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Amid Chaos Venezuelans Struggle To Find The Truth, Online (npr.org)
In Venezuela, where media is controlled by the government, figuring out what is truth, rumor or propaganda has always been difficult. NPR reports: In recent days it's gotten even more confusing. President Nicolas Maduro has refused to cede power to the opposition party. There have been widespread protests and looting -- and the rumor mill has been churning on social media. But many Venezuelans have found a way to use social media in their favor.
Javier Rojo owns a pharmacy in the capital city of Caracas. As the chaos started, he gave his workers the day off, went home and turned on the TV -- only to find nothing was being reported. "Independent media has been gradually attacked or shut down over time," says professor Gregory Weeks, who teaches Latin American politics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "So that in general social media becomes the means by which you learn what's going on, on an ongoing basis."
Back at his house, Rojo says he started getting messages on WhatsApp like this one from from one of his employees: "Tanks are rolling into the park. They are launching tear gas." But then, Rojo started receiving WhatsApp messages with rumors from people he doesn't even know. One man, who says his aunt's husband is a military officer, swore that Maduro has resigned. Professor Raisa Urribarri researches technology and politics at Universidad de Los Andes in Venezuela. She says it's hard to trace the origins of some messages in Venezuelan social media. They can be from panicked citizens, the opposition or the government.
Javier Rojo owns a pharmacy in the capital city of Caracas. As the chaos started, he gave his workers the day off, went home and turned on the TV -- only to find nothing was being reported. "Independent media has been gradually attacked or shut down over time," says professor Gregory Weeks, who teaches Latin American politics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "So that in general social media becomes the means by which you learn what's going on, on an ongoing basis."
Back at his house, Rojo says he started getting messages on WhatsApp like this one from from one of his employees: "Tanks are rolling into the park. They are launching tear gas." But then, Rojo started receiving WhatsApp messages with rumors from people he doesn't even know. One man, who says his aunt's husband is a military officer, swore that Maduro has resigned. Professor Raisa Urribarri researches technology and politics at Universidad de Los Andes in Venezuela. She says it's hard to trace the origins of some messages in Venezuelan social media. They can be from panicked citizens, the opposition or the government.
is they use Facebook? Seems to be the same everywhere.
They can be from panicked citizens, the opposition or the government.
That should probably read 'a government'.
I reserve the write to mangle english.
Sounds like the US. Just give it another year or two.
This is your future, dumbasses.
This is one question I can't wrap my head around.
From Libya to Iraq to Afghanistan and the present Syria...the USA has its hand(s) in the "cookie jar."
Its European allies supported it; then they paid by having to deal with the refugee influx.
They're now creating mayhem in Venezuela; they may have to deal with refugees.
What we have here is an active US destabilization of a sovereign nation sitting on Oil.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Don't fall for the same old lies...
Glad we have corporations acting as dogs for tyrants.
"Their a private company can do what they want." is increasingly becoming an excuse for boot lickers. If any company has the ability to control or direct the conversation of an entire nation then we have a problem.
I fear a future where it is too late to reign in the power of these few companies that control communication.
https://twitter.com/Louis_Alld...
@Louis_Allday
This is too perfect.
Anti-Maduro Venezuelan on 19 January: "I'm living in the cutest apartment in Paris studying fashion... life is good"
24 January: "I live here [Venezuela]. I live this. live with having rationed food, toilet paper, basic human necessities."
The Internet has a protocol for this problem: Pics or it didn't happen.
Video is even better.
When you get right down to it, trust is a valuable, important thing. Civilizations that learn how to cultivate and protect it do better than those which don't. US media once knew this. Then they discovered they could lie for money, and burned all the trust they'd ever had (except among the elderly who are no longer capable of detecting that their once cherished institutions have turned into money-grubbing liars). I would have called them lying whores, but whores at least provide a useful service.
This is an opportunity for some Venezuelans to become a reporters. Real reporters. If they live through it, they could win the Pulitzer prize. Odds aren't good they'll live through it. Speaking truth to power in such places is hazardous to one's health.
He's not actually in the US. He's technically not a traitor, either. He's a loyal and patriotic Russian citizen. He's also a liar, mind you, but only a fool would take comments on this site for fact.
Most of the media in Venezuela is not controlled by the government, it is owned and controlled by capitalist oligarchs just like in the US.
And just like in the US there is a shitstorm of disinformation being pumped out by everyone. In fact the gaslighting has gone global.
And why should Maduro cede power? He just won an election. If the opposition wanted to win they should have taken part.
Want to know what to think? Ask the old old question: Who benefits? Then follow the money.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/0...
Conspicuous by its absence in much of the mainstream news coverage of Venezuela’s political crisis is the word “socialism.” Yes, every sensible observer agrees that Latin America’s once-richest country, sitting atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves, is an economic basket case, a humanitarian disaster, and a dictatorship whose demise cannot come soon enough.
