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Remember when everyone in Venezuela was starving and all the American Leftists were trying to defend Maduro and calling one a fascist on Twitter for criticizing

Remember when everyone in Venezuela was starving and all the American Leftists were trying to defend Maduro and calling one a fascist on Twitter for criticizing Maduro’s regime?

throwaway894345 5y ago
I've probably seen half a dozen "debates" in the last year in which American Leftists were arguing with actual Venezuelans about whether the situation in Venezuela was real or Western Propaganda (TM).
- intheaa728q7e 5y ago
  And of course if you ask them for the source of their ridiculous claims they'll either link propaganda sites like Telesur or RT, or go off in rambling about how the CIA did something like that in the 60's forgetting to source anything
- andy_ppp 5y ago
  I really hate grouping everyone like this. I consider myself left but you were arguing with a moron. I was under the impression in liberal democracy, even up until maybe 2015 treating an individual as an example of all individuals from that group was considered reprehensible for obvious reasons, i.e. you will end up saying racist or sexist things. The more general rule, to treat everyone on the content of their individual character, is an important one in my upbringing and I would like a return to these values. Currently everyone is being forced, on left or right, to have it assumed that they occupy absurd extremist positions. I do admit these people are on the rise, but I’m not sure inflating their importance (they are seeking attention in a lot of cases) is helping.
  - throwaway894345 5y ago
    > you were arguing with a moron I'm inclined to agree, but increasingly these "morons" are more numerous and more likely to occupy positions of power and authority. > I was under the impression in liberal democracy even up until maybe 2015 treating an individual as an example of all individuals from that group was considered reprehensible for obvious reasons, i.e. you will end up saying racist or sexist things. Yeah, me too. > The more general rule I would like back because everyone is being forced on left or right have it assumed that they occupy absurd positions. I'm having a hard time parsing this sentence, could you rephrase/clarify?
    - andy_ppp 5y ago
      Okay! Lot’s of clarity added… For what it’s worth we have the same amount of morons just the Internet has given them means to organise and communicate and people like Steve Bannon to weave in a bit of ethnic-nationalism into the minds of the public.
      - throwaway894345 5y ago
        > For what it’s worth we have the same amount of morons just the Internet has given them means to organise and communicate That seems concerning enough on its own, but that property ("means to organize and communicate") has knock-on effects: those morons become even more extreme and they come to occupy positions of power and authority in even greater numbers. Once upon a time you had millions of village idiots whose views were moderated by their community and the talking heads on TV, and they were typically blue-collar, uneducated, and had no real power or authority. Now because of the ability to communicate with each other, they develop echo chambers that radicalize their viewpoints. On top of that, they organize, such that the administer universities, overwhelm newsrooms, and lead DEI departments in every major company in the country.
- xster 5y ago
  How did you systematically come to the conclusion that those "debates" shouldn't be had? Which straw broke the camel's back? Is it because Carlos on the internet , who writes for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Americas Quarterly, told you so? How do we take your guidelines and judgement and form it into a framework of rational thought where it then becomes generally applicable to the general population if your guidance wasn't available one day?
  - throwaway9d6ef 5y ago
    Because actual Venezuelans are closer to primary sources who don't need a bunch of pseudointellectuals to handwave our experience away.
  - throwaway894345 5y ago
    I guess I find the Venezuelan’s experience to be more credible than the baseless beliefs of an American undergrad Tweeting from Starbucks on the new iPhone his parents bought him.
intheaa728q7e 5y ago
No need to remember, I can assure you that if this post were to gain popularity a bunch of wanna be Marxist and spoiled first world socialists will come here and try to gaslight everyone into thinking Venezuela is a paradise or that it's all the US fault when they have never set foot outside Europe or the US
djpr 5y ago
In my town, the leftists still put up "Viva Chavez" banners on their balconies.
- geoduck14 5y ago
  My college buddies did that, too. This was in Houston, Tx.
digsy 5y ago
So sad that this site has gone the way of reddit. I used to come here for tech discussions and maybe some startup insight. Now every day there's a post that devolves into qanon, trumpists, leftists bickering. I guess every site goes to the dogs eventually.

