And why does a guy with this much support feel compelled to do away with democracy in the first place? This dude is already neck-deep in some shit and is already working to undermine the eventual backlash.
Multiple coups, stolen elections, entire systems of control and oppression by American corporations (banana republics), etc.
In Cuba they literally went from super racist and clinging to Spain, to multicultural and trying to get independence from Spain, then back to Jim Crow type racism because of US influences.
Latin America also has a rich and beautiful history of democracy and relative cultural unity so it’s still surprising to see all these dictators come to power. Almost every single country (if not every single one) that revolted against Spain from 1808-1825 ended up becoming a democracy. We need to put this thought at the forefront so as to avoid dictatorial strongmen.
Especially since a decent portion of the US democracy was lifted straight out of the Six Nations. They straight up copied the Native Americans in the New England area of the country. Which is why when you look at the Greek version of Democracy, and the US version, there’s a ton of differences
Am sorry but my native American imperialistic ancestors liked annexing and conquering those beneath them and make their own empire that got annexed by the Spanish. Big fish ate small fishies before it got nommed by a shark.
ITT: People who don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about. If you’re not Salvadorean, or have no understanding of how politics in El Salvador have been for the past half-century, kindly shut up.
Yes, they voted in an authorstarian after being subject to some of the worse violence rates in the world, do you have any idea about whats going on at the US Southern border? Because one of those places has and has been for years now utilizing detention camps. Which is why it’s funny you bring up detention camps when talking about them.
You can have good dictators, even if they are rare.
If you can’t comprehend this, then you are a victim of propaganda and indoctrination.
Sometimes, it’s easier to convince the masses to vote against themselves than it is to convince a dictator to sell them out.
For example, Mexico vs. El Salvador.
15 years ago, nobody thought Mexico would have a worse gang problem than El Salvador. Without Bukele’s heavy-handed approach to suppressing gangs, they would still be running rampant like they are in Mexico.
Most of society throughout history has been ruled by dictators. There are probably a few who would pass for decent rulers, statistically speaking. A few, out of thousands.
But even if you’re lucky enough to get one of the good ones, some shit bag will inevitably take their place and everyone is absolutely fucked with nothing they can do about it. Even rebellion is less and less of an option as militaries becomes increasingly efficient vs. armed citizenry.
It’s a losing bet every time. Not ever worth considering in any modern society.
Dictator didn’t mean back then what it means now: It was a time-limited emergency position, then oligarchy resumed. The Romans would call our current-day dictators tyrants and they tended to go the way of Caesar: Stabbed in the back (literally) by the senatorial power they usurped.
You can have good dictators, even if they are rare.
Hard disagree there.
But it really depends on what you value as good and bad.
For instance, if you think that people have an inherent right to have a say in how they are governed, then a dictatorship can never be good because it infringes on that right in the most serious of ways.
If you think a stable and sustainable system of government that will last beyond the life of a few leaders is important, then dictatorship is not a good system, because one good dictator creates no guarantee that the next dictator will be good, and establishing a system of dictatorship affords a bad dictator that much more power to ruin lives.
If people vote against their own interests, it is solely their fault, there is no way around it, deal with the consequences and do better next time. Saying that people must be protected against themselves means that you believe that your fellow human beings are inherently inferior to you and that they are not rational beings, akin to animals.
If you believe that you have intellectual superiority but you are not able to communicate that to your fellow countrymen, then you have failed thoroughly at being a politician, or you are not as superior as you think you are.
Results? If you want to talk results let’s talk about millions upon millions of dead Jews, political prisoners, and homosexuals.
That’s just one bad example, right? How about the millions that starved because of bad management in a single party regime, I’ve got two of those to pick from.
Read a fucking book and try not to choose Mein Kampf.
The absolute best case scenario is a Francisco Franco. Absolute best case.
And yes, it’s an inherent part of human nature. The more consolidated power is within an organization, the more vulnerable it is to abuse. Dictatorships are on one end of the spectrum, direct democracies on the other.
Have you ever heard a parent say “eat your food, there are starving children in China”? The children were starving in China because Mao decided that sparrows were eating too much of the grain harvest and launched a pest eradication campaign. With nobody in a position of authority with the ability to stop the campaign (or even question the wisdom of it) and sparrows were killed en masse.
Sparrows eat grain but they also eat insects. With the sparrows gone the bugs got out of control and sparked a famine. It was the worst man-made disaster in human history. As many as 55 million people died because a dictator tried to do a good thing and was able to act without restriction or oversight.
One bad decision - even if made with the best intentions - can end in disaster. That’s why checks and balances matter. Do they slow things down? Yes. But the chart-topping governmental fuck ups are all put there by totalitarians.
You said that they are rare, so what do you do if the ruler is bad and has the power to ruin the country for decades and can pass the rule to his song who may be bad too?
One good dictator is one thing but what happens after him? What are the chances he’ll be succeeded by another supposedly benevolent dictator? It also increases the chances someone gets tired of the dictator and coups him which may turn into yet another bloody civil war.
Democracy sucks but it’s the best system we have,
One can argue for his emergency decisions to handle the gangs but democracy should be restored once the dust settles.
Europe tried it. Ended up with guillotines and the Great War. After that they tried it again but without the royalty branding and we got World War Two.
But thanks to your comment now I see that my history books indoctrinated me. My belief that the enlightened despot of Germany that pulled their economy out of the Great Depression, built up a modern infrastructure, and was a champion of animal rights was a bad guy is clearly just propaganda influencing me. I should get redpilled and cheer for people’s power over their own government being taken away.
God Lemmy has the biggest whack jobs on the Internet.
I’m tunisian and i know dictators excuses very well to stay in power. Lot of people was kidnapoed, tortured and killed by Ben Ali. Ben Ali excuse was about protecting people from Islamist extremist.
I got to meet him at a wedding about a year ago. He’s like a regular guy he just cares about the people. I don’t think the one party thing is on purpose.
I read it, but you know many simply go by headlines, which are tailored as clickbait, often irresponsibly. So I’m fine with quoting the guy in context, but it’s poor form to let him get away with ‘coolest dictator’ in the context-free part that 80% of people will see.
Have you ever considered that kind of dichotomy actually helps him rather than hurts him?
Imagine being a Bukele supporter and seeing people like you say he’s bad just because has too much power.
To El Salvador’s population, Bukele is responsible for stopping gangs from freely using rape and murder as means of extortion. They don’t care about your stupid western ideological wars. To them, results are more important.
Compare El Salvador’s gang problem to Mexico’s, and perhaps you can see why dictatorships are not intrinsically bad just like democracies are not intrinsically good.
I don’t expect you to have that level of rationality, though.
Great dismissal of the truth you refuse to look at. The people of El Salvador love the man because he drastically reduced crime. Rape and murder was horrendously common there. People were afraid to leave their homes, even in the middle of the day. When you live like that for years and someone comes in and eliminates 95% of the crime almost overnight, yea, you’re not really gonna give a shit if he followed due process and whatever he calls himself when you can suddenly leave your house in peace. There’s a reason why he’s so popular there.
“Del mundo mundial” on Spanish is a common phrase (mostly used by children) to say “of the world”. If you want to translate literally, it would be more like “of the worldly world”.
Can’t they just exhume Edward Reed and use him instead of this broken propeller? He’s probably spinning in his grave very fast seeing the current state of RN.
I find this very exaggerated. In my experience, Germany has one of the most balanced cost-of-living situations of any developed country I’ve been to. Inflation is something all Western countries have been going through lately, but Germany remains relatively affordable compared to most of their peers.
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