By Junius Tian

Under the stereotype of Asians as the model minority, systemic racial discrimination against Asians is often ignored by the mainstream media. No matter how much one tries to reject such rhetoric, the general perception of Asians is that they are a group of Quiet, docile, affluent middle class; they always grin and bear whether what they face. The politeness and tolerance of Asians towards others are creating opportunities for racist bullying by racists.

Ironically, the blatantly racist bullying of Asians often comes from those on the far left who claim to oppose racism and advocate for a world filled with love and peace. For those people who have both an Asian background and are also victims of Marxism, they have had to endure the Western-centric arrogance of Western Marxists even after escaping the surveillance of totalitarian tyranny.

Marxists have always portrayed themselves as the saviors of the underprivileged and oppressed. However, the existence of dissidents fleeing communist countries undoubtedly creates an embarrassing situation for Western Marxists. When faced with Chinese dissidents holding different political views, some relatively moderate Marxists attempt to depict China as a capitalist nation to distance it from Marxism. On the other hand, the radical Marxists openly express support for the Chinese government’s stance in upholding authoritarian rule.

In the West, whether they lean towards moderation or radicalism, Marxists exhibit a strong affinity for totalitarian states like China, North Korea and Iran. When discussing the human rights situation in these countries, they tend to swiftly redirect the conversation toward criticizing the United States or NATO.

Marxists living in the free world, as opposed to dissidents from communist countries, have human rights and freedom of speech. However, Western Marxists often exhibit a condescending sense of superiority and lack of compassion when they face victims of Marxism. This phenomenon is more evident and unrestrained in the context of online platforms and forums where there exists an unequal power relationship between users and moderators.

In an online forum called Reddit, known for its left-leaning tendencies, Asian Chinese speaker users who hold anti-Communist and Chinese cultural criticism ideologies often face suppression of their freedom of speech by left-wing super-Moderators. It seems that the forum’s administrators view the Chinese Communist Party as an ally to their extreme left-wing ideology. Harsh criticism directed at the Chinese Communist Party and satirical remarks or accusations about Chinese society and culture are frequently perceived as offensive and false content by Reddit’s official management, leading to user banned and content deletion. 

Many facts indicate that Reddit employs speech censorship targeting specific races and ideologies. Within Reddit’s English-speaking community, Marxists who openly endorse figures like Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot are tolerated and even encouraged by the platform, even though these despots caused the deaths of countless civilians and committed acts of genocide same as Mr. Hitler. While these Western Marxists indulge in their commie role-playing games and false revolution games, the resistors in China, East Turkestan, Tibet, and Hong Kong, who live under communist regimes, face real dangers of arrest, disappearance, and even death.

Most far-left super-moderators on Reddit are English speakers from the free world and can’t fully understand the authentic meaning and stories behind the language used by Asian Chinese speaker users. However, they seem indifferent to understanding the complex conflicts among Asian people or showing concern for oppression and resistance happening in Asia. They hold stereotypical views of the Oriental world‘s contradiction and conflict through the lens of Western-centric thinking, assuming that all Chinese-speaking Asians identify themselves as Chinese and they all default support the Chinese communist regime. As a result, any speech against the Chinese communist regime or Chinese culture from Chinese speakers is tacitly regarded by Reddit’s super-moderators as so-called racist hatred. Ironically, these super-moderators often portray themselves as fighters against racial supremacism, yet their treatment of non-English users consistently reflects their own racial supremacism towards other ethnicities and the oppressed.

Under such a sense of racial superiority, far-left super-moderators on Reddit are exerting pressure on Chinese-language communities and users who hold critical Chinese cultural views. The user of these communities sympathizes with the suffering faced by women and LGBTQ+ couples who live in Confucian or Islamic cultures, and they sharp satirical commentary on oppressors. Unlike the far left in the West, these people who live under real tyranny are outraged by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and they not only translate Pro-Russian comments from ordinary Chinese people for the world in other languages proactively but also call on dissidents living in China to donate money to Ukraine. Users in these communities even likened Japan’s invasion of China in World War II to a “special military operation” to satirize the generally Pro-Russian Chinese. For those on the far left, the existence of these communities and users makes their Western civilization’s evil theory so cringe—akin to the truth of the emperor’s wearing nothing exposed by a child.

