Ever since the death of that psychotic dictator Fidel Castro, I have been experiencing déjà vu. At age ten, I fled my native Cuba after the Communists took over and proceeded to trash the nation to make it conform to their totalitarian ideology. You may think that a ten-year-old would be ignorant of politics and not remember much, but totalitarianism touches every aspect of every person’s life, and it was traumatic for adults and children who were not drunk with fanaticism.

Aside from the constant persecution, militarism, censorship, indoctrination in schools, and idiotic slogans pasted everywhere, there was a complete vanishing of books, comic books, good films, food, clothing, household items, you name it. Not only were the Communists psychotic murderers, they were stupidly incompetent at running the economy, something that they boasted of benefitting the population. In fact, the only ones who never lacked for anything were the Communists. You see, “some animals are more equal than others.”

So my parents sent me to Florida and joined me soon thereafter. In a few years I was immersed in American life and culture. When I was in my late teens and early twenties, I slowly became exposed to Communists in America. In America, the Communists refuse to call themselves as such and refer to themselves with euphemisms like “social activists,” “progressives,” and “liberals” (thereby tarnishing every decent liberal). When they found out I was Cuban, they would grin and tell me how much they admired Castro, how much good he had done for the Cuban people.

At the time, I thought they were misinformed, so I tried to tell them what it was really like. But they didn’t want to hear what I had to say, and nothing penetrated their skulls. They would argue with me! They had never lived in Cuba before the revolution, they had never visited Cuba after the revolution, they knew absolutely nothing about Cuba’s history, they knew nothing about Cuban culture, they didn’t even speak a word of Spanish, yet they would argue with a Cuban about Cuba! And they didn’t see how grotesquely stupid was their position.

We Care About Ideology, Not People

Later, in the 1970s, they developed a myth: that Cuba had been America’s colony and playground (i.e., it was a tourist destination—big deal), prostitution had been abolished, and it was run by the Mafia. This delusional mantra was overlaid with claims that the Communists had improved the educational system, and everyone on the island benefitted from a superb health system (which didn’t help my cousin from dying from beriberi due to malnutrition).

They studiously ignored the tens of thousands of Cubans who fled such a paradise, a fifth of the population; or the instances of political repression that would occasionally be revealed, from Huber Matos early on to the present-day Ladies in White. So although they would blather about how much they cared about the welfare of the Cuban people, the reality was that they didn’t really give a damn. That was just an excuse. They just cared about the welfare of the Communist regime. President Obama’s decisions on Cuba exemplify these ideas, from normalizing the Cuban regime to just recently ending asylum for Cubans who manage to escape to the United States.

Along this same line, no sooner had the guns gone silent in Cuba that Hollywood began to crank out pro-Castro and anti-exile movies: “Cuban Rebel Girls,” “Cuba,” “Havana,” “Scarface,” “Creature from the Haunted Sea,” “The Godfather 2,” “The Motorcycle Diaries,” “Che,” “Che,” and more “Che.” Since for leftists history is not a scholarly subject but an instrument for power to be manipulated and molded, historical facts were distorted. In one film Batista, who was a black man, was portrayed as a white blonde.

Love for A Murderous Dictator Is Evil

Since the fall of the evil empire, I did not hear much from such individuals, aside from occasionally coming across some ignorant jackass who sported a Che Guevara T-shirt. But now, with the death of that psychopath—yes, he was a true psychopath—they have come crawling out of the woodwork to heap praise on Fidel Castro, saying yes, he may have been a dictator but, hey, that is outweighed by how much good he did for the people (and the s.o.bs still don’t speak a word of Spanish!).

Besides, he defied America, whereupon they indulge in abuse of the United States, usually by citing myths that they hold dear. Much has been in print, such as the comments of Canada’s Justin Trudeau, but you can hear some of the gushing admiration and Peter Hitchens throwing cold water on the admirers on YouTube.

So it’s all coming back. I have a deep hatred for such individuals, not just because they are praising a murdering, dictatorial Communist dictator, although that is understandable in the same way as hearing Muslims justify pedophilia. It is also because I know full well that such individuals, given half the chance, would send people to either concentration camps or firing squads, set up book-burning bonfires, shut down book publishers and news sources, and establish a secret police. Of that, you can be sure. That benevolent-sounding pipsqueak is evil.

So the next time you hear someone praise Castro and his minions, do me a favor: break their face.