[Citation needed]

Policy questions of all sorts, we can all discuss: that's called democracy.

But when someone promises to end your participation, you have surrendered all agency to them which has never worked out well in history.

well I mean, the choices war to have a Stalinist style strongman to pull things like this, vs a Marxist style / "Committee of Public Safety" type power cabal scapegoating all things white, hetero, male, and nativist. Say what you will about Trump but he heard the people crying out while the other side was deaf.

Communist countries at least could house everyone. They more or less had to, because most of them are too cold in winter for the homeless to survive. Education was generally free and quite good. Etc...

But... my dad was dragged off one day and beaten black and blue by the secret police for engaging in "anti-communist capitalist activities". He was tutoring students after school for a bit of cash.

Meanwhile, in the world's richest third-world country, the United States, people with the wrong skin colour are being dragged out of their homes and thrown into concentration camps in another country. Breaking a leg can bankrupt you.

You hear stories of NK refugees hating their new life in SK because it's too competitive and they can't keep up with the constant go-go-go business culture.

I also saw smuggled(!) videos of children in NK picking up individual grains of rice that fell in between the railway tracks at the local shunting yard. So you know... hustle culture, or that.

I personally remember driving to a shopping centre and standing in line outside right before it opened so my Mom could buy me rain boots. Her friend that worked there had called her at 6am telling her to hurry because they had them in stock for the first (and only) time that year.

But... on my recent holiday to the US I was shocked to see how tense police officers looked compared to anywhere else in the world. I witnessed a traffic accident, and the cops that turned up looked like they were ready to draw their weapons and start blasting at any second. They were all kitted out in body armour and had their hands on their weapons at all times. Scanning the crowd non-stop. Where I live, cops are friendly and will high-five my kid and pose for selfies. The US feels more like an outdoor prison to me.