It seems a bit arrogant to tell others they 'need to learn something' and then go on to say China is 'just as socialist' as the USSR 'otherwise' than economics. Socialism is an economic system, you realise? You can't really be 'socialist' otherwise than economics. Are you one of those Americans who think of 'communism' as just anything 'unamerican' or dictatorial? Like the that Fox News one who thought Imperial Japan was communist?
And the relevant period of China's instability was quite recent - I remember it. The cultural revolution was traumatic for many of those who went on to lead the country. That's why subsequent generations of leaders feared 'instability' beyond everything else. After Tiennamen it was clear that a kind of contract emerged between the population and the leadership - one which meant the former would forget Tiennamenn even happened (very, very rough for those who lost family there, it's always seemed to me, not only bereaved but having the whole country decide to not mention it again) while the latter would ensure everyone could concentrate on getting wealthy and stay out of politics. If the economy goes bad that contract fails.
The Cultural revolution was not 'largely down to external stuff'. It was the brain-death of a country and it was overwhelmingly down to Mao (though I would say it also had something to do with the nature of socialism, Mao was actually trying to avoid the beauracratisation that took hold in the USSR). That you don't appear to be aware of that period again suggests you are in a weak position to tell others they need to learn stuff. Maybe stop being so arrogant and aggressive when you don't really have the knowledge to justify it?
Now it's true that China seems to have evolved further, and changed again since the post-Tiennamen period. On the one hand its become a bit wealthier with more of a middle-class, on the other President Xi seems to be becoming more dictatorial and has been dropping the old post-Mao fear of a cult of personality with its emphasis on collective leadership. I don't really know where its going now.
Not any more arrogant than you classifying China as having a "long history of serious instability" (and then you focused on just the Cultural Revolution; sorry, saying a period of like at most a few decades is "long history" of a civilization that stretches literally thousands of years, that's just plain stupid; heck its stupid within your own timeframe where the "peace" is as long or longer but you act like its so tenuous because of this other "long history" that shows China is prone to instability) or you trying to simplify things as "Liberals blame Russia, Conservatives blame China", so if you really wanna whine about arrogance maybe not start it?
Its not that simple (socialism can actually be fairly independent of your economic policy, as shown by democratic socialist countries that leverage free market capitalist economic policies). Even China's "free market" is near full on Soviet socialist (companies don't operate in China without government approval and often via direct funds of the government - or them paying the government to let them operate with some independence, but then Russia wasn't total die hard locked onto that especially in later years when they tried to start opening up; it was the lessons of the Soviet Union that helped China understand how to operate differently, although honestly knowing not to get locked into a stupid massively expensive and fruitless war in Afghanistan should've been somewhat obvious; likewise, don't try and get into a pissing/spending contest with the US over military), so I'm not sure if you realize you're actually explicitly supporting my point by trying to offer a counterargument because I called out your silly claim that China is somehow less socialist compared to the USSR (it isn't, I was merely trying to dismiss such claim over citing the alleged "free market" economic policies). I could've even dropped the "less socialist otherwise" but that was where I was trying to highlight that the "free market" difference between them is pretty limited (but makes all the difference).
Yeah, talk about arrogance, but hey if it bothered you so much not sure why you led with it and are now doubling down on it? Let me guess you're one of those Europeans that keeps insisting that you're not every bit as racist or messed up as the US, despite you know, you fucking clowns having the most sustained blatantly racist behavior in pretty much all of human history (that is also where that shit in the US came from)?
The thing is, everywhere on Earth experienced that instability. You might've remembered it, little things like World War I, II, the Cold War (that included a lot of actual wars, we can definitely delve into the many areas that experience similar "cultural revolutions" if you'd like)? But yep, its just China being so unstable during the Cultural Revolution!
What do you think gave rise to Mao and the Cultural Revolution? Na, you're right, I'm sure Japan waging war and committing atrocities against them had no bearing on the Chinese people and their push for isolation and controlling their own destiny (which is why someone like Mao could come in and do what he did). Likewise, the Boxer Rebellion, nah, that had no bearing on any subsequent history in China. The West raiding China for cheap labor for decades (centuries really if you see the similarities between say Chinese immigrants building the American railroads and them building iPhones/etc), nah, that didn't matter. The West deliberately getting Chinese people hooked on opium so they could fuck them over? Totally didn't matter to China (I'm sure it has nothing to do with them turning a pretty blind eye to Chinese companies exporting drugs to the west). Weird that in your mind the Cultural Revolution was a "long history of instability" that lasted shorter than most of the external stuff that happened to China around the same time (individually), and thus the external factors somehow weren't largely behind the instability China had for awhile there.
