You know what’s hilarious? According to the book “The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History 1962-1976”, During the height of the Chinese cultural revolution, it became the fashion to wear pins that featured Mao in profile. In fact, if you didn’t have one of these, you were seen as a pretender; someone who didn’t take the revolution seriously. The problem is, these pins were made of aluminum. Due to the popularity of these pins, China was temporarily denuded of available aluminum. Workers were stripping aluminum shielding off of their machines to make these pins, and there was a thriving black market where people could buy them. So basically, to show off how good they were at communism, they went to the most capitalist of places (the black market) to buy these things. Mao even, at one point, decried the industry, lamenting the lack of available aluminum to make airframes for fighter jets.
But that’s the thing - as important as the struggle was to the people in the revolution, it paled in comparison to the need to prove to everybody else that you supported the struggle. If you didn’t have one of those pins, you might as well just sign up to be part of the next struggle session.
Yeah… I never understood the “words are louder than actions” susceptibility there, but I can’t complain overly much as my country’s own partisan politics is rife with it.
Marxist theory explicitly states that capitalist systems might be a necessary step towards socialism. This is largely the premise Dengism was based on, using profit motives and foreign investment to build infrastructure until,
In Theory ™
Society is ready to both meet the physical needs of everyone and dissolve all heirarchy, aka the guvment.
I’m not sure how much comfort that is to the workers in factories with suicide netting.
For people who hate the West so much, they sure are overdosed on Western pop culture.
Oh, they all love capitalism. So obsessed with brands, products and consumerism.
Red capitalism. What a concept. Guess it’s the equivalent of El Che t-shirts.
You know what’s hilarious? According to the book “The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History 1962-1976”, During the height of the Chinese cultural revolution, it became the fashion to wear pins that featured Mao in profile. In fact, if you didn’t have one of these, you were seen as a pretender; someone who didn’t take the revolution seriously. The problem is, these pins were made of aluminum. Due to the popularity of these pins, China was temporarily denuded of available aluminum. Workers were stripping aluminum shielding off of their machines to make these pins, and there was a thriving black market where people could buy them. So basically, to show off how good they were at communism, they went to the most capitalist of places (the black market) to buy these things. Mao even, at one point, decried the industry, lamenting the lack of available aluminum to make airframes for fighter jets.
But that’s the thing - as important as the struggle was to the people in the revolution, it paled in comparison to the need to prove to everybody else that you supported the struggle. If you didn’t have one of those pins, you might as well just sign up to be part of the next struggle session.
They better love capitalism, China is capitalist
China calls itself Communist. That’s literally all it takes to convince them.
Yeah… I never understood the “words are louder than actions” susceptibility there, but I can’t complain overly much as my country’s own partisan politics is rife with it.
Marxist theory explicitly states that capitalist systems might be a necessary step towards socialism. This is largely the premise Dengism was based on, using profit motives and foreign investment to build infrastructure until,
In Theory ™
Society is ready to both meet the physical needs of everyone and dissolve all heirarchy, aka the guvment.
I’m not sure how much comfort that is to the workers in factories with suicide netting.
They complain about people accepting the western media narrative while uncritically swallowing whatever Xinhua wants them to believe.