As every cell in Chile will tell
The cries of the tortured men
Remember Allende, and the days before,
Before the army came
Please remember Victor Jara,
In the Santiago Stadium,
Es verdad - those Washington Bullets again…
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If you are dropped from a helicopter - without your consent - and walk away after you land, saying that the man who ordered it may be largely misunderstood by historians, then I will know that you love murderous dictators. Until then, it’s all just bluster from a man who knows he’ll never pay physical or emotional consequences for his political opinions.
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“Erickson Says US Should Fund ‘Pinochet Types,’”
The US did, Eric, it did !
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Let’s see… Erickson talks about Guatemala, where we propped up the murderous Rios-Montt. And Nicaragua, where we illegally funded the Contras. And then he mentions Honduras, where the current administration is friendly with Hernandez. Those places are all just like present-day Chile, amirite?
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Faced with considerable backlash, Erickson eventually tweeted that he was “not fully serious, but do have something to say on the topic.”
No, you don’t Erick son of Erick. Go crawl back into your basement and masturbate to your authoritarian fantasies. Leave the rest of the world out of it.
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It actually saddens me that every time I think a conservative might really have a strong moral compass, they disappoint me. I thought for all my disagreements with Erickson, there was a distinction between him and Trump and Duterte. I know people will call me naive for thinking that. But still, I am disappointed.
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I always hear about this tweet but never understood it- was there some context here (apart from EE being an ass)? Some backstory?
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Eric son of Eric ought to be reminded of the assassination carried out by Pinochet and his thugs just blocks from the White House in 1976.
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Killing your opposition while they’re living in other countries is the kind of thing he applauds.
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They wonder why they get called “fascists”.
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The ends always justifies the means…it’s for a better society, eventually, doncha know.
Erickson did have plenty more to say on the subject, arguing “Augusto Pinochet was a corrupt tyrant in Chile. He also reformed Chile’s economy, drove out the communists and socialists, and put Chile on the path to reform and stability.”
Thousands were killed as a result of Pinochet’s U.S.-backed dictatorship, and tens of thousands more were tortured or made political prisoners. Methods of torture included rape, electric shocks, near-drowning and sleep deprivation.
Let’s be really clear here: Pinochet’s violent and brutal crackdown on political enemies was an atrocity. But his political and economic reforms were just as atrocious, because they devastated Chile’s economy:
- the economy shrank 14%
- the poverty rate doubled (from 23% in '70, to 45% in '87)
- stable work disappeared for 40% of all workers
- college tuition skyrocketed to 40% of average household income (it was the most expensive tuition in the world per capita income)
- social security was forcibly privatized; 2/3 of all accounts (20% of GDP) were transferred to 2 private companies tied to the leadership, and all of it was promptly raided; in 2015, executives were caught with $30 billion in stolen retirement savings, and Pinochet was caught with $15 million in 125 accounts across 7 countries, hidden with the help of the banks
What’s more, Pinochet rewrote the country’s constitution in an attempt to permanently secure the dominance of the conservative minority and military officers in the junta:
- broadly expanded presidential powers
- elevated unelected military officials over elected members of congress
- “removed ‘major social questions – such as macroeconomic policy – from democratic influence’”
- required 2/3 supermajorities for any changes to the rules
Even after several successful blue waves, the majority-liberal society has its hands tied by rules that give the 1/3 minority representation equal to the 2/3 center-left majority.
All of this was done on the advice of James Buchanan, a libertarian extremist who is the architect of the Kochs’ right-wing network of think tanks and ideologically motivated legal departments. Buchanan and Koch met in the '60s or '70s, I think. Koch lauds Chile as a model free society because they are “7th in the world” in protecting property rights. After W wrecked Iraq, one of these folks said “Iraq needs a Pinochet.”