Battleangel

Here is a brilliantly overt case of self-censorship that says a lot about the intellectual climate in the US today. Target Corp pulls Ernesto “Che” Guevara CD carrying case from shelves, following complaints from right wing butchers and fellow travelers. On account of “Che” being an alleged left wing butcher and instrumental in installing “communism” on Cuba back in the day. Not that communism didn’t install itself following the demeaning US policy towards the former Spanish colony once promised actual sovereignty. But the irony is even more profound, as RawStory’s Larisa Alexandrovna notes.

A company who imports slave labor produced products from the world’s leading Communist regime (China) censors a CD which only shows a photo of an already dead Communist. The critics who are offended by a symbol but are willing to buy products produced by the real thing offend me. Will target remove them from their stores to appease me? Hypocrites.

Of course, China is by no stretch of the english language a “communist” regime and scholars of Marxist ideology could no doubt question whether it ever truly was. But less repression and more openness would no doubt be desirable — at least so far as it doesn’t reduce China once more to a playground for imperial powers.

And on the topic of the Investor’s Business Daily placing Pol Pot, Hitler, Pinochet and a rather inflated Guevara in the same jolly category (not to mention how awkward it is to “forget” Stalin and Mao since the topic was “communism” in the first place) as Alexandrovna continues …

As a former Soviet citizen, it is offensive to me that Capitalism is seen as the antithesis to tyranny. I felt oppressed by the Soviets and I feel oppressed by the Capitalists, in different ways of course. As an American citizen I am offended by the power that corporate apparatchiks have in our every day lives. As a customer, I am offended by Target’s ridiculous censorship ploy. Because if they really did not want to support tyranny, they could do it in more meaningful ways, like by actually not supporting tyranny. As for Investor’s Business Daily, they offend me more than Che did or does now on the cover of a CD. Why? Anyone who does not see why or understand why offends me on moral grounds.

Interestingly though, one must not forget that

Guevara’s own family aims to end the industry of Che merchandise, seeking lawsuits against companies they believe exploit his image and undermine his political philosophy.