Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Typical Leftist Thinking

Ever since I originally published my web site, Tren Blindado, the response has been overwhelmingly positive but every now and then I get an email that makes me wonder about how dumb people can actually be.

I recently received one such message:

i’m saddened by the things you’ve written on your site. there are two sides to every story. no, che wasn’t an angel, but he certainly wasn’y the devil you make him out to be.

perhaps if your writing style was better, the story you weave about your grandfather and che would be more believable and sound less like the propaganda that you claim to hate so much.

it’s sad that everything has to be so black and white – i’d love to know more about the truth of che Guevara but it seems that no one is brave enough to tell it.
This was my response:

You say there are two sides to every story and you are right. Many volumes have been written about Guevara and most of them are favorable to him. I'M THE ONE telling the other side of the story. You say I make Guevara out to be a devil. In the story of the Armored Train I don't call him a devil or accuse him of anything that hasn't been either proved or that he hasn't already been accused of. But let's say I did make him out to be a "devil" what makes you so confident that he wasn't? Where are your sources and footnotes? Who have you interviewed?

What about my style makes the story unbelievable? The fact that I document everything I wrote with sources? I'm being sarcastic. The reason I give credit to the sources is so that others can independently verify what I have written. Why don't you pay a visit to the library and see for yourself? I'll be glad to send you contact information for the subjects that I interviewed. These eyewitnesses will be glad to tell you what they saw and heard.

You imply in one breath that what I have written is false and then say that things aren't black and white. Well there are certainly truths and untruths.

For example it's true that more than 150 men died either by a by a bullet from Guevara or on orders from Guevara. And it's also true that these men were not killed in battle but rather executed either at close range or by firing squad. And it's also true that many of these men had no connection or only peripheral connections to the Batista regime. It's also true that every guerilla campaign Guevara was involved in except for the one in Cuba was a complete failure and that the reason he died in Bolivia is because he couldn't convert the peasants there to support him. Instead they reported on him and that information led to his capture.

As I said there's plenty of material on Che. There's simply no validity to your assertion that people are afraid to tell the truth about him. But the fact is that many people like you are afraid to HEAR the truth.

Now I will sleep much better.

Goodnight!

2 comments:

Val Prieto said...

That last line is a thing of beauty.

Albert Quiroga said...

Yes indeed! And if only they would realize the truth would set them free...