There is certainly much to criticize about Mao-era politics, and I’m personally of the view that the CPC was essentially awful from 9th party congress in 1969 up until they got their wakeup call from the Tiananmen Square protests. During this whole period, they were essentially aligned with US imperialism, just as most English-speaking “Maoists” are today.
The belief that capitalism was restored during this period, however, is simply a myth. The best book deconstructing this myth that I know of is China’s Regulatory State: A New Strategy for Globalization by Roselyn Hsueh, which documents the massive control over the economy that the party continued to exert during this period, and still exerts to this day. I’m convinced the continued belief in this myth is more important at fooling “Right” wingers than it is “Leftists,” as China really is the biggest example in the whole world about what is possible when you’re able to develop outside of the dictates of “Western” imperialism. Granted, part of the “West” allowing China to develop at this time was due to their opportunism on the international stage, something which the PLA has even admitted to in their propaganda video The Silent War (unable to find a video of it online at this time, seems to have been scrubbed off the internet).
I have in the past tried to lay ideological traps for people, who would take upholding the Cultural Revolution as a cardinal principle, by pointing out various unpleasant things about the youthful Red Guards, but this isn’t really the point. Most people simply don’t know, or care much about the factual details, such as the fairly consistent use by the Red Guards of accusing people of being homosexuals (Chinese people are still largely anti-gay, seeing it as a “Western” thing, but have little problem with the Lady Boys of Thailand, or their own opera history of men dressing up as women). The Cultural Revolution becomes a symbol of some “Left” in-group/out-group status, what little details people know about it revolve around a handful of personalities. Mao is Chinese Jesus, Deng Xiaoping is Judas, Hua Guofeng and the Gang of Four are his idiotic disciples who couldn’t understand the master, etc. It becomes a story of individual personalities, rather than a story about China itself. It’s the same thing with Trotskyists, who pinpoint the date socialism died in the USSR as the day Trotsky was sent into exile. For them, political lines, much less political analysis, doesn’t matter. It is all about cult worship of individuals and their personal identification with them. In reality, the Cultural Revolution basically ended up as a conflict between radicalized youth against the PLA itself, which ultimately put it down. Without an army, you don’t have anything, as the CPC is crystal clear about.
Xi Jinping is better than Mao, because Xi Jinping is the Chinese leader that has been the most willing to confront US imperialism on an international stage, and the most willing to repudiate the disastrous “Soviet Social Imperialism” nonsense that justified kowtowing to the “West.”
I think you hit the nail on the head, though I’m still deciding on all this.
Who are we to stop the masses if they wish to exact revolutionary vengeance upon someone like Bezos and all the other millions of bootlickers and fascists? If they decide to fight and hence destroy the lives of these millions, will you support such actions or denounce them?
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Sure, but I will have to remind you that capitalism already kills tens of millions around the globe yearly. I’ll tell you it will not be in the least surprising to me if such killings do take place. It’s perfectly justified many times over at this point.
Do you think the communist party ordered the deaths of landlords, or was it rather the masses themselves who took the task into their own hands?
Nah, I getchu. But I think that left-deviation is a thing and that we need to be wary of it.
Yeah. But are you going to use terms like “horrendous and asinine episode” to describe such an event if it did happen?
Nope. But the Gang of Four were horrible. I wouldn’t want anything leading to that.
I didn’t say anything about the gang of four though. Will you support an event in the USA which would certainly “caused terrible suffering for millions, lead to a massive brain drain with scientists, doctors, and other high level professionals escaping” and also certainly will “gave the global bourgeois powers endless ammunition to attack and demonise socialism.”
Only if there was an absolute benefit for the working-class and oppressed at the end of it all.
LOL. You are viewing such an event in the US the same way you view the cultural revolution: from the comfortable position of hindsight. How will you react if you see your landlord dragged out of his house and beaten on the streets before being hung up like Mussolini, the terror apparent in his eyes, his young children crying their eyes out as they plead with a group of former tenants doing the beating. What about that alt-right friend you met in high school? What if you saw him placed against a wall before someone buries a bullet in his brain? What if you saw hundreds of thousands of people like the liberal techbros in Silicon Valley fleeing alongside the likes of Ben Shapiro? All this without knowing either way whether it would benefit anyone, much less if it will be an ABSOLUTE benefit. Remember, the perpetrators of the cultural revolution at the time probably did think what they were doing was beneficial.
Depends. I wouldn’t want left-deviation leading the movement to a Gang of Four situation, in which the revolution could be lost. But hey, I want to see what you want to see. Just not at the expense of the revolution and Marxism-Leninism.
Also, I’m “Iskender” for those that don’t know.
what happened to your old one?
I deleted it after a panic attack about my identity.
I still plan to my a YouTube channel for this community though so that’s something.
But yeah, I’ve had experience with poor mental health. I still enjoy life, mind you, but I have certain issues that still need, well, working out.
He Zhao is so good.
Definitely.
Excuse me, but where are the sources? All this article does is make some claims and shares some anecdotes without any sources to back them up.
Also, how is the cultural revolution responsible for Deng’s support of Pol Pot? Furthermore, the bourgeoisie powers would endlessly attack and demonise socialism regardless of what happened during the cultural revolution.
The three “sources” in the article only talk about the views of the current CPC leadership, no opinion polls are cited, neither any official studies. When discussing the Cultural Revolution, something that condemns the current CPC leadership, surely their views cannot be taken as an authoritative source.
If anyone reading this is interested in a counter-history of Cultural Revolution China that challenges the hegemonic view of the West and the Chinese bourgeoisie and petty-bourgeoisie intellectuals, read ‘The Battle for China’s Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution’ by Mobo Gao. I’d also recommend ‘Shenfan’ which covers the Chinese revolution extensively, and it’s sequel ‘Fanshen’. Also, watch the documentary film ‘How Yukong Moved The Mountains’.
Here are even more sources: https://old.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/1nlylf/a_collection_of_books_on_mao_and_maoism/
Mobo Gao is a Maoist. You mentioned pro-Maoist pieces. Best to avoid this.
K.
Proving your points through data, rational arguments, and historic accounts is Maoist.
No. Good day.
