After seeing a megathread praising Mao Zedong, an actual mass killer, and a post about a guy saying “99% of westerners are 100000000000% sure they know what happened in ‘Tiny Man Square’ […] the reasons for this are complex and involve propaganda […],” I am genuinely curious what leads people to this belief system. Even if propaganda is involved when it comes to Tiananmen Square, it doesn’t change the atrocities that were/are committed everywhere else in China.

I am all for letting people believe what they want but I am lost on why one would deliberately praise any authoritarian system this hard.

Can someone please help me understand why this is such a large and prominent community? How have these ideals garnered such a following outside of China?

EDIT: Thank you to everyone who has responded! This thread has been very insightful :)

  • Socialism_Everyday@reddthat.com
    2·
    5 days ago

    I am a liberal. Proudly. And I don’t mean the kind of wishy-washy liberal that American center-left calls themselves, but the real thing

    The real thing? So, are you proposing economic liberalism and laissez-faire? This is ridiculous

    • lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
      1·
      5 days ago

      Wikipedia

      Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy

      ie, not an economic philosophy.

      Britannica

      liberalism, political doctrine that takes protecting and enhancing the freedom of the individual to be the central problem of politics. Liberals typically believe that government is necessary to protect individuals from being harmed by others, but they also recognize that government itself can pose a threat to liberty.

      Primarily about individual freedom.

      • Classical liberalism: minimal government to eliminate traditional obstacles to individual freedom
      • Modern liberalism: positive government intervention to address social & economic inequalities in the cause of individual freedom