In their pursuit to erode our culture of its established values, American leftists continue to expose themselves and their insidious brand of moral relativism through their disturbing idol worship of notably evil figures throughout world history.

Call it sympathy for the devil, call it willful ignorance, call it plain evil. Whatever you decide to call it, these people just don’t seem to understand why we justly criticize despots and dictators.

To help out the leftists and their historically-challenged ilk, here’s a nifty guide laying out why these figures are so heinous. Remember kids, reading is fundamental.

Fidel Castro

The American left has always shown sympathy for Castro, former prime minister of Cuba and known mass murderer.

Leftists love to praise the man as a secular hero, and glorified him for his socialist policies while he was alive and in power. It seems they’ve all conveniently forgotten that Castro oversaw the murder of tens of thousands of Cuban citizens. The man banned free press and religious liberty, and was known to imprison his political opponents, as well as journalists who criticized him and anyone else who challenged his status quo. Castro was also notorious for punishing his critics with long-term prison sentences, arresting human rights defenders, and endorsing termination of employment for citizens who went against him.

But hey, maybe American lefties skipped that chapter of their history books. They can’t really be that delusional to think that Castro was somehow a good guy… can they?

In a statement following Castro’s death, Barack Obama spoke of “the countless ways in which [Castro] altered the course of individual lives, families and of the Cuban nation.” I wonder how the thousands of people who risked their lives fleeing Cuba to escape Castro’s deadly regime feel about that statement — sure, Obama, I guess you could say Castro altered their lives.

Leftists also like to believe Castro bettered the Cuban education system. However, they forget that under his authority, it was stipulated that anyone who received universal education would have to actively promote Castro’s government policies both during after their schooling. Pupils were required to take government-approved courses that forbid any criticism of socialism as a way of life. Castro viewed education as a crucial element of his revolution, and believed that universal education was the best way to create a population that was loyal to the government.

Sound familiar?

Karl Marx

The father of socialism is the same man behind much of the modern-day communist rambling from the American left.

Marx, in his writings, envisioned the creation of a new, superior individual who would go on to create a new society. This vision of a “new man” and “new society” apparently involved creating a communist revolution complete with mass murder, enslavement, torture, and the subjugation, starvation, and suffering of millions around the world. Historians have estimated that in their attempt to create a “better” world, Marxist and communist regimes have killed as many as 200 million people in the twentieth century alone.

These deaths cannot be dismissed as acts of rogue dictators who weren’t following the “true tenets of Marxist philosophy” either, since Marx taught his followers that it was necessary to kill a large segment of the population in order to attain the basic objectives of communism.

Furthermore, Marx had little regard for the rights of the individual; his disdain for personal liberty was evident in his writings. By calling for legislative absolutism of the state and advocating a classless society, Marx supported the suffering of millions, since by its very nature, socialism cannot exist without an oppressive government.

This is why I can’t help but groan when American leftists praise Marx as a great thinker and political theorist, especially when they talk about how they wish to continue his legacy. His “legacy” is one of cruelty, murder, and hypocrisy.

I suppose, however, that these are just the normal elements of a socialist utopia.

Che Guevara

I knew a self-identified socialist in college, the kid thought that the poster of Che Guevara on his wall and his dog-eared copy of The Communist Manifesto made him a bona fide revolutionary. Alas, the poor kid was mistaken. Do these young idealists realize that when they go to chain stores and buy mass-produced merchandise with Che Guevara’s face screen-printed on, that they’re contributing to the very same cycle that Guevara himself denounced? (I know — asking self-awareness from leftists is a lofty request, nigh impossible — but hey, I can dream).

Many overlook the fact that Guevara was not an “icon” or a hero, but a murderous ideologue with a tyrannical streak who desired absolute military power and called for death to all of his dissenters. Guevara banned books he felt “encouraged delinquency”, and he banned music that challenged his regime, including jazz and rock and roll. He lined up his enemies before firing squads, punishing them with death simply for speaking out against his tyrannical worldview.

Guevara hated hippies, artists, and free thinkers. He was a known racist and bigot who treated homosexuality as a crime. And he was more than willing to kill anyone he deemed “delinquent”. This is, perhaps, the strangest part of the left’s idol worship of Guevara: those who admire and venerate the man today are the same folks Guevara himself likely would’ve jailed (or even killed) if they had lived under his regime. Guevara’s ultimate goal was to make individualism disappear from the nation.

Why do leftists continue to worship a man who was openly against everything they supposedly stand for?

The Takeaway

The left’s hero worship of these three figures is particularly alarming, as it not only displays their lack of historical knowledge, but proves how their sense of “morality” is completely inconsistent. Leftist values are based upon spreading and normalizing their destructive dogma, and thus are always fluctuating. The ethical boundaries of American leftists will always be subject to change, as they are completely dependent on however they can justify their ideological motives.

Larceny, treason, exile, murder, political suppression, rape, starvation, and torture are all condemned by leftists… until one of their idols is guilty of such a crime.

Is anyone else tired of this blatant hypocrisy? Of the left’s two-faced conduct, their performative rhetoric, and their “say one thing and do another”-style politics? I know I certainly am.

Until leftists come to terms with historical reality, it’s time to stop venerating villains.

“How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.” — Ronald Reagan