'I Don't Hate the Americans': Latest Lego Video Promotes Empathy Between People of US and Iran | Common Dreams
(www.commondreams.org)
from pete_link@lemmy.ml to world@lemmy.world on 03 May 2026 15:57
https://lemmy.ml/post/46797843
from pete_link@lemmy.ml to world@lemmy.world on 03 May 2026 15:57
https://lemmy.ml/post/46797843
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/46797842
May 2, 2026
The creative team behind many of the viral sensations featuring Lego characters and storytelling critical of the war launched by US-Israeli forces against Iran two months ago, posted a new video on Saturday that seeks to forge solidarity between everyday Iranians and Americans suffering from the conflict, and who desperately want to see the fighting brought to an end.
“The Iranian AI Lego team has another video out,” said Trita Parsi, executive vice president at the Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a DC think tank focused on US foreign policy. “The music, lyrics, and imagery are all designed to appeal to disillusioned Americans.”
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I wonder if that’s why all the Iranian accounts suddenly stopped calling everyone “zionazis”?
I won’t comment on how/why they got that memo a few days before the video, but it clearly wasn’t working and makes sense they’re pivoting.
From a purely technical standpoint, it always made more sense for Iranian trolls to commiserate with Americans online; play it as “the only country that wants this is Israel” would be super effective.
Insisting anyone who disagrees is a Zionist just makes the label mean nothing and makes people disregard anything else the propaganda is saying, even the true parts.
All they were doing was diving people who were already against Israel and trump
I guess Israel is so hated in the US by younger more receptive audiences that they don’t need to highlight it.
That’s because Zionist are Nazis, and the only ones that want this war is Israel.
Yeah so… that video is completely true and great and all… but is this video being put out by the same regime that murdered like 20 THOUSAND unarmed civilians?? Trump and his puppeteers are bad (Thiel, Heritage Foundation, Musk, Vought, Andreeson, etc.) but also the Iranian Regime is way worse. How about they all blow up each other, so the People can finally have their revolution?
Has more direct, violent control of their own people? Sure. Worse than trump and friends? Dunno bout that. Due to trump’s malice and incompetence, he’s getting people killed in the US as well as abroad. Plenty in Cuba are suffering and dying because of him right now. Africa too. They’re both shit and I won’t root for either. I certainly won’t begrudge them killing our soldiers following illegal orders over there invading at least.
Yeah, Iran is super awful, but just the cuts to USAID are estimated to be responsible for at least half a million deaths.
So worse because of opportunity, not because of effort? Do you think the Iranian regime would have been any better if they were in the same position as the US?
I don’t know, because that isn’t the reality we live in. They’d probably be just as bad, but that doesn’t justify the US being awful either.
Who said it did? People aren’t saying there has to be a good guy, they’re saying they’re both bad. That trying to make one better or worse is pointless because they’re hurting people either way.
You don’t have to pick one of two sides in this. You can just say “The war is bad”.
Please decide yourself. The regime killed 20,000, 30,000, or 40,000? The USA is responsible for millions of deaths. I am sorry, but the USA is way worse than the Iranian regime.
Yup, and also USA helped cause this mess with Iran as well: www.youtube.com/shorts/ohA_cqqJbyg
the iran regime killed one billion islamillion people. look, i have a source: www.blog.palantir.com/please-just-one-more-war-please-i-beg-you-613127
lol
Don’t forget skull and bones.
When people talk about trump being “unprecedented” I think it’s because people don’t know a prior Republican president specifically and explicitly requested to watch his son (a future Republican president) jack off as part of Skull and Bones…
Like HW Bush full on requested a front row seat, knowing full well what would happen because his dad was also a member too.
Monkeys spanking monkeys spanking monkeys over pieces of dat ass.
Silly monkeys, give them thumbs, they’ll gather ’round and watch the monkey spank its monkey.
Angels on the sideline again Wondering where this tug of war will end.
Wait what the fuck? What is the context here that I’m missing?
The Skull and Bones society is an elite, secretive undergrad club at Yale University. One of their initiation rituals involves lying down in a coffin containing the skull of Geronimo and jacking off. They are also alleged to possess the stolen skulls of Geronimo and Pancho Villa.
