Influencers, performative activism, and martyr narratives

We’re joined by former U.S. diplomat Josef Burton to examine modern Pahlavism: an online, diaspora-driven movement built around nostalgia for Iran’s deposed Pahlavi dynasty and the imagined restoration of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. What was once a marginal exile politics of royalist uncles, former regime officials, and anti–Islamic Republic hawks has, in the past decade, been transformed into a bizarre right-populist scene. It’s part monarchist revival, part regime-change lobby, part “Make Iran Great Again” fandom. Josef traces how this movement emerged from the trauma and politics of the Iranian diaspora, then accelerated through Persian-language satellite TV, social media influencers, think tanks, bot campaigns, and the broader ecosystem of neoconservative, Israeli, Gulf State, and MAGA-aligned regime-change politics. Pahlavism presents itself as the authentic voice of Iranians, but often functions more like an astroturfed culture-war identity: anti-regime, pro-Western intervention, aggressively nostalgic for a whitewashed “Iran before the revolution,” and hostile toward Iranian dissidents who favor diplomacy, pluralism, or any future not centered on the Pahlavi name. The movement has started to resemble a QAnon-style political subculture: very online, retribution-focused, conspiratorial, obsessed with hidden agents and imminent deliverance, and convinced that posting, doxxing, street theater, and displays of loyalty are forms of revolutionary action. But unlike QAnon, modern Pahlavism’s fantasy of “the storm” has been tied to real intelligence networks, real lobbying money, and real military escalation. When the long-promised war finally arrived and failed to produce a restored monarchy, the movement was left to cope with betrayal, humiliation, factional infighting, and increasingly bizarre displays of royalist devotion. Josef Burton on Twitter https://x.com/pinstripebungle “Shah's infamous Savak deputy chief participates in LA protest” by MEE correspondent in Tehran https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iran-shah-infamous-savak-deputy-us-protest-press-review “The Problem of Iran Expertise in Washington” by Negar Razavi https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/39946 “The Iranian Diaspora Is Fracturing Over Trump’s War” by Keyvan Golsorkhi https://www.thenation.com/article/world/iran-diaspora-war-trump-israel/ “I’ll Burn You Alive” by Daniel Bock https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/04/22/iran-diaspora-harassment-00092598 “How Iranian monarchist networks built ties to Europe’s far-right” by Nima Ghadakpour https://www.theamargi.com/posts/how-iranian-monarchist-networks-built-ties-to-europes-far-right “Waiting for Day Zero” by Will Alden https://archive.is/20260427011144/https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/22/waiting-for-day-zero-los-angeles-iranians/ Subscribe for $5 a month to get all the premium episodes: www.patreon.com/qaa Check out our new podcast series network Cursed Media! All episodes of Spectral Voyager Season 2 are now streaming! Binge the entirety of Truly Tradly Deeply by Annie Kelly and Megan Kelly as well as Science in Transition by Liv Agar and Spencer Barrows: cursedmedia.net Produced by Liv Agar & Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (instagram.com/theyylivve / sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (pedrocorrea.com) qaapodcast.com QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.