Remember when everyone in Venezuela was starving and all the American Leftists were trying to defend Maduro and calling one a fascist on Twitter for criticizing Maduro’s regime?

throwaway894345 5y ago

I've probably seen half a dozen "debates" in the last year in which American Leftists were arguing with actual Venezuelans about whether the situation in Venezuela was real or Western Propaganda (TM).

intheaa728q7e 5y ago
And of course if you ask them for the source of their ridiculous claims they'll either link propaganda sites like Telesur or RT, or go off in rambling about how the CIA did something like that in the 60's forgetting to source anything
andy_ppp 5y ago
I really hate grouping everyone like this. I consider myself left but you were arguing with a moron. I was under the impression in liberal democracy, even up until maybe 2015 treating an individual as an example of all individuals from that group was considered reprehensible for obvious reasons, i.e. you will end up saying racist or sexist things. The more general rule, to treat everyone on the content of their individual character, is an important one in my upbringing and I would like a return to these values. Currently everyone is being forced, on left or right, to have it assumed that they occupy absurd extremist positions. I do admit these people are on the rise, but I’m not sure inflating their importance (they are seeking attention in a lot of cases) is helping.
- throwaway894345 5y ago
  > you were arguing with a moron I'm inclined to agree, but increasingly these "morons" are more numerous and more likely to occupy positions of power and authority. > I was under the impression in liberal democracy even up until maybe 2015 treating an individual as an example of all individuals from that group was considered reprehensible for obvious reasons, i.e. you will end up saying racist or sexist things. Yeah, me too. > The more general rule I would like back because everyone is being forced on left or right have it assumed that they occupy absurd positions. I'm having a hard time parsing this sentence, could you rephrase/clarify?
  - andy_ppp 5y ago
    Okay! Lot’s of clarity added… For what it’s worth we have the same amount of morons just the Internet has given them means to organise and communicate and people like Steve Bannon to weave in a bit of ethnic-nationalism into the minds of the public.
    - throwaway894345 5y ago
      > For what it’s worth we have the same amount of morons just the Internet has given them means to organise and communicate That seems concerning enough on its own, but that property ("means to organize and communicate") has knock-on effects: those morons become even more extreme and they come to occupy positions of power and authority in even greater numbers. Once upon a time you had millions of village idiots whose views were moderated by their community and the talking heads on TV, and they were typically blue-collar, uneducated, and had no real power or authority. Now because of the ability to communicate with each other, they develop echo chambers that radicalize their viewpoints. On top of that, they organize, such that the administer universities, overwhelm newsrooms, and lead DEI departments in every major company in the country.
xster 5y ago
How did you systematically come to the conclusion that those "debates" shouldn't be had? Which straw broke the camel's back? Is it because Carlos on the internet , who writes for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Americas Quarterly, told you so? How do we take your guidelines and judgement and form it into a framework of rational thought where it then becomes generally applicable to the general population if your guidance wasn't available one day?
- throwaway9d6ef 5y ago
  Because actual Venezuelans are closer to primary sources who don't need a bunch of pseudointellectuals to handwave our experience away.
- throwaway894345 5y ago
  I guess I find the Venezuelan’s experience to be more credible than the baseless beliefs of an American undergrad Tweeting from Starbucks on the new iPhone his parents bought him.

intheaa728q7e 5y ago

No need to remember, I can assure you that if this post were to gain popularity a bunch of wanna be Marxist and spoiled first world socialists will come here and try to gaslight everyone into thinking Venezuela is a paradise or that it's all the US fault when they have never set foot outside Europe or the US

djpr 5y ago

In my town, the leftists still put up "Viva Chavez" banners on their balconies.

geoduck14 5y ago
My college buddies did that, too. This was in Houston, Tx.

digsy 5y ago

So sad that this site has gone the way of reddit. I used to come here for tech discussions and maybe some startup insight. Now every day there's a post that devolves into qanon, trumpists, leftists bickering. I guess every site goes to the dogs eventually.