Lock this topic! (By New Year's Day!)

[LT Sandpaw]

Why is Obama all condoling about Fidel Castro!?

Why is the Prime Minister of Canada praising Fidel Castro!?

Why is the media acting like Fidel Castro was a great guy!?

Aaaaagh I can't take it, someone put me out of my misery. 

Obama and Trudeau have to. Publicly denouncing Castro would seriously damage relations with Cuba.

I know, but I also know the atrocities Castro preformed during his life, and no US president should ever act like that guy did anything right. And seeing the bad direction Canada is going in right now its even worse for them. At least Obama is going to be kicked out soon.

Does anyone else find it ironic that the media played Trump's so called 'relationship' with Putin as if it was the most evil thing that ever happened, but when liberal leaders praise and condole an actual dictator who ruined his country, and murdered countless people and even threatened the US with nuclear war, that's just keeping up a diplomatic relationship.

The double standard is so obvious, it cracks me up.

[Grond]

Why is the media acting like Fidel Castro was a great guy!? Uck, tell me about it. The Aussie media has just become cringe-worthily biased lately. To say nothing of how half my relatives are all sad because of how "A great, revolutionary person like Castro had died, and that we should all praise how Castro was so good to his people. Heh. Heh heh. Heh heh kill me heh.

That's one thing I don't get is why does Castro invoke such strong emotions in a lot of people. On the one hand you have people who think he was the greatest revolutionary of all time and then you have others who think he is the devil himself. Yet I don't really see how either side is right or justified in their characterization...

[/quote]

Why is Obama all condoling about Fidel Castro!?

Why is the Prime Minister of Canada praising Fidel Castro!?

Why is the media acting like Fidel Castro was a great guy!?

Aaaaagh I can't take it, someone put me out of my misery. 

Obama and Trudeau have to. Publicly denouncing Castro would seriously damage relations with Cuba.

I know, but I also know the atrocities Castro preformed during his life, and no US president should ever act like that guy did anything right. And seeing the bad direction Canada is going in right now its even worse for them. At least Obama is going to be kicked out soon.

Does anyone else find it ironic that the media played Trump's so called 'relationship' with Putin as if it was the most evil thing that ever happened, but when liberal leaders praise and condole an actual dictator who ruined his country, and murdered countless people and even threatened the US with nuclear war, that's just keeping up a diplomatic relationship.

The double standard is so obvious, it cracks me up.

Couple of issues here. First of all, yeah Castro did commit atrocities however he was not the worst ruler that Latin America or the Caribbean has ever seen. The US also has a rather not so nice history of supporting various paramilitary groups that were just as bad if not worst than Castro. A notable example would be Reagan and the Contras or US support of Pinochet. Declassified report admitting US/CIA support of Pinochet http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/20000919/

How is Canada going in a bad direction now? Things are fine here, coming from someone who actually lives in Canada...

Yes I agree the media has a serious double standard but its not just a leftist bias.

[Chipster of Noonvale]

Sandpaw you're a moron.  Please stop talking about stuff you know nothing about.  Canada is doing great.

[Jetthebinturong]

The American government is using lethal force against people who are protesting a pipeline.

[LT Sandpaw]

I understand your points, my reasoning isn't that Fidel Castro is the devil himself, its that world leaders are praising the guy for his 'accomplishments'. That's what's worrying. I wouldn't have cared about Fidel at all, I still don't, I care more about what the leaders of the free world are saying about him.
And I don't think the US government's wrongdoings in the past should legitimize them supporting an evil regime today, nor the fact that Castro arguably wasn't the worst dictator in the Caribbean. That seems like faulty reasoning to me...

You know there was fifteen CIA assassination attempts to kill the guy. But that's just a little bit of trivia.

Anyway, about Canada's state of affairs... That's entirely my opinion, probably not shared by many. I just don't like the free speech suppression that's going on among other things, and its happening everywhere, not just Canada, but still, its worrying.


And gosh are we moving forward towards locking this topic, look at the time gotta run.

[Grond]

I understand your points, my reasoning isn't that Fidel Castro is the devil himself, its that world leaders are praising the guy for his 'accomplishments'. That's what's worrying. I wouldn't have cared about Fidel at all, I still don't, I care more about what the leaders of the free world are saying about him.
And I don't think the US government's wrongdoings in the past should legitimize them supporting an evil regime today, nor the fact that Castro arguably wasn't the worst dictator in the Caribbean. That seems like faulty reasoning to me...

You know there was fifteen CIA assassination attempts to kill the guy. But that's just a little bit of trivia.

Anyway, about Canada's state of affairs... That's entirely my opinion, probably not shared by many. I just don't like the free speech suppression that's going on among other things, and its happening everywhere, not just Canada, but still, its worrying.


And gosh are we moving forward towards locking this topic, look at the time gotta run.

Well I would say that actively and materially supporting a bad regime is a lot worse than the comments made about Castro. As far as I know Obama has not given any material ($$$, weapons) assistance etc... to Castro.

