Title states all, Vietnam is a country that fought for it's independence, fought off multiple invaders including 2 industrialized western superpower nations, and now is one of the fastest growing economies in East Asia and is generally speaking seen as a positive nation on the global stage, without all of the baggage that China or North Korea carry. Obviously this is an abridged understanding of Vietnam but on paper it looks good, unless there's some brave posters willing to tell me otherwise?
-7DeadlyFetishes
No offense to Vietnam, but they “don’t have the same baggage” because they unlike China aren’t as much a threat to the US and unlike North Korea don’t actively oppose them. and even then when Vietnam was being toated as an example in COVID you had articles and news heads saying they were only successful because of their evil and draconic authoritarian measures.
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The consequences of the concept of individual rights has been a disaster for the world.
I'd argue individual rights aren't bad themselves, but rather the particular concept of them that we are taught in the US, which amounts to basically the right to do whatever you want without the gubberment telling you not to.
Yeah, the fact that most western countries only see rights through the lense of the individual has led to the exhaltation of the individual as the only thing that matters.
the individual is declared important, because humanity is made up of individuals.
but the exhaltation of the individual has nothing to do with the embetterment of the vast majority of individuals.
the rights of the collective, being made up of individuals, are intrinsically more valuable than those of any single individual.
:bean-think:
why would some individuals object to viewing the collective as a tallying up of individuals, and insist that it is instead an alternative that is wholly incompatable with the individual?
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West often refuses to view many other people on this planet as human. The idea of child's rights (the real "No, you can't abuse your kid" kind not the weird thing groomers talk about) is something many people in the West are actually highly reluctant towards. They very much view children as property and it is horrible.
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This is literally all it is. They aren't constantly in the New Cold War propaganda like China, we are no longer occupying the southern half of their country and need to be opposed like Korea, and they aren't floating ninety miles off Miami where an affluent and influential voting expat minority lives like Cuba.
Therefore "leftists" in the heart of empire dont feel obligated to pick a side and have a "take" like the others. Its like how a lot of babby leftists don't even know communist Laos even fucking exists.
The act of existing as a Marxist-Leninist state is “actively opposing” the US. Just cause their state media doesn’t make say as many cool things about executing imperialist leaders doesn’t mean the US is happy with Vietnam’s existence as a socialist country, or that Vietnam is a lapdog to the US. They just realize that things are significantly easier when you don’t have actively hostile relations with the world’s most powerful country
Taking $150 million dollars in US military aid and hosting 2 visits by US aircraft carriers does kind of signal that the US is happy with you.
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I have no doubt that its an "enemy of my enemy" sort of deal.
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There are centuries of hatred, conquests and counter conquests etc.
But things were fairly cordial in the 50s-70s. Both the KMT and the CPC supported Ho Chi Minh against the French, until Vietnam chose the Soviet side of the split (technically they were neutral, but refused Deng's bribes), allowed foreign drilling in the South China Sea (which was and is disputed) and then realised what was going on in Cambodia was fucked and intervened.
So China invaded and got their asses handed to them.
Things have improved a lot since 1990 with most territorial disputes being resolved and major socialist co-operation, but there's been a brush war about the South China Sea in the last few years, with the USA trying to prevent a deal.
As for the Dengism, I'm not a Dengist (I'm a Little Dengist) but while Vietnam has more marketisation, the material conditions mean it's largely Petit Bourgeois in nature, Vietnam does have more foreign involvement too, but if anything the industrial heights of the economy are even more directly planned than China imo.
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In a sense sure, but to a much lesser degree than the previous two.