I’m in Cambodia, where I just finished a series of speeches to civic groups on some of my usual topics, in this case tax policy, the recipe for growth, and libertarian principles.
All that was par for the course.
What will always stay with me and haunt my thoughts, by contrast, was my visit to the Tuol Sleng camp, which was used as a processing center during the genocide carried out by the Khmer Rouge communist dictatorship in the late 1970s.
The bottom line, as you can see from this sign, is that 14,000-20,000 civilians went through this facility and only about 200 survived.
Here’s a sign showing the English translation of rules governing camp behavior.
The sixth rule, which says prisoners could not make noise while being beaten and tortured, seems especially perverse.
Wow, reads like the rules governing campus anti-free speech tribunals.
But I shouldn’t joke because so much of this camp contains horrifying memories of communist barbarity.
Here you see some of the children who were processed through this death facility.
For some reason, this pile of clothes taken from butchered prisoners was very powerful.
Keep in mind that this big pile of clothes is actually a drop in the bucket. During the few years the Khmer Rouge was in power, the communists slaughtered at least 2 million out of a total population of less than 8 million.
But if a mountain of clothes is too abstract, how about this pile of bones at one of the nearby killing fields where Tuol Sleng prisoners were taken for the Cambodian version of the final solution.
As I toured this somber death camp, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about the jerks who wander around in “Che” t-shirts.
Yes, I realize that butchery by Castro’s regime was minor compared to what happened in Cambodia, but Cuba nonetheless has been a brutal police state. And Che was one of Castro’s murderous enforcers. How can any decent human being wear a t-shirt designed to portray him, or the regime, in a positive fashion?!?
P.S. Let’s shift to a much lighter topic.
Back in 2012, I wrote about being flummoxed by a fancy toilet in Switzerland. It had all sorts of fancy controls, yet I couldn’t get them to work.
Well, I was in Seoul, South Korea, a few days ago for a different speech and something similar happened. I checked into my hotel late in the evening, and went to …err… use the facilities before going to sleep.
Lo and behold, I found a toilet with no flushing mechanism. No handle. No button. No pedal. Nothing.
It was late, so I didn’t give the matter too much thought. I simply went to sleep and pretended I was a water-conserving environmentalist.
The next day, though, I was more determined to figure out how to flush the toilet. My Ph.D. has to be good for something, after all.
And that’s when I noted this set of instructions posted above the toilet paper.
You’ll be happy to know that I eventually figured out the purpose of most of the buttons.
Indeed, later in the day when I …um… well, let’s be delicate and simply say I issued an executive order, I even was able to activate the automatic hands-free wash and dry system for one’s backside.
It’s remarkable what capitalism is capable of producing.
P.P.S. Let’s return to the dour topic of government-imposed genocide.
If you’re curious how the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia rank compared to other evil regimes, they only killed a tiny fraction of the death toll achieved by the Soviet Union and Maoist China.
But if you’re scoring on a per-capita basis, the communist killers in Cambodia arguably might be at the top of the list.
Next time I see some despicable jerk wearing a Che t-shirt, I think I’ll ask whether he has the matching Pol Pot version.
I’m quite sure that the brainless kid won’t even know that Pol Pot was the dictator who presided over the Cambodian genocide, so my snide comment will fall on deaf ears.
But maybe, just maybe, the kid will go online, learn about the profound evil of communism and throw Che in the trash.
Heck, the morons at Mercedes-Benz were shamed out of using Che as a marketing gimmick, so there is hope!
[…] written about the horrors that communism has imposed on the people of Cambodia, Cuba, and North Korea, but let’s zoom out and look at this evil ideology from a macro […]
[…] (By the way, if we’re measuring evil by the percentage of the population that was butchered, than the communist dictator of Cambodia was worse than Mao.) […]
[…] His political ideas provided the justification for the genocides of dictators such as Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. […]
[…] His political ideas provided the justification for the genocides of dictators such as Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. […]
[…] His political ideas provided the justification for the genocides of dictators such as Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. […]
[…] His political ideas provided the justification for the genocides of dictators such as Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. […]
[…] gave aid and comfort to an evil, repugnant, and despicable […]
[…] His political ideas provided the justification for the genocides of dictators such as Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. […]
[…] His political ideas provided the justification for the genocides of dictators such as Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. […]
[…] His political ideas provided the justification for the genocides of dictators such as Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. […]
[…] I forget the quality of shower I experienced in South Korea, but I was very impressed (see postscript) by the […]
[…] de que todas as nações FCP estão melhores porque a União Soviética entrou em colapso e o comunismo está desaparecendo do […]
[…] a table with some of the grim totals. Unsurprisingly, Pol Pot’s Cambodia is at the top of the […]
[…] only do you enjoy the rule of law (no Khmer Rouge-style concentration camps!), but you also enjoy considerable prosperity compared to the rest of the […]
[…] el 2016 visité (I toured) el Museo del Genocidio Tuol Sleng en Cambodia, que conmemora a las víctimas de la carnicería […]
[…] 2016, I toured the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Cambodia, which memorializes the victims of communist […]
[…] 2016, I toured the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Cambodia, which memorializes the victims of communist […]
[…] 2016, I toured the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Cambodia, which memorializes the victims of communist butchery in […]
[…] I’ve written before about overseas bathroom adventures and I now have another episode to add to the mix from my recent trip to India. I like modern […]
