{"id":106087,"date":"2022-12-25T15:35:12","date_gmt":"2022-12-25T20:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=106087"},"modified":"2022-12-25T15:35:17","modified_gmt":"2022-12-25T20:35:17","slug":"the-daily-gouge-archive-friday-december-23rd-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=106087","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Gouge Archive, Friday, December 23rd, 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Friday, December 23rd, 2022…and fellas, you’ve got two days to finish your Christmas shopping!<\/strong><\/p>\n

But before we begin, courtesy of NRO<\/em>, Julio Pohl informs us…<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Mexican Politician Called a Man a Man. Now, He May Be Barred from Office<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n

For noting that biological males were taking advantage of a law meant to help females, Gabriel Quadri\u2019s political career is now in danger<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/h3>\n

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“T<\/strong><\/span><\/span>alk<\/span>\u00a0of Twitter free speech may be all the rage right now in the United States, but a look around the world begs the question: What good is ostensible social-media freedom if governments can silence and sanction you with the harshest of penalties for what you post online? The international landscape for state censorship of online speech is bleak.<\/span> There exists a dangerous and mounting global trend to criminalize expression, including online speech, blurring the line between dictatorship and democracy, and wreaking havoc on human rights.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In Mexico, a sitting congressman,\u00a0Gabriel Quadri<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span>, may lose the right to run for office ever again because of what he posted on Twitter \u2014 a grave violation of his civil and political rights that should attract international attention.<\/span> Quadri, an avowed liberal, took issue when seats [Editor’s Note: not physical seats but congressional seats.] reserved for women in Mexico\u2019s congress were claimed by men who identify as transgender. Now, for the mere act of tweeting, he\u2019s a tried and convicted \u201cgender-based violator\u201d under Mexican law.<\/span> His case makes clear that while Twitter HQ may be galvanizing in defense of free speech, for so long as repressive governments wield censorship power, the Internet is no safe space for free expression.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

…Like many a concerned citizen the world over, in taking to Twitter, what Quadri did was seek open conversation on a highly relevant matter of serious societal importance.<\/span> He committed no crime and endorsed no violence. His case mirrors that of Finnish member of Parliament,\u00a0P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen<\/a><\/em><\/span>, charged with the \u201ccrime\u201d of hate speech that carried with it a two-year prison sentence.<\/span> A longstanding civil servant, medical doctor, and grandmother, R\u00e4s\u00e4nen has been subjected to three years of onerous\u00a0legal proceedings<\/a><\/em><\/span>\u00a0for a 2019 tweet expressing her views on marriage and sexuality.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us not forget that in some parts of the world, you can be sentenced to death for what you post online.<\/span> In Nigeria,\u00a0Rhoda Ya\u2019u Jatau<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span>\u00a0is on trial for blasphemy charges after sharing a message condemning the brutal killing of\u00a0Deborah Yakubu<\/a><\/em><\/span>, who was stoned to death for her Christian faith last May. Blasphemy carries with it a potential sentence of death in Nigeria.<\/span> Also, upcoming at the Supreme Court of Nigeria is the appeal of Sufi musician\u00a0Yahaya Sharif-Aminu<\/a><\/em><\/span>, who is currently on death row for a blasphemy conviction after sharing song lyrics on the messaging platform WhatsApp.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

While the consequences may vary, what these cases have in common is the dark underlying thread of totalitarian repression.<\/span> Governments are weaponizing the law to stamp out speech that fails to comport with their \u201capproved\u201d worldview. It is imperative that we shine a spotlight on the repressive regimes under which you can be deprived of your most basic human rights for what you say online.<\/span> Without free speech there can be no freedom, and everyone should be free to voice their opinions without fear of punishment.<\/strong><\/span>“<\/p>\n

C0ming soon to a country near and dear to you if<\/em><\/span> Progressives continue to have their totalitarian way!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, half a world away, the Taliban have instituted what is effec<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/strong>tively a total ban on the education of girls and women<\/em><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 At least Afghan women needn’t worry about transgender men taking their seats in Congress, let alone sharing their restrooms.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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We look forward to\u00a0House Republicans opening an investigation,\u00a0an event\u00a0the Biden clown car dreads<\/em><\/span><\/a>,<\/span> into this, one of the most shameful debacles in American history,\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, here’s The Gouge<\/em>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

