Dictator of the month club

Did you know that a certain section of the American right wing openly expresses admiration for Pinochet? Not just 'oh, well, at least he wasn't as bad as Hitler', but actual admiration?

Really, truly, disturbing.

In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, Bret Stevens attributes the low rate of death after the Chilean quake to Augusto Pinochet and Milton Friedman

Ah, yes. Low rate of death and Pinochet. Perhaps a principle of conservation of murder is in play, to make up for all of those people he killed during his rule?

I mean, what's next? Low death toll in German snow storms attributed to the sterling work done by Adolf Hitler, Albert Speer, and thirty million slave labourers?

Incidentally, the Chilean building codes, which required buildings to be earthquake-averse, predate Pinochet. And here's Paul Krugman on just how exactly Pinochet and Friedman caused a boom, a mere fifteen years after starting fucking with the economy.

And that's not all! An admittedly smaller portion of the US right wing actually expressed some guarded enthusiasm for Franco. As in the Fascist dictator of Spain.