Yeah, when listening to them, I can see why most serious communists on here who believe in AES and love the USSR don't like the Chapos very much. Definitely some weird takes here and there. But I think they collectively have one of the less shit opinions about China if you absolutely have to be a typical western leftist who hates any socialism that isn't theoretical, which is basically "Think what you want about China but if you're more concerned about what the Chinese government is doing, which you have no way of affecting, than what the United States is doing, which you can theoretically affect, you're a fucking moron." Unfortunately I think their influence on the younger left has diminished due to the rise of breadtube and their epic twitch streamers but they still have one of the largest Patreon bases on the website, which is something.

And yeah, Matt is legitimately very intelligent and I agree with the vast majority of his takes. And even the ones I don't agree with, I sorta have to be like "Well, he's read his shit so at least I know he's coming at this from a place of knowledge and good faith and not just agreeing/disagreeing with something because he doesn't know shit about it." He's honestly probably one of the best thinkers we have on the left, certainly in the top 10% of at least vaguely prominent socialists alive today, just because he's done the goddamn reading.