4 ms·

Difference is, right wing governments seem to recover much more easily than left wing ones. Chile, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, they all had people who got

Difference is, right wing governments seem to recover much more easily than left wing ones. Chile, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, they all had people who got "disappeared" but all their citizens are currently fed, which means it's fairly possible to switch out of that mindset somehow. The only left wing country I can think of that led its economy to recovery is China. Other than that, Venezuela, DPRK, Argentina, and Brazil don't seem to be doing so well.

tptacek 10y ago
This is just sophistry. The true problem with the parent comment is not that it's unaware of the right wing's role in political violence, but that it's seizing on a word ("socialism") that it doesn't bother to define --- and the word means different things in practically every place it's used.
- topspin 10y ago
  "and the word means different things in practically every place it's used" It was once used enthusiastically by the Great and the Good to describe Venezuela. Venezuelan leaders still use it freely to describe their policy. Recently though, the intelligentsia has become reluctant to attribute Venezuela as Socialist, leaving the matter conspicuously ambiguous with much discussion of oil prices mumble mumble. Thankfully our thought leaders have come to the rescue and solved this problem by declaring Venezuela a Dictatorship, so we no longer need to step around the precious S word. Whew.
  - Crito 10y ago
    It's like when a fast food joint gets so undeniably filthy, their franchise is revoked. Protect the brand by denying association when something goes wrong.
njharman 10y ago
Forgetting all the European left wing governments, depending on what time frame you want to cherry pick from most of them didn't need recovering. Iceland maybe? Thing is, other factors, foreign support/interference, wars, corruption have more of an impact than left/right posturing of governments.

tptacek 10y ago

This is just sophistry. The true problem with the parent comment is not that it's unaware of the right wing's role in political violence, but that it's seizing on a word ("socialism") that it doesn't bother to define --- and the word means different things in practically every place it's used.

topspin 10y ago
"and the word means different things in practically every place it's used" It was once used enthusiastically by the Great and the Good to describe Venezuela. Venezuelan leaders still use it freely to describe their policy. Recently though, the intelligentsia has become reluctant to attribute Venezuela as Socialist, leaving the matter conspicuously ambiguous with much discussion of oil prices mumble mumble. Thankfully our thought leaders have come to the rescue and solved this problem by declaring Venezuela a Dictatorship, so we no longer need to step around the precious S word. Whew.
- Crito 10y ago
  It's like when a fast food joint gets so undeniably filthy, their franchise is revoked. Protect the brand by denying association when something goes wrong.

njharman 10y ago

Forgetting all the European left wing governments, depending on what time frame you want to cherry pick from most of them didn't need recovering. Iceland maybe? Thing is, other factors, foreign support/interference, wars, corruption have more of an impact than left/right posturing of governments.