You know, I lied. I appreciate an honest response, particularly when coming from such a vitriol laced exchange.

I do still disagree to some capacity, and think that your take is a matter of muddying the methodology with the goal/results. The autocratic dictator with a strangle hold on the media, using their own version of the law to kill/jail their political opponents, is far more important to what makes a fascist than other elements. But there’s a genuine argument to be made that if I can’t be bothered to do a deeper read on the guy and the state of current day Venezula, maybe I shouldn’t throw around the F word so readily, so I’ll take that. I stand by the “the short description is pretty likely a fascist dictator,” but admit that, if we were to take a more serious, academic approach to it, I would absolutely be jumping the gun.

Regardless, I appreciate the de-escalation and genuine take on the subject. The snarky one liners and snap backs from both of us were disrespectful to both of us.

Ooh, stepped on a nerve here.

I mean, for what it’s worth, you’re absolutely right about my countries moral issues, and those are two major failings of the Canadian government. But I am not my country, and I hold my government accountable for that at every opportunity, so go fuck yourself.

But this isn’t about that, is it? Someone is trolling around here because we offended their favorite dictator, huh? Maybe don’t attach your ego to fascists and you won’t spend your time creating troll accounts to simp for authoritarian governments. Or does the leather of their boots just do it for you? I mean, I won’t kink shame, but if you’re going to ask to be stepped on, at least pick someone who respects human rights. They’ll actually listen when you use the safe word.

I really hope this is some kind of poorly thought out gag.

Fascism is characterized by support for a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived interest of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.

So that’s, what, 4/7 at a quick glance? If I had less to do I’d dig in a little and see if he fits the other three. Unfortunately, a spat on Lemmy isn’t really worth the time.

It’s not my job to teach you what words mean, and yet here I am. This will be my last good-faith response. If you’re just here to troll, do it elsewhere.

Maduro is widely considered a dictator, leading an authoritarian government characterized by electoral fraud, serious human rights abuses, rampant corruption, and severe economic hardship.

The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela concluded that the country’s justice system independence has been deeply eroded; the mission also identified frequent due process violations, including political external interference and the admission of evidence through torture. Most Venezuelan television channels are controlled by the state, and information unfavourable to the government is not covered completely.

C’mon, man. If you want to play some “the facts available about him are lies” angle, I’d still think you’re full of shit and move on with my life, but at least our disagreement would be a matter of belief rather than fact. You’re going to read that and argue that it doesn’t describe a fascist? While saying that my history degree leaves me unread on the subject?

Go fuck yourself, dude.

Between 2013 and 2023, Venezuela dropped 42 places in the Press Freedom Index. According to estimations by the United Nations (UN) and Human Rights Watch, under Maduro’s administration, more than 20,000 people have been subject to extrajudicial killings and seven million Venezuelans have been forced to flee the country.

If you don’t describe that as fascism, you are the problem.

Beginning his working life as a bus driver, Maduro rose to become a trade union leader before being elected to the National Assembly in 2000.

Finally, a grass roots, socialist, politician.

Between 2013 and 2023, Venezuela dropped 42 places in the Press Freedom Index. According to estimations by the United Nations (UN) and Human Rights Watch, under Maduro’s administration, more than 20,000 people have been subject to extrajudicial killings and seven million Venezuelans have been forced to flee the country.

…well, nevermind then.

I was unfamiliar with him before now. God damn.

Yeah, interesting article, but in the context of being posted on Lemmy, I’m immediately left asking questions on the intent here. “Zelensky did a bad thing” is the kind of domino that some people in these parts would use to start the “and this is why Russia has to murder civilians” discussion.

Confirmation bias can be a hell of a drug. I hope that any corruption is properly investigated, just not by a hostile, Imperialist nation using force of arms.

Then I believe you I missed the comparison.

I’m not suggesting that in both cases, a government is doing things to make “bad choices” harder. I’m suggesting that in both cases a government is disproportionately punishing the less wealthy to get what it wants. In neither case does the government gives a shit if you, individually, lead a healthier life or have a child. It wants you to generate more wealth for the country, whether that be by demanding less for health care costs or by producing the next worker drone.

