• narwhal@mander.xyz
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    18 minutes ago

    “Dictatorship vs Democracy” is the new “Savage vs Civilized”. Words thrown arround without explanation to signal friend and foe in the current ideological framework used to justify imperial conquest.

  • DupaCycki@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Well, the friends are right, because he is a dictator.

    Which is still better than whatever USA has in store for Venezuela.

    And which absolutely doesn’t justify slaughtering Venezuelan civilians.

  • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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    10 hours ago

    Well that was a lot of credulous Lemmy users. I should spend less time debunking imperial talking points and more time selling these people bridges. I’m leaving money on the table.

    Some of them even fired up their dusty old alt accounts to vote multiple times.

    • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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      23 minutes ago

      You’re right. I read this and I’m credulous. Come on down from the cross, we need the wood.

  • Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    Two things can be true at the same time. Maduro can be a dictator and the US can exerciser its military power illegally and attempt to intimidate and topple him.

    Both can be true at the same time.

  • transending_the_binary@piefed.blahaj.zone
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    18 hours ago

    He is an authoritarien and the country went to shit.

    Venezuela is not a nice place to live in.

    Maduro is a corrupt dictator, trump aswell and the current opposition to maduro most likely will just be an authoritarian and fascist pupped goverment that will act in the USAs interest. So yeah multible things can be true at once, just because a nation is opposed to the american empire does not mean that it is automaticallly good.

    Its quite sad to see that some terminally online leftist just automaticly replace siding with the imperialist systems that there born into( USA, EU Australia etc.) And just replace that with other imperial powers like russia and china.

    Like why?? How about not bootlicking authoritarians?

    • ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com
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      18 hours ago

      Tell us what a non-authoritarian leader of Venezuela would look like to you and how they would resist the constant pressure and hostile actions of the US government, because it seems to me that leftist leaders are always denounced as authoritarian by North American and European based NGOs and governments.

      The only way to avoid being labelled as authoritarian is to be friendly to the imperial core countries, i.e. being capitalist.

      • QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works
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        13 minutes ago

        Chavez in his first few months/year of being in office would be a good example of a non-authoritarian in that role.

        My problem with Maduro and many of those in the post early days of Chavez taking over is that far too many seem to have a tremendous amount of money that they cannot explain how they came across legally. Executives at PVDSA, the state run petroleum company, seem to be extremely vulnerable to this corruption.

        You can make the case that dictatorships/authoritarian structures are needed to protect a socialist revolution, which Im not sure I entirely agree with, without supporting the theft of state resources by people in the government.

      • DupaCycki@lemmy.world
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        1 hour ago

        This is a vicious cycle of falling back to dictatorship to avoid imperialism, or some of it.

        A) The country opens up and holds free elections, leading to an American puppet winning and the country turning into a vassal state at best, a glorified colony at worst.

        B) The country turns into a dictatorship to limit foreign influence and fight back against imperialism, becoming a similarly terrible place to live, but at least without giving anything to the empire. Also note that as time passes, it’s quite likely that the dictatorship will forget why it was even created, i.e. it will no longer be about rejecting imperialism.

        There are often the only two realistic scenarios for countries targetted by the American Empire. Both are bad and I’m not sure I feel like analyzing which one is slightly less bad for the average person.

      • pinguinu [any]@lemmygrad.ml
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        12 hours ago

        It’s so funny to see, when the alternative to Maduro is the Venezuelan equivalent of Yeltsin, someone hellbent on stripping their own country for parts and portraying that as “freedom”

      • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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        18 hours ago

        👆If you don’t suppress the inevitable imperial-supported bourgeois counterinsurgencies, your socialist project will go the way of Allende’s Chile.

        • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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          14 hours ago

          The question is whether government/people should get $60/barrel revenue before expenses, maybe $40/barrel after expenses, or $10/barrel but pump 5-10x as much, bribed to be loyal to US. Long term, obviously no corruption and high revenue/profit per barrel has its advantages. It’s not as though Exxon/Chevron can’t get access to Venezuela oil with fair deals, it’s that pretending corrupt puppets are the legitimate leaders provides extortion oil costs.

          When you understand the hoops the US government is willing to jump through to get cheap foreign oil, you should understand that similar policies are used to deprive Americans of their fair share of resource revenue.

        • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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          12 hours ago

          What a loser-ass mentality. It’s absolutely possible to remain just and free while being secure. Skill issue.

            • h3rmit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 hour ago

              Name one single socialist revolution that didn’t start as a violent dictatorship. You can’t.

              • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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                33 minutes ago

                The USSR, PRC, Vietnam, Laos, DPRK, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba, etc. all were massive expansions on democracy and working class control. Capitalists, landlords, fascists, monarchists, etc were (usually) violently oppressed, while the working classes were uplifted and society was democratized. From the point of view of the capitalists, they found themselves living in a violent dictatorship, for the working classes they found themselves finally escaping violent dictatorship.

            • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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              11 hours ago

              Not even going to reply to your strawman. I said that it’s weak mentality to say “ends justify the means and sacrifice justice and freedom for the sake of fighting a foreign oppressor” - maybe that’s easier to understand? Weak people, weak minds, skill issue.

              • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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                11 hours ago

                Lol you said nothing of the sort and now you’re running away shouting random reddit bullshit for cover (what strawman? That doesnt even make sense) because you’re acutely aware but too proud to admit that your dumb Marvel-brained bullshit has no basis in reality. Who’s freedom? Who’s justice? You haven’t put five seconds of thought into this and you’re talking to people who have considered it for years or decades. You’re adorable.

                • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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                  11 hours ago

                  It’s absolutely possible to remain just and free while being secure. Skill issue.

                  Maybe read it again?

          • m532@lemmy.ml
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            12 hours ago

            Just and free while being secure: “authoritarian”

            Unjust and unfree while being insecure and overrun by bears: Libertarian

            • h3rmit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 hour ago

              So, which part is the just and free part that you mention, outside of the theory? As in, in detail, practical examples of those freedoms and justice, please. Besides the theoritscl “to each according to their needs, from each according to their possibilities” (sorry if misstranslated), what practical examples have been just and free throughout time.

              • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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                31 minutes ago

                The USSR, PRC, Vietnam, Laos, DPRK, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba, etc. all were massive expansions on democracy and working class control. They were finally free and just for the working classes, and society became more about trying to satisfy everyone’s needs than endless private profits, with public ownership as the principle aspect of their economies.

            • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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              11 hours ago

              Or you can be smart and just and have your cake and eat it too. See dozens of countries that prosper without sacrificing their freedoms and justice. You guys are just doomer losers simping for dictators because your minds are too small to imagine a real victory.

          • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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            12 hours ago

            ❤️Through the power of love ❤️

            What are your real-world examples—bourgeois “democracies”? If it’s so easy, why hasn’t it happened?

            The pure socialists’ ideological anticipations remain untainted by existing practice. They do not explain how the manifold functions of a revolutionary society would be organized, how external attack and internal sabotage would be thwarted, how bureaucracy would be avoided, scarce resources allocated, policy differences settled, priorities set, and production and distribution conducted. Instead, they offer vague statements about how the workers themselves will directly own and control the means of production and will arrive at their own solutions through creative struggle. No surprise then that the pure socialists support every revolution except the ones that succeed.

            The pure socialists had a vision of a new society that would create and be created by new people, a society so transformed in its fundaments as to leave little opportunity for wrongful acts, corruption, and criminal abuses of state power. There would be no bureaucracy or self-interested coteries, no ruthless conflicts or hurtful decisions. When the reality proves different and more difficult, some on the Left proceed to condemn the real thing and announce that they “feel betrayed” by this or that revolution.

            The pure socialists see socialism as an ideal that was tarnished by communist venality, duplicity, and power cravings. The pure socialists oppose the Soviet model but offer little evidence to demonstrate that other paths could have been taken, that other models of socialism — not created from one’s imagination but developed through actual historical experience — could have taken hold and worked better. Was an open, pluralistic, democratic socialism actually possible at this historic juncture? The historical evidence would suggest it was not.

            Decentralized parochial autonomy is the graveyard of insurgency — which may be one reason why there has never been a successful anarcho-syndicalist revolution. Ideally, it would be a fine thing to have only local, self-directed, worker participation, with minimal bureaucracy, police, and military. This probably would be the development of socialism, were socialism ever allowed to develop unhindered by counterrevolutionary subversion and attack.

            One might recall how, in 1918-20, fourteen capitalist nations, including the United States, invaded Soviet Russia in a bloody but unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the revolutionary Bolshevik government.

