Well I didn t say it was normal but it was the de facto norm among Arab states And I think we can be pretty sure it would also had happened in those countries where it wasn t planned yet But yes these guys were by no means true Socialists but that s what we had and it sure was better than unorganised Islamists with ridiculous agendas Yay we get power in Libya legalise polygamy as the first thing And no the uprising was of course not a conspiracy but you can be damn sure that the Islamists and their Gulf backers were biding their time and waiting for the opportunity The poor secular suckers who actually began the uprisings didn t know what they were to unleash