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Your favorite dictator and why?

24

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,439 ✭✭✭corner of hells


    An interesting character who didn't quite make the top spot was Stalin's pal Beria , who after a glittering career overseeing the expansion of Gulags , running the NKVD during the war and generally killing well just about anyone who Stalin thought didn't fit in.

    Responsible for partisans and the NKVD during and overseeing the atomic bomb program after the war.

    He was the full package , a sexual predator and and was described at Yalta as "our Himmler" by Stalin and was eventually executed by an NKVD General.

    Worth reading up on.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 6,571 ✭✭✭CalamariFritti


    In light-hearted sense it has to be Gaddafi. Not sure how much of that is true or not, never been to Lybia and you dont know what to believe in the first place anymore, but apparently Gaddafis Lybia was quite open and developed and the people didn't do all that badly. In any case he had style, proper Bond villain type of dictator with mad uniforms and elite amazon squads.

    Fidel has to be another one. Yes Cubas was and is poor but that was mostly down to harsh embargoes and a cold war imposed on them. The guy didn't do anything terrible as dictators go and genuinely wanted a good progressive society.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,384 ✭✭✭✭Kermit.de.frog


    Any dictators who were actually not crazy?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,943 ✭✭✭✭the purple tin


    SafeSurfer wrote: »
    Always had a soft spot for Gadaffi. I believe he was royally f*cked over by the French, British and Americans. Even after paying billions in compensation to Lockerbie victims families and giving up his WMD.

    A UN sanctioned no fly zone was illegally used to bomb his supporters.

    His brutal killing without trial and the reaction to it by Hilary Clinton makes her look unfit to lead the worlds most powerful democracy.
    [youttube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlz3-OzcExI[/youtube]
    I think Hillary Clinton would make a good dictator given half the chance. She comes across like a total psycho.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,021 ✭✭✭lifeandtimes


    Everyone of you doors have forgotten about the wizard of oz.

    The munching kingdom flourished when he took power.

    He is only second to Willy wonka though. That guy knows how-to make people work for their pay


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  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,201 ✭✭✭Doltanian


    The Saudi King, recently allowed women to drive, what a progressive he is.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,452 ✭✭✭✭The_Valeyard


    Any dictators who were actually not crazy?

    Putin?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,669 ✭✭✭✭RobbingBandit


    Putin isn't a dictator he's yours and mine comrade he's a cool dude. He fought a bear too.

    Yeah I don't think they're buying it, send in the KGB sleeper agents.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 99,687 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus always gets an honourable mention.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,275 ✭✭✭Your Face


    Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus always gets an honourable mention.

    I heard great things about that young upstart Sulla.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 967 ✭✭✭Neames


    My current boss.

    Because all of his ideas are good and it's very important that all of his instructions are carried out completely.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 99,687 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    For the effect on a country in industrial times Francisco Solano López and Eliza Lynch stand out.

    According to some estimates, Paraguay's pre-war population of 525,000 was reduced to 221,000, of which only 28,000 were men.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,448 ✭✭✭✭Grayson


    The great Turkmenbashi. He's dead now, but here's an old article about him.
    http://www.neatorama.com/2007/06/11/craziest-dictator-ever-turkmenbashi/



    The airport in the capital city of Asgabat was renamed … Turkmenbashi.

    › Dozens of streets and schools across the country are now called … Turkmenbashi.

    › In 1998 a 670-pound meteorite landed in Turkmenistan. Scientist named it … Turkmenbashi.

    › The name of the large port city Krasnovodsk was changed to … Turkmenbashi. › The New president also renamed the months. January is now called … Turkmenbashi. April is called Gurbansoltan edzhe, after his mother. (Bread, once called chorek, is now also called gurbansoltan edzhe.)

    The image of Turkmenbashi’s face is used as the logo of all three state-run TV stations, and is legally required to appear on every clock and watch face as well as on every bottle of Turkmenbashi brand vodka.

    › In 2001 Turkmenbashi wrote a book – a combination of poetry, revisionist history, and moral guidelines – called Ruhnama (Persian for “Book of the Soul”). It is now required to be prominently displayed in all bookstores and government offices, and next to the Koran in mosques. Memorization of the book is required to graduate from school and to get a state job or even a driver’s license. Schoolchildren spend one entire day every week reading it. Since all Soviet-era book have been banned, most Turkmen libraries have only the Ruhnama and other books written by Turkmenbashi. In 2006 Turkmenbashi made reading the Ruhnama a requirement for entry into heaven.

    › In 2004 Turkmenbashi banned newscasters from wearing make-up. Why? He said he couldn’t tell the male and female news readers apart and that made him uncomfortable.

    › After he quit smoking in 1997, he banned smoking for everybody else, too (but only in public places).

    › In 2006, to mark Turkmenistan’s independence day, Turkmenbashi gave each female resident a gift of 200,000 manat (about $38).


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,311 Mod ✭✭✭✭mzungu


    I wouldn't say "favourite" as such, but the one who interests me the most is Stalin. Others would include the likes of Saparmurat Niyazov (Turkmenistan) and Nicolae Ceausescu (Romania).


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,748 ✭✭✭Avatar MIA


    Mariano Rajoy

    I like my dictators to be current


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,311 Mod ✭✭✭✭mzungu


    Grayson wrote: »
    › After he quit smoking in 1997, he banned smoking for everybody else, too (but only in public places).
    A bit of a visionary too. That was a good seven years before Micheál Martin did it here. Then everybody started doing it. :pac::pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 750 ✭✭✭Duzzie


    Robert Mugabe. Gradually pushing the country back into the stone age whilst lining his own pockets and those of his political cronies.:mad::mad:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,393 ✭✭✭MonkieSocks


    Idi Amin Dada of Uganda, played brilliantly by Forrest Whittaker in the film The Last King Of Scotland.


