Free world means democracy, and democracy is not bullshit. Name any authoritarian regime that is even close to the freedom and quality of life of an average functioning or even a flawed democracy.
sure, it’s far better than the authoritarian regimes in other places
So you are buying into it anyway??? You sure changed your mind quickly.
Is it perfect? No.
Do we have something that is proven to be better? No.
The only thing better than democracy, is if the democracy can be improved.
Actually, I think your reasoning is part of the problem.
For decades the “it gets better” and “best of bad systems” narratives kind of worked, but if we’re being honest, our wealth and freedom was always bought by oppression somewhere else.
We don’t have serfs or slaves domestically anymore, we have them abroad in Vietnam or import them semi-legally for a few months or so.
We uphold international law, but only if it suits us. Our wars are all justified.
This hypocrisy is what’s fueling the current downfall. The economic disaster alienated the population, it’s not getting better for them, they’re worse off. Liberal democracy didn’t deliver.
Every petty dictator can invade somewhere else and can (rightly!) claim that we didn’t do anything about Iraq, or Kosovo, or Israel, or Yemen.
Maybe we used to be somewhat free, but we’re not anymore. And we’re actively destroying freedom elsewhere.
Wow, that’s a bleak view of things, although admit there is some truth to it, it’s not always like that.
Take EU as an example about how cooperation has been to the benefit of all. Ireland was once one of the poorest countries in Europe, but is now among the richer countries.
Also Spain, going from being a backwards dictatorship as late as the 70’s, to now being a full fledged progressive democracy with a vastly better economy.
This is because of the inclusion of the EU model, and the help that goes to promote development of less well off regions. Which has shown mutually beneficial.
I agree on the global scale things could be a lot better. But the culprit is no longer exploitation by the rich countries, as much as it is religion and totalitarian regimes.
The Arab world constitute 456,520,777 people according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_world.
Yet Arabic has fewer translated works than a small Scandinavian country like Denmark of only 6 million, with about 10 million world wide that speak the language.
Yes, our lives are better, but the many Danish books are bought by (figuratively) having less arabic books. Denmark has next to nothing, just like Germany or Austria. But with cheap energy from the global south and cheap manufacturing in third countries they could get ahead quite a lot.
Yes, Spain got rid of its dictatorship, but that’s been 50 years ago and Franco’s grave is still a place of worship.
The EU is only inwardly inclusive. It doesn’t give a shit about Africa for example. Ukraine also only became relevant when the EU proper was threatened.
The EU is inwardly inclusive. It doesn’t give a shit about Africa for example.
I honestly don’t buy into this. With the amount of resources that are spent every year on anything from building schools to distributing clean water and vaccines, saying “we don’t give a shit” is a bit of a stretch.
Regardless: I don’t buy into the idea that the EU, because it consists of democracies that respect mutual international agreements and don’t invade each other, has some kind of “obligation” to treat other countries with any more decency than they treat us. Put simply, the EU has gotten its shit together the past 70 years, and pulled huge amounts of people out of poverty. There wasn’t a bunch of international aid (outside of that coming from the US) to help us. I don’t buy into the idea that the EU now has some “responsibility” to pull the rest of the world out of poverty as well.
By all means, we should do what we can to help people, because that’s the right thing to do, and gives mutual long-term benefits. But accusing the EU of somehow being “unfair” for doing more for its members than other countries, or for being more involved in a war on its border than one on another continent simply doesn’t hold up. The primary responsibility of the EU, and any country, is first and foremost to the security and wellbeing of its citizens.
Free world means democracy, and democracy is not bullshit. Name any authoritarian regime that is even close to the freedom and quality of life of an average functioning or even a flawed democracy.
So you are buying into it anyway??? You sure changed your mind quickly.
Is it perfect? No.
Do we have something that is proven to be better? No.
The only thing better than democracy, is if the democracy can be improved.
Actually, I think your reasoning is part of the problem.
For decades the “it gets better” and “best of bad systems” narratives kind of worked, but if we’re being honest, our wealth and freedom was always bought by oppression somewhere else.
We don’t have serfs or slaves domestically anymore, we have them abroad in Vietnam or import them semi-legally for a few months or so.
We uphold international law, but only if it suits us. Our wars are all justified.
This hypocrisy is what’s fueling the current downfall. The economic disaster alienated the population, it’s not getting better for them, they’re worse off. Liberal democracy didn’t deliver.
Every petty dictator can invade somewhere else and can (rightly!) claim that we didn’t do anything about Iraq, or Kosovo, or Israel, or Yemen.
Maybe we used to be somewhat free, but we’re not anymore. And we’re actively destroying freedom elsewhere.
This is true about the US, but not about the free world or democracy in general. The US is (or was) not the only free world country.
Of course it is true for the rest too.
You think I’m writing this from a US perspective? I’ve never been even on that continent. I’m in Germany and this is 100% what is happening here.
Wow, that’s a bleak view of things, although admit there is some truth to it, it’s not always like that.
Take EU as an example about how cooperation has been to the benefit of all. Ireland was once one of the poorest countries in Europe, but is now among the richer countries.
Also Spain, going from being a backwards dictatorship as late as the 70’s, to now being a full fledged progressive democracy with a vastly better economy.
This is because of the inclusion of the EU model, and the help that goes to promote development of less well off regions. Which has shown mutually beneficial.
I agree on the global scale things could be a lot better. But the culprit is no longer exploitation by the rich countries, as much as it is religion and totalitarian regimes.
The Arab world constitute 456,520,777 people according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_world.
Yet Arabic has fewer translated works than a small Scandinavian country like Denmark of only 6 million, with about 10 million world wide that speak the language.
I think you still didn’t understand.
Yes, our lives are better, but the many Danish books are bought by (figuratively) having less arabic books. Denmark has next to nothing, just like Germany or Austria. But with cheap energy from the global south and cheap manufacturing in third countries they could get ahead quite a lot.
Yes, Spain got rid of its dictatorship, but that’s been 50 years ago and Franco’s grave is still a place of worship.
The EU is only inwardly inclusive. It doesn’t give a shit about Africa for example. Ukraine also only became relevant when the EU proper was threatened.
I honestly don’t buy into this. With the amount of resources that are spent every year on anything from building schools to distributing clean water and vaccines, saying “we don’t give a shit” is a bit of a stretch.
Regardless: I don’t buy into the idea that the EU, because it consists of democracies that respect mutual international agreements and don’t invade each other, has some kind of “obligation” to treat other countries with any more decency than they treat us. Put simply, the EU has gotten its shit together the past 70 years, and pulled huge amounts of people out of poverty. There wasn’t a bunch of international aid (outside of that coming from the US) to help us. I don’t buy into the idea that the EU now has some “responsibility” to pull the rest of the world out of poverty as well.
By all means, we should do what we can to help people, because that’s the right thing to do, and gives mutual long-term benefits. But accusing the EU of somehow being “unfair” for doing more for its members than other countries, or for being more involved in a war on its border than one on another continent simply doesn’t hold up. The primary responsibility of the EU, and any country, is first and foremost to the security and wellbeing of its citizens.