: Time for my ritualistic defence of Cuba;: 1) Cuba may not be a real democracy. But it is not a dictatorship, because it doesn't have a dictator. China had Mao, Russia had Stalin, Iraq has Saddam, but the leadership in Cuba is collective rather than one-man. They don't ahve purges of government leaders as they ahd in China, Russia, etc.
If Cuba isn't a dictatorship, why did they have the support of the dictators?
: 2) The government of Cuba is overtwhelmingly supported by the people. They have the option of truning in spoiled ballots in the elections to express dissatisfaction, and some do. But the fact that most don't illustrates taht Cubans like their government.
Uhh, huh. They like it so much that they make little rafts to escape and the Cuban military forces them to stay in the country. That's real love, man.
: 3) Cuba has a measure of participatory democracy in that people's input is tken into account in making decisions.
In what way does peoples input count?
: 4)Cuba's free speech record has markedly improved in recent years, revisionist communsim is now legal over there.
Uhh, OK.
: 5) Cuba has never had death squads, genocide, etc. unliek otehr Latin American countries.
THa's cause it's a small, isolated country. Not too many different groups inhabit Cuba, and it is not nationalist.
: 6) On the question of libertarianism, did you knoa that Cuba has no laws agaisnt homosexuality, whereas many American states do?
What laws against gays? In the US, gays arfe generally more protected than regular people.
: 7) Castro has killed an absolute MAXIMUM of 12,000 people in 40 years, while his right-wing predecessor killed 20,000 in seven years.
Right wing, yes. Capitalist, no.
