this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2025
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electoralism
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Meh. Kind of an ultra-left concern. He's besieged by thousands of gotcha questions and "Venezuela, siiiir?" was one of them
This doesnt break any rules folks, and I think we've made the point clear. If Zohran can have an anti-imperialist position on Gaza he should be able to have one on Venezuela. Simple as.
I know it's like part of his job to know stuff but I personally couldn't give a coherent sentence about Venezuela. I'd probably agree with the sort of general hexbear consensus but I haven't done the work to integrated it cognitively.
Palestine is something I have been thinking about (if casually) for 20+ years. And much more strongly for 2+ years. Doesn't almost everybody on planet earth have a stronger analysis of Gaza than Venezuela?
What I'm saying is, please don't make me mayor of NYC. I haven't read enough books. I probably shouldn't even be the deputy mayor.
Would you knee-jerk call it a dictatorship? This is the liberalism that DSA chauvinists default to, it's what appeasing imperialist libs looks like, and it's how he presented himself and therefore the hot new branding of American socialism.
I probably wouldn't now. But I can kinda imagine if I'd had a really good late night with the right person I could be influenced into it.
He should've just said he doesn't have an opinion.
Chana I know you're right you've demonstrated it over n over.
Oh I don't really mean you in particular like I'm interrogating you. I just mean that he said something pretty bad.
And I don't give folks like this the benefit of the doubt. They have heard this kind of lecture many times even within just DSA. They are triangulating and/or sharing their actual chauvinism.
I'm not ragging on you I'm saying I appreciate your continued efforts in making your points and I find them convincing. :)
The simple answer he could have given is "We have a president who is destroying fishing boats off the coast of a foreign nation using our advanced navel warships. Think what you will about Venezuela and its leader, these are dangerous actions that put all of us, Americans and Venezuelans in danger."
Then it makes even more embarrassing that the DSA can't even come up with a strategic line for mandani other than the mainstream imperialist line which, as can be presumed, most Americans aren't even well informed about.
Having a good line on Gaza is the difference between genocide enjoyer and not. Nobody should EVER be praised for being in support of Gaza and Palestine.
Asking someone that calls themselves a socialist to uphold actually existing socialist states instead of reiterating the exact position of the imperialists is not an "ultra-left" concern, it's the basic litmus test of a democratic-socialist vs a social-democrat.
TIL principled anti-imperialism is "ultra-left" now
If your country is about to invade a socialist colonized country, you as a socialist in a major seat of power overseeing the center of capitalism in your country have no duties at all to oppose pro-war propaganda. It's unreasonable to expect this.
Doesn't even have to be principled. An incoherent wine mom/dad/parent lib can adopt this position easily and they actually do so if someone like Trump is in office.
We’re killing their civilians and will likely kill more, explain why it’s ok to double down on “dictatorship”. You can’t really use the gotcha question excuse when he moved FURTHER RIGHT after the podcast where he was put on the spot. Did he need the gusano vote that badly? Or did he just want to help justify when we drone Maduro
It's not ultra-left to insist that the politicians who represent us not be imperialists. I'm glad Zohran won and I'm doing the celebratory meme circulations, but he needs to do better when it comes to imperialism.
Liberalism.
Also, Venezuela is actually besieged and is still more principled.
Not bandwagoning against socialist projects targeted for military destruction and coups is not an ultra position.
You know he can just not respond right?
I have had this argument so many times now and I still haven't seen anyone with a good rebuttal to "just deflect the question".
That would be a way bigger story in the media than his response, which is only being recognized by people like us
Did you read any headlines about him dodging the question the first time he was asked on Ramos’ show? No because it was irrelevant