But socialist? Perish the thought.
Or so goes a line of argument that insists socialism’s good name shouldn’t be tarred by the results of experience. On Venezuela, what you’re likelier to read is that the crisis is the product of corruption, cronyism, populism, authoritarianism, resource-dependency, U.S. sanctions and trickery, even the residues of capitalism itself. Just don’t mention the S-word because, you know, it’s working really well in Denmark.
Curiously, that’s not how the Venezuelan regime’s admirers used to speak of “21st century socialism,” as it was dubbed by Hugo Chávez. The late Venezuelan president, said Britain’s Jeremy Corbyn, “showed us there is a different and a better way of doing things. It’s called socialism, it’s called social justice, and it’s something that Venezuela has made a big step toward.” Noam Chomsky was similarly enthusiastic when he praised Chávez in 2009. “What’s so exciting about at last visiting Venezuela,” the linguist said, is that “I can see how a better world is being created and can speak to the person who’s inspired it.”
Stop lying. The refugee invasion from Libya caused the French and Italian military response, not the other way around. The Afghan government harboring Al Quada caused the US invasion, not the other way around. The Iranian puppetry in Baghdad caused the rise of ISIS, not the US. You desperately want to blame the US, because that's what you've been told to believe, but you just keep spreading lies.
The biggest "news" channel in the US is Fox "news."
How is that the democratic left? It's the propaganda arm of the Republican party.
Hey man, the U.S. is just backing up what CANDA said - that Maduro is not the recognized president.
If you find yourself on the wrong side of Canada, you should be questioning your life-choices.
P.S. if you want to ask about interference, perhaps you should be asking why you are backing the person backed by both Cuba (who sends military and social manipulation advisers to Venezuela) or Russia (same deal, and they support Maduro).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The biggest "news" channel in the US is Fox "news."
How is that the democratic left? It's the propaganda arm of the Republican party.
These days it may be more accurate to say that the Republican Party is the political wing of Fox News.
Faux News.
FTFY. :-/
It is a sad state of affairs when the MSM (Mainstream media) "News" have become comedy and comedians tell the actual news. :-/
SAD to see /. is just another tool of the IMF.
So all those mistakes you guys made have nothing to do with this? It's all America's fault? It's America's fault you elected a so called socialist president. It's America's fault you destabilized your currency.
Take responsibility for once and stop pointing your fingers at America for Christ sakes. You built this problem now deal with it.
You don't see us blaming you guys for trump. We fucked up. Now we are owning it and trying to fix Shit. Not point fingers. Well unless you are trump.
... in Venezuela it's very difficult to distinguish propaganda from actual news. But not because the government controls, or owns the media. It's just the other way around. Most information in Venezuela comes from private corporations who have been battling against the government for almost 20 years, even sponsoring this 2002 coup that ousted the president for a couple of hours.
So please, Slashdot, don't give me this crap.
Here in the US the media is controlled by the democratic left - just as many lies to the people as in Venezuela.
You mean the media that got Trump elected? That "democratic left"?
The media that has put a Republican majority in our local, state and federal governments for 20 years now?
Did you know that the number one cable news channel is Fox News? Are you saying that they are controlled by the "democratic left"?
If you think the US media is "democratic left", I don't want to know what you think is centrist or even right wing.
I bet you think Venezuela is "socialist" too.
We're supposed to listen to the other side, but the other side is so misinformed to the point where their opinions have no basis is reality, all bets are off. I was brought up as a Ford/H.W. Bush Republican, but today's conservatives are just off their fucking rocker to the point of being just kooks.
As is the fate of all "socialist" states... same result for democracy too. I remember telling all the "deniers" that this would happen.
Know what they are saying now? That it was not "real socialism". Yes, that is actually true, it really was not real socialism... the problem is that real socialism is not possible when there is someon at the top with power. Those in power take it and use it.
Real socialism would be closer to anarchy, but people do not realize that... and since no one is altruistic enough to be a real socialist... it's just not possible.
People should read multiple sources on the same topic. From there you can triangulate and come up with your own opinions.
If you expect the media to spoon feed you what you should think, it's going to be biased at some level.
Either way, if you are stuck in Venezuela, the truth is your reality on the ground. I'm sure it's terrible and it's the government elites who are the cause. No news article is going to make that reality any different. It just might change people's opinions on what side they support...
Example after example after example after example...
And the three massive ones last week. The Covington High School kids who they all wanted dead for wearing Maga hats were actually the victims of racist/sexist bigotry by people calling them faggots and everything else they could think of, and they all knew. Then there was a fake report that was so bad that Robert Mueller's office, which is dedicated to making up shit to smear Trump with, had to pipe up and say it was fake. And there was another one that was just as bad, but I forgot what it was.
