/r/communism is a Maoist sub.
So I don’t take it seriously.
They’ve really shown their true colors this last week, removing any post that doesn’t do the obligatory “both sides bad”
They used to be decent 2-3 years ago, but as it goes with most online spaces, it either turns liberal as it gets bigger or becomes ultra “in retaliation” instead of using the opportunities presented (e.g. the mess of r/antiwork as a great way to point out contradictions as it was all in a relatable-to-reddit online sphere) to further radicalize interested people.
That was before, from what I understand:
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They started getting rid of mods that weren’t Maoist.
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The head mod themselves became largely absent from what I understand.
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ah that makes sense, someone asked where to learn about maoism and which of Mao’s works to read and I said that Maoists don’t read Mao otherwise they’d be Marxist Leninists like Mao
As far as I’m concerned:
Mao Zedong Thought > Maoism
And yeah, Mao Zedong was Marxist-Leninist. Maoism is Gonzalo’s thing. Before him, being a Maoist just meant you supported China and were anti-Soviet (from the 1960s to 1970s). At the beginning of the 1980s, Gonzalo claimed that it was its own thing and the current Maoist movement traces its roots back to him.
Oh you don’t have to tell me twice, Mao was my foundation for my ML study, Im glad I only briefly and tentatively described myself as a Maoist before understanding the context of the term and discovering the term ML- MZT
Yeah.
I also disagree with the “Mao-Deng rupture” idea that Maoists float about.
Mao was obviously positioning the Chinese economy to have some sort of replication of a market economy. Hell, he shook hands with China for “Reform/Opening Up.” There were those close to Mao that said that he would’ve done the same thing as Deng, though to what degree, they don’t know. Also, Deng idolized Mao Zedong and was something of a fanboy of his while Mao doted on Deng Xiaoping (including in that one famous moment when a Soviet delegation was at Beijing).
Deng Xiaoping was a seriously devoted ML afaik, the guy navigated a pretty crazy and confusing time in global history and laid the foundation for the PRCs role as the powerful support of the global south
Yeah. If Deng Xiaoping had been the one to shake hands with Nixon and Kissinger along with Zhou Enlai, we would’ve never heard the end of it. But Mao and his best Zhou Enlai were the ones to do it and it does show they were willing to not follow the Soviet model which Maoists seem to love so much.
Wait, why is Maoism bad in this case?
I would argue that it is the very definition of revisionism (that term itself is overused but it is applicable as Maoism claims to be different from Marxism-Leninism through some sort of “rupture” with the previous philosophy).
But other than that, Mao Zedong Thought was created by Mao. Mao always claimed to be a Marxist-Leninist first and foremost. Maoism simply meant, before the 1980s, that you supported Mao and the PRC during the Sino-Soviet split. After the 1980s, it came to mean Gonzalo’s creed. Maoists claim that the Soviet model is superior and the only form of socialism. They also believe that the different model of the 1980s onward during Reform and Opening Up is bad and anti-communist or some sort of capitalist restoration. Maoists do not like China. They idolize the “cultural revolution” but say that Mao “didn’t go far enough” and that he was basically too tepid (and that the Gang of Four would’ve gone further than he would and be a natural extension of the communist experiment).
Maoists have also turned out to be anti-communist or at least anti-other-communist in nature, as they have fought and killed other communist groups that are pro-Soviet, even at the expense of liberation forces in Latin America and Africa (and to the win of pro-imperialist forces by the USA and Europe).
White Supremacy Confronted by Gerald Horne talks somewhat about this.
TIL. I thought the two terms were the same, so I was confused because I thought “wait, China still uses Mao’s teachings doesn’t it? Why is it bad?”
Thanks!
No problem!
But yes, Maoism since the 1980s is based on Gonzalo’s creed, nothing more, nothing less.
Maoism is always bad x)
Why? And how is it different from Mao Zedong Thought like another user stated?
Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought is used to denote Marxism Leninism whilst recognising the contributions of Mao, However usually this is assumed within Marxism Leninism and only used to denote distance itself from Marxism-Leninism-Maoism also known as Maoism.
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism also known as Maoism (in the modern day ) is a creation of Gonzalo of The Shining Path in Peru and is characterized by an insistence of using the methods of Mao Zedong as universally applicable methods in any country or time (Protracted People’s War)
^this is a dogmatic approach and ironically exactly what Mao himself explicitly states one should avoid.
tldr; Maoism/MLM (in the west particularly) is a form of left opportunism (impatient, dogmatic, inflexible) that functions as : harmful to the local community in its inappropriate application of methods that worked in different places & times : anti-communist and lacking in foresight with regards to AES (actually existing socialism) and therefore functionally supportive of imperialism
What was the “inflammatory comment” that you made to get banned? I got banned from /r/communism for making a joke… I guess it was against the “lazy comments” rule or something, never found out for sure.
I said that Maoists don’t read Mao otherwise they’d be Marxist Leninists like Mao and then linked to Mao audiobooks 🤷
