On a personal level i agree with you, but politically that is probably a non-starter . . .
I’m not saying Christianity as a personal practice needs to be destroyed, but essentially that the country needs to be secularized by any means necessary because Christo-fascist theocratic policy has massive support in some places. There can be no privileging Christians above other citizens, no “teaching the controversy” on science and myth, no cultish Christian home"schools", no protecting the souls of blastocysts, etc.
This shit isn’t something that would make a popular movement non-viable, it would help it while preventing massive, systemic abuse of women and children, because the simple fact of the matter is that this shit only gets into legislation because of massive backing by the bourgeoisie. Most people even in the most conservative states oppose it, it’s just the fucking Christian nationalist think tanks that push it.
. . . whereas an atheistic philosophy at least could (not saying that it is) be compatible with materialism.
I mentioned Daoism, I think it was to you. Daoism definitely has elements compatible with materialism. I’m not convinced that Confucianism has any except maybe yì.
I am not a big fan of the whole “filial piety” thing myself . . .
I’ve had the opportunity to argue somewhat extensively with a Chinese communist about a number of issues, filial piety being one. He is, like a lot of them are, revisionist, but I need to give him credit for being open-minded. I don’t think it was all that possible even to change his mind, but he at least acknowledged that I had a point when I claimed filial piety is hierarchical and (coincidentally like some of the western practices that I just mentioned) absolutely begging for abuse on the part of the patriarch and – speaking of there being patriarchs – deeply sexist, and, in addition, it and ren represent a dysfunctional way to order an egalitarian society if family members are commanded to give deontological preference to their own family and those closest to them.
Almost no one, myself included, thinks he went about it in a constructive way, but Mao had reason to want to fight this stuff.
It’s not like I’m saying they should follow American ideas of progressiveness, I’m not saying Xi should wear a dashiki and kneel for eight minutes, but in a broader sense Mao acknowledged and the country was built on the belief that there is some amount of trans-culturally relevant notions of what it means to be a progressive (e.g. Marxism-Leninism) and that these should be pursued, even if the application looks different in different places.
I’m not saying Christianity as a personal practice needs to be destroyed, but essentially that the country needs to be secularized […] There can be no privileging Christians above other citizens, no “teaching the controversy” on science and myth, no cultish Christian home"schools" […]
On this we are in complete agreement. I think even most Christian communists would agree with this. This is what i meant by denouncing the reactionary elements of religion.
I’m not saying Christianity as a personal practice needs to be destroyed, but essentially that the country needs to be secularized by any means necessary because Christo-fascist theocratic policy has massive support in some places. There can be no privileging Christians above other citizens, no “teaching the controversy” on science and myth, no cultish Christian home"schools", no protecting the souls of blastocysts, etc.
This shit isn’t something that would make a popular movement non-viable, it would help it while preventing massive, systemic abuse of women and children, because the simple fact of the matter is that this shit only gets into legislation because of massive backing by the bourgeoisie. Most people even in the most conservative states oppose it, it’s just the fucking Christian nationalist think tanks that push it.
I mentioned Daoism, I think it was to you. Daoism definitely has elements compatible with materialism. I’m not convinced that Confucianism has any except maybe yì.
I’ve had the opportunity to argue somewhat extensively with a Chinese communist about a number of issues, filial piety being one. He is, like a lot of them are, revisionist, but I need to give him credit for being open-minded. I don’t think it was all that possible even to change his mind, but he at least acknowledged that I had a point when I claimed filial piety is hierarchical and (coincidentally like some of the western practices that I just mentioned) absolutely begging for abuse on the part of the patriarch and – speaking of there being patriarchs – deeply sexist, and, in addition, it and ren represent a dysfunctional way to order an egalitarian society if family members are commanded to give deontological preference to their own family and those closest to them.
Almost no one, myself included, thinks he went about it in a constructive way, but Mao had reason to want to fight this stuff.
It’s not like I’m saying they should follow American ideas of progressiveness, I’m not saying Xi should wear a dashiki and kneel for eight minutes, but in a broader sense Mao acknowledged and the country was built on the belief that there is some amount of trans-culturally relevant notions of what it means to be a progressive (e.g. Marxism-Leninism) and that these should be pursued, even if the application looks different in different places.
On this we are in complete agreement. I think even most Christian communists would agree with this. This is what i meant by denouncing the reactionary elements of religion.