This is sadly so obvious to see, that you don’t need a report to know that.
Romania and Slovakia — are becoming the center of democratic growth in Europe
The report is even already way off regarding Slovakia, who just elected an authoritarian with sympathies towards Russia.
Romania is a bit shaky too, they have very little trust in the democratic government, and could probably easily be swayed by a populist who says what they want to hear.It doesn’t mention USA, Brazil, Argentina that are all becoming more shaky too, instead of stabilizing.
It also doesn’t mention China, that also became more authoritarian, with Xi grabbing even more power much like Putin.Being young in the 70’s, I never in my worst nightmares imagined things would ever become this bad.
When the Berlin Wall was broken, I never imagined it could become this bad. It’s kind of worse than before the wall was broken, because USA alone is such a huge influence, and Republican have gone completely nuts for Authoritarianism for some reason???Republican have gone completely nuts for Authoritarianism for some reason???
two reasons:
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in 2010 they got to gerrymander the fuck out of districts and thus got a whole bunch of safe seats where even total wackos can win primaries and then go on to safely win the general
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the republican’s whole ideology and support base is crumbling away and it’s basically unstoppable at this point. old racists who fondly remember jim crow are all retired and young people are leaving christianaity at a consistent rate of around 1%/year. their economic policies are totally out of whack with what the bottom 90% need or want and no one believes tax cuts on the rich will benefit anyone but the rich. their only hope is overthrowing the government and installing a dictator and everyone knows it
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Republican have gone completely nuts for Authoritarianism for some reason???
Conservatives have always been authoritarian. The difference between now and before is that decades ago, the political parties were aligned differently with some Southern conservatives being Democrats and some Northern progressives being Republicans, so the overall party platforms were more moderate. Also, conservatives back then couldn’t admit to their desires to go full-on “papers, please” because the Soviet Union existed as a geopolitical enemy that they needed to maintain ideological distance from. (In contrast, they’re happy to be buddy-buddy with fascist Russia, since it’s right-wing authoritarian instead of left-wing authoritarian.)
TL;DR: Because coalitions and geopolitics have realigned, conservatives can express the true agenda they’ve always had in a way they couldn’t before.
Republican have gone completely nuts for Authoritarianism for some reason
I feel like this is a power grab. With everyone online and interconnected, it’s a lot easier to see where the real problems are. Our collective blame shifts more and more to the top and it’s becoming a lot harder to defend the actions of the rich.
I feel like that’s a source for all of this, not just the USA. They know the party is over, but they’ll fight like hell to keep it going.
I’m xennial and lucky enough to remember a few yrs before the wall and have context to appreciate that most of my life has been during the most peaceful period (a blip) of human history. I think a lot of younger people are taken a back by this all bc they never thought about it and in some states aren’t even being taught about it. Do most of your peers share your sentiment at the end of your comments?
Do most of your peers share your sentiment at the end of your comments?
Yes most do, although I think most of them don’t acknowledge how bad it really is.
Fun reminder that the USA has been at war for basically all of your life.
The article is about direction, not position.
The report is even already way off regarding Slovakia, who just elected an authoritarian with sympathies towards Russia. Romania is a bit shaky too, they have very little trust in the democratic government, and could probably easily be swayed by a populist who says what they want to hear.
The article uses the report to show that Slovakia and Romania have improved relative to their prior measurement. It is silent on their positions relative to other democracies.
Slovakia and Romania have improved relative to their prior measurement.
Slovakia improved how? From potentially electing a Russia friendly authoritarian to actually having elected one is progress?
As for Slovakia, not all hope is lost.
The party that was elected has been ruling for ages, so they’re very entrenched especially for older voters.
There is a new-ish party (PS) that gained a lot of momentum in this election, and I have even better hopes for them in the next election.
Democracy is the worst form of governance, apart from all others
It’s only the morning where I am, but I think I’ve read the dumbest thing I’m going to read all day.
Churchill was a racist idiot and that’s still a dumb quote.
Democracy is a plane with 20 people on it. Nine vote not to crash it and eleven vote to fly it into a mountain, and that means everyone dies because democracy
So instead you choose authoritarianism: 20 people on a plan and one of them shoots the pilot, takes over, and crashes it. Everyone dies.
Yeah, the problems with democracy are rarely solved by less democracy. It just turns into “Instead of many idiots voting to do something stupid, one idiot votes to do something stupid.”
Think bigger. Fly the plane in circles, and demand the people give you whatever you want to occasionally land it and bring some supplies onboard.
Just don’t die of old age.
Love how you think that not only are there only two options, but that democracy isn’t also authoritarian. It’s just mob rule instead of an individual.
That’s… precisely why the original quote said “democracy is the worst form of government”. It has fundamental flaws. But it’s still the better than everything else.
Why don’t you enlighten us on the other options then? I’d love to hear it.
Churchill’s point is that stupid things can still happen in democracies, but no one has come up with a better alternative. What would you suggest as the better alternative? If you don’t have one, then you just helped prove Churchill’s point!
Every human knows and has used a superior system from the time they first started playing with other people: Consensus.
…which is basically what democracy is, but systemitized such that it can be applied at scale.
If we had a consensus based government I wouldn’t have a fascist as a representative
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Your shoe has a pretty good knowledge of anarchism. You could learn a thing or two from it
So… A form of democracy?
Democracy is majority rule, and fuck whatever the minority wants.
Consensus is we don’t do anything unless we all agree.
…what do you think democracy is?
