will be taken in. But what do these sorts of pronouncements due for Iran? Catering to the shallow end of the gene pool?

I've heard its for "internal consumption" which is to say that Iranians watching state television will feel good about their country given how it's equally or more advanced than the rest of the world, but every Iranian I've ever talked with never buys these fictions. So why do them? It is so far out of my experience that I can't even hypothesize a motivation for these actions.

rdouble• 13 years ago

One thing the new government did in post revolutionary Iran was cater to the shallow end of the gene pool. Poor, uneducated and underemployed people were given jobs in the police or other bureaucratic positions where they could lord power over the educated middle classes who they already resented.

infinitone• 13 years ago

Unless you have a source, that's just plain bull to feed hate. Even in western countries you typically have uneducated/underemployed people take the cop/security jobs... you don't see a PhD or even a Bsc doing a cop job.

lingben• 13 years ago

Not just that, they actually removed educated people and replaced them with ignorant loyalists.

for example: http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/08/head-of-ir...

readme2• 13 years ago

If anyone can find links to an original source in this article, kudos to you.

While I do not agree with the political views of Iran, this is obviously just ridicule. To an extent, ridiculing our enemies is funny. Take the late Kim Jong Il for example. Quite an easy target, and deserving as well.

Iran, on the other hand, I feel bad for. Because, frankly, the reason Iran sucks now is because the west overthrew their fledgling democracy and installed a dictator some 50 years or so ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%C3%A9tat

I don't know if anyone else remembers a few years back when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was invited to speak at Columbia University, only to be ridiculed by his hosts. This journalism is not far off.

There are nutjobs in the US too, and certainly nutjob scientists. Even if this article does have a shard of truth to it somewhere (I have yet to see a link to the original Iranian news source it cites) it's really unfair to target Iran specifically for ridicule. This is why we have disagreements. This is why we don't all just get along.

This is a perfect example of childish journalism.

upquark• 13 years ago

I think we need more ridicule of this type of stuff, not less. Also, I'm all for public ridicule of western kooks and BS-ers in government, science, healthcare. I disagree this is why we don't get along, humor can be a powerful and positive weapon.

readme2• 13 years ago

I appreciate comedy a lot. But it is not funny when the bully mocks the victim.

Iran’s New Fake Inventions: Time Machine, ‘Islamic Google Earth’

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