      • Tinidril@midwest.social
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        9 hours ago

        Tell us what a non-authoritarian leader of Venezuela would look like

        Presumably they would look not-authoritarian, a description that doesn’t fit Maduro at all.

        It could well be that, in the face of US policy regarding Venezuela, only an Authoritarian could hold onto the country. That still doesn’t make Maduro not an Authoritarian.

        it seems to me that leftist leaders are always denounced as authoritarian by North American and European based NGOs and governments.

        That’s a fair observation but, again, that doesn’t mean they are wrong when they say it about Maduro. Maduro is referred to as dictator by Human Rights Watch, the Organization of American States, and other human rights organizations, including some inside Venezuela.

        Maduro is a dictator. It’s largely the fault of the US that Venezuela has a dictator. If the US succeeds in ousting Maduro, it will almost certainly replace him with an even worse Dictator. All of that can be true with no contradictions.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          29 minutes ago

          You gave no examples of Maduro “being an authoritarian,” and then cited more western NGOs. Of course the empire trying to manufacture consent to coup Venezuela would do that, they did it to Allende too. Repeating “Maduro is a dictator” like a mantra isn’t a substitute for explaining how and why that’s true, and citing western NGOs is just parroting what the empire wants you to.

        • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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          6 hours ago

          Presumably they would look not-authoritarian

          And what does that even look like? Something like Allende, I’m guessing.

          Human Rights Watch

          The liberal Zionist western propaganda outlet?

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      18 hours ago

      Under Maduro, Venezuelan communes and participatory democracy is flourishing. In addition, massive social programs have been implemented, focusing on housing, food security, and poverty eradication. I’m not sure on what basis you distrust him so much, Venezuela is building socialism under Maduro from the bottom-up, and Maduro is doing his part from the top.

      Venezuela is a developing country, that is developing despite the US Empire’s best efforts. It is regularly improving, which is why the working classes support Maduro.

      Russia isn’t imperialist, it has no colonies nor neocolonies, and a tiny amount of global financial capital. China isn’t imperialist either, it’s a socialist country wituout any financial domination of the state or economy. There’s no mechanisms pushing for imperialism within China, and this manifests in regular south-south trade leading to development of global south countries when trading with China, unlike the unequal exchange of trade with the west where the west charges monopoly prices for tech and places compradors in power to prevent industrial development.

      Multiple things are true, correct. This isn’t the grand own you think it is, though. You’re passively parroting imperialist narratives.

      • SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml
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        10 hours ago

        Venezuelan communes and participatory democracy is flourishing. In addition, massive social programs have been implemented, focusing on housing, food security, and poverty eradication

        I think this really needs to be stressed. Venezuela is a country building Socialism. Maduro and the PSUV is in power because of a genuinely incredible mass movement of communes, neighborhood committees, and other organs of grassroots democracy. This is qualitatively different from say, any of the Gulf oil monarchies

        I highly recommend the books Building The Commune: Radical Democracy in Venezuela, and Commune or Nothing: Venezuela’s Communal Movement and Its Socialist Project, for a look at these aspects of Venezuelan politics, because it’s often papered over in discussions about the country.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          10 hours ago

          Absolutely. Venezuela is genuinely what self-described demsocs want, the Empire just doesn’t care and will kill you regardless of how procedural and by international law your socialism is.

      • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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        18 hours ago

        Man i remember when I was a “damn, the US and it’s enemies are both evil” guy. I thought i was done thinking about the world

      • Tinidril@midwest.social
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        8 hours ago

        Russia isn’t imperialist, it has no colonies nor neocolonies

        Yeah, tell that to Crimea, the Donbas, or even Siberia or the puppet states like Belarus, Georgia and Moldova. Russian neo-colonialism is all over Africa.

        China isn’t imperialist either, it’s a socialist country wituout any financial domination of the state or economy.

        China is a kinder imperialist, but they are using largely the same playbook that the west used in Africa, including debt-trap diplomacy, undermining local sovereignty and regulation, and undermining labor movements.

