This isn’t about his crimes or how great of a guy you think Che was. This is about the morons who throw on a Che shirt or hat or something and don’t think twice about the fact that he’s probably rolling over in his grave because dumb ass suburban white kids think that their new hot topic purchase makes them look cool and rebellious.
“We don’t need proof to execute a man. We only need proof that it’s necessary to execute him. A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate.” -Che Guevara
Che shot a 12 year old in the neck nearly decapitating him you see Che like to force his victims families watch there executions this boy was killed for trying stop his fathers execution he was beaten jailed over night and then asked to kneel to be shot personally by Che. The boy refused and said you jailed me with men I will die like a man Che complimented the boy for being so brave circled around behind him and shot him in the neck. Your a disgusting individual I don’t believe you think Che was innocent I think you are a non functioning adult who can’t hold a job and you cant wait to get even with those rich kids who picked on you. You are hoping that one day socialism will take hold and you will be the first one bashing in the heads of people who don’t agree with you.
First off John lee anderson got his information from castro’s propaganda ministry.The UNBIASED JOHN LEE Anderson had his whole family singing the Cuban Revolutionary song.OH READ-Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him by humberto fontova.Unless you dont want to read things that are truthfull? EHH jose?…..lol…hear both sides?HIS BOOK IS BULLET PROOF btw.
This myth of the ignorant rich kid (who doesn’t know who he is) in the Che shirt – is mostly myth created to deligitimize those who truly look into the life of the heroic Che and honor him by wearing a shirt with his image on it.
It seems most popular criticism of the t-shirts comes from people who know little or nothing about Che and is directed at people they in turn think know little or nothing about him but wear his image. Their cynicism and criticism is best understood in the light of what they see as an affront to mindless conservative commercialism as right-wing consumerists fail to understand the usefulness of wearing one’s beliefs “on one’s sleeve”, so to speak. Fashion is a dictum to those people.
Furthermore, telling someone they can’t buy a T-shirt bearing the image of someone who criticizes capitalism is awfully convenient for capitalists. They don’t want capitalism questioned.
“The powerful of the earth should take heed: deep inside that T shirt where we have tried to trap him, the eyes of Che Guevara are still burning with impatience.” — Ariel Dorfman, Time Magazine
The “heroic Che”? Why admire someone who helped a country revolt from tyranny into tyranny? It was a non-revolution. All his image stands for now is how badly things can go when there’s no strategy for what to do if you actually succeed in overthrowing a government. His eyes burn with impatience because he must have known he sentenced an entire country to enslavement, and that he’s now used as propaganda and called a hero by those in power there to maintain their control.
His image in a t-shirt worn by a naive, impressionable American teenager says about the same thing as wearing an Obama t-shirt: “I’m ruled by my unknowable emotions and everyone else seems to like this guy, so I do too!”
Lastly, I love how you think you can “honor” the “heroic Che” by wearing a t-shirt with his image, which you probably bought from a capitalist institution. He seriously would hate you.
Not at all. Download the Che image, make your own t-shirt, print the image. There you go. You just made your own Che t-shirt and not promoted capitalism.
Alright, but only if you didn’t download the Che image from a computer built by a capitalist corporation (or using components built by capitalist corporations), and if you don’t access the internet through a corporate ISP, and the electricity powering your computer didn’t come from capitalist corporations. And if your printer wasn’t manufactured by a capitalist corporation, and you don’t use ink from a capitalist corporation. And you can’t just buy a blank t-shirt from a capitalist corporation, you have to actually make your own, without using fabric made or imported by a capitalist corporation. Other than that, yeah, you’re totally right.
Ha Ha ha!! That was good!! Or you can buy chinese tea bags and dot the image on recyled 2nd hand soviet soldier tshirts little by little untill it resembles him.
Or a little less….then you’ll just kick yourself for having read Fanon and beating yourself up because you could never get that time back in your life. Stupid Marxists.
I find it ironic that Che’s face is all over this crap when he was so opposed to capitalism. Like your poster he would have hated the fact that his face was used to further a capitalist agenda.
by the way im not saying you bought it just trying to be cool or something just stating my opinion
- American Oligarchy (United Fruit, Texaco, U.S. Sugar)
- The US based Mafia (1959 Havana)
- The Monroe Doctrine rationale for Latin American Imperialism (Bay of Pigs)
- The idea of Banana Republics (Arbenz 1953 coup)
It just kills ditto-head Conservatives that such a heroic man will not go away. That is because these troglodytes cant fathom that he lives in the hearts of the hungry and the oppressed and that ideas never die.
The man killed too many innocents for even one of these to be true. He was a hate filled psychopath who always had to have his way. A bullet was too nice of a way for him to die. Thus be it ever to his kind.
Che Guevara started out his adult life as a doctor that worked to find treatments for leprosy. He and one of his good friends went on a long trip throughout south america that changed the way he saw the world. He saw how poor and destitute so many of these Latin American countries were regardless of the fact that U.S. companies rolled through indigenous and latino-owned land claiming it as theirs because they found oil or lumber in the name of capitalism. And these communities continued to be poor making little or nothing off the land that was formerly and rightfully theirs. If I had been in his position, I hope I would have had it in me to make the changes in himself and others that he did. He didn’t kill innocents. He saved lives. Why don’t you go watch grey’s anatomy and praise those fakes while continuing to despise such a virtuous and noble man?
“We don’t need proof to execute a man. We only need proof that it’s necessary to execute him. A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate.” -Che Guevara
Are you from the Island? I am and so is my family!! Anyone who voiced any contrary opinion was detained, disapeared, or killed.
Che only delivered the island to deeper poverty , Godless goverment, and misery. Today tourist still eat lobster in 5 star hotels while the public lives in decaying homes in a paradise lost.
I’ve heard of this other guy, he started off as an artist, He joined the army and fought valiantly for his country, He was a first world war veteran and was almost killed in the trenches. After the war he decided to make a stand against the communist regimes which began to rise up Europe, he and his party were voted into power and lead a huge force against the oppressive regimes of communism. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him…his name is Adolf Hitler. You don’t see people wearing t-shirts with his face on them do you now? Che was a bad guy. He was a disgusting racist, a Communist and a murderer! He played a huge part in bringing Russian nuclear warheads to Cuba and almost instigating a nuclear war against the US. And you say he is a good guy?
um first of all.. communism isn’t that bad..right now cuba has one of the highest literacy rates in the americas..they have the best heart surgeons in the world..and all this? because of el Che and fidel. and murderer? really? you know how many people the US has murdered just because some country decides that it wants some money from the banana it produces for their own benefit? and btw…in war you don’t shoot people with water guns…you have to kill them. so if you’re saying che was a murderer because he killed people during war..then you might as well say that the US soldiers are murderer. for killing people in iraq and all the other wars they have fought in.
Since Che Guevara and because of him the island and its people have suffered the same as when under Bautista and worse. The government claims it takes no political prisoners. The numbers provided by human rights agencies — an estimated 500,000 since 1959, with thousands executed — tell a different story. In Castro’s Cuba, it is a crime to meet to discuss the economy, to write letters to the government, to report on political developments, to speak to international reporters, to advocate human rights, to visit friends or relatives outside your local area of residence without government permission. Cubans are arrested without warrants and prosecuted for “failing to denounce” fellow citizens, for general “dangerousness,” and, should some crime not be covered by these criminal code provisions, for “other acts against state security.”
The courts, under Cuba’s constitution, are formally subordinate to the governing elite and cannot protect the innocent. Neither can lawyers, who lost their right to work in private firms in 1973 and have been forced to work either for the government or in collectives. Lawyers who had defended dissidents were refused membership in the collectives.
Cubans found guilty under this criminal justice system — and their fate is rarely in doubt — often serve 10 to 20 years in jail for political crimes. But most Cuban criminals are not political. A large proportion of the estimated 180,000 to 200,000 common criminals in Cuba’s 500 prisons are people who broke the law by killing their own pigs, cattle and horses and selling the excess meat on the black market.
If you dont live it you dont know it and are just talking out of your ass!!
You don’t know how bad communism is people in communist countries are not allowed to speak about how bad it is. And it’s bad enough for 50 people to pile into a boat designed for 12 and raft through shark infested waters to escape if it wasn’t bad they wouldn’t have to force you to stay.
Head on down and hang out with Chavez in Venezuela. He’s looking for some jackbooted stormtroopers to promote his dictatorship at gunpoint. I’m sure he pays good rubles for the service–until you’re put in a camp.
Agreed, too bad he was shot and killed. He should have been taken alive and had a slow, painful death forced on him for all his crimes against humanity.
I just bought the Dead Che bust by artist Frank Kozik love it!! The inscription in old latin says “Once a proud commander now nothing” Every Cuban household should have one.
If the truth is not in you, you will not know it when it’s presented to you in any format. You will disavow it rather than see the economic folly and it’s predictable outcome.
It’s called wealth redistribution, pretending that you can multiply by dividing. Teaching people to not try as hard because they’ll be carried piggyback the rest of their life, on the backs of those that do shoulder their share of the economic load. I know, that’s not the definition you want people to hear so it’s judged “not coherent.”
At its root, socialism is the belief that the only (or primary) social institution capable of achieving (all or most of) society’s goals is government. Alternative and complementary institutions such as the market, the family, religion, business, academia, charity, etc., are all subservient to the government. A socialist typically believes that these non-governmental institutions are, at best, less capable of achieving society’s goals than the government, or, at worst, that they actively (perhaps knowingly) work against society’s interests.
Hey, there’s this other socialist you may have heard of. He’s from a really long time ago, probably one of the first ones. His name was Jesus of Nazareth.
To me Che Guevara is one of the most heroic figures in world history who is a stoic example of what all those who speak of “revolution” should espouse to be.
This was a man who left a bourgeoisie comfortable life of the upper class, a potential well compensated career as a medical doctor, and a high regarded governmental position, each time to slog through the jungle and fight guerrilla wars against impenetrable odds = for a better and more equitable society.
Throughout his life Che tended to thousands of sick campesinos, helped construct dozens of schools throughout Cuba, worked in a Leper colony to helped those afflicted, and even when he was literally tied up in a small mud school house awaiting his own execution ! , still complained to the local teacher that in a nation where the leaders drove Mercedes … it was a travesty that the peasants were taught in a dilapidated place like he was in.
If the world had 100 Che’s … or hell even 10 … we would be in much better shape.
Yeah sure. And while you’re spouting this BS, why don’t you make a film about Adolf Hitler by portraying him as a vegetarian who loved animals and was against unemployment. This would be true, but would be rather beside the point. You’re an airhead Maria. Totally oblivious to the real Che.
Maria, this may be the stupidest comment I have ever seen. Che assisted Castro in building Communist Cuba, 1 of only 2 unapologetically communist countries left in the world today. Turn on the news once in a while and look at the people fleeing from that hell hole in whatever they can get that floats to go north, right past Andros Island in the Bahamas and bypassing the much closer islands of the Dominican Republic and Haiti to get to US soil and even have a chance at a decent life. As far as the other communist country left (North Korea) people would leave there if they could afford to, they are starving to death and are too poor to afford to live. Oh and the small things like televised executions of citizens who made an out of country phone call simply add to the patriotisim of the North Koreans. Che had prisoners that he deemed unworthy to be executed, many of which was done on live TV.
