Iran Lets Loose The Memes of War (S01E37)

Sunday, March 29, 2026, Istanbul When most people think of Iranian propaganda, they think of the grafitti in Tehran showing the Statue of Liberty with a skull face. But in this war, Iran’s propaganda has leveled up. Its AI-generated Lego animations mocking President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and lionizing Iran’s military commanders have gone viral, as have its memes showing off the cool-headed diplomacy of foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.Scholar Kevin Schwartz is co-author of an upcoming book tentatively titled “Visualizing the Islamic Republic,” in which he discusses the Tehran government’s propaganda output. He sat down with me recenrtly during a trip to Istanbul in which we discussed Iran’s meme factory. The Persian-speaking Iran specialist also described the origins of the conflict, his thesis that the war we see now began to become inevitable as Washington increasingly came to believe that all of its troubles in the Middle East were rooted in the Islamic Republic.Please listen, comment, and subscribe.badlands is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit borzou.substack.com/subscribe