        They also have a mix of socialism and capitalism, sometimes getting the best of both, and sometimes the worst. They definitely dominate the state economy through control of banking and the use of capital controls to direct funding to national priorities. The current real estate crisis and “ghost cities” are a pretty obvious example.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          13 minutes ago

          Crimea and the people of the Donbass region both voted to join Russia. In fact, the Donetsk and Luhanks People’s Republics, the ones being ethnically cleansed by the far-right Banderites in Kiev that have been in power since the 2014 western-backed Euromaidan coup, specifically requested assistance from Russia in 2022. Belarus and Georgia having close economic ties is not the same as imperialism. You also have no evidence of neocolonialism, trade with Russia is closer to south-south trade as it doesn’t have a monopoly on the goods it exports like gas and nuclear power plants, and as such African countries are developing more via trade with Russia and China while being underdeveloped by the west.

          China is a socialist country. They have markets, but that doesn’t mean they have a “mix” of capitalism and socialism. Public ownership is the principle aspect of their economy, and the state is under the control of the working classes. There is no “real estate crisis,” housing prices were kept low and no longer able to be used as an investment vehicle. The “ghost cities” are smart urban development, and most are habited after being developed. This kind of thinking ahead is possible because of socialism.

          You also have no evidence of “debt-trap diplomacy, undermining local sovereignty,” or “undermining labor movements.” China regularly forgives loans, doesn’t requore privatization of publicly owned industry or force austerity like the IMF does, and has been doing huge work in developing and building up the global south with more south-south trade.

          What’s going on here is it’s absolutely unacceptable for you to admit that the west is the worst, by far, out of that trio. China is genuinely a progressive state with mass popular support internally and internationally, governed by a communist party. Russia is seeing rising support for socialism internally, and is higher up on the list of candidates for new socialist countried because of it. The west is the indisuputed world empire, helmed by the US, and this empire is projecting hard onto other countries as it exports genocide and plunders the world on its way out.

          • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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            28 minutes ago

            You also have no evidence of “debt-trap diplomacy, undermining local sovereignty,” or “undermining labor movements.”

            Their evidence is that the TV told them this many times over years, enough times that it’s true.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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              20 minutes ago

              Of course, they have people dedicated to finding evidence and distorting it to present pro-imperial narratives, and fund them well.

        • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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          6 hours ago

          including debt-trap diplomacy, undermining local sovereignty and regulation, and undermining labor movements.

          Notice how you have these facts in your brain that you’re sure are true but can’t actually identify why you think they’re true? That’s what being propagandized feels like.

        • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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          8 hours ago

          Russia isn’t imperialist, it has no colonies nor neocolonies

          Yeah, tell that to Crimea, the Donbas

          Are you kidding me? The people in Crimea and the Donbas wanted to join Russia, to protect them from Ukraine, which had been killing them since 2014.

          China is a kinder imperialist, but they are using largely the same playbook that the west used in Africa, including debt-trap diplomacy, undermining local sovereignty and regulation, and undermining labor movements.

          The Atlantic, 2021: The Chinese ‘Debt Trap’ Is a Myth

          What is China doing to undermine local sovereignty or labor movements in Africa?

          The current real estate crisis

          What “current” real estate crisis? The Chinese state intentionally popped the real estate bubble over a year ago, making the capitalists eat their losses.

          Compare that to Obama, who bailed out the private banks at the expense of people with home mortgages, banks that knowingly wrote those bad mortgages. Michael Hudson, 2023: Why the Bank Crisis isn’t Over

          The financial sector is the core of Democratic Party support, and the party leadership is loyal to its supporters. As President Obama told the bankers who worried that he might follow through on his campaign promises to write down mortgage debts to realistic market valuations in order to enable exploited junk-mortgage clients to remain in their homes, “I’m the only one between you [the bankers visiting the White House] and the mob with the pitchforks,” that is, his characterization of voters who believed his “hope and change” patter talk.

          “ghost cities” are a pretty obvious example.

          Reuters, 2015: The myth of China’s ghost cities

          Wherever you’re getting your information from, it’s dogshit.

          • Tinidril@midwest.social
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            6 hours ago

            I see you have your cut and paste propaganda all ready to go there.

            The people in Crimea and the Donbas wanted to join Russia, to protect them from Ukraine,

            Sounds an awful lot like claiming Iraqis wanted the US to overthrow Sadam and would welcome it with open arms. It worked out about the same too, except for the Russian military embarrassing themselves. Even taken at face value, all you are doing is justifying the imperialism, not showing it doesn’t exist.

