'People Condemn Castro, But Praise Putin. Where's The Consistency?'
28 November 2016, 11:32 | Updated: 28 November 2016, 11:38
Donald Trump says very nice things about Vladimir Putin but condemns Fidel Castro. James O'Brien wonders: where's the consistency?
Reaction to Castro's death has been split, from some calling him a murderous tyrant to others claiming he was a champion for ordinary people.
James is urging everyone to take a breath and stop blindly backing people who fall on their side of the political spectrum, whether that's Castro, Trump or Putin.
"Locking up political opponents without trial, killing journalists, locking up dissidents - we should all be able to agree that these things are bad. But we can't.
"Everyone likes to pick a side and just cheer for their side," continued James. "It seems to me the more I learn about Fidel Castro that people on the Left should have dropped him like a hot potato as soon as he started adopting the tactics of Stalin.
"But of course I suppose there are people on the Left who would praise the tactics of Stalin.
"And there are loads of people on the Right who would praise the tactics of Stalin as long as it wasn't Stalin employing the tactics of Stalin, but someone like August Pinochet.
"Or Donald Trump I suppose, who in the Presidential election campaign came out with some deeply totalitarian words.
"This is the thing that 2016 is teaching naive snowflakes like me: there is no consistency."
