Reading Hayek in Beijing

Mao, Hayek, and journalist Yang Jisheng.  Do read.

Forgotten History: Mango Madness in Mao's China

And you thought you knew just how bizarre and terrifying the Cultural Revolution was.  Here is another tale of madness and Mao's cult of personality.

Imaging Mao's Famine

A historian wonders: Where is the photographic evidence of Mao's disaster?  In the Great Leap Forward (Into the Abyss), at least 45 million people died of starvation and oppression over some 4 years of absolute hell on earth, but visual documentation is largely lacking.  Honestly, how does it look that the some officials in the Soviet Union was more forthcoming about the murderous famine that Stalin created in Ukraine?

One wonders, though, whether if we ever saw the Chinese photos, we would be thoroughly sickened.  The end of the article details the only photo of the famine that the author ever saw, and the description is horrifying.  

UPDATE: No photos of the Great Famine, but you can still get an eyeful of the Communist propaganda posters from the same period.  Surreal.

Book Review: New Biography of Mao

This one focuses on Mao's ties with Stalin. The bloodiest bromance of the 20th century?

History Lesson: 100 Years in 10 Minutes

This is an interesting compilation, though I do take issue with the fact that the selection is often desultory and that it focuses too much on the negative and does not include enough mention of humanitarian, scientific, medical, artistic, and other forms of achievements.  (No, mentioning the founding of Greenpeace does not count.)   It's so pessimistic, complete with the depressingly doom-tastic soundtrack.  I also found it a little odd that the founding of Israel in 1948 was not included, even though this moment in history is hugely important both to supporters and opponents.  Well, still, whoever made this took the time and effort to do this, so props to them.  Maybe I should make my own video.

Well, It Wasn' t Another Che Guevara T-Shirt

I've ranted before about college-aged morons wearing shirts printed with the ugly mugs of Che Guevara and Mao.  This time, it was different.  No Che.  Nope, this time it was an oblivious undergraduate girl wearing a picture of Stalin.  STALIN!  *facepalm*  Little idiot probably had no idea what kind of murderous monster he actually was. Hell, it's like wearing a picture of Hitler.

Nerd Analysis: Prof. Ferguson on Un-American Revolutions

Professor Niall Ferguson (whom I most recently linked here for his critique of US foreign policy on Egypt) now has a few gloomy thoughts about political revolutions.  

This sounds familiar, and not because of Ferguson.  Haven't I babbled on before about how most modern revolutions end in chaos and tyranny with the notable exception of the American Revolution?  (OK, and also sort of England's Glorious Revolution of 1688.)  Just look at what happened after the French Revolution ... or the overthrow of the Romanovs in Russia ... or the upheavals in China since the end of the Qing Dynasty.  Ferguson is gloomy, but that doesn't mean his point isn't valid.

Quote of the Day: "Marxists. I Hate These Guys."

Read the whole thing.  It's really not about hating Marxists in general, but about a particularly virulent and nasty subspecies: the shameless apologist for totalitarian Communism, that blood-soaked and evil creed.

History Lesson: Mao's Great Leap Forward ... Into the Abyss

Well, well, well.  The New York Times publishes "Mao's Great Leap to Famine," an editorial about the horrors Mao caused.  Excerpts here. Be sure to see the commentary by Instapundit.  Read the whole thing -- both Insta-Prof and the NYT piece.  The sheer evil perpetrated by Mao and Chinese Communism must not continue to be whitewashed by leftist apologists.  As for the pathetic excuse about "good intentions," I could not care less about "intentions."  I care about results.  The "Great Leap Forward" caused some 45 million deaths.  Some workers' paradise, that.  Chew on that historical fact, you modern neo-Commie utopian morons.

RELATED POSTS: here and here, and read this book.

Quirky Asia Files: The Chinese Communist Twitter

As if Twitter could be even dumber than it is, there's now "Red Twitter" in China that supposed to gin up all your revolutionary proletariat fervor, comrades ... or something.  Whatever.  

So once again life imitates satire.  There's a Facebook parody already that's just hilarious, but I put it below the fold with a profanity warning. Comrades, get a load of Little Red Facebook!  

The Capacity for Self-Delusion and the Divorce from Reality

This is an interesting read, and I can tell you campus leftists haven't a clue about actual history.  Who would dare to wear a Mao t-shirt who actually knew what the man did?  But the oblivious undergrad whom I saw sporting such an outfit on campus recently clearly hadn't the foggiest notion that he was wearing the face of a man responsible for the deaths of tens of millions.  Ditto the airheads with the Che Guevara shirts (I know I've ranted about them before), clueless about the bloody thuggery of their fake hero.  OK, OK, everyone is allowed some youthful idealistic foolishness.  But you gotta grow up sometime.

Nerd News: New Research Suggests Mao's "Great Leap Forward" Fiasco Even Deadlier Than Previously Thought

The total butcher's bill could be as high as 45 million dead in a four-year-long span of time.  45 million, to say nothing of the millions more whose lives were thrown into misery and chaos.  And then there's that monster Mao Zedong, the worst mass murderer in modern history (or any history?).  I cannot even begin to tell you how much I hate this man.  

Decadent Western Pop Music 1, Chinese Communist Choir 0

This mashup is absolutely DEMENTED, so of course I have to share it.  The music is Michael Jackson's iconic "Beat It" edited together with a February 1976 production of the Long March Song Cycle.   The editing is gloriously hilarious, especially from 2:35 on and its "guitar solo."

