[ConstantineX]

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This thread has caused me to add Venezuela to this list of things that are impossible to discuss rationally in a public forum. It's apparently like abortion, Israel andPalestine, and racism--people seem to have too much emotionally and intellectually invested in looking at the situation in a certain way to be objective, but they hold these assumptions on such a fundamental level that they're essentially not open to scrutiny.

I used to try to focus threads that discussed Venezuela and Chavez's government onto boring stuff like facts and numbers and the like, but I don't think it matters. Do a search if you care--all of this stuff has been discussed here before, by a lot of the same posters. I've post a lot of links in these threads if you want to dig a little further.

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Bdk3clash,

Is there something mistaken with the articles I link? Do you dispute that he's destroying his economy, like the FT article I linked describes? You can't find eggs and milk cheaply in Caracas - this doesn't rob poor people? Though economic crisis isn't as sexy as say, monk repression, he's probably going to kill more people through unsexy methods like starvation in the long run, as dictators who predicated economic crises have typically done. Even his vaunted "Bolivarian socialism" hasn't done anything to reduce the poverty rate from the time of his second coup, which the New York Times article noted. Do you dispute that he now he has a history of cronyism within his government? Look at the way the Times article describes the wasteful and shameful way he is destroying the public capital of his nation. Besides, if economic terrorism hasn't marked him already, the new Il Duce will be graduating to bigger and badder things soon.

Do you dispute he has a history of self-aggrandizement and puffery? He recently threated existing Spanish investments in Venezuela after King Juan Carlos I asked him to "shut up" after he interrupted Spanish socialists numerous times, describing a previous Spanish prime minister as a "fascist". What a reversal of an ancient paradigm - who is the imperialist master now? But I'm sure expropriating Spanish property - those vile Western governments! - was the new revealed revelation towards the aims of "social justice" rather than plain old "bald-faced theft" to our Steward of the People. Count me in as all for resurrecting hundred year-old claims when convenient - damn it, I want my billion dollar reparation settlement!

But then again you'll just link articles from Venezuelanalysis (the most blatant example of collective ideological blinders on the Internet at large) that describe how Chavez has the support of the people, faces Western opposition, and was democratically elected. Unfortunately those ideas are indisputable, much like they were indisputable when a popular thug named Robert Mugabe came to power in 1987. Are you not at all convinced by the fact New York Times is pushing front page articles critical of the man? I thought this was a veritable coup, myself. Who wants Khmer Rouge-like egg on their face?