then you’ll just have to serve as a horrible warning. Since people are attracted by stupid ideas like moths to a flame, it may be that leaving certain flaming piles of shit around for all to see would maximize global human welfare. That’s rough on Venezuela, though. There are probably countries that could do a better job of scaring sense into people: ideally a smaller but hard to ignore country, one that can make the point without injuring so many people and tying up such large heavy-oil reserves.
North Korea has a lock on neutering the natural appeal of dynastic Juche-Stalinism. Cuba does a fairly good job with white-bread Communism. But we obviously need more examples: we need a feminist homeland, with a constant flow of advocates making aliyah, to keep the population from collapsing. Ideally with very few guys, just enough to open pickle jars and keep basic infrastructure running.
I’m afraid some people will keep insisting that the new version of the stupid idea is oh so different from the old one.
Cuba should already have been a warning concerning Venezuela.
I wld be in favour of a progressive homeland. I just want to get rid of these ppl without any troubles or fight. They need to be cut loose like a bad ex.
Enough already.
I would live in a deserted land then.
There have been some American lefties who have lived in Cuba. Margaret Randall lived there for over a decade. Medea Benjamin of Code Pink lived in Cuba for 4 years, until even Fidel Castro got tired of her.
While there were some American lefties who lived in the Chavista paradise, there are very few left in Venezuela. Paradise is best viewed from a distance.
One of my in-laws was a radical lesbian separatist before she had 3 kids with my uncle. I’m not sure a feminist homeland would be all that popular even with feminists.
A feminist homeland where women outnumber men 5:1 would be very popular – for invading armies.
Might sour them on women.
The problem is, in all of those cases there have been instances of US unkindness, so Venezuela is the victim, and therefore blameless, and it is the perpetrator which must be made an example of.
The US has always made this mistake with Latin America: by interfering too much, they have alienated the nationalists, and created the hatred that harms them.
Yes, it must be America that ruined Venezuela. It explains everything.
Not what I said.
Not what I said.
Sort-of was.
The US either does too little, or too much, according to the usual critics.
I was in Guatemala during the Civil War of the early 1980s (lived there over a year, mostly working for Jesus). One surprise for me, the naive gabacho, was that very conservative anti-communist people hated the US. They hated us because we constantly interfere with their political system, and as good nationalists, that was something they couldn’t abide. The neocons have just made it worse. So I stick with my first statement: We should not be alienating the nationalists.
Maybe the world needs true neoconservative country. Country always dedicated to spreading FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY all over the world, country whose patriotic people are always ready to pay any price, to bear any burden, to believe any bullshit.
If only such country existed. If only…
But the examples don’t seem to have much effect. One exception is that the Chinese leadership recognized the catastrophe of Maoism. But in general the left just doubles down on their idiotic ideas. And these ideas remain highly attractive despite the record of their disastrous results when implemented.
It is utterly astounding that Venezuela which should be a prosperous country even if it didn’t happen to have the world’s largest oil reservoir is in it’s present state. If The Three Stooges were put in charge of the Venezuela economy they couldn’t possibly have fucked it up to the extent the left has.
Justin Trudeau is doing his best to convert Canada to a corrupt, dysfunctional non-nation state with open borders and no industry (industry having been shut down by Greens and First Nations and an activist court. )
That’s what happen when you elect Zoolander and he attempts to craft policy based on leftist memes he read on twitter.
Yes, our idiot, virtue signaling prime minister seems intent on imposing every stupid leftist policy he can think of in (hopefully) his first and last term in office. He makes Ocasio-Cortez look brilliant in comparison. Like his father and brother, he’s a Marxist at heart.
I take it your idiot was democratically elected and not installed by evil Russians or Martians.
Toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle mérite …
Idiot boy Trudeau got in with less than 40% of the popular vote
The feminists better design fire proof buildings because dang few women can be firemen. Power linemen, construction, let them do it all.
Reblogged this on Nicht-Linke Blogs.
It’s amazing how the flow of Hollywood celebrities visiting has dried up since the economy became a train wreck. The left always needs to believe there is a paradise underway somewhere in the world. Of course the people of Venezuela actually put these idiots in charge, so they got what they voted for, good and hard.
They’ll always have Jeremy Corbyn …
Joseph Stiglitz was a big fan as well, fresh off his prescient prediction that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were bulletproof to financial problems.
Might be unwise to try to implement it now, but the ancient Athenian practice of ostracism might have worked wonders in this regard in the ’60s. Something like they did to Emma Goldman.
More effective would be the Rosa Luxembourg treatment…she didn’t come back for Act 2.
Brutal
Political views are heritable, so certain ideologies will persist despite evidence of their faults.
I’m a little less doctrinaire than you on these issues. Venezuela is the way it is because Venezuelans mostly prefer it that way. Sure, the wheels come off the cart and the US is always loosening the bolts just in case, but the people there persist. Occam’s razor says they generally prefer it that way.
I would prefer it if US policy was to leave them alone and make sure they stay put, but it seems that the majority of the people in North America disagree with that view. The results will follow.
90% of Americans never heard about Venezuela, and cannot care less.
But do not despair – it takes only a little propaganda, some grisly pictures, few heads on TV talking about democracy and human rights and warning about communism, terrorism or drugs, and everyone will do their patriotic duty to wave flags, watch the fireworks on TV, “support the troops” and vote for the great hero in chief who keeps the safe.
