(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . What do Uganda, Iran, and the US have in common? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-06-03 There are many ways to group countries in the world. One would be to list the tolerant in one column and the intolerant in another. The line between ‘live and let live,’ and ‘we will tell you how to live,’ is stark. How countries treat their LGBTQ communities is one way to sort them. While the liberal West has realized that sexual orientation is innate and no threat to anyone - consensual, adult, gay sex is a crime in 68 countries, including Uganda and Iran. In America, gay sex was illegal in some jurisdictions as late as 2003. Then the Supreme Court (with three Justices dissenting) invalidated anti-sodomy laws in Lawrence vs. Texas. At the time, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri prohibited same-sex couples from engaging in oral and anal sex. While Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Michigan, Utah, and Virginia also banned it for heterosexual couples. But what the Supreme Court grants, it also takes away. The 2023 version of the unaccountable nine includes six prurient moralists whose commitment to the citizens’ private individual liberties is shaky. The Court squashed Roe — could Lawrence follow? Maybe. If conservative evangelicals realize their ambitions, SCOTUS could decide that the US will walk in lockstep with the stone-age autocrats ruling Uganda and Iran. So far, the homophobic Bible-thumpers have not asked for gays to be tortured, flogged, or executed — but I am sure they would not object to despicable measures. After all, many count slave owners and their enablers as antecedents — a morally corrupt class they still revere. These godly folk also support the death penalty — which is still on the books in 27 states, the military, and the federal government. Again the US is in the same bed as Uganda and Iran. — although Uganda has not executed anyone since 2005. This magnanimity might change, as the country has just made gay sex potentially a capital crime. America is not alone in the so-called developed world when it comes to killing its people. Japan , Taiwan , Singapore , and South Korea still allow executions. Israel has capital punishment, but now only for Holocaust crimes. And it has only executed two people. Meir Tobianski, an army officer wrongly convicted of espionage in 1948. And Adolph Eichmann. In Europe, Russia — hardly a paragon of liberalism — has not executed anyone since 1996. This lack of blood lust leaves Belarus as the only country in the region with an active death penalty. The top five countries for known executions in 2022, are China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the US. We do not know how many people North Korea, Syria, Vietnam, and Afghanistan have executed. This raises the question, are these the countries America wants as its teammates? Beyond killing people, the US outshines even the most sadistic countries in its enthusiasm for locking people up. Although America has only 4% of the global population, it has 20% of the planet's prisoners . The US incarcerates its citizens at a higher rate (629 per 100,000) than any other country. The closest Western-style democracy, Australia (167), is not even close. There are several reasons for this excessive imprisonment — especially when compared to other industrialized countries. America has a high murder rate — a crime that generally generates the longest sentences. It also has harsher penalties for crimes. Murderers get longer sentences in the US than in Europe. And one in seven American prisoners is serving a life term. Since 1970, the law and order crowd — including Democrats — has held sway. When Nixon was President, America locked up fewer than 200,000 people — now, 1.4 million are behind bars. An increase that far outstrips population growth and rising crime rates. Racism plays a part. Blacks are more likely to go to jail for minor offenses and get longer sentences for the same crime as whites. The rate for Hispanics is less than Blacks but still greater than Whites. America's harsh treatment of its least powerful citizens is not just in the criminal justice system. The US is the wealthiest country in the world. And it has one of the highest GDPs per capita. But the poor do not see much of the nation’s wealth. The US has the highest rate of income inequality of any rich industrial country. It has a famously stingy social safety net. And it invests less in parental leave and newborn child care. Americans celebrate their ‘dream’ — where anyone with pluck and industry can get ahead. Sadly, it is a myth. The US has a low rate of social mobility compared to other industrial countries. Why America is such a sadistic country is the subject for another essay. But the correlation between a country's religiosity and its brutality rate is enough to ask if religion does not have some causative effect — with one notable exception, China. It might also be that religion does not cause sadism so much as it is a useful fig leaf for sadists. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/3/2172971/-What-do-Uganda-Iran-and-the-US-have-in-common Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/