First up, courtesy of the Journal of Democracy<\/em> via AEI<\/em>, Michael Beckley and Hal Brands provide insightful analysis of…\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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China\u2019s Threat to Global Democracy<\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Chinese Communist Party is deadly serious about its authoritarian designs, and it is bent on promoting them. It is time for the world\u2019s democracies to get serious, too<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/article>\n

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“Since ancient times, contests among great powers have often involved contests of ideas. The Peloponnesian War was not simply a clash between a regnant Sparta and a rising Athens, but also pitted a liberal, seagoing protodemocracy that saw itself as the \u201cschool of Hellas\u201d against a militarized, agrarian slave state.<\/span> The ideological threat that revolutionary France posed to the European order was just as serious as the military one. In the run-up to the Second World War, fascist powers and democracies squared off; during the Cold War, the superpowers divided much of the world along ideological lines.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The intertwining of ideology and geopolitics should not be surprising: At root, foreign policy is how a country seeks to make the world safe for its own way of life. Many analysts accept that U.S. foreign policy is driven by ideological impulses.<\/span> Even hardcore international-relations \u201crealists\u201d concede the importance of ideology when they bemoan the grip that liberal passions have on Washington\u2019s statecraft. Curiously, though, there has been more resistance to the idea that there may be an ideological component to the grand strategy of America\u2019s chief rival\u2014the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC).<\/span> Beijing is not making any \u201cgrand strategic effort to undermine democracy and spread autocracy,\u201d\u00a0writes one leading Sinologist<\/a><\/em><\/span>. Its foreign policy is based on \u201cpragmatic decisions about Chinese interests.\u201d<\/span> Realists say that China plays\u00a0Realpolitik<\/em>\u00a0while America ignores John Quincy Adams\u2019s 1821 advice to go \u201cnot abroad in search of monsters to destroy.\u201d\u00a0Other analysts suggest<\/a><\/em><\/span>\u00a0that it is a distraction or even a \u201cdelusion\u201d to emphasize the ideological aspects of Sino-American rivalry at the expense of Beijing\u2019s military and economic challenge.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, the reverse is true: To grasp the Chinese challenge, we must grasp its ideological dimensions. If Woodrow Wilson and his followers wanted to make the world safe for democracy, the PRC\u2019s rulers want to do the same for autocracy.<\/span> For them, autocracy is not simply a means of political control or a ticket to self-enrichment, but a set of deeply held ideas about the proper relationship between rulers and the masses. In his October 2022 keynote speech to the Twentieth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)\u2014during which he had himself installed for a third term as top leader, while on the final day having his predecessor Hu Jintao unceremoniously escorted out of the room\u2014Xi Jinping insisted that \u201cconstantly writing a new chapter in the Sinicization of Marxism is the solemn historical responsibility of contemporary Chinese communists,\u201d and made it clear that \u201cthe authority of the Party Central Committee\u201d will continue to be at \u201cthe core of leadership in controlling the overall situation.\u201d<\/span> Everything in the speech hinges on the CCP remaining in sole charge of \u00a0\u201cdeveloping socialism with Chinese characteristics.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This belief in the superiority of an autocratic Chinese model coexists with deep insecurity: The PRC is a brutally illiberal regime in a world led by a liberal hegemon, a circumstance from which the CCP draws a sense of pervasive danger and a strong desire to refashion the world order so that the PRC\u2019s particular form of government is not just protected but privileged.<\/span> That is why a powerful but anxious Chinese regime is now engaged in an\u00a0aggressive effort to make the world safe for autocracy<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span>\u00a0and to corrupt and destabilize democracies<\/em><\/span>. Democracy promotion may be out of style in U.S. foreign policy, but what the scholar Jason Brownlee calls \u201cdemocracy prevention\u201d is very much at the heart of Chinese strategy today<\/span><\/strong><\/span>…”<\/p>\n

“Corrupt and destabilize democracies”…”corrupt and destabilize democracies”…<\/strong><\/p>\n

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So Xi has that<\/em><\/span> going for him…<\/strong><\/p>\n