It is rare for me to be at a loss for words. But, for a while there, our self-styled "national broadcaster" accomplished the near impossible with this post.
Now if someone on the right of the political spectrum were to market "fun stuff" like, say, brown shirts, swastika banners and Mein Kampf bookmarks to give their detractors a poke in the eye, I doubt many would consider satirizing Nazis the least bit funny, or fun.
But communists? Well, that's different. In fact, the nice folks at the CBC apparently consider it quite hip (and maybe even daringly "audacious") to recall the glory days of communist gulags, forced famine, Stalinist purges, and other "fun" happenings under communism with cutsie peacenik paraphernalia.
Likewise the CBC fan club ... which seems to consist of a considerable number of apologists for mass murderers. What is there to say about human beings with hearts so cold that they can equate the unspeakable suffering of communism's victims with the triteness of their political disaffection (better a communist than a conservative, says one) ... and dismiss those who are appalled at such callous disrespect as lacking a sense of humour? Perhaps they never saw films like this, read books like these or visited websites like this. Or, maybe they did and just didn't care.
Oh and btw, this "fun stuff" at the CBC comes on the heels of a big brouhaha over the "castro hat" ... where you'll find more exhortations to lighten up and have a good laff at the antics of communism's mass murderers. Easy enough for some, I suppose, here in complacent Canada.
I don't consider myself a particularly funny person, but I think I have a reasonably good sense of humour. And sorry, but I really don't consider communism any funnier than nazism. (As far as I'm concerned, both ideologies are fascist.)
But then, maybe I am just not sophisticated enough to appreciate and share the CBC's sense of humour.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Featured Post
Ukrainian Food Flair became a best seller today!
So thrilled to see this today! Thank you to my dear friend and writing mentor, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch , and best-selling children's a...
12 comments:
I see that the link is now closed to comments - wonder why?
And what part of "100 million killed in the last century" do they not understand?
They understand just fine.
It's compassion for the victims of communism that they lack.
Actually CBC folks have plenty of compasion. But they don't suffer idiots.
This brewha erupted when some goofball decided to attack the CBC for selling a "castro hat".
CBC defended the sale of the so-named cap by pointing out that this is simply what it's called, not out of any love for Castro, but because like it or not, it's an iconic image, and everybody knows what you're talking about when you say "Castro hat".
This of course sent the nutbars on a rampage, and cbc made fun of them... just as they should.
Incidently... the Americans have killed millions (Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq) in the past few decades. The drop toxic waste on people (Agent orange, and spent uranium) And of course there is all that torture and the gulags they currently operate.
Shouldn't America be a bad word now too?
Making light of communist atrocities in order to mock your political opponents does not exactly reek of compassion.
But thanks for helping me illustrate how blinded zealots are by their political ideology.
"anonymous" suffers from moral relativism: attacking the good, defending the bad, erasing all standards: applying this rule, you could argue that Mr Cho at Virginia Tech was a good commie, attacking all the "rich kids", Americans had it coming, etc...such results, such as equating Americans to Stalinists, are perverse.
Who made fun of communist atrocities?
Inside CBC is making fun of those who believe that CBC staffers are pot-smoking kumbaya commies who love Castro.
I know there are many people who would love to believe that CBCers love communist dictators, but sometimes a hat is just a hat.
Bushman... nobody is defending this hat as a symbol of communism or Castro. Nobody.
What is happening is this... CBC can't be labeled a den of commies when in fact there are hundreds of vendors selling this hat under the same name. And the reason they do this is because it is an easy way to identify the hat.
This has nothing to do with moral relativism, Stalin or Cho. Get a grip.
Yeah, a hat is a hat and a proof is a proof ... and if the shoe fits, wear it.
Back in the 1960s, there was a TV series called Hogan's Heroes that made nazis look like the keystone cops.
That's all well and good. By then nazism was recognized and accepted as the evil it was by western society.
Not so communism today. There has been no equivalent of the Nuremburg trials for communist war criminals, and some of these monsters are now living in Canada and thumbing their noses at their victims, while enjoying the CBC's cute little commie jokes.
So perhaps you'll find it in your heart to forgive those who lost loved ones to communism for being a tad touchy when it comes to a "light-hearted" treatment of an ideology they themselves somehow managed to survive.
Maybe if you, Mr. or Ms. Anonymous, and the folks at Mother Corp, bothered to seriously check out the links in my post, and even interviewed a survivor of both Stalin and Hitler (as I have done), you might more easily understand why not everyone shares your appreciation of the wink-wink cutsieness of CBC's ill-conceived (and IMO disingenous) "commie" humour.
Pawlina, you are right there was no equivalent to the Nuremburg Trials for the slime that dictated in what is now the FSU, and there still should be.
One thing that the Russia has a problem realizing is that the Revolution of 1918 was not a revolution against capitalism it was a revolution against things that were Russian including the Empire, which Putin is now trying to restore.
If Russia wants to be responsible for the Soviet Soldier [the brohaha that is going on in Estonia] then it should also be accountable for the millions who died at the hands of Stalin and the henchmen who followed him...
The communist experiment never worked in the Soviet Union... It was such a fascist state that we can't even imagine it. Looking the truth in the face is often the most difficult thing to do. One reason Soviet Veterans and the Ukrainian government can't fess up that members of the Ukrainian Insergant Army should also collect a pension, is that they can't admit that those who were fighting for the Soviets were also a fascist state, but just slightly different.
Many Soviet soldiers were victims of their own system, if they didn't fight they were shot in the back by the NKVD. The most important thing to remember is wars are terrible things, but not remembering that there were actually people who were fighting for the freedom of a nation they wanted to see free, is one of those wonderful things that communists love to pigeonhole as terrorists.
For those who really lived under Communism, and I don't mean party technocrats, but people with morals , speak to them. They will tell you what communism is about. I had relatives who survived the Gulags - and from what they told me those camps were no nicer than the Nazi camps during WWII.
Well said, Vasyl.
There is a reason that some people believe the CBC a hotbed of communist sympathizers. But the CBC prefers to just mock them instead of finding out why they believe that and clear up any "misunderstanding" once and for all.
It could also just be that the latter approach is too "earnest" for the fun folks at CBC, who just want to be "audacious."
Best post ever Pawlina, I never saw the CBC showing any real interest in stories concerning communist gulags, forced famine, and the many tragedies of this period. Like Duranty, they seem to have many mouth pieces implanted in their midst to let us believe that these atrocities
are not comparable to those perpertated by the Nazis.
Now we have the poor commie folk in Estonia crying fowl due to moving of the old soviet monument.
What a load of.........
Keep up the great work. We love you Montreal.
RG
Thanks, Roman!
Interesting you should mention Duranty. I also thought there was a clear parallel.
Some people stubbornly refuse to learn from history. Sad... for them and for the rest of us.
Post a Comment