Let’s talk about how the world works. It is ugly. It is simple. And it never changes. Here is the setup involving the **Iran government** and the balance of power. They have all the guns. Then you have the people. They have no guns, but they have anger. When the administration raised gas prices—the classic trigger for unrest—the **Iran protests** began. It’s always about money. The people went to the street. They yelled. They burned some stuff.

Now, here is the part that makes me sick. The government didn't just send in cops with shields. They didn't just use tear gas. They decided they were done playing games.

But first, they did the smart thing. The evil thing. They orchestrated a near-total **internet blackout**. They pulled the plug to ensure digital silence. They wanted to do their dirty work in the dark. They figured if no one can post a video on Instagram, then it never happened. If a tree falls in the forest and no one livestreams it, nobody cares.

But they forgot something. People are stubborn. People find a way. Even with the web down, Iranians kept filming. They recorded the madness on their phones. They waited. And when the internet dribbled back on, or when they got near a border, the videos flooded out, documenting the **human rights violations** the state tried to hide.

This is where the **NYT Visual Investigations** team comes in. They took these clips. Hundreds of them. They did the work that lazy people won't do. They didn't just watch them and say, "Wow, that looks bad." They applied rigorous **digital forensics**. They took it apart. Frame by frame.

It is cold, hard work. They look at shadows to tell the time of day. They look at street signs to find the geolocation. They listen to the audio. Not just the screaming. They listen to the gunshots.

And here is the grim truth they found. The police were not shooting in the air. They were not trying to scare people. They were utilizing **lethal force** against unarmed civilians. They were shooting directly at crowds of people who had nowhere to run. It wasn't riot control. It was a turkey shoot.

Look at how pathetic our modern world is. We have all this technology. We have satellites. We have 4K cameras in our pockets. And what do we use it for? To record our own demise.

The investigation proves it. They tracked the videos to specific cities. They saw security forces shooting from close range. They saw them shooting from rooftops. They saw them using heavy machine guns. That is a weapon for war. That is for shredding tanks, not for stopping a college kid from yelling about gas prices.

The reporter, Sanjana Varghese, explains how they verified all this. It is a science now. They have to verify it because governments lie. The Iranian bosses said they were fighting "thugs" and "terrorists." They always say that. Every government says that when they want to hurt their own citizens. It gives them a pass to open fire.

But the videos don't lie. You see people running. You see people falling. You see the blood. You can try to spin it with a press release, but you can't spin a video of a guy getting dropped by a sniper.

So, we know the truth. The Times proved it. The videos are real. The crackdown was lethal. The government murdered its own people to stay in charge.

Now, ask yourself the hard question. Does it matter?

We know they did it. We have the proof in high definition. We have the maps. We have the timestamps. But the people in charge are still in charge. The guys with the guns are still walking the streets. The world watched the videos, said "that's terrible," and then went back to scrolling through cat memes.

This is why I am cynical. We think the truth will set us free. We think that if we just expose the bad guys, they will go away. They won't. They don't care about your investigation. They don't care about the United Nations. They care about power. And as long as they have the machine guns and the kill switch for the internet, they win.

The **Visual Investigations** team did a great job. It is amazing work. But it is also depressing. It is an obituary. It is a detailed, verified, timestamped record of how helpless regular people are against a state that wants them dead.

The lights went out. The shots rang out. And the world just watched the replay.

***

### References & Fact-Check * **Primary Source**: [How We Know Iran Crushed Protests with Lethal Force](https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/middleeast/100000010672177/how-we-know-iran-crushed-protests-with-lethal-force.html) - *The New York Times Visual Investigations* * **Context**: The 2019–2020 Iranian protests, often referred to as "Bloody November," were triggered by a 50–200% increase in fuel prices.