Soft Dictatorships

It’s a good thing what happened in Venezuela could never happen here:

Hmmmm… let’s see: propaganda? Check. Censorship? Check. Co-opting potential critics with material rewards? Check. Control over media through various civil or criminal means? Check. As for hiring trolls to flood comments and vandalizing opposition media sites, that can all be accomplished through private groups, without the need for government fingerprints.

Somehow, it reminds me of this piece I wrote a few years ago.

[Late-afternoon update]

Sorry, second link was missing. I’ve fixed it.

6 thoughts on “Soft Dictatorships”

  1. “So what’s the problem? Liberty is waaaay overrated.”–Baghdad Jim

    “Say, that remind’s me, here’s a link to an interesting article on things to see in Caracas. . . .” –Sidetrack Bob

  2. I’ve been away from my computer today, so I wasn’t on the ball earlier to mention this, but, is the section “Somehow, it reminds me of this piece I wrote a few years ago.” missing a link to a previous article?

  3. Its ok because while the Obama administration wanted to jail their political opponents through the use of the IRS, they were only going to be sent to a regular jail not a re-education or labor camp.

Comments are closed.