Sigh. You know the drivel; the drill.
Moron goes on TV or pens article going something along the lines of 'It was sad. Yes, he was controversial and brutal but he gave free education and health!'
This defunct line of logic and people who espouse it should be shamed and cajoled mercilessly. Trudeaulogies on Twitter have done a great job mocking it.
Do people realize how insipid they sound when they say that?
The news does its part to push this pathetic and immoral narrative. The other day we were watching CTV news reporter Genevieve Beauchemin cover Castro's death in Cuba. I paused it and told my wife how it was going to go down.
-Show long line ups to Fidel's coffin - check.
-Interview someone in line who loved Fidel - check.
-Show empty streets as if nation is in mourning - check.
Like the people had a choice. 'Long-running President'! Kinda easy when you're the only option, no?
The whole report was a nauseating example of how dishonest the media is. I honestly don't see or understand what they have to gain in painting him in any good light. When they interview a kid's opinion of him of course he or she will talk about him giving them an education -
they're told that.
And you don't ever get a sense of this from the media. They just stupidly take it at face value and feed it to us as if we're going to buy it. Well, progressives will but not anyone with a sharp, skeptical moral mind.
They use all the wrong buzzwords. "Remembering" the man and his "challenging legacy" as they sanitize the death and mayhem he caused to achieve this lout's lousy legacy.
Not unlike when they say 'we don't know the motives' or 'it was senseless' or 'these are lone wolf attacks' whenever there's an Islamic terrorist act.
Of course we know the motives and to ignore it is to overlook the truth. In doing so, we fail to understand their grievances. Hint. Western powers need to scale back its interventionist activities in the Middle-East.
I digress.
This *should* be my last post about Castro as I don't want to give more than is needed for
his tyrannical and narcissistic life. and his
brutal police state.
I would like to focus on three things (excuses) people like to use as a strawman (to say nothing of false equivalences like we saw with Colin Kaepnernick and others like him) to cover up his atrocities.
-Castro gave his people free health care and education.
In the same newscast I mentioned above there was a report about acts of vandalism against small shops in the east end of the city. Apparently, it was connected to a public housing protest. One of the persons interviewed said, 'It's too bad this happened but sometimes we need this to bring awareness to the problem'.
Sound familiar? It should. 'I believe in free speech but..."
Nothing like a 'but' to justify an improper or illegal act. Other than that, I'm surprised she didn't jump in with a Krugmanesque 'Broken windows fallacy' by adding, 'well, at least they'll have to hire people to fix those windows AND we get to raise awareness for our problem!'
Ugh.
Anyway. That he gave free (propagandized) education and (sub-par) public health is not a moral justification for the destruction and crimes he perpetuated against his own people. As if education didn't exist before him and that *he* was the only one capable of bringing education to Cuba. It's absurd and part of the brainwashing.
Do people listen to themselves? Let's play 'how would you like it' for a second. How would you like it if suddenly some left-wing loons led by the fiery Bible-belting populist yelps of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren managed a coup and decided your ill-gotten house (in their eyes) was no longer yours and that it became exclusive property of 'la patrimony'? And what you say, they decided all the capitalist men needed to be shot in order to promote their Jacobin reign of terror?
You wouldn't like it, right? Well, that's what happened in Cuba. No one is saying Battista was an angel or that things were great but it was a helluva lot better but more importantly had a better chance at improving than ending up in the hands of crazy revolutionaries who rape and pillaged the nation's human and capital resources and left it in abject poverty. Free shit is not liberty.
None of you (save for a few true believing commies) who talk romantically of Castro would tolerate any of that.
But look at the crumbs we gave you! Forget your grand father's property and life. THIS is your life now!
Double ugh.
-Cuba was poor because of the U.S. embargo.
Obviously not trading with an economic behemoth 90 miles from you is not a good scenario. However, Cuba was still trading with the EU, Russian/Soviet Union and Canada. Not exactly slouches in their own right.
This reminds me of Iraq and the U.S. embargoes. Iraq was still trading with those same countries. It's just that Hussein was not letting food and medicine get to his people - surprise.
-He faced down U.S. imperialism and hundreds of assassination attempts.
And what did he achieve but misery for his people? He can't even claim a Pyrrhic victory. He also was brazen and enough of a lunatic to ask the Soviets to launch a nuclear attack against the USA. What he think this could achieve is beyond me (and quite frankly don't give a shit what a dirt bag thinks in such matters) but the Soviets were smart enough to place weapons on the island but not give him the codes. I think one of their goals was to have the
American remove their missiles pointed at Russia from Turkey.
In any event, it's ironic that people who complain about America's "imperialist foreign wars" praise Castro. Though many of his victims were Cuban, more were Latin American and Africans who died as a result of the numerous proxy wars he started and funded.
Hey, "their" guy was doing it, right? Sorta like the anti-war left who suddenly disappeared in 2008. Peace came so there was no work left, right? Obama's wars in Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt and drone killings without due process? They're can't hear you with hypocrisy stuffing their ears.
Khrushchev responding to Castro's request:
"In your cable of October 27 you proposed that we be the first to carry out a nuclear strike against the enemy's territory. Naturally you understand where that would lead us. It would not be a simple strike, but the start of a thermonuclear world war.
Dear Comrade Fidel Castro, I find your proposal to be wrong, even though I understand your reasons.
