At work, I was having some casual political small-talk with a coworker I thought was a liberal, and I threw out the “maybe we should make everyone do a year or two of customer service or retail before they officially become citizens” take.

She responded with “That’s literally Maoism.” She then explained to me that the central pole holding up the umbrella of Maoist philosophies is that the government has the responsibility to create moral citizens by requiring them to directly serve their country, such as farming or millitary service.

This feels correct, but I also feel like I am missing a lot.

  • thelastaxolotl [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    35·
    1 month ago

    Common Misconceptions About Maoism:

    MLM is a qualitative development of Marxism. Maoism isn’t just the “Chinese application” of Marxism-Leninism—it redefines important elements of revolutionary strategy and theory. MLM is the summation of two centuries of scientific class struggle. Key developments include: People’s War as a universal strategy (not just for agrarian societies), the Mass Line as a method of leadership and organizing, a deepening of the theory of contradiction, with the most important discovery being that class struggle continues under socialism, especially seen in Mao’s analysis during the Cultural Revolution, the principle that class struggle continues after the seizure of power—an answer to why previous revolutions were reversed. The necessity of the Left to impose itself on the Right to combat modern revisionism and prevent the restoration of capitalism, the three instruments of revolution: Party, People’s Army, and United Front, and the thesis of two-line struggle and its importance for the development of the Party.