Anita Dunn, Bill O'Reilly, Mao and Hitler

[Berzerker]

I saw the Oreally show where he played clips of Anita Dunn talking about Mao but the context wasn't clear and Oreally didn't provide any, so I'm not sure what she did to warrant his ire other than what she said about Fox. Apparently she's now accused of admiring Mao as a philosopher?

what exactly did she say and in what context?

 

[Equuleus]

Dude, McCain quotes Mao all the time. This is a non-issue.

And McCain is an idiot for doing so.

Although to be fair he did not say that Mao was one of his "favorite political philosophers" that he "turns" to.

As for the comparison to Hitler with Mao, he is a tyrant on the same level as Hitler in terms of mass death so it is a fair comparison.

I never really got why Mao and Stalin seem to get more of a free pass for their crimes against humanity as compared to Hitler.

For example Firaxis is too afraid to put Hitler as the leader of Germany in their ww2 scenario for civ 4 and yet you have Mao and Stalin as leaders for vanilla civ when these 2 men are were mass killers on the same level as Hitler.

 

[Equuleus]

I saw the Oreally show where he played clips of Anita Dunn talking about Mao but the context wasn't clear and Oreally didn't provide any, so I'm not sure what she did to warrant his ire other than what she said about Fox. Apparently she's now accused of admiring Mao as a philosopher?

She said two of her favorite political philosophers she turned to were Mao and Mother Teresa. To prove the point that you need to follow your own path basically. She used Mao in China to describe how he won the civil war using his own path etc.

 

[Holycannoli]

I saw the Oreally show where he played clips of Anita Dunn talking about Mao but the context wasn't clear and Oreally didn't provide any, so I'm not sure what she did to warrant his ire other than what she said about Fox. Apparently she's now accused of admiring Mao as a philosopher?

what exactly did she say and in what context?

You don't even need context when someone says Mao is one of their favorite political philosophers. It should be repulsive, we aren't communist china!

And if you disagree with me, then you're probably a racist.

 

[Zardnaar]

Mao and Stalin didn't export their terror so much and don't get the blame for WW2. Also Hollywood likes making movies about evil nazis, not so much about the crimes perpetrated by the Commies. I don't think I've ever seen a movie about Maos crimes or Stalin starving people but a major hollywood movie with Nazi's is almost a annual event.

 

[Huayna Capac357]

Mao<Hitler, but not by much.

 

[Tee Kay]

Mao<Hitler, but not by much.

With Mao, most of the deaths that occurred during his rule was more the result of gross incompetence and mismanagement rather than deliberate policy.

 

[Huayna Capac357]

I agree. One of the reasons the death toll was so high was because of China's large population.

 

[Berzerker]

She said two of her favorite political philosophers she turned to were Mao and Mother Teresa. To prove the point that you need to follow your own path basically. She used Mao in China to describe how he won the civil war using his own path etc.

I didn't see (or hear) the first part, just something about Mao's success in China.

You don't even need context when someone says Mao is one of their favorite political philosophers. It should be repulsive, we aren't communist china!

And if you disagree with me, then you're probably a racist.

I need context because I didn't hear her say Mao was a favorite philosopher. The clips from Oreally didn't show her saying that...

 

[Lord Baal]

She said two of her favorite political philosophers she turned to were Mao and Mother Teresa. To prove the point that you need to follow your own path basically. She used Mao in China to describe how he won the civil war using his own path etc.

Mother Teresa. Now there's a monster on par with Hitler.

With Mao, most of the deaths that occurred during his rule was more the result of gross incompetence and mismanagement rather than deliberate policy.

True that. The Cultural Revolution was a deliberate policy which was bound to result in massive death though.

 

[classical_hero]

I need context because I didn't hear her say Mao was a favorite philosopher. The clips from Oreally didn't show her saying that...

The context is about fighting your own war. Glenn Beck showed more of the clip than did O'Reilly.

 

[Tee Kay]

True that. The Cultural Revolution was a deliberate policy which was bound to result in massive death though.

Yes (and so were the Anti-Rightist Campaigns, Hundred Flowers, execution of landlords, Laogai camps, invasion of Tibet, and so on). However, the Cultural Revolution also got out of hand, becoming even more chaotic and violent than Mao had intended. Mao Zedong could not control his own movements, and it eventually lead to what amount to a civil war between the PLA and the Red Guards.

