> I don't understand why Americans continue believing that democracy is the only way for every population in the world

It's not Americans, it's educated people who believe in personal liberties.

> Why would Russians want democracy

Because they would have a choice if they want to be robbed blind by a bunch of oligarchs, and if they want to be sanctioned off from the world because the supreme leader decided he wants to kill and maim a million Russians to achieve nothing more than killing Ukrainian civillians.

> There have been zero democratic impulses in their societies across hundreds, even thousands of years

Absurdly bad historic revisionism. Russia had democratic impulses in 1917 and 1990, both hijacked and went nowhere. China's 1911 revolution was also overtly democratic in nature, but was also hijacked.

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spaceman_2020 2 days ago | parent [-]

> It's not Americans, it's educated people who believe in personal liberties.

I find this attitude deeply parochial and colonial. Who are these so-called "educated people" (most of whom would be in western developed nations) to decide what sort of governance system a country should have?

The democratic revolution in America and France came from its own people. If the Russians or the Chinese want democracy, they'll get it on their own

Western hand-wringing about the "lack of democracy" in foreign (usually poorer) countries is just concern-colonialism. I think most of these educated people should focus on their own countries and let the rest of the world be

	▲	sofixa 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> I find this attitude deeply parochial and colonial. Who are these so-called "educated people" (most of whom would be in western developed nations) to decide what sort of governance system a country should have? Do you think only people in western countries want a democratic system of governenance for their country? > If the Russians or the Chinese want democracy, they'll get it on their own Both of them tried it, but were denied.
	▲	wiseowise 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> If the Russians or the Chinese want democracy, they'll get it on their own There's literally a saying about USSR (which by proxy now applies to Russia) which roughly translates to: half the population in prison and another half as guards. You can't get it when army, police and whole government apparatus is aimed against it. Times have changed, people are not willing to die en masse for a change when one single cop can kill a crowd. They literally killed 132 hostages during a saving operation [1], how many do you think will die when they start shooting the crowds? 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis