this could be explained by a disconnect between commentators and policymakers on this point but
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specifically the celebration of democracy, a policy change, easy to uphold as an unalloyed good because of the idea that it distributes power to the masses
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but then everyone's shocked when these countries finally get "liberated" then turn around and vote for islamists and shit
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the better approach if you're into this sort of thing and want it to succeed is to put away democracy promotion (policy) and switch to liberalism promotion (world-principle)
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treat it explicitly like a faith, define the Enlightened Catechism or whatever and impose it by the sword
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there's this notion that principles of liberalism/secularism/etc emerged directly from protestantism (pro-prot position) or else as a reaction to the violence of the religious wars (anti-prot)
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my model is more that it was a reaction to the breaking of a shared basis of truth, an attempt to reformulate christian ethics such that they don't depend on a god
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and thus it is a completely separate belief system in direct competition with others. this is why pius ix declared liberalism incompatible with catholicism, he understood this perfectly
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personally I don't think liberalism is a very good belief system, at least not for present times, as evidenced by its failure to hold society together, and it's time to look for alternatives
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but if you were a liberal democracy lover and wanted to see it ascendant over other regional cultures and religions the conversion mindset is the one to take
End of conversation
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