            China is the biggest debt holder nation in the world. Zambia just had to default on loans for infrastructure that largely served Chinese needs, and Kenya and Ethiopia are not far behind. Meanwhile, the DRC is falling into debt paying for infrastructure to ship Copper and Cobalt to Chinese. China has not been as abusive as the west was, but they aren’t that much better either. It’s still the same tactics.

            New Labor Forum: Chinese Investments in Africa: Twenty-First Century Colonialism?

            • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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              6 hours ago

              I see you have your cut and paste propaganda all ready to go there.

              Oh yeah, famous Chinese propaganda outlet: The Atlantic.

              Fuck off; you’re just using the word “propaganda” to mean "anything I disagree with. There is nothing that anyone could say to you to disagree that you wouldn’t immediately say “that’s propaganda and therefore wrong!” to.

              It worked out about the same too

              Are you stupid? Iraq immediately erupted into long term insurgency, a thing that categorically did not happen in Crimea or Donbas.

            • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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              5 hours ago

              If you don’t like cut and paste responses, stop having cut and paste thoughts.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          16 hours ago

          The general Marxist take is that when Yanukovych was offered an IMF loan that required austerity policies and privatization of safety nets, and a Russian loan that did not come with the same restrictions, he went with the Russian loan and was couped for it, including a western-supported Banderite false-flag shooting. Following the western-supported coup, the areas in the Donbass region seceded, as they supported Yanukovych, are culturally and ethnically Russian, and were unhappy with the Banderites taking over the government under the cover of “democracy.” Said Banderites were also legally suppressing the Russian language in the Donbass region.

          What ensued was a decade of fighting, 2 failed Minsk agreements that Kiev broke and admitted to never wanting to follow, and massive risk of NATO on Russia’s doorstep. The Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics requested Russian assistance, and Russia complied, sparking the next stage of the war.

          Russia purely wants the Donbass region and NATO neutrality. They want the Donbass region not out of the kindness of their hearts, nor for plunder or further expansion, but because it’s a land bridge straight to Russia, the same route the Nazis took in World War II. NATO was building up because the West uses their millitary to threaten countries into opening up their economies to foreign plunder (like what’s happening right now in Venezuela), a tradition employed since NATO was founded, destroyed Yugoslavia and Libya, etc.

          This is the common Marxist take, shared largely by PSL’s statement and FRSO’s statement. Essentially, the war is tragic, should end as quickly as possible, and was provoked by the west.

            • SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml
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              12 hours ago

              The Marxist definition of imperialism is more specific than just “big country invade small country”.

              In, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism Lenin lays out five aspects of what makes Imperialism:

              1. the concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life;

              2. the merging of bank capital with industrial capital, and the creation, on the basis of this “finance capital”, of a financial oligarchy;

              3. the export of capital as distinguished from the export of commodities acquires exceptional importance;

              4. the formation of international monopolist capitalist associations which share the world among themselves, and

              5. the territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed. Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital is established; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun, in which the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed.

              The question of “Is Russia Imperialist” isn’t a moral one, it’s a technical one. So if Russia were do to something that we all agree is morally reprehensible, that’s a separate concern from whether Russia is imperialist.

              The technicality revolves around whether Russia has developed an oligarchy of Financial Capital, such that its invasion of Ukraine or other flexes of its influence, perpetuates the export of Russian finance capital around the world.

              As it stands now, I don’t think that’s currently the case, but with Marxism being a dialectal philosophy, I do wonder if this war will accelerate that merging of Bank and industrial capital that Lenin discusses. It’s a Bourgeois states, and there’s financial capital in there somewhere that absolutely has an interest in forming a Russian imperialism.

              So when people say “Russia isn’t Imperialist”, this is what’s being referred to. You can take it or leave it, but it’s worth getting into the weeds a bit, so we aren’t all talking passed each other

              • Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                11 hours ago

                Marxist does not get to exclusively define what imperialism is. A more standard definition is far more reasonable to use. However, your comment is very informative to me, I’m glad you took the time to write this out

                • SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml
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                  11 hours ago

                  Marxist does not get to exclusively define what imperialism is

                  Marxism isn’t the only analytical lens out there, no. But the people you’re arguing with are working with that definition, which is why I took the time to clarify. Thank you for appreciating my effort post though lol

                • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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                  11 hours ago

                  “A more standard definition” than the one that’s been in use for over a hundred years and accurately describes the dynamic in question? The definition liberals use is both new and entirely vibes-based. It is useless for anything but bringing geopolitical conversations to a screeching halt with murky equivocations. The Marxist definition exists to clarify, while the liberal definition exists to obscure. It’s the “socialism is when the government does stuff” of international relations.

