12.23.06 – Reisman Continues to Defend Pinochet

A Pinochet minion protecting the public from the Red Menace, Franco-style

No, really!

Fascist apologist Reisman defends himself against charges of neo-Francoism (i.e. “[K]ill all the Reds!”, although he seems to actually mean all of the social democrats, socialists, communists, independent reformists, trade unionists, clerics, journalists, NGO social welfare groups and anyone else who isn’t a state symbiotic kleptocrat living off state-sanctioned economic privilege) on the LvMI blog yet again today.

I disagree in whole with Riesman’s opinions about Pinochet. However, even accepting his argument that a fascist dictatorship held in place by military and police death squads is somehow preferable to a reformist social democratic regime, (which followed the rule of law, and which could have been removed in the next election if they FUBAR’d the economy too badly), was it really necessary to use such techniques as torture, rape, kidnapping of family members, and worse, to enforce the dictatorship’s “national salvation” program? Even Lenin, Stalin and Castro never used those tactics.

And further, if Pinochet was only motivated by the desire not to have Chile become a Cuban-style communist state, why did he find it necessary to embezzle millions of dollars in Chilean state funds and put them into his personally owned bank accounts overseas? Reisman never touches that issue apparently because it goes directly to the heart of the “I did this (coup) for the salvation of the Chilean people!” meme, and which to my mind, is the best proof of Pinochet’s disingenuousness.

Apparently in the twilight of his life, Reisman wants to go out with a bang. Having been purged a while back from the crypto-fascist Ayn Rand Institute for “deviationism” [sic], and having retired from teaching economics at the Pepperdine University, he now wants to tell us all what he really thinks, since his retirement is secure and he has nothing left to lose by holding back. I’ve always disagreed with Reisman, but his support for violence and dictatorship to save us from things which are worse (worse how he doesn’t say; maybe being shot by a red firing squad is somehow worse than being shot by a fascist one, perhaps?).

Why the LvMI poobahs continue to permit him posting privileges on their blog is really hard to understand. Maybe they like the extra web traffic it brings in. Who knows?