“90% of developed countries allow the indefinite reelection of their head of government, and no one bats an eye. But when a small, poor country like El Salvador tries to do the same, suddenly it’s the end of democracy.”
The difference is those governments usually have civil liberties etc that constrain the government. (The erosion of which is partly why trump is so concerning.)
Bukele has been arresting journalists and politicians he doesn’t like. If you are arrested you effectively have no recourse.
You can literally get arrested for social media posts in Europe. Anybody who’s still pretending that there are some civil liberties in the west is deeply unserious.
You can literally get arrested for social media posts in Europe.
And then, as has happened for those cases, you get a trial.
The people arrested in El Salvador do not get trials. To conflate the two situations is either ignorant or simply childish.
So if someone gets a trial and is found guilty for making bad posts you do not believe their civil liberties were violated, is that right?
No.
I am saying that a country with a functional judiciary is categorically different than one without.
Saying democratic countries with laws you dislike are the same as a country where the state is unrestrained by law is utter nonsense.
Edit: To put it very simply, in both places you could be arrested for social media posts. In El Salvador, that could be the last anyone hears of you. In the other, you have a lawyer, a fair trial and if you lose, you still have some human rights.
I know which I’d prefer.
“”“Democratic”“” doing a lot of work there.
These aren’t democratically popular laws and the people never voted to have these laws put into place. These laws were imposed onto them because their democracy is limited by what they are allowed to even vote for - in the end, there is still a ruling class.
Arguing there’s no difference between a regime that disappears citizens and a flawed western democracy is mind bendingly dumb.
The regimes that disappears citizens are western “democracies”. The only thing that’s mind bendingly dumb here is fact that you’re evidently unaware of this fact.
The west is literally commiting a genocide. They are mass disappearing people into the afterlife. Mind boggling that in 2025 we still have incredulous libs who believe in western exceptionalism.
Yeah, one is run by white people
There isn’t enough of a difference. After all, El Salvador is a “flawed democracy” too.
functional judiciary
The US definitely doesn’t have this anymore.
The civil liberty to be extra-judicially murdered like Fred Hampton or the Ferguson organizers.
