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this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023
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askchapo
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Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.
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What do you want to learn about? I'm sure people here can give you some good recommendations on specific topics. If you don't really know, Parenti is a good place to start. Blackshirts and Reds, and Inventing Reality are good. (lol, I see someone has already recommended while I was writing this)
Posters in the newsmega have been putting together a general reading list on geopolitics, you can see what's been added so far here: https://hexbear.net/comment/3934711 Its quite short right now though. There is good discussion on recent events here: https://hexbear.net/post/571250, there is a new one each week. Subscribe to !news@hexbear.net if you haven't.
Yeah I'm not entirely certain on what exactly I am looking to learn about. I've just been seeing a lot of post here that I instinctively disagree with but upon further thought realize I don't actually have any evidence other than that it's generally what I've heard other people say. Yet the people here seem so certainly they are right that I atleast have to look into it. I'm specifically talking about big claims like genocide denial. For example I have been told that Mao Zedong is responsible for like 40-80mil deaths yet people here claim he isn't and seeing how that is quite a substantial claim I should atleast take it seriously and look into it yk?
I don't want to just be some reactionary parroting talking points I've never actually validated
The black book of communism where everyone gets the "communism killed 100 million" from, you should know it counts nazis among those victims of communism AND the soviets who were fighting against those nazis AND both sides' theoretical children that weren't born. It's an absolute joke and like half of its authors have disavowed it.
here's a working link to one of the ones that is broken on the other github list:
https://mronline.org/2006/09/21/did-mao-really-kill-millions-in-the-great-leap-forward/
and here's an old article about the fabricated narrative of the Holodomor even though you didn't ask about that: https://www.villagevoice.com/in-search-of-a-soviet-holocaust/
It's hard to ask for things when you don't know what you are asking for. Thank you :3
Glad to help. There's a quote that comes from Citations Needed podcast iirc. "The unit of propaganda is not lies, it is emphasis." This is why critical reading of western media is so important. Media literacy also helps a lot to clue you in on when a suggestive rhetorical technique is being employed.
If you have some time, I highly recommend Ways of Seeing. It's an analysis of European art and art history that really provides some good basis for media literacy. It's old BBC documentary so not super compelling compared to Second Thought, but it is highly valuable IMO.
4 parts - 30 mins each
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pDE4VX_9Kk&t=7s
You may find something of interest in here: https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/README.md, or specifically here for things on Mao: https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/socialism_faq.md#on-mao-maoism-and-marxism-leninism-maoism-and-the-prc Dessalines is one of the creators of Lemmy.
You'd likely enjoy Inventing Reality. Its a good starting point.
Feel free to make another post asking specific questions, as people here are good for providing sources, etc.. I don't have the time right now. You can also search hexbear for things like "Mao" etc., though you may need to do it from www.hexbear.net as older posts may not be synced to your instance. There have been a lot of effort posts, reading lists, etc.. posted over the years. No one here "denies genocide" though.
“During the cold war, the anticommunist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime's atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn't go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them.
If communists in the United States played an important role struggling for the rights of workers, the poor, African-Americans, women, and others, this was only their guileful way of gathering support among disfranchised groups and gaining power for themselves. How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained. What we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable orthodoxy, so assiduously marketed by the ruling interests that it affected people across the entire political spectrum.”
Parenti is great, highly recommend.
Another I'd recommend is Vijay Prashad. Washington Bullets is a great book for deprogramming. Also this great 5 minute speech by Prashad
The people who come up with the Mao gazillion deaths stuff for some reason don't have any numbers on the greatest genocides in history such as the British Crown slaughtering Indians, or the US almost completely wiping out the Native American population. China's life expectancy almost doubled during Mao's time, if he was slaughtering people at the rate they claim this would not be possible.