• hamid@vegantheoryclub.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    83
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    2 days ago

    The American supreme courts massive and 180 turn from the previous decades of law is the textbook definition of tyranny. America used to have a grand tradition of what to do with tyrants.

    • Sneezycat@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      50
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      America always had big propaganda against other people’s tyrants, never against their own.

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      And Truman would have something to say about all of the Russian-bought members of Congress. History is cyclical, and we’re approaching another authoritarian period for global powers.

      • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        I’m glad I’m not the only one seeing this happen all over the world. All over the world we have feckless neoliberal parties failing to represent their people and getting replaced with populist right-wingers.

        • ssj2marx@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          2 days ago

          All over the world

          Showing your bias here, because really this is only happening in Europe and the Anglosphere.

          • calcopiritus@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            2 days ago

            Not just Europe and the anglosphere. It’s also happening in Latin America (ecuador), and that’s basically all the regions where democracy used to be prevalent.

            The middle east is still as dictatorial as it always was. Asia is still as dictatorial as it always has. Africa is still as dictatorial as it always has. I know all of these regions are huge and diverse, and that there are democracies. But none of them I can think of has gained democracy.

            So the places that had democracy are turning less democratic, and the places that had little democracy still have little democracy. I’d say that’s an “All over the world” thing.

            • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              2 days ago

              At least there’s Lula in Brazil. And I’m sure someone could come and tell me something bad about him, but not being Bolsonaro is a huge improvement, and I’ve heard other good things. In fact I believe the majority of Latin America is under leaders to the left of the US Democrats. And no I’m not counting non democracies like Venezuela or Cuba.

            • ssj2marx@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              4
              ·
              2 days ago

              Meanwhile Brazil went back to their last progressive president after Bolsonaro’s failure, and Bolivia has foiled two attempted coups by reactionary forces. Venezuela and Cuba also remain strong, with the latter being possibly the most democratic country on this planet.

              In Africa, the most notable “democracies” that have been overthrown in recent memory were all client states of western countries whose previous governments cannot in good faith be said to have been representative of the people.

              The Middle East is pretty bad, what with Israel going full fash in the past year. It’s not like they haven’t been edging for decades, though.

              But in Asia, the only country that might be more democratic than Cuba is China, and they’re as strong as they’ve ever been. Since that’s 1/5th of the population of this planet living under one of its premier democratic governments, I’d say the prognosis for global democracy is fine.

              • calcopiritus@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                2 days ago

                So the most Democratic countries on this planet according to you are cuba and china. Both of them are 1-party states, and China is straight up a surveillance state. Ok lol.

                Does china pay you or are you spreading their bullshit propaganda for free?

                • ssj2marx@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  2 days ago

                  Cuba’s democracy is actually a 0-party state. Candidates stand on their own for election, and most politics are run through local orgs and workplaces. They recently concluded one of the most democratic exercises in the history of the Western Hemisphere, when through a series of local referendums they amended their constitution. No lobbyists, no special interests, no controlled media - an almost totally pure example of a government run by citizens, for citizens.

                  As for China, the Chinese people have something like 90%+ satisfaction with their central government, as measured by independent observers. The reason for this is their commitment to Full Process Democracy, which means that your democratic participation in the system doesn’t end with your vote for a representative - low and mid level officials are required to constantly be polling their constituencies, and they can be dismissed (either by a recall election or by higher ups) if they don’t act in accordance with the desires of the people they’re supposed to represent.

                  Furthermore, China’s ruling party may be one party on paper, but it is “one party” that is made up of over one hundred million members. It has internal factions that range from neoliberal to anarcho-communist, and it is very intentionally embedded into every single Chinese institution. Most of the service that the CPC provides to the people is provided at a local or even individual level - for example, a Chinese worker’s equivalent to a union leader is a coworker who’s with the party, where if you have problems with your boss you can get it resolved through them.

                  • calcopiritus@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    ·
                    1 day ago

                    I guess not having freedom of press and a very censored internet is an easy way to have the population like the government. You could feed people worms if you don’t let them know there’s other food out there, they’ll like you if you tell them out there not even worms exist.

                    The people of Hong Kong absolutely LOVED having their democracy suppressed by china’s (#1 best democracy of the world!!!).

                    I guess nobody even asked the Uyghurs how they feel about their government. Or they’re <10% of Chinese population so who cares, they don’t need democracy.

                • Brickardo@feddit.nl
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  1 day ago

                  The US is effectively a one-party system as well, because the rest of the world gets fucked over either way you guys vote.

                  • calcopiritus@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    1 day ago
                    1. I’m not a US citizen and I don’t remember mentioning it in this thread.

                    2. That’s not what one-party system means. The US is in principle a many-party system, but because of how their system works it means that voting anything that isn’t one of the 2 top parties means throwing away your vote. Making it a functionally 2-party system, which is way more democratic than a 1-party system.

      • hamid@vegantheoryclub.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        arrow-down
        28
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        Americans are fucking up their own country, Americans are the ones that collapsed the government in Russia, re-wrote their economy, pushed in Yeltzin then invested in all the criminals there. Americans created this entire problem, as they are the worldwide empire with trillions of dollars and an agenda. It is cope to think that Russia has anything to do with it, if anything its their chickens coming home to roost.

        • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          17
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          2 days ago

          I’m not defending America’s actions. I’m stating that many members of US Congress are funded by Russian oligarchs.

          The influence was apparent when Republicans withheld aid from Ukraine until they were forced to choose between funding Ukraine along with Israel, or leaving Israel without weapons.

          Does that sound like a government body that is representing its constituents?

          • hamid@vegantheoryclub.org
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            6
            ·
            2 days ago

            I think you misunderstand world politics, Russian oligarchs are funded by Americans and work for them in international crime.

          • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            21
            ·
            2 days ago

            OK, but sending weapons to either of these places is bad, both for the people whose wealth is being wasted to blow up people on the other side of the world, mostly civilians (almost entirely civilians in Israel’s case) and the people getting blown up

            • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              15
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              edit-2
              2 days ago

              Supplying Ukraine with the weapons needed to defend themselves against a Russian invasion is bad?!?

              • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                4
                arrow-down
                21
                ·
                2 days ago

                The US is not supplying Ukraine with weapons because they have any interest in the well-being of the people in Ukraine. They are supplying the weapons to extend a war as long as possible to weaken Russia, at the expense of hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded Ukrainians and millions displaced.

                This is infinitely worse for the people living there than if Russia won a quick victory or if we’d taken literally any off-ramp in the last decade.

                • ProtecyaTec@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  15
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  2 days ago

                  Fucking what?

                  It doesn’t matter what the US supplies Ukraine. It’s Ukraines fight. It’s up to Ukraine to decide to forfeit the fight or to keep fighting.

                  By your logic we (humanity) should just let any country invade any other country and take over it’s people just because “it’s easier to give in than fight.” Giving in would be for the benefit of the people, right? That’s what you’re saying? Fuck right off.

                  Russia should not have invaded Ukraine in the first place.

                  • ssj2marx@lemmy.ml
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    arrow-down
                    7
                    ·
                    2 days ago

                    It’s Ukraines fight

                    The US and its allies have sabotaged peace talks between Ukraine and Russia on multiple occasions. European politicians have been talking about putting EU troops on Ukrainian soil in support roles so that more Ukrainian men can charge directly into Russian artillery fire for the past few months. In the months leading up to the invasion, the western media apparatus was braying for Russian blood with a fervor that I hadn’t seen since the runup to the Iraq War - and for ten years now the US has been directly backing anti-Russian elements inside Ukraine, regardless of the fact that many of those elements were literally fascists, leading directly to the Maidan coup and the ethnic schism in Ukrainian society that resulted in the civil war.

                    It’s a proxy war, always has been.

                  • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    arrow-down
                    10
                    ·
                    2 days ago

                    It’s Ukraines fight. It’s up to Ukraine to decide to forfeit the fight or to keep fighting.

                    It was laughably corrupt before the war, and since it’s literally suspended elections. It’s a war between Russia and Ukraine’s ruling classes, the people only pay the price.

                    Russia should not have invaded Ukraine in the first place.

                    Sure, but Russia’s government doesn’t pretend to represent you or me. The US government does. We could have also avoided this by not doing a coup in Ukraine and putting a hostile government right on Russia’s border.

        • freebee@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          2 days ago

          If you haven’t yet, I recommend watching Traumazone. All 7 hours of it offers a beautiful insight in USSR 1980’s to 1999.

          Yes, USA supported shitty stuff. But the system rotted itself out first with corruption and production mismatching demand while fighting pointless war in Afghanistan, which created the power vacuum and collapse.

          • hamid@vegantheoryclub.org
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            8
            ·
            2 days ago

            The USSR failed because US caught them in a cold war specifically to bankrupt them. The Soviet Union fell not because of rot and mismanagement at the end but because they were attacked from the outside every second of its existence since 1917 for daring to stand up against business. This same external pressure is not true for the US. Russia wasn’t and isn’t attacking the US now. If anything “the Russians” work for certain Americans and not the other way around.

            • trafficnab@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              2 days ago

              The west sure did buy a FUCKTON of oil from the Soviet Union for people who were apparently trying to bankrupt them since 1917

    • rwhitisissle@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      2 days ago

      a grand tradition of what to do with tyrants.

      America as a nation was created by a subset of landed gentry who didn’t like paying taxes. They wanted to make Washington king. The founding fathers were basically the Megamind meme where Tighten (yes, it’s spelled Tighten, not “Titan”) says to the Mayor of the city: “More like under new management.”

      • callouscomic@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        The founders were not a monolith and had mega-disagreements about how to proceed from day 1.

        • Liz@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          2 days ago

          “okay, we’re not gonna have political parties, right guys?”

          Immediately form federalist and anti-federalist factions

        • rwhitisissle@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          Sure, and they still managed to pass the alien and sedition acts. Saying they weren’t a monolith is a way of dismissing the mountain of evidence that suggests that, for most of them, participation in the democratic process of an inchoate American republic was intended only for a small segment of the population - literate (i.e. wealthy) white men. I’d suggest A People’s History of the United States if you want a better perspective on that.

    • callouscomic@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      Yes, his name was Andrew Jackson, and he told the Supreme Court to go fuck itself, and we survived him too. This stuff changes and evolves.

    • MajorSauce@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      America used to have a grand tradition of what to do with tyrants.

      Which is the same playbook as democratically elected leaders of foreign nations. Bombs, drones and CIA-soonsored assassinations