Council on Foreign RelationsWashington, D.C. MR. SULLIVAN: At least I had the bravery to give that speech at Brookings rather than at CFR. So — (laughter) — Mike, I want to say thank you for having me back at CFR. And to Susan and Kurt and Charlene and Steve, thank you for having me back…
I’m pretty sure you already made this point earlier in the thread, or perhaps in some other thread.
We Marxist-Leninist do think that China is an Actually Existing Socialism. Whether Western propaganda uses the term to its advantage is not our concern. We don’t at all agree with these “informed people” on whether China is a good place to live. Those people get their understanding of China from Western propaganda.
Also, totalitarianism is a bullshit term created by Western propagandists in order to equivalate socialism and fascism. Hannah Arendt came from a petty bourgeois family and was a paid propagandist.
U.S. and European anticommunist publications receiving direct or indirect funding included Partisan Review, Kenyon Review, New Leader, Encounter and many others. Among the intellectuals who were funded and promoted by the CIA were Irving Kristol, Melvin Lasky, Isaiah Berlin, Stephen Spender, Sidney Hook, Daniel Bell, Dwight MacDonald, Robert Lowell, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy, and numerous others in the United States and Europe. In Europe, the CIA was particularly interested in and promoted the “Democratic Left” and ex-leftists, including Ignacio Silone, Stephen Spender, Arthur Koestler, Raymond Aron, Anthony Crosland, Michael Josselson, and George Orwell.
From our own Western propaganda, you hear and credulously believe that Chinese workers have no say, and now the burden is on me to prove that they do have a say. If you really want to know, you’re welcome to look into it yourself. You might start with The East Is Still Red, which is short and provides a lot of references.
I’m pretty sure you already made this point earlier in the thread, or perhaps in some other thread.
We Marxist-Leninist do think that China is an Actually Existing Socialism. Whether Western propaganda uses the term to its advantage is not our concern. We don’t at all agree with these “informed people” on whether China is a good place to live. Those people get their understanding of China from Western propaganda.
I think your conceptualization of socialism is a utopian one, which Marxists reject. This is why Engels wrote Socialism: Utopian and Scientific and Lenin wrote “Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder.
Also, totalitarianism is a bullshit term created by Western propagandists in order to equivalate socialism and fascism. Hannah Arendt came from a petty bourgeois family and was a paid propagandist.
The CIA and the Cultural Cold War Revisited
If fact, almost all of the “Western left” was captured by the imperial core propaganda machine: Imperialist Propaganda and the Ideology of the Western Left Intelligentsia: From Anticommunism and Identity Politics to Democratic Illusions and Fascism
From our own Western propaganda, you hear and credulously believe that Chinese workers have no say, and now the burden is on me to prove that they do have a say. If you really want to know, you’re welcome to look into it yourself. You might start with The East Is Still Red, which is short and provides a lot of references.