No it failed because it was a dictatorship, socialism was the word thrown around by Chavez to get into power and think he was copying Cuba. When someone grabs absolute power and bathes in corruption while they steal money and the rest of the country is shit poor, this has nothing to do with socialism. And you have to have your head up your ass to think I advocated for socialism and just the wrong people were in charge. The point is stop pointing to Venezuela as a failed socialist country because whatever socialism is, this was not even close to it. The article you cite uses the word in the headline but no where else establishes its point. The situation was ignored when oil was at $180 but when it dropped and the fucktards were too busy stealing money and rigging elections it moved even further to a dictatorship.
As someone who deals with the country and actually does research rather than one post an article, that certainly entitles me to a certain level of educated opinion on this. Too many wannabe Trumptards keep pointing to Venezuela as though it proves socialism does not work. Whether socialism works is an argument for another country because Venezuela was a failed dictatorship, plain and simple.
I see them as the same: socialism and dictatorship go hand in hand. I've been to Cuba a number of times, I talk to people there and they all say that this is not communism but Castro-ism. To me though it's the same thing.
True. A better debate is whether socialist countries are more vulnerable to dictatorships developing?
The -ism gets less and less relevant when one leader assumes total control and dictates how everything is to be run. It basically becomes their name -ism because there is no such thing as standard communism, socialism, capitalism etc. that is applied like a blue print. Castro came to power and claimed he was not Communist but a revolutionary for the poor. Funny how all he did was keep his average countryman pretty poor while he lives in a huge compound with plenty of money. You cannot choose often where you work/career and Cubans were denied access for many years to any places tourists were because God forbid they see what people with money and freedom have. Also had the pleasure of visiting Cuba a couple of times.
I think the issue is when an individual overthrows a government, 9 out of 10 times the only way to maintain that power while feeding yourself is to move whatever -ism you thoght you were promoting to a dictatorship and subvert all opposition and freedoms to maintain your grip while giving the people just enough to keep them happy but down.