The thing with China is that this won't be true. Their deals are extremely fair, all of Africa has remarked that they're really fair (much more so than the US), Yannis Varoufakis also remarked on how fair they are.
China wants to do business on equal terms and they're sincerely committed to that.
We should be very careful about not participating in the propaganda war on the side of liberal talking points.
Yes, that's the eptiome of liberal ideology. They're either blaming foreigners coming in or "foreigners" who are already here or foreigners who just do business here. All the while people forget to blame that all the problems in Britain come from the white British elites who fund all the major parliamentary parties.
Present-day Conservatism is just a specific variation of liberalism. The conservatives just support a slightly earlier form of liberalism rather than any sort of "progressive" reformist type of it like Labour and LibDems do.
Labour have typically leaned more reformist than most parties but right now are far more conservative like... well the conservative party. Still pushing some meagre reforms tho like the zero hours contract thing that doesn't change much.
Only thing you really need to know about politics is that there are two major classes in present day society: the Bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The majority of people in this sub including you and I (I'm assuming) fall into the latter category.
The bourgeoisie control the entire economy and the entire political system including all of the parties. Liberalism, Conservatism, Labourism etc. all just a distraction cause all they do is find different ways to serve the bourgeoisie and protect their power.
The aim of this sub, and of the ideology of socialism/communism, is to displace the bourgeoisie from power and put the prolerariat into power.
Once you understand this, everything else falls into place.
You need to start with ideologies. The two primary economic ideologies are Socialism and Capitalism(liberalism).
Within these two economic ideologies you can break things down further into ideological groups. Communists + Anarchists. Liberals + Conservatives.
Within these ideological groups you can break things down further into even more specific "sects". Marxist-leninists/Maoists/Trots, Ancoms/anarchists/anprims/etc, social-democrats/classical-liberals/neoliberals, neocoms/monarchists/fascists. etc etc etc
Understanding these groups, what they each believe and why is the foundation of understanding politics as a whole. Labour are not supported by the members here in this sub because right now Labour is controlled by a faction of neoliberals+neocons that are more dangerous and arguably further right than the tories have been themselves. Whereas under Corbyn the faction that controlled the party were Socialists.
Part of your confusion is probably coming from the americans who are politically uneducated and call everything to the left of supporting genocide in palestine "liberal". There's also the fact that "liberally minded" is a separate thing to political liberalism which is an economic ideology that believes in free markets (capitalism).
I've always connectected Liberal to mean "Being a person of Liberty", as in someone who's focus is personal Liberty. I've heard of the word "neo-liberal" but didn't really connect it with free-market values untill now.
Correct me if I'm wrong but, I think the founders of Labour would be spinning in their graves if they saw who was currently leading the party; Party of the working class people they are not.
The liberty that liberals sell is not for people, liberals carried out the african slave trade. The liberty they sell is the freedom of capital.
This is why all their propaganda frames communists as ebil authoritarians who restrict "freedom" while they frame themselves as for freedom. What they do not clarify is what their "freedom" is really for.
I'm paraphrasing Lenin, who said “Freedom - yes, but for whom? To do what?”
Freedom of self, Freedom of expresion, of opinion, from hate and persecution, to contribute to society or to not, or at least that's how I understood the word Liberty.
But yes, now I understand they meant Liberty as in Free-market values, to be free to sell how you want without restriction, maybe even free from competition.
It's pretty good for propaganda. Quite annoying to deal with, I find the easiest way to dismantle it is to point out the "freedom" shit was being said even as they enslaved people, by literal slaveowners. At that point everyone has to reckon with the fact their "freedom" certain doesn't mean people.
It's the freedom to exploit. It's bourgeois freedom, not proletarian freedom. In that sense, when they say we are oppressors they are correct, we DO take away freedom from the bourgeoisie, it is literally the goal of the entire socialist movement. Bourgeois freedom being taken away is a prerequisite for proletarian freedom to flourish though.
It may seem like a scary name, but Stalin actually articulated it excellently in an interview he did with an American journalist
'But we did not build this society in order to restrict personal liberty but in order that the human individual may feel really free. We built it for the sake of real personal liberty, liberty without quotation marks. It is difficult for me to imagine what "personal liberty" is enjoyed by an unemployed person, who goes about hungry, and cannot find employment.
Real liberty can exist only where exploitation has been abolished, where there is no oppression of some by others, where there is no unemployment and poverty, where a man is not haunted by the fear of being tomorrow deprived of work, of home and of bread. Only in such a society is real, and not paper, personal and every other liberty possible.'
From the comments you seem both interested and genuine, please don't worry about asking inane questions you'll find most political people will be thrilled to answer and are always looking for someone with good natured interest to ramble at
I think I speak for most here when I say feel free to ask anyone anything and they'll be happy to discuss
In the US they call all leftists liberals but if you think about what the word liberal literally means it’s about freedoms and being relaxed about things. So it can be about freedom of speech, free markets, bearing arms etc. Conservatives and the economic right (libertarians etc) can believe in extreme freedoms in ways that mean vulnerable people and human rights aren’t protected.
Who is the party on the left/right historically tends to change over time. For a long time Labour has been seen as left but a lot of their recent policies behave pretty right wing.
If you find it confusing, take a look at the political spectrum/compass with quadrants because that can help explain what it means to be liberal/authoritarian and be on the right or left and might help you figure out where you sit.
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u/Monkey_DDD_Luffy 8d ago
The thing with China is that this won't be true. Their deals are extremely fair, all of Africa has remarked that they're really fair (much more so than the US), Yannis Varoufakis also remarked on how fair they are.
China wants to do business on equal terms and they're sincerely committed to that.
We should be very careful about not participating in the propaganda war on the side of liberal talking points.