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[–] 12 points 7 hours ago (10 children)

Why do they even like Mao so much? Dude was only good for helping them get the country. Literally nothing else.

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  • [–] 14 points 7 hours ago* (6 children)

    Why do they even like Mao so much?

    Same reason Americans love George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Adam Smith.

    He's a Founding Father of the modern nation, a spiritual progenitor of their economic philosophy, and a guy with tons of media to play up as nostalgia bait for the Chinese equivalent MAGA nationalists.

    You'll see Chinese nationalists leap to his defense the same way you see American nationalists get Big Mad when you talk about Jefferson raping his father-in-law's illegitimate slave daughter. Or reminding them why the White House is that color and under which President it happened.

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  • [–] 10 points 6 hours ago (1 child)

    I've never understood the stereotype that Americans idolize a bunch of old white guys from the 1700s.

    Most people I know don't give a single shit about them, and the ones that do are very vocal about their dislike of them.

    It's pretty widely accepted that they were all garbage human beings by today's standards.

    If you mean Republicans idolizing them but only in specific circumstances that support bigoted worldviews, then sure.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 hours ago* (1 child)

    Same reason Americans love George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Adam Smith.

    The average Americans have never heard of Adam Smith.

    And the ones that have studied him are aware that he was a critic of capitalism, not a proponent of it.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 hours ago

    There's kinda a large gap between Jefferson being a sexual predator and Mao allowing 25+ million people to starve in the great leap forward. Definitely feels like one requires ignoring a lot more in order to defend.

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  • [+] -8 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

    Life expectancy doubled under Mao. Foot binding was ended. He was instrumental in the victory of China against Japanese imperialism. China rapidly industrialized under Mao. Without Mao, there certainly would have been someone else playing his historic role, but the important factor is that it was indeed Mao that led China to liberation and helped set in stone the modern prosperous China.

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