Comment by mschuster91

> What follows is that this becomes a problem (authoritarianism) that needs to be corrected “spread democracy”.

Well for once the neoliberals were correct. In fact, the idea of "universal human rights" was a direct lesson out of 1933-1945, and Article 21 [1] directly specifies everyone's right to take part in government.

A right however is only worth more than the paper it's written on as long as it is enforced, and kleptocrats don't tend to hand over their ill-gotten power willingly.

> There is always a choice. Democracies weren’t inherent in the world but had to be fought for. They need to fight for their rights. Or not.

Which the Iranians did, and tens of thousands were slaughtered just this very year while the rest of the world watched. Or many Arab countries that had their version of "Arab Spring". Or the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine that was a direct, if late, consequence of the Maidan revolution.

> It’s their responsibility.

It's ours as well. There's this infamous line you see every time you run "sudo" in a terminal: "With great power comes great responsibility". We, us Western nations, have power, and lots of it - but we are not using it the way we should, we instead are using it mostly to make money.

> As long as you agree Americans are better and exceptional I can’t really argue against you here.

I'm German, and for what it's worth "American Exceptionalism" is a whole lot of bollocks (because guess what, objectively compared Americans are so much worse off in many metrics it isn't even funny any more, just tragic). Doesn't change my (decently sourced) facts.

[1] https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-huma...