Why do people have Che Guevara t shirts?

We haven't really covered him in History (Cuban missile crisis, but we did Castro) but whats so iconic about him? What did he do?

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Reply 1

cid

It's just a cool t-shirt brah.

I also wear a sonic T-shirt.

Reply 2

mevidek

He's seen as a fashion symbol. He would turn in his grave if he found out how he is being used for what he fought against. Watch Che part 1 and the Motorcycle diaries. The latter first.

Reply 3

yahyahyahs

The people I know who wear them are scene kid lefties. They like to think that it will make them interesting, intelligent and sticking it to the capitalist nation we live in, but they obviously do not know what Che stood for because sticking him on t-shirts is furthering materialism and consumerism.

Reply 4

Low Profile

they are hard core communists

He was a murderer and is certainly not the kind of man that should be made into an idol. Well, given that he'd have hated the idea, maybe it's his punishment that he's ended up on t-shirts worn by pretentious left-wing students everywhere.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 7

coolmushroom

Because they're idiots who do not understand what he did/stood for.

Reply 8

Cicerao

There's so many of them that maybe they're some form of uniform so everybody is equal. :beard:

Reply 9

MagicNMedicine

Some of you don't understand the market system.

Che's image sells and he did not patent his image rights so clothing firms differentiate their product from plainer t shirts by using his image in the design, and they outsource the production to the lowest cost producers where they can pay the lowest wages to the workers in order to deliver a low cost product to the consumer.

Some of you command and control lefties probably think we should all walk round in plain red t shirts but thankfully I live in a liberal democracy and so it is my right to wear a product with Che's image on it. I see it as symbolic of the victory of the free world in the Cold War.

Reply 10

Otkem

I really don't know. He was an extremely dangerous individual who supported a cruel ideology.

Reply 11

RubberDinghy Rapid

Because Marxism and murder is cool?
Saying that the people who wear them have probably never heard of Karl Marx or who Che Guevara is.

Reply 12

visa

I've never seen anyone wearing one, but then I don't live in Shoreditch.

he dead!

Most people wearing them are college kids who feel a compulsion to stand for something greater than their clean cut, empty suburban lives. Or perhaps they do realize the irony of buying a Che Guevara t-shirt at The Gap and they just think irony is sexy?

In any case, having nonsensical political views is a right of passage, sort of like having your heart broken. If you are lucky you look back later in life with adult eyes and wonder what you ever saw in them to begin with. It is only tragic when you see someone 25+ still rocking the face of Ernesto and trying to fight the good fight.

Reply 15

Huskaris

Because all their friends do. Why do girl shave off half their hair? Cos their friends do.

Reply 16

cid

I also wear an iron man shirt, he's killed lots of people too.

Its a T-shirt for Christ's sake, anyone that wears their political beliefs on a mass produced t-shirt is ...well draw your own conclusions.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 17

yahyahyahs

Original post by cid

Iron Man isn't real.

Reply 18

JustAnotherCliche

My cousin who is 12 was wearing a top with Che on and the slogan Viva la resistance, so I asked him who bought it for him. He replied his grandparents had got it for him for his birthday (not my grandparents his other side's grandparents) who are strong Catholics. I literally laughed for about 20 minutes over the irony.