u/Clear-Result-3412

When I was an ML, I knew the definitions of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Communism like the back of my hand, but I genuinely never knew the original Marxist definition of socialism. While, Stalin vacillated heavily throughout his life, at some point he sure did know. For clarity, Socialism is communism. Marx made no distinction. Lenin distinguished socialism as synonymous with Marx's "lower communism."

Another Stalin quote but from after the revolution:

>We often say that our republic is a socialist one. Does this mean that we have already achieved socialism, done away with classes and abolished the state (for the achievement of socialism implies the withering away of the state)? Or does it mean that classes, the state, and so on, will still exist under socialism? Obviously not. Are we entitled in that case to call our republic a socialist one? Of course, we are. From what standpoint? From the standpoint of our determination and our readiness to achieve socialism, to do away with classes, etc.

From a letter to Kushtyev, December 1928

If you question any China supporter on their views you are likely to hear a lot of fluff about "dialectics," "development of the productive forces" and "pragmatism,” but what is the actual substance behind their reasons? What made them adopt this position?

As someone who was once heavily attached, it is that they feel lost without an "alternative" nation-state to ride the coattails of and present to the "realistic" skeptics of socialism.
They miss the Soviet Union and the way people used to say "it's so much nicer in the USSR I wish I lived under socialism." They're so used to substituting this argument for critiques of capitalism that actually bring people to insight about their interests and why socialism is necessary, that they've forgotted how to argue for socialism otherwise. They have to pretend China is like the USSR or feel like they have accepted the "end of history"--that there is no alternative to capitalism as all the real socialist countries are gone or turned capitalist. I know this feeling from the inside and it was a rather difficult one to shake. Here is a more elaborate explanation and history of the phenomenon if you're interested: https://www.ruthlesscriticism.com/lefttoday.htm It's not exactly about Dengism, but you can see how MLs feel like they are facing a dillema between becoming defeated like the "western left" or pretending socialism is still thriving in the exact same way it was fifty years ago.

If so, I may have to start critically supporting. Maybe go there, say something critical, and take home a souvenir!

obligatory theory