This has been one of the most interesting struggle sessions on China.

I think the conversation on democracy is especially interesting. I personally view Western Democracy as reified, alienating those it claims to represent from the sources of their own domination through the spectacle of choice, kinda like the commodity market. Furthermore I don’t believe that this alienation is due simply to class domination and the commodity, but alienation is necessary for democracy itself and this alienation masks market and class domination. I see the ML line as one who acknowledges the contradictions of such democracy and thus seeks to, instead of expanding democracy to some impossible limit where it actually represents the desires of its people at a local level, work within the realities of democracy to focus on the elimination of domination via conflict with the necessary conditions of said domination. Thus democratic centralism seeks to eliminate domination at a systems level, those huge structural sources of domination left from Capitalist society. This must be the prerequisite for the localized, decentralized democracy we really want, otherwise these forms would simply be subordinated to the logics and gravities of systems of domination not eliminated in proletarian revolution; and thus the need for TDotP. These are fledgling thoughts I wanted to throw out real quick though, not gonna fully endorse some full antidemocratic view (lest you brave radlibs call me Red Fash). I gotta read a lot more, especially on the history on ML states, and discuss much more before I solidify this thought. I also would probably have to clearly define domination. Still I think the limits of democracy should be considered when deciding how we want use such a system, otherwise you risk falling into the argument of inalienable rights bestowed from on high