I was talking to a colleague of mine, granted, he's an economics guy, but he seems really progressive and thoughtful. However, something about communism, and he went full on dummy brain.
Like, talking about the communist party of China, was uncritically saying the violence and body count speak for themselves, and how awful and repressive the authoritarian government is. I didn't push him on it, but I am sure he would uncritically recite us propaganda - after fully agreeing with me that the US media is the most successful propaganda machine in history.
Anyway, I shouldn't be surprised, but it is still insane to me.
I used to work with a guy who had a whole rehearsed speech about how communism creates a new monarchy and he'd use Xi Jinping as an example of a "modern king." He'd talk about it in flowery, academic language and most people thought he sounded knowledgeable about the subject. It was an elaborately constructed stance and he'd throw in a few references to Cuban or Chinese history. He'd mention the Kim family and Hugo Chavez. He was a liberal too, the reddit kind who would say words like hecking and "much awesome" in everyday situations. He was pretty good at doing long speeches about stuff and never actually saying anything.
Anyway, most liberals consider themselves to know the history they think is real and they believe themselves to be inherently good people because they're liberals. Most liberals seem to have a weird aversion to hearing or seeing anything they believe belongs to the bad people, so they never actually read anything that challenges them.
Like my coworker from earlier, I asked him once if his stance meant Deng Xiaoping was a monarch when he was chairman. The response I got was "Who's that?"
Let me guess, white straight dude with too many college degrees?
yeah, he fit every stereotype imaginable