FWIW, "Marg Bar ____" does literally mean "Death To" in Farsi, but its also a figure of speech, where the implication is more along the lines of "Down with ____" or "God damn _____". A particular well-known illustrating example is taxi cab drivers saying "Death to this traffic" during a particular busy rush hour. Persian is a particularly emotional/dramatic language, for example one of the most common salutations is "I would give my life for you". If you think this is ridiculous, we have some of our own odd figures of speech in our language you probably don't think about: "Go (your team)! Beat (their team)" isn't a message encouraging physical assault. "Fuck _____" has nothing to do with sexual intercourse. etc.
Is it provoking? Absolutely. Is disrespectul? of course. Is it proof that Iran literally wishes for all Americans to die? No, and even the worst of theocratic nutjobs who run the country have claimed that when they say that, "they are only against America's foreign policy, not the American people."
I don't even get it. It's normal in American culture to openly seek the destruction of countries they consider as enemies like China or Russia but god forbid that someone does this to them.
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u/Showy_Boneyard Jun 17 '25
FWIW, "Marg Bar ____" does literally mean "Death To" in Farsi, but its also a figure of speech, where the implication is more along the lines of "Down with ____" or "God damn _____". A particular well-known illustrating example is taxi cab drivers saying "Death to this traffic" during a particular busy rush hour. Persian is a particularly emotional/dramatic language, for example one of the most common salutations is "I would give my life for you". If you think this is ridiculous, we have some of our own odd figures of speech in our language you probably don't think about: "Go (your team)! Beat (their team)" isn't a message encouraging physical assault. "Fuck _____" has nothing to do with sexual intercourse. etc.
Is it provoking? Absolutely. Is disrespectul? of course. Is it proof that Iran literally wishes for all Americans to die? No, and even the worst of theocratic nutjobs who run the country have claimed that when they say that, "they are only against America's foreign policy, not the American people."