# Unintended Side-Effect Of Dictatorship -- No One Mentions The Goofy Leader Get-Ups **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 22, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284 "2011-02-22T22:31:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/21 "2011-02-24T03:19:28Z")
> [@Walmarticus](#): > > You think I’m going to dress like a normal person if I get to be a dictator? It’s one of the perks! Fuck all that shit about diminishing my stature. Dressing like a clown and never being criticized for it is the definition of power. I have to go with this. I mean, if I have my own goddamned country, I’m wearing _wings._ And expecting people to act like I grew them myself. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/22 "2011-02-24T04:53:17Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > \*\*\*His \*\*\*revolution was a junior officer’s uprising (he was a Captain, in the course of the takeover he got field-promoted to LTC) and they repealed the general grades and shortly the leaders of the revolt replaced the full colonels with themselves. He left actual active duty sometime around '72 and decided he’d prefer to just be addressed by the last rank he had as a full-timer. The general grades were restored on paper at some point but mostly as rare honorary retirement titles, nobody in actual service is past Colonel. Interesting! I’d heard about the two Libyan AF colonels who’d defected with their fighter jets in Malta. That’d be a significant development under any circumstances, but knowing that their active-duty ranks top out at colonel makes it even more momentous. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/23 "2011-02-24T09:50:39Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > But still – don’t these guys have some rudimentary level of image advisors? > > \ > > Why don’t people laugh out loud (other than fear of being shot, which I guess is kind of a big reason)? You just answered your own question. A guy like Gaddafi isn’t likely to get criticism from anyone under his power who wants to stay alive. Especially for something like how he dresses; a Libyan patriot might risk his life to contradict Gaddafi in order to save the nation from ruin; but risking your life just to point out that he has terrible fashion sense? Nah. It’s the principle behind the old parable about how no one dared to point out that the the emperor had no clothes, so he paraded around naked until a kid spoke up. Except in the real world they’d keep the kid quiet, since the emperor would probably have had him killed. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/24 "2011-02-24T09:59:22Z")
It’s not the clothes, it’s the hair. [Check](http://29.media.tumblr.com/aieHEJ1L9m5zqw5yC5PcCKYUo1_400.jpg) [out](http://gurdjieffbooks.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/stalin_exile_1915.gif) [Stalin](http://www.rumorsdaily.com/brd/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/crazymonkstalin.jpg). That’s the real reason he couldn’t stand Trotsky. Trotsky was the only person in Russia who had [bigger](http://home.igc.org/~itofi/trotsky_mugshot.jpg) [hair](http://www.onlinewebsiteinternet.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/LeonTrotsky1897.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/25 "2011-02-24T10:03:46Z")
Yeah, but Lenin was a fly motherfucker. That man had _style_. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/26 "2011-02-24T10:19:53Z")
> [@CT\_Damsel](#): > > Pic#9 [http://abcnews.go.com/International/slideshow/gaddafi-fashion-years-12966270](http://abcnews.go.com/International/slideshow/gaddafi-fashion-years-12966270) reminds me of [this](http://jaymckinnon.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/the-usual-suspects-line-up.jpg). Moamar Gadaffi is Keyser Sose!! It all makes sense now!! Oh, spoiler alert BTW. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/27 "2011-02-24T11:31:06Z")
> [@The\_Scrivener](#): > > Interesting! I’d heard about the two Libyan AF colonels who’d defected with their fighter jets in Malta. That’d be a significant development under any circumstances, but knowing that their active-duty ranks top out at colonel makes it even more momentous. Not significant at all. There is a difference between ranks and position. Like in them US Civil War there was no higher rank then Maj Gen for the Union till Grant became a Lt Gen in 1864 and officers of the ranks of Maj Gen held commands ranging from Division to Theater level command even after Grant was elevated to the Lt Gen. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/28 "2011-02-24T14:28:06Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#): > > i guess it is the opposite of the emperor has no clothes. > > zebra, i guess he thinks it makes him sound like the average guy? or perhaps it was his rank when he became top dog? > > even sven, ms biya is something else. love the hat she met the pope in. I have no trouble in believing that, given the size of that woman’s hairdo, the hat would had been big enough to actually held the meeting _in_ it. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/29 "2011-02-24T14:36:17Z")
