The Truth of Venezuela.... maybe

                The article Venezuela's Deep Political Education Means Venezuelans Will Withstand Right-Wing Protests, by Kevin Zeese, and Margaret Flowers , reviews American action in Venezuela. The authors state what they see as the truth regarding democracy, economy, and more in Venezuela in order to clear up “falsehoods” (Kevin, and Margaret) of the opposition. While the truth is a valuable commodity, the articles clear bias against the American government and glorification of President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, makes it hard to distinguish which statements are facts and which are just them repeating things that supported their reconfirmation bias.

                When defending the democracy of Venezuela, the authors cite positive studies, and transition to attacking American actions as anti-democratic. While Jimmy Carter does hail the voting system in Venezuela as the best he’s seen yet, he doesn’t touch on the election process in the link. While I myself will agree that the American election system isn’t very Democratic, the article takes it one step further by stating Secretary of State John Kerry “has flown his anti-democracy flag” (Kevin, and Margaret) because he didn’t think the election was legitimate. As far as asserting that Venezuela is a healthy democracy goes, while Jimmy Carter’s statement has helped, it doesn’t cover the election process itself and the authors’ response to a politician’s skepticism of the election hardly leaves me confident in the reliability of their statements.

                The articles section regarding the economy focused highly on American sabotage and ends with the growing economy in light of oil exports. While the authors provide two sources for their section on American sabotage, one of these sources fails to provide any sources for its info and the other cited home pages that gave no clear indication of where I could find the info they were cited for. While it would not surprise me to learn that America has been denying trade to Venezuela, with the lack of support for the authors’ statements I find it prudent to remain skeptical. I wish they talked more about how it is Maduro has played a role in their economic growth with the discovery of oil because so far I’ve read little in the article about how Maduro is leading his country.

                Perhaps I’ve been a bit over critical of the authors’ article, and it would not surprise me to find most of their statements to be true, but even if their accusations are true I would have difficulty making this out amidst the anti-American imperialism rants that fill the article. Reconfirmation bias is a huge factor in psychology and when the authors are consistently bashing one side while praising the other, it is hard to tell what’s based on fact and what’s based on bias for a new observer.