[thrance]

I don't know of any left-wing oligarchs. That almost sounds like an oxymoron. Don't get trapped in bothsideism or enlightened centrism, one sides is that much more aggressive with the lies and hate.

As for the crime stat, you can always control for such things, to an extent. If we can't trust the official statistics office, then what should we base our policies off? Vibes? There are certainly things to improve with how the stats are collected and used, but you can't just go around telling everyone they're useless and providing no alternatives.

[workfromspace]

Forgive me if I'm working but I thought all the socialist/communist/marxist country leaders and their friends were left oligarchs by definition?

[immibis]

There were no socialist/communist/marxist countries, but there were dictatorships that pretended to be socialist/communist/marxist. Kinda like Hitler did, actually.

[thrance]

No, they're dictators. And I don't know of many of them owning TV channels or newspapers in France, which is what we were talking about. There is no left-wing oligarch, because this is nonsensical. You can't have billionaires spending millions into influencing public opinion towards aggressive wealth redistribution. Those people don't exist.

[nickpp]

You just have bureaucrats and politicians doing that instead, securing their comfy jobs and reelection.

The equation is simple: tax one productive member of society 1000 euros - lose 1 vote. Redistribute 100 euro each - win 5 votes. The rest goes towards various government programs implemented by companies owned by friends that can redirect pay the profit in offshore accounts of relatives of said politician.