**Ale** , I think it’s the white one with the light-purple crosses; there are some of those pictures in which, having put her hair up under a hat, the resulting ensemble is actually smaller than her usual 'do. The lady makes me think of that line I’ve seen attributed to Dolly Parton, something along the lines of “it’s real expensive to look this cheap, you know!” She likes what she likes, and those who don’t are welcome to look at someone else. I like her! ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/30 "2011-02-24T20:54:46Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > I have to go with this. I mean, if I have my own goddamned country, I’m wearing _wings._ And expecting people to act like I grew them myself. I can get wanting to look distinctive and maybe even eccentric. I just don’t get wanting to look like a vagrant (Fidel, Kim) or transvestite (Qadaffi). So snappy, maybe OTT, military garb (Goering, Amin, early Fidel) – I get it. Austere military/monkish attire (Mao, Nehru (not that he was a dictator really) – got it. But tracksuits and giant Africa-shaped broaches? Not seeing it. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/31 "2011-02-24T22:24:31Z")
Fidel looks like a vagrant? Actually, he seems to be the only person in the western world whom I’ve never seen wearing a Comrade Che shirt. ---
**Author:** ![Encinitas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Encinitas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Encinitas)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/32 "2011-02-24T22:26:01Z")
> [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > Yeah, but Lenin was a fly motherfucker. That man had _style_. Still looks good today.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/33 "2011-02-24T23:21:16Z")
> [@KRC](#): > > Fidel looks like a vagrant? > > Actually, he seems to be the only person in the western world whom I’ve never seen wearing a Comrade Che shirt. > **[Smiling Fidel Castro seen in public for first time since 2006](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1293995/Smiling-Fidel-Castro-seen-public-time-2006.html)** > > Photographs posted on a state-run blog showed a smiling, healthy-looking Castro, 83, wearing a Nike tracksuit as he talked with science facility directors. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/34 "2011-02-25T04:00:19Z")
Does anyone else remember the flap of the [Imperial Uniforms](http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j122/poosyann/20.jpg)introduced, and then quickly abandoned by Nixon? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/35 "2011-02-25T04:14:18Z")
> [@KRC](#): > > Fidel looks like a vagrant? > > Actually, he seems to be the only person in the western world whom I’ve never seen wearing a Comrade Che shirt. No need to prove his point, I guess :D. And Fidel these days looks like what he is: a very elderly man convalescing from a major illness. And he was not looking too well either for the last few years _before_ he handed over to Raúl, anyway (see first picture below), he’s presumed to have been unwell for a while. Back in his middle age though he was conservative and consistent: those trademark green garrison fatigues (with or without field jacket, depending on weather), almost all the time. Ocassionally in civvies in a [guayabera shirt](http://www.radioangulo.cu/images/stories/2010/octubre/fidel_castro_guayabera.jpg) or at rare times [a dark suit](http://newsjunkiepost.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/fidel.jpg), and almost as rarely his service-dress uniform - which he wore [plain straight](http://www.nevispages.com/fpss/slideshows/nvpfrontslide/images/fidel_castro_dead.jpg), simply the insignia of CinC, but no fancy bling since he has never been actually in regular service like Raúl. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/36 "2011-02-25T06:20:17Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > since cameroon is having protests, i’d like to submit my favorite wife-of-a-dictator, the beautiful “mama” [chantal biya](http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&biw=1276&bih=703&tbs=isch:1&aq=f&aqi=g9&oq=&q=chantal%20biya)…and her hair. I love pictures of her at otherwise sober state summits. I’ve never seen any woman work so hard to look like a drag queen. It’s a black Peg Bundy! ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/37 "2011-02-25T10:32:35Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > [Smiling Fidel Castro seen in public for first time since 2006 | Daily Mail Online](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1293995/Smiling-Fidel-Castro-seen-public-time-2006.html) He’s dead but won’t lay down. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/38 "2011-02-25T15:39:24Z")
Ghadafi resembles “Hank O’Hair”-from the late lamented comic strip, “Brenda Star”. I wonder where he has salted away his billions? I heard that he will leave, most likely for Venezuela…into the arms of another crook-Hugo Chavez. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/39 "2011-02-25T17:27:41Z")
Almost makes me miss the Nazis, at least they had cool uniforms. Almost. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284/40 "2011-02-25T19:03:54Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Edit: It’s amazing how much Gadhafi (sp?) reminds me of Michael Jackson in some of those pictures. It’s unmistakeable in pictures 6, 9 and 10. Since they were both crazy people and Jackson liked to do the whole military thing… Anyway I can understand dressing boldly and looking like a weirdo if you are a dictator and nobody is going to tell you you look insane. Being perceived as crazy might even be a necessity. I can’t understand why Kim Jong dressed so badly, though. His main uniform just looks rumpled, and I’ve lost track of how many people have said his big hair and big '80s sunglasses make him look like Yoko Ono. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintended-side-effect-of-dictatorship-no-one-mentions-the-goofy-leader-get-ups/572284.md?page=3)