Through the 1800s and 1900s, the Skull and Bones Society helped to mould the future elites of the United States into the perfect psychopaths ideal for management of the empire. Notable members include Prescott Bush, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, John Kerry, Averell Harriman (co-founder of Brown Brothers Harriman), William F. Buckley, William Nordhaus (the economist who won the 2018 Nobel Prize for calculating the optimal level of global warming at 4 degrees C, with any mitigation limiting warming below that being determined to cause too much economic harm); and a whole array of politicians, financiers, captains of industry, CIA men, ambassadors, and so on. And Paul Giamatti. They’ve all jacked off into Geronimo’s skull while other members watched.
That’s disgusting. Literally desecrating someone’s remains. Also, what the fuck.
Oh and by the way, the “Nobel Prize” in economics isn’t even a Nobel Prize. It’s not awarded by the Nobel Foundation. It’s awarded by some bank “in memorial of” Nobel.
a fake nobel prize for a fake science. Appropriate, no? Nordhaus also said in 1991 that global warming wouldn’t affect the economy much since 90% of economic activity takes places indoors.
That’s hilarious. And sad. Mostly sad, actually.
Even all of the economic activity that takes place indoors is contingent upon the economic activity that takes place outdoors. And that “90%” is probably measuring by financial output, not labor-hours.
It’s extremely classist, short-sighted, and precisely what one would expect from such a person…
In short, yup. I have nothing to add
It is not, actually. The group behind this is mostly a collective of around 9-10 Iran-based, Gen Z creators operating independent of the IRGC and/or official government of Iran. Their group/org name is “Explosive Media”.
Lumping everyone in Iran as somehow part of “the regime” is kinda a shitty thing to do.
That, and Trump’s ACA/Medicaid cuts are estimated to cause upwards of more than 50,000 premature deaths in the US, so you’re also objectively wrong if going by numbers, alone.
In Trump’s first term, U.S.-led coalition forces killed more than 29,000 non-combatants in Iraq and Syria.
But sure, the government fighting a CIA-backed, armed rebellion is worse than the government that–checks notes–drops tomahawk missiles on other countries’ elementary schools.
About that…
www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjd8jrd1vnyo
If you’re ok having your domestic fascist regime being you’re “customer” you can’t really push back when people call your product propaganda for the fascist regime…
“But they offer me monies!” Isn’t a good enough excuse to work for fascists with criticism for it.
Imagine believing the Zionist pro-genocide BBC international news coverage in 2026…
Man, I really thought the “everyone I don’t like is a zionist” phase…
The guy who wrote that article also just made a documentary:
liontv.com/…/palestine-action-the-truth-behind-th…
Calling out the UK government for banning Palestine Action…
This may surprise you, the vast majority of “westerners” hate the governments of Israel, Iran, and likely their own domestic governments.
Criticizing one place does not equallyean someone is “on the other side”.
In fact, in a lot of conflicts, both governments are assholes.
Does that make sense?
You literally ended your previous comment with “but they gave me monies! Is not good enough reason to work with a fascist”. Funny how this only ever seems to apply to foreign enemy states and not to people in your own fucking country. The BBC has been systematically silencing pro Palestinian voices and amplifying Zionist discourse, by your own logic your author is a fascist collaborator.
You complain about “everyone I don’t like is a Zionist”, but you do the even worse “everyone my government tells me is a fascist”. Iran is not fascist for defending itself against US attacks, it has the right to self defense.
If you have quarrels with deaths of Iranians, as I do, you’d be much better off protesting western governments sanctioning Iran with the express purpose of starving people until they revolt, western sanctions murder half a million people globally every year since 1975 (or over 38 million since 1970). If you want to look at the reasons for the anti-Government protests that oh so coincidentally spawned right before your war, look at the exchange rates of the Iranian Rial and the effects of US sanctions on currency value in Iran.
The US playbook goes: sanction and blockade a country’s economy -> generate economic hardship for the citizens and insatisfaction -> arm protestors and/or rebel factions and/or neighboring enemies -> invade when crisis happens
This helps the US generate the inner turmoil and chaos necessary for its goals, and the national and international popular support for the invasion. We’ve seen it in Syria, we’ve seen it in Libya, we’ve seen it with Iran before (Mosaddeq), and we’re seeing it again.
