rant · moment 10 of 16
Venezuela, Maduro, and Leftist Support for Dictators
from Mike Recine · #142
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
5 minExtended political discussion on Maduro, US interventionism, Brunei's anti-gay stoning laws, white Brooklyn protesters claiming to speak for Venezuelans, and the double standard of Americans defending Castro or Stalin.
- 26:10Tim explains the contradiction: Maduro is bad, but US military intervention crusades haven't worked out well for America historically.
- 26:50He refuses to defend Maduro as great but won't support another foreign war on the premise that somebody's going to profit from it.
- 27:31Inaction, he argues, is how America became strong—by not getting dragged into endless wars.
- 28:11The left backs anyone anti-American regardless of how brutal they are, as long as they give out free stuff.
- 28:25These people defend Stalin unironically to your face, then refuse to admit obvious truths.
- 28:38The fundamental test: would you rather make a million dollars criticizing Putin in Russia or do it here in America?
- 29:23Pro-Maduro protests aren't actually Venezuelan—they're mostly white kids from Brooklyn chanting slogans.
- 29:51Cubans he's met hated Castro, but white people from Upper West Side million-dollar apartments insist he was doing something laudable.
- 30:28When pressed, those same people admit Castro imprisoned people and they disappeared in night raids, then circle back to defending him anyway.
- 30:47Tim sums up the cognitive dissonance at the heart of leftist support for authoritarian regimes.
Nicolás MaduroNew York TimesVenezuelaCastroRussiaBruneiVladimir Putin