Putin and Pope (reality TV show title?) are deeply saddened over Fidel's room temperature. Not so much over 60 years of his crimes against humanity.Originally Posted by Palmguy
Putin and Pope (reality TV show title?) are deeply saddened over Fidel's room temperature. Not so much over 60 years of his crimes against humanity.
Jill Stein pays tribute to Fidel too.
Castro killed a sizeable chunk of my family, put a bunch more (like my dad) prisons, kept the rest in poverty unless they managed to escape the country, and more that I could describe. I remember Thanksgiving dinners, just hours of people at the table, talking about torture and worse. So you can imagine how I feel about him. When neighborhood kids played games, the bad guy or bogey man was always Fidel. ... I have no words.
But it's disingenuous to say that only "progressives" have murder in their hearts. The quote above can apply just as easily to the right as the left. Whenever any person thinks they know what's best for someone else, and believes it enough to give it the force of law, you'll find the same murderous tyranny that we usually only like to reserve for the other side. Castro and Mao and Stalin murdered millions on waves of leftist sentiment, but let's not forget Pinochet and Franco and Hitler who rode waves of rightist indignation to similar murderous ends.
The answer, it seems to me, is wrath. The mind cannot foresee its own advance. --FA Hayek Specialization is for insects.
It's fairly interesting, and a bit concerning how close even the most civilized societies are to going full jack-boot... especially those who proclaim their tolerance and fairness towards all.
In the same vein as MDS's thoughts:
One of my neighbors is of Cuban heritage. I took a bottle of very nice rum over to his house last night, as a gift. We raised a glass, and Ricky said something very thoughtful:
"To all those we lost, and to better days ahead. God curse you, Fidel."
I can't say I'm surprised at how few public figures, other than Cruz and Rubio, are addressing the reality of Castro. Did anyone really expect otherwise?
In related news, The Black Book of Communism is still not available for Kindle, but is still available in dead tree edition.
EDIT to add: I'm not sure the link above will do the PF.Com thing, so here's the page that showed up when I typed "blacck book of communism" into the PF.com Amazon Search Box: Amazon.com: black book of communism
Last edited by Drang; 11-27-2016 at 02:58 PM.
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“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.”
Glenn Reynolds
Wait. His last name's not Ricardo, is it?Very nice gesture on your part, thank you, and a great toast from your friend.
The answer, it seems to me, is wrath. The mind cannot foresee its own advance. --FA Hayek Specialization is for insects.
Quibble- I have had a problem with calling Statist like Hitler, Franco, et al "rightist", especially since they tend to run their states in ways fairly indistinguishable from the officially franchised Communist. If you take away the L/R labels, is there really much difference in the way Castro or Pinochet ran things? Between Franco or Chavez?
Labeling folks like Hitler as "rightist" was one of the Communist's greatest feats of propaganda.
Joe, that's a fantastic insight. I don't bring it up often because it seems to confuse people more than if I stick to traditional left/right labels. The difference is in propaganda, in the language used to stir up popular support. This makes a difference before power is secured, but afterwards, as you point out, the machinery and effects are indistinguishable, though the propaganda continues with its flavor. The danger is with concentration of power, and with intolerance of lifestyle or behavior or race or creed or financial status or etc.
I recently had a very interesting conversation about a book called The Three Languages of Politics. Briefly,
Forces of Good vs Forces of Evil - a spectrum from three viewpoints:
Left: Forces of Oppression vs Forces of Oppressed
- Good policy protects the weak
Right: Forces of Civilization vs Forces of Barbarism
- Good policy strengthens norms and institutions
Libertarians: Forces of Liberty vs Forces of Coercion
- Good policy enables individual choices
Different political viewpoints don't disagree so much as they are talking past each other, this isn't news. But for some reason this explanation brings it home in a new and useful way. I'm pretty well in the libertarian camp, so as a friend said, I can now explain my tribal membership more easily to people in the wrong tribes.
But in all seriousness, the rhetoric from these three sides seems to line up along these axes, and that rhetoric can get a lot of people very worked up! The signals of jack-bootedness that 45dotACP mentioned are ... disturbing. I remain hopeful that these signals are superficial. But every time I say that to myself, I order a little more whiskey, ammo, and TP... We all have our talismans, right?
The answer, it seems to me, is wrath. The mind cannot foresee its own advance. --FA Hayek Specialization is for insects.
Agreed on the propaganda !
Hitler brought the National Socialist Party to power.
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