President Hugo Chavez dead at 58

[MobBoss]

Thanks to TVTropes, which will enhance your life, I've known that for a long time. Your sarcasm detector might just be defective, assuming something made in the land of the free is capable of malfunctioning.

Was just trying to be courteous. You never know what is lost from across the pond.

 

[Old Hippy]

Was just trying to be courteous. You never know what is lost from across the pond.

courteousness, it would seem, if not lost, maybe misplaced

 

[Dachs]

Who says?

"One who says" is actually the literal translation of dictator, which as a title for a leader was first given to an extraordinary magistrate whose absolute power had to be officially delegated by the Senate for a limited time during an emergency. A couple dictators did use the threat of force to compel the senate to grant this power, but others (like Cincinnatus) had nothing to do with the decision and didn't really want the power.

assuming Cincinnatus was non-apocryphal

 

[Leoreth]

"One who says" is actually the literal translation of dictator

Even though dictare is the frequentism of dicere, it does also carry certain other implications.

 

[Traitorfish]

Neither did he gain his throne via military revolution.

He did, actually, or at least sort of. Part of the settlement of the 1848 Revolution was the abdication of Ferdinand I (in practice, his regents) and his replacement with the more liberal Franz-Josef I.

Indeed. It's the only possible explanation for qualifying Videla as a dictator but not Castro.

Don't be a muppet. There've been plenty of left-wing dictators, and plenty of right-wing strongmen who were not dictators. Kim Il Sung a was a dictator, Marshall Horthy was not a dictator. Mussolini was a dictator, Castro was not. It's about the nature of their authority, not their politics.

 

[luiz]

Don't be a muppet. There've been plenty of left-wing dictators, and plenty of right-wing strongmen who were not dictators. Kim Il Sung a was a dictator, Marshall Horthy was not a dictator. Mussolini was a dictator, Castro was not. It's about the nature of their authority, not their politics.

I honestly don't know anyone else, other than Castro fanboys of course, who doesn't call him a dictator. He could be the dictionary example of a dictator.

 

[Cutlass]

assuming Cincinnatus was non-apocryphal

Is there convincing evidence one way or the other?

 

[Dachs]

Is there convincing evidence one way or the other?

No. Most of the stories told about him are painfully chock full of tropes, but it's not totally impossible that at least some of them sort of happened, and there's no reason to suppose he didn't exist at all.

 

[Agent327]

Is there convincing evidence one way or the other?

The Roman consul list would be primary evidence for his double dictatorship. But the first historian writing about him (Livy) did so 5 centuries after the man is supposed to have lived.

 

[Traitorfish]

I honestly don't know anyone else, other than Castro fanboys of course, who doesn't call him a dictator. He could be the dictionary example of a dictator.

Okay. And? I've already pointed out that most people make no clear distinction between "dictator" and "strongman", so it's not self-evident that we can accept "people Luiz knows" as an authority on the matter.

 

[luiz]

Okay. And? I've already pointed out that most people make no clear distinction between "dictator" and "strongman", so it's not self-evident that we can accept "people Luiz knows" as an authority on the matter.

Nor can we accept your blank statement that he isn't a dictator based on your very peculiar definition. Castro had more relative power than the vast majority of rulers of our age. He had power over the life and death of virtually all Cubans, includibg high ranking communists. He was a dictator in every sense.

 

[Traitorfish]

Nor can we accept your blank statement that he isn't a dictator based on your very peculiar definition.

That's true. It is an area for discussion! But swapping contradictions, which is all you seem to be up for, isn't a discussion. So I don't really know what you want from me.

 

[Takhisis]

:brainaspldoe: Can we get back to Chávez?

 

[ace99]

He's in heaven with Jesus and convinced God to make a Latin American Pope. What more do you want from the poor man?

 

[Takhisis]

To actually become poor by giving back some of his earnings to The People?

 

[TheLastOne36]

To actually become poor by giving back some of his earnings to The People?

I am sure it was quoted around here somewhere but the Chavez family have accumulated around as much wealth as the Castro brothers during Hugo Chavez' reign.

 

[Old Hippy]

I am sure it was quoted around here somewhere but the Chavez family have accumulated around as much wealth as the Castro brothers during Hugo Chavez' reign.

well at least, they will now vote for the opposition to protect their ill gotton gains, so its not all bad...

 

[Traitorfish]

To actually become poor by giving back some of his earnings to The People?

“Well, it is about time that every rebel wakes up to the fact that "the people" and the working class have nothing in common.”

-Joe Hill

 

[Ironsided]

Not often, but sometimes the cogs of thought do move in unison.

 

[Takhisis]

“Well, it is about time that every rebel wakes up to the fact that "the people" and the working class have nothing in common.”

-Joe Hill

'The working class' is another nonentity just like 'the people', 'the nation', etc. etc.