I love it when writers on Slate go over the top in terms of arrogance and dismissiveness. Let's put all our prejudices on display!

Anne Applebaum on anyone supporting Hugo Chavez:

"Just as the sympathetic foreigners whom Lenin called 'useful idiots' once supported Russia abroad, their modern equivalents provide the Venezuelan president with legitimacy, attention, and good photographs."

Well hey Anne, did it occur to you that the Venezuelan president might enjoy some legitimacy, attention, and good photographs all on his own? Could that be why he has such broad support among the workers of his own country?

Or are these perks belonging only to the masters of a corporate-controlled republic?

Must we remake the whole world in our image?

"He, in turn, helps them overcome the frustration John Reed once felt—the frustration of living in an annoyingly unrevolutionary country where people have to change things by law."

Yes, our system is so perfect - money changes hands, laws are made or modified or thrown out, and everyone who started rich comes away richer. Meanwhile the average American, realizing the system is horribly rigged, doesn't even bother to vote. Some kinda democracy hey?

Does democracy naturally breed apathy, or is the current system only a caricature of democracy?

"For all his brilliance, Reed could not bring socialism to America. For all his wealth, fame, media access, and Hollywood power, Sean Penn cannot oust George W. Bush."

Pity that. But from your tone I infer, Anne, that an ouster of George W. Bush would be the worst catastrophe imaginable. I do not think you will much like our political climate after November, 2008.

"As for Venezuelan politics, or the Venezuelan people, they don't matter at all."

To you, no.

"The country is simply playing a role filled in the past by Russia, Cuba, and Nicaragua—a role to which it is, at the moment, uniquely suited."

Noted. You've objectified and dismissed Venezuala and its people.

"Clearly, Venezuela is easier to idealize than Iran and North Korea, the former's attitude to women being not conducive to fashion models, the latter being downright hostile to Hollywood. Venezuela is also warm, relatively close, and a country of beautiful waterfalls."

And its people are great singers and dancers with very white eyes and teeth.

"Most of all, Venezuela's leader not only dislikes the American president—so do most other heads of state—but refers to him as "the devil," a "dictator," a "madman," and a "killer."

So Chavez gets it only 75% right. Give the guy a break.

"Who cares what Chávez actually does when Sean Penn isn't looking? Ninety years after the tragedy of the Russian revolution, Venezuela has become the "kingdom more bright than any heaven had to offer" for a whole new generation of fellow-travelers. As long as the oil lasts."

What a sneeringly awful human being you are here, Anne Applebaum. I hope that when the current American fad for Coulteresque and Limbaughesque posturing has run its course your work is outed as a pale imitation of theirs.

Socialism is not the great evil confronting America today. Radical conservatism is. Radical conservatism, with its ancient roots in fear, racial bigotry, irrational religious ideas, and predatory economics. The slavers were all conservatives. Hitler was a conservative. The KKK are conservative. Jim Jones was a conservative. Why does no one ever point at the elephant standing in the middle of the room?

Time to call a spade a spade, Ms. Applebaum. When you anti- and pseudo-intellectuals have lost your grip on our media, the great ideological cleansing will begin. Know-nothing proclamations and hate-filled smears like the one you just penned will have no standing in a marketplace of GOOD ideas.

At least until the completion of another great human cycle, when all the dumba---s come to power again.

- MW

Well, ok. I'm just an admitted cheesehead putz from Wisconsin, but can read the article and come up with a completely different view and conclusion. It's all about perception, I'd say. Though anger, hatred, and vitriol is certainly not the exclusive property of the far left, I have read post after post after post here filled with anger, hatred, and vitriol towards the author, George Bush, and those on the right. So how can I not conlude Anne's story has at the very least a healthy spoonful of truth? If the posts here are reminiscent of the kind of anger and hate filled attitudes favored by the left, by the Chavezs' of the world, by the Sean Penn's, then I'll take the George Bush America (flaws and all) the way it is every time.

Yeah, this writer must be unaware (or not willing to admit for the purpose of writing such a one-sided article) of US fascism and its history in the developing world. You think the US role in dictating IMF policy, and the subsequent economic disaster it wrought in Latin America (not to mention the CIA ouster of a democratically-elected president in Allende in favor of the dictator Pinochet), has fermented animosity toward the US? I'm guessing yes. I'm a leftist, but I don't support thug policies on either side. I realize the idealization of people like Chavez gets out of hand. But when all the power brokers are backing one regime -- the one that clearly calls most of the shots in the world and can be responsible for the death of 1 million Iraqis in less than 5 years with its illegal invasion and occupation and yet isn't held accountable by anyone -- how are dissidents supposed to have their voices heard? Chavez is an opportunistic thug, but he's one of the few prominent leaders in the West who isn't afraid to criticize the US and its barbaric foreign policy. Oh, and climate change? Yeah, the US is the main culprit in that "leftist conspiracy" as well.

Everything has a spoonful of truth, papjon_s1. The issue is, how can we as Americans get from spoonfuls to bowlfuls and vatfuls instead?

It is not a simple choice between the George Bush America and the Sean Penn America. Don't let yourself get dumbed-down like that. It's a choice that needs to be made every day, in a hundred little decisions. It's about how smart we want to be as a nation.

The true mark of dumba--ery is that everything is reduced to a choice between A and B, and all such decisions are final and irrevocable. This is the worst kind of lie.

Don't ask yourself whether to go with GBA or SPA and then pick GBA because their people sound more folksy and likeable than the SPA ones. Instead ask yourself "what would Jesus really do?" Or "what would Ghandi really do?" Or "what would Lincoln really do?"

If you come up with "start a war with Iran" or "kill every ragh--d in the Middle East" or "suppress dissent at home" then you're obviously uninformed about history and no fan of humanitarians. In that case you should probably seek professional help - you may be psychotic.

Anne gains her left-wing notoriety because she's a pundit of mindless GBA-ism, which would ultimately destroy this country. Do you think GWB or any of his clones have the smarts to stop global warming? Hell, they can't even punish 400 raga--ed renegades without falling all over themselves.

Republicans lost the war. Remember to punish them well in November, 2008.

- MW

Thank you for a beautifully written response to the article. I can go back to work now that you've saved me the time I would have spent writing something very similar. Well Said!

Let's have a cultural revolution...kill all the intellectuals, religious leaders, artist etc...it worked in China...didn't it?

But you fall into your own either or trap at the end. You don't like George Bush, Hugo Chavez does not like George Bush therefore Chavez is good.

Hitler turned on Stalin but not from any pure of heart motive.