Mastodawn

Aral Balkan May 29, 2023

What’s happening in Turkey today is not some exotic oddity. It’s a forewarning of exactly what can (and is) happening in the West.

Does this timeline seem familiar?

1. Neoliberals get elected. They fill their coffers while alienating a whole swath of society who they deem too far beneath them to matter.

2. A religious fundamentalist arises who speaks to those marginalised people, telling them they’ve been wronged (they have) and that he will make it right.

3. He gets elected.

4. He stays.

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DHeadshot's Alt May 30, 2023

@aral 5. The only competitor in the election panders to the right-wing nationalists, so any attempt to oust him would get someone worse anyway?

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Aral Balkan

@ddlyh Let’s do a little experiment: under your real name (the one on your passport), reply to this with a post that insults both Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu.

Then let’s get you a ticket to Turkey and see which one you get arrested for.

At that point you should have the same understanding I do about which is worse, even if the alternative isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination.