Democrats are finding it increasingly difficult to connect with Latino voters — especially Cubans, who associate left-wing politics with the communism that tore their country apart. Jesus Maria Alvarez reports on the deep rifts within his community in the battleground state of Florida
  • Birbatron@slrpnk.net
    292·
    1 month ago

    This one confuses me, what’s the basis for this being a slur? It’s based in ideology, not race (given that it was invented by cubans for use on other cubans) or sexuality.

    That would make Tankie a slur too, wouldn’t it?

    • Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world
      315·
      1 month ago

      what’s the basis for this being a slur?

      It’s a slur just like “Uncle Tom” would be for conservative black Americans, it’s not exclusively racial, but it has a nationalist and racialist element, that’s added onto by ideology.

      That would make Tankie a slur too, wouldn’t it?

      If Tankie was used like Gusano is, to justify violence and to persecute, then I would be against using it too.

      The term was also prevalent in hate crimes against anti-revolutionary Cubans. In September or October 1961, over the course of a week, 12 deceased bodies were discovered over Havana with notes attached to them that said "gusanos with pro-revolutionary [ideologies], CIA agents

      During the 1962 wildfires that destroyed sugarcane plantations, locals in Cubas were reported saying that “gusanos have infiltrated the canefields.”[28] This led to quick military tribunals resulting in death by firing squad for “gusanos”

      But no use of Tankie has ever neared how the Cuban government used Gusano to justify mass persecution of those unfriendly to the regime.

      • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
        165·
        1 month ago

        During the 1962 wildfires that destroyed sugarcane plantations, locals in Cubas were reported saying that “gusanos have infiltrated the canefields.”[28] This led to quick military tribunals resulting in death by firing squad for “gusanos”

        You mean when the CIA was bombing sugar plantations in Cuba?

        https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MT19600310&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------

        Calling someone a gusano is more like calling them a confederate traitor; it implies they want to return to a social order where most of the people were forced to work the fields and unable to leave.

        It’s not a hate crime to punch a nazi, same with someone advocating a return to slavery.

        • YeetPics@mander.xyz
          511·
          1 month ago

          Man, it’s almost like their government gave land for a missile launch base or something at the end of a very long, cold war.

          So weird someone would mistreat a neighbor innocently trying to provide a nuclear Holocaust.

          Edit: here is the /s you weren’t looking for. Be better lmao

          • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
            95·
            1 month ago

            That has nothing at all to do with the US supporting terrorism against random civilians.

            the end of a very long, cold war.

            The cuban missile crisis was in 1962, near the start of the cold war.

            But regarding the cuban missile crisis, the soviets stationed missiles in Cuba in response to the US stationing missiles in Turkey. The USSR agreed to remove their missiles from Cuba when the US agreed to remove their missiles from Turkey.

            But sure the US had to bomb fields and machinery in Cuba, Cuba was coming right for them. Same reason they have to sanction them today, in case Cuba gets nuclear missiles again /s

          • WanderingVentra@lemm.ee
            32·
            1 month ago

            They gave them a missile base after the US had already been sabotaging their fields, food, and electrical grids for years and sponsoring random terrorist attacks. Also, they had already attempted an invasion of Cuba by that point with the Bay of Pigs. Of course they freaking wanted help defending themselves. Or does that only apply to the US helping Israel but not the USSR helping other non-settler colonialist countries?