this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
9 points (54.5% liked)
Memes
54818 readers
1359 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
youre describing different quantitative levels of authority , but too much or too little authority it is. autoritarism means authority is present. water is wet. furthermore there is a lack of semantics. is this authorit exercised against the zionists or the palestinians and so on?
i am from the global south so yes, i know what it is when you call my korean brothers authoritarian. it means enemy of the usonian empire
I think we are conflating two different things: the state's foreign policy stance and its domestic structure.
You are correct that 'authoritarian' is often a propaganda label used to justify sanctions or invasion. However, refusing to use the word to describe any state in the Global South implies that the only form of oppression that matters is Western imperialism. That effectively erases the lived experience of people in those nations who might be jailed or disappeared by their own government.
The term 'authoritarian' shouldn't mean 'enemy of the US.' It should mean a system where the people have no mechanism to hold their leaders accountable. By that definition, a state can be anti-Zionist and still be authoritarian toward its own citizens. Do you believe there is any word we should use to describe a government that silences its own working class, or should we just stay silent about that to avoid sounding like the US State Department?