“The blacks, those magnificent examples of the African race who have conserved their racial purity by a lack of affinity with washing, have seen their patch invaded by a different kind of slave: The Portugese…. the black is indolent and fanciful, he spends his money on frivolity and drink; the European comes from a tradition of working and saving which follows him to this corner of America and drives him to get ahead.”
~Che Guevara
Just a small detail. There are five communist countries left. Four if you do not include China. The others beside North Korea and Cuba are Vietnam and Laos.
Also Nepal, Moldova, Mongolia and the greek part of Cyprus are being governed by democratically elected communist parties.
And they all Fail. If people weren’t floating over in rafts to Florida from Cuba and masses of people in NKorea weren’t starving I might say Communism is working.
I agree! If more people were like Che then the world would be better off.
People who have no clue who he is or are ignorant enough to believe everything they hear on FOX news should look up him up. Read his Diary, Che Guevara publish his own diary, read his speeches and actually learn about him. I am sorry that a man who gave a voice to a people and apposed discrimination is a villian!
Some part of me approves the shooting of said middle class teenage “rebels” who use their Che hoodies bought from the Gap to make an obviously conformist statement of “rebellion”.
Why would anyone wear the image of the most unsuccessful murdering Marxist revolutionary leader of all time? Do they issue a large letter “L” for the wearer’s forehead with every shirt?
When someone who supports the same country that nuked 2 cities and turned 250,000 people to dust … the same country that fire bombed Dresden and burned 150,000 women and child alive, the same country that killed 15 million Natives because they felt it was their ‘manifest destiny’ … the same country that enslaved millions of blacks … the same country whose CIA has killed 6 million people since 1950 (John Stockwell) … the same country that invaded Iraq which has caused 950,000 + deaths … Not to mention propped up the many brutal tyrants like Pinochet, Suharto, Marcos and Somoza … backed contra death squad movements through the School of the Americas …
Pretends to be outraged by Che Guevara and the 200 or so War Criminals he had shot after revolutionary tribunals.
Hey! We (the British) fire bombed Dresden you can’t steal that one off us too! That was as a thank you for leveling of Coventry and to send a message to Stalin (who went on to kill ten times more Jews than Hitler) who had Leon Trotsky assasinated with an ice axe in Mexico which as you are aware in also in South America…
look into a history book and read why america dropped bombs on japan. Truman did this to stop a ground invasion of America and save hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) of American lives. We weren’t the first ones to strike, but I think I have to point that obvious fact out for you. If you were in this situation what would you do, Monday morning quarterback? Well let me lay out the options for you…
Invade Kyushu and Honshu: 50,000 predicted dead.
Later years of the war with Japan: 200,000 predicted dead.
By the way these were conservative estimates. Later estimates were around 1 million dead US troops.
So what about the innocent Japanese you ask? If we did not bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki the estimated death toll range for combined US and Japanese forces was 300,000 to 3,000,000 due to a prolonged war.
Recently Japan’s defense minister, who is from Nagasaki, supported the US attack because it stopped the USSR from invading Japan.
Actually, maybe the US should have done what the rest, even the Axis were doing, and bomb military cities, instead of being pussy’s and bombing a civillian town. Then bombing another 2 days later. The Japanese were going to surrender. But you know, they couldnt’ contact, you kinda melted their phones. Oh, and a city. There was a lot of panic.
Ona, Hitler began bombing civilian cities first. And no, the Japanese were NOT going to surrender. The government had even prepared a plan to use every able bodied civilian to take up anything they could find, even pitchforks, to defeat the oncoming American invasion. Brush up on your history.
The world is full of misery brought forth by good intentions just like hells paved with them. I think the point here is that wearing a shirt bearing the face of a Che given the end result of his quest makes as much sense as Americans wearing Ronald Reagan or Bush T-shirts today.
He gets points for being absolutely dedicated to the cause, to the point where he was thrown out of the Cuban council for holding too radical views on how to change the government to make it even more communist. For that, he gets my respect.
Che Guevara embodied the ideal of solidarity with oppressed people struggling to achieve their own emancipation worldwide. And he embodied this ideal not just via actions of political support staged from a distance but instead by personally participating in (what he saw as) the highest form of struggle the oppressed can wage, i.e. guerrilla resistance against the army of a colonial or neo-colonial state. It is for this overwhelming reason that Che continues to be cherished by today’s activists.
You do also realize that communism stands for oppressive religious intolerance and has, in the last century, resulted in the genocide of millions of people purely on the ground of their religion… right?
I mean, solidarity with the people and social justice – yes please! But why take all the baggage of communism? Why not just take Bishop Romero’s picture and put IT on a tee shirt? Killed no one, fought for justice, was martyred… no baggage necessary…
Or is Che somehow cooler cause he DID kill people? I mean, given all those who have worked and died for justice in the last 200 years, why glorify one who was a murderer?
um, no we dont. as long as we’re being honest about what they did (which i admit a lot of people dont do) we do NOT condone the killing of innocents, etc. honestly i wouldnt have a problem with guaverra if he wasnt a PROVEN murderer. i actually dont think communism is bad (as long as the right people are running it, which once again, doesnt seem to be happing), but just because someone has some good ideas, or hell, even a lot of them, doesnt mean its ok for them to kill innocents. i am so sick of the ends justify the means mindset of people. guaverra was a warmongering, hateful murderer, plain and simple. “Blind hate against the enemy creates a forceful impulse that cracks the boundaries of natural human limitations, transforming the soldier in an effective, selective and cold killing machine. A people without hate cannot triumph against the adversary.”-che himself
Who said anything about PC police? It’s outright mockery here. We’re counting IQs and you’re not measuring up there commie (or is it just oblivious fashionista?). If you’d attempted to make a case, like sparrow did, you’d get a pass (sorta).
I think I know on in the former category, also, why haven’t I seen any of these Che shirts? He’s been all over Roflrazzi, but I haven’t seen any of his shirts.
Lol you should visit Centro America… they wear the Che’s Shirts, but they don’t even know what he did, what it was or what even communism is… pfff pathetic
Just for the fact that someone is wearing a Che shirt doesn’t necessarily mean that they have to be communist… I agree with the other things though, people who wear those shirts don’t even know who he was, most of the times.
hahahaha this is so true, back in my highschool days when i asked my classmates who he was they said he fought for his people and his country, then i read up on him and learned he was a radical communist guerrilla, fought the us in bay of pigs invasion, and killed people with no remorse, a cold blooded killer he was
Right, I bet you’re another stupid American who believes everything the U.S. does is right and everything everyone else does is wrong… Che, Fidel, Raul and their revolutionnary army managed to clean Cuba from all the corruption brought upon the island by American interests. Che was still a cold-blooded, remorse-less killer, I’m not arguing against that, but he still fought for what he believed was right. Whatever you think of communism, Castro’s regime still beats Batista’s corrupted ways.
Yes, communism was SO GREAT in every form in which it’s been tried, people in those countries routinely risked being shot, drowned, blown up by mine fields, dying in tunnel collapses, being tortured by the secret police, and getting sent to a labor camp IF YOU’RE LUCKY to get out of them. But hey, THEY CAN HAS FREE (craptastic) HEALTH CARE. And they’re STICKING IT TO THE GREEDY CAPITALIST (person who is actually providing employment) MAN. So it’s all good.
You’d think that people who have more than 2 brain cells to rub together would care if they had the letter “L” on their foreheads for being appearing to be clueless, self-absorbed, slack-jawed, mouth-breathers.
i´m from argentina where che guevara is from, if you think that you see che in some shirts you should see over here, ona saez has a recent campaign and summer shirts and pants with that theme ONA FU**IN SAEZ!… it´s like fighting for the poor people, die, then some rich boy uses your face in his t- shirt…
Don´t like his ideals, respec him as a man who fought for what he believed o the last minute,i respect that, cause that made him a legend, not the fact that he was a commmunist
I think it’s the labor camps which he put so many people in, and the number of innocent people he killed, and the fact that he is quoted as saying that he wanted to destroy individuality, that people have a problem with, more than the communist part.
This graph is definitely not true where I am… I go to the same university as Che, and his face is everywhere, everyone knows who he is, and they are all communists.
Also Che killed a lot of people, but no where near as many as the US-backed dictatorships here in Argentina, in Chile, in Brazil, in Peru, in Bolivia, in Paraguay, in Panama, in Nicaragua, in El Salvador, in Guatemala, in the Dominican Republic, and in pre-revolutionary Cuba. In fact, when Che died, revolutionary Cuba was one of the BEST Latin American countries in terms of human rights.
“After graduation, due to special circumstances and perhaps also to my character, I began to travel throughout America, and I became acquainted with all of it. Except for Haiti and Santo Domingo, I have visited, to some extent, all the other Latin American countries. Because of the circumstances in which I traveled, first as a student and later as a doctor, I came into close contact with poverty, hunger and disease; with the inability to treat a child because of lack of money; with the stupefaction provoked by the continual hunger and punishment, to the point that a father can accept the loss of a son as an unimportant accident, as occurs often in the downtrodden classes of our American homeland. And I began to realize at that time that there were things that were almost as important to me as becoming a famous or making a significant contribution to medical science: I wanted to help those people.”
there are people worse than Che, but that doesn’t make him look nicer does it? just because something is relatively good (communist china vs. warlord-ruled, battling with japan and var. local governments china) doesn’t mean it’s actually considered good by people.
I’m sorry, one of the best in terms of human rights? Last I checked, being imprisoned and killed because you didn’t agree with the government isn’t exactly the best.
Just about every government in Latin America did those things at the time, and the soldiers who would kill you for disagreeing usually were taught to torture and murder in the US. If you don’t believe me, just look up the term “desaparecido”
Of course not, but you must look at a person in the context of their time, and Che was one of the best of his time, so I think it’s fine to wear a shirt with him on it.
It’s really the same as putting George Washington, a racist and slave-owner on the one dollar bill. What he did and believed was wrong, but it was also standard for his time, and it doesn’t prevent you from recognizing the good that he did as well.
Do you believe all the propaganda you’re served?
Besides, I think there were more than a few Americans that got sent to Guantanamo… Why did they get sent there and tortured, if not because the didn’t agree with the U.S. involvement in the middle east?
“We’re going to do for blacks exactly what blacks did for the revolution. By which I mean: nothing.” -Che Guevera
“The Negro is indolent and lazy, and spends his money on frivolities, whereas the European is forward-looking, organized and intelligent.”- Che Guevara
“Mexicans are a band of illiterate Indians.” – Che Guevara
I was going to post those quotes myself. I find it funny that I see a lot of black people wearing Che shirts. They have no idea that he hated black people. I laugh when I think of Jay Z saying he is like Che Guevara with bling on. They might as well wear a shirt with a kkk hood on it if they are going to wear a Che shirt. I don’t support the kkk in any way shape or form I am just saying that like the kkk hood if they knew what Che actually stood for they would not be wearing the shirt.
wow… I am going to humble myself and admit some magnitude of ignorance. I looked up these quotes and found out they were legit. So I will be throwing away my Che poster…
You learn something new everyday…
Che made the “black is indolent” remark in his diary as a youth, but months later changed and went on to speak out against segregation in the south US, speak out against Apartheid to the UN in 1964, bash the KKK in 1961, take a black bodyguard and best friend with him everywhere “Pombo”, integreate Cuban schools before they were in the US, and fight white mercenaries in the Congo with an all black army!
