this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2024
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One theory I've heard about the accelerating of the worsening conditions of western proletariat is that the USSR used to provide a bulwark against things getting too bad. People would point at the USSR and the illusion that capitalism was better for individual prosperity would collapse in comparison. Then, with the USSR gone things have been deteriorating for the past ~30 years.

If that is true, even somewhat, why haven't we seen a similar effect from China's example? Is the theory simply wrong? Maybe western capitalism is just unable to even offer scraps from the table at this point. Maybe people are unaware of how things are in China? Could we dare to expect that China's example will force a lifting of the boot from our necks?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I would say there are a couple aspects to that.

"Maybe people are unaware of how things are in China" This is one of them. People are largely oblivious to the success of China. Anytime something technologically advanced is shown from China, people lose their shit over the fact that it must be fake or it will collapse in a stiff breeze. How many people do you know that still think "Chinese products are cheap but poor quality". I know it is something of a meme but if you show somebody a picture of something from China and tell them it is Japanese, they will lose their shit over it. Show them a picture of Japan and tell them it is China, and they will scream about it being a dystopian hellscape.

There is also the tendancy to attribute every success of China to capitalism, and every failure to socialism.

The west's propaganda campaign against China has been ongoing in some form or another since the CPC came to be. It has become heightened in recent years, but it dates back a very long time.

Now the global south has a generally much more positive view of China already, whether that could trickle down into the West remains to be seen really.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

There is also the tendancy to attribute every success of China to capitalism, and every failure to socialism.

This is a really important point. It's been the go-to strategy to discredit Chinese socialism for at least the last two decades.