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How Colombia Won the Fight with Trump
Democratism’s David Gold writes how a cowed and lazy media reported that the opposite happened
As the 100,000-odd readers of this Medium feed know, I occasional bring in work from other writers and thinkers. This week I’m reposting a terrific essay by David Gold of the nonprofit Democratism which explains how and why Colombia won its recent tangle with Trump and faulty way in which it was reported in the mainstream media.
Trump deported migrants in shackles aboard U.S. military planes. Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro turned the planes away, demanding dignity for deportees. Trump threatened severe tariffs, and Petro buckled. Or so we were told. Then the migrants were returned, unshackled, in Colombian planes.
Dictators gain and maintain power by convincing people that it’s hopeless to oppose them. The more hopeless people think it is, the more hopeless it becomes. Eventually, it can get pretty close to truly hopeless.
We don’t have to rush the process by uncritically accepting the aspiring dictator’s version of what happened every time someone stood up to him.
Trump’s dominance performance over the past ten days has featured warrantless searches and arrests of immigrants, who are then unnecessarily shackled…