“Those who kill their own children and discriminate daily against them because of the color of their skin; those who let the murderers of blacks remain free, protecting them, and furthermore punishing the black population because they demand their legitimate rights as free men – how can those who do this consider themselves guardians of freedom?” — CHE GUEVARA, 1964 at the U.N.
This racism is exactly why he went to Africa and helped organize African Revolutionaries against colonial rule in the Congo. He wanted to help the Congolese get independence because he hated them and thought that they were inferior to Europeans. That makes so much sense.
He said it! It’s his declared belief! You cannot argue that he said it, it’s a historical fact.
Whatever his motives were for stirring up revolution in the Congo, you can’t claim it was because he liked African people when he so clearly didn’t. And Che wasn’t European, so your comment about being inferior to Europeans makes no sense.
You really think George Washington never killed an innocent man? He was general in command of a rebel army that liked to go around tarring and feathering people that didn’t agree! On top of that he didn’t do it for freedom at all, except perhaps the freedom to sell the crops his slaves produced without having to face export taxes.
And yes, Che killed people. He was the commander of a rebel army fighting governments that, in the case of Cuba and the Congo, massacred civilians without a care. Should I be sad that when it was established who was responsible for these massacres he didn’t hesitate to put a bullet in their head?
He was doing the massacring. He rounded up people who disagreed with him, who had never done anything other than own blue-jeans or listen to rock and roll, and he executed them.
George Washington, on the other hand, did not shoot people for disagreeing with him. The people he killed were soldiers on the opposing army, not civilians who simply liked British fashion. He was good friends with several non-violent loyalists, like Lord Fairfax, and remained so until his death.
He, unlike Che, understood that you don’t have to kill someone for disagreeing with you.
Anyone ever think that these Che shirts started as a joke? He was a communist so therefore did not support capitalism….so he dies and they put his face on a shirt. LoL Do you see where I’m going with this?
“To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail.”
“If the missiles had remained, we would have used them against the very heart of America including New York. We must never establish peaceful coexistence. In this struggle to the death between two systems we must gain the ultimate victory. We must walk the path of liberation even if it costs millions of atomic victims.”
“[Youth] should learn to think and act as a mass….. I vow to make individualism disappear from Cuba! It is criminal to think of individuals!”
It’s politically blasphemous to say anything positive, or even nuanced about Che around right-wing Americans. Worldwide, however, the loathing of Che is an extreme minority view.
Che was more complex and contradictory an historical figure than some people understand.
However simple minded Americans like their characters to be unambiguous and simple: Good OR Bad; Black OR White; Saint OR Sinner, etc. In reality, things are rarely so simple.
That’s one of the reasons that ADOLF HITLER is so often pulled out in an argument: There are relatively few people who embody absolute evil so clearly and readily.
The hysteria and the manic frustration expressed by right-wingers regarding the continuing—and growing—popularity and iconic status of Che is in itself very revealing. Complexity is not their strong suit. Seeing more than the surface is a little hard for right-wingers. Everyone must fit into the “Superman vs. Lex Luthor” box. Reality is harder to pigeonhole.
Can most conservatives tell you anything at all about Fulgencio Batista? Do they mention the 20,000 Cubans killed by Batista’s mafia based police state? Do they discuss the difference in how Che’s men released all captured enemy soldiers, while Batista’s goons gouged their eyes out and tortured them?
Nah … to a right-winger (the kind that wanted to hand the nuke codes to a half-literate ex beauty queen who believes in witchcraft) there are only heroes and villians.
There are a plethora of reactionary middle class capitalist-loving douchebags, who were born on 3rd base and think they hit a triple — who like to talk internet smack in Mom’s basement about a revolutionary who’s been dead for 40 + years. How post-modern.
These clowns wouldn’t know the poverty that Che experienced during his travels through South America if it kicked them in their capri pants. Che was radicalized by seeing US Imperialism up close in Guatemala – you know when Uncle Sam & United Fruit decided to incinerate a few thousand brown people so American’s could save 20 cents on their bananas.
Do any of the Che-haters know anything about the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Batista and the Mafia which propped him up? The oligarchs who alongside the mafia turned Cuba into a Yanqui whorehouse, while killing 20,000 Cubans? Che believed in cold justice – because he saw injustice up close.
Meanwhile, the hardest challenge for the anti-Che vapid turds in the next 6 months will probably be the life or death decision of doritos or cheetos while playing their Xbox.
And here, as you speak in absolutes about American conservatives, are you not committing the same offense of which you accuse them?
You use ad-hom attacks against the American right while objecting to their oversimplication of Che? You seem to have oversimplified them. Everything posted against Che here has been reasoned and supported… hardly “black and white” thinking.
Just who has a hard time seeing outside the box here? Its interesting that you seem to place americans squarely in one of two mindless political classes. liberal and conservative . do you think the wealth of american ideals and intelect can be summed up by these groups. they are both fully controlled institutions., if you were a free thinker I dont think it would be so easy to peg you to one or the other ,
It’s not a laughing matter. Marxism is a system of analysis, and a way to view the world. Communism, on the other hand, is a political movement, a form of government, a condition of society. One is a subset of the other, proven with historical precedent. Mincing words Ryan doesn’t change much. It’s a failed system, regardless how you parse the concepts.
Ernesto, you are living in a communist matrix, sorta like the movie. You apparently cannot see it. Only people living in relative freedom can look at you and see how your mind is like a puppet on a string. The whole time though, you think you’re in total control of everything around you. Sucks to live in a lie that everyone can see except you. Go buy that Che shirt and keep reassuring yourself. Looks like It’s all you’ve got to hold onto.
Your comment doesn’t make sense. I live in Argentina, a free, open, democratic, and capitalist country. You must have gotten confused because I said I go to the same university as Che, which is the University of Buenos Aires, here in Che’s native country… Che is even a nickname for “Argentine.”
I have been to the US for an extended period of time, as well as to socialist countries like Cuba, Vietnam, and China. I even studied for 2 years at a US university. My eyes are open and my mind is free. Perhaps you should considering opening up your mind a bit, and start looking at facts and logic without simply thinking “Che=communist=bad… no i must find facts that prove this” as the North American education system teaches you to do.
It’s not that Che=Communism=bad. It’s that Che=mass-murderer and tyrannical oppressor=bad.
You may have traveled, but you never bothered to learn. Che did good things, it’s true, and Hitler saved Germany from starvation and corruption. That doesn’t make either one less of a tyrant or murderer.
Argentina is a free, open, democratic country? Since maybe 1999, perhaps. We all make heroes of our most famous citizens, so you are welcome to your conceit. Che was a complicated man living in a complicated world who wanted to simplify things and improve life for the impoverished. He killed a lot of people in the process. He was more successful than Pol Pot, in some ways, but used the same tactics and had less jungle to hide in when the hammer came down.
In most cases, if you want to know how heroic someone is, first gage how much the right-wing hates them. The greater the teabaggers hate him, the more heroic he/she must be. Che Guevara, (one of the most heroic individuals of the 20th century) invites a large amount of hatred, vitriol, and misinformation from the conservative wing-nuts for two reasons:
(1) He represents many of the noble attributes that their bankrupt philosophy abhors, namely self-sacrifice, helping the poor, restoring justice when it comes to great inequality, and overthrowing the oligarch puppets of plantation capitalism.
(2) Che represents everything that the right-wingers secretly wish they were – brave, determined, dashing, charismatic, intelligent, poetic, and unshakable against impenetrable odds – while they took deferments from Vietnam – Che battled armies on 2 continents usually outnumbered 20 or 50 to 1.
you claim to believe that all men are equal, yet you talk about people with right-wing ideologies as though they are worthless. how do you manage to live with such dualistic ideologies?
“If you want to know how heroic someone is, first gage [sic] how much the right-wing hates them.” So Hitler, Stalin and Mao must be some of the most heroic men ever?
If “teabaggers” so abhor self-sacrifice and helping the poor, why do rightwingers give so much more to charity than liberals? And since when is raising taxes on someone else self-sacrifice?
While I agree with you that Maria’s point was poorly thought-out (o.k. idiotic), it should be noted that “Blue” states in the US actually have both a higher percentage and total amount of charity donations than “Red” states. The same study also found that violent crimes were higher in “Blue” states, but out-of-wedlock births and divorce rates were lower, that doesn’t have anything to do with this argument, but I just thought it was interesting.
Comparing states is poor methodology. Look at the data for counties and you’ll find much more useful conclusions. Political conservatives are more charitable, less violent, more monogamous, etc.
Fidel, Che, and Raul were able to overthrow the dictator Batista because of several conditions in the country. These caused widespread resentment for Batista and his US and mafia backed oligarchy. Such conditions were:
CUBA under the U.S.-backed DICTATOR Batista:
• Americans owned 70 % of the arable land.
• 1% of the population controlled 46 % of the wealth.
• Batista’s goons and secret police killed 20,000 Cubans (tortured even more).
• 40 % of the population were illiterate.
• 50 % of the population lived in Bohio shacks.
• Dissidents were hung and left to dangle in the streets as a warning sign.
• The Mafia (Meyer Lansky & Co) ran Havana and used Cuba as a whorehouse for rich gringos from the U.S.
Where did the revolution take Cuba exactly? How many boat people per year fled Cuba under Batista? What was the Cuban GNP back then as in respect to the population then vs. now? All the demagoguery in the world cannot hide the facts about Guevara and Castro and their ruination of Cuba. You are only appealing to the weak-minded, undereducated masses. Just like your Marxist predecessors are so fond of preying on.
Yours was the most educated and correct comment on here. There is no doubt that Cuba fell to ruins after and because of the revolution then comunism but fact was there where more poor and abused Cubans than wealthy or middle class and as in any oppressed state these people placed their fate, hopes, and dreams for a better life with Che which ultimately still kept them in poverty and segregated from Cubas wealthy tourist areas. Fidels military took hold of the Islands wealth and property and its people where indeed given an education while left in decaying homes of a paradise lost.
There should be a graph for those commenting here…
Entitled children ages 12 to 17 with no real world experience and little understanding of history and no desire to actually learn anything: 40%
Trolls : 20%
Elitist Europeans who are somehow experts in US politics and social attitudes : 30%
Other Non-US elitist : 9%
Meaningful intelligent exchange : 1%
20 years in the military, college grad, travel to 14 countries outside the U.S. including 3 hostile fire assignments. I haven’t done it all but I did come from very humble beginnings and been to places and seen things most have only seen movies about. I weep for the useful idiots here (legends in their own minds though) lauding the guy burning in Hell now, formerly known as ‘Che’. The fire and the worms consume him eternally. They are headed to the same place as him–gleefully so, I suspect.
I was young and I lived in South America when Che Guevara was still alive and killing, and when some of the Che apologists posting here were still barfing milk on their mother’s shoulder. For the other posters (the normal, sentient ones) I have one a bit of advice: do not let these useful idiots – who quote Mandela and PBS; yeah, THAT’s a pair of unbiased sources! – misguide you. Che Guevara was one iof Fidel Castro’s most blood-thirsty henchmen. A typical Marxist who hated everyone who was not a Marxist. His idea of “democracy” was to put a bullet in every anti-Marxist head. And he did pretty much that. I’m SO GLAD this monster got his comeuppance.
I’m so glad you were fortunate enough to survive this madman’s reign of terror.
