Does everyone with a "Che" t-shirt understand why they're wearing it, or do they just think it's cool?

Question

I mean, I've known people (who wear the shirt) who admitted to me that they don't really know what communism is, and were shocked to find out that wearing that shirt basically tells people you're all for it. Come on....capitalism made it possible for them to get the shirt in the first place. So...are there REALLY that many commie wanna-be's, or is it just a case of kids doing what they think is rebelling, without really knowing what's up?

Answer 1

1. It's just a chic image - the poster as well. Basically Che Guevara is just an iconic figure for people who like to think they are rebels.

2. Really, wearing a Che T-shirt doesn't say: "I am a Communist", because Che and Fidel were not Communists, but rather left-wing insurgents who were forced into the embrace of the Soviet Union by the USA's hostility, following the success of the revolution. If anything, it means "I support the export of the Cuban revolution through the barrel of a gun". Che turned against the Soviet Union, and for that reason, the KGB wanted him captured, and the pro-Moscow Bolivian Communist Party refused to help him, when he undertook his last insurgency mission.

3. For me the supreme irony is that, if he was alive today, he'd be 79 this year, and who would want such an old guy on a T-shirt? Mind you, Nelson Mandela will be 89 in July!