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Americans are free to argue with their government, tell their stories to the press, and protest whenever they want for whatever reason. These elements of life are so common that many of us cannot fathom life without them.
But younger generations are developing a fairytale view of communism, socialism and other fascist government “isms” in the United States due to extreme progressive ideologies being preached in public schools and drilled into students on college campuses. They are taught that private ownership and individualism in economic rights are bad because “greedy millionaires” have more than they do, but that systems like communism give everyone everything.
It doesn’t take long for the truth to destroy this narrative, and most recently, independent journalist Nick Shirley found this out when he went to communist Cuba to display the reality of a government-controlled society.
On April 30, he recorded a video of himself in his hotel room, seeking an escape plan. “We are currently being held by Cuban intelligence here in Havana, Cuba,” he stated, noting that as soon as he and his team arrived in Cuba, his cameras, GoPros, Meta glasses, and microphones were seized by the government.
Shirley explained his desire to go to the nation and do what he has done in Minnesota and California: simply film the area and interview people. He noted that when speaking about communism, young Americans take their simple First Amendment Rights for granted. “In communism, they do not have freedom of speech, they do not have freedom of the press,” he went on. “Communism does not allow the truth to be told; in fact, it just censors what people can do, and right now they are literally trying to kidnap and detain me and my two security guards that are here with me right now from leaving Cuba.”
Shirley visited Cuba the day before the nation’s Independence Day, a day on which no one is allowed to speak out against the government, despite the people experiencing the largest humanitarian crisis in 50 years since the fall of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, who was supplying resources to Cuba. Shirley spoke about a lack of power, schools, proper medical care, and simple resources like transportation and food.
🚨 I was almost taken hostage in Cuba…
— Nick shirley (@nickshirleyy) May 4, 2026
I went to Cuba to document the humanitarian crisis and show life under 60+ years of communism and now amid the US blockade. Once I landed, they seized all my cameras except my iPhone and had intelligence agents following me all day until… pic.twitter.com/6VFQCOakGZ
He was allowed to keep his iPhone and filmed the crumbling infrastructure. After his return to the United States, he was interviewed by Patrick Bet-David and described his experiences. “I expected to see poverty,” he said, adding that he didn’t expect to see the depression in everyone’s eyes. “There’s just no hope for these people.”
He spoke about the “decay” of the infrastructure and showed footage of historic buildings now in ruins. “It looks like a war zone,” he stated, noting that the streets were covered in trash and that the only way for people to dispose of their garbage was by burning it, which created excess smog.
"Planning My Escape From Cuba" – @nickshirleyy Returns
— PBD Podcast (@PBDsPodcast) May 7, 2026
(1:06) Inside Cuba: No Gas, No Food, No Hope
(11:13) What Cubans Were Too Scared to Say
(26:12) Someone Flew to Cuba to Expose Him
(36:49) Ilhan Omar Is Blocking Justice
(41:46) Threats Nobody Talks About
(44:49) Newsom… pic.twitter.com/lyNB72mOCm
Patrick Bet-David had his crew display pictures of Cuba before communism, and what it looks like now. The images showed a striking honesty. Communism kills. It destroys not just lives but also the environment and entire cultures’ ways of life. It is a living nightmare, not an attainable fairytale.
Giving any governing body complete control over the lives of an entire society does not solve problems or give everyone everything. If anything, Cuba and other destructive communist examples like Maoist China, the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, the Soviet Union, and more display the horrors of communist tyranny and exactly why every American should always protect and preserve their individual human rights.
