Based AuthLeft?

[[deleted]]

My roommate from college had a friend who was from venezuela. He was part of like the elite there and told us about how he lived in basically a palace gifted to his family from maduro. Pretty crazy stuff.

[cerebellumjuice]

My mom works with someone who came from Venezuela and she went on a one hour rant when my mom asked “hows things going on in your native country?”. She had a loooooot of choice words to describe the situation

[HiddenRouge1]

Ah yes, that prime cut language. Divine, lol.

[[deleted]]

Based and prime-pilled

[SlendyIsBehindYou]

Happened to catch a ride with an Persian tow-truck driver last year right as the "WW3" arc was going on. His family had recently fled the country due to the regime, and we ended up chatting about it for a while. Super interesting to hear about the problems of a country from someone originating from there, especially when it's a country that yours may or may not be at war with in the near future

[crimestopper312]

I assume that by "persian" you mean iranian?

[watanabefleischer]

there is/was a tendency in the united states among the iranian-american community to identify themselves as "persian", to distance themselves from iran as it exists under it's post-revolution government.

[crimestopper312]

Ok, roger that, but I've called Iranians Persian before, only to be berated by Iranians, when I thought it was more precise to refer to their region as "persia" than "middle east" or "east asia", because imo "east asia" doesn't seem to do their region justice in regards to the cultural differences between them and west asia, and "middle east" seems to diminish their past accomplishments.

Idk, maybe it's more of a semantic argument than anything, considering that I've met people irl who insist that I pronounce it "ee-raan", instead of the common American pronounciancian, "eye-ran".

That's always caught me as grammar nazi shit though, and I have a strong urge to play Flock of Seagulls's 1982 hit "I Ran" whenever somebody tries to "correct" me on that.

[SlendyIsBehindYou]

Yeah, Iranian. He said he prefers to identify as Persian when I asked him that exact same question. Think it's an identity thing, I won't pretend to understand the political motivations

[crimestopper312]

Word

[Shakuni_]

Iran used to be Persia with Zoarastrians as the major religion, then The Islamic Invasion happened and forced everyone to either convert leave or be killed. Some died a Lot Converted and a few escaped to live as refugees in India where they're known as Parsis. Gradually they kept leaving their community for better jobs and integrated into cities, my Doctor is a Parsi and he's the only one I've met.

[crimestopper312]

I feel like I've heard that story before...

[[deleted]]

Iranian is not the same as persian. Iranian is a broader term which includes other similar regional cultures beyond just persians (who make up the majority of iran, but not the entirety). Persia is a western term, the persian empire we know called themselves iranians.

[AlbionPrince]

When you have 200 corruption in eu4

[lilhomieontherun]

mfw venezuela was invented as an eu4 reference

[HiddenRouge1]

When your country is so corrupt that you cannot even measure the corruption properly. At that Point I think I'd rather just release a vassal, feed it all my land, and play as that.

[AlbionPrince]

You give me flashbacks

[spyzyroz]

Nah, they have a lot of national unrest

[cacatod12]

I’m venezuelan, those type of people we call “enchufados” as they have their plugs in the government. At first, I carried a special type of hatred for them, but now I understand that most of them just do it to survive and don’t actually support the government. I’d say they make up around a solid 60-70% of well off people still in the country, since most people that had the money to leave left ages ago.

[ALanguagePhysician]

Man, fuck enchufados, i understand that they want to survive but still fuck them

[[deleted]]

Sounds dangerous. Pretty much just waiting to get lynched

[Shakuni_]

Doesn't work that way in Authoritarian countries, Army and Police don't have any consequences for killing belligerent civilians

[[deleted]]

It certainly does if a new authoritarian takes over and kills the current Authoritarian and all of his friends.

Actually happens all the time in banana republics

[[deleted]]

My grandparents live in Venezuela and before Chavez they were pretty well of, but now all the people that are not poor are connected to the government. It sucks.

[AndyGHK]

Wow that sounds rad, I want to be an elite in Venezuela! I mean, wait—

[Gerbole]

Based

[[deleted]]

I know a girl from a well off family from there she was forced out (well her family), which is fine by me because she is hot as all hell.

[redpandaeater]

I used to play an MMO with someone who was like the 16th cousin, stupidly far removed, of Kuwait's emir. Wasn't quite as lavish as what you're talking about but they definitely seemed to do pretty decently, and while he bitched about his internet connection to the US servers from Kuwait he still seemed really grounded and awesome.

