forgive my western ignorance but why are the houthis ‘bad’? i know very little about them so i don’t really have much of an opinion but i wanted to know how they impact people enough that someone from that region would see them negatively /genq
The houthis are a very complicated issue. I want to preface this with IM NOT YEMENI so this second hand information from just having a lot of yemeni friends.
See unlike what western media says the houthis are not generally mindless terrorists. They have done some genuinely decent work in helping yemen survive american and israeli 'intervention' (ie bombing + economic/border control that leads to starvation) and they can be seen as anti-imperialist rebels in some scenarios. A lot of poorer people supported them at first because they were generally more organised, helped rebuilding infrastructure and gave out food.
But this does not make them GOOD. They're an armed militia group in a country devastated by war. They were never going to be good. Houthis have a reputation for being very violent, homophobic, misogynistic, religious extremism beyond even maga evangelicals, worsening the social conditions in the regions where they have power even if they do sometimes help with yk food.
They have also done a lot of human rights violations especially involving child labour/soldiers and outright executing gay and trans people as well as those they percieve as 'deviant'.
Its important to acknowledge that even if western media is biased, that doesn't mean swinging the other way entirely. Houthis still SUCK ASS.
