and i’m not saying they might not have...

but we have this friend who was upset about my recent instagram stream that was pro communism and that i was ignorant because his family only got one bag of rice for his big family and they weren’t able to get a new house without dirt floors and a leaking roof... so they fled on a raft that took 3 days.

so without saying “lmao sounds like made up bullshit” how do i say, “well actually they were probably middle class and didn’t actually need this or that blah blah blah”

she also thinks since i’m privileged and didn’t experience what his family did that i should maybe not be communist? idk i want to radicalize them both, but since his literal parents are anti communist it might be hard.

  • spectre [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Yeah some of them did have it hard after the Americans launched a brutal embargo policy from just 90 miles away. That doesn't fall on Castro, that falls on the United States.

    Poor economic conditions from the embargo, a bit of propaganda from friends and family who left, plus the royal treatment once you get to the US (a good expat network in Miami, supported by the US government cause it looks good) all combined would probably make me want to leave too. This happens all the time throughout the history of socialist countries, where workers who don't have a quality Marxist education decide they want their Nike shoes and Gucci belts, but are ignorant as to what they are giving up, even if things are difficult. Frankly, I can't entirely blame them, but this isn't about individual choices anyway. At the end of the day, the responsibility falls on the US government, not Castro/communism. If things were just as shitty without an embargo, then I'd get the argument, but it's always conveniently ignored.

    I'm sure there are criticisms of Castro (any leader is bound to fuck up, especially after such a long time in power), but assuming your friend isn't part of a plantation family (if he is then it's gonna take a lot more convincing, and I'd probably just write it off at that point), why would you advocate for Batista? why would you advocate for your country to entirely capitulate to another country? That shit doesn't work out, ask the former Soviet Republics.