Who's Worse?

[Sol]

Well?

[Arturo Belano]

This ought to be a fun thread.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

On the whole, Mugabe.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Ian Smith was a racist, but black people still liked him at least as much as they like Mugabe.

That's just not true.

[politicus]

This ought to be a fun thread.

We have had something similar before and it is a REALLY bad idea for a thread.

[Vosem]

I don't think saying Smith is worse than Mugabe is really a defensible position. Mugabe's government killed far more civilians than Smith's ever did in the Gukurahundi; Mugabe's government backed the communist side in the Mozambican Civil War; Mugabe's government seized private property and held power through violence; while Smith (reluctantly, but still) negotiated a handover of power to Bishop Muzorewa and, after he left power, became a noted FF, active trying to democratically resist Mugabe's government and reforming his party so it was open for blacks.

I don't know what exactly Polls_PuffPass is trying to say, but it's true that, by the late 1990s, Smith had many admirers among the black community in Zimbabwe; the economy was doing worse and the average Zimbabwean, of either race, was worse off. Saying he was more or less admired than Mugabe is tough, since it's a 3rd World country and it's not like we have polling data.

I look forward to speaking to anyone trying to contradict me.