3 ms·
I'm not exactly a fan of Xi, but theres some serious racial overtones in that little screed my friend. China has been an autocratic state for decades, Xi didn'
by dtornabene 9y ago
I'm not exactly a fan of Xi, but theres some serious racial overtones in that little screed my friend. China has been an autocratic state for decades, Xi didn't reinvent the wheel here, and, also, while Mugabe sucked, his perception in the west was more than a little colored by racism. This is an excellent discussion, by a renowned South Asian intellectual who was driven out of Africa by no less than Idi Amin.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n23/mahmood-mamdani/lessons-of-zimbabwe https://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n23/mahmood-mamdani/lessons-of-zim...
- adventured 9y agoThere is in fact absolutely no racial overtones in that screed. It sounds like you simply didn't like it. The parent was very plainly targeting authoritarianism. Dictatorship isn't a race.
- dtornabene 9y agoI'm curious, in what possible way is Xi "mugabe-like", what does that even mean? I'm also bowing out of this thread because I don't see anything positive coming out of your reading of me or of my reading of the parent. You might take some time, admittedly a bit, to read the article I linked
- adventured 9y agoMugabe was a dictator for decades. Xi is perhaps about to become a dictator. Where's the confusion? There are maybe a dozen particularly infamous dictatorships of the last 20-30 years. Mugabe is one of those. Having ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years, he was also one of the longest tenured political figures of the last century. Who would make for a better example? One could certainly use Franco, Chavez, Hussein, or Pinochet. Mugabe is just as legitimate to use as an example.
- dtornabene 9y agoI'm guessing you didn't read the linked article, at all, given that its been ten whole minutes since I commented. For real, bowing out of an unproductive conversation now.