No it applies to them too…
I think the Cruz of the issue, is when someone criticizes something you support in any aspect, you assume that means the completely disagree with you every aspect of that topic and every other topic…
I literally just explained what you’re still having problems with:
And then you came back with this:
What the fuck do you think we’ve been doing?
And why aren’t you doing it in the country you live in, but what disclose?
I got a pretty good guess, but I’m trying not to assume.
<img alt="" src="https://reddthat.com/pictrs/image/5e4df4bd-f975-4799-9373-f6156c55f359.jpeg">
My picture from 1st of May, literally 3 days ago, protesting in Vallecas, Madrid against the western militarization.
Iran will not improve until it gets rid of the US, so focus on that if you “hate both”.
You mean what I was doing before you started whatever this whole thing has been about?
I could have been doing more of that if I had just blocked you already.
You’re actively working against your own self professed instrests here mate.
Not just wasting time, actively hurting it.
You’re the one criticising the Iranian Lego propaganda and calling the government fascists for daring to defend themselves from US intervention
I’m saying that they work for fascists to spread fascist propaganda…
That part is true
Like, I think you don’t understand what propaganda is either…
Yeah, they make some good points, but that’s literally the point.
Pointing out that an even worse government than trump is paying for it, is important context…
Fascist propaganda doesn’t magically become true just because it reinforces your beliefs or even contains a few true facts.
You don’t understand why it’s a good idea to point out propaganda, because you think propaganda is incredibly basic.
That explains why you keep spreading it so much,you’re incapable of recognizing when someone is manipulating you…
Again, how is defending oneself from the US and defending Lebanon from Israeli genocide fascist??
Your problem is that you consider “defense from the US” fascism, because you’re so high on US propaganda
It’s objectively anti-fascist propaganda, though. You can call Iran a repressive theocracy, but it isn’t fascist.
Paid for by fascists…
The purpose of the propaganda, is to help the fascist regime paying for it.
You may be confused because some accounts want to make it out that Iran is actually a decent government because American and Israel are bad
Every country involved in this is a peace of shit, and that includes Iran.
Then you clearly don’t know what fascism is, and are just using it a catch-all term to apply to any government you don’t like. They’re religious social conservatives, yes, but they aren’t fascist.
Fascism is a superficially populist movement that is used to violently impose the will of capital and suppress the working class, characterized by a merging of state and corporate power. I don’t think that this describes Iran accurately, though there are some similarities. In any case, their enemies are a genoicidal rogue state and the seat of the global fascist empire, so they’re objectively and by far the least bad out of all the major players in the region.
The “everyone’s bad!” position is simply moral and intellectual cowardice. We do not live in a perfect world, and you’re never going to find a perfect actor. Iran is engaged in a defensive war against the fascist global empire and its regional cronies, and is winning. That’s enough for me, at least for now. We can reexamine the situation after the war.
What?
To clarify, does that mean you disagree that the Iran government is fascist?
read my post and formulate a counterargument or fuck off
Your post is confusing, I’m sorry.
In order to get of the root of the issue, can you please answer if you believe Iran is fascist?
If you don’t, then there’s no point in anything else.
No problem, not everyone is born with the reading comprehension gene.
I already said I don’t think they are. You do realize that the burden of proof lies on the person making a claim, right?
I’ve humored you long enough. If you don’t support Iran’s war against imperial aggression, it is you who is the fascist.
FTA:
So… What’s your point? What were the nature of the projects? Your linked article doesn’t say.
Btw, are you an American? Do you pay taxes to the American fascist regime (or one of its coalition partners)? Yes? Then you directly fund the melting of school children overseas. Do you drive a gas-fueled vehicle? Yeah? Welp, 0.9¢ per gallon of that goes straight to frying little brown boys and girls in Gaza.
If that’s not more concerning to you than feigning moral supremacy over some dudes making Lego videos then perhaps your vision is a bit tinted by a different kind of supremacy.
What I said it was…
.
Yeah bro, it sucks…
See that? A citizen saying their government is a bunch of fascists.
What country are you from?
How do you feel about your current government?
Usually when asking it’s politie to offer up the same info pre-emptively.
