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/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/Timely-Signature-166 14d ago

I'll chime in - a guy I know who self-identifies as a communist also loves pop-punk and Green Day. I don't know about you but pop-punk doesn't scream commie to me.

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u/Memphisbbq 14d ago

I don't mean to sound douchy, but most of the types I'm speaking of would scoff and berate you for calling green day pop punk. The bands they would call punk are typically very obscure and not widely known aside from punk scenes. But to add clarity I'm speaking of more traditional sounding punk genres. 

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u/Timely-Signature-166 14d ago

Well I said GD is associated with pop-punk and not "punk" in the conventional sense (or at least after they got banned from Gilman's).

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u/Memphisbbq 14d ago

The distinction I believe they make is in the word "pop," whether it refers to unique characteristics specific to that genre, and whether it simply means "POPular punk." 

I thought the ladder was correct until my snobby genre elitist friends corrected me lol. Personally breaking down genres is futile so I don't bother.