Are you…high???
Yes but also yes
It’s more like,
- 2 hijackers vote to crash
- 1 votes with the hijackers because they share a hometown
- 2 vote no
- another 2 vote strong no
- the other 12 don’t participate because they don’t want to get too political (we have 40% voter turnout where I live)
and I’ve been through enough elections to see how we are all heading to a crash, every time.
But if we made you running everything it would be perfect.
That’s the thing with anti-democracy sentiment the people who advocate for it always assume they, or someone who agrees with them on everything, is going to run things. No one imagines themselves in a slave society being a slave.
No, nine vote to crash it, seven vote to go left and four vote to go right.
Crashing it is! Thanks, first past the post voting system.
Doesn’t make him right.
Churchill is saying that democracy is the best form of government in the quote. He is just saying it in a funny way.
I think that person gets it. Just that they are probably some tankie.
Read the quote again but slowly this time.
I think this guy gets it but is focusing in on “apart from all others.” Its an exclusive absolute statement that really shouldn’t be applied other than in a joking sense.
Go back to school dude, and this time stay awake during the lecture.
I did not learn that in any of my schooling lol
I did not learn anything in any of my schooling lol
FTFY
Damn, you guys are pretentious as hell in this thread lmao
take a break
It’s ok. It requires a reading and comprehension level above 5th Grade so it can be difficult for some to understand subtle nuances and phrases such as “apart from” and “the”.
Next time try not sleeping through your history class champ? That’s a famous historic Churchill quote.
I seriously doubt it
Yup, it matches my observations as well.
Funny that Politico are the ones reporting on this… given the fact that they’re owend by Axel Springer
At least it’s not Murdoch - but that’s a very low bar
US is about to fall into a semi-fascist state next year, so it’s gonna get way worse
If you are referring to Trump, it’s far from a done deal.
Though some would say that the US has been a fascist state for a while.
Semi-fascist, unarguably, because one of the two political parties is fascist and currently controls the House and Supreme Court.
Some would say that the other party is not much better. Given their close ties to finance, industry and military. And the revolving doors associated with those.
Really… hadn’t noticed.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“In Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Slovakia, Israel, and the United States, just to name the most familiar examples, the erosion of democratic norms has been engineered by leaders claiming to speak in the name of, and with the authority of, the people,” the new report warned.
IDEA’s report bases its analysis on 173 countries and takes into account 17 metrics ranging from civil liberties to judicial independence to credible elections to the rule of law, using the most recent figures from 2022.
EU countries Hungary and Poland are still the “most notable examples illustrating the bloc’s limited ability to exert more direct influence over the (non-)democratic trajectory of its member states,” the report said.
Poland — which is set for a change of political direction after election results earlier this month that saw the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party defeated — might now be on a more positive trajectory.
In contrast to Hungary and Poland’s recent performance, other Central and Eastern European countries — such as Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Romania and Slovakia — are becoming the center of democratic growth in Europe due to notable five-year improvements, the report said.
According to the report: “Ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has been implicated in schemes to shut down critical media and purchase positive coverage by using public funds through the Ministry of Finance.”
The original article contains 692 words, the summary contains 222 words. Saved 68%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is literally said in a “new report” every year of my life. I’m totally desensitized to this.
So the tactics work on you.
You have a fix?
Join and help the organization of your choice that actually wants to do something instead of just tread water.
I donate to UNISEF and Wikipedia and write my congressperson. That’s all I have in the tank.
That’s not about just O, T and E etc really.
It’s about the average Westerner just loving to blabber about realpolitik and subjective interests on the subject of enabling richer and stronger cannibals against poorer and weaker humans.
And also about democratic countries having no immunity against foreign states buying their politicians and officials and the general population not really caring.
Jailing for life a few people who’ve been paid by Qatar, Azerbaijan, Russia, Israel etc would do wonders as an example to the rest.
Bombing their infrastructures when they start wars would also be nice. Most don’t have WMD. Not for the realpolitikers, of course, that would have negative strategic and economical effect, but if your goal is preserving democracy and civilization, then there are plenty of places to be bombed right now without dancing all the quadrilles.
Wtf did I just read?
I’m pretty sure they want America to bomb Russia.
Which specific part is hard for you to understand? I’ve made a few shortcuts.
Well, of course it is. You all blatantly threw out human rights because you were afraid after 9/11 and because of covid. 🤦
9/11, yes, but what human rights did we lose from covid? Having to wear a mask for a while? Or being heavily encouraged to get a vaccine? …
I was in grade school during 9/11. What rights did you lose out on because of covid?
All of them. Literally all of them, as you lost many thanks to the reactionary assholes after 9/11 who demanded the near-complete dismantling of the 4th amendment to make themselves feel safe from their Muslim neighbors.
Shit rolls downhill.
Re-read what the comment you replied to is asking.
Read what I’m saying and then talk. Or just parrot pro-lockdown talking points you let yourself get brainwashed with so I know to ignore you. Your choice
Still haven’t answered their question. Disregard 9/11. What rights has COVID taken away? “All of them” is not an acceptable answer, be specific.
They didn’t ask a question, they said “Re-read what the comment you replied to is asking.” When they’re the one who lacks reading comprehension.
But you sure prove my point that you destroyed the United States of America because you chose fear over hope and courage in the face of tragedy and don’t give a damn about the consequences of your actions or the lives you destroyed. You prove it real well.
You still haven’t answered my question. What rights did you explicitly lose because of covid?
