Have you defended any dictatorships? If yes, which ones?

[Blow by blow, the passion dies]

I have. The following dictatorships:

• Estado Novo (Brazil and Portugal)
• Soviet Union
• SFR Yugoslavia
• Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
• Cuba (1959–)
• Burkina Faso under Thomas Sankara
• Francoist Spain
• The DPRK

[All Along The Watchtower]

No (not Ramsey Clark)

[Goldwater]

Not that I can recall?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

There's no real, objective way to use "authoritarian" on a wide scale. To the extent it is defined, it tends to reflect cultural shibboleths and reveal one's own background more than anything else.
But I voted yes anyway. Some would say the government I've defended before in some circumstances, the United States government, is an authoritarian regime controlled by corporate interests, operating a surveillance regime far in excess even of what the KGB or MI6 could hope for at their height. That suffices for a yes vote even if I think the term is mostly useless.

[Del Tachi]

Yes (Dick Cheney)

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Yes (the Biden administration)

[SWE]

Yes (my reign as coach of my university's mock trial team my senior year)

[An American Tail: Fubart Goes West]

Yes, I’d defend my vision for America. Double Deckers being sold at Taco Bell and forcing In-n-Out to make bacon for a start.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Depends what you mean by "defend". It's obviously possible for people to lie about how bad a dictatorship actually is (like, say, baselessly claiming they have WMDs as a pretext to invade). If correcting the record counts as "defending" the dictatorship, then I guess most of us have done so at one point or another. Of course, that's not the same as actually praising it or downplaying its awfulness.

[PSOL]

None that I can recall

[Fuzzy Bear]

Hmmm . . .

Kemal Ataturk's Turkey
King Hussein's Jordan
Josef Broz Tito's Yugoslavia
Sadat and Mubarak's Egypt

Ataturk was very much the Father of Modern Turkey.

Hussein and Sadat made peace with Israel.  Mubarak kept that peace, however frosty.

Tito was a brave leader against Hitler, and he succeeded in keeping the USSR from dominating his nation.

"Support" is not a great word.  I don't support the concept of dictatorship, but history CLEARLY shows that some societies won't support democracy in their present form.  These were leaders that were better than the alternatives, and there were not viable democratic alternative to them.  I don't wish to pick and choose which societies will and won't support democracy, but I'm also realistic.

[vitoNova]

I kinda identify with Ho Chi Minh and Tito, and can relate where they were coming from.

Others?  Meh

[PSOL]

I kinda identify with Ho Chi Minh and Tito, and can relate where they were coming from.

Others?  Meh

These were both radical democrats

[vitoNova]

I kinda identify with Ho Chi Minh and Tito, and can relate where they were coming from.

Others?  Meh

These were both radical democrats

They were both about:

A.T.H.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.



- Pulp

[Liminal Trans Girl]

Dictatorships are cringe

[Joseph Cao]

You know, it didn't occur to me until now just how odd it was that the Brazilian kid whose most famous copypasta is "I enjoy urban life and do not support any dictatorships" should be the one to make this thread.