the problem with politics in the Arab world is that culture is upstream of politics

I wonder what MENA would look like without Islam

Mostly Christian, Zoroastrian, whatever existed before

All of North Africa used to be Christian and Jewish before the Islam problem

the Arabs have a very tribal culture. usually the only authority they can respect is wielded with an iron fist. it's not focused on everyone getting together and having a talk about their feelings, it's about one guy having the balls and power to tell everyone else "fuck you, this is what we're doing"

And Yemen used to be majority Jewish. Now it's 100% Muslim. The Jews didn't pack up and leave @Webley

such a culture is ill-suited for Western style representative democracies

it's the same problem Germany had post-WWI

they tried a republic, but the German people weren't used to it. naturally when problems arose, it was the first thing to go.

William L. Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich relates a memorable anecdote from when he talked to some German farmers in 1935. he asked them if they were at all worried about losing their freedoms. one farmer said to him something to the effect of "sure, under the Weimar Republic we had plenty of freedoms: the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to assembly, the freedom to starve..."

most of these guys didn't grow up with the republic in the first place, and at any rate weren't the products of a culture that valued democratic values. it wasn't that long ago that Germany had been an empire under a Kaiser. nominally, it had a parliament, but as in Russia's case, it was a mostly ornamental affair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA__rwBKzSw

Love this one.

Sieg Heil, niggas

Have you wished Uncle Adolf happy birthday yet?

Can someone check my twitter page and let me know if it still works? It could be my internet

Please?

Mine is being autistic as well

Nothing new is loading

Mine says I can't retweet but can still like things

@Oliver Starley Why on earth would you wish a genocidal maniac a happy birthday? To be funny or to own the libs?

'Tis but a jest

Oy vey, I just ate Hebrew national hotdogs at my school barbecue

Waking Up The West in 15 mins

𝕳𝖆𝖕𝖕𝖞 𝕭𝖎𝖗𝖙𝖍𝖉𝖆𝖞 𝕳𝖎𝖙𝖑𝖊𝖗

I only see question marks

wew

Ｈａｐｐｙ　Ｂｉｒｔｈｄａｙ　Ｈｉｔｌｅｒ

That one I can see

We need a certain flag emote

I am most inclined to agree

we need more

many more

@Whiskey-Vargas I think it's just your internet

<:3RFlag:437034578964905985> <:Merchant:437035074249162772> <:ViolenceHasEscalated:437035264838336513>

I can see it

Good old zerg

19 years since Columbine

129 since a certain Austrian was born

Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the Waco Siege. Surprised I heard no one mention that, not even Wikipedia on their homepage where it says "this day in history"

I've been having to explain that to my friends because it was before our time