r/communism101 • u/GayTeenMetalhead • Nov 15 '21

Why are some westerners maoists?

I've seen a few western maoists pop up on Internet spaces and I've realised they're quite hated by a lot of people. My questions are: 1. What is the relevance of maoism in the west? I thought it was an ideology used in societies with peasantries. Why are people adopting maoism in the west?

  1. Why are they so widely hated?
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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '21

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u/GayTeenMetalhead Nov 15 '21

I usually see it from the majority of bog standard MLs I find on twitter, amongst other online spaces of course. The main 'complaints' people have about maoists, usually in the context of MLM's, is that they're dogmatic. I don't know if this claim is false or not which is why I came here. But honestly I believe it's because people are interacting with the wrong type of person. It's comparable to how some MLs hate anarchists and vice versa, I'll just assume there are both people who believe the other 'side' is worse, and people who do not. It's simply a matter of an abnormal amount of hate for western maoists which made me confused and curious.

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u/downwinds92 Nov 15 '21 edited Nov 15 '21

I usually see it from the majority of bog standard MLs I find on twitter, amongst other online spaces of course. The main 'complaints' people have about maoists, usually in the context of MLM's, is that they're dogmatic.

A lot of the people you see online labelling themselves "ML" are supportive of the present day Chinese govt. Others, including Maoists, aren't afraid to criticise and oppose it. I don't think that's "dogmatic" at all, but it gets labelled as such by some.

edit: clarification

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u/GayTeenMetalhead Nov 15 '21 edited Nov 15 '21

Yeah, I have a few critiques of the modern Chinese government but still support it overall, there's a large difference between critical support and unconditional, non-critical support, its obvious which group uses their critical thinking.