Hacker News Reader

Comment by cptaj | Hacker News Reader

I live in Venezuela and our internet service is crumbling and censored (Dont fucking vote for communists or populist socialists)

I work online so a stable internet connection is a must. Right now we're surviving with boutique wireless ISPs (not cell, think point to point networks used in rural areas but deployed in the city because you have post-apocalyptic levels of collapse) They buy their uplink from the monopoly government ISP but pay handsomely for priority.

I pay $30 a month for a 2mb connection.

I would GLADLY pay for Starlink.

View on HN

From what I have read it sounded like the US government has been working to undermine Venezuela economically for some time. Socialism was working too well, it brought huge swathes of the population out of poverty. A working less-capitalist model being dangerous to the global status quo, had to go.

I'm sorry and I hope it gets better. Here is one article, as a source, its long though. Source: https://nacla.org/news/2018/05/18/united-states%E2%80%99-han...

Im really impressed at the number of downvotes, despite the lack of subsequent replies. Here's another source:

"The first UN rapporteur to visit Venezuela for 21 years has told The Independent the US sanctions on the country are illegal and could amount to “crimes against humanity” under international law.

Former special rapporteur Alfred de Zayas, who finished his term at the UN in March, has criticized the US for engaging in “economic warfare” against Venezuela which he said is hurting the economy and killing Venezuelans."

Per the Indpendent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/venezuela-...

You're probably being downvoted without replies because your post of such low quality, it is not worth replying to.

"Socialism was working too well, it brought huge swathes of the population out of poverty. A working less-capitalist model being dangerous to the global status quo, had to go."

This is ideological drivel so far removed from reality, it's basically trolling.

Thank you for replying. In terms of ideology v reality this would be similar to the ideology that led to the Iran Contra scandal.

Source: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/reagan-...

This comment breaks the site guidelines. You have a long history of doing that. We've warned you more than once. Would you please fix this? I don't want to ban you, but if you don't stop doing this, we're going to be forced to.

If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules from now on, that would be good.

History remembers the winners - so even though I actually agree with what you're saying about US government economic warfare, the end result was the Venezuelan government turned to shit. It's become oppressive, their policies have failed and now their society is crumbling and people are suffering.

If Venezuela's form of socialism was working so well, then it should have sustained itself no matter what the US did. Instead it was supported by oil money, and as soon as the oil dollars were cut off it collapsed because there was nothing revolutionary or innovative about it. I'll be voting for Andrew Yang this primary because I like the idea of UBI and a social safety net and how he's planning to implement his policies. I think that form of 21st century socialism might work - the form that Venezuela chose just led to cronyism and oppression.

> If Venezuela's form of socialism was working so well, then it should have sustained itself no matter what the US did

Good domestic policy makes you impervious to interference by foreign powers with 40x your GDP?

I don’t get it, what’s the logic there?

Startup logic... anyone can take on Google or Amazon if their ideas are innovative and good enough.

I think you forgot funding. That's kinda important.

Communism and socialism do not have anything to do with censorship.

Edit: I was responding to parent's first sentence, "I live in Venezuela and our internet service is crumbling and censored (Dont fucking vote for communists or populist socialists)". That is like living in Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, etc. (look here if you want more examples: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_Censorship_... ), and then blaming Capitalism for the censorhip of the Internet.

Would you please not take HN threads further into ideological flamewar? It's not what this site is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Reply on news.ycombinator.com