So, what is the truth? The truth is in the eyes of far-left Westerners like Reddit’s super-moderators, those freedom-loving people who live under the communist tyranny in China are just slaves to make cheap products. In the Western leftist’s mind, the young freedom-loving people in China are unworthy of living under the same sky as their pampered and spoiled far-left Western peers. But the allure of freedom is more addictive than the drugs in the Western left-wing youth sex parties. Once you have it, you would rather die than lose it. Every day, countless young dissenters living under the Chinese communist tyranny traverse the Great Firewall of China using VPNs and take the risk of arrest or even disappearance by Chinese police just for the humblest bit of freedom – to taste the freedom that people in the free world have grown weary of – the freedom to criticize the authorities. But under pressure and ridicule from Marxists and Chinese red aristocrats living in the West, even getting these pitiful freedoms also become an arduous struggle. 

In the West, the Chinese abroad red aristocrats and Western far-left youths, under the guise of opposing Western hegemony, launch the most malicious attacks against Ukrainian women who have lost their sons, brothers, or fathers because of Russian so-called special military operations. The Western far left and the Chinese abroad red aristocrats never hid their support for Russia. Based on the equity principle of what far-left and Chinese abroad red aristocrats talk about so-called special military operations, some young Chinese dissenter within China’s borders angrily posts an old Japanese Empire flag to irony their pro-invasion stance. Then they face attacks from far-left hypocrites all over the Network World. The Western Marxists always say they love youth people, but the truth is they only love the spoiled Western far-left youths. They can tolerate adult students in Western universities expressing support for Marxist criminals responsible for millions of death like Pol Pot and Mao Zedong. But, they cannot abide young people living under communist tyranny or those from the third world who dare to voice their opinions infused with radical irony and profound empathy for the victims of war.

The so-called spirit of criticism and courage from the Western far-left fundamentally rests upon the society of tolerance and liberty within a democratic state. They radical advocate for so-called revolutions aimed at toppling the democratic framework itself. They exhibit such courage due to their comprehension of how safe they are when they play the revolutionary simulation game in a democracy, especially when contrasted with the real dissidents enduring life under the oppressive grip of communist regimes. They support the world’s most notorious tyrannical regime on Youtube or Twitter, but the people living under these tyrannies even can’t use Youtube or Twitter. The spoiled far-left stand on the blood of the victims of tyranny just to get some cheap, bloody attention. But what they could never understand is that on the opposite spectrum of their comfortable lives in the West, the countries like China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos, not a single action undertaken by dissidents occurs without the risk of actual death, vanishing, or brutal violence. 

Why do young people under communist tyranny endure such humble conditions despite being similar in age to the far-left youth in the West? Why can the pampered Western far-left youth enjoy freedom without any bloody struggle from birth, sharing their global travels and wonderful lives on YouTube and Instagram without a Great firewall, while their freedom-loving peers in China have to face the risk of arrest simply for using VPNs to take a glimpse of the world beyond China? Who exactly is responsible for making this world so unfair? Not capitalists, but Marxists! It is because of those Marxists who live in the free world but advocate overthrowing democratic systems and exploit freedom of speech to sing praises for dictators. It is because of those Marxists who fuel hatred between men and women and sow discord between heterosexuals and homosexuals. It is because of those Marxists who use machine guns and poison gas to snatch the last grain of rice from farmers and the last coin from citizens. And it is because of those privileged Marxist vampires who claim to overthrow the exploiting class but never want to work themselves!

