purahna

Wow, you've gotten him, you successfully identified that his only way of participating in politics - voting, of course - limits him to two parties who are largely identical on every issue except trans people and abortion.

okay then support Ali Bongo? I don't know why you're doubling down here

Good take but Midwestern Marx has fallen off very fucking hard and is kind of a dipshit these days (there's more very recently about him asking the left to ally with those that they disagree with on social causes because economic causes are all that really matter, I haven't been able to source it right now tho so if someone finds it can they reply)

Right, you should definitely support this guy for no other reason than that someone from an instance you're biased against told you not to. Solid politics you've got there.

That's fairly reductive and inaccurate. The 1983 Upper Voltan coup d'état, the Carnation Revolution, and the Guatemalan Revolution are all examples to the contrary, and they are far from isolated exceptions to a rule.

The extremely short version is that he accepted a life of luxury bankrolled by the French in exchange for inducing poverty on his nation with aggressively extractive economic policies to the primary benefit of the French petroleum (and previously nuclear) industries. He's also the son of a French-appointed dictator who is basically continuing his father's platform to a tee.

Here's a fun little one-off story about the Bongo family https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/member-gabons-ruling-family-pascaline-bongo-puts-la-mansion-sale-14m-1610426 very Trump-style stuffing of the cabinet with family and funneling government funds into property for them to hold onto and also use

here's a story about Ali Bongo himself https://web.archive.org/web/20171117004922/http://observers.france24.com/en/20141223-luxury-cars-gabon-presidency-bongo-ali

fuck Bongo, I don't know how the coup government will be but it'll be hard to do any worse. Power to the people, if this coup is actually for them ✊

Ali Bongo is the son of Omar Bongo, who was president of Gabon from 1967 until his death in 2009. During his father's presidency, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1991, represented Bongoville as a Deputy in the National Assembly from 1991 to 1999, and was Minister of Defense from 1999 to 2009. After his father's death, he won the 2009 Gabonese presidential election. He was reelected in 2016, in elections marred by numerous irregularities, arrests, human rights violations and post-election protests and violence. The military ousted him from the presidency following the results of the 2023 Gabonese general election, in the 2023 Gabonese coup d'état.

fuck Bongo, I don't know how the coup government will be but it'll be hard to do any worse. Power to the people, if this coup is actually for them ✊

yeah, most of us over here tend to be upset about the fact that our tax dollars get spent on genocide and then people get defensive when we even say it. I'm frustrated by a lot of defenders but I answered the question honestly, those are the worst.

Defending US military intervention. I've heard people defend US intervention in Korea, I've heard people defend US intervention in Vietnam, I've heard people defend US intervention in the middle east, hell, I've heard people defend dropping the bombs on Japan. Shit's wild.

ah yes, causing civilians to die of highly treatable diseases is the best way to stick it to Russia