We have lived through a very grave moment, a global thermonuclear war could have broken out. Of course the United States would have suffered enormous losses, but the Soviet Union and the whole socialist bloc would have also suffered greatly. It is even difficult to say how things would have ended for the Cuban people. First of all, Cuba would have burned in the fires of war. Without a doubt the Cuban people would have fought courageously but, also without a doubt, the Cuban people would have perished heroically. We struggle against imperialism, not in order to die, but to draw on all of our potential, to lose as little as possible, and later to win more, so as to be a victor and make communism triumph.
Translation: You stupid, fuck. You certifiable retarded nut case. What part of 'Cuba would have been incinerated' before you could pick up your shovels and pitchforks don't you get, fool? And the Soviet Union is not gonna risk its own mad march for Cuba.
These are the 'Big three go-to' lines apologists for Castro, Fidel: The 20th century's B-list tyrant extraordinaire.
Even if you were to concede those points, it does not absolve him of the depraved actions he took against the Cuban people.
There is no 'grey area' or nuance. It's a fool's play to think this. Thinking otherwise points directly to a broken moral and intellectual compass as it specifically dishonours and makes light of his victims.
Leave all these pathetic narratives to left-wingers, simpletons and basic cable news media.
Leave the real thoughtful writing to people who actually know.
******
Recap:
People need to adjust their moral and intellectual compasses if they find any reason to support Castro on any level. It's very simple. There is no 'grey area' or nuance. That he provided a (sub-par) health system (one in which no North American would accept in their own country) and propagandized education is NOT an example of him caring for his people. He cared about his own power as a means to control Cuba. Hello, Cui Bono 101, people. Here we have the story of a tyrant who raped and pillaged a nation's human and capital resources while torturing, imprisoning, killing and leaving them impoverished. Next time, for that one second, you look to find a positive in the 20th century's top B-level tyrant, think of his VICTIMS.
******
For the heck of it, because the same people drooling all over Castro's evil soul tend to wear another evil puke's t-shirt, here are some Che quotes:
"Here is the electrifying example of a people prepared to suffer nuclear immolation so that its ashes may serve as a foundation for new societies. When an agreement was reached by which the atomic missiles were removed, without asking our people, we were not relieved or thankful…"
"
The black is indolent and a dreamer; spending his meager wage on frivolity or drink" or "We're going to do for blacks exactly what blacks did for the revolution. By which I mean: nothing."
Leftists: Profoundly evil and anti-human so easily given to charm and empty violent rhetoric under the guise of the 'greater good'. Tsk, tsk.
******
"Fidel Castro is dead. My heart aches. It really does. Today, on my day off, I set to get to routine chores I’ve neglected the last year or so, but the sky is grey and grim; like my soul. I couldn’t stop thinking about this towering, charismatic individual who fought on all our behalf. Yes, all of us. Sometimes it takes a great man to put the weight of human misery on his (and one day her! I hope and pray that in my lifetime I will see a woman as strong, brave and endearing as Fidel. One who could chomp on a cigar as crustily as any man! This is the dream; the hope Fidel left us) shoulders to lift us up and shout, ’See?! SEE these people! You can’t ignore them as they are hoisted upon my shoulders! I will keep them there until you all face your own filthy hypocrisy and greed!
This is Fidel. Fidel is hope. Fidel is love. Fidel is loyalty. Fidel is joy. Fidel is class. Fidel is liberty. This is the the lesson he has left us.
He has given more to freedom than any leader ever could. By way, of literacy and health care he left people a gem of what true freedom looks like. He made sure it was not a privilege but a right. And he could only do so as a strong dictator. There was no need for ‘democracy’ because democracy lets in too many wolves to exploit the people. The system of government IS Fidel. He could take a decision on a dime if necessary. There is no need for Cuba to sign treaties on climate change. All it needed was Fidel.
Fidel was a pit bull. A ferocious jaguar. A raging rhino in the face of imperialism. Here was this one man. This incredibly special man standing as if 10ft tall facing down the mightiest and most corrupt of all nations the United States of America. His pointing weapons at that satanic country was the single greatest act of defiance of the 20th century. In that one act, he summoned all the oppressed to nestle in his soul.
I’m shaking as I write this I kid you not. This is how important he was for humans of all creeds and races!
And what of the dead and imprisoned? Do you not see it sometimes takes blood and tears to achieve a caring society? Those people did not want to partake in the experiment and could not be trusted or called upon to bring forth a new Cuba wallowing in the utter death and despair brought on by Batista. Sometimes you need to crack heads to reach your goals and objectives. But Cuba wasn’t a revolution for an island; it was a global civil war. I wish people could just see the big picture.
He did not live long enough to see his revolution through. There’s much work left to be done. Literacy can still achieve more. Achieving a perfect healthy society within its grasp. It will be up to his successors to continue the dream. The path he charted for Cuba. It won’t be easy.
The charm and beauty of Cuba is in its rustic nature; its architecture and ever endearing classic cars! You have not lived to witness the genius of a Cuban playing his trumpet on the hood of an old car as the sun sets behind him! Oh, what I’d give to see it one more time! The sense of humanity I felt that day could never be replicated. And it is because of Fidel. What is decadence to uninformed Western capitalists, is vitality and innovation to us! We fight to keep at bay the dark and static forces of Western capitalism. We must keep our soul pristine.
Don’t make Fidel’s work go in vain! I will heal. And when I do repair my aches and pains, I will think back on the promise of Cuba and Fidel’s dignified existence.
Te amo, Fidel!"