And of course, there's "that middle aged balding dude with an erect penis is named Penny and you will call her she, you bigot! And no, we're not being paid by the Rothschilds' Human Rights Watch or the Rockefellers' Arcus Foundation / Gay Straight Alliance or the British Army's Psychological Warfare Bureau, Tavistock... uh.. don't look at our books, bigot! IGNORE THE INVESTMENT FUND IN THE CANARY ISLANDS, BIGOT!"
This got to be another Chavista posing as a credible source with a couple of actual facts, (NPR, BBC, TeleSur owners)
Who do you expect would believe "the US and it's poodles haven't been deliberately ruining Venezuela's economy and impoverishing it's people" ?. Either you're so dumb you believe your own BS, or Maduro's BS, or you got to be part of Cuba's G2 infiltrated fake news generation machine established in Venezuela many years ago.
Blaming the US, or anyone else beside Chavez' / Maduro's crooks for their corruption / mismanagement and pure fascism is not only false but moronic, and part of the Cuba recipe to always blame someone else, specially the US, for their own inflicted problems for the last 20 years since Chavez got into power.
And to say the record straight, the people DID and DOES support Juan Guaidó as an interim president, which btw, is by the book, ie the constitution. Article 233 of the Venezuelan constitution is the one the National Assembly applied to name Guaidó as an interim president, the same article chavistas use in 2002 when there was actually a coup. So it was good for Chavistas but not for the 80%+ mayority who supports Guadó, right ??. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Venezuelan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat_attempt)
If Maduro is so sure he'll win any election, why doesn't he open the whole electoral process and office with independent people without putting in jail many of his opponents ? It's just another fact in a long list of fact he's a dictator, and a bad one since he bankrupted the country, badly. It's only the Chavistas who allowed the stated owned oil company, PDVSA, to become so inept, corrupt and mismanaged that production went from 3M+ barrels a day to around 1M, and by tripling the payroll. Before Chavez oil prices were around $10 and the country did NOT enter into hippeinflation. Yes, they did have some high inflation, but nothing compared as what happening today, not to mention the shortages of basic goods, which didn't happen before 1999.
All in all, go to your leftist café where you crawled from, or go back to the G2 bunker to come up with more G2 BS.
Fox News is a single cable channel that leans right.
Is that a balance against the other major cable news channels of MSNBC and CNN which lean heavy left and left?
Does that also balance out the 3 major OTA commercial news channels (which are also shown on cable) of NBC , CBS and ABC? Those also lean left, some more than others.
You have all these left leaning networks and you bitch about ONE right leaning network in Fox News?
Wow....at least there is one dissenting voice out there....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I mostly agree with you, it's mostly Venezuelan's people fault who elected Chavez in 1998. But it's also true Chavez, and now Maduro, have stole and rigged many elections since then, not to mention changing all the state institutions to work on his favor, It's hard for the Venezuelan people to fight against this.
As for blaming the US for any of this, only the Chavistas do this, and they are only following Cuba's recipe, which as you know they're been using since Castro got into power.
As for Trump, I agree with you 100%...
It's funny, because we seem to have the same problem here in the United States in the last 10 years or so. The FBI just shut down a site including domain because they were accused of buying hacked servers (which is their own damn business)
Of course I support single payer health care, after all as a developer I make enough to afford the supplemental insurance that ensures I will not die if I need to use it.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This should illustrate the need for a strong, independent media.
I know that it is currently en vogue to say "we don't need the media, we can just do their jobs ourselves using the internet", but it should be obvious that if you take that approach, you wind up trusting the "truth" being peddled by propaganda websites such as Zerohedge and Alex Jones.
It is literally the job of a strong independent media to figure out what is truth and what is fiction. They are trained to do this and therefore can figure things out much better than you or I can. Sure, they get things wrong from time to time - but they then state their errors, correct it, and move on.
A state-run media is no better than a collection of blogger-run media. Bloggers will get things right, but they almost always have an angle (I would posit that the less someone is paid to blog, the more they have a stake in putting out a specific message).
Have a look at the main newspapers. Here is a list. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Most private newspaper are against Maduro. They even came to the extreme of asking for an intervention. Look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... Plus internet is not blocked in Venezuela. Total bullshit article
On the left you have CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, USAToday, all the television networks (except Fox), and a plethora of wannabe outlets like BuzzFeed, HuffPo, Vox, etc.
On the right you have...Fox.
The window of opportunity for us software engineers to solve the global problem of misinformation is rapidly closing -- and the problem is about to intensify with deep fakes. Particularly Russia but also various other states are pushing misinformation very hard but so are various political and commercial interests around the world.
As Net Neutrality is lost and not only misinformation flourishes but conspiracies about media organizations like Youtube degrading the searches on conspiracy theories are also likely to flourish. The world is aiming strongly toward an era of ruthless darkness.
