It’s important to remember while both the great leap and cultural revolution were grave errors (even the CPC will agree with you.) I’m not really trying to say those were good, but they occured in a larger era that right or wrong built the physical and social machinery that made China a superpower today. It was Mao who built the steel mills. Mao who built the power grids. Mao who built the mining infrastructure. He turned a divided agarian society controlled by foreign powers and warlords into a centralized sovereign state. That’s an insane leadership feat.
Tripling literacy rates. Doubling life expectancy. Getting a massive healthy workforce ready for an economic boom in the 80s. In comparison to a similar country at the time of his leadership (India), despite the spikes of massive morality, it’s baseline improvements in nutrition and healthcare saved more lives over the long term than it would had it followed India’s slower and more democratic path.
basically everything you said was offset by the other things he did, it’s like pointing out that Hitler liked animals and was very against animal abuse
Built the foundations of modern china
“oh-kay but like Hitler and animals bro.”
that’s a category error. You can’t compare this shit to some trivial personal hobby Hitler had with no impact on the structure of Germany ever. Animal rights didn’t do anything for germany’s success or for its people post-war.
Unlike Hitler, who left Germany a morally bankrupt partitioned crater. Mao’s era ended with a unified nuclear armed literally/physically healthy nation far better then it was when he found it. It’s why China was able to soar past other developing nations. Economic Miracle, baby!
No country was exempt from an industrial revolution. Like the one in America. Horrific child labor, urban squalor and a massive death total again and again. But it built the structure for the modern middle class. I’m not defending the tragedies, but it’s important to acknowledge that the china we know and love today was built during that time.
“to some trivial personal hobby Hitler had with no impact on the structure of Germany ever.”
The second the NSDAP came to power, they did the Reich Animal Protection Act, and you could literally go to Auschwitz if you were like a big-time animal abuser. Hitler did a lot of “Animal Rights” stuff, he made laws about this stuff that had real punishments. Hitler always being with his dog Blondi and constantly taking pictures was related to this stuff and a source for propaganda. This was not a hobby of his, it was a core belief.
Mao basically had these senseless tragedies during his rule, nothing came of them, they just happened and people died, it’s a sad thing really.
Doesn’t refute anything I’m saying award. This had no effect on anything. you said nothing. I don’t really care about how much hitler loved his dog. It didn’t do anything structurally for the shithole that was post war Germany and was completely forgotten. this shit is completely irrelevant in German history. Again, this is a category error and an awful comparison.
You can’t completely ignore the parts of history you don’t like because “nothing came of them.” (modern china came from them. And the countless marvels china produced afterwards for the world did as well.)
it’s a completely fair comparison to say that someone doing good things can be massively overset if they killed millions and millions of people and led their nation to ruin
led china to ruin? it literally built modern china! Are you seriously comparing everything I’m saying to fucking dog walking laws that were out immediately once the third reich was out the door! no structural impact! It’s no different from any other countries industrialization.
Just look at Chinese economic growth, it starts rising quick in the 80s, before that it’s just a flat line, when you are Industrialising that number rises quick, China industrialised in the 80s, not before that. You are making excuses for a guy who led to tens of millions of deaths out of sheer stupidity and then also cracked down hard on people who disagreed with him, after the whole letting tens of millions die out of sheer stupidity.
If Stalin had anything going for him, he actually succeeded in his Industrialisation and wasn’t that stupid.
The Great Leap Forward was probably the single dumbest policy ever enacted
Tens and tens of millions died in famine, the economy collapsed, and it made Mao start to lose some power, so what does Mao do?
The Cultural Revolution, in which over a million died, and tens of millions were imprisoned, with a lot of intellectuals here.
These two events destroyed China, if you look at any graph, the best thing that happened due to Mao was his death.
It’s important to remember while both the great leap and cultural revolution were grave errors (even the CPC will agree with you.) I’m not really trying to say those were good, but they occured in a larger era that right or wrong built the physical and social machinery that made China a superpower today. It was Mao who built the steel mills. Mao who built the power grids. Mao who built the mining infrastructure. He turned a divided agarian society controlled by foreign powers and warlords into a centralized sovereign state. That’s an insane leadership feat. Tripling literacy rates. Doubling life expectancy. Getting a massive healthy workforce ready for an economic boom in the 80s. In comparison to a similar country at the time of his leadership (India), despite the spikes of massive morality, it’s baseline improvements in nutrition and healthcare saved more lives over the long term than it would had it followed India’s slower and more democratic path.
again, not to say the guy was perfect or anything. He had immense regret over the famine. But he wasn’t super Hitler like people make him out to be.
basically everything you said was offset by the other things he did, it’s like pointing out that Hitler liked animals and was very against animal abuse
“to some trivial personal hobby Hitler had with no impact on the structure of Germany ever.”
The second the NSDAP came to power, they did the Reich Animal Protection Act, and you could literally go to Auschwitz if you were like a big-time animal abuser. Hitler did a lot of “Animal Rights” stuff, he made laws about this stuff that had real punishments. Hitler always being with his dog Blondi and constantly taking pictures was related to this stuff and a source for propaganda. This was not a hobby of his, it was a core belief.
Mao basically had these senseless tragedies during his rule, nothing came of them, they just happened and people died, it’s a sad thing really.
Doesn’t refute anything I’m saying award. This had no effect on anything. you said nothing. I don’t really care about how much hitler loved his dog. It didn’t do anything structurally for the shithole that was post war Germany and was completely forgotten. this shit is completely irrelevant in German history. Again, this is a category error and an awful comparison.
You can’t completely ignore the parts of history you don’t like because “nothing came of them.” (modern china came from them. And the countless marvels china produced afterwards for the world did as well.)
it’s a completely fair comparison to say that someone doing good things can be massively overset if they killed millions and millions of people and led their nation to ruin
led china to ruin? it literally built modern china! Are you seriously comparing everything I’m saying to fucking dog walking laws that were out immediately once the third reich was out the door! no structural impact! It’s no different from any other countries industrialization.
This argument is fallacious and bad faith at the very best.
Just look at Chinese economic growth, it starts rising quick in the 80s, before that it’s just a flat line, when you are Industrialising that number rises quick, China industrialised in the 80s, not before that. You are making excuses for a guy who led to tens of millions of deaths out of sheer stupidity and then also cracked down hard on people who disagreed with him, after the whole letting tens of millions die out of sheer stupidity.
If Stalin had anything going for him, he actually succeeded in his Industrialisation and wasn’t that stupid.