I love these talks!

Caleb's work ethic is amazing. Thanks for this....❤

I don't know how this got into my recommended feed but I'm glad it did. Good conversation.

Great discussion on the issue of American Political Duopoly and the Security State's Uni-party. A split in one of the major parties (Republican Party) would create a political power vacuum in the country in effect inviting a military style Coup d'etat in the United States.

Glad this came out so well. Audio sounds great!

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Caleb, please check out the LaRouche Movement. Perhaps you can join forces. Jose Vega is on the ballot for New York’s 15th district, Diane Sare is running for senator of the New York State.

I've been watching your channel for a while now. I appreciate your deep knowledge of Marxism's history. But I feel that you share the same misunderstanding about the cultural revolution as many people outside of China. I'm Chinese. I was born in the same year Deng's reform started. Although I didn't experience a bit of the culture revolution, I did grow up during the whole so-called "rapid development" period and witnessed the massive changes in the society. Truth is, not everyone was happy with Deng's path and his reform. Many actually hate him and still support Mao to this day, especially my parents and grandparents' generation. My grandpa was a victim of the cultural revolution, but that didn't make my grandma or my dad against Mao. Although they all bought in the narrative that Mao was used by gang of 4 so they were the bad guys and should be blamed. I also accepted that narrative automatically since that's what is taught in the textbook. But as I grew older and did more research on this topic, my view gradually changed to the opposite. I think there are 3 reasons why most people take the same view as yours (both in the west and in China). First, people always tend to think of Mao's motive as "gripping power". This can't be further from the truth. Mao is a 100% Marxist. He's been an advocate of "democracy and freedom of speech within the party" since way before the Sino-Japanese war. It's hard to believe a man like him would ever care about "power". If anyone would seek power inside the party, it'd be Liu Shaoqi or Deng (based on what they had done dating back to the war time). If you read Mao's writings and speeches leading up to the culture revolution, you can clearly see that Mao's concern was the party's mindset as a whole and the path it's taking. Bureaucracy was only part of the problem. The leadership was also swaying dramatically between extreme left and extreme right. People are divided and fighting for power. Mao was trying to find a common ground and unite the two sides. Until finally he saw no other ways to save the party but let the proleterian voice out and regain power. That is, to let the proleterian have self-consciousness and their own "culture". But yes, we have to admit there was chaos at the beginning. Just because you are all proletarian, doesn't mean you agree on everything. Most people are for it, but some are not. There're also people who took the opportunity to attack or even kill opponents by slendering and stuff. But that only lasted for about a year and half. Lessons can be learned. 2 years into it, things already got much more under control. Secondly, people tend to focus on how chaotic it was and pay little attention to the positive side. Those who are against it sure can use a few made-up stories to get attention but that is by no means the full picture. I suspect your "color TV" anecdote might be one of those. That part of the history was often over-simplified by many as if you can't have both the "revolution" and "development" at the same time. In fact you can. China made a lot of achievements during that period and built the industrial foundation for the following decades, while the socialist education went on at the same time. It wasn't "lost 10 years" as many said. Thirdly, Deng's contribution is exaggerated too much by the main stream media. He made himself the "designer" of China's reform and opening up, but since when did China ever close off? The idea of special economic zone was first brought up by Xi Zhongxun (Xi Jinping's father, who was believed to be persecuted by Deng as his political rivalry) What Deng did was merely soften the tension between China and the US, and "allow some Chinese to get rich first" by speculation and bribery. The country is seemingly getting wealthier faster than expected, but who got the most out of that growth was only the privileged class (including Deng's kids and family, to begin with) I'd argue that without his so-called "reform", China could still have the chance to be where it is today, probably could even have developed its own semi-conductor much better. I grew up in Deng's period and Jiang and Hu's period also. I've seen how corruption was considered to be a social norm, sometimes even a good thing by some pro-western intellectuals. Morality can be as low as you want, as long as money talks. If that isn't the proletarian giving up their own "culture", then what is? Good thing Xi got in power before it's too late. He's been keeping high pressure towards corruption to this day. I can see the government has changed a new face ever since he came up. Xi was one of the deported youths during the cultural revolution. The way I see it, that experience made Xi what he is today. He understands the "culture". A few years ago, Xi made his famous statement "two undeniables", which means "don't deny the 30 years before the reform by the 30 years after, and vice versa". I think he's trying to shift the narrative from Deng's time. Although I don't think this can be done in his term. The truth about the culture revolution might take another 100 years for humans in the future to really find out.

I get this feeling some of you guys dont have a deep understanding of the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution was political and not an ideology. Mao's fear of losing power was the reason for the Cultural Revolution. Anyway, the Cultural Revolution back fired and fizzled out. The Gang of Four tried to take power and prosecuted many liberal thinking & intellectual communist. The most powerful member of the Gang of Four was Mao's wife. Zhou Enlai tried to control the damage caused by the Cultural Revolution and if not for him, the damage could have been worse but he passed away too early. Anyway, in conclusion, the Cultural Revolution cannot be applied. Fyi, Deng Xiao Peng & Xi Jin Ping's father were thrown into jail by Mao. The CPC's ideology and management style are different from Mao's era. China changed with the times and management is constantly improved as new challenges emerge. China's society is also influenced by Confucianism where its principles are being practised not for politics, but for building a society with moral values. For any government to work, the first task is to get rid of corruption. This was what XJP did. Its impossible to achieve zero corruption but its possible to reduce it to negligible levels and the system is constantly improved to ensure the corrupt will eventually face justice. No system can work without first dealing with corruption. Dont dwell on the Cultural Revolution, just treat it as a lesson not to be repeated. In a way, it is a bit like the woke culture, the difference is the former was for political reasons. Communist or communism is just a term used for people who believe in Socialism. Does Socialism means that Communists reject capitalism??? The answer is no but it is about Socialism taking control of the nation's path to prevent Capitalism from destroying the people. People need to be educated that Communism is not a dirty word, it's just a term. Does Communism practice Democracy, of course. What is Democracy??? America is not a Democracy, it is an authoritarian system. Democracy is not about getting to vote every 4 years. Human rights are not about the right to do anything at the expense of another and freedom is not about the ability to call your leader an asshole. At the end of the day, nothing changes to improve lives. There is only democracy, freedom and human rights when the government serves the people, period.