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Why do I feel like so many people here support the USSR and the CCP? - Lemmy
web.archive.orgMaybe it’s because of federation with lemmygrad, but I always feel like there’s quite a heavy anti-western or pro-communism bias. There are people arguing that NATO is expanding eastward (which, I don’t think it is, instead you just have more eastern countries are joining it) and “invading” (which, I mean it’s a defensive alliance that countries voluntarily join: “don’t attack us or we will all have to attack you” should only be worrying if you actually plan an invasion.)
There’s 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 isn’t 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 “yeah 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 heart”.
Don’t 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) shouldn’t have any independence (imperialism…); 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 of… having a diplomat visit. Oh also China trying to exclude Wikimedia for acknowledging that Taiwan exists, claiming “disinformation”. 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, don’t get me wrong I don’t 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 can’t be the only one who feels this way?
We’re getting a bit off topic from the original question, but I’ll 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 “socialism with Chinese characteristics” for their “implementation”.
China is still “socialist” in a sense because socialism is a pretty broad spectrum. They’ve 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 they’ve come from. That doesn’t mean you have to agree or support some of their …worse… policies. It’s 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 aren’t as large or successful as China.
But yeah, I do agree that the lemmygraders are a bit much. But that’s my thoughts on what I’ve seen since joining and why I think lemmy seems to trend where it does on that topic.