Stupid headlines like this in the free world, and the thinking behind them, are why dictators like Lukashenko still bother with 'democracy theater'. Don't use the vocabulary of democracy for authoritarian states. https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1292813712324206592

Western media & politicians talking about "popularity" or "landslides" in police states is absurd and damaging. Call them what they are. Lukashenko is a dictator. There weren't "irregularities" or "disputed" votes. It was a sham and anyone saying otherwise is complicit.

A big part of the success of modern dictatorships is that the free world goes along with the democracy charade instead of treating them like the repressive rogue states they are. If they admit the truth, there would be pressure to act.

The western media still refuses to develop the vocabulary to discuss authoritarians accurately--calling lies lies, repression repression--a weakness that has had dramatic consequences at home as well.

And as I've written about extensively, when you stop caring about democracy and human rights abroad, you soon stop caring at home. The values are universal, not selective. This is why "America First" ends in fascism (when it doesn't begin there).

Listen to the Belarusian people. And watch, so they and their dictator know the world is watching. Every democracy should let Lukashenko (and his enablers, Putin and Xi Jinping) know there will be consequences for a massacre.