Quote of the Day: Insta-Prof on Communists

The eminent law prof seems rather peppery:

Communists are no better than Nazis. Refusing to hire Communists is on the same moral plane as refusing to hire Nazis. Which is to say: It’s a good and admirable thing, not a sin. Go broke and starve, commies. It’s what you deserve for being eager, willing servants of totalitarianism.

Don't hold back, now.  Tell us what you really think!

EUrocrats Not Even Bothering to Hide It Anymore

Why bother since you've already snagged the Nobel Peace Prize?  Take a look at this EU propaganda "yay for us" poster.  TAKE A GOOD LOOK. 

Totalitarian Communism Loses Another Useful Idiot

My opinion of historian and unrepentant Communist cheerleader and apologist Eric Hobsbawm is a matter of public record here.  Two weeks ago he shuffled off this mortal coil, and I didn't bother saying good riddance.  Still, here's an interesting little piece wondering whether you can be both a good historian and a Stalinist.  I think the real issue is how so many people didn't think that Hobsbawm's Communist totalitarian sympathies mattered.  Imagine, if you will, if he were an unrepentant Nazi apologist or Holocaust denier.  Nobody respectable in his august academic circles would dream of giving him the time of day ... well, almost nobody.

Well, It Wasn' t Another Che Guevara T-Shirt

I've ranted before about college-aged morons wearing shirts printed with the ugly mugs of Che Guevara and Mao.  This time, it was different.  No Che.  Nope, this time it was an oblivious undergraduate girl wearing a picture of Stalin.  STALIN!  *facepalm*  Little idiot probably had no idea what kind of murderous monster he actually was. Hell, it's like wearing a picture of Hitler.

Quote of the Day: "Marxists. I Hate These Guys."

Read the whole thing.  It's really not about hating Marxists in general, but about a particularly virulent and nasty subspecies: the shameless apologist for totalitarian Communism, that blood-soaked and evil creed.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Heh.  If, as the old joke goes, there are only two parties in American politics (the Stupid Party and the Evil Party), then I must side with the Evil!  I still think we should cheerfully offer these pie-eyed idealistic Marxist idiots a field trip to the proletariat workers' paradise of Cuba or North Korea ... and leave them there.

Quirky Asia Files: The Chinese Communist Twitter

As if Twitter could be even dumber than it is, there's now "Red Twitter" in China that supposed to gin up all your revolutionary proletariat fervor, comrades ... or something.  Whatever.  

So once again life imitates satire.  There's a Facebook parody already that's just hilarious, but I put it below the fold with a profanity warning. Comrades, get a load of Little Red Facebook!  

The Capacity for Self-Delusion and the Divorce from Reality

This is an interesting read, and I can tell you campus leftists haven't a clue about actual history.  Who would dare to wear a Mao t-shirt who actually knew what the man did?  But the oblivious undergrad whom I saw sporting such an outfit on campus recently clearly hadn't the foggiest notion that he was wearing the face of a man responsible for the deaths of tens of millions.  Ditto the airheads with the Che Guevara shirts (I know I've ranted about them before), clueless about the bloody thuggery of their fake hero.  OK, OK, everyone is allowed some youthful idealistic foolishness.  But you gotta grow up sometime.

Protests in Venezuela and Che Guevara Chic

Hmmmmmmm. And this.

Nerd News: Students Protest Che Guevara

FINALLY! A glimmer of hope that at least a few college students understand that Che Guevara was a bloody-minded thug, not a hero. Down with Communist chic! I can't tell you how much I hate those stupid T-shirts.

Check out this awesome report on the "No More Che Day" demonstration at the University of Florida from a few weeks back (yes, I totally missed it -- oops).

Che and Celebrity Communist Chic

Fashion faux pas.

You know how I feel about "Communist chic" and about the stupid celebrity-cult of Che Guevara. Rich celebrities (and whining undergrad poseurs) can't seem to get enough of glamorizing and romanticizing this bloody-minded, murderous thug.

A recent film about Che has been released (see Fausta disassemble it here, with more from Cuba-blogger Babalu). In response, Reason has a very good video about Che and Communist chic. Pay particular attention to the testimony of two people who lived under actual Communism -- Paquito D'Rivera of Cuba and Kai Chen of China. Both managed to escape their Communist hellholes; both are now living in the US.

Watch it here:



I won't even burden your patience by ranting about "Mao chic," a phenomenon of sheer idiocy and historical denial that makes me want to scream.

UPDATE: Awesome!

Welcome to Reality: Former Khmer Rouge Supporter Says "Sorry"

The fantasy: the Khmer Rouge were courageous revolutionary freedom fighters!

The reality: the Khmer Rouge were a lot of murderous, bloodthirsty thugs and *unprintable*s whose Communist tyranny slaughtered nearly 2 million people in Cambodia.

