Yeah, I mean, all he has to do is post some nonsense on Twitter and millions of his supporters believe it…
…oops, wait, I accidentally got back onto my anti-Trump hobby-horse. Was trying to stay off that thing for a few hours.
Politics has been turning into a religion all around the world, Turkey experiences this phenomenon on steroids. People have no doubt about their opinions, they want to convince each other rather than learning new ideas and on top of that they fiercely try to crush the opposition instead of compromise and meet the half way. Politics have proved time and time again that creating fake enemies and putting the blame on scapegoats(job-stealing immigrants, terrorist Muslims, “dış mihraklar”) is a perfect way to kill rational thought.
“Even I don’t understand how the people changed in the last 15 years. I feel like a foreigner on the streets of my own country.”
Well, I don’t know if the people have changed or if it is just a nostalgia we’re having. However, I totally agree with your second sentence because my values and perception of the world seem fundamentally different than that of our government and its supporters. That’s why many Turks want to get out of the country which is understandable because of not only higher standards of living, freedom of press, and rule of law but also that I imagine It would feel psychologically better to feel foreigner on the streets of a FOREIGN land than on the streets that one grew up on.
@Josem
Your list of the chosen countries shows very obviously that you are the ready ptoduct of the total ‘western propaganda’. It is usually added to this list Iran and ‘the bloody regime of Asad’ to be comnpleted.
We have in Russia different opinions about the ‘western democracy’ - some of us adore it, some other relate quite positively but see some shortcomings and drawbacks of the total individualism and consumer society and there are also people who despise such doubtful democracy.
I am from the second group. I see pros and cons of the western democracy like some pros and cons of the Russian society.
My main reproach to the western democracy is that it stopped to be a democtacy and is turning gradually to be autocracy after the collapse of the USSR trying to impose all countries its ‘western liberal values’ desrtroying very often other societies and countries, creating chaos and civil wars!..
Let all countries live according to their own history, tradfitions and culture!.. Don’t be arrogant to imagine itself as the God!..
Evey country has its own right to be unique. I see that you are from Latin America, from Brasil. It’s a wonderful unique region and your country and your culture is also unique!..
Why would you like to be the poor ‘servants’ in the western world and not to be the hosts in your own country?!..
“Western democracy” is kind of like an umbrella term for fair elections, rule of law, free speech, human rights, separation of powers etc. Not all western countries fully live up to these standards and they have their own problems, but they are mostly better countries than the rest of the world according to these values.
“Let all countries live according to their own history, traditions and culture!..”
That is a perfect example of false equivalency. Nobody criticizes Turkey because they love to eat Kebab. Jailing journalists, undermining the judicial system, shutting down newspapers are not culture. Treating women like they do in Saudi Arabia is not just a different taste. Restricting Internet content in China is not some kind of tradition. Living in a Nineteen Eighty-Four world in North Korea is not Korean culture.
The pools show that the undecided voters will decide the fate of the country. If nationalist Turks vote for NO, he won’t be able to have presidential powers. The Pro-Kurdish party declared that they will vote for no and the nationalist party is supporting the yes campaign. After all most polls show the percentage of ‘No’ in the nationalist party MHP at between 50% to 80% and ‘Yes’ voters remaining at 30%.
He said he saw pros and cons to the Russian society too so he doesn’t necessarily support those things you listed.
In my opinion culture is strongly tied with the preferred political structure and practice too. You can’t force western liberal values on any people, and if you try you will end up with Libya or Iraq. Western liberalism is self destructive, by the way, and I can see why (many) Russians don’t care for it. That said, I don’t support beating up journalists either.
Oh. And fair elections? How about the media bias that openly favours one candidate and does all it can to smear the other?
Rule of law? As long as it isn’t a migrant raping a local I suppose…
Free speech? As long as Merkel approves!
Sure, western societies are relatively safe and well-off and all that but that doesn’t mean there are no issues. Ignoring the issues has become the trademark of western liberalism.
I just read your comment and decided that you’re alt-right! How dare you not idolize the West?
I find it curious how western media will always criticise Russia and Iran but when it comes to critical questions about their own countries issues the silence from them is deafening. Their own countries recruit (or force) youtube, facebook and twitter to suppress unpopular opinions on the Internet, which is the most important arena of modern debate, and still they have the audacity to comment on other countries! It’s a pure deflection maneuver. As long as they keep acting like hypocrites I will have the chutzpah to point it out.
As for “alt-right” I don’t care much for labels of that type. There are alt-righters out there which I don’t want to be associated with.
“I find it curious how western media will always criticise Russia and Iran but when it comes to critical questions about their own countries issues the silence from them is deafening.”
They don’t just not criticise their own countries. Basically any country that is inconvenient for the media to criticise is largely left out. They freak out about Iran and Russia, but we hear almost nothing about Saudi Arabia and China.
The thing about Iran and Russia and China is that they are the only ones who don’t accept the global order. Western military bases basically surround those three countries:
***Not sure how reliable this map is
ColinJohnstonov is right in saying that Russia and Iran aren’t big commercial partners of North America so there is no cost of bashing their regimes on TV. Very interesting to see how EU countries are ready to hurt their own economies by introducing sanctions against Russia to do good by the Americans.