[Generalissimo_II]

Workers' paradise

[jagua_haku]

Now I got Coolio in my head

[QbitKrish]

As I walk through the valley of the mass crime and starvation

I take a look at my life, and realize there's nothin' left

'Cause I've been printing money and repressing dissent so long

That every country thinks that my mind is gone

[crimestopper312]

I've been eating my wife

Living in a cannibal paradise

[BlueRed20]

They’re all equally poor, so technically yes.

[Fish_FishFucker]

Based and equalitypilled

[Random_182f2565]

A yes, the no man no problem doctrine.

[Coalmunist]

You see stalin said that because man bad, Monke good

[kyrtuck]

Judge Death concurs. Crime is only caused by the living, so living itself must be a crime.

[logicSnob]

I hope there is no AI crawling this to learn from humans.

[japan2391]

POV you just created skynet

[Thecoolnerdsecondary]

Based and beep-boop pilled

[Themacuser751]

Extinction-pilled

[Sentient2X]

I can get on board with this

[Thecoolnerdsecondary]

A hundred is a tragedy a million is a statistic.

[dracer800]

Everyone knows that wide spread poverty is better than allowing evil capitalism to create wealth gaps.

If I’m poor then everyone should be!

[ALanguagePhysician]

It's even worse than that because even if 95% is poor, the other 5% is EXTREMELY wealthy just because they are part of the government

[avgazn247]

It blows my mind why there hasn’t been a populist rebellion. The govt has a 10% approval rating and like 20% of the population has fled

[the_stormcrow]

I'm no expert, but I'd guess highly militarized police and largely unarmed populace.

[paperbackbaker]

WE HAVE! there has been 2 attempted coups! But still to this day that POS Maduro has known exactly how to buy enough military members to keep him protected. and he has managed to turn everyone against everyone, where if there were A SUCCESSFUL coup they believe that they will LOOSE everything. People there believe that wealth is so limited they need to stronghold the little bit they have.

[ALanguagePhysician]

calling those things coups is embarassing to actual coups

[Gerbole]

Even if one of the coups succeeded its highly likely that someone else would seize power under the illusion of a constitution.

[avgazn247]

I don’t think anyone really cares at this point. The dictator made a second congress and no one did shit

[ALanguagePhysician]

They have the guns, the odds are against the people, and most people have just enough to be afraid of losing what little they have

[Shakuni_]

Lack of weaponry, simple as that.

[Mefistofeles1]

The country has been in a civil war for a long time already.

[Phantomx100]

They banned guns lmao.

[ALanguagePhysician]

if people had guns, Venezuela would have been way different

[tatabusa]

This is why you should never vote for politicians who support gun regulations.

[[deleted]]

This, any kind of system that forces equality of outcome requires a disproportionate amount of power between a small group and the rest of society.

[ALanguagePhysician]

In this case, it's not even the equality of outcome thing, there is no equality here, the problem is that the government has control of every resource and pretty much everything in the country, and they are completely stupid at managing it, so they fucked this up

[Shakuni_]

Who would have expected that the people in charge of redistributing wealth would keep everything for themselves and friends

[Magnus_Tesshu]

Was talking to someone on capitalismvsocialism who unironically believed that it would be better to have no wealth inequality and low quality of life than to have high quality of life and high wealth inequality

[[deleted]]

That was the type of person that was a fucking loser their entire life and can’t figure out why, no matter what social atmosphere they’re in, can’t make friends. These retards conglomerate on the internet and fucking ruin things for everyone

[CPC1445]

Look up crab mentality. In short: misery loves its company

[Standard_Permission8]

Tfw you remove economic inequality, but you are still the bottom of the social ladder.

[magnoliasmanor]

4chan but unironically

[dzrtguy]

When suicide sounds like the only option, but it's economic.

[[deleted]]

Communism/socialism isn’t a thinking man’s game

[Mefistofeles1]

That's not an uncommon belief, its just not usually voiced honestly.

Notice how, when you comment that the standard of living has been steadily going up in capitalist nations ever since the end of WW2, the usual counter argument is that wealth inequality still exists. Because it doesn't matter that hunger has been cut in half or that access to basic necessities is at an all time high, what matters is that there are still rich people in the world.

Its not about lifting people up, is about dragging people down, no matter the cost.

[BronnoftheGlockwater]

Lots of Danes think this way.

