>I'd be interested in knowing to what "progress" you refer. I gather respect for human rights is not an area in which they have "progressed". Not that the vast majority of "the rest of the world" cares a flip about that. The butchers of Tienamen- or their heirs- are still in power and China remains a police state. The barest glimmerings of an independent judiciary are evident. Civilized people would not enrich the tyrants in Beijing or aid in their oppression of those who disagree with said tyrants [Hint: that means not trading with the thugs].
>The "progess" in China in recent years has been material, not in terms of human rights.
IMHO, that's fairly ignorant twaddle. The Chinese leaders today bear no resemblence to the "butchers of Tianemen." And vapid isolationalism would work as well in China as it has in Cuba. Finally, your contention that personal prosperity is unlinked to personal freedom is absurd and unsupported by history. Inasmuch as we desire China to be a free-market democracy, we should encourage their development into a bourgeois culture, as quickly as possible.
As you know, I'm hardly a friend of the left. But simplistic name-calling is pointless. It's been said that while Russia has made more de jure reforms towards free-market democracy, China has made more de facto reforms. Look around, you'll see this is clearly true. Hell, the Chinese today are less red than the French.
>McCarthy, for all his sins- and I suspect they were significant- fought a valiant fight against the most powerful enemy of the human spirit ever to infest the earth. Quite possibly neither his methods nor his motives were exemplary. But I wonder which side you were on during this century's titanic struggle between the forces of slavery and freedom.
That's inane. McCarthy was anti-pinko, so that means he's a good guy? So was Hitler. McCarthy was no ally of freedom. He was an opportunistic bully who did far more damage to ideals of liberty than most of those he persecuted against.
Friend, it's one's actions, not the political labels that others affix. |
