{"id":14157,"date":"2026-05-31T16:20:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T23:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/?p=14157"},"modified":"2026-05-31T16:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T23:38:16","slug":"death-to-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/death-to-america\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Death to America&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I found the following at Ed Feser&#8217;s place.\u00a0 I wonder what Vito and the rest of you think of it. I myself\u00a0 have taken &#8220;Death to America&#8221; as a highly credible threat and the statement of a policy the Iranian regime intends to carry out if we let them acquire nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.<\/p>\n<div class=\"comment-block\">\n<div class=\"comment-header\"><cite class=\"user\">EXE\u00a0 <\/cite><span class=\"datetime secondary-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/edwardfeser.blogspot.com\/2026\/05\/no-us-has-not-been-at-war-with-iran-for.html?showComment=1778614270737#c6343561137089399896\" rel=\"nofollow\">May 12, 2026 at 12:31\u202fPM<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"comment-content\">. . .\u00a0 I figure that I ought to take the time to clear up one particularly stupid talking point that I&#8217;ve also seen brought up: the fact that the Iranians say &#8220;Death to America&#8221; being interpreted as evidence of ruthless savagery or genocidal intent. This requires you to interpret the phrase in a thuddingly literal manner, despite the fact that the Iranians don&#8217;t use it that way, and the regime&#8217;s officials have repeatedly clarified that that isn&#8217;t what it means.<\/p>\n<p class=\"comment-content\">Yes, if you translate &#8220;Marg bar \u00c2mrik\u00e2&#8221; literally, that&#8217;s what it means, but repeated usage has made it clear that it&#8217;s intended to be interpreted as opposition to American empire and policy towards Muslim countries. It&#8217;s why official Iranian government documents translate it as &#8220;Down with America&#8221; instead, because that&#8217;s more in line with the spirit of what the phrase actually means.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"comment-replies\">\n<div id=\"c6343561137089399896-rt\" class=\"comment-thread inline-thread\">\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li id=\"c7039330139492044372\" class=\"comment\">\n<div class=\"avatar-image-container\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEhfWN33I5udDvicjDREiWaBb07gjt6wuCNm48GtTwhe3p4BK2KaIIU15JtsO3dT-jtVpgwAao5alNTGmkbVDOLUFzEoALV6r9mn32LcksU4B61s44D8yow4PzuDelNCGw\/s45-c\/Feser+photo+1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"comment-block\">\n<div class=\"comment-header\"><cite class=\"user\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/13643921537838616224\" rel=\"nofollow\">Edward Feser <\/a><\/cite><span class=\"datetime secondary-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/edwardfeser.blogspot.com\/2026\/05\/no-us-has-not-been-at-war-with-iran-for.html?showComment=1778647728917#c7039330139492044372\" rel=\"nofollow\">May 12, 2026 at 9:48\u202fPM<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"comment-content\">Hello, EXE, I agree, that&#8217;s another silly talking point.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I found the following at Ed Feser&#8217;s place.\u00a0 I wonder what Vito and the rest of you think of it. I myself\u00a0 have taken &#8220;Death to America&#8221; as a highly credible threat and the statement of a policy the Iranian regime intends to carry out if we let them acquire nuclear weapons and the means &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/death-to-america\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8220;Death to America&#8221;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,43,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islamism","category-political-language","category-war-and-peace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14157"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14161,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14157\/revisions\/14161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}