Thread by @HansGutbrod

w the jailing of Nika Gvaramia, I would suggest we bury (once and for all) the term of "polarization" when it comes to politics in #Georgia. This has been one of the least helpful prisms from which to analyze Georgian politics over the last 5-8 years 1/n

"Polarization" (or the also terrible: mudslinging) visually implies a kind of horizontal symmetry, in which there is one side and another having a go at each other as if it's rival hooligans on a street @MovementDroa 2/n

For Georgia, this is such an utterly false and misleading image, that you might even hang it into your gallery of misinformation. It is evident, for anyone who cares to look more closely, what is really going on: @JDevdariani 3/

a systematic policy of refeudalization in which small and nepotistic cliques grab money, subsidies, state jobs & key assets that should belong to the people of Georgia. While that terrible robbery is going on, it's of course wonderful if everyone is looking at something else. 4/

In comes the term "polarization", to distract from the wholesale plunder & destruction of Georgian state institutions. And it's a convenient term for gov, too, as it implies that all are kind of equally bad.
It's totally the wrong word. 5/

- it simply is not "polarization", when the state watches the private lives of opposition politicians and they must wonder at what point which not-great moment (when did you have your last?) might come up, for everyone to see. So many such cases. 6/

- it is not polarization when even cabinet members (!) are bugged and tapped to collect compromising material, as we can assume goes on, from a lot of indications. 7/

- it is adamantly not polarization, that there is a wholesale #Gleichschaltung / purge in cultural institutions, as @Zaaliko has pointed out months ago, and it's only gotten worse 8/ faz.net/aktuell/feuill…

- it is not polarization that Rustavi2 got dismantled, massive interference w public TV, and now the next TV is getting taken apart. 9/

- it is not polarization that mobs get incited to visit violence upon the opposition or just citizens, every two years or so, as a show of force. (In regions outside opp party offices, too.) @Shamemovement 10/

- it is not polarization that the courts remain primarily an instrument to settle petty scores and that not a single (!) corrupt minister or deputy over the last decade has been successfully prosecuted. @dolidze_anna 11/

- it is not polarization that the gov affiliated outlets and bots flood social media with hateful messaging, much of it anti-democratic and some of it anti-Western, too. Rather, it's part of the robbery. 12/

Does the opposition get things wrong? Yes, lots. Likely, most pundits who enjoy ridiculing them would get lots wrong, too, if they would face incredibly asymmetric odds for years. (I get lots wrong at the best of times.) @jelger_ 13/

Yes, much of the shrillness & stunts of many in the opposition get on my nerves, too. Terribly. But it is also simply true that the system is *totally* rigged and that many (not all) opp people are marginalized, exhausted, struggling -- and out of money. 14/

A system, too, in which most GD want-to-be-technocrats were sucked in, used, abused, and then disposed of. In my view, many of them tried their best, only few succeeded. Lots of them will have some kompromat dangling over them 15/

All of this got much much worse when @GakhariaGiorgi left. In my view, he and @KvirikashviliGi tried to keep some space open to get reasonable things done, against quite some odds. Now, different clique in charge. 16/

The main thing that is going on is vertical, at the expense of the people of #Georgia and what could be an actual democracy with rule of law (all of this the responsability of gov), not some kind of horizontal mudslinging. @GilbreathDustin 17/

As I said: "vicious refeudalization" is what is going on, and let's truly & finally retire the polarization talk that is such a useful smokescreen for truly malevolent actors that are plundering right now. @Tom_deWaal END

@Tom_deWaal so that I can write this in an op-ed ;-) @threadreaderapp unroll