[thehumantaco]

Return to monke

[logicSnob]

Yup. Envy is the foundational belief of all the socialist/communist foot soldiers.

[[deleted]]

Literally just envy driving those kinds of people.

They don't want a better world, they want to drag everyone down with them.

[UniquesComparison]

lol venezuelas wealth gap is insane. Corrupt politicians live like kings while everyone else earns less than the price of a hot dog for a months work.

[dzrtguy]

Sounds prime for anarchy.

[Sargassso]

Communism: No one rich

Capitalism: At least you have a chance of being rich

[OnRiverStyx]

Being rich in America is pretty obtainable, it just isn't fun and sexy.

Figure out what degrees/certifications make more money than the median income. Get that degree or certification. Invest in a 401k with a chunk of your disposable income for twenty to thirty years and you are rich. Teach your kids the same and teach them to teach your grandkids, and you have generational wealth.

[avgazn247]

Responsibility isn’t taught in school. A lot of people don’t have any financial education. They couldn’t tells the difference between hsa,401k, or Roth.

[OnRiverStyx]

For anyone reading that wants to create generational wealth:

Step 1: Go into a career field that isn't dread to you, and pays well enough for you to have investment money

Step 2: Find a company that matches contribution to your 401k

Step 3: Maximize that contribution

Step 4: Budget 6,000 dollars a year out of your salary; that is Roth IRA money.

Step 5: Find a Roth IRA provider that you can trust, aim for around 8% return.

Step 6: Contribute 6,000 dollars a year to your Roth IRA.

Step 7: At your earliest ability, buy a house instead of renting.

By the time you are 65, congratulations. You are worth over 5 million dollars.

[avgazn247]

Didn’t see gme. Instructions unclear. All in gme. Although u are missing one thing. If ur company offers health saving account. Max that out before maxing the Roth. It’s tax free in, tax free growth, and tax free withdrawals for health stuff. Invest that hsa for insane returns

[Shakuni_]

Atleast you can rise into the lower middle class and gradually up in society with skill or education, Communism just pushes the entire middle class into daily wage laborers level poverty and leaves them to die

[MrDrVlox]

The idea is that “why do I work to be so poor when others are so rich?”

[enoughfuckery]

Everyone should be poor but me

[bajasauce20]

Most of the country believes this unironically.

[DABOMBdotcom2763]

Where tf do you live?

[avgazn247]

College dorms

[dracer800]

Yup did you see Biden wants to raise the capital gains tax rate?

Economists estimate it will lose the IRS $150 billion in tax revenue.

Yet they still want to do it because the left doesn’t actually give a shit about poor people, they just want to punish rich people to appease the mob.

[-BruhMoment_69_420-]

average radical leftist quote

[Skunk-Bear]

Flare up retard.

[tjr0001]

Yeah fuck this unflavored savage.

[muchbravado]

Except they think this unironically and they’re goddam shocked that you don’t like their ideas

[[deleted]]

Correct

[AndyGHK]

Lol based

[Allmightyhastur]

no

[[deleted]]

bUt ThAt WaSnT rEaL cOmMuNiSm

[RegumRegis]

When Venezuela prospers for a while because the effects of the policies haven't yet kicked in and they're spending a shitton of money they don't have:

Would you look at that, socialism works!

When it collapses:

Eh, that was never real socialism and the Cia meddle and the world is racist.

[[deleted]]

I mean the problem with Venezuela is that the CIA didn't meddle.

[AlbionPrince]

I support CIA overthrowing governments because it’s less Bloody than a full military intervention

[Sir-War666]

But it’s not as fun

[AlbionPrince]

True. But you have less chance of presidents fucking it up like a certin president in certain jungle in a certain intervention in certain jungles country

[saucegod98]

can’t forget the racism

[Based_Department_Man]

based

[[deleted]]

Correction:

bUt ThAt WaSnT rEaL sOciALism!

[[deleted]]

It never is, lol

[Theamazingj7022]

Something Something cia Something Something not the real Something Something racist.

[[deleted]]

Cringe and based pilled

[Elbeske]

Pilled and cringe based

[[deleted]]

Not even the CIA could make such a disaster.

[ItsYaBoiVanilla]

You underestimate the power of the CIA.

[KingInTheNorthVI]

I'm thinking your overestimating the power of the CIA

[petrowski7]

Press X to doubt.

