No,Venezuela doesn't prove anything about Socialism

The Washington Post ^ | 08/21/2018 | Fransisco Toro

[Del Rapier]

Venezuela is clearly having its moment in the American conservative mediasphere. The country’s catastrophic collapse is, we’re told, all we need to know about the terrifying dangers of socialism. First there was Meghan McCain turning Venezuela into Exhibit A in her screed against socialism on ABC’s “The View.” On Fox Business Network, Stuart Varney used Venezuela’s latest bout of instability as a “teaching moment” for Americans tempted by “pie-in-the-sky” socialism. Off on the fringes, it’s a popular theme, too: Remember that the priceless Infowars gotcha video with the world’s most unflappable sailor girl turned on the killer line: “You know Venezuela? The majority of the country is now eating rats.” I’ve spent two decades chronicling every agonizing twist and turn in the decay of Venezuela’s democracy, economy and society. You’d think I’d be on board with these takes. Think again. I’m revulsed. It’s appalling to see my country’s suffering leveraged for cheap partisan point-scoring. It bothers me because it’s lazy. But it bothers me more because it’s wrong.

[Del Rapier]

They weren't doing it right.

[jimfree]

What does it prove?

[Reagan Disciple]

Must have been the Jack Butler method.

[cuban leaf]

Venezuela is merely the latest example.

Those that forget history are destined to repeat it.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

See, it’s those greedy capitalist pigs! Thanks ComPost!

[reg45]

They didn’t exterminate enough bourgeoisie.

[2banana]

They just didn’t have the right folks in charge...

[Moonman62]

Socialism is the choice of crooked politicians everywhere.

[Behind the Blue Wall]

Anyone want to post a TL;DR for those us on the other side of the WaPo paywall?

[Lazamataz]

No,Venezuela doesn't prove anything about Socialism

Leftists live in their own little world.

[odawg]

About thirty years ago I locked horns with my political science teacher who was an admitted socialist and was praising socialism. I reminded that socialism had never worked whenever tried. His response: the right people had not tried to implement it. I did not ask, but I assumed he considered himself one of the “right” people.

[Buckeye McFrog]

The next spin will be that with the right AI and Big Data technology behind it, Socialism WILL work.

[elcid1970]

Fransisco Toro, as in `caca de toro’.

“True socialism hasn’t been tried yet!!!” Yeah.

[Red Badger]

Soviet Union, Warsaw Pact, Cuba, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Venezuela , none of this matters, right?...................

[al_c]

Okay, then let’s consider the USSR, or Cuba, or Cambodia, or Ethiopia, or North Korea ...

[Red Badger]

Leftists live in their own little world.

Which is fine, except they want everyone else in there with them...............

[Kartographer]

They weren’t committing enough mass murder like most Socialist countries do and so the result is to many people to have to feed!

[FreedomPoster]

[JohnBrowdie]

I am sure a socialist wrote that.

[jerod]

"Morales’s tenure lays waste to any notion that countries succeed only under “moderates” — he’s a proper extremist, a hard-leftist who nationalized the nation’s most lucrative industry, as well as an authoritarian who has done real damage to his country’s democracy. I despise him. But it’s an incontestable fact that he has handled the nation’s finances with prudence and scored real social achievements along the way."

Is this lunatic talking about Bolivia's Morales or Germany's Hitler? Or, maybe they are essentially the same.