The suggestions to solve this problem so far, have been petty.
I have developed the plan for a comprehensive solution. I am calling it Solinova (latin for -- new sun). It's a mesh network that hides personal identities while retaining consistency of identity and earning reputation for interactions with others. Research into microloans demonstrated that giving loans on the basis of research into the personal reputation of individuals among those they know, was very successful. I believe the same can be applied for more than just monetary credibility.
Solinova includes a currency called "promise" that is more secure than blockchains and much faster. It also integrates inherent insurance for everything and greatly reduced risk of transactions. I will publish this soon. I am working through simulations to verify the validity and comprehensiveness of the philosophy.
In 2009, Noam Chompsky said " “What’s so exciting about at last visiting Venezuela,” the linguist said, is that “I can see how a better world is being created and can speak to the person who’s inspired it.”
In 2017, he says "I never described Chavez's state capitalist government as 'socialist' or even hinted at such an absurdity. It was quite remote from socialism. Private capitalism remained ... Capitalists were free to undermine the economy in all sorts of ways, like massive export of capital."
It's always "I have seen The Future, and It Works", until the megadeaths become impossible to ignore, then "Oh, no, that wasn't real socialism. We need to try real socialism. This time for sure."
That trick never works. Never.
It IS amusing that NPR might complain. Though no longer funded so directly by the government...their extreme liberal/jewish bias is very well known and documented and has been for decades. They just make more noise when their side isn't in power so it gets noticed. As if both sides weren't pro war, pro US disrupting other countries and so forth. Red herring all the way down. Who can I vote for or support who doesn't want us killing or screwing up everyone?
Who can do math and figure out that not only can the rich not pay for infinite freeloading, but are well known to be expert at not paying taxes anyway (see: all big corps and all rich people, examples abound), so proposals in that regard are both dumb AND naive?
How can my vote matter if there's no one to vote for who represents me even during the lying campaign promise phase, much less the in office phase?
How is it that all office holders retire wealthy on what would normally be not so great pay for DC?
Chile, Contras in Nicaragua, Supporting fascist thug government in Guatemala, Cuba. ... now Venezuela (and I'm sure I missed a few).
USA sort out your own f'**ing mess and stay out of other peoples' countries.
You say you make the world safe for democracy. That's BS, you kill democratically elected governments who don't let you steal resources, or who you have some political disagreement with.
Venezuelan crisis is a creation of US economic sabotage. (embargos, preventing international lending, etc etc) Wikipedia it yourself.
Venezuelan Presidential Elections:
1998 Chavez (Democratic Socialist): 56%
2000 Chavez (Democratic Socialist): 60%
2004 Recall-Chavez-Referendum: No: 58%
2006: Chavez (Democratic Socialist): 63%
2012: Chavez (Democratic Socialist): 55%
2013: Maduro (Democratic Socialist): 50.6%
2018: Maduro (Democratic Socialist): 68%
Summary: The slim majority of people in Venezuela have for 20 years and continue to support the democratic socialist regime in power.
The main CRIME of this government party according to US was nationalizing oil resources. In other words refusing to sit back and just take a few bribes while US oil companies raped the resources and took almost all of the profits.
Current US government can't STAND that there is a democratic socialist government in South America that dares to say that its own people own their natural resources and US does not own it. It's an afront to the US's worldwide modus operandi.
We are seeing the process of the US stealing the Venezuelan oil reserves back from the uppity local socialists.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Are you sure those comedians are not lying to you? Do you actually fact check what comedians say or because they have a laugh track it becomes true?
I have found that those "comedians" lie just as much if not more.
but he is the democratically elected representative of the nation. The opposition party decided to boycott the election. I haven't heard anyone say it was out of fear of reprisals either (ala Russia). The fact that there _is_ an opposition party indicates that Maduro isn't doing pogroms.
I think this is our CIA gearing up for more "liberation". Here's a series of clips of Donald Trump saying the quiet part out loud. e.g. we're going in to steal their oil. You can argue that Maduro was gonna steal it anyway, and maybe you're right. But that doesn't make us doing it right.
The part I really hate though is that the American war mongers start trouble south of the border and then use the refugees they created to frighten people into voting for them. That's where those "caravans" are coming from. That's just insane that it works...
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but I've read that Saudi Arabia (with our urging) kept oil prices artificially low to destabilize Venezuela for an eventual coup. I could believe it.
Venezuela was a third world hell hole that did the unthinkable: they took some of their oil money and used it to benefit the working class. That can't be sitting well with our ruling elites. I'm not saying everything they did was puppies and kittens fun. But given where they started and where they were (until the price of oil collapsed) and given that instead of helping them while encouraging democracy the United States put sanctions on them I think they've done alright.
