In April the party launched a telephone hot line and online platform for reporting “historical nihilists,” who fail to comply with the official party line.
In a national survey, 85 percent of college students who identify as “liberal” say they’d report a professor who made an “offensive” comment. Sixty-five percent of “independent/apolitical” students and 41 percent of “conservatives” also would report a professor to the university.
Students were almost as eager to report their classmates: 76 percent of liberals, 57 percent of independents and 31 percent of conservatives say that a student who says something that offends other students should be reported.
We have fallen a long way from the ideals expressed in Norman Rockwell’s classic painting, and the downward path is continuing.
Nothing but white people in that Rockwell painting, Mr. Foster. I’m going to have to report you for this, you know…
Probably intended as a New England town meeting…not that that’s any excuse, I’m sure.
I have a grand daughter entering college in the fall. I’m concerned about her although she is a Trump fan. I’m hoping U of Alabama is less Woke.
I am kind of a bore on the topic of the convergence of so-called “Communism” and so-called “Capitalism” in the decades since WWII. Both systems have converged on Fascism — private ownership subject to political control — the real winner of the peace which followed the war. This parallel between Chinese people being encouraged to report “deviants” and Western students being willing to report them fits right into that same convergence model.
One of the big surprises of the CovidScam was how willing most people were to submit to transparently idiotic government policies. Another big surprise was the number of Karens (male as well as female) who appointed themselves enforcers of the dogma. When Resident Biden* goes full SS, there will obviously be no problem finding people willing to abuse their fellow citizens.
Gavin…questionable whether the current Chinese system should be called ‘Communism’ at all…Marx and Lenin would both find it alien to their ideas, I think…seems to me that the retention of this label is mainly a matter of continuity and ‘Branding’. Fascism seems more accurate…is it more like Italian fascism, which had a big component of aggressive nationalism, or German Nazi fascism, which supplemented the nationalism with racism/anti-Semitism?
“Marx and Lenin would both find it alien to their ideas”
Marx was just trying to come up with explanations for why the “left” was always and everywhere rejected by the common man and so thereby provide justifications for why they could be liquidated, and Lenin was a thug who was happy to follow through.
Our era is the Age of the Bureaucrat, they like to sometimes call themselves things like “technocrats”, but it’s just the Peter Principle on a global scale. It won’t last too much longer, as everything is clearly falling apart.
If you see something, say something. Twenty years on, the only terrorists the FBI has caught were the ones foolish enough to buy their bombs from the FBI. Not that I don’t believe the will towards a police state is absent, but the competence is, lucky for us
With any amount of luck and with malice aforethought, this should go the same way as the Obama-era “Attack Watch!”, especially if everyone goes about informing on the most notorious Karens of their acquaintance…
is it more like Italian fascism, which had a big component of aggressive nationalism, or German Nazi fascism, which supplemented the nationalism with racism/anti-Semitism?
The Nazis had a sort of deep Teutonic mysticism, along with the “othering” of Jews, many of whom were secular just like the ones in the US.
China does resemble the Italian model, which was popular with FDR. Mussolini even appeared in a movie with Lionel Barrymore. I think there was a biopic movie planned for him.
The dragon is back. The Chinese empire is very old and like everything, waxes and wanes. Its on the wane now, and I think what we call it, is almost irrelevant. Its a form of Marxism, but not in a traditional form.
Yeah they are being attacked by the west in general and are careful to make sure, like in Hong Kong, that the rather advanced American capacity to cause regime change, is not effective. I think really that almost everyone has caught on now, and its losing its effectiveness, which is causing some petulance. ;)
I meant ‘wax’ of course, I’m quite old.
Mussolini was sufficiently popular in the US that he even appeared (with a positive reference) in the lyrics to a Cole Porter musical:
“You’re the top!
You’re the Great Houdini!
You’re the top!
You are Mussolini!”
What to call the society our Betters have created? It is not Communism, where the means of production are owned by the State. It is not Capitalism, where the owners of assets have very broad freedom to do with those assets as they wish. Instead, in both China and the West, we have private ownership subject to rather intrusive central planning by politically-driven bureaucrats. The only real difference is that the Chinese Political Class is proud of their country’s history and competent in advancing their people’s interests.
Ah! but we in the West have “Democracy”. Not in my neck of the woods, we don’t. We have single party Democrat rule, where the choice of rulers is made by a small minority of the population — the active Democrat Party activists. General elections are foregone conclusions, and Democrat primary elections only offer the slightly larger minority of the population who are registered Democrats the choice between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
China is a mystery to us all, but outwardly it seems not too different from single party Democrat rule in the US — the minority of the population who are active inner members of the Communist Party call the shots. The only difference between Chinese Communist Party minority rule and Democrat Party minority rule is that the CCP rewards competence whereas the Democrats reward blind dumb ignorant loyalty.
is it more like Italian fascism, which had a big component of aggressive nationalism, or German Nazi fascism, which supplemented the nationalism with racism/anti-Semitism?
While there is no shortage of racism in China, IMHO, it resembles Mussolini while American Leftists with their hatred of Jews & Christians, are more like Hitler.
I’d like to report a crazy anti-American dementia patient, just yesterday he said that people don’t need guns because the government will just nuke them anway, his address is apparently 1600 Pennsylvania Ave in Washington, DC, though he is only rarely seen in public.
” the CCP rewards competence whereas the Democrats reward blind dumb ignorant loyalty”…do we really know for sure the mix of competence-rewarding versus influence-rewarding in today’s China? Certainly from the outside, it looks impressive…but many US companies have look impressive until the inner rot reaches the surface…
Quibbling over whether the CCP is Marxist or fascist or whether their current state resembles Nazi Germany or Italian Fascism seems to me to miss the point. Their aim is totalitarian.
Was the Chinese Cultural Revolution in line with Marxist/Leninist philosophy? The Great Purge?
What’s interesting about our Karens is that the rise to power of their masters in academia has been bloodless. But their propagandizing is similar. The boundaries of acceptable discourse are constantly shifting: one minute it’s “Let a hundred flowers bloom,” and the next a perfectly anodyne statement is racist or transphobic.
Take these NY Times Op/Eds on Critical Race Theory in 1997: https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/09/opinion/l-critical-race-theory-010812.html
and in 2021: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/13/opinion/critical-race-theory.html
We are all kulaks and capitalist roaders to them and their mission is to pick us off, one-by-one if necessary, until we accede to their will.
David F: “… do we really know for sure the mix of competence-rewarding versus influence-rewarding in today’s China? Certainly from the outside, it looks impressive …”
Good point! The fact is we really have very little knowledge of what things are truly like in China. Unfortunately, many people are still stuck with an outdated image of underfed guys in Mao suits pulling rickshaws — about as accurate & up to date as the view that the US is full of cowboys having shoot-outs in the streets outside the saloon.
What we do know is that China today is the Workshop of the World, with the best infrastructure of any country, capable of high-tech feats like landing a probe on Mars. And we know that the US is no longer capable of making many of the requirements of modern life — from medications to computer chips — and is dependent on imports paid for by issuing dubious IOUs.
There is room for debate on how the Chinese Communist Party totally out-manoeuvred the US Political Class. Was it Competence? Hard work? Bribery? Theft? Certainly, China will soon face the classic problem that victory contains the seeds of subsequent defeats — as the US Political Class has demonstrated since WWII. But that will be little consolation to unemployed impoverished US citizens dependent on unreliable supplies of imports.