Hatemongers often erode checks on misrule and corruption
In effect, he gave Tunisians permission to be openly racist. Suddenly, many felt free to use slurs that were previously taboo, including one for black people that means, literally, “slave”. Most locals interviewed byin the street in August used this term. “The slaves are replacing us,” said Nizar, a furniture repair man in Tunis, the capital. “They are taking all the jobs.” Worse, “They stand on the balcony in their underwear drinking alcohol.
Before the speech, Mr Saied was unpopular, thanks to a dire economy. After it, he appears to have won more support. Polls are unreliable, but one in November gave him less than 30% backing; a different one in June found that 69% would vote for him. Nationalism can be positive or negative. The positive sort—love of one’s country—can be a force for good. “It is the strongest foundation for solidarity between people who might otherwise have few things in common,” writes Yascha Mounk in “The Great Experiment: How to Make Diverse Democracies Work”. “At its best, it can inspire a white Christian living in rural Tennessee to feel special concern for a Hispanic atheist living in Los Angeles—and vice versa.
The main drawback of paranoid nationalism is obvious. It is terrible for its targets, whether they be immigrants in Tunisia or Ukrainians whose land has been sown with mines. Neighbours of paranoid nationalist regimes have cause to be nervous, as anywhere that shares a border with Russia or China can attest.
Appeals to nationalism are effective because they are simple to understand, and far more emotive than any bread-and-butter policy proposal. “Vote for me and I’ll make incremental improvements to schools” is a fine platform but a dull slogan. “The tribe next door are attacking us!” is an electrifying one.The enemy can take many forms. It could be immigrants, as in Tunisia. Or a geopolitical rival: Chinese and Russian propaganda constantly demonise America.
His choice of bogeyman is shrewd. The United States really did sponsor violent revolutionaries in his country—four decades ago. That threat is long gone, but Mr Ortega still claims that his opponents are “agents of the Yankee empire” who “stopped being Nicaraguans long ago”. In February he had more than 300 dissidents stripped of their citizenship.
s that received money from abroad. In 2022 he broadened the law’s scope. Now the state can declare any individual or group to be a “foreign agent” if it deems them to be “under foreign influence”. So-called “foreign agents” can be banned from any kind of political activity, or simply shut down.
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