<story><title>Woman Is Sentenced to 43 Years for Criticizing Thai Monarchy</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/world/asia/thailand-king-lese-majeste.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>apexalpha</author><text>Imagine living in a country where this is your king: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.dw.com&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;thailands-king-living-in-luxury-quarantine-while-his-country-suffers&amp;#x2F;a-53303644&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.dw.com&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;thailands-king-living-in-luxury-quaran...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Siphoning off your tax money AND you&amp;#x27;re not allowed to say anything about it. Ridiculous.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fiftyfifty</author><text>The previous king (current king&amp;#x27;s father) was revered in Thailand and I think far fewer people had a reason to violate this law.  Now that the son is king there&amp;#x27;s going to be a lot more problems with Thai citizens wanting to be openly critical of him.  I married into a Thai family and we&amp;#x27;ve had a lot of discussions about this exact issue, since long before the previous king passed.  In my mind you can&amp;#x27;t have a free and open democracy when you still have these monarchs hanging around and especially when you aren&amp;#x27;t allowed to be openly critical of them.  Thailand has an elected assembly and prime minister, but the king is still head of the military and both the previous king and current king use[d] their influence to stir things up as they saw fit.  Thailand has technically been under a military dictatorship (with the king ultimately at the head) since 2014 which is why these lèse-majesté laws are much more frequently enforced now.  In my opinion trying to maintain a monarchy (even as a symbolic figure) and democracy doesn&amp;#x27;t work, they&amp;#x27;ve had 20 different constitutions in Thailand since 1932 and they&amp;#x27;ve had the 4th most coups in the world in modern history.  Currently Bangkok is in state of civil unrest with pro-democracy protestors forming the #MilkTeaAlliance with protestors in Hong Kong and Taiwan.  We&amp;#x27;ll see if they are able to enact any real change in the country.</text></comment>
<story><title>Woman Is Sentenced to 43 Years for Criticizing Thai Monarchy</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/world/asia/thailand-king-lese-majeste.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>apexalpha</author><text>Imagine living in a country where this is your king: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.dw.com&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;thailands-king-living-in-luxury-quarantine-while-his-country-suffers&amp;#x2F;a-53303644&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.dw.com&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;thailands-king-living-in-luxury-quaran...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Siphoning off your tax money AND you&amp;#x27;re not allowed to say anything about it. Ridiculous.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gadders</author><text>The Spectator in the UK published an article about him as well. It wasn&amp;#x27;t very positive as you may be able to guess from the URL:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.spectator.co.uk&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;the-depraved-rule-of-thailands-caligula-king&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.spectator.co.uk&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;the-depraved-rule-of-tha...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>