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> totalitarian Probably the most misused term/epithet in international relations. At its worst Turkey is no more repressive than Russia or China and less repre
by hx87 10y ago
> totalitarian
Probably the most misused term/epithet in international relations. At its worst Turkey is no more repressive than Russia or China and less repressive than Iran. Once you use "totalitarian" to describe authoritarian regimes, you run out of room to describe those that actually qualify as totalitarian, such as North Korea or Eritrea.
- morgante 10y agoI don't think anyone claims Russia or China are democratic. Nor are we planning to add them to the EU or NATO anytime soon.
- rjbwork 10y ago> Nor are we planning to add them to the EU or NATO anytime soon. Well, neither is on the North Atlantic or in Europe. Okay well, Russia sort of is, but...
- morgante 10y agoRussia has just as much claim to being European as Turkey does.
- venomsnake 10y agoSort of? European Russia with Ukraine and Belarus is almost as big as the rest of europe combined
- hx87 10y agoDemocracy and levels of state repression being orthogonal notwithstanding, not being democratic (or a EU/NATO candidate) does not imply that a state is totalitarian.
- dragonwriter 10y ago> At its worst Turkey is no more repressive than Russia or China This is what is called "setting the bar so low that a mouse could trip over it."
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- hx87 10y agoThis is totalitarianism we're talking about, so the bar has to be very low. Otherwise you're classifying Imperial Germany and Nazi Germany in the same state-repression category, which is ludicrous.
- bordercases 10y ago"Very totalitarian" vs "somewhat totalitarian".
- hx87 10y ago> "somewhat totalitarian" There's already a term for that. Authoritarian.