Growing up in Venezuela, I watched the socialist strongman Hugo Chávez use the politics of resentment to turn a rich country to ruins.
asserted
strongman → grow → ruins
He promised an oil-funded utopia, but we got hunger, blackouts and a murderous dictatorship.
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we → promise → hunger
I know what happens when legitimate economic frustration becomes moral condemnation — and when citizens are encouraged to blame their problems on a single group that is supposedly taking something from them.
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that → know → them
It is why I’m increasingly alarmed as I see the same socialist ideas of popular resentment becoming increasingly popular in America today.
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ideas → ’m → America
A recent survey found that 53% of young adults have a favorable view of socialism — and 38% view communism positively.
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% → find → communism
It’s hard to fathom this reality given that this ideology caused 100 million deaths in the 20th century.
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ideology → ’ → century
Meanwhile, capitalism has lifted a billion people out of poverty in the 21st century alone.
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capitalism → lift → century
But only 45% of young adults in America view it favorably.
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% → view → it
I know what they say.
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they → know → what
I used to say it too.
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I → use → it
They claim that democratic socialism isn’t the same kind of socialism that devastated my homeland — or Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea, China, the Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and so on.
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that → claim → homeland
Venezuela wasn’t really ever socialist, so they say, and the reason Cuba is poor is because of US sanctions.
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Cuba → say → sanctions
They’re wrong.
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They → ’re → ?
Venezuelans didn’t vote in 1998 to become Cuba, or even a socialist country — and we, too, dismissed warnings from Cubans who told us Chávez was not the moderate democrat (and capitalist) he presented himself to be.
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he → vote → himself
Chávez didn’t use the word “socialism” in his first six years in office.
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Chávez → use → office
When he ran for office in 1998, his rhetoric was tame compared to the anti-capitalist ideas spouted by today’s DSA.
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rhetoric → run → DSA
But he grew increasingly radical and eventually called his movement “socialism of the 21st century,” as he pledged to make Venezuela more like Cuba.
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Venezuela → grow → Cuba
He expropriated companies and pulled a TV station off the air.
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He → expropriate → air
He imposed price controls and opened government grocery stores.
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He → impose → stores
He fired oil executives who challenged his direct takeover of the industry on live TV.
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who → fire → TV
He corrupted the judiciary, put political loyalists in charge of the military and brought in Cuban security operatives to sniff out dissident generals.
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He → corrupt → generals
Before Chávez, Venezuelans had legitimate grievances about inequality and corruption.
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Venezuelans → have → inequality
Chávez directed their anger at the rich, Yankee imperialists, business owners and the journalists who dared to question his policies.
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who → direct → policies
Socialist policies caused massive food shortages, leading to rampant childhood malnutrition and starvation.
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policies → cause → malnutrition
It caused the largest peacetime economic collapse in modern world history, and the largest displacement crisis in the history of the Western Hemisphere.
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It → cause → Hemisphere
Yet somehow socialism is gaining popularity in the US.
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socialism → gain → US
I understand why: Historical evidence doesn’t matter as much as political slogans mouthed by charismatic politicians, which are what sway voters.
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what → understand → voters
Once a movement convinces its supporters that a particular group is not merely pursuing its interests but actively harming society, increasingly extreme policies and even persecution become easier to justify.
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policies → convince → society
America’s political debates are increasingly falling into that dynamic, and New York politics serve as a great example of it.
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politics → fall → it
I was particularly troubled when Mayor Mamdani filmed a video outside billionaire Ken Griffin’s Manhattan penthouse to promote a tax on second homes.
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Mamdani → trouble → homes
He described the measure as targeting the “richest of the rich.”
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He → describe → rich
Griffin later said he believed the video had put him in harm’s way, and it probably did.
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it → say → way
What I found particularly unsettling is that Mamdani was turning a private citizen into a target of resentment.
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Mamdani → find → resentment
It reminded me of Chavez pointing at buildings and ordering their expropriations on live TV when I was a kid.
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I → remind → TV
And the use of resentment to accumulate power is not a problem exclusive to the left.
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use → accumulate → left
The right also engages in toxic populism, with its own set of villains used as a cover for policies that erode our fundamental rights.
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that → engage → rights
Instead of billionaires, landlords, and corporations, they go after immigrants, “globalists” and the media — like Chávez.
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they → go → Chávez
As Marcel Granier, the director of Venezuela’s most important TV station, Radio Caracas Television, which Chávez forced off the air in 2007, noted in a new documentary that I narrated about the collapse of my country, “Totalitarianism isn’t a switch you flip.”
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you → force → country
It’s “a process that gradually takes over.”
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that → ’ → ?
It takes over when we decide that defeating our enemies is all that matters.
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that → take → enemies
…and 4 more, not listed.
The Aporia
