[ExI] > Taiwan is standing strong

[John Clark]

On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 7:28 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> >> Spike, be honest, do you really think that is a true statement?
>
>
>
> *> John, we saw one of the major candidates ruin his campaign by saying a
> few generous words about Fidel Castro. The party people let him know that
> those few words would cost him Florida by 50 points.*
>

First, I am NOT a Bernie Sanders fan. Second, I'm not running for political
office, if I was I'd never dream of actually saying what I think. Third, I
had thought the members of this list would take a slightly more nuanced
view of things than José Sixpack in Florida would. Was I wrong?

And I'd still like to know if you really thought I was advocating communism.

*> In California, any charitable word about Chinese communism, Vietnamese
> communism, or any other brand of communism in a state generally open to
> socialism would be enough to cause that candidate to lose that state. *
>

Earlier you said we shouldn't talk about Trump because there are a lot of
international members on the list so they wouldn't be interested in
anything as parochial as what the leader of the most powerful nation in the
world is doing, but now even that is not enough, now everybody in the world
is supposed to self censor themselves so the delicate sensibilities of the
people in one state in the USA never get offended. Is that what you're
saying? I'll tell you what I'm say, I say nobody ever died by being
offended.


> *>Communism is reviled. *
>

And for very *VERY* good reason.

* > It is a murderous philosophy. *
>

Absolutely.


> * > Any commentary elevating any part of communism ahead of freedom is
> revolting. *
>

So we should deny reality and pretend that the education and health
standards in Cuba didn't improve under Castro?

*>Whether or not that is really what you meant to do, it came across as
> analogous to that candidate who pointed out that everything Fidel Castro
> did was not necessary bad.  He was good for education*


And Fidel Castro WAS good for education, the literacy rate went way up, And
Fidel Castro WAS good for the health of his people, the life expectancy
went way up.  And NOBODY hates Fidel Castro more than me! I've said more
than once on this very list that in its entire half million year history no
Homo Sapien every came closer to causing the extinction of the entire human
species than Fidel Castro did in 1962; I was twelve back then and I
remember wondering if I'd still be alive in 24 hours. I'm also on record in
saying that judging from the fact that millions of people moved from Cuba
to Florida after Castro took over but virtually nobody went in the other
direction means that despite the improvements in some areas the net level
of happiness of Cubans must have declined.

And there are well documented occasions where Adolf Hitler showed kindness
toward puppies, but saying that doesn't make me a Natzie.


> > Communism is evil.
>

Certainly.


> > *Trump is of the party you don’t like. *
>

Yes.

* > Two different things.*
>

Are they? Well yes in a way, certainly not all but some Communist leaders
were competent, Trump is not, but if Trump is given a free hand I have
little doubt he'd be as tyrannical as the worst of them.

Incidentally, even though it doesn't have noticeably more cases of COVID-19
than other states a few days ago the Republican Governor of Ohio decided to
delay yesterday's election. The Governor's decision was challenged in the
courts. The Governor lost in the courts. The election was delayed anyway.
The Govenor says the new election date will "*possibly*" be on June 2. And by
then the epidemic will likely be worse than it is now.

In 1864 some people urged the President to delay the November election
because half the nation wanted to kill the other half but he refused,
however back then the President was Abraham Lincoln, now it's Donald Trump.
Hard to believe they're both Republicans.

John K Clark
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