China Mieville on social sadism

[Cyborg Girl]

Mieville is more famliar to me as an SF and fantasy writer, but he also writes dense political stuff from a socialist perspective.

The article below is quite long, but worth it IMO. Be warned though, there are some very disturbing accounts of political oppression and war crimes.

http://salvage.zone/in-print/on-social-sadism/

In terms of observations, I think the idea of ingrained social sadism explains a lot about the world as I've seen it.

Where he goes wrong IMO is in drawing his conclusions.

- Social sadism is not inextricably linked with capitalism. e.g. Look at the Soviet Union, which had plentiful instances of war crimes followed by Trump-style gaslighting doublespeak.

- His prescription for change seems to rely on the oppressors' propaganda tactics working for the oppressed, to at least some extent. I think this is morally wrong, and also not workable, because this kind of hate-propaganda is the lifeblood of oppressive power structures. You'll just bring in new and equally awful bosses: "Four legs good, two legs better!"

Basically I expect humans to keep reproducing the same oppressive shit, regardless of economics, until we get used to recognizing and quashing certain impulses.

Of course I might be misreading this completely. Take a look yourself, see what you think.