[Nuclear1]

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/fidel-castro-en/article117186483.html

Fidel Castro, who towered over his Caribbean island for nearly five decades, a shaggy-bearded figure in combat fatigues whose long shadow spread across Latin America and the world, is dead at age 90. His brother Raul announced the death late Friday night.

Millions cheered Fidel Castro on the day he entered Havana. Millions more fled the communist dictator’s repressive police state, leaving behind their possessions, their families, the island they loved and often their very lives. It’s part of the paradox of Castro that many people belonged to both groups.

Few national leaders have inspired such intense loyalty — or such a wrenching feeling of betrayal. Few fired the hearts of the world’s restless youth as Castro did when he was young, and few seemed so irrelevant as Castro when he was old — the last Communist, railing on the empty, decrepit street corner that Cuba became under his rule.

He held a unique place among the world’s leaders of the past century. Others had greater impact or won more respect. But none combined his dynamic personality, his decades in power, his profound effect on his own country and his provocative role in international affairs.

Kubas atbrīvošanās. Nāves komunismu.

[JSRNerdo]

yes please do tell us all about how communism is to blame for poverty and repression but capitalism isn't to blame for poverty or repression i am very interested in knowing

[karajorma]

I found this amusing.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[rubixcube]

yes please do tell us all about how communism is to blame for poverty and repression but capitalism isn't to blame for poverty or repression i am very interested in knowing

Both are to blame, a mix of both is required for a prosperous society, Cuba is an example of what happens when a society has a excessive amount of socialism and insufficient capitalism.

[Klaustrophobia]

I found this amusing.

this one tickles me more

[Grizzly]

yes please do tell us all about how communism is to blame for poverty and repression but capitalism isn't to blame for poverty or repression i am very interested in knowing

Both are to blame, a mix of both is required for a prosperous society, Cuba is an example of what happens when a society has a excessive amount of socialism and insufficient capitalism.

Have you ever watched Michael Moore's film "Sicko"?

[Det. Bullock]

yes please do tell us all about how communism is to blame for poverty and repression but capitalism isn't to blame for poverty or repression i am very interested in knowing

Both are to blame, a mix of both is required for a prosperous society, Cuba is an example of what happens when a society has a excessive amount of socialism and insufficient capitalism.

Have you ever watched Michael Moore's film "Sicko"?

From what I can tell from the bits and pieces I saw "Sicko" tends to omit a few problems with public health systems, I'm kinda skeptical that Cuba might have as good a public health system as the UK or even Italy, which are far richer countries since whilte they have state run health services they also have a capitalist economy that gives it far more resources.

yes please do tell us all about how communism is to blame for poverty and repression but capitalism isn't to blame for poverty or repression i am very interested in knowing

Yep, it seems that they are both systems that in their pure form are essentially a recipe for social disaster never crossed the mind of some people.

[Mikes]

yes please do tell us all about how communism is to blame for poverty and repression but capitalism isn't to blame for poverty or repression i am very interested in knowing

Both are to blame, a mix of both is required for a prosperous society, Cuba is an example of what happens when a society has a excessive amount of socialism and insufficient capitalism.

Have you ever watched Michael Moore's film "Sicko"?

From what I can tell from the bits and pieces I saw "Sicko" tends to omit a few problems with public health systems, I'm kinda skeptical that Cuba might have as good a public health system as the UK or even Italy, which are far richer countries since whilte they have state run health services they also have a capitalist economy that gives it far more resources.

yes please do tell us all about how communism is to blame for poverty and repression but capitalism isn't to blame for poverty or repression i am very interested in knowing

Yep, it seems that they are both systems that in their pure form are essentially a recipe for social disaster never crossed the mind of some people.

The people that will reply with "stinking communist" or "stinking capitalist" respectively, when you tell them that? Those people? I.e. The ones that usually have way too much power in their society respectively and/or are pretty much only quoting "mainstream opinion"?

[MP-Ryan]

Since our illustrious PM couldn't manage it (I like Trudeau but his statement on Castro was garbage), I'll take a crack:

Condolences to Castro's family, friends, and supporters. Castro loved his country and sought to better it, in some cases succeeding. He was, however, also directly responsible for thousands of murders, imprisonment, violations of human rights, and the suppression of fundamental freedoms across Cuba. Hopefully his death will mark a change in Cuba for the better.

