What a wonderful piece of communist propaganda:
- Despite being "demonized by the West, in other parts of the world, especially China, [Chairman Mao] remains respected."
- "A recent poll shows 85% see his merits as greatly outweighing his mistakes; more than 90% say they respect the former leader; 60% say the admire him for advocating the idea of serving the people and spreading the notion of fairness."
What the alleged recent poll omits to mention is the bloodiest reign of terror which purged the Chinese nation of the opponents of the Communist regime. Not coincidentally, those who were purged also happened to be China's most capable and most intelligent individuals. It also omits to mention the surveillance state, which served to further cleanse the minds and souls of the survivors from any thought of dissent. The idea that a Chinese person today would not not emphatically support the Chairman is ludicrous, as not only is there a threat to one's wellbeing if they were to respond in the negative, it is also unrealistic to expect critical thought from people who are more or less accomplices to a regime of systematic repression. That is to say, those who survived Mao's terror were his supporters from the very beginning and one can argue that the terror itself could not have happened were it not for these masses.
Now, no piece of agit-prop is complete without the apparent recognition of the other point of view, or the sprinkling of the odd true fact. In professional parlance this is known as "baking a shitpie." Thus, in their quest to make their shitpie appear legit, they sprinkle some "facts" which are supposed to suggest critical thinking on the part of the polled Comrades.
- "They also acknowledge his mistakes; 80% say his main fault was the Cultural Revolution; 60% say the Great Leap Forward policy was a mistake."
First, let's acknowledge that these are mistakes of epic proportions which resulted in millions dead, and billions repressed. Let us also acknowledge that the majority of China's population today, despite its great leap forward, lives in abject poverty, while ghost towns fit for kings are being erected and left to be eroded by the elements.
But the most insidious thing about the supposed acknowledgement of Mao's mistakes by our present day poll responders is that these aren't their actual opinions. Communist regimes routinely make rapid changes of course, usually at the end of each five-year plan, when they overly admit the failure of the expiring plan, while boldly announcing the next five-year boondoggle. Thus, the alleged acknowledgement of Mao's mistakes by contemporary Chinese citizens is nothing more than the recitation of standardized history as taught by the school system and propagated by the official news.
Lastly:
- "But more than 90% believe that Mao's era still influences China today."
Only a brain so washed out by propaganda can imagine that what happens upriver has no effect on the water downriver. The idea of isolating a population in time and space is one of the key concepts of keeping the masses under control. Thus, our agit-prop Comrades take a fact as obvious as the past influences the future, and spin it into something that taken on its face may seem as a sign of support for Mao's policies. Notice that there is no qualification as to whether the poll's respondents see that influence as good or bad.
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