Not really. In my experience it’s that the last authoritarian was the same ethnic group as a legacy group often in power, and so there worst effects didn’t hit most people from that group. It was also a period of respect for the authoritarian, so fear alone wasn’t what drove compliance with laws. So people conflate what amounts to a homoginized ethnocentric power structure to the benefits alone. It’s really not too dissimilar from the MAGA ethos that things were better “back then” and it just so happens that “back then” was before the Civil Rights Movement.

Most, not all.

I would guess that of you polled the average American or European, they would expect the political leanings of most of the developing world to be far more to the left than reality.

Seriously though, this is the tech layer we all really need and I fear no one is developing. I don’t mean the obvious “scan your digital government ID to start the call” but just the equivalent of a CAPCHA. Probably a hand mirror is all you really need.

Most westerners would be shocked at how common a very similar sentiment can be globally. Especially in low income developing countries, the appeal of a “benevolent dictator” is open topic of conversation. Mostly based on recollection of some leader like that in the 70s or 80s with a sense of societal discipline (and often ignorance of ethic cleansing that didn’t apply to the prison taking).