Lead Lemmy Developer, Dessalines, denying the Tiananmen Square Massacre and praising the Uyghur Genocide

https://sh.itjust.works/post/8419342

Dessalines AKA “parentis_shotgun” on Reddit, is the main Lemmy dev, also the admin of lemmy.ml and lemmygrad.ml.

Their post and discussions on Reddit (archive as the original post must have been removed):

https://web.archive.org/web/20230626055233/https://old.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/cqgztr/fuck_the_white_supremacist_reddit_admins_want_me/

Please join the discussions for Lemmy.ml tankie censorship problem:

https://lemmy.world/post/16211417

And the discussions for finding/creating alternative communities on other instances:

https://lemmy.world/post/16235541

What is a tankie?

Tankie is a pejorative label generally applied to authoritarian communists, especially those who support acts of repression by such regimes or their allies. More specifically, the term has been applied to those who express support for one-party Marxist–Leninist socialist republics, whether contemporary or historical.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    The economy of China is not characterized by the common/social ownership of the means of production

    30% of their industry is SOEs. They have a 90% home ownership rate and one of the most generous pension systems left standing - affording Chinese workers the opportunity to retire inside their 50s. The local property laws force foreign companies to share equity with regional firms, keeping both profits and IP domestic.

    And while the high point of the old-school Commune System is long passed, the household responsibility system still guarantees public ownership of arable land. If you work the land, you own the fruit of your labor. That’s textbook Communism.

    China does spark international conflicts and does bully its neighbors

    the country doesn’t cosplay world police and doesn’t participate much in military operations outside the country, which is a big plus.

    It goes beyond the negative. They’ve been a positive force for international relations, helping to buffer North and South Korea to prevent a new war, exporting $100B/year in agriculture products to curb global hunger, and pioneering industrial scale solar, wind, and nuclear technologies to mitigate climate change.

    As a global diplomat, they’ve got cache that the Western states have squandered, making them a popular back channel in Middle Eastern politics.

    And to quote Dr. Lubinda Haabazoka, Director at the University of Zambia’s Graduate School of Business

    Every time Britain visits we get a lecture, every time China visits we get a hospital.

    I would say that alone illustrates why Chinese foreign policy deserves praise.

    • Allero@lemmy.today
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      6 months ago

      Textbook communism is an economy that is 100% worker-owned, with everyone’s needs directly met without the intervention of money. The rest is not that, by literal definition. Let’s not play into the hands of people who want to call that communism and ultra-left to exploit in their own needs.

      China does have some strong policies, but it doesn’t make it communist by any definition. Also, high home ownership rate is mostly a cultural phenomenon, with housing still seen as “best investment” despite the fact there are entire ghost towns full of houses that never ever filled.

      I’m well aware that US pressures China militarily, and that China has a much more peaceful approach. However, Chinese ships regularly bully other countries in the South China Sea against international maritime laws.

      The infrastructure China builds is not just a gift - but an investment on which China expects a return. I’m not convinced China is actively pursuing debt trap diplomacy, but it certainly uses economic power to pressure other countries into various concessions.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Textbook communism is an economy that is 100% worker-owned, with everyone’s needs directly met without the intervention of money

        Utopian Communism is a stateless, moniless society that was hypothized by 19th century European theorists as a possible result of generations of revolutionary struggle.

        But if you sit down and read the textbook, you’ll discover even the most idealistic thinkers don’t hold that it would happen overnight. Marx, himself, asserts a number of transitional states - industrial capitalism being one of them - necessary to reach surplus volumes capable of sustaining a post-money society.

        China does have some strong policies, but it doesn’t make it communist by any definition.

        The policies are the direct result of experimental application of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist socio-economic theory. They are explicitly and deliberately Communist, in the same way that American socio-economic policy is Capitalist.

        The end goal of Chinese state policy is to advance to a state of publicly controlled superabundance. This is markedly different from the American policies intended to fashion fully privatized ownership of an artificially scare pool of goods and services.

        The infrastructure China builds is not just a gift - but an investment on which China expects a return.

        A return in the form of improved economic and political relations. It is for the same reason you would bring a gift to a birthday party.

        • Allero@lemmy.today
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          6 months ago

          You’re right on classics - but off topic.

          I’m saying that China does not economically classify as a communist state, neither did even USSR, because it just wasn’t feasible at the moment.

          I’m combating the change of meaning where communism as officially proclaimed ideology is conflated with communism as an actual economic system. As a result of this, people start thinking that communism is when a state controls some sides of economy and gets involved in social programs, which is not a definition of communism, it’s a capitalist state with social elements.

