Left wing perspective over cultural revolution, (a larger perspective on the) full story, good and bad. Nice primer for all of us. :)
Edit: Also, not necessarily “the full story”, or the best of implied judgement by the author. Remember your own theory when listening to other people’s edition of historical events.
Edit: I just replaced the link with a react from hasanabi, which we generally trust better.
Original: https://youtu.be/8jEMlFCaI04 React: https://youtu.be/w9xz-gwDXkI
Really? I got 1dime as a reference from second thought, at https://youtu.be/kFhKVCaadzE
Though it was generally legit.
I’m watching it, and there are some sus takes from the very begning, when he starts to call mao paranoid that what kruschev did would be a first step to restore capitalism, that’s not paranoia, that was clear judgement. And the way he phrases some stuff are quite concerning as well, he seems to have some questionable perspectives about AES and how authoritarian things were or were not
Can you remind me of what is AES, please?
Well, I don’t expect it to be perfect, but a reasonable primer. I expect this audience to be generally capable of putting things into context and filtering away part of judgement call of people working on youtube videos.
I didn’t have a clue about what people were talking about, when there was criticism to Cultural Revolution, so it’s useful to know what the criticism is. I’ve read here somewhere that it’s currently agreed by CPC that it wasn’t 100% perfect? So that, together with some reasonably constructed world view, should make things more accessible than just going into 50 years of historical documents, which I won’t do.
Remember the pipeline: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbllPronIi0 Not everyone thinks the same, but we’re generally going in the same direction. There will be enough time to discuss specifics of political lines later, I suppose.
But I can now understand why you guys consider it sus, it’s a valid point. I’ll add the note on the post. :)
Yeah but that’s where the danger lies, when you have nothing on a subject you are not fighting the bias of the first information, if your first information is skewed towards a reformist mindset or what have you(the kind of vibes I got from him) its harder to replace, I do believe the guy has some good sources and some commitment to being honest, and that’s nice that you’ve got into some sources, but to realize that he drinks at least a bit from the anti revolutionary cool aid can be healthy to be watchful when the guy puts his reading of the facts on the video
AES Is actual existing socialism, usually refering to Cuba, DRPK, Laos, Vietnam and depending on who you ask China goes there too, but at the time of the events covered on the video it would absolutely be part of the AES
Edit: His reluctance of calling revisionists revisionists is quite interesting in the video, and the fact that he gives too much weight to the idea that Mao was fostering free speech to his own gain, when if you look at the whole history of the Mao’s revolution he was about the power going to the people from day one. Furthermore, even by the events he himself claims, the issue of the cultural revolution was not the revolution itself, but the reaction of the revisionists against it, which show two things, the first that Mao was right to call forth such revolution, and second that the revisionists were indeed revisionists, since they believe that their vision stands above the will of the people which is absolutely anti communist.
What I got as an interesting takeaway though is the fact that intellectuals were scapegoats from both sides, an I can see it and it stands as a cautionary tale to us all, one thing that make intellectuals easy targets of the anger of the people, is the elitist stance many hold, about their degrees and Phds and such. The academic circle often stands in a marble tower as far as the people are concerned and we need to always bear that in mind, with the intent to minimize or even, if possible, erase such distance from the intellectual revolutionary and the people of which the revolution will be comprised of, when it comes to be.
I can only thank you for the depth of your analysis and how far you went into the video to make these clarifications.
If you have any suggestions on the topic, send it through and we can add it ot the top post. :)
Found this on the wonderful work of comrade Dessalines, under socialism FAQ, can be a start, I highly encourage you to dive into wherever your interest guides you in the Dessalines page, that is a magnificent gift he brought all the community, it’s a hell of a job
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Based off my years of research (I’m not Chinese, though that shouldn’t matter) the Cultural Revolution, while being a disaster in certain aspects, wasn’t entirely a bad thing. Common people were inspired to rise up and challenge corruption in the party and across the country, were able to reinterpret and contextualize and advance class struggle, and the common people achieved great gains, such as in living standards, healthcare, political participation and horizontal organizing and social development.
It’s absolutely tragic that a lot of innocent people probably ended up dead, and many cultural relics and artifacts were looted or destroyed, but I believe the GPCR helped pave the way for modern China in many ways.
I think that while the CPC is correct in many of their critiques of the GPCR and of Mao, I think that it’s foolish and wrong to say that it was all a mistake or a complete madhouse, and it must be admitted that while Deng’s gamble was correct in the long run, it’s understandable that many saw China’s “reform and opening up” strategy at first as being a betrayal of the revolution.
Thankfully, I think that the CPC seems to be taking the best of the Maoist and “Dengist” eras together to lighten the future, while learning from the mistakes of both, and that modern China wouldn’t be as successful without both eras.
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Second Thought is a respectable comrade, but I think it’s very important to keep in mind that he’s a baby Communist that is still learning basic skills and is fairly lacking in knowledge of international communist history. His interests seem to center around primarily speaking to an American audience about left subjects and debunking myths masking communism more palatable for Americans - which is fine, just narrow, and ultimately I don’t think he has a well tuned detector for subtle anti communism (I don’t think he would pick up on Zizek as an anti communist, for example). With regard to 1Dime specifically, I forget specifics, but I was listening to one of his shows in which he was interviewing another communist at some time and I just remember hearing him say some suspicious things during the interview that raised red flags. Even in this video there are moments where I feel like he is offering a lot of credence to conservative historians, and overall it’s unclear to me that he is even in favor of the Chinese communists goals in his analysis.
I don’t think you can expect any one person to be k owledgable about Marxist history around the globe. So much has happened and so much has been written and analysed, that it’s just impossible to know everything. I would consider myself a long term communist even though I only started reading old texts and new texts etc about 2 years ago - the ethos of communism was always there.
But now that I started reading and watching and discussing, it’s overwhelming. I cannot be expected to know every detail from every historical event and every person and every thing anyone has ever written.
Unfortunately, this is a charge often brought against communists - that we don’t know every small detail about the 1917 revolution, or Hoxha’s time as secretary-General or whatever
That said, I agree to your point that this is what makes it easy for cointelpro stuff to happen and people to invade and recommend subtly uncommunist stuff. Lef’s keep educating our comrades, including myself, without judgement.
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