this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
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[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 191 points 1 month ago (7 children)

But it's OK because Israel is a democracy. /s

It's funny how rare this argument has become, a few years ago politicians used it all the time, as if it was some kind of free pass to genocide, war crimes and discrimination.

Just remember that "But it's a democracy", is not an argument for anything. USA is also a democracy, but that does not in any way justify their attacks on Iran either, or their blockade of Cuba, or all the dozens of other things they are doing that are against international law.

[–] xtr0n@sh.itjust.works 86 points 1 month ago (6 children)

USA is also a democracy

Is it though?

[–] Hayduke@lemmy.world 63 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It’s a plutocracy disguised as a democracy

[–] cecilkorik@piefed.ca 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's a democracy where dollars are considered citizens and allowed to vote.

[–] backalleycoyote@lemmy.today 18 points 1 month ago

Where corporations are people and women are baby factories.

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Technokleptoplutokakistocracy

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I mean yeah, not wrong.

[–] Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Gerontechnokleptoplugokakistocracy

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Nepogerontechnokleptoplutokakistocracy

[–] Gumus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 weeks ago

Pedonepogerontechnokleptoplutokakistocracy

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Those are not mutually exclusive. It's both.

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

No one said it was mutually exclusive and technically "but yeah" is an agreement so what am I missing?

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

"but yeah" implies a correction to me.

[–] flandish@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago

american here: it is not a democracy. also, FUCK ISRAEL

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 month ago

USA claims to be a democracy.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

It's a dysfunctional democracy. So it's absolutely not a good democracy.

[–] leoj@piefed.social 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think the term is "contested democracy"

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

yeah its more like a democracy in process of facist takeover. Its a grey area.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 month ago
[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 month ago
[–] DaTingGoBrrr@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Nothing can justify genocide or murdering random people at sea. Ever. It doesn't matter who is doing it. The breaking of international law needs to have consequences.

It seems like a lot of people today have a hard time to not justify atrocities.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago
[–] zqps@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

In unrelated news: the Lybian "coast guard" is using their EU-provided ships in international waters to shoot at rescue ships and threaten to abduct the crew.

[–] Hapankaali@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It requires a broad definition of democracy to consider either of those democracies. The V-Dem Institute puts both in the second tier of "electoral democracy" behind the "true" democracies, termed "liberal democracy."

From Wikipedia, the electoral democracies are those that:

Regimes that possess the bare minimum to be considered a democracy. They are "de-facto accountable to citizens through periodic elections", but are not liberal democracies and lack further entrenched individual and minority rights beyond the electoral sphere. Basic electoral democracies may not possess a fully developed rule of law, legislative and judicial oversight of the executive branch, protections against the "tyranny of the majority", and only minimal fulfillment of Robert Dahl's institutional prerequisites for democracy.[13]

Both countries are also considered to be backsliding toward autocracy.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index

Israel and USA are both flawed democracies placed at 30 and 34.

But they are still democracies.

[–] Hapankaali@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yes, by a broad definition. They can be considered democracies because elections, while not free and fair, are not directly rigged, opposition parties are allowed to contest them, and the press is partially free. Contrast this to a country like China or Russia, where elections are a sham, opposition is banned or controlled, and the press is tightly controlled by the government.

I will say though that both V-Dem and the Economist are being somewhat generous. Considering recent events in Hungary, one could argue both countries should really rank lower than Hungary.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I agree, and in Hungary Victor Orban had a lot of control of the media. That's a pretty big part of being a democracy, that the press (media) is free.

[–] zqps@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

In the US, corporate media is largely aligned with the Trump regime and journalists that dare to ask an actual question are denied access.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

Yes the media is very much controlled by the 1%. And Trump paid them back with heavy tax cuts for the 1%.

[–] almost_genocide@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

According to the scoring since 2006 the United States index has dropped by a whole 0.57

That seems highly suspect to me.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm not sure what you mean? It has been the trajectory led mostly by the Republicans for decades.
Gerrymandering, illegal surveillance by agencies and even the police, secret laws upheld in secret courts overseen by a tight group of political leaders that are used to silence the press. Sounds like a conspiracy, except Obama admitted it, and even called it a good balance! The Republican rigging of the supreme court.

But maybe you mean it has dropped more?
Because I think it has because of Trump, and I also think the score of 8.22 that places it as a full democracy is moronic, considering it's a 2 party system with fpp voting. And USA has the highest number of prisoners, and they are not allowed to vote.
Nixon actively made cannabis illegal to silence the peace movement. And it has been used since to also oppress minorities.

The score has been consistently way to high.

[–] almost_genocide@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago

We're in agreement. It seems way too high to begin with and dropping that little from Bush->Obama->Trump I->Biden->Trump II makes me think there's some kind of bias at play.

[–] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 12 points 4 weeks ago

The US is manifestly not a democracy. When was the last time the working class, you know the group that makes up 90% of the population, actually held political power? No, all of the power is held by capitalists, who use it to enforce their system of authoritarian exploitation.

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 month ago

But it’s OK because Israel is a democracy.

Exactly Citizen! Good to see that the Raytheon CorrectThink ^(TM)^ rays have been beneficial! Looks like we don't need to increase the beam strength after all.

[–] wpb@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just remember that “But it’s a democracy”, is not an argument for anything

It's also good to remember that not only is this not an argument for anything, but also the precondition of being a democracy is simply not met for pissrael. You cannot do apartheid and legitimately call yourself a democracy. There's a couple million people within the dominion that pissrael rules over who simply cannot vote for the bodies that govern them. That's not a democracy.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

You cannot do apartheid and legitimately call yourself a democracy.

I absolutely agree on that. Weird I never thought about it when the claims were made.