And of course, there are things that should be done to promote desirable cultural values other than through art and media. It could be things like promoting group activities, team sports, and socializing in school while reducing the harsh workloads that many students face to a reasonable level, for example.
Thanks for the link. It doesn't seem like the author makes any concrete suggestions for implementing anything. Curious to see how it would translate to actual legislation. But in my admittedly amateur opinion, I think stuff like Liu Cixin's works are a great avenue for inspiring cultural self-confidence and reinforcing socialist and Chinese values - it's interesting to people who aren't necessarily politically inclined and innocuous enough to make it on international platforms like Netflix, while still hinting at socialist values such as collectivism and international cooperation and making allusions to Chinese traditional culture.
I hope this involves stuff like funding primary/secondary/tertiary education in the arts and opportunities for the display and appreciation of art such as concerts, festivals, competitions, and, museums, and not just commissioning obvious propaganda and tightening censorship. As much as I love communist media such as Minning Town and 1921, it's not improving the image of China or inspiring cultural self-confidence in people who aren't already pro-China. Instead, we need more contemporary and not-obviously-political works like Three Body and The Wandering Earth, Lexie Liu's The Happy Star, and The King's Avatar. And for traditional culture, independent creators like Dianxi Xiaoge, Chef Wang Gang, and Yin Que Shi Ting have done a million times more than anything commissioned by the out-of-touch geezers who run the propaganda department. What these all have in common is that they're made by people who have a genuine passion in an art or craft and have the opportunity to create works on their own terms.
I love how these gusanos always end up saying some mask-off fascist talking points. Seems like Western media struggles to find defectors that are safe boba liberals. I wonder why 🤔
The difference is that communists don't pretend to be impartial or apply universal rules to all groups. We stand firmly on the side of the working class. Liberals pretend to be impartial and apply the same rules to everyone, but they obviously don't, and that's when they get called out.
People these days know that capitalism sucks. Communism and socialism aren't the dirty words they used to be. It no longer works to try to convince people that socialism isn't good. The new propaganda strategy is to convince people that any viable form of socialism "isn't real socialism." Hence the belief in "state-capitalism." For the same reason, people now call communists "tankies" instead of commies.
Anecdotally, at my most troubled, lonely, self-hating times, I was a libertarian type who thought I could learn the secrets of success by learning from Ayn Rand, Ronald Reagan, the Koch Brothers, the Roman Empire, and (misunderstanding) Nietzsche. It was only after I started dating, got therapy, got my degree, got a job, and traveled more to "tankie countries" that I became a communist.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Democrats don't actually care that much about winning elections.