this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2025
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Same with the cultural revolution and the excesses there. those were not done by the state by but para-military small cadres.
Yeah, the shit was highly decentralized.
A paramilitary is still working on behalf of the government, and local bureaucrats [who are still part of the state] certainly mobilized paramilitaries to defend their position, and then there was a much greater degree of violence when the PLA was deployed to "quell" the violence of the conservative/rebel conflict. I think it's fair to say especially of the earlier "excesses" that while the broad movement was encouraged by Mao, that it was very much up to the rebel faction of Red Guards what exactly they did and the abuse committed by them was thereby pretty "grassroots".
you're right, paramilitary wasn't the right word but I agree, that was my point. That the excesses and violence came from below, not above.