Her tweet isn't aimed at us. It's aimed at the people replying to her:
Considering the Cubans are being oppressed by an authoritarian regime, an embargo is the best option. Sure, it hurts the people but it hurts the government more. It’s a easier way to bring them to the table.
The embargo doesn’t restrict food & medical supplies.
The sixty years of suffering in Cuba has been caused by socialism a system that promises utopia and delivers violent repression. Also you fail to voice support for accepting the Cubans trying to flee the Cuban regime.
I agree that the US embargo WAS a mistake, it remains a mistake, but you don't want to end it right now when it's so close to achieve its goal, it WAS the wrong policy, but right now the regime is almost finished, lifting the embargo would give them a speed boost. PLEASE, DON'T
What you're not seeming to piece together is that the regime will simply steal whatever comes in. Ending the embargo would only benefit the party. This is a feature of the communist system. Furthermore, the embargo doesn't restrict food and medical aid and hasn't since 2000.
The problem is not the embargo but the brutality of the regime which needs to go.
The embargo is not the author of the cruelty, the authoritarian regime is. But there is one solution to both problems. Free, open, fair elections in Cuba will also result in the end of the embargo.
I love you for your heart @RepAOC @AOC I will always support you but I’m afraid the embargo is the smallest tip of the iceberg and ultimately is not phasing the Cuban people as much as it is their oppressive tyrannical govt.
You do understand that Cuba can trade with any other country in the world right? Each and every one of them. China, Europe, Russia of course… all of them. They can’t pay their bills but they CAN trade w them.
Sorry, deeply sorry, but you're wrong. There's no other way to say it to you. US embargo is not the main reason and will never be. Cuban people lives under a dictatorship, and we, the Cuban people, claim for FREEDOM. Spread the word!!!
Cubans know about the embargo but can you hear them asking for the embargo to finish or they begging for freedom and help from the U.S government? My people ask for freedom!!!
This is a very good statement, which is exactly why it will annoy both the right-wingers and the tankies. :)
I think anyone who wants to use the word tankie on twitter should be required to pin a tweet with their definition of tankie first
The nerds who bitch endlessly about how much war thunder sucks but keep playing it anyway. Why yes, I'm a tankie :t34: :meow-tankie:
I swear to god I have played every souls game and war thunder still feels more sadistic
I’m fine with that becoming shorthand for far left. Capitalists don’t give a shit what tendency you are, just that you’re revolutionary and against them.
At this point I don't even think it matters. She actively dodges left wing media and gaslit people the last time they noticed progressives weren't actually doing anything. Remember those super important paygo exemptions? Remember how she needed to save political capital for the minimum wage battle?
She can either explain herself and go win support back or just eat shit. People shouldn't accept political leaders on faith. The whole thing where people play lib whisperer obviously isn't working.
This is what always bugs me. If every actions needs interference and reading between the lines, then it is a failure of political messaging. Denouncing the government of Cuba is bad faith and I am not required to take it on good faith
How is this any different than the MSNBC "Bernie only passed three bills" argument? Progressives just passed the covid relief bill which is probably the largest downward transfer of wealth in the US in 40 years. They're about to do it again with infrastructure. She doesn't dodge left wing media, she might just not go on your favorite podcast but she literally did an interview with DSA magazine a couple months ago. And it's not like any other lefty in Congress is spending their time on the left podcast circuit, why don't they get the same criticism?
I don't get why there's so much lazy criticism of AOC out there. The "progressives don't get anything done" one is literally a false Hilary Clinton talking point with "its ok cause im a communist" at the end. There are a million places like China/Tibet, this Cuba tweet, a couple bad endorsements, etc where AOC can and should be criticized. Those criticisms should be elevated. But why is there so much lazy shit like this out there?
Bernie leveraged his votes to change bills and get real concessions from the Democratic party. AOC falls in line with either minor or non-binding concessions.
Examples of Bernie doing this (I'm going to assume you're in good faith and not doing FTV crap), please?
And it's not like House progressives always fall in line. The squad railed against Biden on the refugee cap and won. The squad railed against Manchin on numerous cuts to covid relief and won.
The Dems were going to do that anyway, same with the infrastructure bill. Guess what, the bills still stuck. Progressives weren’t able to extract meaningful changes from either bill. Even if they did, it means nothing because we aren’t talking about Progressives as a caucus, we’re talking about AOC.
What? House progressives literally stopped Manchin from cutting nearly half the stimulus checks and making unemployment insurance taxable. Progressives didn't need to "change" the bill because they wrote it. That's billions of dollars directly taken from capital and put in people's hands. Saying "every good thing that happens is neoliberal consensus and every bad things that happen is because progressives didn't fight" is a meaningless self-fulfilling prophecy. And heck, if you think the $1.9T covid bill and $3.5T infrastructure bill are mainstream Democrat consensus, then you have a much higher view of the Democratic Party than I do.
If you're looking for a moment where AOC single-handedly delivered a huge win for the working class without any help, that's hard to find because life isn't Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
That wasn't the squad. The pressure on Manchin to ease up on the cuts and restore the checks was from Kamala and Biden. Kamala who I'm sure people remember, went to west virginia to force his hand. The pressure on refugees also didn't come from the squad. It was from refugee orgs who threatened to break with Biden because he lied to them.
