this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2023
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Also, I always wondered, do most people in China, Vietnam and other socialist countries identify as communist?

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[–] CarmineCatboy@hexbear.net 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Well, when Vietnam fought the French, the Americans and, at one point, the Chinese those were wars of national liberation. Nationalism was enmeshed with the (eventually) maoist form of the vietnamese war effort and the communist background of what they wanted to achieve. There was no bourgeoisie making Vietnam a reactionary state there.

And for that matter, if I was a member of the american bourgeoisie it would be very comfortable for me to claim the corollary to what you said. 'Commies hate you, your culture, your values, your religion, and your communities, they are by definition incompatible with [the broadest definition possible] of patriotism'. If Capitalism can sell hammer and sickle t-shirts, it can and definitely does sell that idea.

Consider that the Soviet Union did not abolish nationalities. It proposed something that could bridge them together, a common soviet sense of belonging.

Of course chauvinism of any kind is reactionary ideology. It serves to fuel wars and break the ties of solidarity. It is in service of furthering that cause of national chauvinism that reactionaries draw no distinction between the mildest sense of belonging to a group or a place, and their own maximalist insanity. Our causes are not bolstered by doing the same. Just as nationalist ideology predates communism by quite a few decades, there will be historically specific moments where nationalism will be part and parcel to the construction of the future. It's up to us and our political adversaries to struggle over that world that is yet to be born.