But Ermiya Fanaeian is hardly an unbiased interpreter. The Post buried the fact, six paragraphs in, where a minority of skimmers were likely to read, that she is an anti-American Marxist and activist.
The Washington Free Beacon noted,
“Fanaeian is ‘an organizer with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization” (FRSO), a Marxist group that “helped coordinate the protest … with leaders from other groups,’ including the Chinese Communist Party-tied activist group Code Pink…. unmentioned in the Post’s reporting:…Before enrolling at Howard, Fanaeian was a well-known far-left activist in Utah, where she founded Armed Queers Salt Lake City, an “explicitly socialist and radical queer organization” that calls for the “armed and militant protection of queer and trans communities.” Though the group says its mission is rooted in self-defense, Fanaeian has endorsed political violence.
“Sometimes violence, protest, and really riots and those kinds of loud rebellions must take place for tangible change,” Fanaeian said in an interview she gave as a student at the University of Utah, according to the New York Post. Both Fanaeian and Armed Queers Salt Lake City, meanwhile, have a long history of protesting both Israel and the United States. Five days after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack, Armed Queers posted a statement voicing “full support of the right to resistance” and condemning “any argument insisting the Palestinian struggle is equally as violent as Israel.” The group also blamed anti-gay sentiments in Gaza—where homosexuality is illegal—on “the colonial history … against Palestine.”
“We must also be critical of any pinkwashing tactics that co-opt the struggles of gender-oppressed people in order to further advance anti-Palestinian efforts,” the statement read. “And recognize that the colonial history, and present, against Palestine has been responsible for some of the most barbaric forms of violence against women and queer people.”
“There is only one side to support—the side seeking freedom from colonial force. And we will not be made to believe that side is our enemy.”
Nice! So the Washington Post, to give readers a sense of how an appealing, young Iranian-American reacted to Trump’s attack on Iran, chose an anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, pro-Communist, anti-American activist for its appeal to emotion and authority, without disclosing her revolting agenda and bias.
Nah, there’s no mainstream media bias! The Washington Free Beacon is a conservative news and commentary website, but has done more legitimate investigative journalism in the last 24 months than the democracy-killing Washington Post has done in the last ten years.
On the bright side, it’s reassuring to know that the wriggling snake pieces left over since Bezos’s well-earned decimation of the staff still can produce anti-Trump venom. My Facebook friends should be happy.
Ethics Alarms 
“Sometimes violence, protest, and really riots and those kinds of loud rebellions must take place for tangible change,” Fanaeian said in an interview she gave as a student at the University of Utah, according to the New York Post.
New wine in old skins? You’ve got to break a few eggs to make an omelet. Old wine in new skins? Old wines in old skins? How did Marxism become an aphrodisiac?
Armed queers?
“We’re here, we’re queer, and we’re ready to shoot you.”
“Sometimes violence, protest, and really riots and those kinds of loud rebellions must take place for tangible change.”
So…. she’s ok with the attacks on Iran?
The Washington Post gave a remarkable obituary about Khamenei:
“With his bushy white beard and easy smile, Ayatollah Khamenei cut a more avuncular figure in public than his perpetually scowling but much more revered mentor, and he was known to be fond of Persian poetry and classic Western novels, especially Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Miserables.’ But like the uncompromising Khomeini, he opposed moderates’ efforts to promote political and social reforms domestically and to secure rapprochement with the United States.”
https://thefederalist.com/2026/03/02/you-dont-hate-media-enough-nyt-wapo-remember-ayatollah-as-cleric-with-easy-smile/
““With his bushy white beard and easy smile, Ayatollah Khamenei cut a more avuncular figure in public than his perpetually scowling but much more revered mentor, and he was known to be fond of Persian poetry and classic Western novels, especially Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Miserables.’ “
So, basically, he was Santa Claus.
In a culture motivated and driven by propaganda narratives, populations are trained in derivative versions of the “two minute hate” (Orwell). It is a shared activity, deeply emoted and psychological, where an “enemy” is located and in group sessions a visceral anger is directed toward the proper hated object. The function is to exteriorize “the shadow” onto an object and personality separate from oneself, and what is uniquely useful is if that hated enemy is seen as aligned with or manifesting “Satan” and Satan’s nefarious actions which can be hallucinated as anywhere and everywhere apparent.
Now with that said it is obvious to the discerning individual that Khamenei really was aligned with a diabolic power. You only have to look carefully at his eyes to see the Dark One there lurking. Or notice his hands which have the features of claws.
Joking aside, one should at least be aware the degree of Biblical and prophetic projection going on around everything surrounding Judea, Jerusalem, the wars and conflicts in the Middle East, and the notion of return of the Jewish messiah (a national warlord charismatic) and the tie to the Christian notion of “final wars” and the return of Jesus in balls of flame, etc. It is a big deal among the ultra-orthodox in Israel and as well among both the Muslim and Christian believers.
I came across this. Mourning for Khamenei in Dearborn, Michigan.
https://www.memri.org/tv/dearborn-shiite-mosque-khamenei-memorial-devil-lucifer
Now this is a very interesting video essay by (I gather) a Muslim woman in the soil of the America that she (I also gather) holds in contempt. This is “theology in action” and you can find almost the exact corresponding theological rhetoric among the ultra-haredim and Christian Evangelical fanatics. (Like that lunatic who wished Israel to drop a “big old missile” on the Dome of the Rock so the Third Temple could be rebuilt and so Jesus would (be forced to?) come back.)
https://www.memri.org/tv/dearborn-rights-khamenei-martyrdom%20spiritual%20guide
I do appreciate that the Post and other leftist sources think the tens of thousands of Iranian protesters killed by their own government are not noteworthy or important.