I agree with those who say that the analogy with the Cultural Revolution isn’t ideal.
Yes, there are some relevant similarities with the Cultural Revolution. But the fact that many millions were killed in the Cultural Revolution, and that the regime was a dictatorship, are extremely salient features. It doesn’t usually work to say that “I mean that it’s like the Cultural Revolution in other respects—just not those respects”. Those features are so central and so salient that it’s difficult to dissociate them in that way.
Relatedly, I think that comparisons to the Cultural Revolution tend to function as motte and baileys (specifically, hyperboles). They have a rhetorical punch precisely because the Cultural Revolution was so brutal. People find the analogy powerful precisely because of the associations to that brutality.
But then when you get criticised, you can retreat and say “well, I didn’t mean those features of the Cultural Revolution—I just meant that there was ideological conformity, etc”—and it’s more defensible to say that parts of the US have those features today.
I agree with those who say that the analogy with the Cultural Revolution isn’t ideal.
Yes, there are some relevant similarities with the Cultural Revolution. But the fact that many millions were killed in the Cultural Revolution, and that the regime was a dictatorship, are extremely salient features. It doesn’t usually work to say that “I mean that it’s like the Cultural Revolution in other respects—just not those respects”. Those features are so central and so salient that it’s difficult to dissociate them in that way.
Relatedly, I think that comparisons to the Cultural Revolution tend to function as motte and baileys (specifically, hyperboles). They have a rhetorical punch precisely because the Cultural Revolution was so brutal. People find the analogy powerful precisely because of the associations to that brutality.
But then when you get criticised, you can retreat and say “well, I didn’t mean those features of the Cultural Revolution—I just meant that there was ideological conformity, etc”—and it’s more defensible to say that parts of the US have those features today.