Duterte is doing way, way worse things and we're buddy/buddy with him. But he's also serving our corporate interests unquestionably...
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Quite an accomplishment, you managed to get score:-1, Insightful :D
Another Russian troll trying to sway conversations by dissuading thoughtful participants.
how to get by in a world where AI and automation are doing most of the work formerly done by people.
I guess you'll either be teaching them how to steal with firearms,
or educating them about the merits of universal basic income (a suspiciously "socialist" solution, no? but a solution nonetheless.)
Don't believe AI is coming for their jobs?
Good luck with that.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
The other networks don't "lean left", except possibly for some of MSNBC's opinion-based shows (not all of them -- anyone who thinks Morning Joe is liberal needs their head examined). They lean toward reality.
SMH at 5: Interesting for you. Slashdot is truly overrun by morons now.
One right-wing voice?
Suuuurrrreee... dozens of news anchors at stations across the US (all owned by Sinclair media, which leans heavily to the right) just happened to recite the exact same right-wing message echoing Trump's comments about fake news and the media being the enemy on the same day using the same wording.
You can keep telling yourself that Fox News is the only right wing voice out there, but reality proves you're wrong.
Here in the US the media is controlled by the democratic left
That's not true, and you omitted News Corp, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Tribune Media, and other conservative media conglomerates; not to mention conservative shows that dominate the News Talk radio format.
Finding God in a Dog
I'm a European leftist, in a country (perhaps the last one?) that still bases left vs right divide on economic issues. So in that light, Macron and US Democratic party are right-wing, even if they're constantly seeking justice for black transgenders in wheelchair and their right to marry a divorced immigrant dyke, or whatever the bullshit of the day is.
I watch no US TV or almost no TV at all, but sometimes find myself watching the Tucker Carlson show on youtube (or a few minutes extracts) probably after following some web links.
I am surprised to say, this guy on Fox News has non mainstream views on war, presses question to his guests about this, seems to cultivate critical thinking. I don't know what he says about Venezuela (yet).
Well, I found this https://insider.foxnews.com/2017/05/15/tucker-carlson-battles-student-venezuela-socialism-america-fault-maduro-chavez-protests (have not watched the vid)
Wow I watched this one about the smiling kid and the conclusion (last couple minutes) is great, refreshing
https://invidio.us/watch?v=Bj7ooZUtnaE
Now crap, I'm learning the US is stealing $7 billions from Venezuela with "sanctions" that "freeze assets" (while UK is stealing $1.2 billions). Oh crap...
I'm in favour of an independent and transparent non-profit global agency equipping itself with modern tech (inspectable open systems e-voting tech, most likely) to be able to offer election and referendum services (and citizen authentication services) to any country / state.
That being said, around the world, in all but a handful of countries, whenever there are close elections, the losing party ALWAYS claims fraud. Why wouldn't you? Sad but true.
And even those election-accepting countries have problems like gerrymandering of districts, politically biased supreme courts deciding elections, FBI directors implying one candidate is a criminal 11 days before the big vote etc.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Fox News is a single cable channel that leans right.
I'm sorry. The word "leaning" is quite understatement. If you really want an example of leaning, CBS is leaning left. There are many other smaller networks that are leaning right (e.g. OAN).
By the way, number of channels is not equivalent to number of viewers. And it doesn't matter how many channels for news out there because they all talk about the same thing when their political point of view is similar. Why are you thinking that it is an issue?
P.S. I don't want any political news from those channels anyway. Besides, news culture nowadays is very poisoned.
Yes the US is a hostile nation to Venezuela, it's obvious and the US made a coup in 2002 when things were still going relatively fine. You're blaming the rape victim on her choice of skirt.
Also, pleased to see that you have stopped blaming Russia for Trump, oh wait..
but he is the democratically elected representative of the nation.
He is no more "democratically elected" than any other tyrant in history.
Which is why CANADA supports the fellow who actually won, and many are calling for an open and monitored election to take place...
As for "probably not a nice chap", turning the bread basket of South America into a hell-hole where there is literally nothing - not clean water, not clean food, not even toilet paper - someone who maid that happen, is the Devil incarnate. He has earned his place with the monsters of history like Stalin or Pol-Pot.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
On the other hand... in other countries, where media is controlled by big corporations, figuring out what is truth, rumor or propaganda has always been so easy.
The fucking obvious ones, as it were...
People willing and wanting to cover more than one side of an issue. It's ok for reporters to have an angle, if you have lots of different reporters so that pretty much all angles are covered. That is, fake news is a symptom, not a problem. The remedy isn't to quash fake news. The proper remedy is to educate the people so that they're better able to determine for themselves what news is fake and what isn't. Then all you have to do is allow all news reports to get through, and the people can decide for themselves what the truth is.
