Liberals are unable to grasp “leader does good things and is beloved for it” because none of their leaders ever get around to the first part.
I’ll go a step further and say that it seems like liberals actually hate the idea of someone getting elected by promising to do what the people want and then actually doing it. Deep down liberals really don’t even actually like democracy
Yes but Traore wasn’t elected
Which is why he is able to do the things he does. Elections in Africa are too easy for the West with its vast financial resources, its global media apparatus, and its NGOs to manipulate and control, especially in countries where compradors are deeply embedded in the institutions. It may not seem ideal to us but the reality is that only a leader who comes to power with popular support while circumventing the colonized electoral and political systems that exist in these countries can bring a real change in direction. In practice this usually means a military coup since the military is best positioned in these countries to do this: they are the only ones with the organization, the manpower and the material resources to achieve a revolutionary takeover. There are plenty historical examples: Nasser, Gaddafi, Sankara, and now Traoré.
Yep
For liberals, democracy means “they have general elections”.
Leftists use a more general definition: a government working for the rights and material interests of the people.
That can be accomplished through general elections, but it’s by no means limited to that. It’s usually not the best method near the beginning of a revolution.
Personally, i dont agree with either of those definitions, but im still a major Traore stan.
Not that it makes a difference, but I’m kind of curious for your preferred definition.
Ya know, its something I think about a lot. Not sure I could give my own answer right at the moment. Definitely isnt the idealist liberal version though. I think its interesting to think about where “democracy” fits in the base/superstructure “spectrum”. Is it a characteristic that creates a freer more socialist society, or is it an outcome of one?
Makes it interesting to see what traore is gonna be able to do, I’m watching it closely because it’ll probably offer answers to some of these questions. Traore and the Burkinabe people have been keen on a Sankara 2.0 and they’ve learned their fucking lesson. They believe in themselves and if Traore can fucking survive, West Africa is going to be one of the first places to thoroughly shed their Western brainworms and do it fast (10 years if they develop rapidly). I think Russia and China both see it worthwhile to work with AES for mutual benefit.
Is this not pretty much the MTW take?
“We aren’t going to see a revolution and implementation of socialism in the imperial core/most industrialized areas. It is much more likely tohappen at the edges of the empire, where capitalism is present but weak. We have seen this in Russia, China, and pretty much everywhere people succeeded boverthrowing capitalism (regardless of whether you agree with the decisions that were made after/since.”
So yeah China is the most important country right now “we are entering a Chinese century” yes sure, but AES is getting very important to socialism, very quickly.
Anyway, got a bit off topic…
Crystallizing thoughts into words is a good exercise—I find it forces me to fully mature my ideas.
It’s okay, expected even, to create an imperfect definition on your first try; we can workshop it! Would you add or change something to mine?
Alternatively, in practical rather than theoretical terms, what could Traore do to make his state democratic?
Edit: Sorry, not trying to grill you, comrade. You can consider this a question posed to the community at large.
another L for voooooters
Another W for political-power-grows-out-of-the-barrel-of-the-gun enthusiasts
It’s pretty clear that if the elections were held next month, you could have thousands of election monitors and they would still see no irregularities as he won >80% of the vote.
I don’t disagree
They really don’t. At the heart of liberalism is a deep elitism which is necessary because their society is inherently stratified. I still remember when they blamed “stupid poor people” for the election of Trump and argued for restricting the franchise (in 2016, when Trump lost the popular vote and only became president based on a ruling by 9 unelected bureaucrats).
Leaders “doing” things for their constituents? Sorry, but that’s too much politics in my politics for my taste.
Having net-positive favorability is authoritarian. Having any chance of being reelected after taking office demonstrates a dangerous thirst for power.
how a russia backed wasp ruined my picnic
CFR’s Obadare argued that, while many Africans were rightly frustrated by the “lethargy” of the continent’s democratic systems, Traoré’s emerging popularity was “far more sinister”.
“There is this knee-jerk and robotic anti-westernism that means once someone shows up to say they hate the west, we automatically believe in that person.”
“Africans are robots that must be programmed to dislike the people that enslaved and colonized them.”
It is a reductionist cliche to hate the people who have exploited and oppressed you for centuries. Be original, people!
Come on guys. What did the West ever do to Africa to deserve this kind of treatment?? It’s completely unfair
Take it on the good nature of people who don’t see you as human
What this stupid fuck fails to see is not only is it past and present but the future of this continent is FUCKED. FUCKED! You know why? Because a climate catastrophe will absolutely devastate this continent and the angelic westerners he wants suck off are largely responsible. Fuuuuuuuuuuck offffff
Ironically, global warming could green the Sahara.
“I can’t believe the people that have been brutally exploitated for centuries don’t like their oppressors!! Clearly it’s just their programming to hate the west, there’s definitely no legitimate reason they would be anti-western!”
“Maybe we should just inform them how much more civilised we are than them, that should do it!”
liberals really do believe that doing good things for people is cheating at politics
The amount of times I’ve heard people accuse leftist candidates of “buying votes” for offering stronger social services
They’re scared. They’re fucking scared.
May this man and his people remain safe and prosperous.
The worst things I’ve heard about Ibrahim Traore:
- Stopped illegal gold mining in Burkina Faso and instead started a gold reserve for the country /e I forgot to mention the nationalization of mines
- Tried to get roads built by contractors, and then used the money to buy the equipment and hire people to do the work without middle men
- Asked Putin for education instead of handouts
I’ve learned all of this through youtube shorts, but it can’t be worse than the AI generated and narrated “reddit” posts
The one thing that’s hard for me to ignore is the massacre of the Fulani village mentioned by Human Rights Watch. I don’t know what his personal role was in all of that, but it’s definitely upsetting. Still, I’m not going to throw out all my support just because there was chaos at the start of building a free state.
That’s fair
If nothing else this proves that the global south is catching up on the propaganda war, I had to search for the spesific name of the village before I found the Human Rights Watch report instead of generic western media agit prop
As always, critical support for anyone struggling against the colonialist and imperialist forces (and uncritical support for the struggle against France)
Were those the ISIS fighters I heard about?
Edit: 🙁
I also remember seeing something about the roles being all jumbled in that HRW article. I don’t want to say specifics to mislead people. People more knowledgeable than me, what resources are there outside if HRW for this?
We have a huge lack of sources in Africa, so we basically either get western propaganda like HRW, or Russian websites like Sputnik Africa or the million cutouts they’ve set up. If anyone has telegrams they’d recommend please let me know
As much as I’d like to think they were all ISIS fighters, the reality is that women and children were likely targeted too by government-aligned militias.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/12/burkina-faso-army-directs-ethnic-massacres
Looking for primary source evidence, I managed to find these videos (CW: corpses are shown) https://x.com/SimNasr/status/1899908842395181416
This proves that something did happen, but it’s hard to make sense of. What I really want to find is some knowledgeable commentary to contextualize this.
Someone will probably bring up the gay marriage ban proposal and attribute it to him.
That’s honestly one of the most hurtful propaganda vectors there is
“We legalized this 10 years ago and try to tolerate it, shame on you!”
Can I get more info on this?
It’s shitty that the west uses global south homophobia to justify imperialism, because Western colonialism often is the thing that brought wide-scale homophobic sentiment to these places to begin with
This mf is younger than me. Wtf am I doing with my life.
Buckle down, bucko! We’re bringing communism back to San Marino!
This propaganda is so obvious. Search his name on Google and all you get are western media smear pieces. Search him on Yandex and you get pieces by actual African and global south voices praising him for upholding and fulfilling the legacy of Thomas Sankara: https://africanvoiceonline.co.uk/a-monumental-tribute-ibrahim-traores-initiative-to-honor-thomas-sankara-and-redefine-african-heritage/
The West desperately wishes to do to him what they did to Sankara, and for the exact same reasons. Because he is breaking the West’s neo-colonial grip on Africa, inspiring a pan-African movement, and achieving real material development for his country. This is a cardinal sin as far as the mouthpieces of empire are concerned, therefore his image must be destroyed and he physically eliminated.
He’s also exposing the fact that the west is impoverishing the global south
What is yandex? An alternative search engine that doesn’t just search Western propaganda news outlets? Because that would be great if that’s a thing that exists.
Russian search engine
An alternative search engine that doesn’t just search Western propaganda news outlets?
Exactly.
Also does a bunch of other things but that’s not important right now.
Main thing is, it’s a search engine that is not censored by the West. Google for instance will simply never show you certain sites that have been deemed in the West to be enemy “disinformation”, instead it will spit out dozens upon dozens of clones of the same MSM articles on sensitive political topics.
I use Kagi, if you’re interested in alternate search engines. It’s a paid service, something I’m happy to pay for in the effort to de-google myself. It downranks results that are ad-driven or use trackers. In effect the results it gives can be very even handed.
"All socialists are deranged mindless zealot cultists like in warhammer who we can murder because they’re insane (caliper emoji)
“If you say absolutely anything about our red heifer apocalypse cult currently involved in carrying out a genocide, we’ll kill you because you’re a dangerous insane zealot”
“What do you mean they like him because he helps them?! He can’t do that! It’s cheating! Your supposed to trick them! Waaaahhh!!! No fair!!!”
We must protect this man, Burkina Faso is one of the few places from which any good news is coming out these days and I’m so happy for them. I gather that all the videos of him giving speeches in English are ai-translated but apparently they’re faithful translations (my French is not good enough to tell by myself) and dude is so smart, puts most other heads of state to absolute shame.
If anyone can point to which speeches/interviews of him were definitely conducted in English that would be dope. Not that a world leader has to speak English ofc but it’s for my own curiosity.
Inshallah the french never get to him
Here comes the lecture…
If the US Joint Chiefs announced a coup tomorrow, followed by the arrest of billionaires, nationalization of all corporation, medical care for all, open season on landlords, etc., USians would be dancing in the streets.
When he is assassinated he will be painted as a despot… By the ultimate despots. Fuck I hate how influential western media is
May he have the same blessing as Fidel and shrug off every attempt
https://theafricanhistory.com/3323 He is cathing up to Fidel
