Time Magazine once wrote the following:
(Che Guevara) remains the potent symbol of rebellion and the alluring zeal of revolution.
Rad. So you saw Diarios de Motocicleta like 80 times (Gael’s pretty dreamy), have been keeping tabs on the new Benicio del Toro bio-pic, and bought a Che shirt at Hot Topic for $19.95. Two years ago, you also re-downloaded Battle for Los Angeles for your iPod because you heard Rage was reuniting at Coachella and you couldn’t find the CD you bought with your lunch money back in 1999. You do everything in your power to go against the social norm, and fight the power with rasta-colored merch (sweatbandz!) and really strong weed.
Gay.
The canonization of Che Guevara as some sort of mythical revolutionary figure is so misguided it’s kind of gross. Fidel Casto’s partner in crime was directly responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent folks (and indirectly a lot more) and was notoriously short tempered. In one not-so-famous instance, a woman was pleading with him NOT to execute her son later on in the week. His response? “Shoot him now. That way it’ll save her the agony of having to wait” (or something like that). That is some COLD BLOODED shit, and wearing a Che shirt puts you in the same boat as the neo-Cons who are pro-life AND pro-war. You’re the type of person who thinks silly things like logic and research aren’t really important. But I mean, that’s cool, cuz it’s revolution baby, yeah!
Revolution’s okay. They make for good songs. But show me a real revolutionary, and 9 times out of 10 I’ll show you an upper middle class white dude with lame dreads who smells like patchouli. These are the same dudes who ruined Bob Marley for music fans and whose very existence does nothing but reinforce the stereotype of mindless liberal droninization (I made that word up). The capacity of their political rhetoric is childlessly limited, and no one wants to stand next to them on the subway because they stink of trainwreck and non-showers.
My advice? Don’t be this guy. Don’t wear Che shirts, and don’t say you like reggae when the only album you’ve ever heard is Bob Marley’s Legend (say Matisyahu, please). Peter Tosh and the Wailers are okay. Steel Pulse is cool. Early Bad Brains is rad. But please, for the love of God, you’re not a revolutionary and probably never will be. Gael is a handsome fuck, but Che Guevara was nothing short of a grade-A bastard, and the commercialization of him as a martyr is 400 degrees of retarded. Promise me you won’t be retarded, k? K.
Actually, this shirt’s kind of funny:
LAWL. I still wouldn’t wear it.
I <3 fashion.
// Jenny Humphrey
haha.
so funny.
I always thought of the obsession with Mr. guevera in the underground scene was a little overboard, even prior to motorcycle diaries.
gay indeed!
Yeah… that’s some top-notch research when you’re pretty sure you might have paraphrased something you think he said. Really. It’s brilliant.
Oh, and a t-shirt that attaches Che’s face to the number of people killed in Russia, also much more intelligent than the crimes against logic you were railing against.
Ah, a t-shirt that also takes on the brilliantly nuanced view that countries like China, Cuba, and the USSR were or are Communist. I’m glad you skipped school on anti-Communism indoctrination day. Kudos for being above the influence.
“9 times out of 10 I’ll show you an upper middle class white dude with lame dreads who smells like patchouli. These are the same dudes who ruined Bob Marley for music fans and whose very existence does nothing but reinforce the stereotype of mindless liberal droninization (I made that word up).”
There is a name for this type that I learned from a friend who taught them at Boulder: trustafarians!
James pwned us.
And trustafarians is good. We’re using that.
- ed.
Please, read a book.
-The Internet
In that case, no one should ever display an American flag ever again. If we’re going on how much of a terrorist one is. That’s of course, going by your own ridiculous logic.
Communism didn’t kill any, because Communism has never been tried.
The Western governments we continue to empower, kill on a much larger scale, for much less of a reason (unless you count spreading mcdonalds to every place imaginable as a legitimate reason) than Che could ever even hope to commit.
Che killed in a land where you killed or were killed. You know, the land of Batista, that the USA supported for so long. Much like the land of Pinochet, that the USA supported for so long. Much like the Taliban, which the USA supported for so long.
It would seem that when Capitalism kills and allows millions across the World to starve to death whilst others shop for their third house and fourth yaht, it’s fine. But when someone challenges the status quo, and has to kill to get the message across, without being killed himself, he’s suddenly a terrorist.
The World is a fucked up place.
Thanks America.