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In recent weeks, the administration of Iran regime’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and several of his cabinet ministers have adopted a troubling narrative: blaming ordinary Iranians for systemic crises while sidestepping their own responsibilities.
Rather than addressing Iran’s outdated managerial structures and fostering meaningful development, Pezeshkian and his team have resorted to accusing citizens of excessive consumption, a tactic that masks their administration’s shortcomings. As an analyst in the state-run Jahan-e Sanat newspaper noted on June 8, 2025, the president “has fallen into the clutches of managers who conceal their incompetence by scapegoating the public.”
This pattern of deflection is not a response to Iran’s pressing challenges but a calculated effort to shift blame onto citizens. Far from tackling root causes, the regime’s rhetoric heaps insults on a population already grappling with economic hardship and infrastructural failures.
Is #Iran's Economy on the Brink of Collapse?https://t.co/yf6CwE91JC
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) June 5, 2025
Accusing the Public While Ignoring Structural Flaws
Pezeshkian has repeatedly claimed, with an authoritative tone, that “Iranians consume several times more gas and electricity than the global average,” according to the same article.
This statement carries a stinging implication: not only are citizens victims of Iran’s inefficient energy policies, but they are also the culprits. By framing the issue this way, Pezeshkian sidesteps the government’s core responsibility to balance production and consumption, modernize aging infrastructure, and reform flawed macro-level policies.
Instead of addressing these systemic failures, he points the finger at the public to deflect scrutiny from his administration’s ineffective economic and technical teams.
This approach is not unique to the president. The Minister of Agriculture recently declared that “sugar and vegetable oil consumption in Iran is 1.5 times the global average,” the state-run Tabnak states.
How Khamenei’s policies are crushing Iran’s economy and currency https://t.co/TRgRZlvLlJ
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 7, 2025
Yet, he offered no explanation for why his ministry, with its vast budget and sprawling bureaucracy, has failed to tackle critical issues like water scarcity, soil erosion, pasture degradation, or low agricultural productivity.
Rather than outlining reforms for agriculture, livestock, fisheries, or forestry, the minister joined the chorus of blaming citizens. The Ministry of Agriculture, which the article describes as “one of the fattest government institutions,” resembles a hollow entity that churns out paperwork instead of solutions.
A Bloated Bureaucracy and Misplaced Priorities
The regime’s tendency to vilify the public extends beyond energy and agriculture. The Ministry of Economy, for instance, employs a staggering 2,600 managers, none of whom appear to contribute meaningfully to economic improvement. Instead, these officials burden society with financial costs while exacerbating crises that erode citizens’ livelihoods.
Rather than acknowledging their failures, these managers brazenly urge the public to practice “patience” and “frugality,” dismissing legitimate demands for accountability as “extravagance.”
Unauthorized Bank Profits in Iran and Massive Losses https://t.co/HMcdVRQ0kY pic.twitter.com/KubECHQCg8
— Iran Focus (@Iran_Focus) June 9, 2025
The real tragedy lies in who bears the brunt of this cycle of deceit and humiliation. It is not the government’s favored elites or those benefiting from state patronage, but Iran’s most vulnerable—impoverished citizens struggling with soaring prices, water and electricity shortages, and economic instability.
These are the people who must endure not only material hardship but also the verbal lashings of managers who neither understand their pain nor seek to alleviate it.
In this upside-down system, ordinary Iranians bear the burden of crises while being portrayed as the main culprits.
A Reformist Facade and a Growing Divide
Pezeshkian’s administration, which promised reform, has so far delivered little more than recycled tactics of denial and deflection.
The president’s rhetoric, repeated in public forums, betrays a lack of genuine commitment to addressing Iran’s deep-seated challenges. When incompetent officials sit in judgment of the people, the prospects for meaningful political or economic progress grow dim.
Worse, this approach deepens the chasm between the government and the nation—a divide that widens daily on the streets of Iran.
This growing rift, fueled by political, social, and cultural alienation, poses a challenge that the ruling system cannot contain. As the government persists in scapegoating its citizens, it risks further eroding trust and legitimacy, driving an ever-deeper wedge between the state and the people it claims to serve.