Comparing the US to a totalitarian dictatorship, how edgy.

Calling complicated countries that are not the US a totalitarian dictatorship, how edgy.

And OP says the US doesn't have propaganda all over.

is this a joke? What's created public support for invasion countries all over the world in the past decades, if not propaganda from the military industrial complex?

Have you read any piece of international news recently that's not about how bad Russia or China is?

Does the US Government need to always have unanimous public support for their wars? Come on.

The Reagan administration’s indirect war efforts in Latin America were forced underground (“clandestine”) due to public opposition.

unanimous support or not, we are talking about whether propaganda exists. Leading up to the Iraq war, pro war was the only narrative reported by mainstream media

Comparing two party dictatorship to one party dictatorship, ftfy

This might sound like a quip but is it even wrong? Every wonk acknowledges that third party votes are likely to be wasted. And people get mad at you if you “protest vote”. How is that not an effective duopoly?

> that third party votes are likely to be wasted

Until they're not. There's a pretty reasonable assumption of nonviolent transfer of power to the third/fourth party should R/D lose. I cannot safely say the same about VN or CN

> Until they're not.

Aha. I see. Good refutation.

China is indeed less democratic than America. I agree. But you haven’t provided a counter-argument to the claim in this subthread.

Duopoly and dictatorships are different. The US government is always controlled by one of two political parties but that doesn't make it a dictatorship.

If every option you have is oppression, what is the point of calling it not a dictatorship? Life is shit regardless, you may as well live where it is cheap.

I guess this has less to do with the number of parties, more to do with separation of powers, horizontally via branches of the government and vertically through local autonomy, and perhaps free press

And the identity of those two parties has changed over time- when a party loses touch with its base, it can and will be replaced.

you can say the same thing about a single party system, each administration is different

And dynasties… people have kids and die.

cronyism is still slightly better than bloodline, and not worse than random selection, I mean democracy. Politicians don't spend all of their office time running instead of doing work.

> and not worse than random selection, I mean democracy.

Not worse based on what?

> Politicians don't spend all of their office time running instead of doing work.

Of course not. They just spend a ton of time on the phone with the people who are their actual constituents, i.e. their donors.

“Two party dictatorship”.

No, I was using the US & Canada as a comparison. Much much worse pollution ( I left Saigon with sores on my throat from the air pollution), much much worse propagand as in performative cultural demonstrations in the square daily, tore down all the old monuments and erected new ones of their "Savior" Ho Chi Minh (and others). Fake "art" that demonstrates cultural values they want to force on people.