What do the supporters of dictatorships owe to those criminal regimes they support?

On social media, it has become common for certain people to ask you what you owe a democratic country for supporting it.

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These kinds of questions are not only asked by anonymous tweeters: also by some who present themselves as journalists. Coincidentally, many of those who ask these questions have no qualms about publishing messages of support or whitewashing dictatorships like Iran, a regime that supports and finances terrorism in several countries and that harshly persecutes Christians within its borders. We are talking about an Islamist regime that hangs homosexuals from cranes and subjects all women to purely degrading discrimination.

Admittedly, questions like "What do you owe Israel?" are very revealing. Perhaps some people are incapable of conceiving that a democrat would support a democratic country that has suffered an attack, such as Ukraine or Israel, without receiving anything in return. The logical question would be: What do they get for supporting dictatorships like Iran, Russia, Cuba, China, Venezuela or North Korea?

I gain nothing from supporting Ukraine and Israel. I support these countries out of decency, because both are under attack by terrorist regimes like those in power in Russia and Iran. To support a dictatorship, of course, you have to be well paid by it (how much money compensates for the discredit of supporting a criminal regime?) or be a complete idiot. Perhaps that is why fans of dictatorships are unable to understand that someone would support a democratic country in exchange for nothing.

In any case, I think it is time to hit the table against the supporters of dictatorships. We have been too tolerant of people who support anti-democratic regimes in which any of us would end up in prison or shot in the back of the head for simply opposing the power. When someone supports a dictatorship, we must deduce that they intend to implement something like that in our country, a regime in which dissent is punished with prison or death, as is the case in Iran. How can we be tolerant and politely polite with those who intend something like that? Why should we be cordial and respectful with those who whitewash and support terrorist states?

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Photo: Morteza Nikoubazl.