this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2024
294 points (100.0% liked)

Memes

1357 readers
87 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone 61 points 1 month ago (1 children)

One is a normal person oppressed by an unfair system.

The other is a tankie doing the oppression.

[–] Grapho@lemmy.ml 29 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (12 children)

Oppressing the owners of capital is good, actually. If you don't do it you end up like the US where everyone has to pay them for everything all the time and the police is only there to prevent you from doing anything about it.

Chinese people don't have to go out and get jailed for doming a mass murdering CEO out of desperation, the government gladly prosecutes and makes an example of them.

[–] jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 42 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Except Xi Jinping is not oppressing owners of capital. China has lots of oligarchs that in some ways have a tighter grip on society than their western counterparts. He's oppressing people that are "inconvenient" to him.

[–] Grapho@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Did you get that info from the same dudes insisting that killing Brian Thompson was, like, not okay guys? Businessmen in China are scared shitless of the party, and so should they, the party has 87 million members and a 90+ approval rating.

There's no CEO in china wielding one tenth of the influence that weird nazi Elon Musk has, or Bill Gates' vaccine privatizing ass.

[–] jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Elon Musk openly daydreams about being Ma Huateng. What does that tell you?

[–] Sop@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 1 month ago

Elon Musk is an idiot.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 month ago

These are all vibes, can you explain exactly how and why you believe Xi is simply "oppressing those invonvenient" to him?

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 month ago

He's oppressing people that are "inconvenient" to him.

All vibes, no thoughts.

[–] anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone 25 points 1 month ago (2 children)

China ranks second in the world in number of millionaires as well as number of billionaires.

[–] Swallowtail 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

China ranks second in the world in human population, too.

[–] anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They also have more millionaires per capita than Countries like Russia, but I focused on total number because a country that actually oppressed capital owners wouldn't have any billionaires.

[–] Sop@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 1 month ago

China’s top 1% income share is lower than US and Russia. Top 10% income share is also lower in China.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)
  1. Quantity of bourgeoisie is not an indication of who runs the country or which is primary, public or private property

  2. China has the second biggest population in the world, period.

The PRC saw what happened when you cracked down too hard on wealth inequality too early in the USSR, there was significant brain drain and people took what they could elsewhere. This eventually led to decreased growth and contributed to collapse. The PRC instead allows billionaires (so long as they don't commit crimes), and as a consequnce they now have the largest economy by PPP and second largest by GDP. It's a "boiling the frog" approach.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (10 replies)
[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 58 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Working class executing CEOs that work against them

Ruling class executing CEOs who don't work for them

Slight difference

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 month ago (4 children)

That's an anti-Marxist view of class. What is the "ruling class" you speak of in the PRC? Government isn't class, but an extension of the class in power, so which class is in power?

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago

There is never a case of a working class party conquering political power, that hasn't been demonized by western anti-communist society.

When the US and its media tells you that the leaders China or Cuba or Vietnam are just "dictators", why do you believe them?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 30 points 1 month ago (3 children)
[–] Grapho@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Bro but they did it dictatorshiply 😭 in a real democracy you'd yell at them online, get arrested by Homeland Security, and politicians give them another 500 million in subsidies and tax breaks.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 26 points 1 month ago (3 children)

This thread is funny because it’s filled with a bunch of libs criticizing but bringing nothing of value to the table except vibes, and communists and comrades providing extensive source material to support their arguments, while avoiding low-hanging fruit like ad hominem.

If you’ve ever done any sort of research into democratic socialism, you’d quickly learn that this is the way. Criticism and self-criticism are at the forefront of cadre training and will make you a better person. If you view a person trying to provide you with educational material as your enemy while you spout off vibe-driven nonsense, you’re not getting the picture and are still hindered by your country’s propaganda, as well your own apathy and ignorance. You’re criticizing people that are passionate because they see a chance to have a better world for all working class—you included—while responding with empty words.

Unchain yourself from the criticisms of figures your country has implanted in you over your lifetime, and think in terms of ideas.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Really, I think anyone considering themselves a Leftist needs to read False Witnesses and Masses, Elites, and Rebels: The Theory of "Brainwashing." Both are excellent examples of why people don't change their minds when seeing indisputable evidence, they willingly go along with narratives that they find more comfortable. It explains the outright anger liberals express when anticommunism is debunked. That doesn't mean Communists don't do the same thing, but as we live in a liberal dominated west (most likely, assuming demographics) this happens to a much lesser extent because liberalism is that which supplies these "licenses" to go along, while Communism requires hard work to begin to accept. This explains the mountains of sources Communists keep on hand, and the lack thereof from liberals who argue from happenstance and vibes.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Huh, I’ve come across this False Witness article before, years ago.

In retrospect, this desperate, shotgun appeal to religious authority demonstrated why the dossier itself was probably futile. It was an acknowledgment that the people they were attempting to convince were beyond the reach of mere fact or reason — people who did not find reality compelling.

