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Democracy doesn't work in a US-dominant world. My country is nowhere near Africa yet there have been 7 coup attemps, 4 successful, most backed by US in her 100
by Aerbil313 2y ago
Democracy doesn't work in a US-dominant world. My country is nowhere near Africa yet there have been 7 coup attemps, 4 successful, most backed by US in her 100 year history[2]. The last one didn't succeed and the US is currently protecting the leader of the attempt, refusing to give him us back.
Arab leaders are likewise domestically widely regarded as sockpuppets of the USA. On the rare occasion a democratic election happens, the president suddenly dies, gets assasinated, or a coup d'état happens and gets hanged. Off the top of my head see [2] for an example.
This is not to say democracy would work in a Russia- or China- dominant world. It seems democracy only works for the nations who can sufficiently defend against infiltration by the NSA/foreign intelligence agency of the dominant power. And I don't think that's easy, or feasible at all. You can't expect an African nation of 10M population who gained independence 2 decades ago to have the skilled people to be able to conduct this sort of intelligence operations.
And of course, the US is the peacekeeper of the world, only bringing democracy and welfare to the poor nations held back by their authoritarian leaders and backward ideologies and religions. Long live Imperium Americana!
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Egyptian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Egyptian_coup_d%27%C3%A9t...
- localfirst 2y agoim noticing lately that comments critical of America is routinely downvoted here. All of what you wrote holds true.
- lottin 2y agoI think blaming the US every time a developing nation screws up is a little bit of a tired trope.
- tumsfestival 2y agoThis would be true if there wasn't a huge list of coup attempts in developing countries backed by the U.S. dating back almost a hundred years up until today. It's not a conspiracy, the U.S. has engaged and continues to engage in political interventions world over when they deem it necessary.
- lenkite 2y agoNot a trope when its true and factual. Hell, ex-CIA directors have even admitted it in books and TV! Most Americans don't like hearing that their government can be one of the "bad guys".
- xtracto 2y agoLately? HN is a forum derived from an American company and promoting Silicon Valley culture. Most of the points of view of everything (not only politics) are strongly skewed towards American culture and beliefs. I would find it surprising if it was different .
- tptacek 2y agoRoughly 10% of HN is in SFBA, 50% in US, and 30% in Europe. SFBA people are a small minority here. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40745850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40745850
- karlzt 2y agoI wonder how many use VPN and/or Tor.
- cpach 2y agoI would guess somewhere between 5-15%, but I would be surprised if it was over 10%.
- roenxi 2y agoThere'd probably be a fairly strong seeding effect though. And HN is anything but a random sample people from a given country; to be part of the tech scene you kinda have to take an interest in what is happening in the US and it certainly pays to be pro-SV since historically they provided a lot of well paid jobs. That'd be a huge bias in opinion.
- tptacek 2y agoI think it's usually a bad idea to attribute any broad sentiment to HN as a whole, but if you wanted to make the point that it's a tech industry forum and thus shares (with many counterexamples!) tech industry biases, that's a much more grounded thing to say than that it's a "Silicon Valley" site. I will say this, though, and it's a wild guess so take it as you will: the median opinion among American tech industry workers about the government of Bolivia is: not, in any way at all, ever once thinking or caring about the government of Bolivia.
- Aerbil313 2y agoFor those downvoting, it's no secret and has a long history. See United States involvement in regime change: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r...