They hated the Shah and they don’t want the mullahs. What the Shah and the mullahs have in common is their willingness to kill and jail people. What that means is the country can only be ruled with an iron hand. Democracy is not for everyone.
If they manage to overthrow the IRGC they will need a strong man and an effective secret police to keep the communists and jihadis at bay. The same hipsters that wanted the shah gone, now that they’re old, remember the Iran of those days as a relatively free country.
The Shah had to lead a nation in the middle east surrounded by Soviet allies in the peak of the cold war. No nation in that region (Israel included) had a human rights record that we would, applying today’s standards, approve of.
But to compare the Shah, who killed fewer than 5,000 people over 37 years, to the IRGC, which kills that many in an afternoon, is profoundly inaccurate.
Also, the Shah cared about Iran, her history, and her language.
The IRGC has openly stated that it does not care about Iran, and is seeking a pan-Shiite kingdom that will bring about Armageddon. To that end, they are importing mercenaries and “theology students” (often those wo are synonymous) from all over the middle east, Africa, India, even Latin America.
Read my profile for information the MSM won’t tell you about the IRGC.