enezuelans suffering through the worst crisis in the nation’s history have responded with outrage to actor Jim Carrey’s call to the world to “say yes to socialism.” In a column published Wednesday, columnist Laureano Márquez argued that Carrey misunderstands the “repression” conducted in the name of socialism in places like the Latin American country.

Márquez, writing for the Venezuelan outlet Runrunes, gives Carrey the benefit of the doubt as an actor with no known education in political science. “Sometimes it seems that Hollywood stars’ inability to understand politics is directly proportional to their on-screen talent,” he writes. “Reagan was always a very untalented actor, thank God.”

Márquez argues that Carrey is using a definition of socialism that is naive and out of touch with the realities experienced in places like Venezuela, suggesting he believes socialism “is a word that sounds pretty … the antithesis of selfishness, synonym of concern for others, equal distribution of riches, support for the weakest and their needs, health and education for everyone, etc.”

He goes on to note that dictators like Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro use the word “socialism” to “hide deep threats … against what is considered socialism, hiding a purely intolerant and hardcore authoritiarianism, if not an outright dictatorship.” He cites the fact that Maduro’s family and cronies control the limited wealth left in the country, leaving most of the rest of the citizenry eating out of the garbage.

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Somehow I doubt he will be putting that into a painting.