[Gualdrapo]

I am and I can say with full certainty that the "socialism threat" paranoia in our region is incredibly stupid.

The real threat has always been corrupt governments and corporations meddling in politics that gave away the birth of guerrillas (and even sponsored them) like here in Colombia.

The "socialism bad" has been in many cases just an excuse for so many here to hold themselves in power and make the lifes of the less fortunate completely miserable.

Power just corrupts, be it from "left" or "right".

[ggambetta]

I fully agree with you. However, when non-LatAm people talk about "socialism", they probably think of European-style socialism, which is awesome. LatAm socialism is a lot more extreme, and closer to full-on communism - my country still has people stuck in the 60s cold war era mentality and fully supporting the ideals of of the Soviet Union, still praising Cuba and Venezuela, reality notwithstanding.

European-style socialism would be better. Full 60s socialism would be significantly worse. It's quite likely that people ITT are using "socialism" to refer to either, and we're all talking past each other.

[_3u10]

When I think of socialism I think of everything from Trump and to the left of Trump.

Brazil/Argentina/Trump style tariffs, banning the import of DJI/BYD/Huawei, etc. and yes china is socialist too.

I’m not American I don’t really think of America as capitalist wonderland.

And yes cheap Bolivian subsidized gas is wonderful, same with subsidized Argentinian everything, 3:1 blue dollar etc. let me explicitly thank their populace for subsidizing many vacations and day to day living costs.