[eternalban]

Of course I did. I lived there and also avail myself of original source material that is entirely closed to you, such as Harvard's Iran Oral History project.

& So what that he was a dictator? He wasn't dictating a course of national destruction; he was dictating a revival of an ancient nation. The historical record of Pahlavi dynasty is exceptionally clear. You just need to grab hold of the National Geographic issue dedicated to "Persia" from just before Pahlavi dynasty and compare to Iran they created 57 years later. From a complete basket case to a nation that was seen to be a threat to Western imperial structures (as soon as he helped create OPEC) in the so-called Middle East.

And who was opposing him? A regressive clerical class -- a class -- that had a strangle hold over what passed for Iranian education and judiciary since the Saffavids, and their substantial network of two digit IQ illiterates that saw pictures of khomeini in the moon. And the past 44 years are exhibit A in why Iranian must eradicate the cleric from Iran and Islam once and for all. The second group, young people who where sent to West, entirely on the Iranian goverments' dime btw as all their education and room and board was covered (!), and instead of returning (like some) to help develop Iran they became "marxists", and later "Islamic-Marxists". (That last bit should shed some light on their conceptual and intellectual ability and integrity). Finally, we had the mini-army of all the descendants of various Qajar aristocracy that just wasn't happy with having an uppity soldier's family (Reza Shah) putting an end to the disaster that was Qajar dynasty.

~

p.s. for interested Persian speakers, this is a fantastic resource:

https://library.harvard.edu/collections/iranian-oral-history...

[sleepyhead]

> So what that he was a dictator?

I rest my case.

[eternalban]

You have no case, just "dictator" bad. For you to make a case is to point to any (any) historic precedent when drastic social reform happened without confronting reactionary and regressive forces.

Peter the Great was a dictator too.

[sleepyhead]

"Dictator killing people - bad". Yes, very weak argument. Enjoy your doogh.

[acdha]

This is like arguing that there’s no difference between broken leg and a heart attack. The Shah’s government certainly had problems but you really need to provide a knowledgeable argument rather than just asserting equivalence.

[sleepyhead]

You might want to read the entire thread before commenting. The argument here started with a statement that under the Shah there were problems for regular people. And someone posted in return a video implying it was like paradise. I stated it is obviously much worse under the current regime but pointed that OP was correct that there were major problems under the Shah as well. Not sure why that is so controversial.

[acdha]

I did, actually. Rather than trying to dismiss my comment as not having read the thread, consider that you might need to make a good argument before trying to “rest your case”.

[sleepyhead]

Sorry, you are saying I should make a better argument to the comment saying "so what if he was a dictator?"

[epups]

Are the current leaders of Iran not dictators? Because if they are, and I think they are, your one-note argument is really weak.

[sleepyhead]

"While the revolution obviously resulted in a much worse situation"

Read the thread.