Assad has done nothing wrong

😬

Assad's support from the right-wing has mostly been from the far-right, both before and during the Syrian Civil War. David Duke hosted a televised speech on Syrian national television in 2005.[281] Georgy Shchokin was invited to Syria in 2006 by the Syrian foreign minister and awarded a medal by the Ba'ath party, while Shchokin's institution the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management awarded Assad an honorary doctorate.[282] In 2014, the Simon Wiesenthal Center claimed that Bashar al-Assad had sheltered Alois Brunner in Syria, and alleged that Brunner advised the Assad government on purging Syria's Jewish community.[283][284]

The National Front in France has been a prominent supporter of Assad since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War,[285] as has the former leader of the Third Way.[281] In Italy, the parties New Front and CasaPound have both been supportive of Assad, with the New Front putting up pro-Assad posters and the party's leader praising Assad's commitment to the ideology of Arab nationalism in 2013,[286] while CasaPound has also issued statements of support for Assad.[287] Syrian Social Nationalist Party representative Ouday Ramadan has worked in Italy to organize support movements for Assad.[288] Other political parties expressing support for Assad include the National Democratic Party of Germany,[289] the National Revival of Poland,[281] the Freedom Party of Austria,[290] the Bulgarian Ataka party,[291] the Hungarian Jobbik party,[292] the Serbian Radical Party,[293] the Portuguese National Renovator Party,[294] as well as the Spanish Falange Española de las JONS[295] and Authentic Falange parties.[296] The Greek neo-Nazi political party Golden Dawn has spoken out in favour of Assad,[297] and the Strasserist group Black Lily has claimed to have sent mercenaries to Syria to fight alongside the Syrian army.[298]

Nick Griffin, the former leader of the British National Party, was chosen by the Assad government to represent the UK as an ambassador and at government-held conferences; Griffin has been an official guest of the Syrian government three times since the beginning of the Civil War.[299] The European Solidarity Front for Syria, representing several far-right political groups from across Europe, has had their delegations received by the Syrian national parliament, with one delegation being met by Syrian Head of Parliament Mohammad Jihad al-Laham, Prime Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi and Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad.[288] In March 2015, Assad met with Filip Dewinter of the Belgian party Vlaams Belang.[300] In 2016, Assad met with a French delegation,[301] which included former leader of the youth movement of the National Front Julien Rochedy [fr].[302]

For someone who's "done nothing wrong" Assad sure tends to hang out with a lot of fucking fascists.

Also, homosexuality is still illegal in Ba'athist Syria and has been since 1949 with a penalty of 3 years in prison for sex acts.

Pretty sure "Human Dignity Trust" is a CIA front just by the name but they quote actual Syrian penal code which I couldn't find elsewhere in a hurry: https://www.humandignitytrust.org/country-profile/syria/

Edit: human dignity trust seems more likely to be MI6 than CIA but you get the picture

Approval rating in war-torn country is patently meaningless, of course after eight years of this bloodbath people would want to chill and return to some kind of normalcy.

And Ba’ath party was arresting communists in the 90s I thought? Also Kurds didn’t spontaneously rebel, they had some issues with him. And communist party supported (more or less) more autonomy for them, I believe.

Frankly, it’s meaningless argument I feel. As I’ve mentioned it’s better if Assad stays and gives concessions to saner rebel groups, then US overthrows him, put some mercenary ghouls around oil fields and funnel weapons around the state to keep divided people fighting over nothing, doesn’t make him a good guy. Politicians by default should be treated with extreme suspicion.