Mushy-headed AU students prefer Castro over Trump

By Matthew Vadum —— Bio and Archives November 30, 2016

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--BombThrowers An informal survey of American University students in Washington, D.C. reveals that they prefer dead Cuban tyrant Fidel Castro over President-elect Donald Trump. As Amber Athey of Campus Reform reports,

In order to gauge millennial feelings on the passing of the authoritarian Cuban leader, Campus Reform asked students at American University which political figure they viewed more favorably: Castro or Trump. While several students identified the repressive elements of Castro’s regime, such as jailing and murdering his political opponents, few were willing to say that this made them view him less favorably than Donald Trump.

“I mean, right now I don’t think Donald Trump is very good, and I know that Fidel Castro has done some good things for the world so I’d say he’s proven himself at least in the long term to be more favorable,” said one student who mentioned Cuba’s decrepit government-run healthcare system. Another student described the Stalin of the Caribbean — whose cabinet member Che Guevara wanted to nuke New York City — as a “remarkable leader” and said his dictatorship “made possibilities for the Cuban people nearly endless.” This is the same sort of puerile prattle everybody who goes to school hears at one time or another: Yes, Castro did bad things but he did so many good things and they’re more important in the end. I remember the same kind of low-intensity brainwashing when I was in high school. Back then it was a do-gooder geography teacher who loved to talk about how despite all the bad things Mao Zedong did to his own people (i.e. murdering tens of millions of Chinese) he was still a great leader who moved his country forward. But on the lighter side, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s tribute to Castro prompted immediate blowback from Twitter. As Reason’s Nick Gillespie reports, Trudeau said: Sad.

Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century … While a controversial figure, both Mr. Castro’s supporters and detractors recognized his tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people who had a deep and lasting affection for “el Comandante.” … I know my father was very proud to call him a friend and I had the opportunity to meet Fidel when my father passed away. It was also a real honour to meet his three sons and his brother President Raúl Castro during my recent visit to Cuba.

Twitter users responded with wonderful, at times caustic, mockery. My favorite came from @MelissaLantsman who tweeted “‘Mr. Stalin’s greatest achievement was his eradication of obesity in the Ukraine through innovative agricultural reforms.’ #TrudeauEulogies” (top image from Christmas Red at Twitter via Reason)