The BBC reports that Gunnar Bergstrom, a former fan of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot, has finally woken up to the reality and gone public with it. How much are you willing to wager that Mr. Bergstrom, in his Rouge-happy days, was a pie-eyed idealistic young leftist with a penchant for self-deception, denial of the truth, "Communist chic," and no conception of objective reality?

Well, I suppose I should give Mr. Bergstrom credit for being able to realize and admit his error in judgment. The world has one fewer "useful idiot."

One more note: Mr. Bergstrom is Swedish. Don't you find it rather interesting that so often Communist-fans come from comfortable, safe, free countries? How many Communist-fans do you find who live or have lived in Communist hellhole nations?

I cannot tell you how much I hate Communism. I hate it WITH FIRE.

Quirky Euro Files: Berlin's Stasi-Themed Bar

There's Ostalgie, and then there's Ostalgie. A controversial new bar opens in Berlin.

I can't help pointing out that the owners obtained many of their Communist-era bar decorations (Stasi artifacts) through eBay. Somehow this little bit of irony just really amuses the capitalist/free marketeer in me!

Quirky Euro-Asia Files: Back in the USSR Kitchen -- Russian Nostalgia for Soviet-Era Food

This comes as a little surprise to me, as I was unaware that the Soviets had food worth eating. (/sarcasm)

Here's the blurb:

Gastronom No 1, best known for its luxury champagnes and caviar, has opened up a new line catering to Soviet-era nostalgia.

Inside a grand Tsarist-era shopping arcade on Red Square, its spotless food hall has added a range of soggy, Soviet-era stodge to the more refined delicacies of the capitalist world.

. . . "People want to remember the good times, with good friends - a time when the grass was greener and the sun was shinier," said Albert Popkov, the wealthy founder of Odnoklassniki, a social networking site that is Russia's answer to Facebook.

He has visited the shop, but has so far failed to find the product he misses most from his youth on Russia's Far Eastern island of Sakhalin - a kind of chocolate butter that he hasn't seen since 1991.

Instead the shop is decorated with pyramids of sweetened condensed milk and tins of pork stew, in the simple packaging that denoted Russia's products before the arrival of capitalist glitz and glamour.

"Most products in Soviet times weren't really delicious – it's more like nostalgia," said Ilya Brodsky, 30.

He said he likes the look of goods that remind him of simpler times.

. . . Visitors can buy half a litre of unbranded Soviet-style vinegar for the equivalent of 50p - or look two shelves up and grab a bottle of Italy's finest balsamic, at £52 for 100ml.

As if "capitalist glitz and glamour" were a bad thing? Nope, I'm an unashamed capitalist pig and free market, low-tax evildoer. Look, the entire idea that you can now CHOOSE whether to buy Soviet-era stuff or not is a step forward from the days when you had no choice, when you had to wait in endless lines for poor-quality stuff from almost-empty shelves. Or starved entirely under Communist power. I retain no positive feelings for the old USSR or its wretched ideology that belongs in the dustbin of history. Losing is chic these days, I guess.

Also, does anybody else find it amusing that the luxury food shop with the Soviet food is housed in a grand Tsarist-era building? That's three entirely different visions of Mother Russia under just one roof. Well, nobody ever said Russia was easy to grasp.

Anyway, this whole news story is an odd little combination of food, communist/Soviet chic, a Russian sort of Ostalgie, and the idea that it's easier to wax nostalgic and reminisce fondly about the "good old communist days" if you are no longer living in an oppressive totalitarian communist society and therefore don't have to live also with the daily terrors and miseries of that system.

Notice also which kind of Russians are now buying Soviet-era nostalgia-food. RICH Russians. Wealthy Russians who have become financially successful in the post-Soviet era. Gee, this is like Marie Antoinette pretending to be a milkmaid in the backyard of her palace. Only the rich think poverty is romantic. I am serious! I'll also paraphrase Mae West: I've been poor, and I've been rich. Rich is better. Girl, you can say that again.

Random personal note: the whole thing about communist-era food makes me think of that great plotline in the delightful German film "Goodbye Lenin" -- the frantic search for GDR-era Mokka Fix Gold.

East and West: French Company Apologizes for Mao Advertisement

The Citroen company used a Photoshopped picture of Mao in one of its advertisements. The French company has now apologized for insulting Mao and therefore insulting the entire Chinese nation. What?

Oh, please! *snort of derision*

Mao was a bloody-minded tyrant who caused the deaths of millions of Chinese and ruined the lives and livelihoods of many millions more. China would do better to find a better "symbol" than this blood-stained dictator. Go look up "Cultural Revolution" or "Great Leap Forward" and see how this stupid monstrosity wrecked a nation.

Furthermore, I am sick and tired of people tiptoeing around in mortal terror that they might offend some thin-skinned group or another.

Samizdata says what I want to say.