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            16 hours ago

            It literally is? They are expanding power over a foreign nation via military means. That’s basically the definition of imperialism.

    • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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      18 hours ago

      Its quite sad to see that some terminally online leftist just automaticly replace siding with the imperialist systems that there born into

      That’s not what we’re doing; that’s what intellectually incurious imperial core labor aristocrats think we’re doing.

      How about not bootlicking authoritarians?

      We need to talk about “authoritarianism”

    • MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world
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      17 hours ago

      Yes he’s certainly an authoritarian. Authoritarian doesn’t automatically mean bad…there’s such a thing as the concept of a benevolent dictator.

      What evidence do you have that “the country went to shit” or “Venezuela is not a nice place to live in” or that he’s a “corrupt dictator”?

      This original post, presumably, attempts to scratch slightly beneath the surface of what we hear on the news and suggest that your above statements only apply to a certain “deserving” class.

      I don’t actually know a lot about Venezuela, and I’m asking these questions in earnest. I started to ask questions a lot earlier, but certainly looking into Maria Machado (this years Nobel Peace Prize winner) made some alarm bells go off. Could it be that the narrative is controlled by Machado and her neoliberal/right wing ilk, and she actually represents a large minority class of people that was purged/displaced in Venezuela?

      I’m still investigating.

      • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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        17 hours ago

        Where do we get the idea that Maduro is an authoritarian dictator? We get it from what our governments say, our corporate media say, and our NGOs (which are funded by our governments & corporations) say. These are the very same governments & corporations that want to vassalize Venezuela and pillage its resources. They are—all day, every day—working to manufacture our consent, or if not consent then at least acquiescence.

        • MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world
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          17 hours ago

          We also get it from Maduro and the rest of the Chavanistas: his party rules by supreme power and decree. The way his party allocates power as a matter of internal affairs, may be another story.

          Please, let’s not talk in absolutes. This notion that any and all narratives that you deem negative are part of a grand conspiracy just isn’t true.

          I implied in my original reply that I believe Maduro may be benevolent, along the lines of Castro. I don’t really have a problem with dictators…the problem with dictators is they’re usually fascists. That isn’t the case in Venezuela.

          • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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            16 hours ago

            his party rules by supreme power and decree.

            Again, how do you know this, and why are you so certain that this is a fair characterization? Have you read or listened to Maduro’s speeches or read Chavismo literature? Did you ask working class Venezuelans they consider these “decrees” to be extra-legal are or whether they are popular among them? Or did it come from Five Eyes sources, their telling of events?

            the problem with dictators is they’re usually fascists.

            In the modern era, dictators dictate with the consent of the bourgeoisie. And yes, that is fascism. In stark contrast, the Maduro government is a thorn in the side of both the indigenous bourgeoisie and the foreign imperialist bourgeoisie.

            • MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world
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              12 hours ago

              Yes I have listened to his speeches and read his lefislation…that’s why I’m saying what I’m saying.

              You’re citisizing things I didn’t say…I know Maduro is popular there. I don’t know how else to say it: I believe he has the best interests of the working class in mind.

      • Eldritch@piefed.world
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        16 hours ago

        There’s a concept true. Just not an example. Technically it’s possible for sub atomic particles in deep space to randomly coaless as a Ruben sandwich. But you’re far more likely to see the evaporation of a super massive black hole.

        Power corrupts. And sometimes there really is no point to arguing which shitty person is slightly less shitty than the other shitty person. The only true answer is not play, and that there shouldn’t be such positions of power. Anything else is calvinball.

        You’ll notice that there are no real arguments that he isn’t a authoritarian/dictator. Just justification that certain people identify with him, so it’s okay. Or that because one cringe group of privileged people criticize him. All criticism against him is from similar cringe groups of people. The meme in a nutshell. A non sequitur.

        Maduro absolutely is an authoritarian. As is Trump. I don’t agree with either one of them. But Trump absolutely means to fuck all the way off when it comes to continuing to meddle in South America. Argentina and Venezuela have enough problems of their own. They don’t need ours.

        • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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          6 hours ago

          Power corrupts.

          A meaningless platitude; as baseless as saying that lightning never strikes the same place twice. Liberals just think it’s true because they’ve created a system where people who were already corrupt gain power.

          The only true answer is not play,

          Yeah man, people should just “not play” real life. Fuck me, Western liberals really are the most privileged fuckers: all just a game to them.

          You’ll notice that there are no real arguments that he isn’t a authoritarian/dictator.

          ???.

          Other than the arguments people are making that he was democratically elected. Those are objectively arguments, regardless of your feelings on them.

          Maduro absolutely is an authoritarian

          Name one country that is oppositional to the West that you don’t “consider” authoritarian.

        • MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world
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          11 hours ago

          Your position is there has never been a benevolent leader? Power corrupts universally and equally? That’s nuts, quite frankly.

          It’s absurd to suggest that Trump and Maduro are equivalent. They’re not equal in a single way, even if you believe they’re both bad.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          15 hours ago

          What makes Maduro an dictator? He’s popularly supported, was democratically elected, and is setting up participatory systems in the economy. I can agree that he’s “authoritarian” against capitalists and fascists, but that’s absolutely a good use of authority.

          Secondly, there’s no evidence to the notion that “power corrupts,” just correlation. In systems like capitalism, corrupt leaders are pushed upwards because that’s profitable, it wasn’t the power that corrupted them but a system that selects for corruption.

          Tell the cryptofash on MeanwhileOnGrad that they’re a hoot, btw.

          • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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            14 hours ago

            Authoritarian is when you don’t capitulate to the imperial core’s will, and the less you capitulate the more authoritarian you are. If you’re genuinely democratic then you need a color revolution for sure, because the demos doesn’t want to be vassalized by imperialists.

              • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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                6 hours ago

                As opposed to your “no response”. You’ve got nothing because you know they’re right

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                14 hours ago

                I mean, we try to be patient but there’s a limit. You regurgitate imperial core hegemonic “common sense,” believing that you don’t need to back any of it up with evidence because it is knownit is knownit is known, while we bring bookshelves of evidence & arguments for our positions, which you won’t engage with.

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                14 hours ago

                I was absolutely good-faith. I don’t agree with describing Maduro as a dictator, and I gave my reasoning. Are you referring to the bit at the end, where GrammarPolice made a couple of posts on MWoG that you commented on? I think it’s fair to call that out.

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                  14 hours ago
                  1. They have a “tankie”-punching community, but we’re the brigaders?
                  2. That comm is way more censorious than we’ve ever been. Wrongthink is an instant permaban.
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                13 hours ago

                Bad faith is when you put an ounce of critical thinking towards the thought-terminating cliches that a bunch of rich pedophiles use to demonize anyone who resists their compulsive desire to own the world and everyone in it.

  • ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com
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    22 hours ago

    It’s the same as the Cubans who fled to the US because of how evil Castro was. I wonder how many of them were wealthy class enemies of the Cuban revolution who stood to lose their wealth under Castro’s government.

  • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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    17 hours ago

    < https://anticonquista.com/>

    ANTICONQUISTA is an anti-imperialist media collective. Our content is produced by and for the Latin American and Caribbean Diaspora.

    We are dedicated to exposing and fighting the capitalist-imperialist system, the root cause of our displacement.

    We provide analysis of the region’s current events and history from a communist, anti-imperialist, Third Worldist, pro-Indigenous, pro-Black, pro-LGBTQ+, proletarian feminist and pan-Latin American and Caribbean perspective. We produce articles, books, podcasts, videos and social media memes.

    In our motherland, we provide financial support to revolutionary movements resisting capitalist-imperialist oppression.

  • HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org
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    19 hours ago

    They look like the press kit for one of those Million Dollar Skank-off romance-game-shows. I assume Thursdays at 9, next day on Paramount Plus?

    • حمید پیام عباسی@crazypeople.onlineOP
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      22 hours ago

      These are rich upper class white skinned gusanos who are claiming Maduro is a dictator so they can have the US overthrow the government and resume their ownership class status. They want to privatize all the natural resources and live off the profit in Miami.

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        22 hours ago

        Figured it was going be something in those regards. Thanks for the information.

