Kristian Niemietz Profile picture
Aug 19, 2019 18 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Anti-Hongkongism (and to a lesser extent, anti-Taiwanism) has a long history on the Left. In the '60s and early '70s, when all Lefties (yes, all of them) were Maoists, Mao's People's Paradise was often favourably contrasted to the capitalist hellhole of Hong Kong.
Example:
Guess who was still at it in 1986? That's right: Our future Prime Minister, Jezza Corbo.
Why does the Left hate Hong Kong and Taiwan so much?
Simple. Because those places prove them wrong.
China adopted socialism.
Hong Kong adopted free-market economics.
Taiwan followed Hong Kong, just not quite all the way.
Results:
China experienced famine and stagnation.
Hong Kong experienced an economic miracle.
Taiwan followed Hong Kong, just not quite all the way.
I have this theory that we live in a version of The Matrix, created by economists, who want to teach us some basic economics.
So they create all these natural experiments, which produce fully conclusive results, with perfectly obvious lessons.
But we still don't get it.
*1949*

-Matrix programmer 1: "Did they learn the lesson from the USSR?"
-Matrix programmer 2: "Nope. They now say it wasn't REAL socialism." -MP1: "Oh Jesus! How much more obvious can we make it?"
-MP2: "Well, there's this place called China. How about if we..."
"...split it into a socialist part, with grim results, and a capitalist part, with great results?"
-MP1: "That's a great idea! Maybe they'll get it this time."
-MP2: "Just to be extra sure: Let's do the same thing in Korea and Germany."
-MP1: "You're making it TOO obvious now."
-MP2: "Oh, you'll be surprised. If anything, it's still not obvious ENOUGH. You know what? I'll split China into not two, but THREE parts. One socialist, two capitalist, with one of the capitalist parts being a bit more capitalist than the other."
-MP1: "Just to make a point."
*1978*

-MP1: "Did they get it this time?"
-MP2: "Nope. They're now saying China wasn't REAL socialism either."
-MP1: "Oh, for crying out loud!!"
-MP2: "I'll think of something else. In the meantime - should we end socialism in China?"
-MP1: "Sure. Put that Deng guy in charge."
*2007*

-MP1: "Have they learned the lesson from that Nicaragua experiment we ran back in the '80s?"
-MP2: "No. They say it failed because of American interference."
-MP1: "Hmm. That guy we had in charge: is he still alive?"
-MP2: "Ortega? Sure."
-MP1: "Put him in charge again!"
-MP2: "And what about Venezuela?"
-MP1: "What about it?"
-MP2: "Well, I've made it sort of socialist, and they sort of like it. But it's not as big a thing as we thought it would be."
-MP1: "How socialist is it?"
-MP2: "About a 6 out of 10."
-MP1: "Increase the dose!"
*2019*

-MP1: "Right. Let's see what they've learned."
-MP2: "I'm sure they've learned it this time."

*They watch a Novara Media clip.*

-MP1: *Silence. Empty stare*
-MP2: *Silence. Empty stare*

-MP1: "Shall we... just pull the plug on this simulation?"
-MP2: "Yes."
Dear Matrix programmers. PLEASE pull the plug already.
Tankies will never be completely mainstream. But they're not exactly a fringe movement either (in the way that, say, Georgists or Randians are). Sameera Khan has 40K followers, Ben Norton has 85K, and Existential Comics nearly 300K. That's the population of a fairly large city.
This means that there are at least tens of thousands of literal Stalinists.
Sure, they're without any influence, because the Trendy Left treats them as an embarrassment, and pretends that they don't exist. But still - it's more than I would have thought in the pre-Twitter age.

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More from @K_Niemietz

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Finally, the media takes a stand against the bourgeois, late-capitalist, white supremacist, Islamophobic and transphobic tool of oppression known as "writing your own stuff".
And so does Twitter. Image
Höhö, and now, the Left suddenly cares about "academic freedom".
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Many of those striking were first politicised by their experiences of Corbynism. [...] The hero status of Mick Lynch [...] gave a glimpse of the power of the workers’ movement"
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"...the difference between a militant French working class with the willingness to assert its rights on the streets [...], and its benighted British counterpart that would rather remain tied to its master by bonds of subservience and deference."
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"How else to explain the fact that at the same time the French are out in the streets [...] creating havoc [...], millions of Brits are preparing [...] street parties in celebration of the coronation of King Charles on May 6?"
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[T]he mass itself is responsible for this horrible state of affairs. It clings to its masters, loves the whip, and is the first to cry Crucify! the moment a protesting voice is raised"
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Hickel.
He unironically quotes Hickel 😭😭
Hickel is a charlatan who peddles trendy nonsense for cheap applause and status.
Example: He claims that current poverty measures don't work for pre-capitalist times, because most people were small-scale subsistence farmers, who didn't have a money income: They just...
🧵
...consumed what they produced. So if you say they earned <$2 a day, this is meaningless, because they didn't "earn" anything - they just farmed.
However, people who apply current poverty measures to, say, the 17th century are, of course, aware of that and correct for that. So...
Read 6 tweets
Apr 19, 2023
now trending in lowercase letters
how cool is that Image
Wondering:
Could it be that Twitter has already been entirely replaced by AI?
Could it be that I'm the only real person left here, and that this is all just a gigantic experiment, the aim of which is to test for how long I'll keep going until I notice it? Image
Otto. They're coming for you. Image
Read 4 tweets

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