• PugJesus@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Whether a Western-backed dictator would be better or worse is hard to say. All dictators are, of course, terrible, but it’s difficult to discern just how terrible each one is before they come to power. In any case, we can and should demand better of our governments than that. We may be deeply flawed democracies, but we are still democracies, and must stand in support of our ideals, not dictators, no matter how West-friendly. Fuck, at least some of the time.

    • VonCesaw@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      From history, the dictators are never better than the alternative. USA owned West Germany hiring ex-Nazi elites to run the gov, Pinochet refining torture methods for the CIA, all of South Korea’s dictators post-Korean War

      • PugJesus@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I meant some dictators are better than others, not that some dictators are better than less autocratic forms of government.

      • PugJesus@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, sure. Go ahead. Compare American-backed dictators and non-American-backed dictators.

        Not a lot of difference.

        • orrk@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          there actually is, the amount of civilians killed, because unlike the soviets, the Americans kept a leash of theirs.

          like you want to compare dictators? while bad, Pinochet killed fewer people than pol-pot

          • PugJesus@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            the Americans kept a leash of theirs.

            Not really.

            like you want to compare dictators? while bad, Pinochet killed fewer people than pol-pot

            Pol Pot was supported by China, not the Sovs. What’s more, Pol Pot was hardly an ‘average’ outcome.