          A state can even apply some of the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist principles, but it is economically capitalist as long as means of production are controlled by private entities looking for profit. This is not an argument about what China should or shouldn’t do - this is an argument that China is not economically communist or even socialist, like it or not. Neither was USSR during the so-called New Economic Policy.

          A return in form of cash or lease.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            I’m saying that China does not economically classify as a communist state

            They do. Because they’re pursuing communist economic policies.

            communism as officially proclaimed ideology is conflated with communism as an actual economic system

            Sure. If I’m Elon Musk and saying “By the way, I am actually a socialist. Just not the kind that shifts resources from most productive to least productive” then that’s horseshit nonsense.

            However, if I’m Luo Wen, the current director of the State Administration for Market Regulation, focused on breaking up monopolies and limiting the capacity of private business to consolidate control in a given industry, I’m both ideologically and actually committed to communist economic principles.

            A state can even apply some of the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist principles, but it is economically capitalist as long as means of production are controlled by private entities

            The Chinese state leadership gave up on trying to be direct owner-operators of capital during the Deng Era. However, it still strictly enforces a prohibition on foreign control of domestic capital as a legacy of its anti-colonial mission. The means of production remain property of the Chinese proletariat.

            • Allero@lemmy.today
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              6 months ago

              Define “communist economic policies”.

              If you’re Luo Wen, you’re in favor of state regulations of the capitalist market; you are not pursuing communist policies.

              It’s not enough to maintain domestic control of the capital - this is a feature of any protectionist regime, even a fascist one. You should also make sure this capital is entirely democratically controlled and owned by the workers - which is not what happens in China. The capital of Chinese businesses is not the “property of workers”.

              • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                Define “communist economic policies”.

                Strict prohibitions on foreign controlling interest in real estate, capital, and intellectual property, for starters.

                If you’re Luo Wen, you’re in favor of state regulations of the capitalist market

                State regulation for the purpose of limiting foreign ownership, foreign manipulation of domestic markets, and foreign monopoly of natural resources. This leads to:

                • Enormous SOEs where demand is inelastic - in the utilities, agriculture, education, and health care sectors.
                • Domestication of intellectual property, such that foreign investors effectively subsidize Chinese R&D and future capital improvements
                • Large investments in public infrastructure which operates at-cost or at-loss, for the purpose of stimulating domestic economic growth
                • Stringent restrictions on what is seen as socially harmful economic activity - casinos/gambling, recreational drug use, electronic entertainment, and reactionary media
                • Protecting the viability of public pensions and public insurance, for the purpose of flattening the risk curve and improving long term quality of life

                All of these rules are intended to protect domestic markets and maintain local control of business capital.

                The capital of Chinese businesses is not the “property of workers”.

                It is the property of the Chinese People, as opposed to a cartel of foreign landlords. The surplus produced by Chinese business returns to the Chinese economy in the form of improvements to the socio-economic landscape. Chinese consumers enjoy an abundance of at-cost / below-cost social services, because they are not exposed to the rent-seeking behaviors of the predatory capitalist class. And Chinese business executives suffer the kind of regulatory surveillance and oversight that is largely neglected in Western democracies.

                This guarantees that workers enjoy the surplus value of their labor. And that is the end goal of a Communist economy.

                • Allero@lemmy.today
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                  6 months ago

                  Strict prohibitions on foreign controlling interest in real estate, capital, and intellectual property, for starters.

                  This is protectionism and it has literally nothing to do with communism. Those are two absolute different things that can coexist or not coexist.

                  Same relates to your other points.

                  Your rhetoric is eerily similar to protectionist points of Nazi Germany, a very non-communist state that was obsessed with domestic control and protecting domestic capitalist with the proclaimed idea of “capital belonging to all people of Germany”, as opposed to “evil Jewish cartels”.

                  Simply trapping the capital inside the country speaks little of what gets to the workers. And if we talk communism, ALL of the capital is directly owned by the collective of workers. Which is not China.

                  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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                    6 months ago

                    This is protectionism and it has literally nothing to do with communism.

                    It’s protection for domestic ownership of property.

                    Your rhetoric is eerily similar to protectionist points of Nazi Germany

                    It was similar to Communist protectionist points of the KDP.

                    You’ve been pumped full of bad info, and at this point I don’t know what to tell you except to get outside whatever Western propaganda hot house you’ve found yourself in.