Cowbee

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.

Ah, gotcha. Yea, you made it seem like OP was so far left/right it wrapped around, which isn't what's going on (or something that happens).

Yep, it's kinda funny when they get upset at getting called out for it too.

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.

As Weng Weiguang says, The Evaluation of Stalin is Essentially an Ideological Struggle. Marxist-Leninists don't idolize Stalin. At the same time, Stalin synthesized Marxism-Leninism, and oversaw the world's first socialist state during its most turbulent period. The CPC rates him as 70% good, 30% bad, and this rating is roughly orbited by most communist orgs. Those who denounce Stalin entirely, also denounce the USSR, and existing socialism.

Edie is being sarcastic, btw.

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.

NATO is the millitary alliance of the world's imperialist powers. This group of countries uses this alliance to prevent the global south from going against it and liberating themselved from foreign plunder via overwhelming financial domination. The way imperialism tends to work in the modern day is countries like the US, France, Germany, UK, etc expropriate vast wealth from countries in the global south, similar to how capitalists steal value created by the working class.

NATO is as "defensive" as the Iron Dome in Israel. These countries export genocide and terrorism on the third world, expropriate huge sums of wealth, and then "defend" against anyone that pushes back against that.

That's the joke, though. It isn't horseshoe theory, implying the far left and right are the same or more similar than different, it's just a joke about the DPRK using red white and blue in their flag.

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.

Most of us have been at that stage, especially if we grew up in the west. I certainly was, no doubt about that. I try to do my best to correct that former behavior now that I know better.

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.