• rumschlumpel@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    15 hours ago

    Before Trump, US institutions generally liked to at least keep up the pretense, which means that they often did have to make rules that aren’t as bullshit as they could have been. In south and middle american dictatorships, they don’t have to give a single flying fuck.

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      13 hours ago

      Before Trump, US institutions generally liked to at least keep up the pretense

      Accurate.

      which means that they often did have to make rules that aren’t as bullshit as they could have been

      Yes, but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t STILL 80-95% bullshit by volume.

      In south and middle american dictatorships, they don’t have to give a single flying fuck.

      And they also don’t have anywhere near the pressure from the most powerful corporations in the world.

      Or elections designed to be unduly influenced by the highly organized and systemic corruption of corporations and their lobbies rather than the comparatively haphazard organization of less official corruption.

      That makes a much bigger difference than the inherent motivation and fear of public resistance of the leaders themselves.

      • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        13 hours ago

        And they also don’t have anywhere near the pressure from the most powerful corporations in the world.

        Or elections designed to be unduly influenced by the highly organized and systemic corruption of corporations and their lobbies rather than the comparatively haphazard organization of less official corruption.

        In the case of banana republics, corruption for specific corporations is literally their reason for existence.

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          13 hours ago

          Yes, but that’s just one corporation.

          Being created by United Fruit (now Chiquita) doesn’t entail anywhere near the corporate pressure on all regulations as being the home country of robber baron capitalism.