Are the UK and China Authoritarian? (programming.dev)

submitted 7 months ago by CoderSupreme@programming.dev to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I've often heard that China is authoritarian, particularly due to events like the suppression of student protests in Hong Kong. However, I'm curious about more recent examples. Conversely, I've been hearing about the UK's Online Safety Act being used to target Wikipedia editors and silence protests, which raises questions about authoritarian tendencies there as well. What specific examples do you have that demonstrate whether these countries are authoritarian or not?

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[-] digdilem@lemmy.ml -5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It is a democracy, yes.

The government is elected to represent its people. Annoying to us as it is, a tiny percentage of people [1] signing an online petition does not represent the people. There are an awful lot who think this new law is a good thing. [2]

[1] Yes. Fight me on this. 404k signatures out of 70million population = 0.58% opposed this enough to sign it.

[2] Mostly parents imo, and people who don't understand the significant fraud risk involved. Those who haven't been impacted yet, and those who enjoy other people being upset. Yes, I think this is a stupid law and the methods used even worse, but that doesn't stop a democracy being a democracy

[-] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 11 points 7 months ago

You can actually use syntax for your references, btw. Lemmy has that functionality (though I can never remember it).

Either way, the UK is a democracy purely for the bourgeoisie, the proletariat isn't given legitimate control over the politcal process. It's a bourgeois dictatorship.

[-] Edie@lemmy.ml 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

^[text]

[-] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 7 points 7 months ago

Thanks!

this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2025

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