The point in the sugar tax comparison, a real thing that happened in parts of Canada by the way, is that the government should be reducing the costs of the healthy choices, not making the unhealthy choices more expensive, as people were largely turning to unhealthy choices because they were cheaper and do not have the wealth to make better choices. Likewise, if the Chinese government wants to improve the birth rate of its population, they should make childcare more affordable and look to give parents more wealth/time, not attempt to punish them financially for preventing a pregnancy. Punishing a population that is making the choice you don’t want them to make out of necessity isn’t the solution to get them to make the choice you want. “Poor tax” is never a good solution, and that’s what the comparison is: two versions of “poor tax.”

I know it’s funny to insinuate that brain damage caused people to become conservatives, but I think we should accept that the culture around aggressive, full-contact sports tends to be conservative to start with. Surround yourself with that culture day-in, day-out, and before long you find yourself ingrained in more than just their favorite sports.

But I mean, that doesn’t mean it’s not the brain damage. A thing can be more than one thing.

This is some “people aren’t choosing healthy food, so raise the taxes on sugar” shit.

How about building a society and economy where having children doesn’t feel like an overwhelming detriment to the parent’s and child’s well-being?

I got curious and started Googling. Apparently China has VERY recently created a subsidy for parents, and finally begun creating support for early childhood care centers, which have traditionally been apparently prohibitively expensive due to privatization (In MY “Communist” China?). It’s good to see there is some actual social progress being implement alongside the hair-brained capitalist schemes that only serve to do harm to the poorest classes. But hey, fuck the points if it keeps the economy going, right?

He did not explicity state this, no. But the entire premise of the invisible hand metaphor is to show that a core function of the capitalist system is that it moves wealth to those that bring good to their society. The natural inference from this is that wealth is representative of virtue, ie, if Roblox was doing net bad things, it wouldn’t be worth millions.

Don’t get me wrong, fuck the various Catholic attempts to justify wealth as a virtue too, but the issue is as prevalent in the secular world as it is in the non-secular.

It’s even worse than that.

At it’s root, capitalism, as shown via Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” theory, infers that wealth equals virtue. To receive wealth is to have provided a benefit to society, and to be bereft of wealth is to contribute little while taking much. This system inadvertedly places a dollar value on the abuse of minors in Roblox: any suffering caused is of no consequence to the great good being provided to society, otherwise Roblox would go bankrupt.

CEOs and corporations take the moral high ground because they live within a system that tells them that wealth is virtue, and they are overflowing in wealth. Until we accept that the core principals of capitalism are flawed, we will never begin holding bad actor’s appropriately accountable.

Feverishly replacing your one-liners with long-winded lies, you mean? It was nice to see how under your skin I am, but honestly man, let the hatred go. Maybe it’ll be easier to engage with reality.

Watching you frustratedly update this in real time is very amusing.

Yikes, you are crashing out really hard right now. This must be very frustrating for you.

The only thing I’ve said in your entire mind break is that Xi Jiping is a dictator. Which, by defintion through control of every facet of the government and media of China, he is.

Sorry you seem to think white people are superior for some reason. No race is, but it must be hard to see the world through that lens all the time.

Yeah, that’s what I figured. So boringly ungenuine that you can’t even admit you made a mistake, and linked to some argument I wasn’t a part of. At least I know I was right to say you don’t deserve an honest argument.

Ah well, until the next time I see your fascist ass posting lies, I guess.

There’s really nothing racist about picking on a dictator, but it’s nice to know you genuinely don’t know what oppression looks like. I hope one day the whole world can be as ignorant of the concept as you are. It’d certainly be a much better place to live.

And he still doesn’t know what the word racist means…

Let me guess, hypocritical projection? I assume all your “facts” are written by deepseek, then. It would explain the way you skirt actual points while cherry picking Chinese state propaganda.

Speaking of skirting points, you’re just going to try and misdirect from the fact that I’m not even in the thread you claimed I ran from? Lie better, Yog. It’s going to get harder and harder for your .ml buddies to pump you up if you keep embarrassing yourself like this.

He tells me to go back to reddit, and then devolves to using Reddit argument soyjacks. I’d ask you if you have any shame, but we both know you don’t. Hypocrisy is all that’s in your toolkit.