@dutch_connection_uk@mastodo.neoliber.al @carnage4life@mas.to Americans didn't learn anything from seeing Zuma because most Americans have never heard of Jacob Zuma, let alone could identify what country he led, let alone can articulate why he'd be an object lesson for the US. Same goes for Allende, Orban, and countless others.
I lived in a corrupt country where the banking system had been greylisted for money laundering and an investigative journalist had been murdered in a car bombing for refusing to stop reporting on corruption. I felt like I was living 5 years ahead of America, at most. That was well before the last US election. The gap is a lot smaller now.
What was striking to me is how people living within a corrupt society go right on acting like everything is fine and normal except they quietly have no faith in the "justice" system or political class, completely disengage from politics because they are convinced at best it's useless and at worst very dangerous, just assume most of their taxes will be misappropriated to line pockets, and feel like a sucker if they don't treat turn around and likewise steal from people more vulnerable than them and rely on the general lawlessness to protect them from consequences.
Normalizing corruption at the top is poisonous to the national soul. It's a dark way to live, even if you're never a target of political harassment. I got out as fast as I could. I didn't even experience being at the short end of the stick in a corrupt society, which god knows has to be much worse. Americans who benefit from privilege have not begun to grasp what is happening. But there is no such thing as being above being affected by being inside a corrupt system.
Dare Obasanjo
D.C.U.K.