Fossil fuels are usually used to prop up dictatorships.

The fossil US/UK based fuel industry has used regional dictatorship to secure supply lines into oil rich nations, certainly. But the 1950s democracies of the Middle East and Latin America didn’t just fall over on their own. The Dulles to Schlesinger CIA was instrumental in propping up energy industry friendly military governments around the world.

Maybe it’s time to switch that thing to a renewable source?

Only if we can project our extraterritorial military power efficiently this way.