In this life, nothing is truly binary. It is neither black nor white, but instead varying shades of gray. Many things can be true at the same time: fire can be both beautiful and destructive, wind can be refreshing and deadly and water can sustain life just as easily as it can take it away. These are fundamental truths about the relationships between our world and its mechanics, illustrating a reality in which good and evil can coexist.
Yet when we analyze human activity, this nuance is often lost. Good and evil become two finite categories, where heroes and villains are crafted through the coarse lenses of ideology and opinion.
In the recent United States raid to detain former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the present Israeli-American bombing campaign in Iran, much has been revealed about the state of partisanship in this nation.
Amidst the pushback and protests surrounding these military actions, some have taken some rather extreme positions to defend tyrants on the basis of political polarity. As a reminder: many things can be true at the same time.
The Trump administration has demonstrated a troubling disregard for the domestic and international rule-based norms that have guided global order for decades. President Trump has frequently forgone the traditional checks and balances through a flurry of executive orders and unilateral military actions abroad.
His administration has also been accused of violating the constitutional due process rights of noncitizens through sprawling Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, straining long-standing NATO alliances through threats toward European partners and demonstrating a total disinterest in ushering peace, despite campaigning under the promises of “no new wars.”
Similarly, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu has committed his own series of atrocities over his years in power. Netanyahu has long worked to undermine the integrity of Israeli courts while attempting to consolidate power within the executive branch. He has expelled dissidents from government and removed key domestic administrators pivotal to enforcing Israeli law.
His government has also overseen conflicts across the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria and Iran. The war in Gaza alone has killed at least 70,000 Palestinians, while Israeli strikes across the region have killed thousands more. Israel maintains these operations target militant groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthi movement (Ansar Allah) that have previously attacked Israel, but many of these strikes have also killed innocent civilians. Several United Nations committees have indicated that Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip constitutes genocide.
These actions by Trump and Netanyahu constitute great harm to global stability. Protesting these events, which threaten the global commonwealth, is entirely reasonable and ought to happen — rarely do events on this planet occur in a vacuum.
However, trading one tyrant for another is hardly a win for the collective good.
Following the American raid in Venezuela and bombings in Iran, some protesters have decidedly framed former President Nicolás Maduro and Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as heroes of some noble resistance against “Western, imperialist aggression.”
While it is true these nations exist as opposition to the United States and the collective “West,” and history has proven they may have reason to do so, Venezuela and Iran have committed many grave sins of their own.
Following the death of Venezuelan socialist revolutionary Hugo Chávez, former bus driver Maduro assumed the presidency of Venezuela in 2013. While Chávez’s legacy is deeply polarizing, his successor presided over one of the most dramatic national declines in Latin American history. Maduro’s government has widely been accused by numerous international organizations of suppressing dissent, restricting freedom of the press and manipulating elections to maintain power.
Venezuelan security forces have also perpetrated multiple human rights violations. International investigations report upwards of 19,000 extrajudicial killings carried out by security forces and paramilitaries between 2016 and 2019, along with the detention of many more thousands of political prisoners.
Maduro’s regime also contributed to one of the worst economic collapses in modern times. Hyperinflation, corruption and mismanagement of the country’s state oil industry forced more than 80% of Venezuelans into abject poverty and triggered a mass migration crisis. As of 2024, up to 7.7 million Venezuelans have fled their homeland to seek safety and stability elsewhere.
Sanctions or not, Maduro destroyed his nation and ruled in stark contrast to his supposed egalitarian, socialist values he claimed to represent. He is not a man to be defended.
Ali Khamenei assumed the office of the Supreme Leader of Iran in 1989, 10 years after the Islamic Revolution, and remained the most powerful authority until his death in 2026. Under Iran’s doctrine of Wilayat al-Faqih, all decisions of state and society must be directed by one supreme religious jurist, placing total political, military and judicial control into the head of state.
The Iranian regime has long been accused of committing many crimes against humanity, including widespread, censorship and severe restrictions on political freedoms. The government maintains extreme control over media and internet access through a powerful state censorship apparatus, and dissent is often met with imprisonment or intimidation.
Iran also enforces strict social codes through institutions like the “Guidance Patrol,” a “morality police” designed to enforce mandatory hijab and ensure women adhere to other patriarchal religious regulations. In 2022, enforcement of these regulations drew massive protests across Iran following the killing of Mahsa Amini while in police custody, resulting in the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement.
In response to the protests, Iranian authorities killed at minimum 500 protesters and arrested many more.
The killing of citizens exercising their human right to protest is not unique to 2022, with recent massive anti-government demonstrations resulting in state security forces reportedly killing at least 30,000 protesters in a matter of two months.
Beyond its domestic oppressions, Iran has long supported militant terrorist groups across the Middle East, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria, Ansar Allah (Houthi movement) in Yemen and many more armed movements aligned against Israel and Western influence. Through this network, Iran has positioned itself as the leader of the so-called “Axis of Resistance.” Yet opposition to Western hegemony does not erase the regime or its proxies’ own histories of oppression and violence.
So what exactly about Khamenei’s regime is worth defending? Is it the slaughtering of protesting civilians? Is it the strict social control and violence committed on women, LGBTQ+ individuals or ethnic and religious minorities in Iran? Or perhaps the long record of state-sponsored militant violence across the region?
This is not an exercise in whataboutism intended to justify the bombing of these nations or the suffering of their people. Instead, it is a call to examine the broader context behind the causes many may feel compelled to champion in this present moment of geopolitical crisis.
If one truly opposes authoritarianism and advocates for human rights around the world, then one cannot simply trade one tyrant for another.
Supporting Adolf Hitler in World War II simply because one opposed the injustices present in the U.S. at the time would hardly have made a more just world.
Many things can be true at the same time. If we find ourselves convinced that one side can do no wrong, perhaps it is worth questioning the propaganda loop appealing to our good intentions.
Thomas Bergeron is a 26-year-old graduate student from Baton Rouge.
