There are plenty of people on the left who would agree with your premise and don't need to be awakened. It's a right wing myth that all left wingers buy into the straw man notion of the woke left. The number of lefties who would go along with the CCP on most anything is vanishingly small.
I can admit that it's definitely not a case of all liberals are cool with the CCP. But how did Red Century in the NYT get published, praising Red China because women had better sex (a contentious claim) and many other puff pieces about communism from 1917 to 2017, and how did the Hugos get hosted by China in the first place? If the number of lefties going along with this is vanishingly small, how do these things happen?
Mao was indeed a monster. And the tens of millions of Chinese who needlessly died during the Cultural Revolution is history's greatest lesson about the potential unforeseen consequences of arrogant meddlesome policy-making. A lesson unlearnt to this day by Western Progressives. (Mao was a Grade A progressive.) But there is another lesson that Western liberal mythology is endlessly blind to. It always over-emphasises the importance of Hitlers, Stalins, Maos etc because - dark as those stories are - the truth is darker still. These powerful demon leaders would be nothing without the millions of favour-seeking, grudge-bearing 'ordinary folk' seduced by their snake oil.
Some decades ago, the NYT published a short note on a monograph(?) by Richard Walker (UNoCarolina?). Walker said that Mao murdered 34-74 million people. There are Marxists teaching in universities. Leftists will only care when Nazis are teaching. In the meantime, Leftists favorably teach Heidegger, card-carrying Nazi, expeller of Jews from universities and unrepentant after the war. I audited a seminar in which Heidegger was used to interpret Kant. The students didnt understand the lectures and the professor didnt understand their questions.
Mao's influence is still active. Many must die so that the few may prosper. That is not a precise axiom of the regime, it was in practice. I don't know if the authors you listed touched upon the carry-over effects of The Great Leap, a reverse eugenics which killed off a generation of intellectuals, artists, and anyone willing to confront authority. To that extent, I see it at work today, here, in the west. Tell the truth, and you may be punished, lie, and you will be rewarded. We don't need facts when we have the narrative which will drive the chosen to the next utopia. History teaches so much and we consistently ignore it.
Watch out because Mao has more fans in the western world than in China. And many of them sit in sovranational institutions or directly in governments. Lockdowns, vaccine mandates, energy policies are good examples of what Mao’ supporting group are capable of.
Why not install monuments to the victims right next to Mao's? That way no generation forgets
I wonder if the recent naked display of bullying by the CCP in the Hugo Awards will wake any on the woke left's side. Probably not, though.
There are plenty of people on the left who would agree with your premise and don't need to be awakened. It's a right wing myth that all left wingers buy into the straw man notion of the woke left. The number of lefties who would go along with the CCP on most anything is vanishingly small.
I can admit that it's definitely not a case of all liberals are cool with the CCP. But how did Red Century in the NYT get published, praising Red China because women had better sex (a contentious claim) and many other puff pieces about communism from 1917 to 2017, and how did the Hugos get hosted by China in the first place? If the number of lefties going along with this is vanishingly small, how do these things happen?
> women had better sex
Better than?
Behold this nonsense: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/12/opinion/why-women-had-better-sex-under-socialism.html
I was going to read it but I had to pick lint out of my belly-button.
a much better use of time, I approve.
Alas, tankies are still common enough at least on the internet.
Mao was indeed a monster. And the tens of millions of Chinese who needlessly died during the Cultural Revolution is history's greatest lesson about the potential unforeseen consequences of arrogant meddlesome policy-making. A lesson unlearnt to this day by Western Progressives. (Mao was a Grade A progressive.) But there is another lesson that Western liberal mythology is endlessly blind to. It always over-emphasises the importance of Hitlers, Stalins, Maos etc because - dark as those stories are - the truth is darker still. These powerful demon leaders would be nothing without the millions of favour-seeking, grudge-bearing 'ordinary folk' seduced by their snake oil.
>arrogant meddlesome policy-making.
You and Leftists both evade individual rights.
> favour-seeking, grudge-bearing 'ordinary folk' seduced by their snake oil.
You evade anti-reason, anti-selfishness, anti-individualist intellectuals who create the ideas that guide culture. Ideas cause emotions.
It's been 13 years from this post and China is unfortunately not closer to condemning Maoism :/
Some decades ago, the NYT published a short note on a monograph(?) by Richard Walker (UNoCarolina?). Walker said that Mao murdered 34-74 million people. There are Marxists teaching in universities. Leftists will only care when Nazis are teaching. In the meantime, Leftists favorably teach Heidegger, card-carrying Nazi, expeller of Jews from universities and unrepentant after the war. I audited a seminar in which Heidegger was used to interpret Kant. The students didnt understand the lectures and the professor didnt understand their questions.
Mao's influence is still active. Many must die so that the few may prosper. That is not a precise axiom of the regime, it was in practice. I don't know if the authors you listed touched upon the carry-over effects of The Great Leap, a reverse eugenics which killed off a generation of intellectuals, artists, and anyone willing to confront authority. To that extent, I see it at work today, here, in the west. Tell the truth, and you may be punished, lie, and you will be rewarded. We don't need facts when we have the narrative which will drive the chosen to the next utopia. History teaches so much and we consistently ignore it.
Watch out because Mao has more fans in the western world than in China. And many of them sit in sovranational institutions or directly in governments. Lockdowns, vaccine mandates, energy policies are good examples of what Mao’ supporting group are capable of.
I continue to be astonished by how little attention Americans pay to China.
Dikotter's trilogy is *damning* stuff, and seems to have no impact on progressive admiration for the classic CCP.
And we still barely take any classes in Chinese language etc.