I'm quite used to that "conspiracy theory" tone (that's the tone our government always uses), but honestly I wouldn't have imagined I'd read something like that on HackerNews...

I sincerely hope you don't really mean what you wrote. :(

I modded him back up because I'm curious to see how Iran's "rest of world" propaganda machine works. If he is buried or hellbanned or whatever, we residents of Western democratic republics will know less about an enemy government than we did before. I can't see how that's a good thing.

The US invaded and occupied Afghanistan. Fact.

Afghanistan is adjacent to Iran. Fact.

The US invaded and occupied Iraq.

Iraq is adjacent to Iran. Fact.

The US and allies directly supported the overthrow of Libya. Fact.

Libya was one of Iran's most important allies in the area. Fact.

Iran is currently undergoing massive economic sanctions by the US and allies. Fact.

Iran has been subject to cyberattacks including Stuxnet. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/world/middleeast/obama-ord... Fact.

Google is used for a significant portion of internet searches in Iran. Fact.

Internet search results are a key source of news and other information. Fact.

News and information are very important aspects of information warfare (propaganda). Fact.

Propaganda is a very important aspect of war. Fact.

You know what people, believe whatever you want. Go back to your nice happy little Silicon Valley tech bubble. You're right, there is no hegemony. The greatest, most ubiquitous and far-reaching information system in the world has no connection whatsoever with the cyber-intelligence and information warfare systems of a country that outspends its nearest competitors in military spending by a factor of 5 to 1 and has troops in 150 countries. The United States only fights for freedom. There is no real war, just people being freed from evil oppressive rulers and sometimes relieved of the massive burdens of their excessive oil supplies.

I'm not living in Silicon Valley tech bubble. I'm currently living in Iran, and probably know more (much more) than you about what's happening, and why. I can assure you it's got nothing with more security, and everything with trying to limit people access to free media.

And just FYI: I access Internet through a 256kbps (with lowercase k) connection that's heavily filtered. Sites like YouTube, Facebook, twitter, and almost every other social network, along with almost all major news gathering websites (BBC, CNN, NYTimes, Washington Post, ...) and now google and gmail are blocked. Last week it took me 1 hour and 40 minutes (yes, i timed it) to download a mere 12MB zip file from my email inbox (it was a beta software I wanted to test) because the connection just kept resetting 6.5 MB through. After that I gave up and asked them to upload their beta, unreleased software to droplr.com so I can download it.

I'd take US hegemony everyday instead of this. And am more than willing to switch my place with you.

for people trying to understand where ilaksh is coming from, i thought this was fascinating:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/bryan2.html If Iran Were America: A Timeline

What the US has done to Iran is well documented.

Facts do not cease being facts just because the Iranian government states them.

I suggest you lookup "Stuxnet", "Flame" and "Mojahedin E Khalq".

NOTE: All data available on this website is fully investigated & researched

I see how this can be framed as "oppressive government can make rational decisions to preserve its status quo" while avoiding the elephant in the room. But this analysis can be applied to any oppressive government (Argentina of the 80's, Zimbabwe of the last 20 yrs, Idi Amin, etc. So, from that perspective this is true. At the same time their government is more interested in maintaining a theocracy and suppressing internal opposition than in providing a functional government for its people -all the while presenting it internally as an "us against them" issue.