In case you're wondering why he'd admit to that, his first tweet in this thread was "Trump is very bad because he sucked at overthrowing Maduro and thus empowered an evil dictatorship"

Drumpf=Putin=Communist energy

    • artangels [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      thanks for this, havne't heard the interview but the read through the other stuff and itsinformational. do you know whats up with the claim that people were told they'd be cut off gov assistance/fired if they didnt vote for maduro? seems kind of a strange thing to claim since a lot of opposition parties... boycotted the election???

      • evilgiraffemonkey [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Hmm, haven't heard that claim specifically. The funny thing is that Maduro's right wing opponents would probably cut or lessen those benefits, so voting for them kind of would entail that, maybe you heard a propaganda spin of that logic? Like look at this NYT coverage: they frame it in such a scary way. He's "controlling" the food, he's "enticing" the poor to vote for him in exchange for food. Another way of looking at it is that Maduro is promising benefits to the poor, who in austerity governments...don't get much help? Is that a bad thing? Of course, with the economic crisis, there are Venezuelans who are malnourished, not discounting that.

        There's so much propaganda, it's hard to keep track. Another good thing to watch is this critique of John Oliver's segment on Venezuela by Mike Prysner, as an example of the misinformation. Also this and the links in the comments.

        • artangels [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          i was thinking about this article where a guy claims he was fired for not voting for maduro

          https://apnews.com/68ba256d98b04beab8f1d04ec7c33acb/Venezuelan-state-worker-becomes-voice-against-voter-coercion

          i heard the claims that he said something along the lines of 'if i dont win your benefits will be cut' but like, thats because his opposition party are running on a platform of austerity so thats, yeah, just true.

          i had someone claim to me that the people who voted for him got food and those who didn't vote for him didn't get food, and tried to explain that it has to do more with the makeup and class of people who support him to no avail.

          • evilgiraffemonkey [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Oh huh, hadn't read that story. I really recommend the RWN episode I linked above, because it does seem like there are some not great things that Maduro's gov't has done, it's just that it's not like they are more corrupt than the surrounding countries. A lot of US leftist discourse on Venezuela is one sided because the goal is to fight against all the propaganda and repeated coup attempts, which is good in that it might convince some Americans to not celebrate how their gov't keeps trying to start a civil war there, but bad in trying to figure out what exactly is true.

            • artangels [he/him]
              ·
              4 years ago

              there was also some story about cuban doctors who wouldn't treat people until they agreed to vote for maduro. idk, the whole thing is fishy to me though im sure the govt has done some fishy things.

              thanks for the links, im watching the prysner video right now and will get to the rwn one tomorrow.

              • evilgiraffemonkey [he/him]
                ·
                4 years ago

                Lol, that one sounds more made up than the others. If you have a job, your bosses know you and watch over you daily, so they could try and sway your vote, but if you're treating someone it's not like you're gonna follow up on who they voted for. Seems weird to me. Also, love how the Prysner video is age restricted for no conceivable reason, while the John Oliver clip he's critiquing isn't. Hmmmmm.

                • artangels [he/him]
                  ·
                  4 years ago

                  people were saying its cause he had a vid of someone being lit on fire? i dont believe thats the real reason why and just an excuse.

                  also im reading this ap article and it does smell fishy - because they were not asking him to vote for a specific party, just vote in general.