If there's one thing I hate nearly as much as communists, it's people who create a false narrative and congratulate themselves for defeating straw-men.
Example?
If you follow conservative-leaning pages or YouTube channels (and this is true even of the substantive ones not bogged down in conspiracy theories) you'll come across the trope of the "Che Guevara shirt-wearing wannabe socialist."
Honestly, I find it an humorous caricature rich with layers of fruitful satire. What better way to illustrate the obliviousness of young, often white, wealthy, college educated Democratic Socialists than depicting them in a Che shirt? Not only is it ironic (because retailers make bank selling shirts depicting a communist icon to rich people who resent their own wealth) but also indicative of their general ignorance (because Che stood for a lot of things modern-day American liberals would find deplorable if they actually studied his words or actions).
As a libertarian who can't seem to shake off his latent conservative nature (trust me, I've tried) I can't help but find the trope amusing. It really gets me every time.
There's just one problem, though.
The trope, at least from what I've seen, doesn't have any basis in reality. Maybe it did at one time. Nearly a decade ago when I was an undergrad and shortly thereafter, I used to see a lot of people in Che shirts. But the truth is that I haven't actually seen one in years. I don't even think the trend made it all the way through Bernie's 2016 Democratic campaign. I genuinely think Democratic Socialists listened when conservatives and others explained that, maybe, wearing a Che shirt was a bit- to use their terminology- problematic.
So, though it's undeniably hilarious to make fun of Democratic Socialists for wearing Che shirts, that trope no longer applies to them if it ever did.
In 2021, the "Che shirt wearing liberal" is nothing more than a conservative straw-man. A way for conservative-leaning comedians to skewer Democratic Socialists without actually engaging with an honest representation of their dialogue.
It's cheap and- though I'm sure some of you will immediately post several recent pictures of people wearing Che shirts- ultimately unproductive.
I know a great deal about what it means to be caricatured and misrepresented by a callous public uninterested in allowing me to speak for myself. They'd much rather cling to the trope of the tobacco-spitting klansman than open themselves to the possibility that I'm more than that and have the intellectual capacity to prove it.
Well, I can't change how the general public perceives me and my ilk (Lord knows I've tried). But I can at least do my best to not make the same mistakes. I can aspire to represent others honestly and engage with their actual arguments rather than a cheap misrepresentations.
It's time for conservatives to abandon the trope of the Che shirt wearing liberal. It was funny and perhaps even relevant for a while. But it's time to move on.