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He is the founder of modern China, who ended the century of humiliation and restored the country's independence. Yes, it was messy. But what the west was doing
by thiagoharry 1y ago
He is the founder of modern China, who ended the century of humiliation and restored the country's independence. Yes, it was messy. But what the west was doing against the country and the previous situation was not better.
- Hammershaft 1y ago'Yes, it was messy.' That's one way to describe Mao implementing such incompetent and exploitative policies that it leads to over 40 million Chinese people dying in famines and purges.
- DyslexicAtheist 1y agooh no. Pooh, you ate all the propaganda instead of the honey. > The systemic media control in authoritarian regimes is often inspired by China’s propaganda model. China (178th) remains the world’s largest jail for journalists and reentered the bottom trio of the Index, coming just ahead of North Korea (179th). -- https://rsf.org/en/rsf-world-press-freedom-index-2025-economic-fragility-leading-threat-press-freedom?year=2025&data_type=general https://rsf.org/en/rsf-world-press-freedom-index-2025-econom...
- vaidhy 1y agoIs it surprising that the places with more conflicts has poor reporting ranking (according to this model)? A media control does not need government to act openly. A mind-numbing patriotism can be as effective. Look at US reporting on the aftermath of 9/11. How many papers argued against Iraq or Afghanistan war? How many papers are talking about Gaza now? or even covering hands-off rallies?
- spauldo 1y agoAfghanistan is more complicated than that, due to the collective shock of a successful attack on US soil. Bush had to do something or the American people would have lynched him. Iraq, though? There was tons of opposition to the Iraq War. It was only approved because people were lied to about the "weapons of mass destruction." Once the truth was out, a lot of us felt betrayed. Iraq is a large part of why that particular segment of the Republican party (the neocons) lost its power. Which is a shame, really, given who replaced them...
- sepositus 1y ago> Yes, it was messy, but hardly bloodier than what the West was doing in the country at the time. Can you expand on this?
- thiagoharry 1y agoThe country was completely subjulgated by England, was sacked by several western powers. See the Opium Wars, the unequal treaties, several lands were stolen.
- sepositus 1y agoThanks, but I was looking for an explanation of the "hardly more bloody" comment. I briefly looked up casualties for the things you listed and it's not even remotely close to the deaths attribute to Mao.
- thiagoharry 1y agoI edited the comment. Indeed, by the number of deaths, the last great famines surpass the deaths in war and occupation.
- wordofx 1y ago40m 80m. Does it really matter? It doesn’t change the fact he starved his country while he lived like a king all in the name of making China look better and richer than it was. It also doesn’t change the fact that it wasn’t until China opened up and embraced capitalism and rolled back Mao policies that it actually grew.
- woooooo 1y agoRead up on the Boxer Rebellion, then, if you're looking for large numbers of casualties. Always amazing to me how we're all supposed to be outraged for chinese/Russians who suffered under particular rulers, while also being generally hostile to them as nations and people.
- neves 1y agoSure you know about the most shameful war of all times, right? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars?wprov=sfla1