DM:
Now cousins, if this was just a one-off -- a singular example of a blind spot -- I wouldn't mention it but it seems to be a popular talking point on the left end of the dial.
JG:
There's a certain species of US leftist who seems to disproportionately shred China -- one who (for good reason) has entirely given up on the recuperation of the US. I won't pretend to know how the psychodynamics of this work, exactly. I think it has something to do with shock and despair at how regnant capitalist commercial _culture_ has become in China. This type of person used to have a critique of the same in the US, but because he or she has to live with it 24-7, with little hope of changing it, he or she adopts a forgetful coping attitude. China thus takes the brunt of the sublimated ire. (Perhaps there's also a paternalistic streak of orientalizing racism at work here too: "I thought those Asians were wiser than us, possessing some innate wisdom that material accumulation, consumer society, etc. does not bring true happiness... how dare they fall prey to the same illusions as us!" These folks, of course, are often especially vituperative about the PRC's Tibet, and to a lesser degree its Xinjiang, policies.)
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