Dec
11
Che and Mao, Icons for the Clueless
Filed Under China, Personal Freedom | Leave a Comment
A really good piece of video work from reason.tv, “Killer Chic: Hollywood’s Sick Love Affair with Che Guevara.”
So what does the thuggish, and sadly iconic, Guevara have to do with Mao, Communist China’s ex-dictator? From the description accompanying the video:
“We’re rightly horrified by fascist murderers like Adolph Hitler,” says reason.tv’s Nick Gillespie. “Why aren’t we also horrified by communist killers?” Certainly, Che’s body count isn’t anywhere near Hitler’s. But what about someone Che idolized, someone whom he might have liked to wear on his chest?
“Che, Castro, all the communist regimes idolized only one thing that Mao personifies—violence.” Kai Chen grew up in China under the reign of Mao Zedong. Although he won gold medals for China’s national basketball team, Chen’s was far from the celebrity life of an NBA star. Says Chen, “You have no right to talk, and you have no right to think.”
The punishment for questioning Mao’s authority was often death. The Black Book of Communism estimates that Mao is responsible for the deaths of 65 million people—a figure that dwarfs even Hitler’s body count. “Mao is a murderer,” says Chen. “The biggest mass murderer in human history.”
And yet, like Che, Mao’s image is becoming an increasingly popular way to move merchandise. You can buy Mao t-shirts, mugs, caps-you name it.
Really, why don’t the lear jet liberals reason.tv shows celebrating Che have similar contempt for communist mass-murderers as for fascist mass-murderers?
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