[YouTube] The Truth About Che Guevara

[Freedomain]

 

The real truth behind one of the most controversial, charismatic and popular rebels of the twentieth century.

 

Sources

Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson

Companero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara by Jorge G. Castaneda

The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey by Ernesto Che Guevara

Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him by Humberto Fontova

http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/gavinfoster/2009/12/09/so-who-is-this-che-guevara-then

http://www.cubanet.org/htdocs/CNews/y09/enero09/23_O_3.html

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1535

http://liberpress.blogspot.co.uk/2007/10/mi-primo-el-che.html

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rFE7nTO-iLcC&pg=PA104

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/terrorism/terror-1965.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba%E2%80%93United_States_relations

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=326351&CategoryId=14510

[deadalnix]

Awesome video !I knew the guy was horrible, but he was actually even worse.A quick remark. At some point, Stefan mention mother Teresa, and it is not clear from the video if he think she was good or evil. Let me answer that one: she was freaking horrible. Letting that here:http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/a-new-expose-on-mother-teresa-shows-that-she-and-the-vatican-were-even-worse-than-we-thought/And that quote:“There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ’s Passion. The world gains much from their suffering”To be clear, Stefan did not say anough about her to make her either look good or bad. I simply wanted to make it clear who she was.

[NecessariusVerum]

Awesome video !I knew the guy was horrible, but he was actually even worse.A quick remark. At some point, Stefan mention mother Teresa, and it is not clear from the video if he think she was good or evil. Let me answer that one: she was freaking horrible. Letting that here:http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/a-new-expose-on-mother-teresa-shows-that-she-and-the-vatican-were-even-worse-than-we-thought/And that quote:“There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ’s Passion. The world gains much from their suffering”To be clear, Stefan did not say anough about her to make her either look good or bad. I simply wanted to make it clear who she was.

I'm pretty sure I've heard him say critical things about her, but I'm not sure. Knowing her history myself, I would expect stef would not think highly of her. The point he was trying to make was, Christopher Hitchens despised her. But on the other hand praised Che Guevera, which to be honest Che was the worst of the two, by FAR.

[nathanm]

Yikes.  Now I want to know what story Che fans are hearing, because I can't see how you could take any of these facts and spin this guy into being a super cool dude.

[Lians]

Che Guevara makes Karl Marx look like a fluffy bunny.

[Clay]

Yikes.  Now I want to know what story Che fans are hearing, because I can't see how you could take any of these facts and spin this guy into being a super cool dude.

[deadalnix]

Even with a large dose of propaganda, the still look like a psycho to me.

[ProfessionalTeabagger]

Here's a video claiming Stef is lying. 

 

 

 

[Lians]

Here's a video claiming Stef is lying. 

 

I decided to indulge this fellow and had a look at his claims.

 

For the most part, his arguments revolve around the following: Stef is a conspiracy theorist, Humberto Fontova is crazy, and Che's most popular biographers are right. I've got to say, some nice argumentation going on.

 

Humberto Fontova was born in Havana, Cuba, and is simply one of many Cuban exiles who are dedicated to fighting Castro's propaganda machine. I suppose his open anti-communist views aren't particularly surprising given what Che Guevara and Castro have done to his ancestors. This website also comes to mind: http://babalublog.com

 

Let's look at some of the arguments:

 

Nowhere does it say that Guevara ordered any killings of homosexuals - because homosexuals were never ordered to be killed in Cuba.

 

Nice! He goes on to say:

 

Llosa distorts the meaning of quotes, takes things out of context, and quotes dissidents for whom there is no corroborating evidence...

 

Very strong argument that seems to come straight out of the leftist school of sophism.

 

He claims the book burning is a lie and cites a blog post that debunks this claim with the following:

 

Firstly, the claim that Che “burned books” is, quite simply, an utter lie. It, like the knife fight between Teddy Roosevelt and a Sasquatch, just never happened. On the contrary, Che loved books - by the time of his death, he had over 3,000 books in his home- not including the countless notebooks and journals he himself wrote.

 

He loved books, therefore he didn't burn books. Also, random leftist bloggers are equivalent to the Independent Institute.

 

He goes on and on making unsubstantiated claims. What's particularly funny is this:

 

Different sources cite different numbers of executions. Anderson (1997) gives the number specifically at La Cabaña prison as fifty-five (p. 387.) while also stating that as a whole "several hundred people were officially tried and executed across Cuba" (p. 387.). This is supported by Lago who gives the figure as 216 documented executions across Cuba in two years.

 

Let's not even mention The Black Book of Communism, which is a monumental piece of research. Indeed, most leftists pretend this book doesn't even exist. I wonder why... Let's also ignore interviews with the survivors of La Cabaña - some of whose descendants already endorsed the video in their Facebook/YouTube comments. Let's even ignore the journalists who saw what Che did in his prison. You want to see propaganda in action? Have a look at the difference in numbers cited here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Cuba#Political_executions

 

Perhaps the best example of his "arguments" is in the description of the video:

 

Anarcho-capitalism is joke.

