this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2024
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[–] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 12 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (44 children)

I'm curious, where do you think so many westerners are exposed to Russian propaganda? Because there are apparently so many victims of it these days, can't turn a corner without someone decrying all these damn Russian and Chinese shill everywhere. So where do we all come from? What exactly did we get exposed to? I know this is the part where you handwave the question away with a "Heh, they got exposed to devious foreign thought on the freaking internetsmuglord" but I'm not letting you off that easy. Tell me what you think the actual specific vectors are for all this "Russian and Chinese propaganda" you see everywhere, and how it was apparently able to easily penetrate the absolute haze of American propaganda that all of us in "the west" have been force fed our entire lives.

Please account for this gaping hole in your social theory. Why so many tankies, how, and why now?

[–] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de -2 points 4 days ago (43 children)

Funny, I was just telling @Cowbee about how the tankies I see on here are insufferable & impossible to converse with.

But I'll bite. First of all, I don't appreciate the strawmen. I'm not saying that there is a lot of tankies, nor that they are here now suddenly. I'm not denying that US/Western propaganda doesn't exist, nor that it's dangerous and pervasive.

I'm just saying that I, myself, in my own experience, have seen people shilling for China or even Russia, acting like it's a fucking utopia. Russia an oligarchy, just with a different structure than most Western countries. China is a government that rules over billions of people. That is, by definition, evil. No amount of America Bad makes China or Russia good.

In terms of propaganda sources, for example just take a look at Russia Today.

[–] Kieselguhr@hexbear.net 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (5 children)

acting like it's a fucking utopia.

I don't appreciate the strawmen.

brow

China is a government that rules over billions of people. That is, by definition, evil.

Wait what? You'd prefer to Balkanize China into a several million anarchist direct democracy communes? Or what? How would that work in 2024?

[–] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de -1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You're implying that I'm the one setting up a strawman by claiming that people are acting a certain way. This is from my personal experience. I'm not accusing you or everyone here of being a tankie but it seems like everybody here identifies as one. Maybe we have a different definition of the word. I was trying to clarify my definition.

You’d prefer to Balkanize China into a several million anarchist direct democracy communes? Or what? How would that work in 2024?

No, and I don't think any smart anarchist is advocating for some crazy revolution involving a coup or whatever. I advocate for building strong local communities, that are heavily interconnected. "Communes" as such are kind of impossible since most people live in cities anyway. We need to build resilient networks that can slowly replace oppressive centralized power. Personally I also don't subscribe to only 100% anarchism, my ideology is also influenced by socialism, syndicalism and marxism.

[–] Kieselguhr@hexbear.net 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

We need to build resilient networks that can slowly replace oppressive centralized power.

hmm, maybe a truly massive party with many cadres around the country? perhaps? maybe?

I advocate for building strong local communities, that are heavily interconnected.

Are you 100% sure there's nothing like this in China?

so how to do this neat leftcom kind of stuff, without some kind of centralization, when also you simultaneously need to

  • modernize your country, literally everything from agriculture, to healthcare and heavy industry and so on
  • defend yourself from antagonistic countries
  • defend yourself from giant multinational corpos who'd jump at the chance to plunder your resources
  • defend yourself from fascist/monarchist elements inside your country

I mean in actual practice in a real historical scenario?

[–] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

This debate went way off the rails, but maybe tell me about how you think things should go. For example what would be a way for the US to transition to communism.

[–] Kieselguhr@hexbear.net 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Nah, I give up at this point and Xi only paid me for this long, my shift is over.
Read Parenti and others.

Alright, well thanks for engaging with me I know I was ruffling feathers.

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