I'm not sure if people are aware but Justin Trudeau was a high school drama teacher before becoming the prime minister of Canada. Xi worked his way up from the bottom for 30 years before becoming the leader of China.
This is very upsetting to watch. Realistically though a bunch of girls and teenagers are not going to enact a revolution. The Iranian opposition is too fragmented, there is no leadership figure. The only thing that might happen is if these protests just keep dragging on to the point where some elements of the military might decide to launch a coup. However that could and likely would easily lead to a civil war, which would be a disaster for Iran.
I can't really blame young people for protesting, since the economic situation in Iran just keeps getting worst and worst over time. I also can't accept the excuses the current gov makes about foreign elements being behind everything. Then why can't foreign elements do the same to Russia or China ?
Obviously alot of young people seem to have serious grievances with the current gov and instead of trying to reform or attempting some type of dialog, they just keep deflecting and making typical excuses. Honestly if the current leadership were making the most pragmatic and feasible decisions, then Iran should easily be prospering, but it's not and currently the majority of Iranian are impoverished according to the governments own figures.
China is really messed up right now. They're still sticking with their ZERO Covid policy while most of the world has moved on. They're extremely strict and after 3 of lockdowns does it even make sense at this point ? I mean logically speaking they're annihilating their own economy right now.
See when it comes to democracy/pluralism vs authoritarianism, sure people won't always choose the right candidate for the job, but at the very least in a genuine democracy there's transparency/accountability and people can always protest for early elections or at the very least in a few years elect a new government to change policies.
In an authoritarian government it's just a matter of luck. If the leadership is pragmatic and highly intelligent then the country might outperform democracies where often times there's too much bickering / infighting and sometimes laws can't even get passed because of a deadlock with no clear party having a majority.
However as the famous saying goes "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" See the issue in an authoritarian regime is that the leadership or dictator might be prudent / wise when it comes to some subjects or for a certain period of time, but then if he makes a decision and the country is on the wrong course, often times there's no changing course.
See at the end of the day, people are just people everywhere. And for the most part people don't want to be told how to live their lives. Especially in society where the majority of people are literate and educated, a good government will impose the will of the people, not impose its will on the people' A good government should just do the basics, collect taxes, provide policing, security, military, build roads, bridges, infrastructure, healthcare, etc.
That's just my opinion on the subject, but regardless of where you stand on the matter, it's very telling that people often leave dictatorships to go to democracies but you rarely if ever hear about people fleeing a free and democratic country to go to live under an authoritarian regime.
