this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2026
436 points (98.2% liked)
Political Memes
10299 readers
1516 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
No AI generated content.
Content posted must not be created by AI with the intent to mimic the style of existing images
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Honestly, the Nobel Foundation has done themselves and the Nobel Prize terrible damage. I, for one, am no longer interested in this sham of an award, or any of the other Nobel prizes. They should be ashamed that were stupid enough or corrupt enough to have given it to Machado in the first place, she was clearly no agent for peace. This just adds to that shame.
Look at it from her side. She can "give" this narcissistic her award (which she actually can't) and the guy who holds the strings will be pleased and she gets her country back, peacefully.
That's a great deal for her and Venezuela overall. She is playing him. It's tactful and tactical. And he's a pathetic toddler who only responds to praise and participation awards - what a sad sad sad person to have as leader. I hope MAGA sees how pathetic this is but I know they won't.
its a little naive if anything, hes not going to give anything back. he just takes more if anything. hes a void.
Her success in her mission was always a long shot. Flattery can work on him so it makes sense for her to try
She already succeeded in her mission.
She's not "trying to get her country back." For one, it doesn't belong to her but to all Venezuelans, the majority of which do not like her. In addition, she has spoken publicly at economic conferences about her plans to sell the rights to Venezuela's oil and other natural resources to US oil companies. She's playing a game here, but it's at the expense of Venezuelans, not for their benefit.
When the US kidnaps your president and installs a puppet, it’s hardly “getting your country back” when the puppet plays along.
She's not the puppet he installed. She's trying to bribe him to put her in that position but for now it's Maduro's VP Delcy Rodriguez
No, but she sure as hell has wanted to for a very long time.
She already bribed him by promising access to the oil for political gain.
Which is the stupid part, because the peace prize was her only leverage. It's pretty clear she's purely trying to play the book of appeasing him to get him help her, but failed to actually secure that part in some under the table quid pro quo.
Now Trump gets to pick and choose between two people that are willing to sell out their country to appease him, except one is actually in control of said country while the other handed him a peace prize (her only leverage) and hoped for him to 'do the right thing'.
Its too late for that.
Is Trump in a position to "give" Venezuela to Machado? As far as I can determine the same government that was running it before Maduro's abduction is running it currently.
She's not playing him. He is playing her. She's the one begging in this situation, not him.
He not a toddler, he's about to extort an entire country for oil, and very likely go to war with them. Machado isn't playing him, shes encouraging him in the hope that she gets a seat at the table.
And very likely to face another Vietnam. Deservedly, 10x-over.
He's doing things based on his memories. 80s were his happy time. He went in for oil but even the oil companies want little to do with that - we're past peak oil and it'll cost a fortune to get the oil fields producing an amount that's profitable and that will also have a big affect on demand cost (i.e. cost will go down so there's no point in extraction)
Former oil worker and from a family of oil workers. Been through enough cycles to know what to expect.
Trump is a toddler who doesn't understand simple business ideas anymore, if he ever did. Machado is playing him because she knows he only listens to praise from the last person he talked to. He's very simple and old.
Plus, more oil on the markets will just push the price down further without increasing sales. Trump is not going to wave a magic wand and make people around the world start burning more oil when everyone else is switching to renewables as fast as they can.
Yeah I don't think being forced to give away your natural resources is a great deal.
Sure this is great "move" if you have no morals or ethics... the notion the Orange Pedo will hand over a country and forget about is laughable... she just wants to be next in the trough and will obey the fellon president as long as she can suck the tit, Venezuelans be damned
truely the greatest snowflake
The Foundation couldn't stop her from doing this, and as far as they're concerned, it's still hers. Physical possession is symbolic, and she knew it would get him to calm down. Cynical? Yes. But it if works...
My issue is that Machado should never have got the award in the first place, Trump now possessing it adds insult to injury. The Foundation should be ashamed of what they did.
The Peace prize foundation has nothing to do with the scientific prizes.
And it has always been a joke, they even gave the peace prize to Kissinger.
And Obama.
Misses here and there does not mean the whole is a "joke". Most of the people who received deserved it.
I don’t know if having a title such as this constitutes the need for affirmation. Like you need to show people you have an award for something that one should have been done already. (You don’t tell ppl your going to therapy but rather you do the positive outcomes/actions for your community/oneself)
Obama too
Look at who awards the prices. Copied from Wikipedia:
Notably all prices except the peace price are awarded by Swedish institutions.
And, speaking as a Norwegian, the committee members are selected by politicians, some notably being right-wing parties
Currently there's a big discussion about reforming it due to these reasons, and have the committee more rooted in subject experts. There's a fair amount of criticism, especially by our red party
They gave it to Machado for her activism against Maduro. They can't predict the future.
I mean no offense, but do you really not see what's behind her receiving it in the first place?
Yes, her activism against Maduro. That's what's behind it, What conspiracy do you have in mind?
I don't think you can call the USA's efforts to undermine South America's governments a conspiracy at this point. It's well documented that over the years the CIA have done everything they can to control the region. In this episode of the ongoing South American telenovela, DT wanted the Nobel peace prize. There was no reason to give it to him so instead someone smarter used the US leverage over the committee to create a narrative where the US backed opposition would get some legitimacy and global recognition so that the upcoming coup wouldn't taste so bad.
What an insult to Venezuelans. That opposition was homegrown and domestic and a response to Maduro's refusal to yield power. She was a leader in that opposition and was awarded the prize months before she outed herself as someone supporting a violent coup.
What leverage is that exactly? Do you not realize how fucking embarrassing you sound right now? This doesn't exist.
The US' past in South America is not a license for you to just make up bullshit. We have:
1.) the likely, sensible theory where the Committee saw Machado as a pro-democracy activist against a dictator.
or....
2.) Trump wanted a Nobel prize, forced the Committee to give the award to Machado. And somehow, Machado made him do this to take advantage of him. And she convinced Trump to pull off a coup 4 months later.
Yeah, I don't like her either, but's not an excuse to fucking lie like this.
I'm sure there's a lot of different "factions" opposing Maduro, surely many of them on the actual left, but somehow she comes out on top.
The US's past and present in South America is quite telling imho. The current administration have made their intentions clear - as opposed to previous administrations who were more diplomatic and secretive, but the goal is ultimately the same.
As for your 2, with all due respect that's not what I was suggesting. Machado is just a pawn, I'm not saying she manifested this. Now if you think that's bs, that's cool, whatever. To me it's pretty obvious.
Seems like you're telling on yourself: doing whatever they must to peacefully try to get their country back is a very peace prizey thing to do.