They both have a bit in common. They’re both communist Asian states that the US went to war with during the Cold War and did not win. But the messaging regarding the two states is a lot different. DPRK is treated like the worst dictatorship ever, that kills you and your family for even thinking that the Kims are less than gods, whilst also starving. But Vietnam, they say… nothing.

Why isn’t Vietnam demonized like DPRK?

  • ColombianLenin [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    10·
    28 days ago

    A VERY short TL;DR is:

    • AES are Actually Existing Socialism countries, a mostly online reference to countries that have communist parties in power.
    • Trots hate AES because they don’t believe in the idea that socialism can be built in a single country. So if a country calls itself socialist, the trots say, “no u are not” because either the revolution is globalized and completely international or it simply isn’t.
    • Maoists hate AES because most of these countries, except maybe Cuba, are either burocratized, as they would probably say of the DPRK, or they are revisionist, meaning they are communist in name only and act as imperialists, as they say China is because Idfk they give loans to Africa.
    • Leftcoms hate AES because you can’t have a socialist state with commodity production or a mixed economy, so they shit on the USSR as well.

    In other words, refer to parenti

    No surprise then that the pure [AKA sectarian] socialists support every revolution except the ones that succeed.

    • ratboy [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      6·
      28 days ago

      I guess in my experience with Maoists (not Trots, everyone hates Trots except other Trots) is that they try to avoid sectarianism which is why I don’t understand the stereotypes lobbed around. Or even if they find China to be revisionist, for example, I think that there is more of a nuanced explanation there instead of just “China is not Maoist therefore bad!!”. Which is kinda how I see Maoists characterized here and elsewhere which I just find uncharitable. But perhaps I’m wrong and it is the vast majority of Maoists that are extreme vs the ones I know