Conservative pundit praises late Chilean dictator who threw political dissidents from helicopters

[Judi Lynn]

Conservative pundit praises late Chilean dictator who threw political dissidents from helicopters
Erick Erickson is fine with murderous far-right dictators, so long as they implement economic reforms
LUKE BARNES
NOV 27, 2018, 2:50 PM



CONSERVATIVE PUNDIT ERICK ERICKSON PRAISED LATE CHILEAN DICTATOR AUGUSTO PINOCHET IN A SERIES OF TWEETS THIS WEEK. PINOCHET WAS A BRUTAL LEADER KNOWN FOR THROWING POLITICAL DISSIDENTS FROM HELICOPTERS, SOMETHING ERICKSON LAUDED. (PHOTO CREDIT: SCREENGRAB)

In the immediate aftermath of Trump’s 2016 electoral victory, Erick Erickson was the type of conservative pundit many despairing liberals wanted to see.

Erickson, a popular conservative radio host and commentator, had been a fierce critic of Trump, disinviting him from a 2015 conservative conference for “inappropriate” comments on Megyn Kelly. He also wrote a November 2016 op-ed for The New York Times in which he talked about the need for conservatives to “reach across the aisle and go outside Washington” and was profiled by The New Yorker.

But if any doubts remain about whether #NeverTrump Erickson has continued to advocate for his more “acceptable” conservatism as opposed to, well, advocating full-blown fascism, they were dispelled by a series of tweets Erickson posted Monday night, in which he lauded late Chilean dictator Augosto Pinochet and called for a return of dissidents being thrown out of helicopters.

Augosto Pinochet was a murderous dictator who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, after taking power in a CIA-backed military coup from the democratically elected socialist Salvador Allende. Anyone who opposed Pinochet was either murdered, tortured, exiled or — in at least 120 cases — thrown out of helicopters into the sea. Pinochet’s intelligence services also assassinated Orlando Leteiler, a former Chilean diplomat, and two other bystanders with a car bomb in 1976 in Washington, D.C.

More:
https://thinkprogress.org/conservative-erick-erickson-praises-pinochet-helicopters-552b2f3b6597/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Why is Amazon selling shirts praising a murderous dictator?

If Augusto Pinochet isn't your jam, Amazon also sells material supporting Mussolini, Franco, and Gaddafi.
CASEY MICHEL
NOV 27, 2018, 1:37 PM

Earlier this year, as violent scuffles broke out in Portland between the proto-fascist Patriot Prayer group and counter-protesters, journalists spotted something new. Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, the burly sidekick of Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson, was wearing a T-shirt with a message that had nothing to do with Donald Trump, Portland, or even his Patriot Prayer group.

Rather, the front of the shirt blared, “Pinochet did nothing wrong!”

The message, for those unaware, references former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet rose to power in 1973 on the back of a right-wing coup that effectively imploded Chilean democracy for the better part of two decades, overseeing one of the most repressive, blood-soaked regimes in Latin America over the past half-century.

Thanks to Pinochet’s repression, thousands of Chileans — activists, scholars, workers, and opposition politicians — were killed or remain missing. Tens of thousands who opposed Pinochet’s dictatorship were tortured, with methods ranging from electrocution to sexual abuse. Hundreds of thousands of Chileans fled or were forced into exile.

More:
https://thinkprogress.org/amazon-shirts-pinochet-far-right-aed4d58ccb0a/