There was once a Western far-left generation on the internet that said to me and those young people in China who love freedom: “You oppose the Chinese government because you are losers and poor in a socialist society. You will always be a group of Ratmen living in the sewers, and you are not worthy to live like me.” I said to him, “So what if we are considered losers? What’s wrong with being poor? Does living in a totalitarian country mean the ‘losers’ even don’t have the right to fight for freedom? Do the poor people living under tyranny mean they shouldn’t have a heart that pursues freedom?” Proud to be a Ratman! Ratman lives matter! 

I have a dream; I dream that one day, there will be no more Great Firewall and internet censorship in the world. The young people in communist countries will no longer need to endure memorizing the tedious speeches and lies of communist dictators within closed-off networks. Instead, they will have the same freedom as the Western far-left youth, being able to share their joys, sorrows, lives, and views on YouTube and Instagram without requiring VPNs.

I have a dream; I dream that one day, people of color who escape from totalitarian or authoritarian regimes to the free world won’t have to be overly cautious and voiceless in front of white Marxist individuals. They will live under equal personalities with the pampered Western far-left youth and speak confidently: ‘I don’t need you to teach me how to miss tyranny where I escape.” 

I have a dream; I dream that one day, girls in Islamic fundamentalist countries can live in the same way as those critical postcolonial theorists in Europe and America, shedding the Hijab of oppression, and enjoying the same sunshine under the same sky. They will learn, read, and write alongside boys in school in their green years, with no more fear of the terrorist’s AK47. 

I have a dream; I dream that one day, from Chechnya to Palestine, honor killings can no longer kill love. Those who genuinely love each other, whether their hands hold those of a boy or a girl, will be able to walk the streets courageously and sit in cafes, just like the people living in the west of Jerusalem.

I have a dream; I dream that one day, in a liberated New North Korea after the intervention of the US military, children will no longer see chocolate as a luxury reserved for the privileged class, and they won’t have to endure the pro-North Korean Western far-left tourist’s demeaning charity who hand out snacks as if feeding animals. Instead, they will exude the same sunny confidence in the presence of white people as their peers in South Korea.

I have a dream; I dream that one day, religious freedom will no longer be a deceptive embellishment in the constitutions of Marxist countries. In countries like China and Cuba, people will no longer be convicted for their belief in God or their chosen ways of belief in god. On Christmas, the Christian family will bask in the joy of unwrapping Christmas presents, rather than confronting the intimidation of the police and the torment of prison.

I dream that human rights and inclusivity, which moral relativists considered as Western cultural discourse hegemony, one day will get enough respect even in the most conservative regions of the Afghan mountains; I dream that the principles of equality and freedom, which the Western far-left youth saw as cliche, will flourish even in the strongholds of tyranny and the darkest corners of evil regimes; I dream that the multi-party democratic system, which the Marxists criticize as a capitalist system, will thrive upon the ruins of the Communist regime after the stormy revolutions! Even if one day, the uncool freedom principle will be spurned by the pampered far-left youth in the West; Democracy will be condemned as Western cultural discourse hegemony by the Western left-wing academic realm; The importance of human rights will be forgotten by Westerners who have lived too long in peace. But still, I won’t forget these. Because my Chinese dissident friends who disappear forever tell me I must not forget these! The North Korean defectors whose palms were pierced by North Korean border soldiers’ sharp wires along the Yalu River tell me I must not forget these! The child marriage victims in the Afghan mountains who have to endure domestic violence and sexual abuse in childhood tell me I must not forget these! The couples in Chechnya and Palestine who were getting honor killings for love tell me I must not forget these! The truly oppressed all over the world, those people who are forgotten by the international mainstream media, those voiceless yet enduring oppression and exploitation, they all tell me I must not forget these! 

I am not a Marxist; I won’t declare I represent anyone without undergoing free elections. I haven’t the right to say I represent the oppressed and exploited people in this world, but I still have the right to stand with them and speak for them: “The oppressed of the world, unite! Down with the privileged older white male Karl Marx!”