This reminds me of the requisite Parenti quote:

During the Cold War, the anti-communist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime’s atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn’t go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them. If communists in the United States played an important role struggling for the rights of workers, the poor, African-Americans, women, and others, this was only their guileful way of gathering support among disfranchised groups and gaining power for themselves. How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained. What we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable orthodoxy, so assiduously marketed by the ruling interests that it affected people across the entire political spectrum.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 month ago

and communists and comrades providing extensive source material to support their arguments, while avoiding low-hanging fruit like ad hominem.

sorry I'm late

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] recreationalcatheter@lemm.ee 24 points 1 month ago (3 children)

All those uyghur CEOs man.

Laughs in temu/shein

[–] Grapho@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Are you dumb libs still claiming an Uyghur genocide despite being like 10 years, zero evidence, and multiple western sources calling out the atrocity propaganda? How does that look like, if Xinjiang's economy is growing enormously, there's tons of video evidence from travel bloggers of the bustling cultural and religious activities there? Plugging your eyes and ears to let the state department guide you doesn't seem like a wise way to go about anything.

The people boosting claims of an Uyghur genocide are still denying and aiding the fucking Palestinian genocide ffs.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

25 of the 2,975 deputies attending the second session of the 13th NPC were Uygur, making them have roughly the attendence as a proportion of their polulation overall. The Han ethnicity represented 2,538 seats, and was the second least represented by ratio of the population overall.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] davel@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 month ago

You really pissed off the .world neolibs with this one. Good work.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 22 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Any "leftist" that thinks the fact that China has billionaires means it therefore isn't actually Socialist needs to read Marx and Engels. There are many such liberals here in these comments. Marx predicted Socialism to be the next mode of production because markets centralize and create intricate methods of planning. As such, he stated that folding private into the public would be gradual, and by the degree to which industry would develop. From the Manifesto:

The essential condition for the existence, and for the sway of the bourgeois class, is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is wage-labour. Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the labourers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the labourers, due to competition, by their revolutionary combination, due to association. The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.

In even simpler terms, from Engels in Principles of Communism:

Question 17 : Will it be possible to abolish private property at one stroke?

Answer : No, no more than the existing productive forces can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society. Hence, the proletarian revolution, which in all probability is approaching, will be able gradually to transform existing society and abolish private property only when the necessary means of production have been created in sufficient quantity.

That doesn't mean billionaires are good to have, necessarily, either. It remains a contradiction, but not an uncalculated one. I highly recommend anyone here read China has Billionaires. As much as Marxists want to lower wealth inequality eventually as much as possible (insofar as thr principle "from each according to ability, to each according to needs applies, Marx was no "equalitarian" and railed against them), in the stage of developmemt the PRC is at this would get in the way of development, and could cause Capital Flight and brain drain. Moreover, billionaires provide an easy scapegoat that the USSR didn't have, and thus all problems of society were directed at the state. It's important to consider why a Marxist country does what it does, and not immediately assume you know better. The CPC has an over 95% approval rate, you can't just assume you know what's best.

The phrase "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" is meant to depict higher stage Communism. Until that is possible, the answer becomes "to each according to his work," because as Marx said in Critique of the Gotha Programme:

these defects are inevitable in the first phase of communist society as it is when it has just emerged after prolonged birth pangs from capitalist society. Right can never be higher than the economic structure of society and its cultural development conditioned thereby.

At least take a consistent stance, if you believe the PRC to not be Socialist simply because it has billionaires either you disagree with Marx or you have flawed analysis. There are genuine Marxist critiques of the PRC that don't rely on nonsense. If you consider yourself a Marxist, correct your study. I have an introductory Marxist reading list if you need one.

Edit: oh, hello MeanwhileOnGrad users! Why is it that you intentionally cut off 80% of my comment? Moreover, if you disagree, why not comment here directly and counter, rather than hide behind an anticommunist drama post and downvote? Guess my fanclub just isn't feeling it today, sadly...

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Thank you for your service comrade. o7

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 month ago

No problem comrade 🫡

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 20 points 1 month ago

Some resources for a lot of the people below claiming that China is just like any other capitalist country.

Is China State Capitalist?

[–] Azzu@lemm.ee 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

It is indeed possible for a person/entity to do a good thing and a bad thing. Who would've guessed, it's actually incredibly likely. I'm sure Luigi was no angel and can be criticized about many things, though he likely didn't have the power to perform systematic human rights transgressions.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Grapho@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

All this comment section proves is that if the only thing that changed was that Thompson was a Chinese healthcare CEO called Zhao Qiang and got clapped by the government libs would be calling him a working class hero and a martyr like the fucking NYT.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] 1985MustangCobra@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 month ago (4 children)

your social credit score has increased!

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Bedu009@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 month ago

What are you on about

[–] Fidel_Cashflow@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

i used to feel badly blocking accounts

[–] Grapho@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago

If you're that shook just from somebody mentioning the commies I don't think you're gonna provide much in the way of productive discussion anyway, so, by all means.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wow this one really brought out the votes, both kinds 😂

[–] Grapho@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago

Putting the agitation in agitprop

[–] gravityowl@lemm.ee 9 points 1 month ago

Every now and then, the .ml side of this community comes through with these inaccurate tankie memes. You win some, you lose some I guess...

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago (10 children)

Working class rebel vs Elite class looking for more control

[–] Grapho@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago

This is your brain on a lack of class analysis

load more comments (9 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›