to be so much something as it is other things

[diminished7th]

I was having a pretty cool conversation with this American dude and he said talking about Persians:

"I will admit I think they need to do away with certain things,
maybe they need more western influence, that is to say, influence from the rest of the world. Well, you know, it isn't so much Iran as it is other middle eastern countries, not to mention North Korea"

and I'm wondering what he meant by this bold phrase! Like what is the idiomatic part of this phrase? to be so much something?

Thanks

 

[owlman5]

This guy was saying that he thinks countries like Iran and North Korea are too culturally isolated. When he said "it isn't so much Iran as it is other middle eastern countries", he meant that other countries in the Middle East seem more isolated and radical in their beliefs than Iran does. Of course, he was just expressing a personal opinion. I'm not at all sure that "western influence" is the same thing as "influence from the rest of the world". However, he seems to think that "the rest of the world" is more like the West than the Middle Eastern countries are.

Does the phrase make sense to you now?

 

[diminished7th]

Does the phrase make sense to you now?

Oh yes now it does...thanks for the response...I needed to think about it a little bit...I guess we have kind of the same way of saying this in Farsi as well