Pilled Iranian Monarchists feat. Josef Burton (E371)
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/
Thanks for subscribing to QAA on patreon.
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Produced by Liv Agar & Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)
QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.
Comments (47)
This ep alone is worth the monthly 👌 Also, the term “retrotopia” was SORELY missing from my vocabulary as a descriptor for how many of my own countrymen tend to mythologize the communist times in Yugoslavia. Fucking excellent work.
This was a great episode with a great guest
Got one these in a change-color? cyber truck down the block with the shah flag raised and all. The guy who even if you don’t ask he will stand there and explain the flag and cyber truck color. Also thanks for the post. I wanted to thank Jake for the Lububu episode which I go back to frequently to calm me down lol. Also I want a rap album. Please. Nice work on the balancing of horribleness and funny. 🫡
The ketchup suit stunt reminds me of people taping gauze to their ears after the assassination attempt.
Great episode! I never thought I'd hear the name Pahlavi in modern times (in regards to Iran). Please bring back Josef again.
Mersham, I have bad news
A man was stalked and stabbed by two of them (not fatally, thank goodness) at a rally in London.
liv agar
I know the cab driver sharing conspiracy theories is just a stereotype, but I swear, it happened to me too - and many times - while in the region, LOL
Great episode. Josef slotted in with the crew so well.
The actor that played abu nazir on homeland is pahlavi posting cheering on the bombing of tehran all over his instagram
"I am just your black-bagged French fry, please squirt on me." 😆
Good episode, I’m glad I’d save this for when I got back to work today
Super Cyan
Great ep
Ooh. Zoroastrian references!
Trying to find that movie he mentioned named “the pilot” but not finding anything. Anyone know more about it?
Damn, a fed?
Podcast-e Bozorg, Sardar-e Sardaran
What a banger, does anyone know the ep where they maybe originally bring up the freaky MKE stuff?
Great guest!! Hatta talafozesh khub bud!!
Iran stronk
Theyre talking about louis the 16th, not the 14th right?
American education
I also want to shoutout Moby Dick House of Kabob. If you're visiting or live in DC cannot recommend their food enough.
Suddenly a Right Wing party here in Spain receiving money from Iran exile parties... Makes sense. They are that king of radicalised larpers... With resources. Makes sense they fund a contrarian party, very racist and anti Muslim.
"The Islamists out-manouvered everyone" is a nice way to say "the CIA made sure that the socialists and communists didn't win this."
Undeniably the most informative piece of media on Iran I've ever encountered. Hats off this is splendid
Man, the more you read and hear and watch, it really seems like the one thing holding all the disparate MAGA factions together is their shared love of kinky sex. Good for them, I guess?
And their shared love for a mythical past that only exists in their imaginations.
Good ep. Julian was so respectful I thought he was absent
Right! Is he ok??
Nations mistakenly believing that Americans read, knew, and believed their own great thinkers is not a unique occurrence. Following the Spanish-American war, a number of high level people in the burgeoning government of the Philippines thought, cool. America. The freedom guys. The ones who rebeled against a European power ruled by a monarchy. We've read Jefferson. They will surely sympathize with us and grant us our right to self-determination. And then America brutally colonized the nation and killed all opposition with pistol and sword.
The movie Burton mentions, about a volunteer ace pilot, sounds amazing, but I’m struggling to find it. Any help would be appreciated!
Forget Iranian politics - you guys are okay letting a state dept official on here to wash his image? They go through months of training in order to buy into the process of telling people no, throwing their case into administrative processing, or just leaving them to rot within the national visa center. They track their denials and encourage lower ranking officers to deny people at some posts. Let alone the fact that this guy would have worked during the Muslim Ban and conveniently didn’t quit his job. What a joke.
Do you have evidence of Josef Burton doing those things? From his *extremely critical* writing on the Muslim ban and US foreign policy overall I am not getting that impression. Thinking that everyone who ever worked for the state dept is a demon seems pretty reductive
Monarchies are not worth reinstating. As someone living under a "democratic" monarchy, it adds only waste and embarrassment.
If anyone wants to get a sense of OTHER examples of how bonkers and long lasting royal legitimist movements can be I recommend the history of Stuart and Ming Dynasty legitimism.
This is probably my favoruite episode since the rebrand and the best since Drew Pavlou.
Great ep- I hope the Iranian royalist trolls don’t find their way here (though, if they all became paying subscribers, I’d be happy to see y’all reap the windfall lol)
Check out A History of the Modern Middle East if you liked this episode.
Guys, this was really terrific work. Excellent ep.
Liv Agar, besieged by monarchists
<🎵 Bruce Banner, pelted by gamma rays>
Ohhhh shit almost 2 hour episode. Let's fucking go!
Second and dumped
First and pumped!!