"For the record Venezuela is no less democratic socialist, no less a working Democracy with checks and balances operating under the Rule of Law as those in the bottom left of your graph ... Norway, Denmark, Finland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, or Singapore. "
OMG. OMG. OMG.
Venezuela is a dictatorship (a lame one at that though).
(sigh)
Are you talking about these kinds of "history lessons"? It went on for 27 years. My State was the laughing stock of the rest of the nation who both thought we were totally dumb halfwits and living 20 years ago in the past at least!
What's the Moral of the Story of My History Lesson?
It's about corruption, fraud, manipulated elections. It's about Government lies and collusion by the media and business classes. It's about "conditioning" of the populace and "scare mongering" deceptions.
It's about gaslighting individuals, activist groups, Unions and whole nations by misusing "words and labels" to push the emotional buttons of those who do not have a clue what is really going on in their own society or those of others - but insist on living in the past and assuming they must be right about today too.
It's about how the majority in a society fail to recognise what is right in front of their faces because they are not directly impacted by the frauds, the lies, the corruption or the abuse or the lack of rights and freedoms other citizens systemically suffer from.
It's not about what might be or not happening in Venezuela - the history lesson is instead about what IS happening now in the USA and in the compliant Western sphere for decades.
And how the majority are kept in state of conditioned ignorance, delusions
and complacency by Political leaders, Government Offcials, and especially the Media ... as reflected in the comments by El Cid and Sterks above.
It's about how the majority cannot tell the difference between what might have happened in the USSR / North Korea systems and what is the reality in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba as well as in Iran, Syria and Russia today and many other places.
JUst use the right TRIGGER WORDS and the desired effect is created in people's minds. Objective Facts and the whole Truth do not ever play a role when people choose what they want to beloieve.
There is another recent worse example of what happened in Queensland in the 2018 Malayasian Elections. A Party that had held power as the Government since Independence in the late 1950s was finally toppled. Despite the Gerrymandered electoral system, despite Government control and coercion of the Media and despite all the black mail, the bribes, the corruption, the frauds, threats and abuse and jailing of "dissidents" and non-stop abuse of human rights by the police and secret services to protect those in the Ruling Party Regime
In an unprecedented victory, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, which had been the country's federal Opposition prior to the election, won a simple majority in the Dewan Rakyat together with the Sabah Heritage Party (WARISAN), with both PH and WARISAN cumulatively securing 121 seats.
The election heralded the first regime change in Malaysia's history, as the erstwhile ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which had enjoyed an uninterrupted reign over the country since Malaya's independence in 1957, was voted out of power
Following the election, Prime Minister Mahathir secured a royal pardon for the jailed PH Leader, Anwar Ibrahim, and has indicated that he would give way to the latter within the next few years. Meanwhile, Najib resigned as BN's chairman on 12 May and was succeeded as the Leader of the Opposition by his party colleague, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Investigations within Malaysia into the Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, which had been halted during Najib's tenure, were resumed in the aftermath of the election, resulting in several ongoing criminal indictments against the former Prime Minister.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Malaysian_general_election
If you are not aware of what went own in Malaysia in the most recent decade you would be wise to learn about it in detail!
To summarize Mahathir had led the establishment Party for decades and is a former Prime Minister who resigned years ago due to age. He's now in his 90s!!! He came back to lead the Opposition, in cooperation with Anwar Ibrahim his former Deputy in BN who he had jailed twice (or is it 3 times) on trumped charges of Sodomy. Mahathir, Ibrahim (still in jail at that time) and many others formed a coalition to oust the corrupt Government party
- to RESTORE DEMOCRACY and get rid of the CORRUPTION across SOCIETY, GOVT AGENCIES, and in the MEDIA - with the help of a mass movement of the people - despite the manipulations of the electoral processes in place.
The EU and the United States of America; neither Obama, Trump, or Sec Clinton, not Bolton, Pompeo, Abrams, McCain, or Graham SAVED the poor downtrodden people of Malaysia from their Corrupt Undemocratic Regime or fix their Fraudulent Election System.
They did not place any sanctions or trade embargoes upon Malaysian Government, didn't stop them exporting computers and electronic to the USA to sell, and this despite everything they knew about that Corruption, Human Rights Abuses, the Govt control of the Media, and the Anti-Democratic Anti-Freedom reality there.
How is that for a History Lesson?
The key difference I can see between what's happened in Malaysia for 60 years and what's being happening in the USA
(and especially it's corrosive manipulative dishonest influence in the western democracies) is that
in the USA they have TWO corrupt fraudulent lying Political Parties who run the Governments there .... while the majority of the population are either actively complicit in that or complacent.
Rules to have a successful happy life:
Rule #1 - Never believe Narcissists who are already proven to be habitual liars. No matter how convincing their next Lie may sound to you. Because narcissistic habitual Liars know how to push your emotional buttons in order to manipulate YOU into believing them again!