Self-appointed democrats
Leadership by deception isn’t leadership - it is fraud. And this leadership is what the neo-colonial powers of the United States and Russia have used to gain support, fight wars, and dominate the post-WW2 world.
Moral rights are justified by moral standards of behaviour and principles of right and wrong. Therefore, a country with no morals cannot exert moral rights. Be it the USA’s history of slavery and intolerance or Russia’s rule under Stalin or even Putin, these countries’ widespread destruction bars them from being ethics activists.
Russia and America have been – either directly or indirectly – following a policy of colonialism (itself an undermining of democracy). Russia’s capturing of Ukraine and the US’s role in Afghanistan are those of 21st-century colonialists. How can they be arbiters of democracy when their very behaviour goes against it?
Through the World Wars, both countries created conflict, chaos, and a high death toll. Through their nuclear race, growing militarism, and intense nationalism they exploited citizens’ rights internationally - be it Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the Russian invasion of Eastern Poland.
Their 44-year long tensions of the Cold War, which dragged the entire world in, was no better. The Cold War is the open yet restricted rivalry that developed after World War II between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies. Over a hundred thousand people died around the world because of the Cold War. So how can countries who turned their political rivalry into a worldwide conflict that led to devastation, be endorsers of democracy?
The United States of America and Russia are probably the biggest dividers in the world. Their foreign policies are contradictory, they make nations pick sides, and have created some of the biggest conflicts we know today. They are extreme and all-powerful nations that broadcast their vile behaviour under a veil of democracy.