Hi! Long time lurker, first time poster. Been discussing stuff with MLs of all stripes recently, and have come across a common statement used by a lot of Maoists which frustrates me.

They seem to always fall back on statements like “The CPC allows billionaires in their ranks, so they are revisionist.”

Maoists have often used this as a kind of “gotcha” argument against more traditional MLs, or “Dengists” as they love to label us.

It’s frustrating, because…I don’t disagree really, allowing members of the bourgeoisie to hold political power is pretty much the definition of revisionism. The problem is, this feels more like a way to silence dissent or discussion rather than facilitate it. Feels like an overly simplistic hard line that simplifies history into binary divisions. Often followed by an implied “China is revisionist, therefore Maoism is the only working form of socialism.”

I’m reaching out to people to see if anyone has any ways to combat this, in a way that encourages discussion rather than it just devolving into insults or truisms hurled back and forth without thought.

  • qwename@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    Note that out of the 96.7 million CPC members (as of 2021), there are

    • 25.9 million farmers/herdsmen/fishermen
    • 15.5 million technical personnel
    • 10.9 million in management positions
    • 7.8 million party/government workers
    • 6.6 million skilled workers
    • 3.1 million students
    • 7.5 million in other professions
    • 19.4 million retired personnel

    Not saying that private entrepreneurs don’t have any voice, but they are a very small minority in both political representation and political power.