[Dragon]

It's not like he had much to say for a few years now (not surprising, seeing as he was such an old geezer). His brother was mostly running the show since 2008 or so.

Also, we've got a thread about Castro, but not one for Leonard Cohen? For shame.

[karajorma]

Did you start a thread for Leonard Cohen?

[Dragon]

No, if I come here tomorrow I will (assuming nobody beats me to it, that is). You might have noticed I'm not around as often as I used to be.

[Phantom Hoover]

Sadly you were quickly replaced by innumerable other blights to darken my days and so the absence was not noted.

[Scotty]

Sadly you were quickly replaced by innumerable other blights to darken my days and so the absence was not noted.

On the hierarchy of "things that didn't need to be said" and "ways to be an ass" that ranks pretty high on both.  Please enjoy the warning enclosed.

[Nuclear1]

yes please do tell us all about how communism is to blame for poverty and repression but capitalism isn't to blame for poverty or repression i am very interested in knowing

Well, in terms of systems that butchered members of my family and sent others to secret prisons to die, the score is currently Communism - 1, Capitalism - 0.

But I'm sorry, you were about to inform me of the workers' paradises and bastions of human rights of China, the USSR, and Cuba?

I found this amusing.

Alright, I might be a Trump supporter, but still... 

[Scotty]

But I'm sorry, you were about to inform me of the workers' paradises and bastions of human rights of China, the USSR, and Cuba?

No, just reminding you that the things communism is usually blamed for are not unique - or even typically that much more pronounced - in communist systems (keeping in mind that the USSR and China were communist in name only from the word "go").

But you just keep on stuffing that straw man, I'm sure that will be productive.

[Det. Bullock]

yes please do tell us all about how communism is to blame for poverty and repression but capitalism isn't to blame for poverty or repression i am very interested in knowing

Well, in terms of systems that butchered members of my family and sent others to secret prisons to die, the score is currently Communism - 1, Capitalism - 0.

But I'm sorry, you were about to inform me of the workers' paradises and bastions of human rights of China, the USSR, and Cuba?

Capitalism also leads to rich people hiring or colluding with mafia thugs so they could kill trade unionists because they want to keep wages low and keep the politicians in their pocket.

[Nuclear1]

No, just reminding you that the things communism is usually blamed for are not unique - or even typically that much more pronounced - in communist systems (keeping in mind that the USSR and China were communist in name only from the word "go").

No system has ever been truly "communist", in terms of a classless, stateless society, but China and the USSR were certainly entities that revolved around authoritarianism and centralized planning.  The problem isn't with the end result of communism necessarily, but the process by which that end goal is to be achieved.  Abolishing the state involves destroying cultures attached to individual states; since people of the targeted cultures aren't typically willing to give them up on their own, in step Russification, Holodomor, mass deportations, destruction of cultural heritage and execution of intellectuals to break them.

It's a system my grandparents fled for a good reason.

Capitalism also leads to rich people hiring or colluding with mafia thugs so they could kill trade unionists because they want to keep wages low and keep the politicians in their pocket.

Contract killing, organized crime, and pay-for-play are illegal in the Western world, and one of the worst crimes against organized labor is memorialized as one of the most widely-celebrated, pro-labor holidays in the West.  Operation Priboi, Holodomor, and Katyn were carried out at the behest of the state.

[Aesaar]

yes please do tell us all about how communism is to blame for poverty and repression but capitalism isn't to blame for poverty or repression i am very interested in knowing

Well, in terms of systems that butchered members of my family and sent others to secret prisons to die, the score is currently Communism - 1, Capitalism - 0.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet

You'll find that's usually a feature of ruthless authoritarian governments more than one of ideology.

[Nuclear1]

yes please do tell us all about how communism is to blame for poverty and repression but capitalism isn't to blame for poverty or repression i am very interested in knowing

Well, in terms of systems that butchered members of my family and sent others to secret prisons to die, the score is currently Communism - 1, Capitalism - 0.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet

You'll find that's usually a feature of ruthless authoritarian governments more than one of ideology.

I don't recall saying other ideologies weren't capable of human rights abuses and authoritarianism. 

I'm also having a hard time finding a mass killing committed by a Communist Party with around 2300 victims--the number of people killed by Pinochet.  Not for any lack of atrocities, but for having body counts that low.  The lowest I can think of is Katyn, and that was still ten times as many people.