People who don’t know what it’s like to live under a dictator’s regime should really contemplate how much they’re enjoying their free speech right now and not get tracked down and shot for having an opinion.
I do know what it’s like to live under a dictator’s regime. I was born during the “Process of National Re-Organization” here in Argentina and I remember learning that my Uncle and Aunt were both disappeared by a regime backed by your good friend Reagan. If only Che had succeeded in liberating South America, there would have been no such disappearances, because at least the Cuban Revolutionary Government kept its killing to known members of the former government, and made its punishments open and relatively clean, instead of kidnapping suspected ‘subversives’ torturing them and dumping the bodies in the ocean without stating any cause nor notifying the families of the fate of their children.
Che wanted all of South America to be one big Marxist dictatorship. Do you not know this or is such an abomination your fondest desire also? I can’t fathom how many people would have to be killed for that to happen. Do you know that when Che died in Bolivia he coudln’t get a following of Bolivians? They were anxious to be rid of the rabid guy, one way or the other.
No, he made up causes. Or he said he didn’t need a cause. He is quoted as saying that he didn’t need evidence to have people executed, that anyone who disagreed with the state should be considered the highest of criminals and should be killed immediately.
People may not have “disappeared” because everyone knew exactly where the “subversives” went- to the labor camps or the firing squad.
And by the way, my country may not be the best in the world, but at least I can disagree with my government without fear of being shot. People who lived under Che couldn’t say the same.
querido ernesto, yo tambien soy argentino
no naci durante el proceso de reorganizacion nacional, se que secuestraban a los montoneros y demas
pero tampoco te creas que los montoneros eran angelitos, por que a mis abuelos, que son trabajadores honestos, no afiliadas a ningun tipo de gobierno, a favor de nadie, los montoneros les metieron por lo menos 3 bombas en la casa, y no se si mas, y mi abuelo era un simple gerente de una fabrica!
yo no estoy diciendo que la dictadura fue lo mejor que le paso a argentina, pero mucha gente afirma que habia mucha mas seguridad en ese tiempo, ahora vos salis a la calle y te dejan en pelotas, y nadie hace nada
quienes estan en el gobierno ahora? el mismo grupo de montoneros que les ponian bombas a mis abuelos, y esos montoneros tienen pensamientos de izquierda
como dijo AttyTude: quemate en el infierno, Che, maldito marxisista
GET OFF THE INTERNET AND BACK TO WORK
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
Internet is a capitalist trap that wastes time you could be spending growing cigars for Castro. Down with America! Damn those people who hate mass murderers simply because they don’t like blood. America is a stupid place where no inventions occur. Only a communist system can sufficiently provide for the poor geniuses to create and procreate. All others will be sterilized and censured
you… you monster, che was a horrible person a murderer of man women and childeren who did not agree with him and here you are on the internet the same thing you are now protesting,supporting the very thing this creature killed for while insulting the greatest nation on earth… THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.Whats wrong with you?
whatever girls. here in argentina it is true, because te real che supporters know that buying a t shirt with his face would be the last thing che would have wanted.
I think Che t-shirts are great, it is just as effective as someone wearing a shirt that says I’m stuck on stupid!!! Che was a glorified punk-ass gang banger!!!
do you the people calling che a marxist know what that even means? The way Marx envisioned communism would have formed a perfect society. to believe in what Marx had to say is in no way a bad thing. However, as shown in history, perfect communism is impossible, as it will always lead to dictatorship.
Che wanted the right things, to help out a continent
Communism has always lead to dictatorship because of where Communism developed: in countries accustomed to authoritarianism. If a Communist revolution occurred in the US, or Canada, or Western Europe, it would very likely not be a dictatorship. A new, more modern Communism would be an ideal system.
Latin America has a very turbulent and bloody history, and there are many wounds. Maybe that’s why Communism there isn’t what the philosophers expected it to be. Communism can really only work under already good circumstances.
Hmmm…It doesn’t matter if Che Guevara was a hero or murderer, I think we can all agree on this: Kids who wear Che Guevara T shirts are D bags. Who’s with me?
What I don’t understand is this… It’s ok to fight for what you believe in (no matter the consequences) if you’re Che Guevara but not if you are a non-violent tea party member?
Ok, soooo. Charlie Manson tee-shirts = You’re going to Hell. But Che Guevara = You’re so awesome. Hmmm, odd.
Charlie Manson was charged in killing only 7 people while Che Guevara killed 216. Both monsters. Both have tee-shirts.
‘Twilight Zone theme starts’
The fact is this: The observed fact of history is that the human race has a corrupted nature that is based on selfishness and self-independence at the expense of others. Socialism is merely a mask and in truth all leaders no matter what they call themselves seek the will to power. This is why the wise ones and the Christian ones who are consistent know that we need a Constitutional system until Jesus Christ returns and rules as perfect Absolute Monarch.
Men like Castro, Lenin, and Che Guevara, are deluded fools. They end up becoming the next tyrant. Capitalism works. The nature of man is a selfish nature and Communism/Socialism/Marxism, and other Collectivist systems FAIL and DESTROY lives and liberty. The US Founding Fathers knew this and thus the GREATEST nation ever to exist aside from Israel, the USA, succeeded until collectivist leftism crept in to destroy it.
Sou defensor sagaz da justiça,da massa oprimida e da sociedade.
Mesmo que me obriguem a mudar de idéia,sou comunista,até a morte.
Mesmo que coloquem o mundo contra mim
Mesmo que usem todo o poder existente
Mesmo que impeçam de divulgar a justiça
Mesmo se forem cegos ao povo.
Mesmo se forem surdos ao povo.
Mesmo se atarem as mãos do povo.
Eu lutarei.E meu conhecimento e coragem serão a unicas armas de que precisarei.
E mesmo que me tirem tudo,não me tirarão a coragem e o conhecimento.
Quando sofrer lembrarei que Cuba ainda persiste.
Quando estiver em apuros,lembrare que as idéis de Che não morreram com ele.
Quando estiver desanimado,lembrarei da Revolução Russa.
Quando estiver cansado,lembrarei que os martires do povo lutaram até o fim.
Quando estiver injustiçado,lembrarei da glória que já alcançamos,como em Stalingrado ou no Vietnã.
Quando com medo,lembrarei que quando vencemos,vencemos comunistas,e quando perdemos,perdemos heróis.
Quando sozinho,lembrarei das inumeras revoluções que ocorreram no mundo.Desde a Russia,Albania,até Angola,Cuba e Coréia.
E quando estiver com Deus,lembrarei que sou apenas
I fit into the group that wishes he could wear a Che t-shirt but cant because it will have been created by capitalist means and doesnt want to be mistaken for one of the middle class rebels who know nothing about him.
Also, why is the communist section the red section?
Can all you tea bagging Bush sucking idiots stop pretending you know what you are talking about?!!! Do a little research and stop listening to your pastor or Glen Beck?!!! Seriously… this world has too many of you assholes!
LOL, it’s funny ’cause it’s true.
Should have been a Venn diagram though.
For the liars below who will call one of history’s most complete human beings a “murderer” =
“I have yet to find a single credible source pointing to a case where Che executed an innocent.”
— Jon Lee Anderson, Author of “Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life”, PBS Forum
Che’s “CRIMES” were
~ Overthrowing a brutal U$ backed dictator allied with the Mafia (Batista)
~ Stopping American companies from owning 70 % of the arable land in Cuba
~ Teaching peasants to read, by bringing the Cuban literacy rate from 60 to 97 %
~ Having the 200 or so War Criminals who killed 20,000 Cubans for Batista shot against a wall
~ Speaking out against South African Apartheid to the UN in 1964
~ Fighting white mercenaries in the African Congo with an all black army
~ Speaking out against U$ and eventually USSR Imperialism while demanding that the poor of the world be allowed to live a life of dignity
You can tell he’s not just regurgitating this because he uses the word “U$”.
This isn’t about his crimes or how great of a guy you think Che was. This is about the morons who throw on a Che shirt or hat or something and don’t think twice about the fact that he’s probably rolling over in his grave because dumb ass suburban white kids think that their new hot topic purchase makes them look cool and rebellious.
“We don’t need proof to execute a man. We only need proof that it’s necessary to execute him. A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate.” -Che Guevara
http://cubaarchive.org/home/images/stories/truth%20and%20memory/victims_of_che_guevara_in_cuba_9.30.2009.pdf
search col cornelio rojas online then you can tell me that he wasnt a murderer. he has killed millions and millions of people just like him.
Che shot a 12 year old in the neck nearly decapitating him you see Che like to force his victims families watch there executions this boy was killed for trying stop his fathers execution he was beaten jailed over night and then asked to kneel to be shot personally by Che. The boy refused and said you jailed me with men I will die like a man Che complimented the boy for being so brave circled around behind him and shot him in the neck. Your a disgusting individual I don’t believe you think Che was innocent I think you are a non functioning adult who can’t hold a job and you cant wait to get even with those rich kids who picked on you. You are hoping that one day socialism will take hold and you will be the first one bashing in the heads of people who don’t agree with you.
First off John lee anderson got his information from castro’s propaganda ministry.The UNBIASED JOHN LEE Anderson had his whole family singing the Cuban Revolutionary song.OH READ-Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him by humberto fontova.Unless you dont want to read things that are truthfull? EHH jose?…..lol…hear both sides?HIS BOOK IS BULLET PROOF btw.
What would go in the middle? Rather, how do the two groups overlap?
This myth of the ignorant rich kid (who doesn’t know who he is) in the Che shirt – is mostly myth created to deligitimize those who truly look into the life of the heroic Che and honor him by wearing a shirt with his image on it.
It seems most popular criticism of the t-shirts comes from people who know little or nothing about Che and is directed at people they in turn think know little or nothing about him but wear his image. Their cynicism and criticism is best understood in the light of what they see as an affront to mindless conservative commercialism as right-wing consumerists fail to understand the usefulness of wearing one’s beliefs “on one’s sleeve”, so to speak. Fashion is a dictum to those people.
Furthermore, telling someone they can’t buy a T-shirt bearing the image of someone who criticizes capitalism is awfully convenient for capitalists. They don’t want capitalism questioned.
“The powerful of the earth should take heed: deep inside that T shirt where we have tried to trap him, the eyes of Che Guevara are still burning with impatience.” — Ariel Dorfman, Time Magazine
The “heroic Che”? Why admire someone who helped a country revolt from tyranny into tyranny? It was a non-revolution. All his image stands for now is how badly things can go when there’s no strategy for what to do if you actually succeed in overthrowing a government. His eyes burn with impatience because he must have known he sentenced an entire country to enslavement, and that he’s now used as propaganda and called a hero by those in power there to maintain their control.
His image in a t-shirt worn by a naive, impressionable American teenager says about the same thing as wearing an Obama t-shirt: “I’m ruled by my unknowable emotions and everyone else seems to like this guy, so I do too!”
Lastly, I love how you think you can “honor” the “heroic Che” by wearing a t-shirt with his image, which you probably bought from a capitalist institution. He seriously would hate you.
Not at all. Download the Che image, make your own t-shirt, print the image. There you go. You just made your own Che t-shirt and not promoted capitalism.
