Reply #76: uh...

[nodehopper]

first of all, people on this thread were arguing about whether Castro is Good Leader or Bad Leader. The dispute here wasn't Cuba as a culture or a nation, but as a political government headed by Castro for many decades now.

I am speaking of long-standing and documented human rights violations in Cuba, including camapigns of repression against and improsonment of dissidents and targeted groups like homosexuals (among others). Cuba is a socialist dictatorship, in the tradition of Soviet Union, using the same model of silencing dissent.

And I am going to tell you why that whole "calling the cattle black" pisses me off so much when it pops up on Democratic Underground. That is a valid thing to point out to people who are convinced that America is Awesome and Cuba is Bad, and if only they would see the light of capitalism, everything would be great, in a kind of atavistic Red-Scare sort of mentality.

Presumably, people are here at Democratic Underground because they ARE critical of the US government and its unfair and unjust policies. I think we mostly all agree on that. Which makes the whole argument of "well, it's hypocritical to point out flaws in Cuba as long as US is committing atrocities" completely nonsensical when applied to people who first and foremost acknowledge and protest the fact that US is committing atrocities too. What is hypocritical about that? We are all here because we do not complacent members of the pot. We are here because, hopefully, among other things, we agree that human rights abuse is unacceptable, whether it is being perpetrated in the name of "American Freedom" or "bright socialist future."