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When idealists give way to ideology : Comments
By Mal Fletcher, published 18/9/2015Idealists in the population will often project their visions of a better future onto ideologues, whose intransigence on issues is often mistaken for a sign of prescience.
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Try considering what people actually have to say instead of writing them off as "loony left" and assuming their views to be what you ignorantly assume those of socialists to be.
Brutal methods tend to be a characteristic of dictators, not socialists. Some dictators are socialists, but most aren't.
And this was not about property rights. Both of Allende's opponents wanted to nationalise the copper mines; he and one of them wanted to do so without proper compensation. And once Pinochet took over he didn't return them to their rightful owners. But under the Pinochet regime ordinary people were coerced into surrendering their public pensions for far less lucrative private pensions. And Chile's economic performance was mediocre. The only reason the stats look impressive is that they include the one off boost from ending the strikes (which would've ended anyway).