 

[Lord Baal]

Yes (and so were the Anti-Rightist Campaigns, Hundred Flowers, execution of landlords, Laogai camps, invasion of Tibet, and so on). However, the Cultural Revolution also got out of hand, becoming even more chaotic and violent than Mao had intended. Mao Zedong could not control his own movements, and it eventually lead to what amount to a civil war between the PLA and the Red Guards.

Many of those Red Guards ended up becoming devoted enemies of the regime, which I find incredibly ironic. Textbook case of political blowback, though not as disastrous as the Israeli creation of Hamas.

 

[Dida]

True that. The Cultural Revolution was a deliberate policy which was bound to result in massive death though.

Check your facts. The cultural revolution did not result in massive death. No double people were killed, but the number is small, probably way smaller than GW Bush's deliberate and illegal invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

[Aegis]

I never really got why Mao and Stalin seem to get more of a free pass for their crimes against humanity as compared to Hitler.

Because Mao & Stalin only killed tens of millions of their own people, so people are kind of okay with that.

 

[Patroklos]

As a brutal orchestrator of state murder his is certainly up there with Stalin and Hitler, though all around Stalin is a better comparison. As if it matters.

So how is the Obama Cultural Revolution going?

She said two of her favorite political philosophers she turned to were Mao and Mother Teresa.

You can quote Moa on some very specific topics in a general sense and get away with it in the same way you can quote Goebbels or Stalin when discussing propoganda. But to call Mao one of your favorite "political philosophers" in an all around general sense with the obvious caveat that you are letting that influence your application of public policy is repulsive and only a Democrat could get away with it.

 

[Ecofarm]

Check your facts. The cultural revolution did not result in massive death. No double people were killed, but the number is small, probably way smaller than GW Bush's deliberate and illegal invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The cultural revolution killed plenty.

The Cultural Revolution was a mixture of party purge and class warfare, during which radicalized students persecuted, humiliated, tortured, and even murdered alleged rightists or counterrevolutionaries. The exact number of those who were killed, committed suicide, or died in camps is not known; nonetheless, it is clear that most of the victims came from the educated strata, had party backgrounds, or were from minorities.

But the leap forward... now that was impressive...

By far the greatest loss of life during Mao's regime stemmed from the deadly spring famines (1959&#8211;1961) of the Great Leap Forward. Unlike the Ukrainian famines in the early 1930s, which Stalin had planned to crush as anti-Russian nationalism, the famine of 1959 resulted from the misguided economic policies of the Great Leap Forward. However, once it became clear that the Great Leap Forward had not only failed to produce the promised economic miracles but also led to serious economic disruptions, Chairman Mao refused to change course because he feared a loss of face, if not his preeminent position. The acrimonious debates about economic reform in 1959 convinced Mao that alleged rightists in the party wanted to replace him. After crushing his supposed enemies, Mao relaunched the Great Leap Forward in late 1959; it collapsed on its own a year later. Due to lack of direct evidence, the number of famine victims can only be calculated on the basis of incomplete demographic data. Most historians agree that excess deaths (the difference between projected and actual demographic data) total at least 20 million (with more than two-thirds of these deaths occurring in 1960 alone); high estimates stand at 65 million (in 1957 China's population was 646 million).

http://www.enotes.com/genocide-encyclopedia/mao-zedong

That's as much as 10% of the population, from famine alone.

Pol Pot might be a better comparison to Mao.

 

[Quackers]

Pisces isn't part of the Chinese zodiac, though, if that's what you were after. Sure you heard right?

I didn't hear it personally but it was one of the amusing anectodes my teacher had. And I meant "psyche".

 

[Quackers]

Yes (and so were the Anti-Rightist Campaigns, Hundred Flowers, execution of landlords, Laogai camps, invasion of Tibet, and so on). However, the Cultural Revolution also got out of hand, becoming even more chaotic and violent than Mao had intended. Mao Zedong could not control his own movements, and it eventually lead to what amount to a civil war between the PLA and the Red Guards.

This is nonsense the Cultural revolution was deliberate and the chaos which ensued was a direct policy of Mao IE) students dragging and beating teachers, trade unions fighting against Red Guard, whole areas fighting against each other. Mao wanted to reignite the revolution as by than the young adults had no knowledge of the revolution and the struggle they had to go though and so it needed to be realised before China descended into Soviet malaise settling into a comfortable bureaucracy.

Mao knew it had gone out of hand and thats when he waved his wand and it ended.

 

[vesley1987]

Sid Meier quote Mao too.

Spoiler :

If the introduction of gunpowder technology counts.