Kaoras post-election (and 700 post) AMA

[kaoras]

I'm going to take a few days off before doing a detailed breakdown of the results so I figured out this would be fun.

[PSOL]

What you partying with for the coronation?

[Pouring Rain and Blairing Music]

Have you been to Torres Del Paine? If not, do you want to go?

[kaoras]

What you partying with for the coronation?

Do you mean when Boric takes office? I don't think I'm going to do anything, going to celebrate yesterday already felt a bit off. I don't actually like Boric, but he was the best option available considering I wanted an actual leftist in office, and in the second round, well, Kast is Kast and he literally promised an Operación Condor 2.0 to incarcerate leftists, along with a myriad of typical authoritarian and dictatorial stuff.

However, as I just said, I went to the public square yesterday to celebrate with my mother and we even chanted a bit in the public transport along with the rest of the passengers. Afterward, my uncles came to our house and we opened champagne to celebrate. When all my maternal family gather for Christmas I'm sure we will have plenty of celebration too.

[kaoras]

Have you been to Torres Del Paine? If not, do you want to go?

No, but one of my cousins has and well, he and everyone agree that is amazingly beautiful but is kinda expensive to go and you need to buy proper gear. I do have plenty of natural beauty near me and now that is summer I plan to visit some of it.

[beesley]

1. How present is the legacy of former leaders like Allende and Pinochet in everyday Chilean life, even outside of political discourse?

2. Is there anyone I wouldn't have heard of in Chilean history that you think is notable or admirable?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Would you ever live in a precinct that voted for Kast?

[GregTheGreat657]

What do you like about Chile?

[kaoras]

1. How present is the legacy of former leaders like Allende and Pinochet in everyday Chilean life, even outside of political discourse?

2. Is there anyone I wouldn't have heard of in Chilean history that you think is notable or admirable?

1.- Allende and Pinochet are very present. A lot of people have pictures of them in their homes, Salvador is a very common name among people with leftist families and the experiences of people under their governments are the single biggest issue that has shaped political views across generations. When I was going to celebrate yesterday, one of my neighbors was hearing the last speech of Allende.

I think this is a good article to get a grasp of it: https://www.elmundo.es/internacional/2021/12/20/61c01281e4d4d8bd318b45af.html, ran it through google translate.

El Mundo is a very conservative Spanish newspaper, so the report is framed in a way that says "hey, look at the left still so obsessed with Pinochet", but I would say that the testimonies of the people interviewed are fairly telling.

2.- Manuel Rodriguez, the "people's hero" of the Independence war. He was one of the few that wasn't an authoritarian elitist and actually wanted a somewhat democratic independent Chile. His guerrilla tactis against the spanish army are also badass.

Would you ever live in a precinct that voted for Kast?

In Chile precincts draw people from every part of the city, they are assigned to you randomly (very stupid, I know). Answering the spirit of the question... maybe? My father's family lives in Galvarino, part of the Araucanía and usually votes for the right and I think is nice, but my family there is mostly leftist, and is different visiting them in summer than actually living there. I was thinking yesterday that I was glad that my city is so left-wing and that we could celebrate and most people were with us.

Now, most fancy places to live are obviously right-leaning, so I guess I could live with that if the place is pretty enough, but I'm very into politics, I think I would be fairly uncomfortable living in very conservative places for a long time, I would have to actually experience that to tell if that if is a deal-breaker.

What do you like about Chile?

Mmm, this is actually a hard question. For one, I like how diverse it is in term of climates and landscapes, you can find ice fields, deserts, lakes, rainforests, lovely agricultural valleys. It's pretty neat that If I really wanted I could go to the snow in the morning and to the beach in the evening.

More broadly speaking, despite the huge inequality, Chile is still fairly developed by Latin American standards, and sometimes is easy to forget that we have it better than most. That is not an excuse to stop fighting for a better and more equal country, however

[TML]

Does the fact that most of your country’s expats in the Miami metropolitan area in the US voted for Trump in 2020 make logical sense to you?

[kaoras]

Does the fact that most of your country’s expats in the Miami metropolitan area in the US voted for Trump in 2020 make logical sense to you?

Yes, most people there are rich businessmen, and the stereotype of people that dreams with Miami, let alone those who actually go to live there, couldn't be more facho (right-wing). They also voted to reject the new constitution in 2020 and for 79% of them voted for Kast

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

How many people like emo and hardcore in Chile? (I actually have heard about this band: https://www.facebook.com/earlywarningsband)

Do straightedge people exist in Chile?

[kaoras]

How many people like emo and hardcore in Chile? (I actually have heard about this band: https://www.facebook.com/earlywarningsband)

Do straightedge people exist in Chile?

They are VERY niche genres. Emo and Hardcore are actually better known as "Urban tribes" from the early 2000's, the kind of things that teenagers were into when I was a small child. They had their own dress styles, subcultures, and so on. Those trends were  dead by the time I was a teen, but they left us these timeless memes:


_{Jorge: He wants to be hardcore but his mom won't let him}

About straightedge, this is the first time I ever heard about the term, but googling it a bit there seems to be a small community and even a band called Asunto.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

What are the cornerstones of the Chilean diet?

[kaoras]

What are the cornerstones of the Chilean diet?

Uh, I'm not really the best to answer that question. I'm very picky with the food. I would say bread honestly, very few people don't eat bread on a daily basis, be either at breakfast, lunch, or once (It depends on the household, but many have dinner only on special occasions like Christmas, we have "once" instead https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_once)

For full meals, I mainly eat things like beans, chickpeas, lentils, rice (all the previous one are also served with rice) soups and pasta. I do not like meat, save for chicken, which is very unusual for chileans, because I would say that's the other cornerstone of our diets. Asados are a classic.

[Velasco]

I'm happy for you had something to celebrate with relatives and neighbours,  even if Boric is not your cup of tea

I am interested in the young female politicians, say Izkia Siches or Camila Vallejo.  Is it possible a feminist revolution in Chile? Will be Siches the new Bachelet?

Merry Summer's Solstice,  bro