meanwhile in Iran
No, I'm not going to talk about the war, or the IRGC, the Iranian revolution, or how the US was in some part responsible for it. I wouldn't attempt to wade into subjects which I know little to nothing about. What I'm going to talk about instead is Spider-Man and Korn.
I'm watching a video right now, made by a young woman living in Tehran, where she shows you what an average day is like for her. In many scenes she is walking the streets there. At one point she turns the camera to look into the window of a book shop, and there is a section of graphic novels and comic books, including Spider-Man, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Black Panther, etc. Further down the road, some people are looking at the jewelry a street vendor is selling, and one of them has a Korn T-shirt on.
In the comment section on her last video, some people were talking about how Iranian society was "so far behind" because in a few places, she had to put her Hijab on (but not while walking the streets). Yes, it is generally older, traditional cultures that have stricter dress codes for people in public. But to suggest that this alone means a culture is "behind" or "backwards" only shows a lack of context. They don't understand that the US is only 4.2% of the world's population. Or that we don't make the rules. Or that in many ways WE are behind other countries. Or that the tapestry woven by history and politics and culture is so complex that it's highly unlikely any two countries will be at the same place in their development at any given time, especially when an ocean divides them. And by all measures, under the Trump regime, the US is currently losing much of the progress we've made. Another few years of this and we'll be meeting Iran, like two trains passing each other going opposite directions.
My point is that these people in Iran, like us, are just trying to live. All around the world, in every country and culture, the average person is just trying to get by, and hopefully enjoy life as much as they can while they do what they need to do. There are ignorant and fearful people in every country, yes, but they too are just trying to live, and they tend to only get riled up about something when the demagogues and propagandists tell them to. The fear and hatred for Muslims in the US has reached levels that I can only deem insane, in that they are untethered from reality (I saw someone recently claiming that Obama had helped to "install" Mamdani, who is planning to declare himself the ayatollah here once they "take over"). Do you think any of these people would be half as concerned as they are if it weren't for the constant lies they're being fed? Up until recently, I don't remember hearing anything about the supposed Muslim takeover. But Trump needs his Epstein file distractions, and the social media grifters who ride his coattails need their views so they can sell whatever crap they're selling.
Over the past few years that I've lived in Detroit, where I see people of all different types on my daily bike rides, I have come to appreciate people who are different from me so much more than I ever did before, when I had lived somewhere much more homogeneous, and where I rarely saw people anywhere other than at stores. Just today even, as I was people watching, I had a moment where I couldn't help think about how beautiful everyone is when they're happy. What is it to me what they do with their time? What is it to me what they believe, as long as it doesn't infringe directly on my own life beyond the occasional minor inconvenience? What is it to me what they wear, how they talk, how they dance and to what music?
When I was younger, I used to get annoyed at times with people who were very different from me in ways which I could not account for. Why would you do that or be like that when you don't have to? But as I got older, I stayed observing and learning and contemplating, and it all but completely went away (I have my weaknesses like anyone else). A closed mind doesn't mean you're right, it just means you aren't able to see how you're wrong because it's outside of your field of view. If we could somehow see into someone else's mind, we'd be just as astonished as we would if we could take a faster-than-light spaceship and tour the universe. Each person is a world of their own, a world that you have never step foot in. Why do we think we can understand someone from a single glance?
They have Spider-Man in Iran too, and if a woman in America wants to wear a Hijab to be closer to God, that is her choice. You don't have to fully understand it to understand that you should respect it.
~
August 29th 2026