I'm sorry, I shouldn't have included arguments in my request for clarification, that was extremely poor form and you were right to have been dismissive.
But if I have some previously unexamined belief that's rooted in racism, I do earnestly want to correct it. If you've got something to teach me that can help, I want to hear it and will thank you for telling me.
if I have some previously unexamined belief that's rooted in racism, I do earnestly want to correct it.
I already pointed them out and you doubled down, but I'll try to give a quick explanation.
The PRC is socialist and governed by a communist party. They have a series of 5 year plans that culminate in reaching full socialism by 2050.
The reason many westerners say they're "communist in name only" is partially because of the reforms under Deng that allowed for capital development in order to build the productive forces that could be utilized to build functioning socislism under the nose of US imperial hegemony. Those reforms were controversial amoung communists at the time, but the government under Xi is making good on the intention of those reforms right now, and history has proven them to have been effective. The other part of the reason is Western chauvanism/rascism. "Non-whites cant do socialism right - they're authoritarians." This arguement is leveled at every actually existing socialist project by Western "leftists."
So it isn't "nonsensical" to consider the PRC to be what it considers itself to be, and has demonstrated itself to be. You just have to actually be informed about it
The original point about "can't do socialism because of large, heterogenous population." Besides being obvioulsy wrong because there's examples of actually existing socialism that had or have large, heterogenous populations, i always point out that the statement is rascist. I do this because most people repeating it, haven't even thought about how its rascist.
Its a brainworm people in the US use to explain why they can't have the kind of social democracy they have in Scandinavian countries - at least that's the context I've always heard it used. This is a "nonsensical" trueism. First, the Scandinavian countries they're refering to are 1) not socialist to begin with, they're social democracies. 2) they aren't homogeneous, they also have ethnic minorities and have rascism.
That statement is not a meaningful acknowledgement of rascism, its an acquiescence to it. Its an appeal to rascism as an arguement why something just can't happen in the US. It also ignores the actual reasons impeding social democracy, let alone socislism which is the entrenched position of capitalist hegemony, the power and depth of its propaganda apparatus, and the relatively privileged position of US workers vs those in the global south due to imperialist exploitation and extraction.
Thanks for taking the time to write all this out for me, especially the stuff about China's capital projects. I will certainly be less blithe about trotting out the party line on that topic.
No problem, you're welcome. I actually misread your last post and thought you were being sarcastic but thought I'd give that info anyway lol, sorry about misreading.
Yeah until i started learning about socialism and learning about actually existing socialism i had no clue about the nuances of China's development either. There was a lot of skepticism about Deng's reforms at the time and to the present, but the actions of the Party under Xi have begun the process of reigning the capitalist expansion in and redirecting those productive forces toward the goal of full socialism by 2050.
There's an important distinction that AES states recognize - that they're socialist projects even if they aren't currently in a state of full socialism. Socialism is diffucult to create. Marx theorized that revolutions would take place where fully developed capitalism already existed for the workers to then take control over, and use thise productive forces to build socialism. But the Revolutions in Russia and China (and the subsequent revolutions in the global south) required some reevalution. Generally speaking, the revolutionary potential was weak in the highly developed capitialist countries and was strongest in the areas ravaged by Western imperialism. But following the successful revolutions measures were required to industrialize and build the forces and conditions necessay to create socialism. Western left anti-communists chauvinisticly tend to point to full socialism not existing already in AES as them "not doing it right" despite the fact that they are actually creating socialism, while the Western left has achieved basically nothing.
I'm sorry, I shouldn't have included arguments in my request for clarification, that was extremely poor form and you were right to have been dismissive.
But if I have some previously unexamined belief that's rooted in racism, I do earnestly want to correct it. If you've got something to teach me that can help, I want to hear it and will thank you for telling me.
I already pointed them out and you doubled down, but I'll try to give a quick explanation.
The PRC is socialist and governed by a communist party. They have a series of 5 year plans that culminate in reaching full socialism by 2050.
The reason many westerners say they're "communist in name only" is partially because of the reforms under Deng that allowed for capital development in order to build the productive forces that could be utilized to build functioning socislism under the nose of US imperial hegemony. Those reforms were controversial amoung communists at the time, but the government under Xi is making good on the intention of those reforms right now, and history has proven them to have been effective. The other part of the reason is Western chauvanism/rascism. "Non-whites cant do socialism right - they're authoritarians." This arguement is leveled at every actually existing socialist project by Western "leftists."
So it isn't "nonsensical" to consider the PRC to be what it considers itself to be, and has demonstrated itself to be. You just have to actually be informed about it
The original point about "can't do socialism because of large, heterogenous population." Besides being obvioulsy wrong because there's examples of actually existing socialism that had or have large, heterogenous populations, i always point out that the statement is rascist. I do this because most people repeating it, haven't even thought about how its rascist.
Its a brainworm people in the US use to explain why they can't have the kind of social democracy they have in Scandinavian countries - at least that's the context I've always heard it used. This is a "nonsensical" trueism. First, the Scandinavian countries they're refering to are 1) not socialist to begin with, they're social democracies. 2) they aren't homogeneous, they also have ethnic minorities and have rascism.
That statement is not a meaningful acknowledgement of rascism, its an acquiescence to it. Its an appeal to rascism as an arguement why something just can't happen in the US. It also ignores the actual reasons impeding social democracy, let alone socislism which is the entrenched position of capitalist hegemony, the power and depth of its propaganda apparatus, and the relatively privileged position of US workers vs those in the global south due to imperialist exploitation and extraction.
Thanks for taking the time to write all this out for me, especially the stuff about China's capital projects. I will certainly be less blithe about trotting out the party line on that topic.
No problem, you're welcome. I actually misread your last post and thought you were being sarcastic but thought I'd give that info anyway lol, sorry about misreading.
Yeah until i started learning about socialism and learning about actually existing socialism i had no clue about the nuances of China's development either. There was a lot of skepticism about Deng's reforms at the time and to the present, but the actions of the Party under Xi have begun the process of reigning the capitalist expansion in and redirecting those productive forces toward the goal of full socialism by 2050.
There's an important distinction that AES states recognize - that they're socialist projects even if they aren't currently in a state of full socialism. Socialism is diffucult to create. Marx theorized that revolutions would take place where fully developed capitalism already existed for the workers to then take control over, and use thise productive forces to build socialism. But the Revolutions in Russia and China (and the subsequent revolutions in the global south) required some reevalution. Generally speaking, the revolutionary potential was weak in the highly developed capitialist countries and was strongest in the areas ravaged by Western imperialism. But following the successful revolutions measures were required to industrialize and build the forces and conditions necessay to create socialism. Western left anti-communists chauvinisticly tend to point to full socialism not existing already in AES as them "not doing it right" despite the fact that they are actually creating socialism, while the Western left has achieved basically nothing.