US American Libertarians have this weird obsession with Chile. They think it's some ultimate proof that capitalism works and is better than socialism. I had an economics professor who brought up Chile in the first 10 minutes of the first class of his introductory macroeconomics course and wouldn't shut the fuck up about it for the next four years.

I think that's part of the reason I find myself really interested in Chile and love learning more about it from my Chilean comrades here. Because it's like, I was taught that Chile was capitalism's Greatest Champion. The acme of capitalism's success. So to learn that (and this is an oversimplification) Pinochet simply juiced GDP by allowing foreign investors to plunder the country, which got Chilean at the top rich but brought misery to the working class, was part of what really rid me of the last capitalist brainworms I had.