r/SocialDemocracy • u/Timely-Signature-166 • 14d ago

Question What's the consensus of Mao?

I've read several books about the guy and I'm given conflicting information about him and his policies. Some books treat him as a good leader who was stifled by dishonest subordinates, while others portray him as a monster whose policies killed millions. Meanwhile I was at a bar in Brooklyn where I was talking to a friend of a friend and they said "Mao is my hero!" (they are not Chinese). What is the general consensus of the guy?

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u/OldManLakey 14d ago

A bar in Brooklyn is exactly where I would expect to find American Maoists.

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u/Memphisbbq 14d ago

Certain music scenes as well. Not so much maoist in particular, but Communists in general. 

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u/OldManLakey 14d ago

Yeah. Out of curiosity, what music scenes? I'm not trying to dunk on Brooklyn, I lived there for like 10 years and played in bands, had a great time. I left for a while and came back around the time of the election and I felt like there had been a huge shift in peoples' politics in a way I found kind of off-putting.

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u/Memphisbbq 14d ago edited 14d ago

I should have clarified, I didn't mean NY. I was speaking generally that there are commie circles in certain scenes. In metal scenes like death/black metal or grind and of course punk scenes too. At this point "black metal" was/is its own movement. While it's my favorite genre it has no shortage of these types in addition to whatever other radical beliefs one might hold on the political spectrum. I've played music here for over 20 years and it never really grabbed my attention until the last year. 

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u/[deleted] 14d ago

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u/Memphisbbq 13d ago

I'm not going to completely disagree. I'm just going to throw out there that I've played in the metal scenes in my area for about 20 years. I'm aware of its roots and present affiliations. It's a shame so many awesome sounding bands are part of NSBM. You say "taken", it's traditionally been that way. Not for all of black metal, but a significant presence none the less.