Opinion of conservatives using Venezuela to argue against socialism

[parochial boy]

*my cherrypicked data tends to suggest that my own personal definition of what "socialism" is tends to correlate with poverty globally*

Give me a counterexample then. I can only find charts that show correlations.

There is genuinely no point, because you have already made it clear that your definition of "socialism" is cherry picked in a way so as to exclude the possibility - as is the ridiculous implication that countries are either "socialist" or "capitalist" as if there isn't a range of policy options that straddle both economic systems (not that "pure" socialism is even one set of policies to begin with).

And even then, the Soviet Union was wealthier per capita than the world average for the entirety of the pos WW2 era. Point being that it is pretty insane to point to the ideology of incumbent governments as being responsible for their level of economic development. In the vast majority of cases it is overwhelmingly (even if not always and to differing extents) the result of geographic, historical, political, economic, cultural factors that are well beyond said incumbent's control.

[sparkey]

There is genuinely no point, because you have already made it clear that your definition of "socialism" is cherry picked in a way so as to exclude the possibility - as is the ridiculous implication that countries are either "socialist" or "capitalist" as if there isn't a range of policy options that straddle both economic systems (not that "pure" socialism is even one set of policies to begin with).

I was offering for you to define "socialism" here to show an inverse correlation, but I guess you don't have it and want to make up a "ridiculous implication" that you imagined that I made instead.

[junior chįmp]

It's because you have people like Bernie Sanders and Michael Moore praising bread lines and Chavez. I think some conservatives use this argument too liberally against all leftists, but when you have some left-wingers explicitly endorsing Venezuelan socialism, then it makes sense to call that out.

Romney praised murderous Indonesian dictator Suharto

While it's obviously wrong that he made that comment about helping move Indonesia move toward modernity (when it clearly wasn't), he wasn't actually praising the dictator himself or extolling the virtues of his government, as some do with communist leaders like Castro and Chavez. Not the same.

Good point but lets be honest here...America isnt fit to judge the rest of the world either before Romney or after. America loves dictators as long as they cut this country a check or promise not to interfere with its position on the world stage.