[…] observation that all of the FCP nations are better off because the Soviet Union collapsed and communism is fading from the world. Liberal socialism may not be good for an economy, but it’s paradise […]
[…] observation that all of the FCP nations are better off because the Soviet Union collapsed and communism is fading from the world. Liberal socialism may not be good for an economy, but it’s paradise […]
[…] written about the horrors that communism has imposed on the people of Cambodia, Cuba, and North Korea, but let’s zoom out and look at this evil ideology from a macro […]
[…] written about the horrors that communism has imposed on the people of Cambodia, Cuba, and North Korea, but let’s zoom out and look at this evil ideology from a macro […]
[…] written about the horrors that communism has imposed on the people of Cambodia, Cuba, and North Korea, but let’s zoom out and look at this evil ideology from a macro […]
[…] written about the horrors that communism has imposed on the people of Cambodia, Cuba, and North Korea, but let’s zoom out and look at this evil ideology from a macro […]
[…] he also could have listed the incomprehensible misery that communism caused in places such as Cuba, Cambodia, and North Korea. Or China back in the Mao […]
[…] other words, take the traditional horror of communism and then add a layer of autarky to ensure even greater […]
[…] I forget the quality of shower I experienced in South Korea, but I was very impressed (see postscript) by the […]
[…] I forget the quality of shower I experienced in South Korea, but I was very impressed (see postscript) by the […]
[…] been totally stumped by the design of foreign showers and, if you check out the postscript of this column, very impressed by the sophistication of foreign […]
[…] in the 1980s, I would get very agitated when folks made excuses for brutal communist regimes by asserting that the United States also did bad things. This “moral equivalence” […]
[…] Romania is moving in the right direction. After decades of horrific communist tyranny, it became a transition economy when the Soviet Union collapsed. Ever since, like many other […]
[…] But I’m digressing. The simple moral of today’s story is that decent societies don’t have to imprison their citizens. That only happens in place where government is not only big, but also evil. […]
[…] Do politicians celebrate the life of Osama bin Laden? Or fondly remember the supposed contributions of Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Workers Party? Or wax poetic about the memory of Pol Pot? […]
[…] works.” Some might argue we shouldn’t judge him too harshly since it took time for the barbarity of communism to become apparent, but any ideology that puts the state over the individual is a priori evil in my […]
You lie, communism was and is a liberating force for good. Khmer Rouge was not communist, they were clients of the US Empire.
[…] like Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, the North Korean Kim dynasty either killed more than Hitler, or butchered higher proportions of […]
[…] like Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, the North Korean Kim dynasty either killed more than Hitler, or butchered higher proportions of […]
[…] the only thing worse than that is the final layer of statist hell, which features countries that actually butcher their own […]
[…] is an evil system. Freedom is squashed and people are merely cogs in a system where government exercises total […]
[…] is an evil system. Freedom is squashed and people are merely cogs in a system where government exercises total […]
[…] is an evil system. Freedom is squashed and people are merely cogs in a system where government exercises total […]
[…] such as the flat tax? Isn’t Eastern Europe a success story considering that the region was enslaved by communism for many […]
[…] to mention that anyone who think that you can be a Marxist and a libertarian at the same time obviously is a blithering […]
[…] Communism produces unspeakable horrors of brutality. […]
[…] can someone truly be both communist and intelligent? Maybe that was possible 100 years ago, before all the horrors that have been unleashed by communism, but is that possible today? Though maybe that’s the point of the trilemma. You can be a smart […]
[…] can someone truly be both communist and intelligent? Maybe that was possible 100 years ago, before all the horrors that have been unleashed by communism, but is that possible today? Though maybe that’s the point of the trilemma. You can be a smart […]
[…] can someone truly be both communist and intelligent? Maybe that was possible 100 years ago, before all the horrors that have been unleashed by communism, but is that possible today? Though maybe that’s the point of the trilemma. You can be a […]
[…] Communism produces Nazi-level horrors of brutality. […]
[…] Communism produces Nazi-level horrors of brutality. […]
How many did your capitalism killed?
[…] Reposted from International Liberty […]
You should use the word socialism instead of communism. It is socialism, not communism. it was the Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics (not Communist Republics). This also will enable you to include (and educate people about) Germany under Hitler and the fact that they called themselves SOCIALISTS. They did NOT call themselves nazis, nor fascists.
“Dating a dictator can be a scary and dangerous endeavor. But it also offers an opportunity to meet the authoritarian oppressor of your dreams, provided that the proper precautions are taken. Whether you are a young starry-eyed Utopian or have been around the eastern bloc for a while, everyone can benefit from these tips and guidelines for safe dictator-dating procedures.”
The People’s Valentine: Safe Guide to Dating Dictators”
http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/the-peoples-valentine-guide-to-dating-dictators-t10707.html#!
happy valentines day… comrades…
Was great to have you here in Cambodia Dan. For anybody curious about the liberty movement in Cambodia, please check out:
http://www.prime-cambodia.org
http://www.facebook.com/professional.research.institute/
Great article and well written as usual, but stop writing that ludicrous word, “heck.”
Dan
This kind of stuff cannot be said often enough. I will send it far and wide. Thanks.
RWR
Sent from my iPad
>
Hey, I just wrote about Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek earlier today. I had not read the 200ish prisoners released sign. I know it pales in comparison to the vast number of those killed, but it makes stats ever-so-slightly less grim.
Thanks for posting…and …good…job…figuring out the toilet! 🙂