- Why does China, a socialist country, have mega corporations like Tencent and Bytedance? Are they collectively owned by syndicates or unions? If this is a transitionary phase to socialism, can we trust China to actually enforce Socialism after this stage ends?
- Child Labor in factories: Myth or Fact? I have a Chinese friend who said he personally never worked as a child in China, but obviously if this was true not every single kid would have worked in a factory.
- Surveillance and Social Credit: are these myths, or are they true? Why would China go so far to implement these systems, surely it'd be far too costly and burdensome for whatever they'd gain from that.
- Uighur Muslim genocide: Is this true?
Thank you to anyone who answers, and if you do please cite sources so I can look further into China. I really appreciate it.
edit: I was going to ask about Tiananmen Square, but as it turns out that literally just didn't happen. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8555142/Wikileaks-no-bloodshed-inside-Tiananmen-Square-cables-claim.html
https://leohezhao.medium.com/notes-for-30th-anniversary-of-tiananmen-incident-f098ef6efbc2
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/there-was-no-tiananmen-square-massacre/
I can vouch for the efficacy of this excuse. It is my go-to for all kinds of hard topics including questions regarding China. Which I know nothing about. Couldn't with any honestly answer any of the OP questions though I have a general idea of some of the possible vibes that would come up from others. I will read on in the thread and see if anything is compelling.
To argue both sides of "Should I bother to have an opinion on things like this and does it matter?":
PRO: Know about what people have tried before and how did it work out. Be able to anticipate problems in advance. Get inspired and have a big imagination about how world can be. Be more astute about potential manipulations of local conditions. Be able to pose an intelligent counterpoint to mainstream messaging to people who are interested in it. Avoid looking like a total dumbass when someone in ideological opposition says your ideas on the whole are stupid because don't you know about this historical/current thing that disproves it. Be a smarty pants.
CON: Can become a weird nerd thinking so much about things that no one else cares about. If you let it slip in wrong context, people can be put off. It can make you feel distanced from people around you when you can't talk about the things you care about. Can forget about the actual class struggle in your vicinity and focus too much on the far away which you have no potential impact on. Intellectual isolation can lead weird places. You could be very wrong about everything. And if you're correct it doesn't really do much anyway. Opportunity cost.
I really appreciate your good faith engagement with my post, I think its criticality important to develop a understanding of the history of the left and our past failures, I think the reason I posted this is a see a lot of new leftists diving head first into theory with out understanding its context and get baffled for years into various sects with out understanding how we got here. My aim with recommending that particular lash text is this text touches on how culture isn't just a epiphnenomnal things that comes out of the super structure of society but rather a reinforcing structure that we have to engage with. Its something I see a lot of new leftists really struggle with its not just enough to develope productive forces, it is all the creation of a political subjects that yearns for a new world and is empowered to do so, the job of leftist is to empower workers to be able to create that new society.
Theory stuff aside I really appreciate your effort with my engagement.
Good answer actually, imo