That's what worries me about the current fervor to stamp out "fake news." While I can appreciate the intent, you're basically taking the the power to judge what constitutes real or fake news away from the people, and handing it to a few people at a company or in the government in charge of deciding what's fake and what's real. Those of you who've never lived through armed repression (i.e. the vast majority of the U.S. population) don't truly understand how precious a free media is. The people in Gwangju burned down one of the TV stations because they weren't doing their job and reporting what was happening. The reporters had been intimidated by the government and feared for their lives if they spoke the truth.
Yes, having a commission or department which decides what constitutes fake news can help. But it can also be horribly abused, with no way for the population to tell that it's being abused to repress legitimate information. The system works best when such repression is made more difficult, not easier. You just have to take upon yourself the harder task of properly educating the population, instead of the quick and dirty solution of a committee to decide which "fake news" should be repressed.
AOC is the smartest women evar! She's smoking hot, so whatever she say is based on real intelligence. So if she says we haven't tried socialism yet, by God, I believe her.
Did I mention I want to bang the fuck out of her. Sexy!!!! Oh yeah, we need socialism!
... definitely when you have a rogue nation going around doing whatever the hell it likes (including mass murder) to secure resources.
Jan. 28, Juche 108 (2019) Monday
Editorial
Let Us Step Up Construction of Highly Civilized Socialist Country
Building a highly civilized socialist country is an important work for bringing up all the people to be those responsible for the socialist construction who are possessed of rich knowledge and high cultural attainments and for creating conditions and environment for them to lead an affluent and highly civilized life.
Today when the DPRK has ranked itself with dignity among political and military powers, it presents itself as an urgent task for them to build a highly civilized country along with robust economic construction.
A shortcut to building a powerful socialist country is to usher in an overall heyday in all the fields of the cultural construction, including education, public health, literature and art and sports.
The DPRK is demonstrating its dignity as the only state in the world which has successfully fulfilled the fundamental and crucial tasks of building a prosperous and independent state.
A powerful spur given to building a highly civilized socialist country will precisely lead to the advancement and development of the DPRK onto a higher stage and the hurrahs for socialism. Only when all the fields of building a highly civilized country are put on the level desired by the Party ranging from the mental and moral traits and costumes to culinary culture, will it be possible for the people living in the great motherland to cherish stronger pride and self-esteem and to further manifest the advantages and might of Korean-style socialism.
We have valuable traditions and powerful potentials for spurring the building of a highly civilized socialist country at a fast pace.
All people should dynamically step up the construction of a highly civilized socialist country so as to turn our country into a socialist paradise envied by the world.
He's the democratically elected representative of the nation.
This is what happens when you boycott elections. Lefties in America stayed home because they didn't like Hilary and that got us Trump. Elections have consequences.
But it's more than that. I'm guessing the opposition party boycotted the election so they could de-legitimize Maduro in preparation for the US to help them over throw the government. Then they'll hand us the oil in exchange for power.
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If we haven't tried real socialism yet, then we haven't tried real capitalism yet
American fake news isnt working in Venezuela.
So thanks USA for piling on the economic sabotage on top of that to push the Venezuelan economy over the edge and get regime change.
Granted, any country that is relying on being an "oil power" going into the future needs to do a re-think on that.
But countries should be helping other countries transition to an environmentally sustainable economy.
What has US done recently to help create Solar and Wind energy industries in sunny Venezuela?
It's a rhetorical question.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
The name Nazi actually has socialist in it. Cmon you commy dem. Read your history. Quit getting spoon fed.
Wow...so witty and original!
to the discussion. Venezuela's problems have more to do with the collapsing price of oil and the most powerful nation on earth cutting them out of the global banking network via sanctions.
Venezuela is a small island nation that only recently became a civilized place when their Dictator, for reasons of his own, decided to share some wealth with the general population. This was not OK. The powers that be do not want this. That oil was theirs. He can have his banana republic but they get the oil. That's how this works.
While we're talking about things our media never seems to say, how about we talk about where all those refugees that our president just shut down our government (to the tune of $11 billion in loses, $3 of which we'll never get back) came from?
You want more refugees? You want more folks streaming over the boarder taking your jobs? This is how you get that. You destabilize a country so rich people can step in and steal the oil. Then you impoverish a country for generations which means violence and folks desperate enough to cross an ocean on a raft.
But I haven't heard a bloody peep about that from the media. When it comes to war (and make no mistake, they're gearing up to put boots on the ground just like they did with Syria) the media never met one they didn't like. That more than anything tells you who's _really_ in charge of this country, and it sure as hell ain't you and me.
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Oh! But the USA would be different! We'd run it correctly! We'd take care of the people! BUNK! It's never worked and never will.
