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Biden again calls Xi a β€˜dictator’ after critical summit 🀑 (thehill.com)
submitted 1 year ago by yogthos@lemmygrad.ml to c/us_news@lemmygrad.ml
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[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee -1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique.

By that definition you could call the US, or various other countries, dictatorships. However I don't see how Xi Jinping could not be objectively labelled a dictator.

Direct democracy FTW. Let people vote on any- and every-thing, for better or worse. People will learn and adapt, and if they get a chance to review policy this will be significant. Meanwhile, you cannot sustain any disinformation campaign indefinitely, even if they might be successful for the occassional vote.

[–] GrainEater@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago

there is no such thing as a one-person dictatorship at a large scale; aside from minuscule "countries" like Vatican City, it's practically impossible for a country to be controlled by a single person, and to imply that China could be ruled by a dictator is laughable

[–] qwename@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If I'm not mistaken, the US does not have direct democracy for presidential elections (https://www.usa.gov/electoral-college) nor the lawmaking process (https://www.usa.gov/how-laws-are-made). Unless you're referring other forms of direct democracy in the US (https://ballotpedia.org/Forms_of_direct_democracy_in_the_American_states) or elsewhere in the world like Russian presidential elections.

As for how China's president is elected, these two videos basically sum it up:

[–] ghost_of_faso2@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

you do understand they vote and elect people in China right

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yes sure, but as I stated it's possible to successfully run a disinformation campaign to cover an occassional vote. It's also hard to run an opposition against an incumbent candidate when they will literally have you removed from congress on a whim.

[–] ghost_of_faso2@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Do you have any evidence of disinformation campaigns being directed by Xi towards political opponents internally within China or are you talking out of your ass

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee -1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Where did I say that there were disinformation campaigns directed against Xi?

I've just said it's possible to rig elections every so often. Surely that isn't an objectionable idea to you?

[–] davel@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Your motte & bailey malarkey ain’t gonna fly here.

[–] Avnar@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Didnt know that had a name.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee -1 points 1 year ago

Which two arguments am I conflating here?

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You yourself say that you cannot sustain any disinformation campaign indefinitely, even if they might be successful for the occassional vote. So, using your own logic these hypothetical disinformation campaigns you're doing hand wringing over don't actually matter in the grand scheme of things.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You are making a disingenuous argument that ignores the entire point I made.

Disinformation campaigns do matter if you're only having occasional votes - you can slip through a bad decision every once in a while. If you vote on everything, then it wouldn't matter, because you'll have a vote in review where the flawed vote would be corrected.

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago

The only one making disingenuous arguments here is you bud. Your whole argument is based on a completely unfounded supposition that the current system does not end up fairly representing the will of the public. There is no evidence to suggest anything of the sort that I'm aware of.

Meanwhile, the whole idea of direct democracy that you're peddling here doesn't scale beyond small communities. Failing to understand why delegation of concerns is a necessary aspect of any complex organization exposes infantile understanding of the subject you're attempting to debate.

[–] ghost_of_faso2@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well you called Xi a dictator, which is a pretty big claim.

If you can evidence that it would be great, from my understanding China is a democratic centralist country that has popular support from the billion+ people living there.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Biden said he was a dictator. I asked how he was not a dictator.

[–] ghost_of_faso2@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

well how is he a dictator then?

[–] DankZedong@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Media tells him so

[–] Leninismydad@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago

The sheer amount of voting that takes place in China would make you shit your pants.