Alright, but only if you didn’t download the Che image from a computer built by a capitalist corporation (or using components built by capitalist corporations), and if you don’t access the internet through a corporate ISP, and the electricity powering your computer didn’t come from capitalist corporations. And if your printer wasn’t manufactured by a capitalist corporation, and you don’t use ink from a capitalist corporation. And you can’t just buy a blank t-shirt from a capitalist corporation, you have to actually make your own, without using fabric made or imported by a capitalist corporation. Other than that, yeah, you’re totally right.
Ha Ha ha!! That was good!! Or you can buy chinese tea bags and dot the image on recyled 2nd hand soviet soldier tshirts little by little untill it resembles him.
Hey Fawflulster…where did you buy that blank T-Shirt and the device that prints the image?
Well, I made my own, and then I manually painted it.
Read Fanon. You’ll understand a little more in life.
Or a little less….then you’ll just kick yourself for having read Fanon and beating yourself up because you could never get that time back in your life. Stupid Marxists.
wears the shirt and saw the chart and felt guilty and now is looking up anything and everything he can on Che..;. tsk tsk tsk
Don’t forget idiot celeb musicians after che tried to ban 90% of music everywhere he could
I have a Che poster on my wall as we speak. And I fit neither category. Do I get a cookie?
nay, cause in soviet russia cookie gets you!
win.
rofl!!!!!
I find it ironic that Che’s face is all over this crap when he was so opposed to capitalism. Like your poster he would have hated the fact that his face was used to further a capitalist agenda.
by the way im not saying you bought it just trying to be cool or something just stating my opinion
Che was fighting against:
- American Oligarchy (United Fruit, Texaco, U.S. Sugar)
- The US based Mafia (1959 Havana)
- The Monroe Doctrine rationale for Latin American Imperialism (Bay of Pigs)
- The idea of Banana Republics (Arbenz 1953 coup)
It just kills ditto-head Conservatives that such a heroic man will not go away. That is because these troglodytes cant fathom that he lives in the hearts of the hungry and the oppressed and that ideas never die.
Hence Che Lives on … And will for all eternity
The man killed too many innocents for even one of these to be true. He was a hate filled psychopath who always had to have his way. A bullet was too nice of a way for him to die. Thus be it ever to his kind.
Che Guevara started out his adult life as a doctor that worked to find treatments for leprosy. He and one of his good friends went on a long trip throughout south america that changed the way he saw the world. He saw how poor and destitute so many of these Latin American countries were regardless of the fact that U.S. companies rolled through indigenous and latino-owned land claiming it as theirs because they found oil or lumber in the name of capitalism. And these communities continued to be poor making little or nothing off the land that was formerly and rightfully theirs. If I had been in his position, I hope I would have had it in me to make the changes in himself and others that he did. He didn’t kill innocents. He saved lives. Why don’t you go watch grey’s anatomy and praise those fakes while continuing to despise such a virtuous and noble man?
The virtuous slaughterer of innocents, oh yes.
Why don’t you stop drinking the kool-aid.
Didn’t you read above?
“I have yet to find a single credible source pointing to a case where Che executed an innocent.”
— Jon Lee Anderson, Author of “Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life”, PBS Forum
Have you read the above?
“We don’t need proof to execute a man. We only need proof that it’s necessary to execute him. A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate.” -Che Guevara
That quote is disputed. It came from a book in 2004, the author did not give the source.
Are you from the Island? I am and so is my family!! Anyone who voiced any contrary opinion was detained, disapeared, or killed.
Che only delivered the island to deeper poverty , Godless goverment, and misery. Today tourist still eat lobster in 5 star hotels while the public lives in decaying homes in a paradise lost.
http://www.communistcrimes.org/en/Database
I’ve heard of this other guy, he started off as an artist, He joined the army and fought valiantly for his country, He was a first world war veteran and was almost killed in the trenches. After the war he decided to make a stand against the communist regimes which began to rise up Europe, he and his party were voted into power and lead a huge force against the oppressive regimes of communism. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him…his name is Adolf Hitler. You don’t see people wearing t-shirts with his face on them do you now? Che was a bad guy. He was a disgusting racist, a Communist and a murderer! He played a huge part in bringing Russian nuclear warheads to Cuba and almost instigating a nuclear war against the US. And you say he is a good guy?
um first of all.. communism isn’t that bad..right now cuba has one of the highest literacy rates in the americas..they have the best heart surgeons in the world..and all this? because of el Che and fidel. and murderer? really? you know how many people the US has murdered just because some country decides that it wants some money from the banana it produces for their own benefit? and btw…in war you don’t shoot people with water guns…you have to kill them. so if you’re saying che was a murderer because he killed people during war..then you might as well say that the US soldiers are murderer. for killing people in iraq and all the other wars they have fought in.
Since Che Guevara and because of him the island and its people have suffered the same as when under Bautista and worse. The government claims it takes no political prisoners. The numbers provided by human rights agencies — an estimated 500,000 since 1959, with thousands executed — tell a different story. In Castro’s Cuba, it is a crime to meet to discuss the economy, to write letters to the government, to report on political developments, to speak to international reporters, to advocate human rights, to visit friends or relatives outside your local area of residence without government permission. Cubans are arrested without warrants and prosecuted for “failing to denounce” fellow citizens, for general “dangerousness,” and, should some crime not be covered by these criminal code provisions, for “other acts against state security.”
The courts, under Cuba’s constitution, are formally subordinate to the governing elite and cannot protect the innocent. Neither can lawyers, who lost their right to work in private firms in 1973 and have been forced to work either for the government or in collectives. Lawyers who had defended dissidents were refused membership in the collectives.
Cubans found guilty under this criminal justice system — and their fate is rarely in doubt — often serve 10 to 20 years in jail for political crimes. But most Cuban criminals are not political. A large proportion of the estimated 180,000 to 200,000 common criminals in Cuba’s 500 prisons are people who broke the law by killing their own pigs, cattle and horses and selling the excess meat on the black market.
If you dont live it you dont know it and are just talking out of your ass!!
You don’t know how bad communism is people in communist countries are not allowed to speak about how bad it is. And it’s bad enough for 50 people to pile into a boat designed for 12 and raft through shark infested waters to escape if it wasn’t bad they wouldn’t have to force you to stay.
waow thats a great observation .
I know who he is, but I’m a socialist. They don’t sell shirts with Karl Marx on him at the Gap.
I’d like a shirt like that.
It’s like the Communist Party shirts
They’re awesome. Marx has a lampshade on his head.
Head on down and hang out with Chavez in Venezuela. He’s looking for some jackbooted stormtroopers to promote his dictatorship at gunpoint. I’m sure he pays good rubles for the service–until you’re put in a camp.
Too bad he was shot and killed…the greedy capitalists that drive this country are out of control
Yes, because he should have been allowed to kill more people than Hitler and not be punished for it.
(blah, blah Godwin- stfu. We’re talking about totalitarian regimes, so it’s a legitimate example, meaning Godwin’s law does not apply.)
Agreed, too bad he was shot and killed. He should have been taken alive and had a slow, painful death forced on him for all his crimes against humanity.
I just bought the Dead Che bust by artist Frank Kozik love it!! The inscription in old latin says “Once a proud commander now nothing” Every Cuban household should have one.
https://shop.juxtapoz.com/detail.php?id=368
Yeah…good ole Che. Killed a lot of people in the name of the people.
This is why I’m a democratic socialist, NOT a marxist communist.
An explanation sadly wasted on the ignorant. I’m still trying to get a teabagger to define socialism in a coherent manner.
Ha! Have you gotten them to do ANYthing in a coherent manner?
Or spell their signs correctly?
I’m with ya on that one.
If the truth is not in you, you will not know it when it’s presented to you in any format. You will disavow it rather than see the economic folly and it’s predictable outcome.
It’s called wealth redistribution, pretending that you can multiply by dividing. Teaching people to not try as hard because they’ll be carried piggyback the rest of their life, on the backs of those that do shoulder their share of the economic load. I know, that’s not the definition you want people to hear so it’s judged “not coherent.”
At its root, socialism is the belief that the only (or primary) social institution capable of achieving (all or most of) society’s goals is government. Alternative and complementary institutions such as the market, the family, religion, business, academia, charity, etc., are all subservient to the government. A socialist typically believes that these non-governmental institutions are, at best, less capable of achieving society’s goals than the government, or, at worst, that they actively (perhaps knowingly) work against society’s interests.
Hitler was a democratic socialist he hated the communists too.
Socialism is just as ridiculous as communism.
You’re right, we’re not equals, I’m obviously better than you.
Yeah, damn NASA, public roads, schools, military, police, fire fighting etc..
Because any government less powerful than our current government is the same as no government at all…
Does this also mean that if I believe the government should do anything at all, I necessarily must also believe the government should do everything?
Hey, there’s this other socialist you may have heard of. He’s from a really long time ago, probably one of the first ones. His name was Jesus of Nazareth.
It’s funny cuz it’s true.
Again, another terrible graph. This should be a Venn Diagram.
That would require more thought than the subject is worth
…and probably more comprehension than the average Che-shirt-wearin’ wretch could muster.
To me Che Guevara is one of the most heroic figures in world history who is a stoic example of what all those who speak of “revolution” should espouse to be.
This was a man who left a bourgeoisie comfortable life of the upper class, a potential well compensated career as a medical doctor, and a high regarded governmental position, each time to slog through the jungle and fight guerrilla wars against impenetrable odds = for a better and more equitable society.
Throughout his life Che tended to thousands of sick campesinos, helped construct dozens of schools throughout Cuba, worked in a Leper colony to helped those afflicted, and even when he was literally tied up in a small mud school house awaiting his own execution ! , still complained to the local teacher that in a nation where the leaders drove Mercedes … it was a travesty that the peasants were taught in a dilapidated place like he was in.
If the world had 100 Che’s … or hell even 10 … we would be in much better shape.
Yeah sure. And while you’re spouting this BS, why don’t you make a film about Adolf Hitler by portraying him as a vegetarian who loved animals and was against unemployment. This would be true, but would be rather beside the point. You’re an airhead Maria. Totally oblivious to the real Che.
Maria, this may be the stupidest comment I have ever seen. Che assisted Castro in building Communist Cuba, 1 of only 2 unapologetically communist countries left in the world today. Turn on the news once in a while and look at the people fleeing from that hell hole in whatever they can get that floats to go north, right past Andros Island in the Bahamas and bypassing the much closer islands of the Dominican Republic and Haiti to get to US soil and even have a chance at a decent life. As far as the other communist country left (North Korea) people would leave there if they could afford to, they are starving to death and are too poor to afford to live. Oh and the small things like televised executions of citizens who made an out of country phone call simply add to the patriotisim of the North Koreans. Che had prisoners that he deemed unworthy to be executed, many of which was done on live TV.
“The blacks, those magnificent examples of the African race who have conserved their racial purity by a lack of affinity with washing, have seen their patch invaded by a different kind of slave: The Portugese…. the black is indolent and fanciful, he spends his money on frivolity and drink; the European comes from a tradition of working and saving which follows him to this corner of America and drives him to get ahead.”
~Che Guevara
Just a small detail. There are five communist countries left. Four if you do not include China. The others beside North Korea and Cuba are Vietnam and Laos.
Also Nepal, Moldova, Mongolia and the greek part of Cyprus are being governed by democratically elected communist parties.
And they all Fail. If people weren’t floating over in rafts to Florida from Cuba and masses of people in NKorea weren’t starving I might say Communism is working.
