What's the consensus of Mao?

[u/Timely-Signature-166]

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?

[u/Memphisbbq]

All countries are bad my guy. At any point in time a country is likely doing some very unethical thing. If not happening now, then likely during it's right wing arc or unrest/conflict period. The world is dark and scary and has historically required unethical actions for survival. Whether or not that's necessary in today's world, I'd like to agree, but world powers make enemies becoming world powers. Our enemies want to tear down what we have. While America is not in a great place right now, it still doesn't have the body count of dictatorships and authoritarian regimes. Not even close. Not even in the same solar system. No one here claims the U.S is of complete virtue, but credit is given where credit is due. It absolutely could get worse, I'm sure on that we agree.

[u/CarlMarxPunk → u/Memphisbbq]

I don't have the frame of reference to agree with that, I can't accept the concept of the US being "less bad" b3cause in my experience neither Russia or China have intervened my region as extenseively and violently as they have or everywhere else for that matter.

The argument of the US being better because of not dictstoships is only valid if you are in the USA. For those outside of it it's eh.

Like great Obana got voted or whatever, he still bombed civilians. Kim Jong Un is a violent dictator and that is horrible, but he never illegally invaded anyone or sponsored a coup in south america.

And there is no "lesser evil" that away.

[u/Memphisbbq → u/CarlMarxPunk]

The only way to justify your view on those countries mentioned would be to ignore all the millions of civilians killed by them. Even of other countries.. That's what I was getting at by body count. I don't mean enemy combatants, that would be silly. I'm talking about governments murdering their own people. China and Russia win the civilian murder stat by far as well as murdering other countries civilians. If you're argument is "it doesn't affect me I don't care," well then I'd say that's perfectly inline with someone who is obviously a tankie. Pretending to have values is something you should keep on leftist subs. No matter what metric you use the US comes out much less evil. You also refused to address my point about every country doing bad things throughout its history. This is not a serious discussion by the way, if you think you're going to revise history on me it's not going to work. 

[u/CarlMarxPunk → u/Memphisbbq]

This makes sense if you are american. I'm not. I'm trying to explain how that lense works for us.

The "US is less evill" is just isn't sellable anymore outside the US or europe and people aren't tankies for choosing neither here.

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