Can't wait to see the discourse among the Twitter Left over whether this vague statement is a defense of Maoism or Dengismhttps://twitter.com/DavidWright_7/status/1232140197271408646 …
-
Show this thread
-
I know the real issue in the real world is the basic Republicans just being mad about this statement in general but I actually really want to know if Bernie means to praise China pre-1982 or post-1982
2 replies 1 retweet 14 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @arthur_affect
In the context there, he might well be talking about Xi.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @mssilverstein
Xi hasn't lifted record numbers of people out of poverty come on
2 replies 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @arthur_affect
OK, good point. But he doesn't seem to be thinking very specifically about any particular Chinese policy or government so much as the general recent history.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @mssilverstein @arthur_affect
It's oddly ideologically-agnostic for him - hate the authoritarianism, praise the success. It's the kind of thing that you'd expect for someone praising Pinochet's Chile, or pre-democracy South Korea.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @mssilverstein
It's not that weird, the true believers in 20th-century communism use this "Gotta hand it to them" argument all the time, arguing that for all its faults centrally planned authoritarian communism turned the "basket case" countries of Russia and China into Cold War superpowers
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @arthur_affect
It's definitely not weird overall, but it is weird for him, I think, because his general pitch is not one based such pragmatism.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @mssilverstein @arthur_affect
Although as always, it's the annoying thing where there's some merit to it (bad regimes may incidentally have good policies, and there's no reason to be allergic to them) but it's more often overused (incidentally-good policies in bad regimes promote their ideologies)
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
The weird thing about it is that, as I said, this is usually something US leftists say in defense of 20th century communism but the post-1982 PRC isn't meaningfully "leftist" at all
-
-
Replying to @arthur_affect
Yeah, it's proof of concept for nothing, particularly nothing that American left-wingers or even full-on Communists actually want to achieve.
0 replies 0 retweets 0 likesThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.