Yeah, you might wanna take your own advice (claiming I'm not aware of China's 20th century history, while you show massive ignorance about it).
And as for their being more free market and thus not having that particular vulnerability that the USSR did - duh, that's exactly what I said in the post you are quoting, then you go on to repeat it as if it's something new. You argue in a really weird way as if the need to disagree is the most important thing rather than actually making a point.
Oh, and this 'bothsides' term that gets used so much here is becoming like the new 'Godwins Law' - used more often as a substitute for an argument that it is used accurately. In many situations there aren't, in fact, just two sides, in any case, so its quite a limited concept.
The other thing is I can't help but see the dismissal of any negative consequences for China as a slightly callous lack of concern for the wellbeing of anyone other than Americans. Similarly the US has a tendency to inflate it's "enemies" to be all-powerful demons, all the better to paint it's own actions as heroic.
Actually, its by no means just the US, it's the West in general. Every single third world dictator or populist the UK has gone to war with - from Nasser to Milosovic to Saddam to Assad - gets painted as 'the new Hilter', posing a terrible existential threat to us, as if they were going to take over the world. Even the USSR got falsely painted as more powerful and more aggressive than it actually was.
Considering you literally started that post saying "I don't even know" and you waffled all over the place on that being a good or bad thing for China (seriously, did you actually read what you wrote?), no clue why you're getting pissy at me for going "no, its pretty clear, its not gonna hit China like it did the Soviet Union"? I could've gone into more detail in pointing out the massive disparity in the situations, but I didn't see the need.
Hell, I don't even know where you think I was disagreeing with your point there? Its like you just assumed I disagreed with everything you said because I called out you're really stupid claim (actually more than one but its the only one I explicitly said was really fucking stupid) elsewhere in your post. The issue is you basically just said it could go either way (and outright said you were "unsure about the whole thing") which is why I felt the need to say it clearly.
And you said China was so unstable (you're the one that wanted to call out China's history, which I was just pointing out did not really support your claim, and specifically mentioned that a lot of that recent instability was due to external factors; which apparently I gave you too much credit for realizing that maybe I wasn't meaning the Cultural Revolution was external but the external stuff just might have had something to do with later things that happened in China, like it leading to populist rising and isolationism, but fuck me I guess for not taking the clear signs of "I don't know" and outright idiocy you showed just prior to that; suddenly you trying to frame modern liberal versus conservatives as blaming everything on some group makes a lot more sense though!).
Yeah, except you literally went "both sides" the argument. This was after you said
you didn't even know but acted like you still knew better than either (that you just dismissed by trying to massively seriously stupidly dumb down arguments of). FYI, your point about it simply being dismissive (as in, not validly dismissive) is only true if you weren't doing exactly what that phrasing is pointing out. But you were, hell you were actually doing what you're now complaining about me doing, as you were doing that to simply dismiss both of them. Its not often that you'll find me defending conservative idiocy, but even it is more in depth than that simplistic to the point of pointlessness comment.
But yep, I was the arrogant one, and you weren't at all! FYI, you trying to couch things by saying you don't know, yeah that doesn't give you a free pass to say stupid shit. Its right up there with "I'm not racist, but..." And that you then got mad at me for pointing out your poor assessment and declaring me ignorant for responding when you literally fucking said you don't even know, just baffling. And then you arguing against my point by simply saying I argued against your point (which I didn't even actually do; I can say the same thing you said but instead of going "durr, gee I dunno" I can just clearly say the point you offered, just deliberately saying that its quite clear actually). That we were making similar point was not lost on me (there's a reason I didn't bother going further on that or your other points because I mostly agreed even if they were much clearer than you acted like they were; that both sides are harmed by a war - whatever means its waged is pretty obvious, which is exactly something many people have been arguing). At the same time, your very poor statements were likewise not lost on me, which is why I responded to them as I did.
Beyond that, all the arrogance, yeah take a look in the mirror and realize that maybe the response has something to do with what its responding to. I'm not the arbiter of all knowledge, but if you say stupid stuff, I'm going to call it out. I'm certainly not above mistakes either (I
was overly simplistic in backing up why China's "free market" - which isn't really a free market - would make them less susceptible to the harm the Soviet Union saw, but you clearly understood since as you claim we were actually in agreement except not sure how you can say that when you were saying you didn't know...).