Max Blumenthal and his kowtows to Beijing

Since that IS a Mandarin word, I just LOVE using the word "kowtow" for the people who drink and/or peddle the Xi Jinping Thought Kool-Aid.

One of the most notorious of them is Max Blumenthal.

Basically, whatever other good work he may do at his Grayzone site is ... erased, eradicated, obliterated, or whatever other modifier you'd like, by his sucking Xi's Chinese schlong on denying severe repression, concentration camps and cultural genocide against Uyghurs.

Max does this in large part, per Workers' Liberty, by creating strawmen, mixed with ignoring what can't be refudiated or strawmanned.

Axios has more, which show the rest of Max's panoply of reasoning-free reaction to critics. He engages in ad hominems (without denying that Lenz has found real evidence) followed by further ad hominems against Axios for it daring to ask him, the great Max Blumenthal, a question. (Note that Max never answers it.)

With Uyghur women now making new claims of rape and sexual torture, Max becomes more an untenable shill.

Uyghur women are telling the newest truth, it would seem, about how Xi's China has treated them: rape cases, along with sexualized torture and other claims. It's a long read, and a must-read. Too bad the likes of Howie Hawkins and Margaret Flowers of the Green Party, Rainier Shea of the People's Republic of Humboldt Bay, and Blumenthal of East Chinastan Daily News will try to poo-poo it.

Meanwhile, the Intercept has the goods on massive new leaked Chinese government files of police surveillance of Uyghurs and related issues. It follows up with an investigative report on Uyghur detentions.

Flowers has responded to a call-out on Twitter over the latest revelations, and I have responded.

https://t.co/ws59vqrUAg

"While we recognize that there are aspects of PRC policy in Xinjiang to critique, these critiques should be debated and resolved on Chinese terms and in Chinese dialogues, and not be used as crude ammunition in the U.S.-led geopolitical assault on China."

— Dr. Margaret Flowers (@DrMFlowers) February 6, 2021

My first response in a two-parter:

There are plenty of people not part of the *bipartisan foreign policy establishment* who do NOT use the Chinese policy toward Xinjiang as "as crude ammunition in the U.S.-led geopolitical assault on China." That includes leftists like me. This isn't "zero-sum." (sigh)

— Your Glenn Greenwald pouty tomato face 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) February 6, 2021

And my second.

And, since this is not a zero sum game, I can avoid drinking Xi Jinping Thought Kool-Aid AND avoid drinking US bipartisan foreign policy establishment Kool-Aid. I don't have to discuss Xinjiang and Uyghurs on "Chinese terms," Dr. Margaret Flowers.

— Your Glenn Greenwald pouty tomato face 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) February 7, 2021

Flowers didn't want to stop digging, and offered this:

What's your point then? My sources are people who have been there and know the situation. https://t.co/QoYkEZONQT

— Dr. Margaret Flowers (@DrMFlowers) February 7, 2021

To which I offered the first of a three part thread response:

Well, the leaks of data came from people who "have been there." Patrick Cockburn is among those in Merika who doesn't totally buy the two-siderism angle, either. And, the ICIJ, which includes many non-American journos, has written about it., too.
AND? The Uyghurs ARE THERE! 1/x

— Your Glenn Greenwald pouty tomato face 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) February 7, 2021

The "Uyghurs were there" response should nail it.

If it doesn't? Since the Stalinist USSR, or before that, Russian Potemkin villages, authoritarian and totalitarian governments that have wanted to deceive those who are ready to be hoodwinked have easily done so.

And, if that's not enough, via the app Clubhouse, which recently briefly broke through the "great firewall of China," I can now tell Flowers the petards are also hoisting on her "Chinese terms" in another way. Diaspora Chinese, and also Taiwanese Chinese, told mainland Chinese that they needed to learn some things about Xinjiang.

What's a mix of funny, sad, ironic and hypocritical is that Flowers, one of the leaders of a third party, is engaging in two-siderism.

(Update, March 12, 2021: I suppose we should discuss freedom of the press in "Chinese terms" as well, if we're going to be all bent over backward?)

What's also a mix of funny, sad, ironic and hypocritical? Flowers' saying we should let Xi Jinping Thought go unchallenged is exactly the type of argument that could be used by the U.S. bipartisan foreign policy establishment.

It's also not the first time Flowers (and partner Kevin Zeese, when still alive) have peddled the Xi Jinping Thought Kool-Aid.

Back to Max.

And, to the degree he might have some good insights elsewhere on Grayzone, even they are not free from challenge, precisely because of how he supports Xi Jinping Thought on the Uyghurs. 

And, probably supports Chinese quasi-official lies about US vaccine safety, given that China Global Times, which has interviewed Max before, is among the peddlers of these lies.

And, beyond that, his changes of heart on things like Syria look suspicious. He started becoming an Assad defender in Syria only after visiting Moscow — and soon afterward. Many others believe that not all atrocities in Syria are traceable to Assad, but we hold to this based on information we found without going to Moscow.

He's not alone, sadly. Margaret Kimberly, even before spouting the bullshit on Black Agenda Report, was doing it elsewhere, per Coda Story. (At least, I hadn't seen it at BAR first.) That piece is good for noting a history of leftist apologetics for left-leaning dictatorial violence.

Finally, remember who Max's dad is. He may have different reasons for peddling bullshit, but, he certainly learned well from Sidney about HOW to peddle it.