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Exactly. After all, the PRC doesn't do it today. Nor did the later USSR. Not quite like they did back in the day. There was/is the whole thought control and

by retrac 4y ago

Exactly. After all, the PRC doesn't do it today. Nor did the later USSR. Not quite like they did back in the day. There was/is the whole thought control and censorship apparatus, and perceived enemies and threats were/are dispatched, secretly and sometimes not so secretly, but millions of random innocent citizens were/are not systematically tortured in the later USSR or China. Because it's not /necessary/. The ruling clique does not really expect mass, loving-terrified worship, just compliance. One analogy that keeps coming to mind is the religious rapture of a medieval or early modern crowd as a witch is burned, an act they sincerely believe is good and necessary to save the soul of the person they're burning. > “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” - C. S. Lewis

gessha 4y ago
Peasants: We have found a witch! (A witch! a witch!) Burn her burn her!
lisasays 4y ago
After all, the PRC doesn't do it today. Except for what's going on in the Uyghur internment camps. Which does look a lot more like what went on back in the day. And (in the CPC's view) it's for their own good, no less.
- muyuu 4y ago
  It's proportionate to the perceived need and perceived resistance. This is nowadays basically just Uyghur and Hong Kong, where the civil religion of the areas refuse to be completely assimilate. If Taiwan were to be successfully invaded, there would be massive repression until they would be broken.
pookha 4y ago
I don't see any resemblance to the witch-scare. The most popular books back then were about finding witches: https://theontarion.com/2020/02/28/witchcraft-and-the-magic-of-early-printed-books/ https://theontarion.com/2020/02/28/witchcraft-and-the-magic-... Which means it was mostly unplanned mass hysteria... Classic Maoism is NOT unplanned. It's is all about taking advantage of the dumbest members of society to enforce arbitrary dogma that is pushed by the state.
muyuu 4y ago
I'm not sure why are you being downvoted, what you said is largely correct and appropriate. The tyrannies going on right now are more insidious, because people can be more insidiously cajoled into compliance and more surgically atomised from each other, and out of their moral frameworks. It's when a hot revolution happens that these highly visual acts of repression happen, as it's a feature not a bug to signal who's boss now. But if everyone already perceived and agreed to who's boss and rendered all their power to the service of the new regime, and there was no need to appease the new ruler's revenge thirst, then all of these struggle sessions would have been wasteful. Performative struggle sessions are to be expected if there's an active resistance.
- lazyasciiart 4y ago
  Probably disagreement with the facts asserted - e.g "millions of random innocent citizens were/are not systematically tortured in the later USSR or China", and the claim that the crowd burning witches were actually motivated by the goal of saving the witches soul.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

by retrac 4y ago

gessha 4y ago

Peasants: We have found a witch! (A witch! a witch!) Burn her burn her!

lisasays 4y ago

After all, the PRC doesn't do it today. Except for what's going on in the Uyghur internment camps. Which does look a lot more like what went on back in the day. And (in the CPC's view) it's for their own good, no less.

muyuu 4y ago
It's proportionate to the perceived need and perceived resistance. This is nowadays basically just Uyghur and Hong Kong, where the civil religion of the areas refuse to be completely assimilate. If Taiwan were to be successfully invaded, there would be massive repression until they would be broken.

pookha 4y ago

I don't see any resemblance to the witch-scare. The most popular books back then were about finding witches: https://theontarion.com/2020/02/28/witchcraft-and-the-magic-of-early-printed-books/ https://theontarion.com/2020/02/28/witchcraft-and-the-magic-... Which means it was mostly unplanned mass hysteria... Classic Maoism is NOT unplanned. It's is all about taking advantage of the dumbest members of society to enforce arbitrary dogma that is pushed by the state.

muyuu 4y ago

I'm not sure why are you being downvoted, what you said is largely correct and appropriate. The tyrannies going on right now are more insidious, because people can be more insidiously cajoled into compliance and more surgically atomised from each other, and out of their moral frameworks. It's when a hot revolution happens that these highly visual acts of repression happen, as it's a feature not a bug to signal who's boss now. But if everyone already perceived and agreed to who's boss and rendered all their power to the service of the new regime, and there was no need to appease the new ruler's revenge thirst, then all of these struggle sessions would have been wasteful. Performative struggle sessions are to be expected if there's an active resistance.

lazyasciiart 4y ago
Probably disagreement with the facts asserted - e.g "millions of random innocent citizens were/are not systematically tortured in the later USSR or China", and the claim that the crowd burning witches were actually motivated by the goal of saving the witches soul.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]