This is such a stupid talking point I can’t believe it still gets parroted.

If you have elections for government officials chosen from the people, you are a democracy - there’s no real high bar for that.

If you are an independent nation not beholden to any foreign power, you are a Republic. The American head of state is the US President chosen by the American people, not a King or Queen from another nation.

One does not exclude the other.

People these days really are sheltered if they can’t detect sarcasm without it being specifically called out…

‘Freedom to Breathe’ Agency makes it even better

I think you’re overselling Perfect Memory a fair bit here. Just because you can perfectly recall something you’ve seen, doesn’t necessarily mean you know how to use it. E.g. just because you’ve memorised a manual on working a forklift, doesn’t mean you’re suddenly qualified to work as a forklift operator.

Languages, especially non-Latin based languages, require a whole different way of thinking about things that you won’t get from pure memory.

Sleeping under rocks long enough would give you brain damage.