As we learned during the Arab Spring, such careless optimism can lead us to endorse or at least aid men or movements who turn out to be at least as bad as what they replaced, if not worse.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12230725/MAIL-SUNDAY-COMMENT-Turmoil-Russia-lets-careful-wish-for.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490

Based on bin Laden’s diary, he watched the Arab Spring events of 2011 with rapt attention.

Source: https://www.lawfareblog.com/al-qaedas-looming-threat-are-we-looking-over-wrong-horizon

However, opposition to Saied is fragmented along ideological and political lines that were drawn during the period of democratic government after the 2011 revolution which triggered the Arab Spring.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/5/tunisian-opposition-defies-protest-ban-with-rally

Nathaniel Greenberg is the author of How Information Warfare Shaped the Arab Spring and an Associate Professor of Arabic at George Mason University.

Source: https://www.euronews.com/2023/03/29/russia-uses-propaganda-to-make-egypt-the-linchpin-of-its-new-cold-war-with-the-west

Opponents have called the consolidation of power a coup that pulled apart the democracy built after a 2011 revolution that made the country the of the Arab Spring.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/25/tunisia-judge-imprisons-politicians-businessman-amid-crackdown

Opposition groups have accused Saied of a coup for shutting down the previous parliament in 2021 and say he has trashed the democracy built after Tunisia’s 2011 revolution that triggered the “Arab Spring.”

Source: https://www.newdelhitimes.com/polling-stations-near-empty-in-2nd-round-of-tunisia-election/

Protesters at a separate left-wing march not far away denounced Saied's "authoritarian drift", which they say threatens the only democracy to have emerged from the Arab Spring revolts.

Source: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/01/thousands-protest-tunisian-president-amid-grinding-economic-crisis

Since even before the Arab Spring, brave Tunisians have demonstrated their belief in coordinated as well as spontaneous civic activism in the name of justice and, ultimately, a better Tunisia.

Source: https://www.lawfareblog.com/neglect-human-rights-helped-produce-crisis-tunisia

“That was during the Arab Spring, when there was a refugee crisis from Syria to North Africa,” he said.

Source: https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/greensburg-medical-student-from-jordan-lobbies-in-d-c-for-global-aids-funding/

These are what drove Yemen’s unrest during the 2011 Arab Spring and then the splintering of the country in 2014–15.

Source: https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/yemen-news-not-as-good-as-it-seems/

“This event took place near the beginning of the Arab Spring.

Source: https://www.macleans.ca/culture/stan-douglas-political-upheaval-art/