• WhyEssEff [she/her]
    hexagon
    ·
    2 years ago

    :jokerfied: WHY DOES RUSSIA HAVE 10 MORE FREEDOM POINTS THAN CHINA :joker-troll:

  • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Ugh, I hate P2W schemes. Sure you get some crappy 3rd tier country like the US for free, but if you want China you gotta pay for it.

  • itsPina [he/him, she/her]M
    ·
    2 years ago

    I had similar essays in college and always just deboonked them and pissed the professors off but as long as you follow the syllabus they cant really fail you for wrongthink

    • WhyEssEff [she/her]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      prompt is a bit tight for deboonking

      Pick a case study of a post-colonial country. Using Freedom House, evaluate its democratization progress or lack thereof. Discuss the main cause(s) of this.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        No, no, you've got an out. The last sentence is ambiguous. It could refer to how democratic the state is, or it could refer to the freedom houses methodology.

        "This state has a democratization progress of 56 because Freedom House is funded by murderous Neoliberal reactionary scum"

        • OneBillionRubyWasps [he/him,comrade/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          One of the things about this place that makes me genuinely proud is the quality and ubiquity of communist rules-lawyering in response to bad faith neoliberal drivel. They don't mind mass death, but point out their charts suck and they go wild.

          • Frank [he/him, he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            They might shoot us all but we're not going to let the bastards win on points.

        • WhyEssEff [she/her]
          hexagon
          ·
          2 years ago

          Cuba is technically post colonial :sicko-wholesome:

          • L183R4L [any]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            Proceeds to submit transcripts of blowback s2

          • Straight_Depth [they/them]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            Very true, deboonk their entire shitty freedumbz map by going over how their electoral system is fairer and more transparent than the US's

        • KiaKaha [he/him]M
          ·
          2 years ago

          Exactly. All she has to do is evaluate why a country has or has not not scored highly on the Freedom House definitions of democratisation.

          Good opportunity to go through the criteria and assess why scoring highly in those metrics might not be advantageous for a nation’s development or autonomy. Especially when the criteria amount to ‘preservation of control over one’s own media and markets’.

      • OneBillionRubyWasps [he/him,comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I notice they don't say your analysis has to agree with the graph, you could easily write about the horrible history of say, free smol bean Taiwan

        • Ursus_Hexagonus [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          The foundation for freedom™ was laid when the Guomindang, with US support, democratically massacred the opposition on the island

      • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Do South Africa but immediately shit on Thabo Mbeki for being a neoliberal austerity politics Oxford educated fool responsible for shit like rolling electricity blackouts because he skimped on maintenance to make line go up, and also denied the existence of AIDS. Laid groundwork for Zuma corruption. Use this to illustrate the bullshit that is the freedom index. Like are people living in shacks and 30% unemployment really "free"?. I don't feel very free. Would much rather live in Cuba.

      • Vncredleader
        ·
        2 years ago

        You could pick a country with a high score and take it apart. Like "ah yes freedom house is right that this state is democratic, as we can see with Brazil's us backed torture regime"

  • star_wraith [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Are scoring all of Cuba based just on Guantanamo?

    Fr though, this is why so many Americans "just know" Cuba isn't a free country and won't be convinced otherwise. All their lives they're hit with little things like - always just assuming Cuba isn't free because "it's communist" and terminating all thought from there.

  • SoyViking [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    In communist North Vuvuzela students are required to regurgitate regime propaganda

  • Tiocfaidhcaisarla [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Fucked. Mexico and India both only partly free? Is that because of their current leaders? Did they vote themselves out of being free?

    Also I know you can't answer but what school do you go to lmfao

    • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Mexico and India both only partly free? Is that because of their current leaders? Did they vote themselves out of being free?

      Mexico and India are both big potentially rival countries that can escape the US umbrella, so they can never be free.

      Only tiny ultra-balkanized controllable countries can attain the honorific of being "free".

      • Tiocfaidhcaisarla [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        That's about what I imagined could be the case. But then there's fucking Brazil as free lol. I suppose they've been pretty firmly under the US' thumb for awhile, though I'm sure they'll update the map if Lula gets back in power

        • Old_Barbarossa [he/him,comrade/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Brazil is free because the USA installed a fascist dictatorship there wich for decades mass slaugthered anyone who was even remotely left wing. Thats what real democratic liberalism is.

  • Decoysharktopus [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I'm not familiar with Mongolia's political economy, anyone know why it's the only free country in Asia besides the more well known US clients? Seems odd to me at first blush

    • Diogenes_Barrel [love/loves]
      ·
      2 years ago

      :shrug-outta-hecks: they've had more than one/two presidents since the 90s and haven't made an enemy of the yankees?

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I know I was like "The fuck is going on in Mongolia? Do they have a kakistarchic Oligarchy like the US?"

    • blobjim [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Because they're on good terms with the US and probably make cheap products for the US or something.

    • Mindfury [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      because their wrestlers are free to be shipped off to japan to become the best sumo wrestlers of all time

    • Ho_Chi_Chungus [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      :galaxy-brain: me summoning everything i remember from my special interest when i was 13

      In GENERAL, Mongolia views China as a threat to its sovereignty due to their massively disparate GDPs and populations and has generally warmer relations with the United States as a form of protecting its sovereignty from China

  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    The map is accurate when you realise they mean freedom for capital and not for people.

    EDIT: Nah still some weird ones even for that lol

  • Ursus_Hexagonus [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    This map is outdated. The Solomon Islands are obviously no longer free since signing a military pact with China!

    Edit: French Guiana is... grey????

    • SoyViking [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Under French rule the very concepts of free and unfree ceases to have any meaning.

    • Quimby [any, any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      ooh! but maybe @WhyEssEff you could write about the Solomon Islands and use this map as evidence? Or do you have to use the "whole" map?

    • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      A series of ambiguous questions that basically boil down to "do you allow Nazi parties equal and fair access to electoral politics"

      Oh and the questionnaire is filled out by "NGOs" in the country