Lexi,

I used the term successful social leaders. Most of them were not socialist, successful, or leaders.

Nice try to co opt Jesus and Moses, you are really grasping at straws.

Gandhi did not consider himself a socialist,
Golda Meir is hardly an Icon, whose socialism nearly lost Israel the Yom Kippur war and was tossed out.
Lech lead a revolt against the Socialist government, and as a PM was an epic failure.

Martin Luther King and is probably the only valid candidate you put forward

Lexi,

Yeah ! Jesus was in my party branch. I didn't know about Moses though, what branch was he in ?

Every time somebody rolls out the Socialist Boogey-Man word, I'm reminded that they usually don't know what they are talking about.

It's become a generic scare word for everything that rampant free-market capitalism is not.

Meanwhile I sent my kids (who were born in a Socialist Public Hospital) to a Socialist Public School on a Socialist Government Bus that drove on a Socialist Public Road and they later completed their education in a Leftist Socialist University where they now continue to make a real contribution to this Socialist riddled society and pay their taxes to keep the whole show on the road and build other Socialist assets for future generations - including those evil Eco-Terrorists who care about what happens not only tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow as well.

After all, it's those Socialist-built things that enable Capitalism to go about its business.

Extremism however, exists on all sides.

wobbles

Forget "socialism."

How do you explain the "Che" phenomenon?

How does a mass murderer, the former sidekick of a ruthless tyrant, become a symbol of, well, what exactly?

stevenlmeyer,
As I mentioned previously, it's merely symbolic of rebellion and a struggle to overcome (what was then) oppression.

Indeed ALL communist revolutions have come about because of opression, not just on some populist whim. The Russian and Chinese ones even had some self-interested corporate help from the West in order to succeed.

All symbolic historical figures, including Gandhi, Mandela and even the Dalai Lama have unsavory personal flaws which we all tend to ignore because it doesn't support the popular myth we have created around them.

They are symbols too and represent different aspirational aspects that many are drawn to.

It's just a logo - not a political statement.

>>It's just a logo - not a political statement.>>

I half agree.

Che is a logo.

But wearing a Che T-shirt is a political statement just as wearing a hammer and sickle T-shirt or a swastika T-shirt would be.