Has anyone ever sat down and analyzed WHY this particular culture supports despots so readily? And how that incentive can be switched?
Yes, historically Mustafa Kemel Atatürk was the leader in the first half of the 20th century that saw how backward Islam had caused the Ottoman empire to become. He cracked down brutally on Islamic clerics, nearly outlawing Islam, making a secular society, respecting the history of Christianity in Asia Minor, preserving the historical sites.
He ushered in a modern Turkey that became compatible with European cultures and put Turkey on a civilized path to ultimately becoming a member of NATO.
For awhile, Iran and Turkey became modern with a large middle class, a productive self-reliant economy, good schools and universities, highways, cars, middle class homes, very European in values.
Then there were secret police attempting coups like we in the USA are having now. The result was religious demagogues moved in and suffocated the societies with Islamic bullsh×t.
If you see photos of Iranians during the 1970s, they wore long hair, bellbottoms, like a scene out of Woodstock, they were educated, affluent, believing in freedom. Iranians are surprisingly smart, nice, educated, the ones that is who were before the Islamic radicalization.
If you see photos of Iranians today, they are crazed, covered with radical Islamic garb, chanting and screaming violence. Most are that way because if they’re not, they will disappear.