Video: A Cuban Goes To Walmart
Cuban Goes to Walmart for the FIRST TIME EVER - Communism to Capitalism
(h/t Michael Siegel)
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This is an awesome little film.Report
Yeltsin’s visit to a Randall’s in 1989 had one of the leaders of a central-control country experience the joys of seeing a dozen kinds of frozen treats.
I suppose we could get into an argument about how the central control people have more authentic experiences and get to enjoy universal literacy instead of a system that needs to abandon testing because testing is discriminatory against people who don’t have universal literacy.
I’m not saying that Havana would be improved by a Super Wal-Mart in the middle of it.
But the lives of the people in Havana would be improved by a Super Wal-Mart in the middle of Havana.Report
The 90’s were when the last embers and sparks of true Communism flickered out and died with an almost imperceptible hiss. It’s been overt Capitalists and Capitalists-under-a-different-name ever since. What is especially amusing about our current political moment is how the propaganda of the past informs the present. In the Aughts and teens the right accused everything of being socialism and thunderously trumpeted the glories of capitalism. Now the younguns have absorbed that lesson. They hate the capitalism that the right claimed was glorious and, since the right called everything liberals did socialism, they think Socialism ain’t bad at all. Scratch the paint on this much and you discover that they have no fishing clue what Capitalism and Socialism is defined as. They’re just against the former and think the latter ain’t bad. Drill down, of course, and the overwhelming majority just want safety nets and capitalism. Just don’t call it capitalism. As for actual, capital C communism? No one actually fishing wants that. Heck the actual communists over in China don’t even want it. It remains utterly moribund and dead. The lefties just parade the corpse around like one of those mummified jewel encrusted Saints corpses displayed during Carnival.Report
Or to put it another way, conservatives keep fighting against Communism the way the drunk looks for his keys under the lamppost.Report
Well that’s where the light is dude. It’s always the 80’s (I sympathize, though, because the music from that decade was awesome! And the hair! There’re worse decades to pine for).Report
Parachute Pants!Report
Hair metal!Report
Man, why’d you have to bring up the hole in the ozone?!Report
It’s a cheerful subject. A major problem, a glaring collective action problem, a community of nations collaborates, the problem is solved at minimal economic cost.
And also, Hair Metal!!!Report
Touche’!Report
More like, its always 1979.
Have you noticed the desperate tweets accusing Biden of being Jimmy Carter 2.0 and sudden revival of Teh Deficit!1?Report
I was born in 1979 so I have a fondness for the year (and a guilty affection for disco).
I refuse to blame the deficit on ’79 though. The deficit becomes a problem perennially when there is a Democratic President in the White House.Report
Not only did the 80s have some of the best music ever, the Constitution was ratified and the French Monarchy overthrown!
We’re talking about the 1780s, right?Report
Oh for the 1680s when the great composers were born…
Not a fan of the ‘Glorious’ revolution, though.Report
Ftanding athwart hiftory, yelling FTOP!Report
Knocking on an open door.Report
Wait ’til he gets a load of the quality of that merchandise.Report
Apparently there are protests going on in Cuba right now.
This is what happens when you liberalize, people.Report
One clip circulating on Twitter showed protesters overturning a police car in Cardenas, 90 miles east of Havana.
I really wanted to support the protestors, really I did, but its time to send in the troops.Report
One thing that we can always be certain of:
The people protesting are a reason for us to say “the protestors must be wrong… *I* have a better idea of what’s going on than they do!”
Do they not realize how good they have it?Report
A recurring criticism I heard during the Floyd protests was to ask how the protests would be covered if they occurred in other nations.
And that made me think of my observation that even in places like Cuba, there is a very large group of people who actually support the government and have no idea what all this talk about “oppression” is.
For the record, I think the protestors are probably airing legitimate grievances. But I kinda doubt we will be seeing any “Does Violence Mar the Message” sort of stuff we saw on a weekly basis.Report
I read one crazy take on the Floyd protests that said that the people rioting were rich white kids who drove to the protest in their fancy cars, wrecked stuff, and then drove back home.
Not black people protesting police violence! But, like, rich white kids having a lark.
Fox News Poisoning, I guess.Report
I wonder if you read a similar take from a Cuban, how that might be interpreted.
ETA- That’s kinda my point, that protests are always complex with a lot of different motivations and agendas.
As much as people love “Le Miz” style stories of The People Rising Up, its never quite that simple.Report
Do you have one from someone there on the ground?
I would be very interested in reading it!
As it is, I’m stuck with the NYT which may as well be an arm of the CIA.
One-party rule!, he says. He doesn’t even understand his own system of government.Report
I’ll bet if you read from the government sources, or Party sources, you would get a very different take on the protests.
Like, there has got to be a Cuban version of Tom Cotton somewhere.Report
#SOSCuba is the hashtag that emerged enough for it to hit my radar.
If you have a bigger/better one, lemme know.
And if you want to know what the US State Dept. has said:
Report
I think its safe to say that:
Most Americans have no idea what things are like in Cuba and;
No idea what is really motivating the protests because:
There are likely at least half a dozen distinct grievances, with many more potential demands for redress and mostly:
The best thing for Americans to do is not imprint our Cold War template on it.Report
So we’re in a place where we cannot believe what the people in Cuba themselves are tweeting about it.
(With universal literacy, might I add.)Report
DeSantis has a different take on it than the US State Dept.
Is DeSantis really representing his constituents here? Pay attention to your own state, Gov!Report
Purported footage from the ground:
They’re chanting “Libertad”.
“Libre” means “Free”
“ertad” must be some kind of health care?Report
Biden has a much better statement than came from State:
Report
Context I didn’t have:
Report
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