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Sidenote: if you're ever a dictator somewhere, move your capital away from the big population centers. Invent some nutcase reason like "God told me to do it in
by skrebbel 7y ago
Sidenote: if you're ever a dictator somewhere, move your capital away from the big population centers. Invent some nutcase reason like "God told me to do it in a dream". Make sure that most inhabitants of your new capital are civil servants, whose livelihoods directly depend on your government's stability. Civil Resistance, violent or not, will be significantly less effective.
Eg Naypidaw (Myanmar), Astana / Nur-Sultan[1] (Kazachstan), Brasilia, Islamabad (Pakistan), Ciudad de la Paz (Equatorial Guinea), etc.
I'm not sure if there's statistically sufficiently many capitals-in-the-middle-of-nowhere but I bet there's a direct correlation between "capital is also the major population center" and "success rate of uprisings". It even holds for functioning democracies. I don't think the "yellow vests" people in Paris would've had a similar impact in Australia, where the government is comfortably far away from Where People Live.
[1] Woa check the new name! It's like renaming Washington DC to "Donald". [2]
[2] EDIT: Omg I just realized that George Washington did exactly that. Some ego! I had always assumed that it had been founded/named long after Washington was dead, but nothing like that was the case. It's really the "Trump Hotel" of cities.
- baybal2 7y ago[1] Checked it, writing from there, and probably will be for few more months. Been selling widgets to rapid transit company there. Can't wait to go back to China, but it seems that there is a new local client on the horizon =(
- skrebbel 7y agoWow, what was the popular response to the name change? China can't stay behind now, can they? Can't wait for Beijing to be renamed to Jinping.
- baybal2 7y ago> what was the popular response to the name change? There was a ~15-20 people scuffle few weeks later, and 1 day without Internet. Nothing though on the day of the renaming. Locals more or less grew apathetic to the idea of ruling elites being a joke over last 30 years. Some I'd say even like it that way, saying that "Imagine our joke president for life would've been a proper dictator, like somebody as sharp as that Paul Kagami dude, no, things are better this way"
- ReptileMan 7y agoAnkara.
- dangerbird2 7y agoAnkara became the capital as a result of it being the headquarters of the Turkish National Movement during Turkey's War of Independence. During the war, Constantinople was under control of the Ottoman Sultan, who was at that point a protectorate of the Entendre. Because Ankara was the base of operations for the republican government since its creation, it made much more sense for it to be the postwar capital than Istanbul. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_War_of_Independence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_War_of_Independence
- ForHackernews 7y agoTrump thought Washington should've named Mt. Vernon after himself https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/04/10/trump-wondered-why-mount-vernon-isnt-named-after-george-washington-heres-why/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/04/10/trump-wond... > If he was smart, he would’ve put his name on it,” Trump reportedly said. “You’ve got to put your name on stuff or no one remembers you.” > On the subject of whether anyone remembers George Washington, The Washington Post, which is based in the capital city of Washington (not Washington state) near George Washington University, would refer readers to the fact that Washington has come in first or second in nearly every “best presidents” poll conducted, including the most recent one, in 2018, by Siena College Research Institute.
- mikeash 7y agoWashington County was formed in 1801, two years after George died.
- tim333 7y agoThough if you are at risk of US intervention you might be better off surrounded by human shields and the like.