Useful Idiots Come Out In Droves | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Alicia Colon realizes that Communism / Socialism needs the useful idiots that make up the low-information sector of any social strata, even if the "useful idiots" are rich, and very liberal Americans, in this post, which was originally published in The Irish Examiner.

    Although the term "useful idiots" was originally attributed to Vladimir Lenin, its origin is undetermined but it is very applicable to the naïve celebrities in Hollywood and the media now mourning the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Much like the devotees of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, these grieving individuals have made no effort to learn the truth about those they lionize. One has to feel some pity for the likes of the Sean Penns, Oliver Stones, Michael Moores, Danny Glovers, and idolaters who naively support malignant despots and causes believing them to be a force for good.

    The fog of deceit about Hugo Chavez may be lifted if the media ever decides to recapture the integrity of the fourth estate and publish the truth told by those who know it. Thor Halvorssen Mendoza is the president and CEO of the Human Rights Foundation who was born in Venezuela and whose mother is distantly related to Simon Bolivar. His father's parentage is Norwegian which explains his Nordic name but he is as Venezuelan as Chavez was and was the ideal person to comment about Sean Penn's inane friendship with Chavez when I wrote about him for Breitbart's Big Hollywood in 2010. He wrote:

    "When Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, the European Parliament, Inter-American Commission and Court for Human Rights, the Committee to Protect Journalists and dozens of other governmental and civil society groups from across the political spectrum demonstrate through reports, case studies, and a mountain of evidence that Hugo Chavez persecutes journalists, imprisons opponents, manipulates elections, finances and arms death squads in Colombia, shuts down independent media, bankrupts independent small business, confiscates property, provides moral and technological support to dozens of despots around the world - well, you have a consensus of many smart, well-informed people that Chavez is bad news. Sean Penn is either exceptionally ignorant or deliberately malicious. Given that he has travelled to Venezuela and, unlike Venezuelans whose media is restricted, is able to obtain as much information as he wants, it is baffling for him to be on the side of tyranny and human rights violations."

    Mr. Halvorssen has invited Sean Penn through his publicist and manager to travel and see the Venezuela that is experienced by the majority of people there - those who resist and oppose the destruction of Venezuela's democracy - but he has not yet accepted.

    Mr. Halvorssen said he understands Mr. Glover's support because it is venal and self-serving; Glover's production company received tens of millions in cash from the Venezuelan government. But Sean Penn's obsession with Chavez is inexplicable.

    Similarly, celebrities who trek out to Havana to bow down to Fidel Castro and are escorted throughout the country come back to the States enamored by the seemingly high standards of Cuba's health system. Michael Moore was so impressed that he filmed a faux documentary about Cuba that totally ignored the care given to the areas that Moore was not permitted to visit. His film "Sicko" was a condemnation of our expensive health care system and highlighted fake HMO horror stories while lauding the far superior Cuban system. The truth is that Cuba's excellent health care facilities were built for the use of foreigners who pay for them with hard currencies. Moore never viewed the real Cuba which is a real third world travesty as seen on the web on many sites because it would not square with his anti-American rants.

    The death of Hugo Chavez brought out all the useful idiots with their ignorant statements to deify a despot.

    Michael Moore: "He used the oil $ 2 eliminate 75 percent of extreme poverty, provide free health & education for all."

    Oliver Stone: "I mourn a great hero to the majority of his people and those who struggle throughout the world for a place,"

    Rev. Jess Jackson: "Hugo fed the hungry," Jackson added. "He lifted the poor. He raised their hopes. He helped them realize their dreams.

    The mainstream media joined in with their own ludicrous assessments of the dictator's achievements which were ultimately self-serving and non-altruistic.

    Perhaps all these droolers were fooled by Chavez's publicity stunts. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Venezuelan President offered to send thousands of soldiers, firefighters and volunteers to help with the cleanup. He also pledged $1million in aid plus fuel to help rebuild hard-hit cities like New Orleans. Former Congressman, Joseph Kennedy II, worked with Chavez to provide free fuel to poor families here in the United States through Kennedy's company, Citizens Energy Corp and Venezuela's CITGO. Chavez, a Marxist, talked a lot about helping the poor but left the Venezuelan economy in shambles by giving free oil to Cuba and other Latin American countries and pocketed two billion dollars for himself. Incidentally, Kennedy's salary was above $400,000 from his 'non-profit' charity.

    There have been several left wing liberals who have seen the light after witnessing the hypocrisy of the radicals that used them as useful idiots. Many were affected by 9/11 but others were traumatized by the violence committed by their former colleagues. David Horowitz, a former radical and publisher and editor of FrontPage Magazine, a conservative online site, discovered that a friend of his whom he'd sent to work as a bookkeeper for the Black Panthers had been murdered by them and the crime was covered up by the left.

    As for the truth about Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, none could be more revealing than Brandon Darby, who woke up after spending a month in Venezuela. He had been invited there because he was a leftwing advocate connected with the new Black Panther party who was convinced that Chavez was the savior of his people. There he saw poverty worse than anything he had seen after Katrina. Only the poor supported by the Kennedy Foundation heating oil programs benefitted while the rest of the country suffered greatly.

    Mr. Darby soon discovered that Chavez and his militant machine were more interested in setting up a guerilla movement in the black community here in the States. When Mr. Darby refused to travel to Columbia to meet with the FARC rebels, he was denied the right to leave the country and was more or less held hostage. In an article for Breitbart's Big Peace, he reported all that he witnessed during his stay in Chavez's Venezuela and ended with:

    "I flew back to the US and didn't know what to expect when I landed. A US Customs Agent said, 'Mr. Darby, you really should be careful what you do in other countries.' I said, 'yes, sir.' He said I could go. I did. I literally kissed the ground when I walked out of the airport... I learned to appreciate the stability of the US. I learned that foreign revolutions are never really what the US left claims they are, and I learned that there existed good reasons why the FBI paid attention to people like me and my then-friends and comrades."

    It would be wonderful if those Hollywood celebrities and media lapdogs also had an epiphany about their liberal 'saviors of the poor and downtrodden' but alas the truth is only seen when one's eyes and minds are wide open.

    Publisher's note: Alicia Colon resides in New York City and can be reached at aliciav.colon@gmail.com and at www.aliciacolon.com. Alicia would dearly love to hear from you.