Btw here is Obama's statement on Castro's death:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/11/26/statement-president-passing-fidel-castro

And for comparison Obama's statement on the death of king Abudullah of Saudi Arabia last year :
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/22/statement-president-death-king-abdullah-bin-abdulaziz

I would say that from reading these 2 statements that Obama praised the dead Saudi king a lot more than he did Castro. Yet despite the fact that Saudi Arabia is a pretty disturbing place- about as different from liberal democracy as you could get, I do not recall Obama's statement on the death of Abudullah generating as much criticism or outrage as the one on Castro. Not to mention Saudi Arabia remains a key American ally...

Restrictions on freedom of expression- do you mean Canada's hate speech laws or ? 

[James Gryphon]

It's probably because Saudi Arabia is a key American ally (and everyone knows it) that the President's remarks back then didn't get much attention. Everyone knows he's expected to say things like that, whereas people have perceived Cuba as "the enemy" for so long that the government's new neutral stance towards them and the President's correspondingly neutral reaction to Castro's death throws them off.

And this thread isn't going to be locked until it hits the post limit, but that won't mean that some posts or some members won't disappear.

Have any of y'all seen the buttons in the Experimental style? They're coming along well.

[The Skarzs]

Can we please not argue about politics anymore?

I like how the post after this is. . .

The American government is using lethal force against people who are protesting a pipeline.

It's like:
"Hey, can you not touch my arm? It hurts."
*Punches arm.* "What did you say?"

[James Gryphon]

Have any of y'all seen the buttons in the Experimental style? They're coming along well.

[LT Sandpaw]

Yeah, more or less what James said. I was also going to mention that said Saudi Arabian didn't urge the Soviets to attack the United States back during the Cuban missile crisis.

Restrictions on freedom of expression- do you mean Canada's hate speech laws or ? 

Yeah, those laws that allow police to determine whether something was bullying or not. I'm no advocate for hate speech, but surely creating laws that require victims and police digression on whether it was hateful or not shouldn't be the solution.

But its not just that, its also Canada's culture shift to socialism.

And this thread isn't going to be locked until it hits the post limit, but that won't mean that some posts or some members won't disappear.

Have any of y'all seen the buttons in the Experimental style? They're coming along well.

Heh heh ahem.

And no, I haven't been using the Experimental style, should I be?

[Amarith Waterspring]

Stop stealing from Aimless.

Fine.

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[James Gryphon]

And no, I haven't been using the Experimental style, should I be?

You don't have to, but I'd appreciate anyone who looked in at it, especially since I plan on rolling the buttons there out to all of the theme styles when they're done (so you're going to see it sooner or later).

[Amarith Waterspring]

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[Grond]

Yeah, more or less what James said. I was also going to mention that said Saudi Arabian didn't urge the Soviets to attack the United States back during the Cuban missile crisis.

Restrictions on freedom of expression- do you mean Canada's hate speech laws or ? 

Yeah, those laws that allow police to determine whether something was bullying or not. I'm no advocate for hate speech, but surely creating laws that require victims and police digression on whether it was hateful or not shouldn't be the solution.

But its not just that, its also Canada's culture shift to socialism.

And this thread isn't going to be locked until it hits the post limit, but that won't mean that some posts or some members won't disappear.

Have any of y'all seen the buttons in the Experimental style? They're coming along well.

Heh heh ahem.

And no, I haven't been using the Experimental style, should I be?

@ James sure, I think global relations or foreign policy can be a "dirty and murky" world. Politics and interests are driving forces and can make strange bedfellows. But that doesn't change the fact that Saudi Arabia is still an extremely repressive country yet it is allied with the US and the west as a whole which espouses to be a beacon of freedom, hope, democracy etc... in the world. Rather strange and hypocritical ? Interests trump morals on the global stage...

No it didn't but only 17 out of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudis and a large amount of $$$$ comes out of Saudi Arabia to fund various Islamic extremist movements throughout the world. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/05/wikileaks-cables-saudi-terrorist-funding

Yeah the choice by NATO to station nukes in Turkey close to the Soviet border, joint CIA and mafia plot to assassinate Castro in 1960, and the Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961/failed coupe d'etat probably didn't help things when it came to the Cuban missile crisis. But during the Cold War both sides committed numerous atrocities and did some not so nice things. Plus a leader's attitude towards the US at certain point in history doesn't exactly make them more or less of an "atrocious dictator"- its there actions that do. Plus we're talking about Cuba in 2016 not 1962. Castro's Cuba is arguably a relic of the Cold War or has been so for close to 3 decades. With the Cold War over Cuba poses relatively little threat to the US in 2016- this is what I would think has led to the neutralization of relations recently...

Yeah Canada has strange hate speech laws in that basically anything that might offend someone could be hate speech. This was exacerbated by the tragic Rahteah Parson's case/suicide but unfortunately they aren't addressing the problem at all really. Strange/ineffective they are I agree but I'd hardly say Canada is heading towards socialism or is burgeoning socialist country...

[Amarith Waterspring]

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