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Comment by FridgeSeal | Hacker News Reader

Gosh I do wonder what happened in a bunch of South American countries that caused their political situations to vary wildly before magically aligning with the economic preferences of the US.

It’s truly a mystery, I guess we’ll never know.

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Whenever bad things happen under socialism, it's because of socialism. Whenever bad things happen under capitalism, it's because of spooky ghosts.

True socialism looks more like Norway nationalizing its oil resources or the American WWII wartime economy than anything your average American on the street would call socialist. My eyes roll over twice whenever people cite an authoritarian dictatorship over actual successful examples of socialism that have taken place in the west as reason for why it can’t be done.

My eyes roll over whenever people argue about what is and is not "true socialism". Now we're arguing for socialism with Scandinavian characteristics, but guess what, these are also among the most market friendly and economically freest countries in the world.

Fair enough, but what are these "Scandinavian" characteristics that you think make them unique?

We won't know, and certainly will not be able to discuss it if you don't explain your view of it clearly and without sarcasm.

History books know.

Guessing the comment is referring to the heavy US involvement in South American countries when they chose the "wrong" economic policies.

Let's just say we're not the shining beacon of democracy we claim to be when our capitalists want unfettered access to another nation's resources.

The US's involvement in Pinochet's overthrow of Allende is vastly overstated. The truth is that Allende did a fine job of fucking Chile up on his own.

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