tldr the kind of repression and state control that @ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de notes in Cuba as disqualifying it from the label of ‘socialism’ and making it ‘communism’ instead are actually the precise things that make Cuba a socialist state, as opposed to a communist post-state society.

It’s an error to just use the words like ‘socialism’ = ‘cool and good’ while ‘communism’ = ‘bad and scary’ because that’s just 2nd grade tier analysis that doesn’t clear anything up at all, and just confuses you further.

One thing that’s worth noting is that Israel and the US are the two countries that voted against making food a human right at the UN and both are actively committing genocide via starvation.

These two processes are actually intrinsically connected and are part of a broader strategy I fear is only going to see more examples as climate collapse plays out. There’s going to be more groups that the imperialist powers will want to wipe out and ecosystem collapse will cause famines that a blockade can escalate into a mass death event.

That’s not how it works. If there’s an organized effort to exterminate a group of people because of their immutable characteristics (in this case nationality) it’s genocide. You can be guilty of the crime of genocide even if you don’t kill a single person. The US embargo absolutely meets the criteria and has already caused thousands of excess deaths (as well as underdevelopment) over the course of decades. It’s like Gaza, blocking off a group of millions of people from being able to get anything from the rest of the world and restricting the flow of basic necessities. They don’t have to kill any specific number of people for that to count as genocide, it just is.

There was also a famine in the 30s in Kazakhstan, not just Ukraine. A similar number of people died.

Makes sense. If the US succeeds in regime change, the comprador government in Iran would probably assist in a future occupation or interventions in Afghanistan.

Both can be true though, although the whole idea of a “dictator” as a type of political leader can be more of a hindrance of one’s analysis than a useful category.

The NSDAP also was as American as apple pie in some ways.

Yeah, absolutely. Great at academic stuff, completely useless at a lot of stuff that’s necessary to be practical and productive in most of the real world.

Ah, I understand then. Yeah, I can’t fault you then. Carry on.

I can sympathize with what you’re saying, but I don’t quite understand how Nutomic being wrong about trans people and COVID is completely unacceptable when those are things the vast majority of the world’s population are wrong about, but Rimu gets a pass for believing anti-Chinese propaganda that the vast majority of people aren’t racist enough to even entertain being true. Maybe transphobia and COVID denial makes you unsafe in a way that sinophobia doesn’t, but Lemmy has some of the best established trans and COVID conscious communities on the English internet outside of Reddit, while piefed is actively making it harder to engage with those communities. Is the juice worth the squeeze?

I’m with you on dunking on Nutomic for the transphobia and COVID denial, but if you think Rimu is to his left (especially if you’re citing his refusal to wear a mask as a red line; I admit I don’t know if Rimu is a plague rat, but you’re asking them to be correct about something very few people are correct about) get ready to be disappointed because there’s a high chance every single piece of software you use is written by people who have way worse opinions. And unlike Lemmy, Rimu actually puts their opinions into the code. Unless you know Rimu personally and know that they’re correct about everything…

You’re right, I hadn’t considered that this was part of a strategy like this. I rescind what I said; piefed delenda est.

https://whn.global/yes-we-continue-wearing-masks/

People worldwide largely aren’t taking COVID precautions and that’s exactly the problem. Some people, mostly leftists, have continued to follow the science that says that even if you’re the only person masking up and getting your booster shots every year, you’re reducing the chance that you catch a disease that can permanently disable you and everyone you infect.

Delcy Rodríguez is PSUV and her whole family are ideologically committed Chavistas. As I said, the oil being privatized was something Maduro was already willing to do (and Exxon already had a deal to extract Venezuelan oil, being the only company that was exempt from the sanctions)

But they’re not installing a dictator, that’s why I’m saying the operation didn’t do anything. Trump kidnapped Maduro and changed nothing because the same government is still in place, and Venezuela retains the same stance.

You’re not understanding what I said; Maduro had already made an offer to let US companies do exactly what they’re doing right now. Venezuela’s oil company doesn’t have the capital to fully exploit the country’s reserves so they’ve always been open to working with the US and their oil companies. Maduro also understood that that’s what the US was after and was willing to compromise. So yes, it kinda looks like Venezuela is bending the knee, but they’re not doing anything now that Maduro wasn’t willing to do before.

I think if you roll one of the instances (like yours) that overrides the basic censorship stuff it ain’t so bad. It’s a different UI and I can see why some people would prefer that. I wish it wasn’t developed by a right winger though.

You’re missing the part that the VN gov already was willing to do everything they’re current doing. They were willing to let American companies come in and extract some oil, that was Maduro’s offer.

Sometimes you twist yourself into pretzels trying to find rational explanations for certain things assuming they were done with malice when they were, in fact, just done by stupidity. E.g. Trump’s tariffs and the kidnapping of Maduro. Both actions had very predictable downsides for the US with virtually no upside.