• Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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    4 hours ago

    Only speaking to expats and not actual citizens is like talking only to Cuban exiles about Cuba and not Cubans themselves.

    • JahuteSkye@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Chinese citizens will only criticize their government when they’re 100% sure it’ll never get back to the government, and that trust is extremely difficult to achieve because they are absolutely terrified of their government’s ability to influence even their closest friends and family.

      If you honestly believe there’s no public dissent because everyone just loves their oligarchs so much… I don’t know what to say. That’s just fully stupid.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        4 hours ago

        Citation needed, otherwise this is just chauvanism. You just pulled all of this right out of your ass. China doesn’t have oligarchs, they have administrators and government officials, and the CPC itself has over 100 million members.

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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            4 hours ago

            China is in the developing stages of socialism. Billionaires exist, but are gradually decreasing in number over time as the working class gradually increases in prosperity. China has not yet achieved communism, where distribution is based on need. Instead, distribution is mostly based on the market for now, according to labor primary.

            If you’re going to quote Marx, the least you could do is read him.

            • JahuteSkye@lemmy.world
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              3 hours ago

              China saw a 60% increase in billionaires between 2020 and 2021 alone. It fell since then but it’s still higher than it was pre-pandemic, and WAY higher than it was in the '70s before China went free market.

              • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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                3 hours ago

                China never went “free market.” They adopted some market reforms, but even prior to it still had private property and markets. They never once had a fully publicly owned and planned economy.

                China was also dramatically poor and underdeveloped. I believe I already explained why, the Gang of Four thought it was better to be “pure” and poor than it was to adopt reforms while maintaining socialism in the interests of rapid development. China’s socialist system and strong public ownership while flexibly adopting market mechanisms in controlled manners is what has brought them such success, and is why they are on track to become the world’s most developed and advanced country in the near future.

                Again, if you’re going to quote Marx, the least you could do is read him.

                • JahuteSkye@lemmy.world
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                  3 hours ago

                  I have read Wage, Labor and Capital in its entirety, as well as Value, Price, and Profit. Both are better than the manifesto, which I’ve also read. His critique of Gotha was also interesting. I think Engels was honestly much more interesting than Marx, though Eugen Dühring was more practical (as demonstrated by the success of SocDems and the Nordic model, while “Marxism” never went anywhere in a practical sense.

                  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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                    3 hours ago

                    It’s nice to read those, so props to you for that, but you should absolutely read Anti-Dühring to understand why social democracy is a failure while Marxism-Leninism is the governing ideology of the largest and most successful country on the planet, leaving the imperialist nordic countries in the dust. You should also read Imperialism, the Current Highest Stage of Capitalism to see how the social democracies you uphold act as parasites on the global south, living off of their labor and resources via financial domination.

                    Really, the idea that Marxism never went anywhere is absurd in the 21st century. Not only was the USSR the fastest developing country in the 20th century, but right now we are watching China adopt Marxist analysis and continue their rapid improvements year over year since their inception. Dühring was highly impractical, which is why his ideas were all failures.