I answered anyways, but if you don’t reciprocate it kind of makes it look like you got something to hide
They were rhetorical questions. You weren’t supposed to answer them.
You have terrible reading comprehension.
🤦♂️
Does that mean I don’t get an answer?
The fact that they’re whitelisted to use the internet alone implies they’re in cahoots with the government
Not necessarily. People have been working around the data blockade the whole time
www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgzk91leweo
I could see the government giving informal approval. (which could simply take the form of them knowing who the group is and letting them continue). But part of the regime? who knows.
Not that the distinction really matters. The more I learn about Iran, I realize that basically everything that goes on there exists in some sort of grey area
here we have another liberal manufacturing consent for the war and thinking republicans are the problem in america
Here we have another my way or the highway extremist who only takes what they want to hear from a statement instead of the intent… or the actual content of the words.
Lol that shit is hilarious, like people who actually live here can possibly forget ALL the Republican political messaging in support of this administration, its stupid ass wars, raping kids, hiding its crimes, and killing/marginalizing/deporting anyone who disagrees or even just happens to be brown.
Do you have any idea how many fucking red caps and pro-Trump signs I have to see every day? Do you really think your limp words hold a candle to all that crowing about the Republicans “hurting the right people” finally?
“here we have another liberal thinking republicans are the problem in america”
YEAH! I ABSOLUTELY FUCKING DO!
cnbc.com/…/harris-iran-greatest-adversary-trump-e…
lol good one
Two things can both be bad.
Bad people can be right.
Saying “this video by the Iranian regime roasts the US regime” doesn’t automatically mean that the Iranians are right. I see the rebuttal that there’s an implicit boosting and platforming of this which normalizes it. I don’t know which is worse. I think we’ll need hindsight for that.
…who said the Iranian regime was in the right…?
Source: the same Zionist media denying the genocide of Palestinians. Surely a non-doctored, totally true® figure.
Also, about the “unarmed” part:
US was arming Iranian dissidents through Kurds while negotiating with Tehran, Trump reveals
So, the US sanctions Iran so heavily that the impoverished population wants to riot, and the US gives weapons to said impoverished population… Totally not a coup attempt!
The official stance of the Iranian Government is that ~3000 people were killed, ~2400 of which were civilians. Even if you choose to only believe the statement put out by the perpetrators, you still have to acknowledge that they killed multiple thousands of unarmed protestors.
If you think that shooting at civilian protestors, regardless of how much they were incited by the enemy, is in any way acceptable, then I don’t see how you can claim moral superiority.
The enemy of your enemy is not your friend.
If you cared the slightest about Iranian lives, you’d be protesting the US and EU sanctions on Iran that have debilitated its economy and hence murdered hundreds of thousands of people during the past half century. Based on a study by The Lancet, US and EU sanctions murder HALF A MILLION PEOPLE YEARLY globally since 1975, or about 38 million murders since 1970.
The US playbook is to force economic turmoil through sanctions, literally starving people until they riot, arming the rioters, and then invading. Look at the protests’ timing with the exchange rate of the Iranian Rial, the protestors were rioting because they were starved by the US. But you blame Iran for the starving people who are dead because of explicit US policy of starving and arming people as a destabilizing factor. You literally fell for the US attempt to generate support for the war (or at least reduce criticism) because “Iranian government bad”, when ALL of those deaths and TENS OF MILLIONS MORE are the US’s fault.
Oh I absolutely agree. Both sides are very much complicit. I just get the image from your comments that you seem to believe that the Iranian government is somehow innocent in this, and I cannot agree with that.
Defending oneself from US intervention and regime change attempts is as innocent as it gets. What do you propose, that they peacefully accept getting couped?
Sorry. I don’t buy into western propaganda. The 20,000 is clearly made up.
What’s the body count have to be to solicit an unfavorable opinion? Like, can you abide a few? Gloss over a few dozen? Do you require evidence of each kill? How many people does a theocratic authoritarian government have to murder for you to be like “yeah, fuck your regime”? Don’t conflate “fuck the Ayatollah and the IRGC” with “go America”. It’s not difficult to be disgusted with two fundies leaving a trail of bodies in their wake as they argue over oil and which delivery boy made up a better version of God.