The thought occurs to me that maybe some people might find this offensive, but you know, it's Monday and I'm tired, and if you're really the type to be easily offended, you wouldn't be reading this blog because your blog hostess, as you know, has the philosophy of "well, screw you if you can't take a joke."  So here it is, and turn up your speakers.  Besides, I hate the CCP and will pass up no opportunity to have some fun at their expense.  Why NOT take their horrible old Maoist propaganda and completely deflate it?

A History of Stalin's and Mao's Useful Idiots

Take a listen to this 2-part documentary from the BBC World Service.  Hurry, though, as it won't be available online for too much longer.  You can download it as an mp3 and listen to it later.  But do listen.  The "useful idiots" phenomenon is not confined to those murderous monsters Stalin and Mao.  Here's the blurb from the BBC:

The phrase 'useful idiots', supposedly Lenin’s, refers to Westerners duped into saying good things about bad regimes.

In political jargon it was used to describe Soviet sympathisers in Western countries and the attitude of the Soviet government towards them.

Useful idiots, in a broader sense, refers to Western journalists, travellers and intellectuals who gave their blessing – often with evangelistic fervour – to tyrannies and tyrants, thereby convincing politicians and public that utopias rather than Belsens thrived.

In part one John Sweeney looks at Stalin's Western apologists.

In part two he explores how present day stories of human rights abuses across the world are still rewritten. [Note: Part two also mentions Mao. You know how I feel about him! -- MM.]

RELATED POSTS: 

• Intellectuals and the Really, Really Bad Ideas They Often Support.
• The Ukrainian Famine Under Stalin (and the intrepid Welsh journalist Gareth Jones)

2 Random Thoughts on 3 Famous Chinese Guys

~Mickey Kaus wonders about Anita Dunn, Mao, and Sun Tzu. Hilarious! (Insta-Prof piles on by snarking, "Do all Chinese look alike to Anita Dunn?")

~Congressman Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) has a shout-out to Confucius. By the way, happy 2560th birthday to Confucius.

Public Service Announcement: About Mao

Dear Anita Dunn,

Chairman Mao was a tyrant, dictator, and bloody murderer who openly slaughtered or caused the deaths or oppression of millions of Chinese. He plunged his entire nation into a miserable wallow of death, starvation, terror, and blood, all under the iron fist of the rulers -- an iron fist that remains to this day. He is NOT a hero, and you are clearly an useful idiot of the first degree to think so and, even more, to declare it in public. You should be ashamed of yourself, if not for your fatuous ignorance or willful ignoring of history, then for insulting -- and indeed trampling on -- the memory of every single person who died or suffered because of the monster named Mao.

I know that you now claim that you were joking. If you were, then your behavior is even more deplorable and reprehensible than I'd previously thought.

Disgustedly yours,
Mad Minerva

PS
Dear Mr. President, it is time to throw Ms. Dunn under the bus like you've done to so many others of your increasingly shabby entourage.

What Fresh Hell Is This? Follow-Up: The (Chinese) Empire State Building

I had ranted about this earlier, and I see with some grim satisfaction that I'm not the only one doing so. The news reported some protesters in New York, both Asian and not. Their placards were calls to remember China's miserable record of human rights abuses, political persecution of dissidents, and that entire sorry regime's autocracy. One protester then said something worth repeating:

"Would Beijing light up the Great Wall in red, white, and blue for our Fourth of July? I don't think so."

Heh.

(Then again, we're not holding a gazillion dollars' worth of their debt? Oh, Shakespeare, you're so right: "Neither a borrower nor a lender be," indeed.)

Still, the entire spectacle of lighting up the Empire State Building to commemorate that murderous dictator Mao's revolution just chaps my hide. ARGH!

What Fresh Hell Is This? -- NY's Empire State Building to Celebrate 60 Years of Chinese Communist Autocracy

The iconic Empire State Building apparently joins Tom Friedman in welcoming our new Chinese creditor overlords.

The building is going to light up in red and yellow to "celebrate" 60 years of the CCP regime. You of course remember Mao and 1949.

Pffffffffffffffft! 60 years of brutalizing your own countrymen is nothing to celebrate, people.

Quirky Asia Files: Popular Chinese Blogger Is Named Mao

What's in a name? He isn't simply named Mao (Mao Xinyu, to be precise). He's also the grandson of THAT Mao, Mao Zedong. He even looks like his forebear, whom he idolizes. (Don't read his adoring opinion of his mass murdering grandfather unless you want to be sick.)

Anyway, Mao Xinyu is now a very popular blogger in China. Last year in a poll, it was voted the most popular blog. And who ran the survey, you ask? The CCP propaganda mill otherwise known as The People's Daily. Seriously. I can't make this stuff up if I tried!

Che and Celebrity Communist Chic

Fashion faux pas.

You know how I feel about "Communist chic" and about the stupid celebrity-cult of Che Guevara. Rich celebrities (and whining undergrad poseurs) can't seem to get enough of glamorizing and romanticizing this bloody-minded, murderous thug.

A recent film about Che has been released (see Fausta disassemble it here, with more from Cuba-blogger Babalu). In response, Reason has a very good video about Che and Communist chic. Pay particular attention to the testimony of two people who lived under actual Communism -- Paquito D'Rivera of Cuba and Kai Chen of China. Both managed to escape their Communist hellholes; both are now living in the US.

Watch it here:



I won't even burden your patience by ranting about "Mao chic," a phenomenon of sheer idiocy and historical denial that makes me want to scream.

UPDATE: Awesome!