hehe Pooky Magical Bear,
Magical Bears don't read.
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol2.gif)
These capitalist lies spread by this toadie of the Western Capitalist Pig Dogs threaten to undermine the security of our glorious revolution and seek to stir unrest among the people of our fair society!Hop Shui wrote:During the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962), the People suffered massively from Mao’s absurd, senseless, scientifically bankrupt projects. He commanded the digging of 4 feet deep trenches between rows of rice in fields, which was hugely labor-intensive, only for the peasants to find out that no rice could grow in the poor mineral soil found at this depth especially with excessive drainage. The labor was performed by peasants, as well as city dwellers (intellectuals) forcibly relocated to the countryside for this purpose. Whatever rice grew despite all this was left to rot the fields. What??? That’s right, Mao decided that China’s steel production had to be greatly increased, so he had everyone melt every piece of metal they owned instead of harvesting the crop. Then Mao blamed the sparrows for eating the rice, so that everyone was busy chasing and killing sparrows. Without the sparrows to eat them, the insects multiplied to eat every grain and seed.
Disease, death, starvation, despair ensued in all of China. Perhaps as many as 60 million people died. Yet the People had to pretend to be content and well-fed; to do otherwise meant execution.
One man, and one man alone was brave enough to stand up to Mao, and criticize him openly, if meekly by most standards (1959). This man was a believer in the Communist ideals, a brave and principled man. He was Marshall Peng Dehuai. He was, not surprisingly, fired from his post.
After the Great Leap Forward debacle, the Communist Party commissioned an opera to ridicule the old days of the Emperors. This opera was called “Hai Rui dismissed from office” about a man who suffered for criticizing the Emperor.
And that got Mao really, really mad. Mao realized that the opera had become wildly popular because the People enjoyed it in the secret of their hearts as a glorification of their hero, Peng Dehuai, for daring to stand up to him.
In 1963-1960, the dire conditions the People were living under were compounded by bad weather and natural disasters. Now, another man very high up and close to Mao, Liu Shaoqi, quietly started to end Mao’s crazy policies, and bring some relief to the People’s misery. Now, Liu was becoming a hero too...
That did not sit well with the Great Helmsman. Something had to be done.
Purges. Public humiliations. Executions. Jail sentences. Harassment. Thuggery. Brainwashing. Anarchy. Destruction. Mayhem. Theft. Betrayals.
Orchestrated by the Maoists: Mao’s bitter and paranoid fourth wife Jiang Qing, and Mao’s #2 man Lin Biao, who intensified the personality cult propaganda, the Cultural Revolution fired up teenagers to destroy the world and punish their elders. Teachers made to grovel to the students... schools were closed... and the youth given orders to steal and kill.