I think the way American leftists resort to denial when confronted with absurd and “campy” forms of oppression going on in states they support, and dismiss them as orientalist and racist lies actually contributes to their ill-equipped state in dealing with people like Trump. - ThreadSky

phlegmboy.bsky.social • 10 days ago

I think the way American leftists resort to denial when confronted with absurd and “campy” forms of oppression going on in states they support, and dismiss them as orientalist and racist lies actually contributes to their ill-equipped state in dealing with people like Trump.

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phlegmboy.bsky.social•10 days ago

Trump is not unique. He acts like the garden variety global south dictator lol. You can tell people that “authoritarianism is meaningless” and “well US is authoritarian too!” when people living under dictatorships you support talk about it, frame the absurdity as evidence that it’s all lies.

phlegmboy.bsky.social•10 days ago

But like, you see it now lol. The prevailing feeling I’ve had since the beginning of Trump’s presidency is “wow this is familiar”.

phlegmboy.bsky.social•10 days ago

Things like comical self-aggrandizing lies that supporters believe, campy shows of strength that he clearly doesn’t have, and unquestioning devotion to the leader being performed, that’s shit I grew up with.

phlegmboy.bsky.social•10 days ago

Like, I’ve seen tankies use “repentant protesters confessing to having been affected by external influence” videos on IR’s TV as actual evidence. And if you point out that these interviews are coerced, they’ll call you racist because you’d never say that about western media.

phlegmboy.bsky.social•10 days ago

But the reality is that we’re not too far off from such interviews being put on, say, Fox news. A good portion of Trump supporters will believe them.

phlegmboy.bsky.social•10 days ago

Any population is capable of buying into this campy level of authoritarianism. The absurdity is a tactic.

loosf.bsky.social•10 days ago

nothing new under the sun.
Colonial violence turned inside.

lowrhoufo.bsky.social•10 days ago

It's so cool and not at all terrifying that a lot of people on the left will accuse you of being racist if you compare him to non-american strongmen. American exceptionalism is the strongest force in politics and it's not even close

phlegmboy.bsky.social•10 days ago

It’s funny because I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s significant overlap between Trump supporters and people who laugh at the campy global south dictators lol.

sassalesvonscales.bsky.social•10 days ago

I overall agree w/ the tread as yeah, these states around the world are terrible and oppressive. But I would counter that for some American leftists and anarchists we will get upset at the comparisons because there's a tebsany fit Americans yo downplay what happens here through what about ism.

phlegmboy.bsky.social•10 days ago

Well frankly, I find taking offense at these comparisons as at BEST dismissive towards the experience of people in the global south. I can’t tell you how many times me talking about the absolute authoritarian hellscape I experienced in Iran led to people telling me “US is no different!”

phlegmboy.bsky.social•10 days ago

I have lived in both places. I can make the comparison. We had access to literally none of the social media sites without a VPN. And the internet would get shut down or slowed down all the time, country-wide, in response to protests. Like I said, we had people with obvious signs of having been

phlegmboy.bsky.social•10 days ago

physically abused coming on national TV to talk about how much they regret protesting and that they were led astray by foreign influence.

phlegmboy.bsky.social•10 days ago

Like, it’s okay to simply recognize there are forms of oppression you don’t experience, for complex reasons that have little to do with “which country is more evil”.

phlegmboy.bsky.social•10 days ago

(The actual reason mostly has to do with the fact that the majority of the population in most western countries pose no threat to power, so these tools are not needed)

sassalesvonscales.bsky.social•10 days ago

And thus what about ism often will point to authoritarian countries that a majority non wherefore a reason

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