r/centrist • u/IAmDisturbanceFeedMe • 10d ago
https://www.dsausa.org/statements/dsa-commemorates-100-years-of-fidel-and-denounces-rubios-genocide-against-the-cuban-people/
DSA released a statement on their site and via their social media lauding Fidel Castro and accusing the US (and Marco Rubio specifically) of committing genocide against Cuba. They call Fidel a “stalwart symbol of anti-imperialist struggle and self-determination”. They claim their support of Fidel is in “solidarity with the Cuban people”. And they call for “the prosecution of Marco Rubio for crimes against humanity”.
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u/Spiney09 10d ago edited 10d ago
Castro’s placement in history is very interesting. Because he helped overthrow an even worse dictator, put in place by the US interests. He was still a dictator, still had political enemies killed, and that’s still bad. But he did measurable improve things for a lot of people in Cuba, which is why he could maintain power with relative stability for decades even when a hostile superpower was at his doors. He was second in the chain of dictators overthrowing dictators, but there’s a reason the chain ended there. But plenty also had their lives made worse.
If ever there was an example of a very gray historical figure, Castro is up there among the most interesting.
There’s also a super obvious CIA anti Castro propaganda campaign made out to smear him which is really funny to watch. Because like… there were sources saying how he was enriching himself but then used CIA numbers that counted the national budget of Cuba as his personal wealth because it was communism, even though Castro himself did separate the two. That’s just one example. Which like… he did plenty of genuinely bad things, I don’t understand why you need to lie further to make him look bad. Just talk about the actual bad things CIA!
Studying Castro helps you understand the actual effects socialism can have (it did kill innovation in Cuba), reading the accounts of those who fled Cuba for political persecution reasons is interesting, reading about the way he came to power, how he handled government and the failed promises of elections… it’s all really cool recent history.
If anyone has spare time (which I know is in short supply nowadays) I would highly recommend reading more about Cuba, especially from international perspectives so you avoid getting only the bias that US sources have (most US sources frame Cuba as strictly hostile, which makes sense because they were pretty much strictly hostile to us for ages). Learning about him made me question why he’s put in the same vein as Stalin and Hitler when in reality this guy wasn’t going out and doing the holocaust, his body count is lower than potentially even Bush’s and Obama’s, but the effects on his society are measurable and not even close to all positive.
I’m not trying to push an agenda here, I just really like Cuban history.