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Why do I feel like so many people here support the USSR and the CCP? - Lemmy
web.archive.orgMaybe itās because of federation with lemmygrad, but I always feel like thereās quite a heavy anti-western or pro-communism bias. There are people arguing that NATO is expanding eastward (which, I donāt think it is, instead you just have more eastern countries are joining it) and āinvadingā (which, I mean itās a defensive alliance that countries voluntarily join: ādonāt attack us or we will all have to attack youā should only be worrying if you actually plan an invasion.)
Thereās also people talking about how the collapse of the soviet union was a disaster, and using the Mercator projection to argue how Russia is bigger than Ukraine.
This isnāt really a problem on its own, but I find it surprising how many upvotes this stuff gets. Soviet Gulag killed just as many people as Nazi concentration camps, and the Soviet Union would only fall after everyone was so sick of it (eastern block declaring independence, for example) that it died. Surely, surely nobody looks at an authoritarian dictator and thinks āyeah i trust that person (with insane influence and little opposition) to not abuse their power and have my (a peasant) best interests (which are contradictory to theirs) at heartā.
Donāt even get me started on China, which still insists that Taiwan (which has been its own country since the CCP took power of the mainland) shouldnāt have any independence (imperialismā¦); and the country is clearly so sensitive about it they threw a hissy-fit and started doing military exercises outside Taiwan after they committed the horrible crime ofā¦ having a diplomat visit. Oh also China trying to exclude Wikimedia for acknowledging that Taiwan exists, claiming ādisinformationā. Oh did I mention harassing and banning VTubers who say it is a country, even outside of a political setting?
Say what you will about China and an anti-china bias in the west, but any country that implements or supports a splinternet, or needlessy engages in border disputes with neighbouring countries meanwhile oppressing people within Chinese borders who have been living there for ages for not being chinese enough.
Again, donāt get me wrong I donāt think the west is immune from any of this (and in fact I think there is a lack of criticism of the west), but anyone who claims the west is evil while simultaneously glorifying countries that implement concentration camps comes off as fascistic and ignorant.
Sorry if this comes off as more of a rant than a question, but surely I canāt be the only one who feels this way?
Not from what Iāve seen, at least with respect to China. Plenty of them seem to minimize the deplorable actions of the CCP while extolling itās economic policies. They frequently hold China up as a shining example a successful communist state and seem more interested in the fact that it challenges the West and capitalism than they are concerned about itās numerous human rights violations and total disregard for the sovereignty of its neighbors.
Thatās what I donāt understand. China isnāt a Communist state, not since the 90s. They gutted their social safety net, lowered taxes on the rich, privatized most of their economy and then sold all their industry to multinational corporations. Theyāre farther from communism than the average EU country now, and about on par with the US.
Same with Russia. Russia is basically Galtās Gulch now, which is why a segment of the GOP love it so much. Itās like he lemmygraders stopped paying attention around 1990 and think nothing has changed since then.
It doesnāt really cost much money to hire people to push a false narrative about your country. Honestly, it would be more surprising if they werenāt doing this. There might be some people genuinely spouting pro-China nonsense but theyāre getting those talking points from somewhere.
It starts with state controlled media, then paid shills spread it all over the internet, eventually real people who are maybe pissed at their own countryās shortcomings start pushing the narrative as well.
Weāre getting a bit off topic from the original question, but Iāll chime in b/c why not.
Technically, neither China nor the USSR were communist states. They were/are socialist states run the by the communist party. Neither were able to get rid of capitalism. China has taken an approach of āsocialism with Chinese characteristicsā for their āimplementationā.
China is still āsocialistā in a sense because socialism is a pretty broad spectrum. Theyāve kept capitalism along side socialism, but try to keep capitalism beholden to the state.
People talk well about China b/c the economic policies have arguably worked quite well given where theyāve come from. That doesnāt mean you have to agree or support some of their ā¦worseā¦ policies. Itās a mixed bag. But so is the west.
As of now, China is the closest large economy for an existing implementation of socialism. There are other states, but they arenāt as large or successful as China.
But yeah, I do agree that the lemmygraders are a bit much. But thatās my thoughts on what Iāve seen since joining and why I think lemmy seems to trend where it does on that topic.
I donāt pretend to know much about how China functions, but I know enough to know its certainly more capitalistic than Mao would have liked. But this is why Iām not a fan of communismāthe most developed countries that embraced it all became horrible dictatorships that betray the most central tenets of communism. In other words, it doesnāt seem to work all that well, at least not on a grand scale. For it to work as intended, I think it requires a fairly small communityālike a commune. Iām not a fan of capitalism either though; my preference is something in the middle, more like Democratic socialism.
But the point is, some Far Lefties do seem to like China for whatever reason. Again, I think they mainly just like that theyāre opposing capitalism and view the CCP through some very rose-colored classes.
I think the only people supposing the CCP these days are actual Chinese people. A distaste for China seems to be the sole unifying topic in the west.