A cartoon going around on X.
— Happymom (@Happymomagain) March 22, 2026
For the hispanically impaired, it reads:
"I don't drink milk, and I don't eat meat, chicken, or eggs."
"Are you a vegan?"
"No, Cuban."
So this week, the circus has come to Havana. A plane-load of protesters, including Code Pink's Medea Benjamin, lefty Hasan Piker, Ilhan Omar's daughter Israa Hirsi, and a gaggle of others made a little holiday excursion to the Workers' Paradise of Cuba, where they were feted, wined, dined, put up (illegally) ...
Hasan Piker has finally commented, and he is lying.https://t.co/9pvbZhllgA https://t.co/0gUVOJMjKI pic.twitter.com/ofNe9FlG37
— Gabe Hoffman (@GabeHoff) March 23, 2026
... in a five-star hotel, and saw a rave with a performance by an Irish rap group KNEECAP.
A group of entitled champagne socialists went to Cuba to “deliver aid.”
— Vatnik Soup (@P_Kallioniemi) March 22, 2026
The group included Hasan Piker (wearing $1,380 Cartier glasses) and pro-CCP, pro-Kremlin Code Pink activists. They flew in first class, stayed at a five-star hotel, and partied all night while most Cubans… pic.twitter.com/epBL9IUTx8
The hotel and venue were brilliantly lit, luxurious, even palatial. But the hospital next door was dark. (There are rumors that with the power cut off from the hospital, patients on ventilators died, but so far those have been hard to confirm.) Still, it's kind of tough to do hospital care in the dark.
But hey, at least the surgery you can't get because there's no light is free, right?
As seems predictable, the Cuban people — I should say, the Cuban peóns — took umbrage, and began to demonstrate around their hotel, but it's also rumored that armed guards from the Cuban government kept them from interrupting the fería.
Of course, the peóns should have been more respectful of their betters.
You posted videos of YOURSELF wearing $900 glasses and $650 shirts in your government subsidized luxury hotel room.
— C'thulhu, Errant Knight (@Cthulhu_OwO) March 23, 2026
My comrade in Christ, YOU MADE THE ANTI COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA. https://t.co/wWL1ZXDck8
Cubans in the rest of the world noticed. The "compassionate" took little bus tours in air-conditioned buses to see the peóns, and they even stopped and threw cookies to the little peónes to get them to dance for their video delectation.
Not that the peónes appreciated it.
A mi me da vergüenza que un grupito de hippies con mucha plata y tiempo libre vengan a mi país a estar mirándonos como si fuéramos monos de feria. A dejarnos caer un platanito y hacernos foticos. Metete tus plátanos por el culo cobio, yo quiero vivir en un país libre.
— Manola (@ai_am_Manola) March 22, 2026
I’m ashamed that a little group of rich hippies with too much free time come to my country to gawk at us like we’re circus monkeys. Tossing us a little banana and snapping their pics. Shove your bananas up your ass, asshole—I want to live in a free country.
A long while ago, I wrote about something that came from one of my favorite Buddhist teachers, Chögyam Trungpa — the difference between "compassion" and its evil twin "idiot compassion."
To understand idiot compassion, think about a family member who is an alcoholic. This family member hasn’t had a drink, and is completely broke, homeless; after you find them, curled up in a doorway, you pick them up and take them home, give them a shower and a cup of soup. They sip the soup with trembling hands, and then look at you and ask for a drink, because they need one, and need one badly.
Do you give them a drink? They’re suffering, right? That’s what they want to ease their suffering; and you, with compassion, can see how badly they want the drink, how bad they feel. They start to complain, to cry, to scream; they are in agony, they are seeing snakes, and finally you give in and give them the bottle, and in a few minutes they are calmer and more comfortable, and in a few more minutes, they’re drunk, and passed out on your couch.
This is idiot compassion: you know they’re suffering from the lack of a drink, so you give them one, knowing that it is just putting off the problem. But by giving them a drink, you ease their suffering for the moment, and more importantly you ease your own suffering, because you no longer have to bear their agony through your own compassion.
In Buddhism, actions are either "skillful" (upaya) or "unskillful" (anupaya). An action is skillful if it reduces suffering for everyone involved. Compassionate actions should be skillful. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference, which is the ethical quandary that runs roughshod through everyone's life. (I wrote about that as well in another article.) In the first article I linked, I talked about when I had to have my cat put down, not an easy decision at all, but I remain convinced it was upaya.
Then there's idiot compassion. Idiot compassion is when you do things that are "compassionate" because they make you feel good about yourself, especially if you are preening about just how good you are.
La izquierda internacional llegó diciendo que iba a llevar ayuda… y terminó de fiesta, consumiendo electricidad y gastando el poco petróleo que le falta al pueblo cubano.
— Enrique Muñoz (@enriquemunozFM) March 22, 2026
No fueron a aliviar nada.
Fueron a posar, a estorbar y a colgarse de una tragedia que no padecen.
No es… pic.twitter.com/AXUGhzBlsH
The international left arrived saying they were going to bring aid… and ended up partying, consuming electricity and spending the little oil that the Cuban people lack.
They didn’t go to alleviate anything.
They went to pose, to get in the way, and to latch onto a tragedy they don’t suffer.
It’s not solidarity. It’s ideological tourism at the expense of someone else’s hunger.
That's pretty much the definition of idiot compassion — pose, party, and feel oh so good about themselves.
That's idiot compassion. And to the patrón, very useful.
