Poland To Ban Che Images, Other Totalitarian & Fascist Propaganda

When you've been exterminated and terrorized by an uninterrupted succession of National Socialists and Soviet Socialists from 1939 to 1989, it's not hard to view historically ignorant marketing with a somewhat jaundiced eye:

Poland's equality minister, Elzbieta Radziszewska, wants to expand a Polish law prohibiting the production of fascist and totalitarian propaganda so that it includes clothing and anything else that could carry an image related to an authoritarian system.

Anybody found guilty could face a two-year prison sentence.

...

"Communism was a terrible, murderous system that claimed millions of lives," said Professor Wojciech Roszkowski, a leading Polish historian and member of the European parliament.

"It was very similar to National Socialism, and there is no reason to treat those two systems, and their symbols, differently. Their glorification should be prohibited."

I wonder what Jackie Chan thinks...

(h/t: HotAir)

Comments

[2Hotel9]

Cuff, you need to talk to Froggy, http://www.thedissidentfrogman.com/blog about some happening Che gear. And be sure to click the "shooty, noshooty, savy?" tag. You'll love it!!!

[Chip]

"I wonder what Jackie Chan thinks..."

He, of course, might support such a move but I know from the last thread, Cuffy, that you'd remind him that in REAL freedom, freedom of speech and freedom of expression, are rights to be protected in a free society.

[Cuffy Meigs]

Tell it to the Poles, Chip.

[Boy Named Sous]

...REAL freedom, freedom of speech and freedom of expression, are rights to be protected in a free society.

OR

We somehow think that our "version" of freedom and democracy is the only true path. You would have thought that the "one size fits all" concept was debunked with our experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So which story are you sticking with, there, Chip?

[Chip]

The one that pointed out the disparity of vision around what defines freedom in the the two threads, conveniently posted a few days apart.

[Boy Named Sous]

A disparity which you seem to endorse in your comments in the forst of the two threads, and a disparity that is no greater than the disparity between the opinions YOU express in the two statements I just quoted.

But while your two comments are blatantly inconsistent with each other, I don't see quite as much of a disparity in cuffy's posts -- specifically because I don't read anywhere in this post where he endorses the Polish policy of restricting free expression of pro-totalitarian imagery. Rather he is merely pointing out that in exercizing that policy, the Poles are now recognizing that symbols of Marxism are espousing a doctrine as oppressive and deadly as that espoused by Fascist symbols.

But I think you knew that, and were symply trying to divert us from that point.

[Chip]

I'll include in parenthesis, next time, the word "sarcasm".

I was argueing in the Jackie Chen thread that the commitment to freedom does not take a unitary form; a point debated with me by the other posters. See my last post in that thread, please.

I did, in fact, take the liberty of supposing that Cuffy was giving his implied support for the Polish position; it's a bit odd to post it simply for informational purposes. My post was a sarcastic contrast to the arguments put forth in the Jackie Chen thread.........how does one argue so strenuously for the American perspective on freedom in one thread and then "point out" the suppression of what would be a first ammendment right here?

[jake]

che is not racist che is a hero,revolutionist,writer,intellual,doctor,philophier why ban him?

[Cuffy Meigs]

Who said anything about race? Che was a totalitarian, just like Castro, Stalin, and um, that German guy.