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Bukele has 91 percent approval according to Bukele. There are plenty of dictators with sky high approval ratings. I would also “approve” of somebody who has the

Bukele has 91 percent approval according to Bukele. There are plenty of dictators with sky high approval ratings. I would also “approve” of somebody who has the ability to throw me in torture prison for the rest of my life on the flimsiest of evidence. People obviously prefer safety to lawlessness, and El Salvador was uniquely awful. The issue is that once you jail everybody who might possibly be a criminal, you’re left with the entire extrajudicial infrastructure that now needs to find a new reason to exist. Not to mention in this particular circumstance that the government seems to have decided to pay off the cartels and use state violence pick winners and losers in order to quash the drug war. It works until it doesn’t.

JumpCrisscross 1y ago
> There are plenty of dictators with sky high approval ratings Do you have evidence Bukele’s polling is corrupted? Wikipedia lists several polling organisations [1]. And while there are building risks against fair and free elections [2], I haven't seen a credible monitor call that out as having already happened. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_the_Nayib_Bukele_presidency#2024_re-election_polling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_the_Nayib_B... [2] https://freedomhouse.org/country/el-salvador/freedom-world/2024 https://freedomhouse.org/country/el-salvador/freedom-world/2...
- selectodude 1y ago
  > Do you have evidence Bukele’s polling is corrupted? Do I have evidence that the polling coming out of an autocratic single party dictatorship is corrupted? I mean, no, of course not. Even if I did, it wouldn’t matter. > I haven't seen a credible monitor call that out as having already happened. https://www.wola.org/analysis/el-salvador-election-integrity-under-scrutiny/ https://www.wola.org/analysis/el-salvador-election-integrity... One can argue that El Salvador is better off under Bukele than it was prior. I’d probably have to agree - things were really bad there and locking people up and throwing away the key absolutely works. Always has. It just isn’t sustainable and now that Bukele has successfully consolidated power, we just get to wait and see what happens. Similarly, Yugoslavia generally loved Josip Tito. He was still a horrible dictator that butchered millions and when he died, the country collapsed.
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    > Do I have evidence that the polling coming out of an autocratic single party dictatorship is corrupted? Yes, that's what I'm asking for. We have this for e.g. Russia [1], North Korea [2] and Venezuela [3]. I'm asking for similar evidence out of El Salvador. For example, did Wola reject the 2024 election ex post facto? [1] https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/03/20/the-extent-of-fraud-in-russia-s-presidential-election-begins-to-emerge_6638830_4.html https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/03/20/t... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_North_Korea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_North_Korea [3] https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/06/venezuela-election-maduro-analysis https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/06/venezu...
    - selectodude 1y ago
      Nobody is rejecting the 2024 election. Nobody is even claiming that. It’s late 2025 and things there have changed. Wola was (correctly) sounding the alarm on the implication of what Bukele was doing in El Salvador. It’s not Venezuela at this point there, but it sure as shit is like Nicaragua.

JumpCrisscross 1y ago

> There are plenty of dictators with sky high approval ratings Do you have evidence Bukele’s polling is corrupted? Wikipedia lists several polling organisations [1]. And while there are building risks against fair and free elections [2], I haven't seen a credible monitor call that out as having already happened. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_the_Nayib_Bukele_presidency#2024_re-election_polling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_the_Nayib_B... [2] https://freedomhouse.org/country/el-salvador/freedom-world/2024 https://freedomhouse.org/country/el-salvador/freedom-world/2...

selectodude 1y ago
> Do you have evidence Bukele’s polling is corrupted? Do I have evidence that the polling coming out of an autocratic single party dictatorship is corrupted? I mean, no, of course not. Even if I did, it wouldn’t matter. > I haven't seen a credible monitor call that out as having already happened. https://www.wola.org/analysis/el-salvador-election-integrity-under-scrutiny/ https://www.wola.org/analysis/el-salvador-election-integrity... One can argue that El Salvador is better off under Bukele than it was prior. I’d probably have to agree - things were really bad there and locking people up and throwing away the key absolutely works. Always has. It just isn’t sustainable and now that Bukele has successfully consolidated power, we just get to wait and see what happens. Similarly, Yugoslavia generally loved Josip Tito. He was still a horrible dictator that butchered millions and when he died, the country collapsed.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > Do I have evidence that the polling coming out of an autocratic single party dictatorship is corrupted? Yes, that's what I'm asking for. We have this for e.g. Russia [1], North Korea [2] and Venezuela [3]. I'm asking for similar evidence out of El Salvador. For example, did Wola reject the 2024 election ex post facto? [1] https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/03/20/the-extent-of-fraud-in-russia-s-presidential-election-begins-to-emerge_6638830_4.html https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/03/20/t... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_North_Korea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_North_Korea [3] https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/06/venezuela-election-maduro-analysis https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/06/venezu...
  - selectodude 1y ago
    Nobody is rejecting the 2024 election. Nobody is even claiming that. It’s late 2025 and things there have changed. Wola was (correctly) sounding the alarm on the implication of what Bukele was doing in El Salvador. It’s not Venezuela at this point there, but it sure as shit is like Nicaragua.