Liberals really will just take useful words and then water them down until they’re completely meaningless just to poison the well of discourse.
Any country that maintains independence and an oppositional character must maintain a strong state, develop a military, and engage in censorship. All 3 get lumped in the vague and clearly now useless category of authoritarian, meaning the US will attempt to destroy your country and people and its citizens will think this is helping “freedom” and “democracy” and “defense” and just what smart people do. Or they will play the ancillary role of demonization while maintaining an anti-war pretense that somehow always means materially supporting American war criminals.
Censorship is definitely a sign of authoritarianism, and a strong state might be too, depending on what you mean by it, but not necessarily? And as liberal democracy seem to be the ‘goal’ of states to achieve, authoritarian is not at all a useless category since it’s the opposite of democracy.
And as liberal democracy seem to be the ‘goal’
Bourgeois democracy is the goal of capitalist states because it is democracy for the ruling class only. Liberal democracies have strong states and engage in censorship. They excecute, imprison, or discredit political dissidents. The difference isn’t what they do but who they target and who benefits.
All AES states are democracies, they aren’t liberal democracies and they don’t benefit only the bourgeois. That’s why say China is considered, “evil authoritarian” while the US and its “liberal democracy” are considered good by libersls like you despite the US actively engaging in genocide, proxy wars, running concentration camps on its border, sanctioning any nation that seeks independence from its hegemony, and persecuting political dissidents.
Censorship is definitely a sign of authoritarianism, and a strong state might be too, depending on what you mean by it, but not necessarily?
In reality, despite what the dictionary says, “authoritarian” means, “organized group we don’t like”.
Censorship is ubiquitous it just comes in different forms. The most powerful and insidipus is the kind you don’t even think it censorship. For example, will you lose your job for standing up for Palestine? Will you get paid to be a journalist if you are too critical of the ruling class? When the electronic commons is actually controlled by private corporations, do you really have online speech protections? Is sinophobia the only reason TikTok is getting threatened with a ban? Whose voices are heard at city council meetings? Who gets the ear of politicians?
These are all forms of censorship, but most of them are treated as normal, even righteous and justified.
States that fight for independence rapidly find that the global monopolistic empire automatically dominates all media narratives and funds NGOs to undermine their projects. Do you expect them to let that expand and destroy their country? Censorship is an expression of authority, but does that mean it is always wrong or particularly bad? Forcing out invaders is also an expression of authority, as is organizing defense, social programs, literacy campaigns.
and a strong state might be too
The strong states are usually just doing the functions of private industry in “non-authoritarian” countries but in a way that better serves the people and are resilient to US interference.
And as liberal democracy seem to be the ‘goal’ of states to achieve
Liberal democracy is the most effective producer of genocide in history and is really just rule by the capitalist class that pretends to be of the masses. States seeking independence from the US must eschew it by definition, as they will otherwise be coerced into the US-dominated order.
authoritarian is not at all a useless category since it’s the opposite of democracy.
Liberal democracies are, in reality, the most authoritarian countries. They impose the interests of the capitalist ruling class based on military and financial power with little regard for the horrors it inflicts. But you are correct about how the term is used, what it means despite its definition - “this is what we do and it is good, the system we don’t like is bad”.
I dont have time to look for it right now but maybe somebody else will recall that study that shows something like 20% of public favored policy becoming law vs IIRC ~60% of corporate favored policy.
must maintain a strong state, develop a military, and engage in censorship. All 3 get lumped in the vague and clearly now useless category of authoritarian,
Which is extremely ironic, considering that’s what we do here in the States.
Naturally it is, yes. Though those things are used for imperialism there.
So “independence from the US” at the cost of the peoples right to choose their own destiny? Sounds great…
It seems you’re still steeped in Atlanticist propaganda, where the US is the shining city on the hill, spreading freedom around the world, despite the fact that the US itself is a plutocracy of the capitalist class that is aiding and abetting a Palestinian genocide right now. Europeans need to come to terms with the fact that we’re the baddies.
- List of Atrocities committed by US authorities
- The U.S. Did Not Defeat Fascism in WWII, It Discretely Internationalized It
- Shock therapy (economics)
- World Incarceration Rates If Every U.S. State Were A Country
- The blueprint of regime change operations How regime change happens in the 21st century with your consent
- Infographic: US military presence around the world The US controls about 750 bases in at least 80 countries worldwide and spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined.
- Michael Parenti: Africa is Rich
Europeans need to come to terms with the fact that we’re the baddies.
If only my American compatriots could see that we are, too. Beside us, Europe looks a bit better in that you seem to imprison fewer and have better health care and education, but seems to be playing catch up.
Independence from the US is precisely what’s facilitating the right of people to choose their own destiny.
Oh, so this will be a temporary authocracy to shed the US bonds, and then a revert to democracy and rule of law?
Or is it just a country denying the people their right to choose being applauded again since liberal democracy is somehow US imperialism?
It’s not an autocracy. It’s a democratically elected government that represents the interests of the people.