Yep, most reporting from inside Iran puts the number killed as significantly higher than that.
I have a friend in Iran, his cousin died in the protests. His body was tagged 12,014. Shut your fucking mouth if you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Obviously that’s not how body tags work. Either you or your friend is making this story up.
That sucks and all, and I’m sorry for your friend’s loss, but that’s precisely the kind of information that can be pinpointed back to him or his family. So be careful saying stuff like that.
😂 😝 😂 my friend was once the millionth customer at our local McDonalds . They added it to his social security card.
Yea, well my cousins friend also died in the protests and a bunch of his friends too and you know what his body was tagged? -2672, this means that not only is the Iranian government not killing people, they are actively resurrecting them, my cousins friend and all the other guys just got up and walked out of that morgue, good as new.
This is obviously sarcasm, it is very easy for anyone on an anonymous forum to claim whatever they want. It sounds to me like you are going out of your way to shut down conversation on this matter by unconvincingly claiming “your friends cousin” died. I bet you also had a supermodel girlfriend from two towns over.
Hate to break it to you but both sides have pretty extreme propaganda. I would accept the number that multiple independent humanitarian groups all agree on, which is at least 6.8 verified, with another 11k they believe and are investigating.
Even at the level of the verified 6800, that’s a lot of people directly murdered by the government. Yes the US has directly murdered many many thousands since 9/11, and indirectly many more through sanctions and Musk pulling USAID, etc. but that doesn’t discount that Iran murdered like 7-20+ thousand in one stretch. That’s horrid.
I heard it was 20 TRILLION!!
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/bb3c5e3e-6f85-40fe-a410-d6e707c58db6.jpeg">
Actually no, that was the previous Iranian regime (before they killed the Ayatollah). This is the new Iranian regime (with the younger Khamenei).
Maybe he’s not a murderous tyrant like his dad? I suppose it’s worth giving him an opportunity to build his own legacy without his father’s baggage, considering the circumstances.
If he ends up murdering his own civilians too, then fuck him. But so far he hasn’t done that.
Lol
Is that from march? Khamenei died in April…
Did he?
He was killed 28 February or 1 March, depending on who you ask and possibly your time zone.
en.wikipedia.org/…/Assassination_of_Ali_Khamenei
Oh damn, these past couple months have been a blur. I was thinking “that was just a month ago.”
What the fuck.
the regime is the same. It’s all the same people, even though the top guy is his son
Okay, so the Iranian civilians are being murdered by the Iranian government and the US government.
Can we stop arguing about which one’s worse and maybe start thinking about how do we stop both of those regimes from murdering civilians?
I agree. You’re the one that was making excuses for the regime.
Was I? All I said was that the recent round of massacres was under the previous Ayatollah.
I also clearly stated that if the current Ayatollah murders civilians, then fuck him too.
What part of that excuses a murderous regime?
Mossad and CIA operatives kicked off a violent uprising in Iran in January, following economic protests, which targeted police and other protestors. It was a cynical attempt to encourage a crackdown so Western propaganda could use it as a basis for “humanitarian intervention”
It didn’t work but that absurdly false death count has stuck around like a bad smell. Verified death count is 3,000 and many of those were police.
They did murder civilian protestors, it was not anywhere close to 20,000
I thought it was 50,000 or was it 100,000? Get your CIA lies straight at least.
lol ok
They actually dig up the 100 million victims of communism, brought them back to life, then killed them again
Here’s the link for anyone who cares.
Got anything besides youtube? They apparently don’t want me to watch it (at least not without IDing myself to them…)
Also, how the fuck does verifying the viewer’s humanity protect the fucking community? I’m not commenting or liking shit.
Well that’s annoying. Sorry, I did a search and that popped up and let me watch without logging in. VPN maybe?
It might be my VPN. Reddit doesn’t work in my browser either (the only time I go there is if a search result returns a link for something I’m reading about).
There are some things I’ll temporarily disable my VPN for, but youtube isn’t one of them…
Try this:
xcancel.com/tparsi/status/2050601873581769109
That’s incredibly salient. People should start slipping this song into playlists in public spaces
Iran being smart enough to do the thing the US admin is too stupid to: win the hearts and minds of your adversary’s civilian populace.