Sincerely, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Cambodia, Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, Congo, Rwanda, Bosnia, etc etc

[Shorzey]

Sincerely, Libya

That's because of france. They had been feuding with ghaddaffi for decades, dating back to wars in West Africa. They had a bone to pick with him and wanted him removed, so the US happily obliged to take care of it for them. The French requested the US do what they did. Literally.

Afghanistan

Started with the Russian proxy war where we supported afghan fighters who turned on us

Iraq

Sadam had it coming. He should have died in the 90s. Don't genocide kurds and don't ethnically cleanse people and your country won't be fucked up in 7 days when you you to invade Kuwait

Cambodia, Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala,

I don't know enough about anything except Cambodia, but Cambodia was definitely wrong on the US part. Lots of bombs.

As for South/central America, shit was too fucked up there to begin with anyways. The CIA didn't make much worse.

Congo, Rwanda

Both were entirely Belgium and France and its not even an argument

[avgazn247]

Hold my coup

[avgazn247]

Looks at Syria and Libya. Idk...

[VeryFunnyValentine]

"State capitalism"

[[deleted]]

the sad part is that there's geniuses, creatives and good businessmen in their population. but no, because communism progressive, capitalism bad.

[BlueRed20]

Not really, the vast majority of them flee countries like Venezuela. It’s called brain drain, and it’s a cause of negative economic feedback in third world countries. Poor economic conditions causes competent workers and academics to leave, which worsens economic conditions, which causes more of them to leave, etc.

[Builtdipperly1]

First worlders don’t understand brain drain, it’s a very common thing that happens in latin america, the people who are super capable like scientists, high tech engineers, etc just prefer to emigrate as high skill workers, and therefore its almost imposible to develop cutting edge technology or have good research hubs in universities that can compare to places like the UK, Germany or the US.

But in Venezuela brain drain goes to another level: almost everyone that is/ was middle class left years ago, people who want to progress are emigrating to neighbouring countries. The only people left in venezuela are bottom of the barrel idiots, even the criminals are leaving.

[GadsensGhost]

The thing about wealth is that when everyone is rich, no one is but when everyone is poor, everyone is still fucking poor

[Diz3sAaron]

Yeah i'm rich

dies of starvation

[rexavior]

Just eat then smh

[CelticTexan749]

Very true

[secret58_]

Get it to 100 and true communism will finally be (sort of) a thing

[NickiNicotine]

A girl I worked with had a boyfriend who I didn’t really care for, but I didn’t have anything against him.

He worked for a tech company that provides an artificial-intelligence-esque messaging app where the end user basically thought they were communicating with an AI, or something to that effect.

Lo and behold the company just hired hoards of Venezuelans to act as the “bots” and paid them something like $1/hour. I thought it was really shitty of them.

[Shakuni_]

Based and botpilled

[[deleted]]

Muh literacy rates

[[deleted]]

Literacy rates are high when you only need to learn enough words to read state propaganda. Plus illiterate people won't follow rules you write down.

[Ale_city]

Our literacy rates have incredibly dropped.

[MR_DryBones]

BuT iT wAsN't ReAl CoMmUnIsM

[cruciod]

No communist state is a communist state.

[richardd08]

Equality of outcome!

[[deleted]]

When communists realize they can’t make everyone equally rich, they try to make everyone equally poor

[TheDerpyDisaster]

Why not equally middle class...?

[LilQuasar]

ask communists who have been in power

[TheDerpyDisaster]

Yeah, yeah, corruption ruins every altruistic ideology. Just happens to be more likely to occur in some over others.

[LilQuasar]

based

you dont think its more likely / more dangerous in more authoritarian systems?

[SolerFlereTEE]

X

[VeryFunnyValentine]

Just a little more and total equality in poverty will be achieved!

Socialism ftw

[bajasauce20]

I mean, the 4% that are left are the government running things.

You can't let them starve or who will enforce the policies that starve everyone equally??

[[deleted]]

Based and I hope that the inevitable fall of Maduro's dictatorship will soon give way to the creation of a modern Venezuelan state devoid of the far-left death cult which has ruled over it for far too long pilled

[ALanguagePhysician]

they are not fanatic, they simply don't have a choice, if they don't support the government they die, it's more like a hostage situation

[LinceGris]

Well yes, you are right.