I think this takes the title for stupidest comment.
I agree! If more people were like Che then the world would be better off.
People who have no clue who he is or are ignorant enough to believe everything they hear on FOX news should look up him up. Read his Diary, Che Guevara publish his own diary, read his speeches and actually learn about him. I am sorry that a man who gave a voice to a people and apposed discrimination is a villian!
Some part of me approves the shooting of said middle class teenage “rebels” who use their Che hoodies bought from the Gap to make an obviously conformist statement of “rebellion”.
Said teenage rebels mostly are jocks who don’t have a brain and are popular, so I second this.
Why would anyone wear the image of the most unsuccessful murdering Marxist revolutionary leader of all time? Do they issue a large letter “L” for the wearer’s forehead with every shirt?
—-> A NEW DEFINITION FOR “CHUTZPAH”
When someone who supports the same country that nuked 2 cities and turned 250,000 people to dust … the same country that fire bombed Dresden and burned 150,000 women and child alive, the same country that killed 15 million Natives because they felt it was their ‘manifest destiny’ … the same country that enslaved millions of blacks … the same country whose CIA has killed 6 million people since 1950 (John Stockwell) … the same country that invaded Iraq which has caused 950,000 + deaths … Not to mention propped up the many brutal tyrants like Pinochet, Suharto, Marcos and Somoza … backed contra death squad movements through the School of the Americas …
Pretends to be outraged by Che Guevara and the 200 or so War Criminals he had shot after revolutionary tribunals.
PRICELESS
One can condemn stupid and evil actions done by America while still condeming stupid and evil actions done by opponents of America.
Only the sith deal in absolutes.
Don’t forget Republicans, you terrorist. ;-D
Hey! We (the British) fire bombed Dresden you can’t steal that one off us too! That was as a thank you for leveling of Coventry and to send a message to Stalin (who went on to kill ten times more Jews than Hitler) who had Leon Trotsky assasinated with an ice axe in Mexico which as you are aware in also in South America…
What ever happen to the hero’s?
mexico isn’t in south america. learn your basic geography please.
Also, poorly written argument.
Fail all round.
I don’t think you really have a say in anything, as you use the term ‘fail’. Are you perhaps fond of … lolcatz? You are a joke.
look into a history book and read why america dropped bombs on japan. Truman did this to stop a ground invasion of America and save hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) of American lives. We weren’t the first ones to strike, but I think I have to point that obvious fact out for you. If you were in this situation what would you do, Monday morning quarterback? Well let me lay out the options for you…
Invade Kyushu and Honshu: 50,000 predicted dead.
Later years of the war with Japan: 200,000 predicted dead.
By the way these were conservative estimates. Later estimates were around 1 million dead US troops.
So what about the innocent Japanese you ask? If we did not bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki the estimated death toll range for combined US and Japanese forces was 300,000 to 3,000,000 due to a prolonged war.
Recently Japan’s defense minister, who is from Nagasaki, supported the US attack because it stopped the USSR from invading Japan.
Truman was correct. You sir, are wrong.
Actually, maybe the US should have done what the rest, even the Axis were doing, and bomb military cities, instead of being pussy’s and bombing a civillian town. Then bombing another 2 days later. The Japanese were going to surrender. But you know, they couldnt’ contact, you kinda melted their phones. Oh, and a city. There was a lot of panic.
So, Truman was indeed a stupid twat.
Ona, Hitler began bombing civilian cities first. And no, the Japanese were NOT going to surrender. The government had even prepared a plan to use every able bodied civilian to take up anything they could find, even pitchforks, to defeat the oncoming American invasion. Brush up on your history.
Ona, you are a twat.
The world is full of misery brought forth by good intentions just like hells paved with them. I think the point here is that wearing a shirt bearing the face of a Che given the end result of his quest makes as much sense as Americans wearing Ronald Reagan or Bush T-shirts today.
He gets points for being absolutely dedicated to the cause, to the point where he was thrown out of the Cuban council for holding too radical views on how to change the government to make it even more communist. For that, he gets my respect.
However, this graph pretty much sums it up.
Yes I own Che stuff. No, I don’t care if the PC police approve.
I do as well
)
Che Guevara embodied the ideal of solidarity with oppressed people struggling to achieve their own emancipation worldwide. And he embodied this ideal not just via actions of political support staged from a distance but instead by personally participating in (what he saw as) the highest form of struggle the oppressed can wage, i.e. guerrilla resistance against the army of a colonial or neo-colonial state. It is for this overwhelming reason that Che continues to be cherished by today’s activists.
You do also realize that communism stands for oppressive religious intolerance and has, in the last century, resulted in the genocide of millions of people purely on the ground of their religion… right?
I mean, solidarity with the people and social justice – yes please! But why take all the baggage of communism? Why not just take Bishop Romero’s picture and put IT on a tee shirt? Killed no one, fought for justice, was martyred… no baggage necessary…
Or is Che somehow cooler cause he DID kill people? I mean, given all those who have worked and died for justice in the last 200 years, why glorify one who was a murderer?
Thank you someone gets it
Us presidents have done the same thing, we glorify them.
um, no we dont. as long as we’re being honest about what they did (which i admit a lot of people dont do) we do NOT condone the killing of innocents, etc. honestly i wouldnt have a problem with guaverra if he wasnt a PROVEN murderer. i actually dont think communism is bad (as long as the right people are running it, which once again, doesnt seem to be happing), but just because someone has some good ideas, or hell, even a lot of them, doesnt mean its ok for them to kill innocents. i am so sick of the ends justify the means mindset of people. guaverra was a warmongering, hateful murderer, plain and simple. “Blind hate against the enemy creates a forceful impulse that cracks the boundaries of natural human limitations, transforming the soldier in an effective, selective and cold killing machine. A people without hate cannot triumph against the adversary.”-che himself
Who said anything about PC police? It’s outright mockery here. We’re counting IQs and you’re not measuring up there commie (or is it just oblivious fashionista?). If you’d attempted to make a case, like sparrow did, you’d get a pass (sorta).
I think I know on in the former category, also, why haven’t I seen any of these Che shirts? He’s been all over Roflrazzi, but I haven’t seen any of his shirts.
Why would a communist buy a Che Shirt? They’d be supporting Capitalism!
Lol you should visit Centro America… they wear the Che’s Shirts, but they don’t even know what he did, what it was or what even communism is… pfff pathetic
Define “they”, please.
Thank you.
Reading the sentence carefully should help.
Well that would be because of the capitalist power hungry bastards who wouldn’t want the PEOPLE to know.
Just for the fact that someone is wearing a Che shirt doesn’t necessarily mean that they have to be communist… I agree with the other things though, people who wear those shirts don’t even know who he was, most of the times.
hahahaha this is so true, back in my highschool days when i asked my classmates who he was they said he fought for his people and his country, then i read up on him and learned he was a radical communist guerrilla, fought the us in bay of pigs invasion, and killed people with no remorse, a cold blooded killer he was
Right, I bet you’re another stupid American who believes everything the U.S. does is right and everything everyone else does is wrong… Che, Fidel, Raul and their revolutionnary army managed to clean Cuba from all the corruption brought upon the island by American interests. Che was still a cold-blooded, remorse-less killer, I’m not arguing against that, but he still fought for what he believed was right. Whatever you think of communism, Castro’s regime still beats Batista’s corrupted ways.
And that’s why so many Cubans swim to Florida every year- Castro’s ways are so much better! Thank-you for showing me the light.
FTW.
Yes, communism was SO GREAT in every form in which it’s been tried, people in those countries routinely risked being shot, drowned, blown up by mine fields, dying in tunnel collapses, being tortured by the secret police, and getting sent to a labor camp IF YOU’RE LUCKY to get out of them. But hey, THEY CAN HAS FREE (craptastic) HEALTH CARE. And they’re STICKING IT TO THE GREEDY CAPITALIST (person who is actually providing employment) MAN. So it’s all good.
“Che’s life is an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom, we will always honor his memory.” — Nelson Mandela
Patria o Muerte!
You forgot “People who think the shirt looks cool and don’t really care about who he was”
You’d think that people who have more than 2 brain cells to rub together would care if they had the letter “L” on their foreheads for being appearing to be clueless, self-absorbed, slack-jawed, mouth-breathers.
And yet we still have high heels.
i´m from argentina where che guevara is from, if you think that you see che in some shirts you should see over here, ona saez has a recent campaign and summer shirts and pants with that theme ONA FU**IN SAEZ!… it´s like fighting for the poor people, die, then some rich boy uses your face in his t- shirt…
Don´t like his ideals, respec him as a man who fought for what he believed o the last minute,i respect that, cause that made him a legend, not the fact that he was a commmunist
I think it’s the labor camps which he put so many people in, and the number of innocent people he killed, and the fact that he is quoted as saying that he wanted to destroy individuality, that people have a problem with, more than the communist part.
Can you name one communist country that didn’t have all three of those?
Can you name one communist country that che haters would like?
This graph is definitely not true where I am… I go to the same university as Che, and his face is everywhere, everyone knows who he is, and they are all communists.
Also Che killed a lot of people, but no where near as many as the US-backed dictatorships here in Argentina, in Chile, in Brazil, in Peru, in Bolivia, in Paraguay, in Panama, in Nicaragua, in El Salvador, in Guatemala, in the Dominican Republic, and in pre-revolutionary Cuba. In fact, when Che died, revolutionary Cuba was one of the BEST Latin American countries in terms of human rights.
amen to that, its true
yeah, che is great because he liked to shoot kids in the back of the head for fun.
Face it Ernie, he was a psychopathic mass murder.
“After graduation, due to special circumstances and perhaps also to my character, I began to travel throughout America, and I became acquainted with all of it. Except for Haiti and Santo Domingo, I have visited, to some extent, all the other Latin American countries. Because of the circumstances in which I traveled, first as a student and later as a doctor, I came into close contact with poverty, hunger and disease; with the inability to treat a child because of lack of money; with the stupefaction provoked by the continual hunger and punishment, to the point that a father can accept the loss of a son as an unimportant accident, as occurs often in the downtrodden classes of our American homeland. And I began to realize at that time that there were things that were almost as important to me as becoming a famous or making a significant contribution to medical science: I wanted to help those people.”
— Che Guevara, August 19, 1960
there are people worse than Che, but that doesn’t make him look nicer does it? just because something is relatively good (communist china vs. warlord-ruled, battling with japan and var. local governments china) doesn’t mean it’s actually considered good by people.
I’m sorry, one of the best in terms of human rights? Last I checked, being imprisoned and killed because you didn’t agree with the government isn’t exactly the best.
Just about every government in Latin America did those things at the time, and the soldiers who would kill you for disagreeing usually were taught to torture and murder in the US. If you don’t believe me, just look up the term “desaparecido”
And that makes it totally cool.
Of course not, but you must look at a person in the context of their time, and Che was one of the best of his time, so I think it’s fine to wear a shirt with him on it.
It’s really the same as putting George Washington, a racist and slave-owner on the one dollar bill. What he did and believed was wrong, but it was also standard for his time, and it doesn’t prevent you from recognizing the good that he did as well.
George Washington freed his slaves and made sure that they would be supported after his death, including paying for education, etc.
He also didn’t round up innocent, unarmed people and execute them and put them into labor camps.
Do you believe all the propaganda you’re served?
