The point of arguing "china bad" isn't to support imperialism, it's to get the left to dream bigger than well managed capitalism. It's the same reason I argue with people who get really excited about coop businesses.
The problem is that the support isn't critical. The PSL doesn't say "support china against western imperialism" they say "support china on it's long road to socialism." Its the same with Syria.
It's possible to be critical of the DotP states like China while also opposing imperialism. That's not a frictional ask, and it's why irl leftist spaces are dominated by China bad.
The PSL doesn’t say “support china against western imperialism” they say “support china on it’s long road to socialism.”
Please do not make up myths about PSL's line. It's all publicly available. [1]
To the extent that workers and peasants in China rebel or resist capitalist encroachments and abuses, they deserve the support of the world working-class movement—especially to the extent that these protests lead toward reversing the gains of capital. The rightful place of the Communist Party of China is with these workers and peasants in their confrontation with the Chinese government and with the domestic and foreign capitalists. When the communists stand aside, they lose credibility with their historic social base.
However, to the extent that these struggles move from spontaneous battles for economic and social justice to movements that are taken over politically by leadership groupings that seek to overthrow the political rule of the Communist Party—as, for instance, occurred with the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests—these struggles can only, under the current political circumstances and absent an organized revolutionary communist leadership current, move into the camp of reactionary counterrevolution. They will be organically connected to and nourished by the forces of world imperialism.
The overthrow of the Communist Party of China in these circumstances would not only lead to the absolute destruction of what is remaining of the old socialist revolution, it would suspend China’s bourgeois democratic revolution.
Such an overthrow by non-revolutionary forces would hurl China backward in its epoch-making struggle to emerge from underdevelopment. It would return China to the semi-slavery of comprador neo-colonial rule. China would then also face the possibility of splintering, as happened in Yugoslavia and as may happen in Iraq under the impact of foreign occupation.
In the face of this threat, it is the responsibility of all revolutionaries and progressive people to resist the imperialist offensive and offer militant political defense of the Chinese government—de-spite profound differences with the theory and practice of so-called “market socialism.”
That is more frictional because you're arguing a more nuanced definition of capitalism and socialism. Asking people to dream bigger is just asking them to change the way they talk about China. You don't think they dream bigger because they post praises of China. So you're asking them to post differently. Focusing on the aesthetics of posting goes back to my original thesis. I was going to post this yesterday but changed my mind. One of the original parts of the list included "stop holding China up as a model for socialism" but I left it out today because I lumped that in with focusing on posts.
The point of arguing "china bad" isn't to support imperialism, it's to get the left to dream bigger than well managed capitalism. It's the same reason I argue with people who get really excited about coop businesses.
The problem is that the support isn't critical. The PSL doesn't say "support china against western imperialism" they say "support china on it's long road to socialism." Its the same with Syria.
It's possible to be critical of the DotP states like China while also opposing imperialism. That's not a frictional ask, and it's why irl leftist spaces are dominated by China bad.
Please do not make up myths about PSL's line. It's all publicly available. [1]
That is more frictional because you're arguing a more nuanced definition of capitalism and socialism. Asking people to dream bigger is just asking them to change the way they talk about China. You don't think they dream bigger because they post praises of China. So you're asking them to post differently. Focusing on the aesthetics of posting goes back to my original thesis. I was going to post this yesterday but changed my mind. One of the original parts of the list included "stop holding China up as a model for socialism" but I left it out today because I lumped that in with focusing on posts.
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