06/20/25

And I want you to hear something that I was really careful about through this whole story – the Iranian government. The Israeli government.

9.7 million people live in Israel.

70% of Israelis want their Prime Minister to resign. 70%.

90.6 million people live in Iran.

Iranian elections are not free and fair. The nonprofit Freedom House, which ranks and scores democracy and human rights around the world, ranks their elections an 11 out of 100. Their political rights rank a 4 out of 40, and civil liberties get a 7 out of 40.

All of that to say that it wouldn’t be fair to say how Iranians feel about their political leadership because they are literally not allowed to say anything.

That 2019 protests I mentioned? Security shot at them on day two, killing ten protestors. In all, while it’s hard to get an actual number, Amnesty International believes that between November 15th and 19th, at least 304 people were killed.

I’m here in Los Angeles. We are in the middle of a hostile government takeover. That’s still true. What’s happening here is still very bad. It’s not a pie, this isn’t less of dangerous fall into fascism because another country acts worse.

But-

I get to complain about this government all the time. Freely. Probably because like three people listen. But still.

We still have a judicial system that the executive branch currently acts like they will uphold.

Yes, it’s outrageous that the National Guard and Marines are here. But they are upholding their oath. They have not taken up arms against their own citizens just for speaking out.

It’s not a pie, but we have to have perspective.  

A couple of weeks ago, I had a whole speech about how part of the reason there has been a marked spike in antisemitism since the October 7th attacks and the Israeli government’s retaliatory genocide in Gaza is because it gets described as Israel and Hamas. A country and a group. And then Israelis just become all Jewish people and then that adds to antisemitism that already exists around the world and certainly in this country.

Well, I don’t mean to blow your mind or anything, but this country also has a history of not liking Muslims.

This country actually has a history of not liking a lot of people.

We don’t even like half of the country!

Probably something we should look into. Eh, we won’t.

We have seen this before. Yesterday I made that little is it too soon to shout 2003 joke because in 2003 the US invaded Iraq because the president assured us, was so confident, that there were weapons of mass destruction there.

But also – remember 2003. I can barely remember it, I was very young. But think about 2003. This country was horrible, horrible, to anyone who looked even vaguely Middle Eastern. Oh, not me. Not me. Okay well, still this country so… still us. Still gotta own it.

This country was so disgustingly terrible to anyone they thought could possibly be Muslim that when we elected our first Black president, like half the country thought, and some of them still think, that he’s Muslim! And they still hold it against him!

I saw a video the other day of a guy making a joke that, after Iran’s supreme leader promised irreparable damage if the US got involved, he wanted to make sure the Ayatollah knew that he didn’t vote for Trump. And I was like – yeah man, me too. It was funny.

That is how 70% of people in Israel feel. Whether they voted for Netanyahu or not, that is how they are now feeling.

And we don’t know how people in Iran feel. They don’t get to have a political voice in this.

I don’t know… I think that’s just my very long-winded way of saying that we have to remember that these are governmental decisions being made. If you do not want this government, this president, to represent you, please don’t think it’s a leap to believe other countries would feel the same way about their own government.

And here in America, we have enough issues without adding more antisemitism and more Islamophobia.

There is a real human cost here and I worry that the news is going to lazily slip back into 2003 images of Iran and all you’ll see is some war-torn country, and two political leaders going back and forth, and forget there are real people that are paying the price for governments that they may not agree with. Just trying to go about their lives.

They don’t want to be thinking about a nuclear bomb! They didn’t even see Oppenheimer. Not for any real reason, they like Christopher Nolan just fine, relax. Everyone knows he’s a genius and the Dark Knight trilogy is perfection. But who’s got three hours for a movie anymore? They were going to watch it when it was streaming and then they never got around to it and yes technically they did watch three hours’ worth of The Office reruns every night but that’s different because that’s in the background. You can get up and do things when you’re doing that! You can’t get up when you’re in the theater because you’ll miss things. And then you gotta do the thing when people tuck in and not every tucks their toes in and you have to act like you’re so thankful even though you’re just normal thankful. And then you come back and it’s like – you kind of remember where you sat but somehow it’s now the darkest park of any movie that’s ever been made, and yes movies are darker now for some reason, so you can’t find your row so you might as well just sit in the back row so what was the point of even trying to find seats together? And you’d be annoyed because your snack is back at your seat but you ate it before the previews were done anyway. But now that you’re in the back row you can’t help but see that someone’s watch hasn’t been turned to cinema mode so every time they get a text it’s like a dang flashlight has been turned on and how many group texts are they on? Do they even want to be on them? Because you only want to be on like half of your group chats. Some are full of numbers you haven’t even saved. Should you save them? Feels like it’s too late to ask who those people are now.

Do you understand how universal of an experience that is?

Do you understand that everyone has had that experience?

All people are different people, sure, but there is more that unites us than divides us.