Letters to the Editor
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The Great Helmsman a Cynical Opportunist? Shocking!
Even the Chinese Communist Party acknowledges that Mao was somewhat "misguided," to put it mildly. The man in reality was the most supremely cynical of 20th century dictators, and perhaps the greatest mass-murderer in modern history.
Carol Lloyd shows appalling naivete in describing Mao's China as "egalitarian." The Chairman was notoriously grandiose and allowed China's top leaders--most of all himself--to live lives of wasteful extravagance while millions starved to death during the Great Leap Forward. Lloyd's "gotcha" tone regarding Mao's cynical attitude toward women is utterly lacking in historical perspective.
When discussing the legacy of a man who doomed his people to lives of penury and starvation for 30 years, does it really matter that he cracked jokes about women? If this is what the feminist movement is reduced to debating, I wonder how it will ever regain relevance.