I hate to state the obvious, but since anticommunists often having trouble grasping it I’ll do it anyway: no, merely living in a country, even for several decades, is not enough to make you an expert on it. The majority of U.S. citizens can’t even name more than a couple of the amendments to the U.S. Constitution, much less explain how the plutocracy keeps them poor, for the simple reason that understanding the functions and purposes of such requires direct research, not citizenship. If being a citizen for decades should suffice, then why shouldn’t we immediately agree that Barack Obama imposed a socialist economy of the U.S. and that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump? You don’t want to invalidate the trauma of U.S. citizens, do you?

Judging by how so many anticommunist dissidents ignorantly equate communism with fascism, they would probably seriously agree that their experiences were comparable to the lives of the prisoners at (say) Auschwitz too, but even Shoah survivors—with some exceptions of course—do not have advanced knowledge of the atrocity, which is partly why their opponents often have a surprisingly easy time frustrating them (as seen in the motion picture Denial). Now certainly, we don’t have to ‘just get over’ our traumatic experiences, but if we must insist on arguing with people over serious and complex matters, we could all take a lesson from this, surely.

As for the denial that U.S. neoimperialism had anything to do with this, that is easily falsifiable. We know, for example, that in the ’00s alone the U.S. ruling class funded opposition groups in the BRV, imposed an arms embargo on it, decertified it for failing to comply effectively with the ‘war on drugs’, listed it for human trafficking, and blocked multilateral loans to it through the IMF and World Bank. In 2011, the U.S. State Department imposed sanctions on the BRV’s state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) for trading with Iran, and perhaps most importantly, in 2014 the U.S. ruling class imposed sanctions specifically on the BRV’s oil industry and its bank.

So perhaps focussing on the 2017 sanctions is not the best strategy for anticommunism apologists to apply here.

If you love the Venezuelan regime so much then fucking get your ass here to live in this misery.

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that travel is absurdly cheap and accessible: so what? Why should travelling there be such a horrible idea? While I would prefer that we try to improve the conditions where we live first, there is nothing ignoble or ‘stupid’ about travelling to a besieged victim of neoimperialism, such as Afghanistan or the Syrian Arab Republic, and offering whatever assistance that you can to the locals. Would it be easy and perfectly safe? Hell no. But if you value solidarity and self‐sacrifice, it doesn’t have to be a horrible thing at all. Personally, I would have traded all of the time that I wasted on Twitter for time spent contributing to a Venezulean commune. My disability would have limited the work that I could do, but at least that way I would know for sure that I did something and helped somebody.

People (especially on Twitter) tend to have a binary-absolute way of thinking. So I’m stating this for my new followers, just in case: I am Venezuelan, hence I’m against communism and I don’t believe in a socialist ideology. I’m against all dictatorships and alt-right scum…

Ordinary people can and often do either support the government’s politics or simply remain neutral towards them, no matter the government. Even if I were an anticommunist again (and I am thankful that I’m not), I wouldn’t endorse this line of thinking: that would be ignoring a serious problem. Governments with opposition from more than 99% of the population don’t stay in power for years.

You’ll say fascism is terrible (duh!) and in the same breath say communism is paradise.

Anticommunism is terrible for the lower classes, yes, but nobody (other than anticommunists) claimed that communism is ‘paradise’. How could it be, when it’s trying to survive in a capitalist world?

There hasn’t been one coup attempt by the US in this country…

There’s no US intervention here. Don’t you get it? The sanctions are for the government.

We don’t care about sanctions because they only affect the corrupt people in government who have been stealing this country’s money for decades

If you’re not Venezuelan or know Venezuelan people and their situation, just shut the fuck up about Venezuela.

No comments necessary here.