“But I do remember thinking that Russia, like Israel, had once been collectivist but moved away from it and that liberals had a special hatred for any country that actually tried Marxism and then rejected it.”
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It has got to be something else. China is not nearly as collectivist as it used to be. I don’t know it is worse in that regard than many other places, which means the left should hate it. China has made the transition from Maoist/Marxist to a single-party dictatorship. It’s not really a Marxist place anymore. (Note: I did not say there was any improvement, it is as evil as it ever was it just isn’t Marxist) The PRC also abandoned socialized medicine in 1989 because even in cheap labor China it was too expensive. So that can’t be the reason they are defending it.
Try these instead:
1. The left loves China because China aggressively promotes abortion
2. The left loves China because they perceive that China actively (though less than is sometimes thought) oppresses religion, especially Christianity.
3. The Left loves China because the PRC, through its evil minions, makes illegal campaign contributions to US Democrats. The PRC OWNS Feinstein
4. The left loves China because, the PRC talks a good game to the environmentalist and then pollutes like hell. Many places in China look like Tolkien could have used them to describe Mordor. (City of Harbin, I’m looking at you!)
Yep, those work.
The left loves China because they’re on the payroll.