Not even close. ABC/NBC/CBS do about 3-4 times more viewers than Fox News.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
shenanigans. And I know this is whataboutism to an extent, but go look up US Voter Suppression sometime. There's tampering of some sort in most elections. That said I've yet to see any evidence that the Venezuela election was on par with what Putin does (where the opposition has to leave the country and go into hiding).
What I want to see is for us to stop fucking with the rest of the Americas. That'll stop the flood of refugees and stabilize their countries and ours. Then maybe we can calm the blue collar guys down, get them real jobs and get them to start pushing policies that benefit them, me and the whole country.
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The biggest "news" channel in the US is Fox "news."
Fox News is the biggest all-news cable channel, but they are still dwarfed by the likes of CBS News, NBC News, Reuters, and so on.
You have all these left leaning networks and you bitch about ONE right leaning network in Fox News?
They don't like people upsetting the echo chamber of leftist media outlets. If we can't have state-controlled media where all the talking heads say the same thing in the same way at the same time then the next best thing is a uniformly leftist media. Alas, Fox News will not follow the guidebook. Hence they must be demonized even when those doing the demonizing can't point out where Fox is wrong or inaccurate in their reporting. Apparently it's enough to just dislike what they're reporting, scream "racist" or "sexist" or whatever, and claim victory. All this from the "tolerant" left.
Orwell would be so proud of them.
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
conservative shows that dominate the News Talk radio format
Oh, leftist talk radio has been tried in many markets. Remember "Air America"? No? That's because it went bust. No, it didn't go bust because Fox sent a team of ninjas to decapitate everyone. It failed because it could not compete.
Talk news is not a good format for leftists because the format encourages and relies on critical thought. Further, it encourages people to call in and challenge the host in a test of logic. Air America failed because it was basically shrill leftists telling everyone what to think and lambasting them if they didn't agree. Conservative radio doesn't do this and has thrived on debate.
Come to think of it, leftists as a whole seem to be quite shrill on avoiding debate of any kind, either by protesting campus speakers, threatening broadcasters, or trying to use the power of government to regulate airwaves. You'd think an ideology confident in its principles would welcome debate, but leftists don't. It's dogma or nothing, apparently. Speaks volumes about the logic of leftist ideology.
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
That trick never works. Never.
Don't tell that to AOC, her hordes of supporters, or the fawning media who adore her. Never mind that her "democratic socialism" is no different in practice than the socialism we've seen play out in Stalinist Russia, or Maoist China, or Castro's Cuba, or Kim's North Korea, or Maduro's Venezuela, or [insert failed state with starving, rioting people here]. No this is New Socialism and it's going to work out Just Fine this time because she says so!
Funny how everyone who's ever experienced the heavy hand of socialism is running screaming in terror from it to liberal democratic capitalist nations. You'd think if socialism worked it'd be the other way around, right?
Socialism cannot work without control. Control of markets. Control of social behavior. Control of the media. Control, control, control. It's forcing people do behave in ways contrary to their natural instincts, that being the desire for individual prosperity not group prosperity. That control requires an oppressive, authoritarian government with absurd amounts of power over the populace. That kind of power attracts corruption, cronyism, and cult-of-personality "leaders" who inevitably run the whole train off a cliff. History has shown this is the case every time it's been tried. That doesn't stop leftists everywhere from dreaming that it'll still work if only the right people are in charge. They're oblivious to the fact that the "right people" frequently aren't the angels they proclaim to be, and even if they are they eventually grow old, die, and must be replaced with others who may not share their altruism or competence.
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Go look up some of their interviews with AOC where they desperately try to get negative sound bites out of her. Go look up their coverage to the run up of the Iraq war. Go look up their coverage of the 2008 market crash and bail out.
MSNBC & CNN are left of center on social issues (Gay rights, Abortion, general civil rights, etc). They're that way because they're corporatists, and they go with whatever has the least controversy and generates the most money. Gays money spends well, so they're for Gay rights. 70% of americans support Abortion rights, so they're for Abortion rights.
But on anything economic they're right. Hard right. Go read or watch Norm Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent". The mainstream media is _not_ on your side.
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And if they do start piling up, who's to blame? Is it the small, impoverished third world nation that's been trying to modernize itself or the giant empire that's been throwing economic sanctions at them non stop?
/.'s readership is getting up there in years). We should be able to figure out the difference between socialism and using Karl Marx's rhetoric to get the rubes to buy in. We should be able to understand the difference between Donald Trump & Bernie Sanders when they both promise us Universal Healthcare. We shouldn't trust our gov't when it tells us Venezuela's bad when that same gov't supports the Saudi's who just murdered one of our journalists and got away with it. We should be able to see the pattern of destabilizing nations and then using the refuges as jingoistic props.
Maybe Venezuela could have pulled out of their nose dive with a bit of international help. Maybe they could have had Democracy and permanent first world nation status with just a friendly push in the right direction. But we'll never know, because to be blunt somebody is after their oil and by God and Country they're gonna get it...
