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The rise of dictators

str8line said:
No, it's not. But can you argue he wouldn't jump at the chance? Anyways, he gets to play one on the world's stage.
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I doubt any president would balk at the chance to serve multiple terms and have ultimate power. The real question is one of "evilness" for lack of a better term. Does the Donald have the capacity to violate human rights to maintain power as a true dictator does? I don't know. That is a big leap. It is like the leap between threatening to kill someone and actually pulling the trigger. It is not an easy line to cross.
 
Xi Jinping is the one that is concerning, I didn't realize the scope of the transformation taking place under his increasingly unchecked power.



"Xinhua’s description of democracy’s self-destructive tendencies echoes that of a book published in 1991 called “America Against America” by a professor at Fudan University, Wang Huning. But there are three important differences between China’s interaction with America today and the way it was then. One is that Wang has just been elevated to the party’s most powerful body, the Politburo Standing Committee, where he is likely to be in charge of propaganda (that is, projecting the party’s image at home and the country’s abroad). Having in such a position an America-sceptic who actually studied there is unprecedented.

Next, the government has started to export what it calls “the China model”. Deng Xiaoping once said China was not a model for anyone. At last month’s party gathering, Xi talked about China “blazing a new trail for other developing countries” and offering “Chinese wisdom and a Chinese approach to solving problems” (his “Belt and Road Initiative” offers lots of cash, too). Orville Schell of the Asia Society in New York says this seems to set up a clash not just of civilisations and values, but of political and economic systems.

Third, the anti-US strain now seems to run from the top of the Chinese state (Xi and Wang) to the bottom (Xinhua and internet trolls). That suggests such sentiment is gaining strength. Xi may still prefer to exercise caution in his country’s rivalry with America. But he does not seem to have moderated his global ambitions because of Trump. And it will take more than a dinner in the Forbidden City to wish those ambitions away."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...l/news-story/0c6764ba4f135ea3f50b63b26ab0b649
 
Ron Mexico said:
I dont think he is a dictator. The only thing he does that is similar is his attack on free press. But that is only one thing. I think its fortunate that we have a system that prevents someone from becoming a dictator in the US and I have 0 concern that Trump will become anything close to that. He will just be a really ****ty president.
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Agreed. I completely ignore the dictatorship talk at this point. Just like I did when it was brought up under President Obama. Until concrete actions are taken to close the press, dismiss congress, end term limits on the presidency and the like its all a bunch of malarkey. The level of idiocy is irrelevant.
 
Any real attempt by either party to install a dictator would result in widespread violence and possibly civil war. Won't happen because both sides are so vigilant on watching every move the other side makes.
 
Saudi Arabia didn't just become a dictatorship. Neither did Egypt. Or Russia. Or China. All of those have been dictatorships for decades. And the US didn't become a dictatorship because you don't like who got elected.

What a dumpster fire of a thread.
 
Stoked said:
I can see where the current admin uses some boogeyman rhetoric so he does employ fear. But his opposition is fighting tooth and nail, he has not consolidated powers.
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If you're talking about Trump, I don't think he is practically there yet. But he has the potential. But I definitely don't think USA is the place to become one right now. USA is definitely setting an example for the voice of diversity to the rest of the world. At least comparably more than ideally.
 
addictionary said:
If you're talking about Trump, I don't think he is practically there yet. But he has the potential.
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Comparatively speaking it is tame. I don't see much potential there either. I think he has found a system of speech and approach that he thinks works and he will stick with it.
 
Stoked said:
Any real attempt by either party to install a dictator would result in widespread violence and possibly civil war. Won't happen because both sides are so vigilant on watching every move the other side makes.
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Our checks and balances work very well to stymie this kind of thing. I don't see this really ever happening barring some very extreme circumstances (apocalypse-level **** tbh).
 
Siro said:
Saudi Arabia didn't just become a dictatorship. Neither did Egypt. Or Russia. Or China. All of those have been dictatorships for decades. And the US didn't become a dictatorship because you don't like who got elected.

What a dumpster fire of a thread.
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Yeah, agreed. Also I don't know what is meant by the "rise" of dictators currently as mentioned in this thread. There have always been dictators and if you go back a couple of hundred years it could be argued that the major european colonial eras represented monarchies as dictatorships. In terms of major dictatorships (as in large or economically and militarily significant countries) the rate of existing dictatorships is actually pretty low right now globally speaking.
 
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