Trying to blur political alliances with bitcoin is an even worse angle than human rights. It's pretty much saying “We'll give you agency - but only if you agree with our politics first”

Mocking me or a position I didn't even claim is a straw man. It should be normal for a human rights org to be transparent.

You have every right to do what you want to do. I hope whoever is funding is fully aware of this political alliance's first policy, or maybe that's why they are funding you, I don't know. Good luck

Thanks for sharing, your thoughts are aligned with mine. I too am really surprised and disappointed by this. You can't love people but love their political alignments more, and call yourself human rights. It doesn't sit right.

In Iran, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has become the go-to source for Western media. What they don't disclose is that they were bankrolled by NED (which does covert ops like the CIA), for over $900,000 in 2024 alone. HRF might not receive directly from gov't but funds could be shell companies, individuals with specific interests, or genuinely kind donors who had no idea.

The irony is Alex understands how economic colonialism works. He wrote essays exposing it. But HRF's political alignment follows the same selective pattern he critiques.

Human rights are universal. Alliances are political. This feels misleading.

Using a blanket definition of "tyranny" on the countries the US opposes (Venezuela, Iran, Russia, China, Cuba) while ignoring the atrocities of the US government or its allies pretty much answers the question. Irony that you wrote the Trojan Horse article. Truly disappointing to have discovered this.

I think it's important to know if HRF is a regular human rights foundation or a geopolitical instrument that uses the language of human rights to advance US strategic interests.

It's also important to know if HRF is backed by the National Endowment for Democracy - created to rebrand CIA covert operations as "democracy promotion."

I didn't realize you supported a US-backed opposition and celebrated the illegal capture of a leader of a sovereign state in Venezuela, where their nation's assets were confiscated. There is nothing human rights worthy about depriving people of their own country's economic resources. I don't know if you're supporting US-backed figures like Pahlavi in Iran or influencing regime change in other countries.

I firmly believe in giving people agency to fight for their own sovereignty. Using people's oppressed state to push a US agenda is deeply disturbing.

Oh yea 100%. In this multipolar chess game, China is the one not fighting, and winning. Lots to learn here. Russia has been pissed for a long time and will milk this, but they won't blindly go to war. In the Hungary war, they let the rebels believe they had won, then sent in the tanks.

The US has sent half its defense overseas and is militarily weaker than China. EU leaders, Modi, Prabowo, Albanese are spineless (except Spain). Sunnis might fight Shias, and Israel gets its Greater Israel win. But the younger generation in Arab lands isn't buying the elite narrative anymore.

The irony is Trump orders killings without Congress, calls itself a democracy, and calls them dictators. But the left are against this only because they are against everything Trump does, not against killing. Obama was the same. This is a dying regime's misguided desperate attempt, and now they are only going to accelerate death sooner.

Iran won't stop. You pissed off their pope equivalent, in one of four countries with hypersonic missiles (the US hasn't even tested theirs successfully). And every Iranian government leader holds a PhD. They were long prepared. And right now they are all in.

Khamenei was the moderate one.

Hard to hear, but true. Governments run on our silence and our taxes.

But the problem might also be how people label "evil" and the narratives we're told. Till today, nobody has openly thanked Russia for being the biggest contributor to fighting WWII. People literally get a fit just mentioning Russia.

It's Russia and China that are helping the Sahel states build up, and we don't talk about this because "oooo tyranny." We don't talk enough about how safe and advanced China is because "oooo evil."

It's Russia and China that are fighting for human rights while western propaganda runs deep. And honestly, I think you are the only one here who has these conversations openly.

And then there is the Greater Israel mission and taking down the eight fronts. Unfortunately, one too many Sunni Muslim countries are proxies for the US for personal financial gains.

But here's the problem with Iran. Shi'a political theology is structured around martyrdom. Given emotions are so high, there is no reason why they won't go full nuclear and kamikaze. It's also a country with 97% literacy - so they are both ridiculously intelligent and have nothing to lose. WW3 might actually start now, and I think that is what Trump and Netanyahu wanted from the get go.

Man, it's sickening. None of them - EU leaders, Canada (for all that bullshit of being remorseful just a month ago), Australia, have the basic dignity to be honest about who started this war. They make it seem Iran has gone rogue. Worse, Iran actually conceded to all the agreements, but US bombed anyway.

Same rhetoric as the first Gulf War. US asked Shias and Kurds to rise up against Saddam. And when they did, US quickly left the scene. But not before giving Saddam some choppers that would help him massacre the Kurds. And after that, US came riding in like a hero to save the day in those " Islamic terrorist" countries.

Same playbook in Libya. Afghanistan. Pakistan. Syria. Lebanon. Oh man, such heartbreak.

The entire Hague, where the International Criminal Court sits, was built from looting out of Indonesia. None of this is ok.

Maybe ask why the countries with the most resources - oil, gas, minerals, keep getting bombed, invaded, and sanctioned by western powers. Most of those "backwards" countries were stable until western powers carved them up, installed dictators, took their resources, and left. Hard to build infrastructures when they keep getting blown up by US and Europe.

Trying to sideline Russia, China and Iran and positioning them in the bucket of evil without talking about US and Europe government surveillance tactics makes me think HRF is one sided. Not openly talking about how the flaws of western democracy as it colonises and keeps the global south poor makes me wonder if this is a human rights organisation or a narrative arm for the American and Western world.

It also makes me wonder who's funding HRF. And whether it has ever penetrated countries and flipped governing bodies in ways that benefited America, all in the name of "human rights."

Big fan of your Bitcoin essays, Alex @gladstein but something doesn't feel right here.

take a walk outside your house, turn on your GPS, look up the sky and wave at its owners. Have a nice day

Its would have yielded the same outcome. You may not understand enough to get that.

The son of the guy US installed to ensure it had full supply of oil, after the CIA and MI6 took down a democratically elected leader Mossadegh, because he nationalised Iran's oil instead of letting BP control it. And who is actively pursuing US military intervention, one that can kill millions of innocent Iranian lives