So, I've been noticing a lot of lefties are praising Fidel Castro in his death. Now, I think I gave a fairly even handed opinion of him, but ultimately, I'm on the side that believes that his bad outweighs his good. The guy was a dictator, and yes in this case, his origins aren't bad, his original motivations weren't bad, and American involvement likely drove him to paranoia and tyranny, but let's not forget that he was in fact a tyrant. He jailed and killed political opponents. He ruled with an iron fist. Sure, he has a good healthcare system, but that doesn't mean the guy should be praised. You wanna know who else had a good healthcare system? Hitler.
Look, even tyrants can sometimes do good things, and I agree human nature is this complex thing where not every action taken by an evil human being is evil, and not every action taken by a good human being is good. And I will say Castro deserves more respect than, say, Stalin, or Pol Pot, or Kim Jong Un. By commie dictator standards he's actually probably the one with the most nuanced legacy of them all in my opinion. The guy wasn't all bad, although I would say his evil has outweighed his good.
But seriously, stop praising him. It makes all leftists, including myself, look bad. Because we still have a history of anyone to the left of the democrats, and heck, even those who are mainstream democrats like Obama, being accused of being in league with communists like Castro. And when you praise him, it makes us all look bad.
We must reject tyrants, even if they are also leftists of different shades. A strong, moral left needs to make civil liberties, democracy, and freedom at the heart of their ideology, even if our version of those things may differ from those on the right who follow, say, natural rights theory. I will not support tyrants, and I fundamentally reject Castro's way of doing things. And I encourage everyone to do the same, despite his nuanced legacy.
No comments:
Post a Comment