[TeMPOraL]

> I've heard scary things about Poland.

Poland is fine, don't listen to the bullshit in mass media. That was just some noise of little importance to anything whatsoever, perpetuated because the party that lost last elections wasn't too happy about that fact.

[isido]

In Poland, the ruling party (Party of Law and Justice) is a right-wing, populist party, which has tried to nominate/replace judges and to some extent, control the media. EU is has voiced concerns, but Poland's democratic processes still work, as evidenced in the recent recall of controversial abortion bill.

A Similar, but perhaps further evolved situation is in Hungary, where right-wing populists have held the power for quite a long. But even in Hungrary the rulings party's power is not absolute, at the moment, and you don't get thrown into jail for having wrong opinions.

[trendia]

> That was just some noise of literally zero importance to aything whatsoever, perpetuated because the party that lost last elections wasn't too happy about that fact.

That seems eerily similar to what happened in the US.

[saboot]

Try RTFA:

The government’s attempts to undermine the country’s constitutional tribunal, for instance, set off an investigation by the European Union. The resulting report warned that the government’s actions “endanger not only the rule of law, but also the functioning of the democratic system.”

[TeMPOraL]

I live in Poland, I know this stuff first-hand.

[mtgx]

So the proposal to ban abortions was just a lie?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/05/polish-governm...

What about the story that Poland is one of the few European countries that want access to encrypted communications?

https://www.euractiv.com/section/social-europe-jobs/news/fiv...

[nolok]

How is any of it undemocratic ? If people elect candidates who are anti abortion and pro surveillance, then being democratic means those laws should happen.

"Democracy" doesn't mean "they do what you agree with" nor even "they do what's best for their citizen", it means the citizens elects the one they want, even if it's the guy whose policies are so bad he's going to send them backward 20 years.

[AnimalMuppet]

> How is any of it undemocratic ? If people elect candidates who are anti abortion and pro surveillance, then being democratic means those laws should happen.

See, this is why the US is supposed to be ruled by a constitution, rather than just be a democracy. The constitution says that there are things you can't do, even if you have a majority (unless you have enough of a majority to amend the constitution).

Now, granted, that's been eroded under the last few presidents, with (probably) worse to come under Trump. But this is why it matters that we have a constitution that limits what a president can do.

[scotty79]

If people elect candidates who are pro-totalitarian surveillance state and limitation of individual freedoms, then being democratic means those laws should happen as well?

Basically if people elect candidates that want to kill democracy then the democratic thing would be to let it die?

[int_19h]

When people in the West talk about "democracy", what they usually really mean is "liberal democracy".

[TeMPOraL]

> So the proposal to ban abortions was just a lie?

Yes. I.e. not the proposal itself, but the stories about it being likely to be implemented - yes. The "Black Protest" thing was a media-inspired panic.

> What about the story that Poland is one of the few European countries that want access to encrypted communications?

That is indeed worrying, but I don't see anything different here than happens in many other western countries.

[true_religion]

They proposed a ban and backed down on public pressure. That does not seeem anti democracy.