Current Events > How do communists explain away the Great Leap Forward?

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"It is widely regarded by historians that The Great Leap resulted in tens of millions of deaths. A lower-end estimate is 18 million, while research by Chinese historian Yu Xiguang suggests a death toll closer to 56 million."

Blame the bourgeois, which isn't entirely wrong.

Communists get into power by leveraging class warfare, and usually also some sort of disaster that's inconvenienced anyone with assets and utterly ruined everyone without.

Make a few examples of "decadence", and anyone with the means to leave will either do so, or cozy up with the incoming regime. Incidentally, these are the same sort of people that a redistribution-based collectivist society will absolutely depend on, and the ones at the top have secured the mechanisms to ensure that they are declared exempt elites, while the rest have left or been sent to a gulag.

Later, progressively lower and lower socioeconomic tiers begin to realize they are the ones now being leveraged in class warfare, and the death-spiral continues until the regime either reforms or collapses.

What part of basic communist ideology necessitates the deaths from the great leap forward

Can I ask how capitalists explain the millions death toll under Leopold II or the continuous destabilization of South America and ousting of democratically elected leaders there by the US?
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The way they always do. It wasn't real communism.

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Doe posted...

What part of basic communist ideology necessitates the deaths from the great leap forward

Marx explicitly advocated and condoned violence as a means of suppressing any and all dissent to the Proletarian revolution. He explicitly says this in his Manifesto.

This includes killing anyone who does not comply with the revolution.

Doe posted...

Can I ask how capitalists explain the millions death toll under Leopold II or the continuous destabilization of South America and ousting of democratically elected leaders there by the US?

Capitalism is about free trade bruh, not sure how any of that stuff has to do with open markets and private Enterprise.
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Does TC not understand the reference to Leopold II or South American politics

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As a general rule, look for who's declaring whom your scapegoats are. There's your actual problem.

pls posted...

Marx explicitly advocated and condoned violence as a means of suppressing any and all dissent to the Proletarian revolution. He explicitly says this in his Manifesto.

This includes killing anyone who does not comply with the revolution.

And that is not the cause of the death regarding the great leap forward
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Doe posted...

What part of basic communist ideology necessitates the deaths from the great leap forward

Can I ask how capitalists explain the millions death toll under Leopold II or the continuous destabilization of South America and ousting of democratically elected leaders there by the US?

Not to mention the millions dead from famine in British Raj cuz capitalists didn't give a shit about the working people

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Doe posted...

What part of basic communist ideology necessitates the deaths from the great leap forward

Can I ask how capitalists explain the millions death toll under Leopold II or the continuous destabilization of South America and ousting of democratically elected leaders there by the US?

Leopold II was evil, it had nothing to do with capitalism, capitalism does not kill en masse like he did alone.
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Doe posted...

pls posted...

Marx explicitly advocated and condoned violence as a means of suppressing any and all dissent to the Proletarian revolution. He explicitly says this in his Manifesto.

This includes killing anyone who does not comply with the revolution.

And that is not the cause of the death regarding the great leap forward

Largely the same reasons Venezuela is currently a disaster.
Anyone actually capable of getting anything done has ether fled or been eliminated, and the cronies inserted in their places have no idea what to actually do.

Paranoia: If you are not with me. Then you are against me: Millions of deaths on that account.

Nikra posted...

Paranoia: If you are not with me. Then you are against me: Millions of deaths on that account.

Marx's writing was extremely paranoid, too. Dude labeled so many things as "class antagonisms" including religion and alternate philosophies. Poor guy was delusional and thought every business owner was out to get him.
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Nikra posted...

Paranoia: If you are not with me. Then you are against me: Millions of deaths on that account.

This a trait of tyrants in general, not just communism. The mechanisms of how communists end up massacring millions is just better understood.

Both systems suck and have gotten millions killed.

A_A_Battery posted...

Both systems suck and have gotten millions killed.

The problem is only one system is pointed out for it's millions of deaths as the other gets a pass.

We should just dismantle everything and try anarchy for once but the powers that be stand to lose too much.

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The great leap forward is just an example of how not to allocate resources. Wtf does it have to do with any sort of political ideology?
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lilORANG posted...

The great leap forward is just an example of how not to allocate resources. Wtf does it have to do with any sort of political ideology?

it's a damning case against central planning

maoism, marxism-leninism, and indeed communism as a whole are all predicated on central planning
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TheMikh posted...

lilORANG posted...

The great leap forward is just an example of how not to allocate resources. Wtf does it have to do with any sort of political ideology?

it's a damning case against central planning

maoism, marxism-leninism, and indeed communism as a whole are all predicated on central planning

It's an example of bad central planning. Corporations utilize central planning on a much smaller scale and and the biggest ones take in more than small countries.
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lilORANG posted...

TheMikh posted...

lilORANG posted...

The great leap forward is just an example of how not to allocate resources. Wtf does it have to do with any sort of political ideology?

it's a damning case against central planning

maoism, marxism-leninism, and indeed communism as a whole are all predicated on central planning

It's an example of bad central planning. Corporations utilize central planning on a much smaller scale and and the biggest ones take in more than small countries.

most businesses fail, sometimes even massive ones

even among those that don't, the overwhelming majority can support very few people

what's more, people generally have a choice in which businesses they want to work for or patronize
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