    This guy was much better in the part imo :)

    Raid On Etebbe 1976





    =(:-) Me? I know who I am. I'm a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude (-:)=



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 925 ✭✭✭BuboBubo


    Genghis Khan.

    Watched a documentary about him years ago, fascinating stuff.

    His legacy lives on, apparently one in 200 men in the world are descended from him.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,568 ✭✭✭BillyBobBS


    President Assad.

    He's still there Hillary you loon.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 382 ✭✭Santan


    what was the doc called if you can remember on Genghis Khan


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,735 ✭✭✭Vincent Vega


    Idi Amin Dada of Uganda, played brilliantly by Forrest Whittaker in the film The Last King Of Scotland.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,990 ✭✭✭✭Purple Mountain


    begbysback wrote: »
    Maggie Thatcher - the great Iron Lady

    Why - cause she was tough
    What does it say about me that when I was a 3 year old, my granny's pet name for me was 'Maggie Thatcher'!

    To thine own self be true



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,582 ✭✭✭Irish_rat


    Comrade Napoleon, Father of All Animals


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 598 ✭✭✭Tigerbaby


    Lord Vetinari


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,043 ✭✭✭Berserker


    Reading a book about Gaddafi and he was as crazy as they come. He was allocated fifteen minutes to speak at the UN in 2009. He ended up talking for one hundred minutes or so and his interpreter quit due to exhaustion in the middle of his speech. No other world leader could do that. Would have been epic if he was still around now and Trump had to deal with him. On a serious note, some of the crimes he committed were beyond shocking.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,220 ✭✭✭cameramonkey


    My all time favorite is Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov Türkmenbaşy father of the Turkemen people. He is fairly recent but of a different class to many dictators. Some of his more memorable acts were to renamed the town of Krasnovodsk "Turkmenbashi" after himself, and renamed schools, airports and a meteorite after himself and members of his family. The main airport in Ashgabat was named after him , I think he may have even renamed the days of the week after his family.


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov#Death


    This from Wiki
    "Niyazov banned the use of lip syncing at public concerts in 2005 as well as sound recordings at "musical performances on state holidays, in broadcasts by Turkmen television channels, at all cultural events organized by the state... in places of mass assembly and at weddings and celebrations organised by the public," citing a negative effect on the development of musical arts incurred by the use of recorded music.[27][28]
    Niyazov banished dogs from the capital Ashgabat because of their "unappealing odour."[28]
    According to the Ashgabat correspondent of Turkmenistan.ru, right-hand-drive imported cars converted to left-hand-drive were banned due to a perceived increased risk in accidents.[29]
    Niyazov requested that a "palace of ice", or indoor ice skating rink, be built near the capital, so that those living in the desert country could learn to skate. The rink was built in 2008 and is located near the new Turkmen State Medical University.[30]
    After having to quit smoking in 1997 due to his resultant heart surgery, he banned smoking in all public places and ordered all government employees to follow suit.[31] Chewing tobacco on Turkmen soil was later banned as well.[32]
    He outlawed opera, ballet and circuses in 2001 for being "decidedly unturkmen-like".[33]
    In February 2004, he decreed that men should no longer wear long hair or beards.[34]
    He banned news reporters and anchors from wearing make-up on television, because he said he found it difficult to distinguish male anchors from female anchors.[31]
    Gold teeth were discouraged in Turkmenistan after Niyazov suggested that the populace chew on bones to strengthen their teeth and lessen the rate at which they fall out. He said:

    I watched young dogs when I was young. They were given bones to gnaw to strengthen their teeth. Those of you whose teeth have fallen out did not chew on bones. This is my advice..."

    Global Witness, a London-based human rights organisation, reported that money under Niyazov's control and held overseas may be in excess of US$3 billion, of which between $1.8–$2.6 billion was allegedly situated in the Foreign Exchange Reserve Fund at Deutsche Bank in Germany. The German's know a good dictator when they see one.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 947 ✭✭✭hytrogen


    Brian Boru, that Limerick road is a mare of a trek even on a good day to Clontarf...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,564 ✭✭✭Sweetemotion


    Berserker wrote: »
    Reading a book about Gaddafi and he was as crazy as they come. He was allocated fifteen minutes to speak at the UN in 2009. He ended up talking for one hundred minutes or so and his interpreter quit due to exhaustion in the middle of his speech. No other world leader could do that. Would have been epic if he was still around now and Trump had to deal with him. On a serious note, some of the crimes he committed were beyond shocking.

    How was he as crazy as they come and what are these beyond shocking crimes he committed?


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 947 ✭✭✭hytrogen


    Berserker wrote:
    Reading a book about Gaddafi and he was as crazy as they come. He was allocated fifteen minutes to speak at the UN in 2009. He ended up talking for one hundred minutes or so and his interpreter quit due to exhaustion in the middle of his speech. No other world leader could do that. Would have been epic if he was still around now and Trump had to deal with him. On a serious note, some of the crimes he committed were beyond shocking.
    You wouldn't have the migrant "crisis" today if he were around either, those wearhouses were part of the foundation to our European Empire lest we forget.. bloody moochers


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