On the photo is Jack Ma, one of the richest capitalists in China, the owner of Alibaba, the Chinese billionaire who said the working hours of the workers should be extended to 12 hours a day.
Many leftists and even people who call themselves marxists say China is still socialist, while other leftists/marxists say it has nothing to do with a socialist country today. Some people also argue that the reinstauration of capitalism in China, after Mao Zedong, was a treason against the revolution and socialism and there is now a lot of rhetorics to justify this opportunism.
If China is still socialist, as some people advocate, how to explain about the billionaires, capitalists, supposed explotation of workers etc.?
I don’t understand how people here can be sold on the idea that the mega-rich use their wealth to corrupt institutions but can’t believe that Chinese billionaires could possibly be using influence to better themselves at the expense of the working class. Surely Mr. Make-Everyone-Work-12-Hours isn’t using his massive accumulated resources to corrupt any facet of Chinese governance. What level of cognitive dissonance is required to believe that he “earned” his wealth, in a socialist country no less.
I’ve found that people here are passionate in their hatred of capitalism and the unlimited ways it makes life worse for nearly every living thing on the planet, and that’s great. Then they’re told that socialism/communism is the answer that the other people who hate capitalism already accept so now they’ve got something to build an identity around. And once that happens it’s nigh impossible to convince them that China or even Russia is doing some heinous shit too because at some point the notion that “since the imperialists are awful, the socialists are perfect” became part of their DNA.
It’s no different thatn someone who sees the horrendous words and actions of America’s Republican party so they become a rabid Democratic, furiously defending anyone with a (D) next to their name. It’s the same polarization but it feels like the right kind to people because socialistis/communists are always the little guys and underdogs in every fight.
Instead of using something closer to the scientific method to learn and iterate on all good ideas from history, the “real leftists” like the one who dismissed my last comment and told me to read theory takes the Communist Manifesto - published 175 years ago - more as an immutable religious text instead of the start of sussing out some good ideas.
Anywho, vote down my comment because I didn’t say how amazing it must be to live in China and even questioned that the socialism itself is imperfect and subject to corruption as we see time and again from - you guessed it - China.
Holy shit xenith, there are so many great answers in this thread alone and you couldn’t have read a single one before writing this comment.
You completely ignore the realities and material conditions of China, instead pushing a narrative of utmost purity that the Chinese, somehow, must follow for them to be socialist.
And don’t get me started on your absolute necessity to unapologetically regurgitate western media narratives about China and Russia, that themselves have been proven to completely ignore material reality, for pushing narratives inline with their own interests.
Now onto your talking points in this specific comment…
Xenith. What the fuck are you talking about, you do realize we have lives outside of this website and we aren’t communist robots, it’s just part of us and not us entirely.
You completely ignore the fact we criticize them on daily as well, probably not as much as in posts but very much so in the comments. If you care so much for criticism of these countries here you fucking go:
Russia is a capitalist shithole that is only anti-imperialist because their material conditions don’t allow them to fulfill their imperialist desires.
IMO, China is not doing enough to spread socialism internationally, focusing a lot more out on their own stuff instead.
Here, you happy? Or is my little criticism of China not good enough for you, since it doesn’t slander them to hell and back like you’d probably prefer?
You talk like an anarchist. Seriously? Like the only book that exists is the manifesto? What the fuck? And you consider us taking them as religious texts instead of guidelines to help us towards socialism within our local circumstances? Have you actually heard of other books beside this single one? Like have you read these guys:
Maybe you did, let’s hope so, they’ve written some great stuff which helps us greatly nowadays. Why reinvent the wheel, when smarter people did it better the first time around. Also, have you heard of these writers:
And many others. If you actually listened and read some fucking books we recommend, maybe you’d understand our stance on why we don’t just believe China is socialist but outright say it is socialist in reality not matter what someone believes.
Also, the iteration you are speaking of is literally happening right now. China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and the DPRK all have done iterations of Marxism-Leninism specific to their circumstances iterating on their bases to build a socialist country. That is what theory is for, that’s how it works, not like the bible. So once again, I can’t stress this enough, go and fucking read.
Wait so now you say China is socialist despite being imperfect? You agree it has internal contradictions they have to fight for improving themselves? Well great! We agree on something it seems. But the beginning, oh goodness the beginning. I can’t believe of all the people, we are being called the dogmatic ones.
Also, going back to the billionaires. It’s also been written about in the past.
And now, I’m too exhausted by your sheer ignorance yet complete confidence I’d rather just link you that article and be done with it.
Is this a troll? Lol material dude. 😂 you almost had me there.
Holy shit, this could’ve been a troll and I went full on Sankara on this fucker. Still, we must never stop explaining. Even to trolls.
Haha, yeah. When they started talking ab 175 year old theory. I smelled the smelly smell that smells smelly. Fish, namely.