surprised it’s not more ngl

Brazil and Serbia. Good on them. America, you’re up. I would include Israel but even the best possible government there fucking sucks balls.

if only we got some of this in Hong Kong…

I mean, that might be the ideal idea, but democracy has never done that historically. Its main benefit is that it averages out the opinions of the populace so extremist dictators can’t steer a state as fast as possible into collapse, which is not something you can do much about when so many people are so willing to vote for a demagogue or a populist without explicitly antidemocratic protections, like, say, a filibuster. Alcibiades, Caesar, Robespierre, Netanyahu, Trump, Modi, Farage, the list goes on.

It’s also worth emphasising the role of the far-right captured media headed by Murdoch and Russian disinformation attacks on democracies globally. Obviously, there is blame to be had with the people who choose to vote for these fuckers, but at the same time, it’s no coincidence that the right is winning across many Western democracies simultaneously with AfD, Reform, the GOP, etc. in recent years making significant gains.

democracy only goes so far when there’s a significant section of the population that are psychotic.