Do you think there was any potential in the linear programming and cybernetics the Soviets tinkered with?
But than the shitshow they have now but the Venezuelan national character probably won’t allow for it.
Pr C said:
Ken Minogue, in his The Godess that failed (1991), had some entertaining comments on the prospects for a future feminist homeland:
My teacher, Dr Knopfelmacher, used to joke that religion tended to endure as a source of mythological inspiration because it did not suffer from the “exit visa” problem that afflicted communist states. Thus various individuals who did manage to emigrate, flee or defect from communist tyranny, eg Dr K himself, were thus able to become standing empirical refutations to the Bolshevik claims of a rosy future behind the Iron or Bamboo Curtain. But there are no exit visas from heaven, forever insulating religious prophecies from the rigours of scientific testing.
There are of course exit visas from multicultural states, which does take the sheen off that ideology. There are no feminist states per se, so therefore no refugees. Although Reality TV (Housewives of Beverley Hills) does provide some spine chilling pilot studies in what life would be like if women pulled all the strings behind the Pink Curtain.
Given enough sperm imports, maybe they’d also be the example eugenicist homeland….
Oh, but they are just denied the possibility of being exploited by the greedy capitalist system of world trade! Surely Cuba and Venezuela are better of now instead of onesidely benefilal trade with multinationals and their ilk. Everybody knows that trade just benefits the already rich countries. [Note: this was sarcasm – this is the Internet after all.]
I would just like to see what would happen ro these countries if we did not sanction them and thereby causing much of the rest of the western world to do the same. England is still holding 1.5 billion in Venezuelan gold, for example. Certainly economy would not be great, but just as certainly it would be better off than it is.
And there is no doubt that the damage for a neocon corporate civil will be greater than the benefits.
Radical Open Borders Israel would do wonders to show the world the virtues of open migration. US should bend their arms to do so, threatening BDS as it did with South Africa.
Total open borders, anyone who wants to move to Israel can from anywhere. An economist’s dream. Think of the comparative advantage Israel is denying itself with its closed borders to Middle East, Palestinian refugess or Sub-saharan Africans at the moment.
Incredible economic gains await! So great that to NOT be in favor of open borders for Israel must be anti-semitic.
Try this argument in a suicide hotline 🙂
“No man! We need you! You have a role! You have worth!
We need you as a LIVING warning to the next generation!”
Bad examples. They’re worse than they could be, but also much worse than they would be if they were just allowed to trade with other countries. It’s like blaming Hitler for the Germans’ food shortages: it doesn’t hold up to basic scrutiny.
Total embargo will make very nearly any country poor.
There are a fair number of international sanctions on North Korea.
Cuba, however, can trade freely with just about every country other than the United States. There is also some US trade with Cuba, almost all agricultural products.
The main disadvantage to Cuba from our embargo is the restriction on American tourism – if this were allowed, Cuba could pick up a lot of business with resorts, casinos, escorts, whorehouses, and such, just like in the old days.
Cuba would be somewhat more prosperous, say like the Dominican republic. Only poorer, because Communist. Even if they tuned capitalist, they wouldn’t be prosperous like Europe or Canada, because Cuba is full of Cubans.
By the way, I have several times seen people talk about how Cuba can’t trade with anyone else. Where do people get these ideas?
The main prob with embargo is propaganda. If US had let’s say in early 90s ended embargo and gone to totally free trade with Cuba, I bet regime would either not have lasted or reformed beyond recognition (Vietnam) by now. But that’s operation on assumption the authorities want that, rather than just grandstand as tough for Floridian lobby (though from what I understand it doesn’t work as well on newer generation).
Saigon has a statue of Ho Chi Minh; there is a Cartier store facing it and teens walking around with Iron Man shirts. Who won?
Nintendos, Mcdonalds, Coke, Apple, but mainly tourists (and the industry whence their USD flowed downwards from like resorts/restaurants/bars/entertainers and so on) etc. would do what the embargo has failed to do in Cuba.
I don’t think that Coke is a catalyst of democratization.
“If US had let’s say in early 90s ended embargo and gone to totally free trade with Cuba, I bet regime would either not have lasted or reformed ” The US isn’t the only country on the planet, Cuba can trade with practically any other country, the issue is the cuban govvernment NEVER PAYS, and the cuban government is the only entity that can engage in international trade there.
“Saigon has a statue of Ho Chi Minh; there is a Cartier store facing it and teens walking around with Iron Man shirts. Who won?” The communist party of Vietnam set up everything and controls everything there. Those guys won, Cartier pays them rent.
“Nintendos, Mcdonalds, Coke, Apple, but mainly tourists … would do what the embargo has failed to do in Cuba”
Cuba has plenty of tourists from all over (Canadians, germans, dutch, swedes, norwegians) and they have not changed anything politically. In fact those tourists help the Castros, as every hotel in the island is jointly owned by the cuban military. Tourists provide the Castros with hard foreign currency which helps sustain that regime.
I don´t see how a few Nintendos or a Coca Cola bottling plantwould change anything there, some gringos have the weirdest ideas on how life is outside the US.
The presence of spiders in the home puts the kibosh on feminism.