Hugo Chavez dead

Quote from larrymoencurly : Because you're not taking your thorazine. What conservatives cried when Hitler died?

Who were the 11 million + people Chavez systematically eradicated? Since we're comparing him to Hitler - I must not have heard about them.

Quote from OhNoItsDEVO : MSNBC tells me he's a good man because of all the wonderful things he brought to his people. Such as a devalued currency, a rise in homicide rates, and his tendency to shit on personal freedoms. They also tell me he's a good man, despite his support of other nefarious dictators around the world.

MSNBC says no such thing. They simply repeat the imperialist lies you'll see on Fox and all over the place. The anti-Chavez nonsense is a remnant of the Cold War mindset, which for some reason the mainstream media can't get over.

Quote from larrymoencurly : When have I ever said anything positive about Hugo Chavez? You can't show a single word proving I have. And why would I admire him when he staged a coup and turned Venezuela into a Cuban dictatorship? The only people who disagree with me about Chavez are followers of Fidel Castro.

If you can't say anything good about President Chavez, you obviously don't know much about him. I'll be the first to admit that he wasn't all good, but what politician is?

Quote from gunnerusa : Nah. He was a brutal dictator who took advantage of the fact that ultra-rich Venezuelans were too stupid to realize that denying 99% of the population a fair shot at life for decades had sown the seeds of extremism. Had the ultra-rich merely allowed democracy and economic opportunity to take hold, they and millions of ordinary Venezuelans would never have suffered the rise of a Chavez.

This is unqualified propaganda. Millions of Venezuelans "suffered the rise of a Chavez?" Are you aware of what the situation in Venezuela was prior to President Chavez's rise to power? Millions of lives were saved through his nationalized food production and sales - he essentially eliminated starvation in Venezuela.

Is Venezuela impoverished in many places today? Yes, it is. But it's far better than it used to be. Was President Chavez a "tyrant?" Maybe in the westernized sense. Comparisons to Mussolini and Hitler are nothing but shameless propaganda, but he did do what he could to secure his power, there's no doubt of that. He was a strong leader, and he made no secret of the fact that he believed it was best for Venezuela if he remained in power And the people agreed! He was elected democratically.

If his policies seem horrible to you, that's only because you're looking at them from a first-world perspective. He did what he needed to do to save his people, and that included plenty of shady dealings. There's no way to compare his control of Venezuela to the United States - the policies he passed in Venezuela (yes, *socialist* policies) would be awful in the United States for reasons you all are aware of. In third-world Venezuela, though, where people are concerned with starvation rather than the stock market, President Chavez is seen by the majority as a hero of the people. Condemning him without evidence is ignorant and privileged.

TL;DR - Judging him by western standards is unfair. He took Venezuela and did the best he could with it, and it's massively better today thanks to him.