Iran War 2026: How Iranian State TV Turns The Woke Into Useful Idiots
So what’s new? A few FB groups about Singapore matters (mostly not flattering towards the PAP) have been condemning America’s actions in the current Iran War. And it doesn’t matter how many pages you can write to justify the Iran War. The image of a blood-stained school bag lying in the rubble of what is supposed to be a school, a bombed-out building with a sad teddy bear poking out, cue the dramatic music, the sullen anchor and the instant label: “Zionist-American war crime!” is slapped. Nobody questions where the school bag came from. Nobody asks if that was really a school. Nobody who has watched violent movies many times bothers to ask if it’s really blood on that school bag?
The virus (how appropriate) spreads. Retweets, FB shares and social media burns with more fire than the actual Iran War. What is happening here? People feel righteous. People feel like they are better informed than those who believe mainstream news channels. It feels great to be a buster of conspiracy, calling the bluff of the professional journalists and their “Western media” propaganda. Except… the same folks who spent decades telling us the 2009 Green Movement was “Western-orchestrated,” the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests were “fake news staged by Mossad,” and every single woman burning her hijab was actually a paid CIA actress—those same mouthpieces are now your sole trusted source on reporting “war crimes.”
Meanwhile, actual Iranians—real people inside Iran, filming on their phones—are dancing in the streets of Tehran, Shiraz, and Isfahan. They’re handing out sweets. They’re chanting “Death to Khamenei” at his own funeral procession. They’re setting off fireworks because the 36-year nightmare finally got a precision-guided ending. And what do the righteous defenders of peace and Iranian sovereignty do? They wave the index finger: “Fake! All fake! Western media deepfakes! Mossad bots! CIA Hollywood production!”
The school bag? Straight from the Iranian state media playbook—the same people who once showed us “Israeli missiles hitting a hospital” that turned out to be their own rocket misfiring. The same regime that films mourning crowds bused in from the provinces and calls it “the entire nation.” The same regime whose leaders’ children live in mansions in Canada while telling you to eat dirt and die for the Supreme Leader.
But sure, keep trusting the guys who literally invented the “blood on the floor” propaganda genre. The ones who Photoshop tears onto posters of dead terrorists and call it journalism. The ones who, just last week, were calling Khamenei “immortal” and now suddenly need your tears for a “martyr.”
This isn’t journalism, but why should the woke care? What is the price for their heroism? Just a few hours every night after dinner, retweeting and sharing that shows the good side of the terrorism sponsoring Iranian regime. They are the same guys who banned music, jailed teenagers for dancing, jailed women for not covering up their hair, killed dissidents and turned their country into an international pariah. Sure, their people are suffering. Their elite are not even living in Iran. And it’s all the fault of the evil West? This isn’t even propaganda anymore. This is radicalisation of useful idiots. Sadly, we have prominent Singaporeans who fall right into that trap. Examples include Tan Kin Lian and Tay Kheng Soon.
These folks are not “anti-imperialist.” TKL for some reason just has to agree with everything the PRC says. Same for TKS who blames the bulk of the world’s problems on evil America. The rest are just woke to the core, feeling heroic and magnanimous by turning inwards against their Western educated background, condemning it while they sympathise with the enemy. They are useful idiots who fell for the oldest trick in the authoritarian handbook: weaponise victimhood, flood the zone with emotional imagery, and shame anyone who notices the contradiction. The most appalling things I see are Americans cheering for Iran and Singaporeans cheering for AI bots that attack Singapore.
No, the celebrations aren’t fake. The rage of millions of Iranians who lived under that theocratic boot for decades is real. The school bags? Convenient props. The damaged buildings? Tragic, yes—but context matters when the guy who built underground nuclear sites under schools and hospitals is suddenly the victim.
Yes, look at the issue from both sides. Trump is no saint. Far from that. But the Iran war is not just an act of imperialism. It’s also refusing to let a murderous regime that hangs gay people, stones women, and funds global terrorism play the victim card the second someone finally punches back. The Iran war is not Singapore’s war, but we need to defend ourselves against terrorist attacks on American interests on our soil. Look at Dubai, all the passengers on cancelled flights sleeping on the streets. Who do we blame? The woke will tell you it’s Donald Trump.
So next time you see that blood-stained school bag trending, ask yourself: Why does the same state media that lied about every protest in the last 20 years suddenly deserve your unquestioning tears? By jove, on the day of the explosive visitation at Khamenei’s they even denied that he was killed. And just not too long ago, Chinese pundits have been pontificating about how America would not dare to start as Iran war because the country has powerful Chinese and Russian military behind it. Has America invaded? What happened to the two powerful militaries? Will there be WW3? It’s so laughable that these pundits don’t lose their fans and followers after being so completely wrong. It’s the simplicity and effortless consumption of content douyin and TikTok. It’s a pandemic brain rot that epitomises the age of social media and the death of the reading habit.
So why are the actual voices of Iranians inside Iran being summarily dismissed as “Western orchestration”? Because it’s trendy on social media. It’s a great self-affirming performance. Most folks don’t need to sail near to Iran on a flotilla loaded with a few cookies and bandaids. They don’t even need to write a blog post in Kolkata like what I’m doing here. The influencers among them only need to share images of damaged buildings, bloody school bags and scream “FU@£ America”. The effect is multiplied if the screamer is a White American wearing a keffiyeh which is Iraqi in origin by the way.
As a Buddhist, it’s quite difficult for me to accept war. But in the real world, it could be a choice between a greater or lesser evil. Would you rather see Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah grow from strength to strength, terrorising not just Israel but the entire Middle East, or would you rather see Iranians and Jews holding hands, celebrating a military operation that at least brings a ray of hope for lasting peace in the Middle East?
