# Why do we Idolize Che Guevera? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 21, 2004, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-idolize-che-guevera/270344 "2004-10-21T04:13:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-idolize-che-guevera/270344/41 "2004-10-22T12:58:45Z")
> [@KidCharlemagne](#): > > Let’s put it this way: While there were other factors, he wouldn’t be idolized if he wasn’t handsome. err, weren’t handsome. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-idolize-che-guevera/270344/42 "2004-10-22T13:05:34Z")
> [@KidCharlemagne](#): > > err, weren’t handsome. I believe wasn’t was correct. He were not handsome. He was not handsome. What am I missing? ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-idolize-che-guevera/270344/43 "2004-10-22T13:10:15Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I believe wasn’t was correct. He were not handsome. He was not handsome. What am I missing? Don’t speculations typically require the subjunctive? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-idolize-che-guevera/270344/44 "2004-10-22T13:29:46Z")
> [@KidCharlemagne](#): > > Don’t speculations typically require the subjunctive? I’m not sure if it’s constant :dubious:. You may be right though. In any case, you ideas intrigue me. I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-idolize-che-guevera/270344/45 "2004-10-22T13:45:56Z")
Quasimodal writes: \> I’m interested to see these two new Che movies coming out (che and the \> Motorcycle Diaries) to see how hollywood treats him. It seems almost like a \> rewrite of history by the positive spin media has given him. I’ve seen _The Motorcycle Diaries_. First, it wasn’t made in Hollywood. Second, it’s mostly a road picture and a coming-of-age story. It doesn’t have anything tremendously interesting to say about Che’s politics. It’s about what goes on in 1952, as Che and a friend take a break from school to travel around South America. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-idolize-che-guevera/270344/46 "2004-10-22T15:05:21Z")
I have to say that it’s pretty patronizing to assume that college kids who buy Che T-shirts don’t know who Che is. I knew who he was when I was in college. Why assume the kids who are buying the T-shirts are ignorant? ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-idolize-che-guevera/270344/47 "2004-10-22T16:29:05Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > As someone who attended a conservative Eastern private university…who the hell is Che Guevera? You went to a university and don’t know who the hell is Che Guevara? Boy those frats parties were surely great. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-idolize-che-guevera/270344/48 "2004-10-22T16:31:37Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > I have to say that it’s pretty patronizing to assume that college kids who buy Che T-shirts don’t know who Che is. > > I knew who he was when I was in college. Why assume the kids who are buying the T-shirts are ignorant? Because it is a fairly obvious fact that radical-left politics are much less important on American college campuses now than they were in the '60s and '70s. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-idolize-che-guevera/270344/49 "2004-10-22T17:02:20Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Because it is a fairly obvious fact that radical-left politics are much less important on American college campuses now than they were in the '60s and '70s. Well, I went to college during the Reagan years, a pretty conservative time on college campuses, and I knew about Che. Why are we presuming ignorance among college students today? I would rather presume that someone who would buy a Che T-shirt or put up a Che poster would have some knowledge of the man. ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-idolize-che-guevera/270344/50 "2004-10-22T17:21:17Z")
Not to add fuel to the fire, but I just graduated college last December, and I’d say that the most anybody knew about Che (and I’m talking about kids with his face on their shirts and posters in the dorm room) was that he led a revolution and something about Cuba. This was Univ. of Michigan too, not a small, private college either. I think other posters have it right - his image has become a market icon symbolizing a generic revolution. Hey, was “Motorcycle Diaries” good? I really like the actor who plays Che. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-idolize-che-guevera/270344/51 "2004-10-22T17:28:10Z")
> [@audiobottle](#): > > Not to add fuel to the fire, but I just graduated college last December, and I’d say that the most anybody knew about Che (and I’m talking about kids with his face on their shirts and posters in the dorm room) was that he led a revolution and something about Cuba. You may be right. It may just be a generic symbol of youthful rebellion (as the Confederate flag sometimes used to be, before it became non-PC). Still, I’d hesitate to _assume_ someone who had a Che T-shirt didn’t know anything about the guy. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-idolize-che-guevera/270344/52 "2004-10-22T17:28:28Z")
Apropos of nothing, back in the '70s _National Lampoon_ published its own version of “Che Guevara’s Bolivian Diaries.” (The actual diaries had been published a few years earlier in some underground hippie papers.) It was fucking hiliarious. “Morale is low. I have twice had to discipline the men for pillow fighting. If this seems harsh, it must remembered that for pillows, true guerillas use logs.” I read it in their book collection, _The Paperback Conspiracy,_ long out of print. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-idolize-che-guevera/270344.md?page=2)