Besides, I think there were more than a few Americans that got sent to Guantanamo… Why did they get sent there and tortured, if not because the didn’t agree with the U.S. involvement in the middle east?
Dude, the man was proud of those things. He bragged about them. There are audio and video recordings of him admitting to it.
Maybe the one buying into propaganda is you.
“We’re going to do for blacks exactly what blacks did for the revolution. By which I mean: nothing.” -Che Guevera
“The Negro is indolent and lazy, and spends his money on frivolities, whereas the European is forward-looking, organized and intelligent.”- Che Guevara
“Mexicans are a band of illiterate Indians.” – Che Guevara
Yup, sure is someone to emulate!
I was going to post those quotes myself. I find it funny that I see a lot of black people wearing Che shirts. They have no idea that he hated black people. I laugh when I think of Jay Z saying he is like Che Guevara with bling on. They might as well wear a shirt with a kkk hood on it if they are going to wear a Che shirt. I don’t support the kkk in any way shape or form I am just saying that like the kkk hood if they knew what Che actually stood for they would not be wearing the shirt.
wow… I am going to humble myself and admit some magnitude of ignorance. I looked up these quotes and found out they were legit. So I will be throwing away my Che poster…
You learn something new everyday…
Che made the “black is indolent” remark in his diary as a youth, but months later changed and went on to speak out against segregation in the south US, speak out against Apartheid to the UN in 1964, bash the KKK in 1961, take a black bodyguard and best friend with him everywhere “Pombo”, integreate Cuban schools before they were in the US, and fight white mercenaries in the Congo with an all black army!
“Those who kill their own children and discriminate daily against them because of the color of their skin; those who let the murderers of blacks remain free, protecting them, and furthermore punishing the black population because they demand their legitimate rights as free men – how can those who do this consider themselves guardians of freedom?” — CHE GUEVARA, 1964 at the U.N.
This racism is exactly why he went to Africa and helped organize African Revolutionaries against colonial rule in the Congo. He wanted to help the Congolese get independence because he hated them and thought that they were inferior to Europeans. That makes so much sense.
He said it! It’s his declared belief! You cannot argue that he said it, it’s a historical fact.
Whatever his motives were for stirring up revolution in the Congo, you can’t claim it was because he liked African people when he so clearly didn’t. And Che wasn’t European, so your comment about being inferior to Europeans makes no sense.
Slaves Owned:
George Washington = 316
Che = 0
Innocent people murdered:
George Washington: 0
Che= THOUSANDS.
Che didn’t do it for the “working man”. He was a power hungry psychopath who only spouted that bs to get idiots like you to agree with him.
You really think George Washington never killed an innocent man? He was general in command of a rebel army that liked to go around tarring and feathering people that didn’t agree! On top of that he didn’t do it for freedom at all, except perhaps the freedom to sell the crops his slaves produced without having to face export taxes.
And yes, Che killed people. He was the commander of a rebel army fighting governments that, in the case of Cuba and the Congo, massacred civilians without a care. Should I be sad that when it was established who was responsible for these massacres he didn’t hesitate to put a bullet in their head?
He was doing the massacring. He rounded up people who disagreed with him, who had never done anything other than own blue-jeans or listen to rock and roll, and he executed them.
George Washington, on the other hand, did not shoot people for disagreeing with him. The people he killed were soldiers on the opposing army, not civilians who simply liked British fashion. He was good friends with several non-violent loyalists, like Lord Fairfax, and remained so until his death.
He, unlike Che, understood that you don’t have to kill someone for disagreeing with you.
That’s my sister, alright. -.- She has a Che Guevara shirt, even though she doesn’t know what he’s done or even where’s he’s from.
I doubt Che would shoot someone for wearing a t-shirt with his face on it.
Or, if he did, he would have a severe moment of cognitive dissonance first.
che? who the hell is che?
That really good looking guy with shaggy hair and the funny little flat hat on all those t-shirts.
try google.
Irony being that Ernesto (That being “Che’s birth name) was middle class, much like many of his future co-revolutionaries including Castro.
also kind of very much of like those Bostonian rebels and revolutionaries
Anyone ever think that these Che shirts started as a joke? He was a communist so therefore did not support capitalism….so he dies and they put his face on a shirt. LoL Do you see where I’m going with this?
That’s what I always thought. Thought it was funny, too. But then someone didn’t get the joke and it turned serious ._.
At first glance, i thought so too.
However they’ve been twisted into something i can’t even fathom anymore.
“To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail.”
“If the missiles had remained, we would have used them against the very heart of America including New York. We must never establish peaceful coexistence. In this struggle to the death between two systems we must gain the ultimate victory. We must walk the path of liberation even if it costs millions of atomic victims.”
“[Youth] should learn to think and act as a mass….. I vow to make individualism disappear from Cuba! It is criminal to think of individuals!”
Oh yes, he’s a real role model.
It’s politically blasphemous to say anything positive, or even nuanced about Che around right-wing Americans. Worldwide, however, the loathing of Che is an extreme minority view.
Che was more complex and contradictory an historical figure than some people understand.
However simple minded Americans like their characters to be unambiguous and simple: Good OR Bad; Black OR White; Saint OR Sinner, etc. In reality, things are rarely so simple.
That’s one of the reasons that ADOLF HITLER is so often pulled out in an argument: There are relatively few people who embody absolute evil so clearly and readily.
The hysteria and the manic frustration expressed by right-wingers regarding the continuing—and growing—popularity and iconic status of Che is in itself very revealing. Complexity is not their strong suit. Seeing more than the surface is a little hard for right-wingers. Everyone must fit into the “Superman vs. Lex Luthor” box. Reality is harder to pigeonhole.
Can most conservatives tell you anything at all about Fulgencio Batista? Do they mention the 20,000 Cubans killed by Batista’s mafia based police state? Do they discuss the difference in how Che’s men released all captured enemy soldiers, while Batista’s goons gouged their eyes out and tortured them?
Nah … to a right-winger (the kind that wanted to hand the nuke codes to a half-literate ex beauty queen who believes in witchcraft) there are only heroes and villians.
Explaining CHE-HATRED:
There are a plethora of reactionary middle class capitalist-loving douchebags, who were born on 3rd base and think they hit a triple — who like to talk internet smack in Mom’s basement about a revolutionary who’s been dead for 40 + years. How post-modern.
These clowns wouldn’t know the poverty that Che experienced during his travels through South America if it kicked them in their capri pants. Che was radicalized by seeing US Imperialism up close in Guatemala – you know when Uncle Sam & United Fruit decided to incinerate a few thousand brown people so American’s could save 20 cents on their bananas.
Do any of the Che-haters know anything about the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Batista and the Mafia which propped him up? The oligarchs who alongside the mafia turned Cuba into a Yanqui whorehouse, while killing 20,000 Cubans? Che believed in cold justice – because he saw injustice up close.
Meanwhile, the hardest challenge for the anti-Che vapid turds in the next 6 months will probably be the life or death decision of doritos or cheetos while playing their Xbox.
And here, as you speak in absolutes about American conservatives, are you not committing the same offense of which you accuse them?
You use ad-hom attacks against the American right while objecting to their oversimplication of Che? You seem to have oversimplified them. Everything posted against Che here has been reasoned and supported… hardly “black and white” thinking.
Just who has a hard time seeing outside the box here? Its interesting that you seem to place americans squarely in one of two mindless political classes. liberal and conservative . do you think the wealth of american ideals and intelect can be summed up by these groups. they are both fully controlled institutions., if you were a free thinker I dont think it would be so easy to peg you to one or the other ,
True, but I am not communist. I am a Marxist. There is a difference, lol.
It’s not a laughing matter. Marxism is a system of analysis, and a way to view the world. Communism, on the other hand, is a political movement, a form of government, a condition of society. One is a subset of the other, proven with historical precedent. Mincing words Ryan doesn’t change much. It’s a failed system, regardless how you parse the concepts.
Ernesto, you are living in a communist matrix, sorta like the movie. You apparently cannot see it. Only people living in relative freedom can look at you and see how your mind is like a puppet on a string. The whole time though, you think you’re in total control of everything around you. Sucks to live in a lie that everyone can see except you. Go buy that Che shirt and keep reassuring yourself. Looks like It’s all you’ve got to hold onto.
Your comment doesn’t make sense. I live in Argentina, a free, open, democratic, and capitalist country. You must have gotten confused because I said I go to the same university as Che, which is the University of Buenos Aires, here in Che’s native country… Che is even a nickname for “Argentine.”
I have been to the US for an extended period of time, as well as to socialist countries like Cuba, Vietnam, and China. I even studied for 2 years at a US university. My eyes are open and my mind is free. Perhaps you should considering opening up your mind a bit, and start looking at facts and logic without simply thinking “Che=communist=bad… no i must find facts that prove this” as the North American education system teaches you to do.
It’s not that Che=Communism=bad. It’s that Che=mass-murderer and tyrannical oppressor=bad.
You may have traveled, but you never bothered to learn. Che did good things, it’s true, and Hitler saved Germany from starvation and corruption. That doesn’t make either one less of a tyrant or murderer.
Argentina is a free, open, democratic country? Since maybe 1999, perhaps. We all make heroes of our most famous citizens, so you are welcome to your conceit. Che was a complicated man living in a complicated world who wanted to simplify things and improve life for the impoverished. He killed a lot of people in the process. He was more successful than Pol Pot, in some ways, but used the same tactics and had less jungle to hide in when the hammer came down.
“Che’s life is an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom, we will always honor his memory.” — Nelson Mandela
Hasta la Victoria Siempre!
In most cases, if you want to know how heroic someone is, first gage how much the right-wing hates them. The greater the teabaggers hate him, the more heroic he/she must be. Che Guevara, (one of the most heroic individuals of the 20th century) invites a large amount of hatred, vitriol, and misinformation from the conservative wing-nuts for two reasons:
(1) He represents many of the noble attributes that their bankrupt philosophy abhors, namely self-sacrifice, helping the poor, restoring justice when it comes to great inequality, and overthrowing the oligarch puppets of plantation capitalism.
(2) Che represents everything that the right-wingers secretly wish they were – brave, determined, dashing, charismatic, intelligent, poetic, and unshakable against impenetrable odds – while they took deferments from Vietnam – Che battled armies on 2 continents usually outnumbered 20 or 50 to 1.
you claim to believe that all men are equal, yet you talk about people with right-wing ideologies as though they are worthless. how do you manage to live with such dualistic ideologies?
“If you want to know how heroic someone is, first gage [sic] how much the right-wing hates them.” So Hitler, Stalin and Mao must be some of the most heroic men ever?
If “teabaggers” so abhor self-sacrifice and helping the poor, why do rightwingers give so much more to charity than liberals? And since when is raising taxes on someone else self-sacrifice?
While I agree with you that Maria’s point was poorly thought-out (o.k. idiotic), it should be noted that “Blue” states in the US actually have both a higher percentage and total amount of charity donations than “Red” states. The same study also found that violent crimes were higher in “Blue” states, but out-of-wedlock births and divorce rates were lower, that doesn’t have anything to do with this argument, but I just thought it was interesting.
Comparing states is poor methodology. Look at the data for counties and you’ll find much more useful conclusions. Political conservatives are more charitable, less violent, more monogamous, etc.