 

Che Guevara has been proven right: a united Latin America has been a great thing, and US interference in third world countries to solve their problems makes everything worse. Molyneux is, and always will be, a cult leader.

 

Oh well, at this point he falls in the category of: Life's too short.

 

What's particularly sad is that none of the information presented in Stef's video is surprising to anyone who's remotely objective or has been anywhere near communist regimes. The bloodbaths following communist takeovers, the economic destruction, the censorship, the propaganda... Indeed, Che Guevara's action probably pale in comparison to what people like Lavrentiy Beria did, but I suppose that's revisionist history as well.

 

On a side note, ProfessionalTeabagger, I think it's a good idea to make sure critics have at least some substance before you drive traffic their way using this website as a platform.

[J-William]

Wow, he sounds like a garden variety psycho! the kind you need if you are going to kick out the old gang leader and implement your own gang...

 

 

 

Here's a video claiming Stef is lying. 

 

 

If you look at Che through the lens of someone who believes that being accused of a crime against communism means you must be immediately punished by death... Well then calling Che a bloodthirsty murderer is a "lie"

[LovePrevails]

very educational

[nathanm]

Thanks for the trailer, Clay.  That makes me rethink some of the movies I've liked in the past.  Because this is generally the format of: here's a violent person, but they're a hero because they're fighting against an even worse enemy.  Braveheart comes to mind.  Movie is full of ghastly violence, but it still orients your sympathy to the main character.  Now obviously there's many more years of history between William Wallace and Che, and I'm not even claiming that I thought William Wallace was awesome, but I just think it's a good reminder to be very careful about whom media creators want us to understand and admire.

[Alan C.]

Fighting for freedom from oppression isn't the same thing as fighting for freedom.

 

It's often the case that so-called "freedom fighters" are really no more principled than those they're fighting against.

[JamesP]

On a side note, ProfessionalTeabagger, I think it's a good idea to make sure critics have at least some substance before you drive traffic their way using this website as a platform.

 

I appreciated all of Lians's post but I wanted to draw specific attention to this.

 

If you see something purporting to be critical, please do a little legwork first, especially if the criticism takes the form of moral accusations.

[mangodrink]

I wonder how Hitchens felt about him later in his life. I don't remember Che even being mentioned in Hitch-22. 

[miked]

Word cloud of the video:

 

[vcadd]

Mostly off topic.I credit Rage Against The Machine(1990,91 somewhere in there) for planting the first seeds of discontent within me regarding The State.Although at that time I in no way shared the same views.I just liked the extreme types of music like Hardcore Gangsta,Old School Metal,Outlaw Country,Punk.Really couldn't even audibly understand half of what Rage was saying at the time but they were pioneers musically speaking.At the height of their popularity I was a bigtime(local,Dallas,Tx) concert security guy usually assigned to the headliner.I interacted with them over the years.I tried to get Zac to sign a dollar bill once and he said he didn't sign Government stuff.He was cool,he signed something else but it really blew me away.It was just a wow moment for me that got me thinking.A few years later they opened for U2 at The Cotton Bowl.Huge stadium.Rage was legendary for some pretty aggressive police brutality,anti war onstage speeches/rants.I was a little more in tune with their message by then but mostly just in the category of not liking cops.Every cop in the city was there along with every off-duty cop.I spent a couple of hours after the show essentially (and literally)telling an endless parade of belligerent drunken off duty cops to go fuck themselves.They would use their cop skills to get backstage,thinking they were gonna get to speak their mind.Only to get a pent up extra dosage of their own medicine.I really enjoyed it at the time.It wasn't until RP 2008 that I found Stef and really started to put the pieces together.

 

I don't get the Rage glorification of Che but overall they were pretty far ahead of their time politically speaking.My FDR icon is a Rage logo.Pink and blue toy blocks.My interpretation being to rage against the machine for children.It's pretty koooo.

 

 

[J-William]

Mostly off topic.I credit Rage Against The Machine(1990,91 somewhere in there) for planting the first seeds of discontent within me regarding The State.Although at that time I in no way shared the same views.I just liked the extreme types of music like Hardcore Gangsta,Old School Metal,Outlaw Country,Punk.

 

Hey I loved rage too... because I was a very angry young man. Angry music is certainly appealing to angry young men. I wasn't into outlaw country, but I certainly was into the other genres of angry young man music. :-D

In my experience there were some pretty toxic people who were also into the angry young man music. Obviously angry young men are abused young men who don't have a close connection with their parents.

 

 

I got into Rage after I'd already read Rand, so I understood that their comminess was total BS. In  some ways they are like Emma Goldman (who could be called an anarcho-communist) I can really get on board with the analysis and anger at the government and injustice.

 

On the other hand they are way into communism which has killed well more people than nazism and I'm not a fan of many neo-nazi bands even though they may have something interesting to say.... and unlike Emma Goldman who was writing before communism killed millions, Rage was making music in the 90s with full knowledge of the millions communism massacred.