Not just here, but also on reddit and other social media.
Sure, there is a propaganda war brewing wherein a lot of Western media are pushing exaggerated narratives, Adrian Zenz is a theological dope of an academic, and the CIA has a vested interest in accelerating conflict, etc. but surely there's got to be room to also address the shortcomings of China as well? Whether it's about LGBTQ+ issues, or the exploits of Chinese capitalism, or being able to criticize or make fun of Xi, I see posts here routinely and systemically brigaded and comments downvoted to oblivion that even sniff at criticism of China.
I consider myself a free agent, and China's meteoric rise gives me some hope for a brighter tomorrow (in contrast to the US), but this blatant campaign of social media manipulation gives me pause for concern. It just screams insecurity and makes me not trust what feels like a counter-propaganda narrative. (Mods, please never get rid of the downvote counter.)
Anyway, here's hoping for a brighter future, but please let ideas breathe.
Thanks for listening.
This is what makes me think the western Xi stans are fooling themselves and that this is just a massive cope. The alternative is an extremely hopeless scenario in which there is no immediate prospect of the restoration of a true socialist hegemon to counterbalance the US's batshit scorched-earth imperialism. This is the reality western Trots have been living in for almost a fucking century (and some western Maoists, for nearly half a century) and they still attempt to organize and party-build in the belly of the beast in conscious spite of the extremely bleak conditions in front of them, trying to cobble together the post-Cold-War ruins of old working-class coalitions in the firm belief that world socialism is still demonstrably possible, without any expectation of aid from a friendly foreign power.
I would love to be proven wrong about my pessimism w.r.t. Xi walking his talk, purging the Dengists as soon as possible, cracking down on the CCP's billionaire members, and playing an active role in aiding international revolution as the US collapses. But I have a hard time imagining any counterfactual scenario in which the western Xi and CCP stans don't spend at least a couple decades in denial, and march right into the same opportunist pitfalls the old Capital-C Communist Parties did (opportunism, entryism into succdem and neoliberal coalitions, popular frontism, etc.), followed by further Dengist degeneration under the weight of capitalist siege and a collapse triggering the same existential crisis and sense of crushing defeat that followed the destruction of the USSR in the '90s.
!remindme 20 years