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That he was a dictator is uncontroversial. The word 'evil' in this context is probably meaningless. Cuba's trajectory through world history under Castro is in t

That he was a dictator is uncontroversial. The word 'evil' in this context is probably meaningless. Cuba's trajectory through world history under Castro is in turns tragic, heroic, idealistic, and cynical. The comment you are replying to is embracing that complexity. Paving over it with simplistic thinking "Castro was evil and wrong" does a great deal of violence to the truth. I am no fan of the shape Fidel Castro's Cuba took, but I think it is more important that we learn from the mistakes of the revolution (which are not a simple matter of being 'evil' or 'wrong') than that we demonize them. In general, we should learn from history or be doomed to repeat it.

gragas 10y ago
>Paving over it with simplistic thinking "Castro was evil and wrong" does a great deal of violence to the truth. I honestly agree. I just think it is ridiculous to claim that Castro was "a great leader" when Cuba has fared very poorly under Castro in almost every respect. I felt obliged to point this out.
- coldtea 10y ago
  >I just think it is ridiculous to claim that Castro was "a great leader" when Cuba has fared very poorly under Castro in almost every respect. I felt obliged to point this out. Were they given the chance (cold war, embargo, et al)? I feel obliged to point this out too.
  - chinhodado 10y ago
    Exactly. It doesn't help that the biggest country in the international stage is doing everything it can to stop you from succeeding.
    - blahi 10y ago
      Well, they made their choice. They had the actual biggest country doing everything it can to make them succeed. Or is it better to forget because it was a failure? Communism failed. Mistakes like that are unforgivable.
    - Piskvorrr 10y ago
      But it sort of helps that the other biggest country is doing the opposite. Of course, it gets complicated when that country stops existing - in the case of Soviet Union, that was in 1993, IIRC.
wallace_f 10y ago
These are important lessons, and very well expressed--better than I could say it. I just want to add that I wish more of us felt this way. Everyone community online I find it seems the emotional knee-jerk reaction is very prevalent in the way we think about politics, and I don't see the maturity expressed in this comment very often.

gragas 10y ago

>Paving over it with simplistic thinking "Castro was evil and wrong" does a great deal of violence to the truth. I honestly agree. I just think it is ridiculous to claim that Castro was "a great leader" when Cuba has fared very poorly under Castro in almost every respect. I felt obliged to point this out.

coldtea 10y ago
>I just think it is ridiculous to claim that Castro was "a great leader" when Cuba has fared very poorly under Castro in almost every respect. I felt obliged to point this out. Were they given the chance (cold war, embargo, et al)? I feel obliged to point this out too.
- chinhodado 10y ago
  Exactly. It doesn't help that the biggest country in the international stage is doing everything it can to stop you from succeeding.
  - blahi 10y ago
    Well, they made their choice. They had the actual biggest country doing everything it can to make them succeed. Or is it better to forget because it was a failure? Communism failed. Mistakes like that are unforgivable.
  - Piskvorrr 10y ago
    But it sort of helps that the other biggest country is doing the opposite. Of course, it gets complicated when that country stops existing - in the case of Soviet Union, that was in 1993, IIRC.

wallace_f 10y ago

These are important lessons, and very well expressed--better than I could say it. I just want to add that I wish more of us felt this way. Everyone community online I find it seems the emotional knee-jerk reaction is very prevalent in the way we think about politics, and I don't see the maturity expressed in this comment very often.