[drt5b7j]

> Besides, it was in Europe. Us Europeans do not have the same epidermic reaction to communism that Americans have.

You're just making it worse and worse. I'm also European. I'm guessing you're Western European though? I'm also guessing your country wasn't under soviet occupation for 50 years? Eastern Europeans very much do have a bad allergic reaction to communism, just like Americans, and just like everyone else who came in contact with it. Che was at best a useful idiot.

[rvnx]

It's true that in Western Europe it's fine to show the communist symbols.

To Westerner, they never saw communism in action, only propaganda.

Which means that kids can proudly wear their capitalistic-made Che Guevara t-shirt at school.

However, in Eastern Europe it's an absolute no, wearing such shirts is worse than the nazi symbols

because it shows support to extreme atrocities in front of people who were victim of them.

[jraph]

Communism refers to at least two separate things, though (in Western Europe).

- a theoretical economic model that is opposed to capitalism

- the atrocious regimes of the 20th century calling themselves communism you are referring to that have vanishingly few things to do with the first.

Vanishingly few people in Western Europe support these atrocious regimes. And therefore, communism the way you are using it. What's more, there's not much propaganda for communism here (I believe there was propaganda in the past, though). The confusion is usually here and people mostly don't see communism with a good eye because of the confusion (or because they are knowledgeable and oppose the theory - which is a better reason to be against it). Now, it's true that we have weaker feelings about it than in the US (and, I guess, the parts of the words that suffered from the atrocious regimes).

(The usual response to this is that theoretical communism invariably leads to these atrocious regimes, but I believe we don't know this - invariably, it seems they've been set up by possibly sadist assholes with huge egos and thirsts for power, we haven't tried without - as well as we don't know if it would work. I don't have any further useful point to make in this discussion so I probably won't engage in it.)

[mongol]

It is fine in certain circles only. We are many that think it is completely insane, but we acknowledge that we live in a democracy with freedom of opinion.

[bonoboTP]

> However, in Eastern Europe it's an absolute no, wearing such shirts is worse than the nazi symbols

As a Hungarian, this is just not true. The Western view of communism has been imported and the more time goes on, the more the younger generations base their views on what's cool in the West vs what their old and uncool grandparents blabber on about.

With the Internet and media and travel options and exchange semesters etc. the Western European attitude is diffusing into the east as well. It was already cool to wear Che t shirts 20 years ago in Budapest. Though of course Budapest has always been a West oriented cosmopolitan liberal city, so copying the west in this is not so surprising.