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What is your issue with leftism beyond just gender politics? Don't lump as all together like that. History and other countries show that certain parts of the leftist agenda (worker protections, anti-trust, social welfare, environmental protections, a certain degree of rights for women) are both very popular and good for society. You can't just force certain things back in a hole: Franco tried that, Pinochet tried that, and it didn't fucking work.
Also the left is self-immolating without your "heroic stand". We haven't had an actual leftist party in power since the end of the Soviet Union in the West because the we're too busy infighting and tone policing over trivialities.
Worker protections didn’t need leftism. Richer people negotiate better labor conditions when they get richer. Environmental has happened in both parties. But the right doesn’t have Marxism/de-growth environmentalism.
Franco and Pinochet were great leaders. Chile to this day long after Pinochet left the scene is the wealthiest and most stable Latam country.
Franco and Pinochet both committed large scale mass murder. Franco was exhumed from his tomb because of how much the Spanish hate him now. Pinochet has received similar, if not as extreme treatment. The fact is that both dictators failed to actually halt the tide of rising leftism in their countries.
Uhhh that first part sounds like dogma. Labor unions and strikes were vital for raising wages and working conditions in the Industrial Revolution.
Franco absolutely succeeded in halting the tide of rising leftism in his country!
Did he though? 40 years after his death Spain is just and gay and trans as the rest of Europe and leftists control the main levers of power.
Beats communism, probably.
Ehh communists were just one faction within the Republican umbrella. With all the infighting that happened during the war, doubt a communist regime would have lasted long. Especially if WW2 happens as if in our timeline. No way in hell Hitler lets communist Spain exist. Which now that you mention it is probably pretty ass for Spain. So I guess Franco saved Spain from even more war/ Nazi occupation, which is something. In fact, if the coup didn’t happen, Republican Spain probably tries to join up against the Nazis and gets bodied then too.
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