Same with the relief bills. Those are Janet Yellen's baby and unless you think she is a progressive then it's also not the squad at work there. What we have is not a leftist insurgency into the democratic party, what we have is the same old where party leadership deals out scraps for individual politicians to market themselves with in their home districts.
AOC's Cuba tweet was bad and doesn't deserve defending but I never bought into the "left is racist/sexist" narrative until I saw the ridiculously different treatments Bernie and AOC get by the online left despite having basically the exact same political views and tactics.
Like, let's be real, shit like Force the Vote and other obvious bad-faith wrecker attacks wouldn't have gotten traction if AOC was white.
I agree with you, but I think it's also worth mentioning that AOC puts these bad takes out on Twitter, while with Bernie it's usually just something he says to a reporter or whatever; and the fact that you can screenshot a Twitter post and dunk on it does make the dunking much easier.
Bernie was also far far far more radical than her and at a time when it was more politically dangerous
Eh that's debatable. You don't see Bernie calling Israel an apartheid state, for example.
Yes but when it comes to supporting AES Bernie is far better. Also emphasis on "more dangerous" there was a cold war going on
I never brought into narrative of the left being racist and sexist until we had several months of AOC's camp trying to pretend everyone calling her out was a white guy all to distract from the fact that they've sunset any major progressive policy for at least a generation. I never brought into it until her people intentionally dodged talking to her black critics in person where the absurdity of this shit doesn't play.
I agree with this. Bernie is unironically a war criminal for what he did to Serbia and the rest of the Balkans.
And that's totally fine!
If you think Bernie sucks then you should probably think AOC sucks. If you think Bernie is good you should probably think AOC is good. But I don't see a case for liking one while disliking the other that isn't just idpol (in either direction) or terminally online bullshit nobody cares about.
I view both as SocDems that overlap with the goals of those further left around half of the time (eg labor, ecology, welfare).
When that happens, they’re useful and we should work with them, but just be aware that we don’t have the same end goals. I want a stateless, classless society. AOC and Bernie want Nordic Capitalism.
"The left" can and is all of the bad things, in that there are pockets holding clearly horrific views as well as widespread casual bigotry, the kind baked into their parent culture. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the anti-left narrative is true since it's about saying it's particularly racist or sexist compared to other political tendencies, including the libs usually making the accusation.
We do need to fight for intersectional organizing and messaging as best we can, both in our current atomized state and when (if) we can work together in orgs that recognize and strategize around excising these behaviors, ideally through education but also with standards for inclusion (the person saying a casually bigoted thing gets informed/educated *and" barred from saying such things so that it no longer harasses membership).
ridiculously different treatments Bernie and AOC
And if we swap the ages?
Everyone should compare their thoughts on her tweet to national coverage of it and then consider whether you might be out of touch with the majority of the country:
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Calls for End to 'Absurdly Cruel' Cuban Embargo
- AOC's Cuba tweet draws fiery response from Florida Dem
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Joins Black Lives Matter In Calling for End to 'Cruel' Cuba Embargo as Biden Stands Firm
What do most people appear to be taking away from this, and what are you taking away from this?
Politics without the masses are adventurist politics.
But arguing with Gusanos is more important than solidarity with the Cuban people living in Cuba. Also we really shouldn't base our stances on what most people are taking away from propaganda vs what we see it as. It is meant to evoke specific responses to serve an end. Pure inventing a public
Publically stating cold war talking points as a politician, IS an action and is opposed to solidarity with the Cuban communists
My people ask for freedom
It's so wild when they do the meme, of course that's how the meme started, but dom't they know they are cringe? Smdh people need to be more online
I just wish AOC would put out a note saying "Not only am I a communist, but I am the same type of communist RowPin is."
I mean, AOC's tweets are never aimed at us and I don't think anyone thought they were? AOC is appropriating the socialist label for her SocDem positions, she doesn't communicate with or consider socialists at all in her messaging.
The libs who simultaneously propagated warhawk talking points while saying, "let's not invade Iraq" got the same response, failed to coherently oppose the war build-up, by the way. The classic anti-communist ineffective peacenik that says, "the North Vietnamese are horrible monsters doing unconscionable things that must be stopped but let's get out of 'Nam but also I'll vote for your war budget".
Best case scenario, some ignorant libs learn that the blockade even exists even exists and then do some research.
PS not calling anyone out, but it's useful to remember that "embargo" is the empire's preferred euphemism and it allows for belief that it's just preventing US trade with Cuba. It is actually enforced on trade between Cuba and other countries as well and makes heavy use of US IP monopolies, so it's more of a blockade. It prevents entire classes of medicines and technologies and industrial parts from being traded with Cuba.
It's been pretty clear for a while that she's going for being a career Democrat, and the end of Bernie's 2020 run should be the last word on how far working with the Democratic party gets you.
In other words, we don't need to pay attention to her; we're free.
In other words, we don’t need to pay attention to her; we’re free.
You'd think that but every hot take drags the hogs back in for their slop