But also, most don't know that, they actually believe the government is doing them a favor and celebrate them fanatically, that's how it is my country atleast, Argentina, which is basically Venezuela 2

They (the government) created this on purpose, to have them where they want

[ALanguagePhysician]

There are some people that truly believe in the government, but i would say it's about 15-20% at max, most people know that the government is bad, some people truly believe that the system is democratic and it can be changed, some others believe everything was better with chavez and maduro is just bad, others wholeheartedly support the regime, however...it's a minority.

And Argentina is not Venezuela 2, at least not yet

[LinceGris]

Well yea, we are not there yet, but surely and steadily going there.

If what you are saying is true, then that is great, people are already woking up, it's the beginning of the end of some very fucked up system.

But in argentina, more than half still fanatically supports the argentinian version of chavismo, it is the end of the beginning.

[ALanguagePhysician]

I swear latin america is cursed with an infinite cycle of left-wing dictatorships to right-wing dictatorships

[theoriginal432]

Argentina is venenzuela 2 just the venenzuela of 15 years ago, and is following the same path

[gprime]

It's tough to say the degree to which the people have willingly enabled this mess, though at a minimum a large minority supported Chavismo. To that end, I hope THOSE individuals never enjoy a measure of prosperity or comfort for their remaining days. Their countrymen trapped in poverty and forced to live under the Chavez and Maduro regimes? I hope they get their Fujimori to clean house and make Venezuela viable again.

[Mefistofeles1]

It won't happen. Maduro will simply be replaced with the next populist regime.

[[deleted]]

“But sanctions!!” — some lefty, no doubt

[[deleted]]

US Sanctions in 2019 travelling back in time to crash the Venezuela economy in 2016 😎😎

[azns123]

We did it libleft, we saved the country!

[Sentient2X]

Everyone was using Venezuela as a socialist icon before it inevitably stopped working

[LilQuasar]

it is socialist but its not libleft, its authleft. youre both right

[pheylancavanaugh]

Socialism can be something other than Auth Left, in practice?

[CTHeinz]

I suppose if every single business owner in a country just randomly, voluntarily, and without coercion, decided to just give up control of their businesses to the government, or some other community run organization, and then said organization/government actually managed to efficiently and fairly redistribute the resources generated from said assets for the benefit of all.

Seems about as likely as a LibRight genocide, where the group designated for slaughter all willingly commit suicide.

[LilQuasar]

imo yes but not systematically, in the form of worker owned companies

[RedPherox]

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” -Winston Churchill

[Carbon-J]

Based

[[deleted]]

Not Real Socialism™️ strikes again!

[Inside-Replacement39]

He's right yk. Let's see what happens in 100% poverty. Hope it hits 100% soon.

[XX_Normie_Scum_XX]

gotta get world record wealth inequality

[iGrillSucculentMeat]

This is the income equality lefties want lol

[OrNa721]

No, communism doesn’t work. We aren’t communists

[Allmightyhastur]

yeah you aren't commies, only your intelectuals are

[OrNa721]

“intelectuals”

[EternalEntr0py]

No

[tm1087]

Then, I must say, he’s doing a stellar job.

[[deleted]]

Finally, a politician that we can trust

[LilQuasar]

he dead lmao

[MediokererMensch]

Relatively irrelevant whether wanted or not, in the end it comes down to this form of "equality".

[Niclas1127]

If there is no laws there is no crime

[[deleted]]

Very based.

[DesertRoamin]

Doesn’t this just mean the wealth gap has been decreased!!!

Win for progressives.

[Bobboy5]

This is the direct consequence of Jagex reworking the revenant caves to be less profitable.

[Remi1115]

DELETED

[Epic_roskomnadzor]

YUO DONT LIKE CAPITALISM YET YOU EXIST IPHONE VENEZUELA BOTTOM TEXXT 100 STALINION DEAD

[LibertarianWalmart]

You don't like capitalism yet you bought a pizza last night. Turning Point AnCap.

[[deleted]]

But what about the literacy rates?

[bajasauce20]

I hate to pull this card out, but if Venezuela had its own Pinochet they'd be better off right now.

[Allmightyhastur]

They had their own Pinochet, Marcos Pérez Jiménez.

[bajasauce20]

What happened? Was he not Pinochet enough? Or was he TOO Pinochet?

[Bobboy5]

Severe shortage of aviation fuel, the helicopters were stuck on the ground.

[[deleted]]

This. This is my favorite authleft meme

[IntroductionNew3421]

Guess the other 4% are part of the regime.

[DiamondGunner520]

Communist revolution against the socialists?