One of the funniest things that happened after Nicolás Maduro was captured was the left trying to square their outrage and supreme moral position against, not Republicans, not Conservatives, but Venezuelans.
Sure as death and taxes, leftists took to the streets to protest President Donald Trump nabbing Maduro and bringing him here to the states to stand trial. With professionally printed signs and pre-loaded statements that didn't reek of astroturfing at all, the indignant leftists stood proudly with the Venezuelan people who had their beloved leader kidnapped in the middle of the night by the real dictator of the world, Donald J. Orangeman.
But when confronted with footage of Venezuelans being happy and celebrating the removal of Maduro, you could practically hear the gears in their heads grinding as they attempted to maintain their worldview.
READ: Watch: Venezuelan Ex-Pats in South Florida Erupt Over Maduro's Dramatic Ouster
Watch: A Tale of Two Protests, San Francisco and Florida
This is, possibly, the funniest one I've seen. Man-on-the-street interviewer Nate Friedman showed a young man the Venezuelans celebrating Maduro's disappearance and, upon being confronted with reality, could only fall back on his pre-loaded phrases.
I showed a "no war with venzuela" protestor how venezuelans are celebrating in the streets.
— Nate Friedman (@NateFriedman97) January 3, 2026
brain.exe stopped working. pic.twitter.com/V5mfurkVnt
But even funnier is the fact that this has the leftist intelligentsia on their soapboxes as well. In their minds, they seem to believe that they have a smoking gun and that everything they've been saying about Trump's dictatorial nature was true.
Of course, the people of Venezuela don't see it like that at all. As it stands, they think what Trump did was fantastic. Hilariously, they aren't the only ones.
This video that I'm about to show you is one that, if you were to let a leftist listen to it, might make them bleed out of their nose in rage. A BBC journalist named Lewis Goodall was on one after the seizure of Maduro by the Trump administration. He was all but spiking footballs over the fact that they had proof of Trump's evil nature when a man from Africa called in named "Sam."
Sam told Goodall that he saw what Trump did for Venezuela, and he wants him to do the same for Africa by removing its corrupt leaders. Goodall attempted to combat this sentiment by blaming European colonialism for Africa's plight in the first place, to which Sam stated that "it's the opposite" and asked that if Africa had never been colonized, "where would it be?" He said it would likely not have advanced as much as it did.
Goodall then tried to bring up Japan as an example of a country that'd never been colonized by Western powers and succeeded; however, it should be pointed out that Japan was effectively run by the United States between 1945 and 1952. Sam's point was simpler. "They're not Africa."
You could tell Lewis had his back against the wall from the audio. A black man from Africa was telling him what would be better for Africa, and Lewis was trying very hard to tell him what was actually better for him and his continent without actually saying so. How does a "colonizer" tell an African what's better for Africa? In leftist circles, that's grounds for cancelation.
Sam noted that since the U.S. left Liberia and the U.K. left Africa, it's been pure chaos. Goodall, by the end, could do nothing but call it "a take," and sounded very defeated when he did.
Tricky one for Lewis Goodhall this morning as caller Sam, a native African, says he wishes Trump would sort out corrupt African leaders too in light of events in Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/qDmQtk1jRr
— Connie Shaw (@_ConnieShaw) January 4, 2026
This seems to be a common thread among many Africans, especially older ones, who can point back to the improvements brought to their countries and towns by the "colonizers," then they watched as these very improvements fell into disrepair and their country's leadership fell into corruption.
“Japan wasn’t colonised and they’re doing alright” hmm yes, can’t recall any imperialist shenanigans involving the Japanese.
— Brian 🎄 (@BMM1882) January 4, 2026
You consistently hear (particularly) Africans talk about colonisation benefits whilst the white western self-appointed anti-colonialists are outraged. pic.twitter.com/WkEcduTlxS
But the left can't stand the idea that Western civilization might actually be a good thing. They can't stomach the idea that capitalism and Judeo-Christian ethics actually create a much better world. However, they also can't tell a person of color that they're wrong, especially if the person debating them is white. The only thing they can do is do exactly what Goodall and the young leftist in the first video did; fall back on talking points that no longer work and hope people accompany them in the delusion.
But it is a delusion that they have, and I'm not sure they can fully grasp the idea that maybe, just maybe, they've deluded themselves into seeing the world through a lens of fantasy where Westernism cannot be good in any capacity and that it's so bad that even the worst dictator and all of his cruelty is better than Western stability.
And that's pretty crazy.
