Twitter was on fire last night about Venezuelan "dictator" Nicolas Maduro. He's a monster who's using violence against student protesters, censoring the press, and he needs to be gone. Everyone says so.

Would it help your perspective if I reminded you Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, that Hugo Chavez nationalized the oil industry even more industries and that powerful interests have never stopped trying to take them back?

There's an alternate version, one in which the usual suspects (World Bank, IMF) manipulate the currency, drive hyperinflation, cause food shortages and subsequent unrest. Add the former ruling class, once made wealthy by oil industry corruption, whose now-grown children still harbor resentment and anger over what their families lost (much like the members of the Cuban ruling class who fled after Castro) and are leading the opposition.

In this other reality, the democratically-elected current president is also attacked as illegitimate by Western interests. How dare he win what belongs to them by birthright? The U.S. is funneling millions into undermining the Venezuelan socialist government, as we first learned via Wikileaks.

What are those damn commies doing, sitting on our oil?

Remember, when the western media tells you something is so, it's inevitably misleading. Our corporate oligarchs are always looking for an excuse to rev up the war machine and "assist" in the more "efficient" use of a country's coveted resources. (e.g. Ukraine's vast iron and mineral deposits.)

Is it about hegemony? Duh. If the last 15 years haven't taught you to doubt the official version, you haven't learned a thing.