Che's Popularity

[arkadelos.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the reason Che Guevera is so popular is because he's also the most obscure yet successful communist figure. I never heard of him until I joined this LJ, although I saw his picture from time to time. I mean, he died in 1967, right? So his atrocities are not well-documents, not well-taught, and not recent in the minds of the public. Castro, Mao, and Stalin all lived considerably longer and were thus much more active and recent. Stalin is considerably more well-documented than Mao and Castro.

I think Che's popularity is due to his obscurity. Not many people know about the real Che, and the facts are not as easily accesible compared to the others.

Comments

[trevelyanl85a2.livejournal.com]

First off, let me wish you a Merry Christmas.

Secondly, I think he's stylised by the left as some man of the poor, or idolised in his book The Motorcycle Diaries.

Though I'm not sure myself why people seem to ignore his atrocities.

[kali-kali.livejournal.com]

Though I'm not sure myself why people seem to ignore his atrocities.

Apparently some of the things that could be considered atrocities (at least as far as I'm concerned) are considered "character-building" by the left. I argued with a leftist once about how it seemed barbaric that he sent *his own men* into battle without any weapons, and they waved it off as "character building because that taught them how to fight without them and get them from their defeated enemies".

Sure, that could be character building. Or it could make you really dead really fast if you have nothing and your enemy has guns. Even if you're really awesome at martial arts, that isn't going to be much help if you're still 50 yards away.

[arkadelos.livejournal.com]

Character building?! I can see how that would be a good comment for writing stories... but the context there is also "How do you want to portray your character?" And in this case, the character you are portraying (building) is cold-hearted, callous, and unsympathetic.

[zansa-san.livejournal.com]

Nail on the head, there. It's just cool to wear the t-shirts, after all ...

*facepalm*

You know it's the party of idiocy when they're #1 hero was a serial killer ...

[arkadelos.livejournal.com]

just look at the popularity of Dexter!

[ohinternets.livejournal.com]

Hey, now, I love Dexter ;)The author of the books is a (very wacky) friend of a friend of mine. It can be argued that Dexter is a vigilante that does law enforcement's job better than they do (though he is in law enforcement). He's never killed for fun because of his "code." Part of the point of the books is to get you questioning those kinds of issues, because Dexter is so funny and so naive about some things, and so fiercely feels certain injustices, that you grow to root for him, and then what does that say about you if you're rooting for a merciless serial killer? It's a cool thought experiment. [/fangirl rationalization]

[ohinternets.livejournal.com]

Basically I think it's because the hippies from the 60s and 70s pushed Guevara as a figure of populist rebellion and uprising, when he was a serial killer, homophobe, racist, rapist and terrorist. The former fit in well with their ideals about social revolution; the latter did not, so they erased that part of his history from popular culture.

[papertowns.livejournal.com]

I happen to know that his last words were, "Shoot, Coward, you are only going to kill a man!"

[writerspleasure.livejournal.com]

imagine if he were fat and/or old. it's his looks!