Target gets counterrevolutionary

The Minneapolis based superstore chain Target has agreed to stop selling a CD case bearing the image of Fidelista revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara (seen above at left, pushing up daisies) at their stores after a critical editorial at Investor's Business Daily derided commercializing the late Guevara's image as "tyrant chic".

"What's next?" the editorial thundered "Hitler backpacks? Pol Pot cookware? Pinochet pantyhose?"

We at Dictators of the World say yes, yes, and more yes. Bring it all on. If a thug like Che can be turned into a cuddly marketing gimmick on a t-shirt, why can't the recently deceased Turkmenbashi grace an elegant, sensibly priced embroidered throw pillow? Am I the only one who would enjoy decorative ceramic housewares with the sly image of Josef Stalin?

Come on, Target. Don't leave us in the lurch.

Dictator chic

Courtesy of Reason Magazine's Hit and Run blog, links to articles by Ian Buruma and Christopher Hitchens at the Sunday Times (London) on the lingering support for authoritarianism on left dating back to the Communist insurgencies of the post-War 20th century.

Indeed, from the days Pete Seeger was known as "Stalin's Songbird" to Sean Penn performing Saddam Hussein's public relations work, the American left has, at times, tripped over its own feet to praise the likes of Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, the North Korean Kim dynasty, Pol Pot, Joe Stalin and many more. To be sure, anti-Americanism plays a part, but what else is behind the curious symbiosis between the American far-left and the worship of totalitarian power?

Buruma's article analyzing Western support for leftist totalitarianism may be read here, while Hitchens case for the left abandoning support for dictatorships to restore political credibility may be found here.