Historians are going to have plenty of work to do describing how the US threw away all of their soft power over the course of some decades. Absolutely wild to see.
Oh, it’ll be easy: “Once their opponent dissolved, a portion of the US elite convinced themselves that ‘history is over’ and, being unopposed, they no longer needed to cultivate soft power and can simply seize whatbthey want outright.”
Todays conspiracy theorists are future historians
Not really, such things have unfolded a hundred times over in history, it’s pretty much prophetic.
Men like Trump pave the way for real dictators who in return pave the way for emperors who in turn pave the way for tombstones.
It only took one year to wreck most of the soft power, too! And they say government isn’t efficient…
Do you mean all that squishy cuddly soft power you guys employed, when you invaded Iraq? Or Afghanistan? Or Iraq again?
Thats specifically what they arent talking about.
Obviously.
No, more like things like convincing the UAE to leave OPEC, accelerating the collapse of the petrodollar and the subsequent collapse of the US economy as a whole.
The US has given up on all of it’s real strengths because Trump is too stupid to see anything but raw military might as important. The US used to be so good at winning people over through its promotion of human rights and liberal values of freedom. It was always a mask, but it was a very valuable one. It certainly never won over everyone, but it bought them enough good will to allow Pax Americana to persist. Trump has torn that mask clean off, not realizing just how much he would change the game for everyone. The very confidence and desire to be the dictator of the most powerful empire on earth has made that empire significantly less powerful.
So true. I’m glad that people acknowledge this “Liberal values” shtick was opium.for the masses. The global south has always known the US as a rapacious imperial force for resource theft, exploitation and violence
I mean, I don’t have a normal perspective for an American by any stretch of the imagination. Most people here still think that America is or at some point was great.
It’s not just him though, there is a whole admin that is also happy to do this and these people will still be around ready to start over in another future republican government, even if it’s democrats that get in next time. A bug chunk of America appears to be happy to be on this path now.
They won’t be so happy when they get to experience the Great Depression 2: The Real Electric Boogaloo
they won’t give a shit, the economy is just something for poor people to suffer through
That big chunk of Americans ain’t all rich
Thet never care.
2008 wasn’t that long ago. Do they remember it? Or 2020?
but those recessions were obviously the fault of the undocumented transgender immigrant women with disabilities who had all their surgeries paid for by their hard earned tax dollars
And teachers, for some reason.
They needed the mask when the USSR offered competition. Once there was “no alternative”, they went mask off.
AI slop-😡
AI slop (but it’s Iran)-😍
“Peace… not for the leaders… but the innocent souls…”
It’s a good deed.
I do hate at least 40% of Americans, so chances are very high I will hate you if you are an American.
Hello!
None of those 40% are on this website lol
Thankfully very few, yes.
Was gonna say, as a greasy American, I hate a lot of us too lol.
yep. hate and despise are accurate words for this
and tbf, I hate and despise a good number of my own countryfolk as well. it’s disgusting how many don’t give a fuck about other people
I think the official number is 38% now
Paix entre nous, guerre aux tyrans!
And I don’t hate the Iranians. I hate both of our governments, however.
Yeah, it’s funny how many shills tried calling me racist for supporting the Iranian protestors in 2021 and later in 2025 and 2026.
Like, if I was racist, then why would I care about their problems and empathize and express solidarity?
The Iranian people don’t deserve to be bombed by the US and Israeli militaries. They don’t deserve to be massacred for protesting against police brutality either. Or to be beaten to death in police custody for not wearing a hijab “properly.”
There are some wild mental leaps that some people will go through to support a violent regime just because it’s anti-West.
Muslim Iranian’s have more in common with your everyday American’s than your American Zionest Evangelical.
one of my prized possessions is an enormous LP collection of (mostly) russian composers that American Express released in the early 80s or late 70s i don’t know, it was a gift from a friend who wanted to clean out her record collection, but the point of the collection and the music is to prove to western audiences through the music that people behind the Iron Curtain are not our enemies. the governments are not the people.
there’s like, 40 LPs and i’ve listened to 5 of them. it’s a bunch of really good classical music, but the point is the same and it never changes.