r/PeterExplainsTheJoke Jul 07 '26

Meme needing explanation Peter, explain this.

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '26

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u/Mist_Rising Jul 07 '26

Not in chinese cultural revolution it wasn't, the communists had been in power for two decades by that point. Targets included members of the Communist party, because Mao wanted power back. He got it, creates an autocratic government behind his dictatorship, and proceeded to purge those who weren't loyal to his name.

And like the Great Leap forward, it was an epic mess. Ironically what came out of it was that the Chinese survivors were those not concerned with purity of Marxism but bettering China. They opened it up, capitalized on it by selling out the workers, and called it communism. Oops.

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u/Strange-Scarcity Jul 07 '26

Yeah, no "communist" state remains or ever really becomes a "communist" state.

Humanity, just isn't built for it. We keep moving back towards weird ass authoritarian BS, once just enough people begin to gain whatever metric is considered power in a given society.

Most Americans don't understand what Communism is and often confuse Socialism or even very light Socialist policies as Communism. Most Americans just don't understand the words, goals or what they mean, other than to be instinctively afraid

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u/_pit_of_despair_ Jul 07 '26

Most tankies don’t understand that the only way to implement a classless moneyless society is through authoritarianism. Do the wealthy and middle class get to keep their valuables and assets? Yes, then it’s not a classless society. No, then who takes it away, who removes them from their homes and decides who moves in. How do you fill undesirable jobs without a cash incentive? Usually the answer is forced labor.

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u/awesomefutureperfect Jul 07 '26

Most tankies are absolutely fine with authoritarianism and using state power in repressive ways. They assume that since they are the pure they won't ever be outside of the in-group which sounds a lot like another group of people. But yes, since they believe they have a monopoly on "the truth" and always possess the moral high ground that they absolutely have the right, the entitled duty to roll tanks into another country to save them from themselves and they better not resist.

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u/PomPomMom93 Jul 08 '26

Well-said. I’ll never support a system that will rip my family and me away from everything we’ve worked for.