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!!!
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.
Yeah that's fair. AOC is Very Online when Bernie isn't lmao
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.
This.
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).
And if we swap the ages?