        I hope if that happens that ICE rounds them all up. They might remember that the USA will take their resources with composition.

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          21 hours ago

          Nah, this is a reactionary take no different from liberals gleefully hoping Palestinians that protested the 2024 elections get hounded by ICE.

  • Harvey656@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    Yeah, I have a friend who lives in Venezuela, he and his family can barely afford to eat, and I mean barely. Beans everyday and nothing else for years. I tried to send him some computer parts and it was going to be over 5 grand to send them, so I couldn’t afford that, but his pc was genuinely very low end 5 years ago and I know he hasn’t been able to upgrade, especially with all the money going to his 9 other family members living in the 1 bedroom apartment.

    But whatever lies you have to tell yourself to sleep at night buddy.

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      So what you’re saying is, it’s Venezuela’s fault for being sanctioned and embargoed? Is it Cuba’s fault? Was it Vietnam’s fault for being attacked by the US? Is it a slave’s fault for revolting when the slaver whips them back down?

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        10 hours ago

        We are talking about a modern dictator and the state of Venezuela today. Get your head out yo ass.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          You’re making the argument that Venezuela is poor not because of sanctions and embargos, but personal choices by a democratically elected leader that has promoted and carried out poverty alleviation campaigns and pushed for food security through large social programs.

        • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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          5 hours ago

          This is fucking medieval peasant level thinking: “Venezuelas economy is bad because Madura doesn’t have the mandate of heaven!”

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          10 hours ago

          We’re talking about imperial violence and the poverty it causes. Stop being a defensive child and answer the question. When a colony throws off it’s chains, whose fault is it when the colonizer retaliates?

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            10 hours ago

            First comment: Responded within five minutes

            Second comment: 1 hour later and nowhere to be seen

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                60 minutes ago

                If you want to get banned just start insulting people like the op.

                additionally feel free to let your fashy friends know that I’m on payroll for both Putin AND Xi for my sfw online posting activities. I also collect checks from George Soros for in-person work that upsets conservatives.

                it’s important to have multiple income streams 💅

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                That’s great, but now that you’re here go ahead and answer the question. When a colonized country throws off it’s chains, whose fault is it when the colonizer retaliates?

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    22 hours ago

    If you look what happened since 2013 when he took over. He is a dictator though. Trump is actually following his playbook, but in a lighter since. Some examples…

    Electoral Fraud and Illegitimate Power

    Maduro’s grip on power relies fundamentally on electoral manipulation. In the July 28, 2024 presidential election, Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE)—controlled by Maduro loyalists—declared he won with 51.2% of the vote despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The opposition collected 83.5% of voting tally sheets showing their candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, actually won with approximately 67% of votes compared to Maduro’s 30%. The CNE refused to release disaggregated results or conduct post-election audits, and its website remains inactive. International observers, including the Carter Center and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, documented widespread fraud throughout the electoral process. The government disqualified opposition candidate María Corina Machado, obstructed voter registration for millions, imposed restrictions on opposition poll watchers, and used state resources during campaigns. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concluded it cannot recognize Maduro’s re-election as democratically legitimate due to the “severe disruption to Venezuela’s constitutional order”.

    Following the contested 2024 election, Maduro launched “Operation Tun Tun” (Operación Tun Tun), a brutal crackdown described by experts as “state terrorism”. Authorities conducted door-to-door raids to detain anyone with suspected opposition ties, creating what human rights groups call a “climate of terror” intended to terrify Venezuelans into submission.According to official figures, over 2,000 people were arrested in the first month after the election, including at least 129 children. As of July 2025, 853 political prisoners remain behind bars. These detentions are characterized by systematic torture, enforced disappearances, and arbitrary detention without warrants. Victims reported beatings, electric shocks, suffocation, and confinement in dark, overcrowded cells. Amnesty International documented that at least 198 children have been subjected to unfair detention, torture, and abuse, with four months passing before many saw their families.A 2024 UN fact-finding mission report concluded there are “reasonable grounds to believe that the crime of persecution on political grounds has been committed”. Between 2015 and 2017 alone, Venezuelan security forces carried out 8,292 extrajudicial executions, with 22% of all homicides in one year committed by state forces. The UN mission has documented that Venezuela’s intelligence agencies have used sexual and gender-based violence to torture detainees since at least 2014.