Really good book! A little bit inaccessible in the first two chapters though.

Jokes aside, a good start is to join a socialist org, participate, and start developing yourself politically. I believe cowbee has a good reading list.

But only if you’re doing what needs to be done.

It would be helpful to give specific examples to where you think sources are being misused instead of generally saying that they are being misused.

Could you point out a specific instance where they “they rather cite segments fitting their narrative stands” in a way that misrepresents information?

Not a dude, please don’t “bro” me

Here is another helpful link, on citizen perception of the importance of democracy and whether their government is democratic.

It was founded by a former NATO secretary so it has a pro-western bias.

https://allianceofdemocracies.org/democracy-perception-index

Here is a chart sourced from its its 2024 report. As you can see Chinese people have more faith in democracy and the democratic nature of their government than westerners do.

The whole brainwashing thing is nonsense, as Cowbee pointed out you misread the data on the 11 percent. It seems like you are misreading data to support your preconceived notions.

Thats not how source verification works! Credibility=/= verification! Some nobody citing a lot of firsthand accounts of notable state actors admitting that they did a thing that would be bad for them to admit might be less credible than a mainstream news platform only citing secondary sources but is giving you more verifiable information.

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/

China is a democracy, even studies by conservative western institutions show Chinese people have higher satisfaction with their government, more belief in the importance of democracy, and more belief in the democratic nature of their government than western European and American citizens do for their own governments.

They have a more comprehensive democracy too. Consultative processes and deliberative processes are enshrined in institutions in a way that they are not within western bourgeois democracies.

It had to rely on a last resort as opposed to its primary defensive system which constricts its design in a big way, its stealth component.

I thought the US killed millions, not 100,000s?

And that isn’t democratic because?

Also lol Wikipedia

Read Rosa Luxemburg on the limitations of unions, you’ll have a better idea on why China prefers their union system.

How do they not meet the standard?

They have a democratic state which owns most of the MoP.

If you don’t think China is democratic, what would they have to do in order to meet the definition?

A democratic state where the proletariat are in control owning the MoP fundamentally isn’t capitalist, “state capitalist” or otherwise. Capitalism requires specific social relations that aren’t met within socialized ownership.

Please read “Imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism” and then explain what you mean.

Dear God, are you claiming that the proof for the three things I asked for proof for can only be found at this specific archive? Thay doesn’t even make sense, how is proof of widespread government violence in order to prevent reunification found there? How is proof of extensive nuremburg-esque trials post-reunificstion found there?

Seems like the soviet government was more responsive than contemporary western governments, but not as much as east Germany: https://artsmatter.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/2025/01/28/trans-visibility-in-the-late-soviet-union/#%3A~%3Atext=First%2C+they+became+visible%2C+at%2Crecognized+as+ordinary+Soviet+citizens.

Okay so you are claiming that there is proof but we would have to go to Berlin to find proof? In the age where internet archives exist?

If neither of us are willing to physically go there than why did you cite it as a source to support your claims?

Cool than you’d be able to share things from the archives that meet those specified criterion?

Please link me to sources then.

Wow, that sounds horrible, I bet there were a lot of prosecutions of the people who carried those things out once the government reunified!

Oh, and the physical evidence and documentation of those torture dungeons after the wall fell, there must be so much evidence of all the horrors committed!

And all the violence the evil communist government must have done to keep itself in power and prevent reunification must have been really evident, I bet we can find newspaper clippings and even video on the widespread violence that happened in an effort to hold on to power.

Wait, I’m getting reports that none of those things actually happened, fuck. It would have lined up so nicely with the narrative taught to me by American education and popular media, that’s a real bummer.