Fidel, Che, and Raul were able to overthrow the dictator Batista because of several conditions in the country. These caused widespread resentment for Batista and his US and mafia backed oligarchy. Such conditions were:
CUBA under the U.S.-backed DICTATOR Batista:
• Americans owned 70 % of the arable land.
• 1% of the population controlled 46 % of the wealth.
• Batista’s goons and secret police killed 20,000 Cubans (tortured even more).
• 40 % of the population were illiterate.
• 50 % of the population lived in Bohio shacks.
• Dissidents were hung and left to dangle in the streets as a warning sign.
• The Mafia (Meyer Lansky & Co) ran Havana and used Cuba as a whorehouse for rich gringos from the U.S.
Where did the revolution take Cuba exactly? How many boat people per year fled Cuba under Batista? What was the Cuban GNP back then as in respect to the population then vs. now? All the demagoguery in the world cannot hide the facts about Guevara and Castro and their ruination of Cuba. You are only appealing to the weak-minded, undereducated masses. Just like your Marxist predecessors are so fond of preying on.
well, people flee from every country in the world, the difference is that in cuba it´s ilegal to flee.
Yours was the most educated and correct comment on here. There is no doubt that Cuba fell to ruins after and because of the revolution then comunism but fact was there where more poor and abused Cubans than wealthy or middle class and as in any oppressed state these people placed their fate, hopes, and dreams for a better life with Che which ultimately still kept them in poverty and segregated from Cubas wealthy tourist areas. Fidels military took hold of the Islands wealth and property and its people where indeed given an education while left in decaying homes of a paradise lost.
There should be a graph for those commenting here…
Entitled children ages 12 to 17 with no real world experience and little understanding of history and no desire to actually learn anything: 40%
Trolls : 20%
Elitist Europeans who are somehow experts in US politics and social attitudes : 30%
Other Non-US elitist : 9%
Meaningful intelligent exchange : 1%
^^^^^THIS^^^^^^!
20 years in the military, college grad, travel to 14 countries outside the U.S. including 3 hostile fire assignments. I haven’t done it all but I did come from very humble beginnings and been to places and seen things most have only seen movies about. I weep for the useful idiots here (legends in their own minds though) lauding the guy burning in Hell now, formerly known as ‘Che’. The fire and the worms consume him eternally. They are headed to the same place as him–gleefully so, I suspect.
I was young and I lived in South America when Che Guevara was still alive and killing, and when some of the Che apologists posting here were still barfing milk on their mother’s shoulder. For the other posters (the normal, sentient ones) I have one a bit of advice: do not let these useful idiots – who quote Mandela and PBS; yeah, THAT’s a pair of unbiased sources! – misguide you. Che Guevara was one iof Fidel Castro’s most blood-thirsty henchmen. A typical Marxist who hated everyone who was not a Marxist. His idea of “democracy” was to put a bullet in every anti-Marxist head. And he did pretty much that. I’m SO GLAD this monster got his comeuppance.
Burn in hell, Che, you bloody Marxist
I’m so glad you were fortunate enough to survive this madman’s reign of terror.
People who don’t know what it’s like to live under a dictator’s regime should really contemplate how much they’re enjoying their free speech right now and not get tracked down and shot for having an opinion.
I do know what it’s like to live under a dictator’s regime. I was born during the “Process of National Re-Organization” here in Argentina and I remember learning that my Uncle and Aunt were both disappeared by a regime backed by your good friend Reagan. If only Che had succeeded in liberating South America, there would have been no such disappearances, because at least the Cuban Revolutionary Government kept its killing to known members of the former government, and made its punishments open and relatively clean, instead of kidnapping suspected ‘subversives’ torturing them and dumping the bodies in the ocean without stating any cause nor notifying the families of the fate of their children.
Che wanted all of South America to be one big Marxist dictatorship. Do you not know this or is such an abomination your fondest desire also? I can’t fathom how many people would have to be killed for that to happen. Do you know that when Che died in Bolivia he coudln’t get a following of Bolivians? They were anxious to be rid of the rabid guy, one way or the other.
No, he made up causes. Or he said he didn’t need a cause. He is quoted as saying that he didn’t need evidence to have people executed, that anyone who disagreed with the state should be considered the highest of criminals and should be killed immediately.
People may not have “disappeared” because everyone knew exactly where the “subversives” went- to the labor camps or the firing squad.
And by the way, my country may not be the best in the world, but at least I can disagree with my government without fear of being shot. People who lived under Che couldn’t say the same.
querido ernesto, yo tambien soy argentino
no naci durante el proceso de reorganizacion nacional, se que secuestraban a los montoneros y demas
pero tampoco te creas que los montoneros eran angelitos, por que a mis abuelos, que son trabajadores honestos, no afiliadas a ningun tipo de gobierno, a favor de nadie, los montoneros les metieron por lo menos 3 bombas en la casa, y no se si mas, y mi abuelo era un simple gerente de una fabrica!
yo no estoy diciendo que la dictadura fue lo mejor que le paso a argentina, pero mucha gente afirma que habia mucha mas seguridad en ese tiempo, ahora vos salis a la calle y te dejan en pelotas, y nadie hace nada
quienes estan en el gobierno ahora? el mismo grupo de montoneros que les ponian bombas a mis abuelos, y esos montoneros tienen pensamientos de izquierda
como dijo AttyTude: quemate en el infierno, Che, maldito marxisista
GET OFF THE INTERNET AND BACK TO WORK
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
Internet is a capitalist trap that wastes time you could be spending growing cigars for Castro. Down with America! Damn those people who hate mass murderers simply because they don’t like blood. America is a stupid place where no inventions occur. Only a communist system can sufficiently provide for the poor geniuses to create and procreate. All others will be sterilized and censured
you… you monster, che was a horrible person a murderer of man women and childeren who did not agree with him and here you are on the internet the same thing you are now protesting,supporting the very thing this creature killed for while insulting the greatest nation on earth… THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.Whats wrong with you?
Double troll for the WIN.
I’m speechless at the win.
Uber obvious and perfect sarcastic troll + actually pretending to fight back troll = best comment train ever.
whatever girls. here in argentina it is true, because te real che supporters know that buying a t shirt with his face would be the last thing che would have wanted.
I think Che t-shirts are great, it is just as effective as someone wearing a shirt that says I’m stuck on stupid!!! Che was a glorified punk-ass gang banger!!!
do you the people calling che a marxist know what that even means? The way Marx envisioned communism would have formed a perfect society. to believe in what Marx had to say is in no way a bad thing. However, as shown in history, perfect communism is impossible, as it will always lead to dictatorship.
Che wanted the right things, to help out a continent
Communism has always lead to dictatorship because of where Communism developed: in countries accustomed to authoritarianism. If a Communist revolution occurred in the US, or Canada, or Western Europe, it would very likely not be a dictatorship. A new, more modern Communism would be an ideal system.
Latin America has a very turbulent and bloody history, and there are many wounds. Maybe that’s why Communism there isn’t what the philosophers expected it to be. Communism can really only work under already good circumstances.
What if I have a Che shirt and hat, but I am a teenage rebel communist
?
he fought very hard to be on a $60 dollar shirt at gap! =P
This is my favorite graph! It’s so true! And a Che t shirt at the Gap is totally oxymoronic…
No matter what anyone says, Che was a great man, better then any “democratic leader” like George Bush or Stephen Harper.
Translation: I’m always right, no matter what evidence or logic there is to the contrary.
amen.
Hmmm…It doesn’t matter if Che Guevara was a hero or murderer, I think we can all agree on this: Kids who wear Che Guevara T shirts are D bags. Who’s with me?
Amen.
Che Guevara said so himself,
“A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate.” -Che Guevara
lol true, but to be honest u dont have to be a communist to wear a Che T-shirt. he wasnt just a communist u know;)
What I don’t understand is this… It’s ok to fight for what you believe in (no matter the consequences) if you’re Che Guevara but not if you are a non-violent tea party member?
they both spread lies and hatred. greater injustices elsewhere do not lessen injustices here
Ok, soooo. Charlie Manson tee-shirts = You’re going to Hell. But Che Guevara = You’re so awesome. Hmmm, odd.
Charlie Manson was charged in killing only 7 people while Che Guevara killed 216. Both monsters. Both have tee-shirts.
‘Twilight Zone theme starts’
Here you go worst of both worlds:
http://www.bant-shirts.com/charlie-guevara-t-shirt.htm
The fact is this: The observed fact of history is that the human race has a corrupted nature that is based on selfishness and self-independence at the expense of others. Socialism is merely a mask and in truth all leaders no matter what they call themselves seek the will to power. This is why the wise ones and the Christian ones who are consistent know that we need a Constitutional system until Jesus Christ returns and rules as perfect Absolute Monarch.
Men like Castro, Lenin, and Che Guevara, are deluded fools. They end up becoming the next tyrant. Capitalism works. The nature of man is a selfish nature and Communism/Socialism/Marxism, and other Collectivist systems FAIL and DESTROY lives and liberty. The US Founding Fathers knew this and thus the GREATEST nation ever to exist aside from Israel, the USA, succeeded until collectivist leftism crept in to destroy it.
The red in this graph also applies to American college students.
I don’t think I’ve ever known a communist who actually liked Che Guevara.
Ever think that people just like the shirt? Not so much the reason/history behind it…
Maybe, i’m not gay but the face on the shirt seems to be a pretty handsome caricature.
Sou comunista
Sou defensor sagaz da justiça,da massa oprimida e da sociedade.
Mesmo que me obriguem a mudar de idéia,sou comunista,até a morte.
Mesmo que coloquem o mundo contra mim
Mesmo que usem todo o poder existente
Mesmo que impeçam de divulgar a justiça
Mesmo se forem cegos ao povo.
Mesmo se forem surdos ao povo.
Mesmo se atarem as mãos do povo.
Eu lutarei.E meu conhecimento e coragem serão a unicas armas de que precisarei.
E mesmo que me tirem tudo,não me tirarão a coragem e o conhecimento.
Quando sofrer lembrarei que Cuba ainda persiste.
Quando estiver em apuros,lembrare que as idéis de Che não morreram com ele.
Quando estiver desanimado,lembrarei da Revolução Russa.
Quando estiver cansado,lembrarei que os martires do povo lutaram até o fim.
Quando estiver injustiçado,lembrarei da glória que já alcançamos,como em Stalingrado ou no Vietnã.
Quando com medo,lembrarei que quando vencemos,vencemos comunistas,e quando perdemos,perdemos heróis.
Quando sozinho,lembrarei das inumeras revoluções que ocorreram no mundo.Desde a Russia,Albania,até Angola,Cuba e Coréia.
E quando estiver com Deus,lembrarei que sou apenas
comunista.
That’s wrong. Che would shoot anyone just for the hell of it.
Comunista religioso? Temos um paradoxo.
Can someone tell me where I can get a new Che t-shirt?
There you go.
http://www.thoseshirts.com/lousy.html

I fit into the group that wishes he could wear a Che t-shirt but cant because it will have been created by capitalist means and doesnt want to be mistaken for one of the middle class rebels who know nothing about him.
Also, why is the communist section the red section?
*isn’t
El Che vive, sou guevarista ginos_cio
Can all you tea bagging Bush sucking idiots stop pretending you know what you are talking about?!!! Do a little research and stop listening to your pastor or Glen Beck?!!! Seriously… this world has too many of you assholes!
The be all end all fact is that NO government will work on this planet, that is until God the father arrives . .