5 ms·

Why people vote for dodgy leaders is a big question these days.

• candiodari 8y ago
  In this case, not really: 1) economy destroyed to the point of famines. They promised food if they won the election and blocking of everything if they lost. 2) they attacked (including with machine guns) the opposition. Tortured opposition candidates. Forced others out of the country, ... 3) They attacked voters at polling stations. 4) They attacked the parliament, a number of parlementarians, and several judges, before, during and after counting the ballots. I mean it's no mystery how these people got "elected": they didn't. Nothing shows socialism like these people do: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/26/chavez-daughter-instagram-picture-dollars https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/26/chavez-daughte...
  • mrguyorama 8y ago
    >Nothing shows socialism like these people do: Are you suggesting there's never been a non-socialist dictatorship?
    • leopoldo 8y ago
      I think the poster above you is referring specifically to the self-proclaimed 21st century socialists in Venezuela (and family).
    • geezerjay 8y ago
      I'm pretty sure the OP pointed out that Venezuela is yet another example where socialism originated yet another totalitarian regime that assassinates the opposition and keeps the people starving.
    • JPKab 8y ago
      Obviously, he's not suggesting that. The idea is that fascism and socialism are both dependent on a common thread, the elevation of group/collective/state identity over the identity and values of the individual. Socialism tends to play into a groups (arbitrarily defined, but generally based on wealth, class) with often legitimate grievances, but degenerates into attacks on groups based on envy.......... The Ukrainian experience under the Soviet farm collectivization is an excellent example of this. A great book, by a Russian WW2 veteran who was sent to the gulags by Stalin called "Gulag Archipelago" is a phenomenal insight into this pathology. Fascist regimes tend to lean towards elevation of a collective ethnic/religious identity over other groups within a nation or other nations which turns the government into an all powerful protector and destroyer of the "other".. Once the individual is subjugated to the collective in these types of nations, the logical conclusion is that any individual protesting the state is a nuisance to be eliminated, and a traitor to the dominant collective group.
• AnimalMuppet 8y ago
  Why people vote for dodgy leaders the first time is a big question. But it's not the question the article is talking about. Dodgy leaders, once in power, have ways of making it very hard for people to vote for anyone else the second time. If you arrest enough opposition leaders, and own the papers and TV, and control the vote counters, you can make it very difficult for anyone else to win the election. I'm pretty sure Maduro is going to run Venezuela until the military decides that he has to go. And Maduro probably knows this - he certainly takes care to make sure that the military doesn't go hungry...
• mc32 8y ago
  I would print "vote" in quotation marks. It was not a free election at all. Opposition was stifled by jailing them (as well as members of the judiciary), and other means, and people were enticed to vote for his party by way of benefits. What's more interesting than this actually fraudulent election is the attendance of fellow socialists like Evo Morales as well the new socialist president of Mexico. Obviously they believe in his cause when they lend it legitimacy by attending the ceremony.
  • geezerjay 8y ago
    > Opposition was stifled by jailing them And not to mention the assassinations.