Not all Cubans are poor and disaffected!

[JR Kipling]

IMO most ‘isms’ are a con - a cover for getting the population to willingly give up power and their loot. The smartest con men know this and can live large for a long time. The dumb con men actually believe their own bullsh*t. They and their naive true believers can cause all sorts of trouble and often go down in flames due to their stupidity.

Fidel grabbed a personal fortune easily worth over a billion US dollars and held power till he died of old age in bed. He passed on control of that wealth to his family, - despite baloney about the ‘socialist paradise’. - - Che was a psychopath murderer and True Believer. He got his azz killed at an early age in Africa, trying to spread ‘the Revolution’. No money, hot women, fine houses, living large, and passing on his genes & wealth to a bunch of his kids for Che. Early dirt nap for him. - His image later became very useful as one advertising tool to keep the ‘ism’ con game going, however.

Between Fidel and Che it’s obvious who was very smart and who was very stupid. If Che hadn’t gotten himself killed in Africa and hung around Cuba, Fidel probably would have eventually had to have  gotten rid of him. Dumb true believers are a pain in the azz & cause all sorts of problems.

[Fugu]

51 minutes ago, JR Kipling said:

He got his azz killed at an early age in Africa, trying to spread ‘the Revolution'

51 minutes ago, JR Kipling said:

If Che hadn’t gotten himself killed in Africa

Did I miss something here?

[JR Kipling]

Oops - Che was killed in Bolivia ! Earlier he went to the Congo

I really need to drink that first cup of coffee in the morning before typing ‘history stuff’ from memory !

 

 

[JR Kipling]

BTW - as others pointed out, the ‘isms’ found currently in most of the West don’t follow the text book descriptions either. There are con men of all kinds of varieties fooling their own populations IMO. That kinda thing has been going on for a very long time. - - Humanity hasn’t wised up yet, unfortunately.

[cfc1016]

On 1/11/2019 at 2:31 PM, El Presidente said:

Or Saudi Oil....or Chinese cheap goods

just my 2c

 

On 1/11/2019 at 9:56 AM, 99call said:

Lordy............everyone so hung up about communism and the Castros.    All over the world there are evil tyrants at the top of society, in Capitalist and Communist countries alike.     People being aghast, that Tony Castro's life is tainted with all sorts of contradiction blah blah.    If you're genuinely surprised or upset by this.....you should be genuinely surprised and upset about whats going on, all over the world..........but we're not are we!!........our own brand of messed up is just fine. 

Yup. That's a fundamental part of living in a globalized economy. Countries 1-50 are quite likely to have very different views on human rights and ethics as countries 51-100 - and there will be comparable disparity of viewpoint between any given pair of countries. They all share raw materials, industrial equipment, durable goods, consumer goods, etc, through a complex web of interconnection.

Unless you live in the wilderness and consume ZERO goods from the outside world, you are part of a globalized economy that depends on slavery. We all are. I'm not justifying it. I'm not pointing fingers. I'm just stating simple truth. There's a strong chance that atleast a few of the internal components in your computers were manufactured by slave laborers. Cobalt, which is present in most electronic devices, is primarily mined by slave labor. I could go on. We all

EVERY. SINGLE. ONE OF US passively benefits every single day from the oppression of other people. It's messed up. It's morally reprehensible. It's downright depressing. Can I change it by choosing who I think are 'good guys' and 'bad guys'? Absolutely not.

I have strong moral stances on a lot of issues, but I'm not an activist. I accept that some things are just way bigger than me. Some things seem to just be inescapable functions of human nature. The only thing I believe I CAN do is deliberately engage in one-on-one interactions with people in a manner that is guided by my personal principles. I accept that as the power I have, and I use it. I do not 'tilt at windmills' and try to topple regimes.

Maybe a little more than my $0.02, but that's my piece, and I'll shut up now.

[99call]

6 minutes ago, cfc1016 said:

my personal principles

Check out the work of Adam Curtis, I think you'll like it.