Babalu reports today that Poland has banned using the image of Che Guevara, along with any image that is identified with a fascist or communist system.
Poland's equality minister, Elzbieta Radziszewska, wants to expand a Polish law prohibiting the production of fascist and totalitarian propaganda so that it includes clothing and anything else that could carry an image related to an authoritarian system.While I detest that murdering pig (Che) as much as anyone, and while I know the Polish people have had a closer experience with fascism and totalitarianism than any nation should have, fighting fascism with fascism doesn't seem like the right answer. I prefer ridicule, and there's no better place than The People's Cube
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The proposal, which could see the faces of some of the leading lights of communist history such as Lenin and Trotsky removed from t-shirts and flags, reflects a Polish view on communism far different from the rose-tinted and romantic images often found in the West.
Remember: don't miss Che Mart!
Possibly related.
ReplyDeleteI asked a German professor who was visiting Iowa State why the Germans banned the nazi stuff some completely. Wouldn't freedom of speech be better.
He confided, "If we allowed it, we'd go right back to it in two generations."
There might be something to that, and knowing yourself.
They're closing in on it again, anyway, but forgetting history over time is a given. I think they teach more about it than US schools do. Which wouldn't be hard.
DeleteOTOH, recently I read someone saying German news organizations were much more upset about the NSA monitoring than the American press is, and they explained it as, "We are a former fascist state and we can see what you're becoming better than you do".
Probably mangled that quote, but it was similar.
Don't forget Firesign Theatre's "The Galloping Che'" for children!
ReplyDeletegfa
There used to be available coffee directly from former Contra fighters too, I think the Nicaraguan government shut them down after a year or 2. They were called "contra cafe" and it's probably the second best coffee I have ever tasted.
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