I don't expect to get much of anywhere with this line of thought and it frustrates me. The US has been fucking with the rest of the Americans non stop for over a century.
I know where not supposed to bitch about mods but come one. It's 2019. We have the internet. We're adults (mostly,
Fuck. I mean, just fuck.
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Only a naive fool would believe someone has no biases.
Of course everyone in the entertainment business is lying -- that why it is prudent to check multiple sources.
Over here in Taiwan I am grateful for US support. This island is better for not having fallen to the most murderous regime in human history.
Yeah, good thing Trump isn't like that, huh.
Sweden is a monoculture?
You fucking retard. Have you even traveled outside your home county? Contiki tours don't count.
He was right about national bourgeoisie though, it always betrays the country for the stronger enemy. That's how Morsi was toppled in Egypt.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Almost the entire internet is now controlled by the search engines you use to find information.
Go on Youtube and search for "Sandy Hook Actors". In the year after the alleged Sandy Hook shootings, the first results (dozens of them) were videos made by members of the public, over ten minutes long, showing why they believed that the parents of the alleged victims were in fact actors, and bad ones at that.
Now the search results are all under five minute long news articles from CNN, ABC, and all the other major news media. Which just happen to be owned and run by Jews. What a surprise.
Yes, you fucking fucktard, Sweden is a monoculture. Maybe you need to travel outside the Euro-peon Union sometime.
"truth" is subjective.
"Maga hat wearing teen smirks in face of indigenous tribes Vietnam Era veteran"
Is both true and inaccurate.
The real story is of the western press being unable to PAY FOR GOOD REPORTERS due to their employers funding being unintentionally blown up by FB and Google. In the rush to clicks, the truth gets twisted, a lot, or in the covington case, gets twisted completely. So if the US press cannot truthfully report on something happening over the course of an hour or two in the US capital, who really knows what's going on in Venezuela ?
I ve seen no evidence that the founders of FB and Google spent any time thinking about unintended consequences. Including the western press being unable to report on events of the day, truthfully, without bias.
"national bourgeoisie" translates from leftist gobbledygook to "people in a nation who live in cities".
The cockroaches you think are right are using terminology from when illiterate peasants (and later barely literate workers) were fed hate by terrorists and future mass murderers to rile them up against PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN CITIES.
As someone who was born behind the iron curtain I find your idol despicable and your vapid support and use of his rhetoric terrifying.
I would take a good, hard and long look at my life if I were you.
The US constantly destabilizing the region for the sake of oil profits caused the rise of ISIS. We put religious whack jobs in charge because they agreed to give us the oil in exchange for power. Iran was well on it's way to modernizing (there's pictures of girls in skirts from the 50s) until we put the Shah in power. And before that the whole mess is because we drew up the borders with England & Russia post WWII without any regard to who lived where and whether they got along.
We're about to blow up Venezuela and we'll see a huge influx of refugees as a result. All we needed to do was skip the sanctions and put diplomatic pressure on them to modernize and keep their elections clean. But that would mean letting them keep their own oil.
These problems would go away if we'd stop screwing with countries.
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the world would step in. We're pretty desensitized but a mass genocide would get our attention. Go check the old Testament. There's no shortage of genocides there. And for good measure check just about any other Holy Book you care to name. Genocide has been the default for most of human history.
Palestinians hate Israel because they keep getting their land snatched and impoverished as a result. They're getting away with it because there's a significant portion of Christians (especially in America) who want to see Israel take the land because they believe that will bring the rapture. No joke. They're a significant and reliable voting block for the American Republican Party and that's one of the issues they hang their hat on.
Yes, lots of Palestinians do bad things. They also lack food and water security. People do bad things when you put them up against a wall. Meanwhile Israeli snipers are regularly shooting protestors with rock slings from half a mile away and the occasional children and there's hardly a peep. That's gonna get under some people's skin.
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I certainly wasn't using my hands to knock down those buildings I shelled the fuck out of in Fallujah. Hands off, indeed.
Well no, we havent, as real capitalism is as utopic. But we have come much much closer to real capitalism than to real socialism.
Anyone who isn't engaging in gaslighting and willful dumbfuckery? Sanctions have specifically targeted Venezuela's #1 industry, but have also made it nearly impossible to borrow money or even get diapers. Venezuela has billions in gold abroad that it could use to buy food - but America's lapdogs are refusing. The US has been openly funding opposition parties while whining about supposed Russian interference in its own elections.
Everyone who actually looks at Venezuela's elections, as opposed to parroting US propaganda, says they are free and fair. And if they were rigging elections - then Juan Guaido wouldn't be head of the national assembly, you dumb fuck.
Dumb.
Fuck.
Er.
Eee.