Making someone eat Domino’s is a war crime, I think.
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https://twitter.com/kevinrothrock/status/1500458582902460420?s=21
https://twitter.com/kevinrothrock/status/1500459051464986625?s=21
https://twitter.com/kevinrothrock/status/1500460210669998084?s=21
I don’t really understand what it even means to say something is illegal in a dictatorship? If Putin says it is legal it instantly becomes legal no?
I mean they’re a dictatorship under the guise of a democracy. They still have “elections” and they have a parliament, it just votes like 97% to 3% on Putin’s side on everything, basically.
So like he could make a law that makes this legal, but he hasn’t at the moment. That would also require him to admit it was happening.
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I’m sure they have performative rule of law like they have performative elections.
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Ha ha, we immediately wrote the same idea. A key to holding together dictatorships is to create a phony functional society. Just declaring yourself Emperor For Life or whatever is such a dick move that it’s better to muddy the waters a bunch. We’ve seen how effective the right has been in the US but just flooding the world with bullshit and tying up all the resources of their opponents in debunking nonsense.
Why does he need a formal law when he runs the police and courts?
I guess it just struck me as odd for the guy in rhe tweet to use legality as an argument.
I’m curious if there any dictatorships/monarchies where the rulers are “benevolent” enough so that most citizens are doing OK and have little interest in challenging the ruling order?
I mean, he doesn’t, to the extent that they are clearly doing it despite it being illegal. He uses the guise of democracy and rule of law to make his dictatorship more de facto than official, which helps keep people in line.
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saudis
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It’s not supposed to be an explicit dictatorship.
The question is always “compared to what.” Most dictatorships arise out of civil wars or very poorly performing democracies, and a key element of the pitch is “You may not like this, but it’s better than the bad old days.” Most people grudgingly acquiesce to the abuses of dictatorships through a combination of fear and a lack of belief in a better alternative. (Fear of foreign threats works the same way–even if you could wish the dictator away, how are you going to deal with the feared outsiders?)
One of the big threats to a dictatorship is that the people stop thinking that the alternative is anarchic chaos and start thinking that it’s living in a successful democracy. Once people start believing that the dictatorship does lots of stuff plus it stands in the way of a brighter future, they can only be kept in line through pure fear, which is costly and can never motivate eager cooperation, just compliance.
Half the population says hi. 
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Nah. That’a a monarchy.
Isn’t this basically China under Xi?
Or I guess countries like Brunei
No on bolded. They have little interest in challenging Xi because they don’t want to die.
Excised me, sir, no. China is a whole-process democracy which is the superior form of democracy.
But also, democracy is just western chauvinist decadence, so China is not a democracy and this is good.
It’s wishful thinking that support for the Chinese government is only due to fear of being disappeared.
Obviously it’s relevant that censorship prevents wide exposure to opposing viewpoints, but within that reality the government is overwhelmingly supported. Also, those with the means to circumvent the censorship are overwhelmingly those who are the most privileged from the system (and can go abroad if they genuinely despise it).
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Seems like a potential off ramp for Putin could be blaming Xi for ruining his perfect plan.