Is it possible to be a Maoist but think that Mao himself was kinda erroneous?

[Marxach-Léinínach]

I like a lot Mao's ideas and theories, but I sympathize with a lot of the Hoxhaist criticisms as well eg. Three Worlds Theory (I don't buy the idea that it was entirely Deng's doing), foreign policy in the 1970s, the purging of Gao Gang, not coming out against Khrushchevite revisionism quick enough etc. I know the standard Maoist line is that "Stalin was a great comrade, but made serious errors, Mao avoided making Stalin's grave errors to become one of the greatest comrades of the 20th century" but if anything I think Mao actually made more errors than Stalin and that the Maoist criticisms of Stalin are overblown.

So what do you think? Can I think all of the above and still be a Maoist? If it sounds like I'm doing nothing but criticising him, I like his ideas of People's War, Mass Line (I don't believe this was entirely Mao's creation. It clearly has it's origins in Stalin and Lenin's works, but I do believe Mao greatly expanded on it), New Democracy, Cultural Revolution, the idea of multi-party democracy could maybe work as well in that it allows bourgeois lines out in the open and might help avoid the situation which the USSR ended up with by the end of Stalin's life where the majority of the CPSU were actually concealed revisionists. And I suppose I could chalk up my first two criticisms to him being senile or something by that point (Hoxha was banning beards and having his successor killed for no reason at a younger age than that of course). And I suppose there's Gao Gang's using large amounts of public funds to pay off his anti-communist White Russian mistresses that might have led to Mao siding with Liu Shaoqi (as opposed to Bill Bland's view that it was because Gao was a genuine Marxist-Leninist), he took a while to come out against Khrushchev but at least he still said that Stalin should be primarily upheld after the Secret Speech rather than completely going along with it. They still definitely count as big mistakes, though.

[Thirsty Crow]

No, your ontological status shifts the minute you begin to sympathize with Hoxhaist criticism.
Sorry.

[ContrarianLemming]

Sticking to the OP name itself, not the critcism, yes, you don't have to be mindless or dogmatic to join the uniform wearers.

[Palingenisis]

I like a lot Mao's ideas and theories, but I sympathize with a lot of the Hoxhaist criticisms as well eg. Three Worlds Theory (I don't buy the idea that it was entirely Deng's doing), foreign policy in the 1970s, the purging of Gao Gang, not coming out against Khrushchevite revisionism quick enough etc. I know the standard Maoist line is that "Stalin was a great comrade, but made serious errors, Mao avoided making Stalin's grave errors to become one of the greatest comrades of the 20th century" but if anything I think Mao actually made more errors than Stalin and that the Maoist criticisms of Stalin are overblown.

It is humanly impossible to be 100 per cent correct in all your actions and Maoists/Mao influenced Marxist-Leninists to do not put forward as some type of perfect being....Its clear that he made some majior mistakes. Allowing the Red Guards to go on the rampage in the early years of the Cultural Revolution which ultimately strengthened the right and exhausted the country...Followed by a shift towards right-opportunism on his own behalf (the famous meeting with Nixon and softening on US Imperialism)...Would count as some.

As for not condemning Khrushchev sooner I believe that it was only right too wait until the PRC was sure of the direction that the USSR had taken was something it was set on before making any international statements.

[scarletghoul]

Anyone who doesn't criticise Mao is not a Maoist.

[AK]

If you have legitimate criticisms, go for it. Like scarletghoul said, if you can't find something to critcise Mao about, you're not a Maoist. I can't be an anarchist if I don't criticise Bakunin - and one of the reasons why I criticise Bakunin is his labelling of Marx as an authoritarian and a statist. If you can't find something to criticise your ideology's founder about, then that person either did everything right and helped create a damn perfect society or you're just spewing dogma. In any case, it has been the second option for communists throughout history.

[Queercommie Girl]

The only relatively correct line of Maoism is Left Maoism.

Anyone who calls himself/herself a "Maoist" but does not support the promotion of proletarian democracy during the Cultural Revolution is a fake Maoist.

Anyone who essentially writes-off the Cultural Revolution (which objectively had mixed results but subjectively was a genuine attempt at fighting against growing bureaucratism in the party) is not a genuine Maoist.

Any "Maoist" who still thinks the PRC today is "basically ok" and not at least highly deformed and on the brink of total counter-revolution is a pro-revisionist pro-capitalist scumbag who deserves to be purged. (My Maoist friend in the MCPC would go even further and say that anyone who doesn't consider today's China totally capitalist and totally hopeless is not a genuine socialist but I think his line here is too ultra-leftist - even some Trotskyists still consider China today to be a deformed worker's state. I can certainly work with people who still consider China today to be partially socialist in character, but essentially any "socialist" who doesn't recognise that China today is in serious trouble is not a genuine socialist at all)

[Omnia Sunt Communia]

Excellent post. I myself am in the precarious category of being a very unorthodox "left Maoist" and also an "ultra-leftist" who agrees with your friend that "anyone who doesn't consider today's China totally capitalist and totally hopeless [from the perspective of negotiating with the organs of capitalist state rule] is not a genuine socialist".

Maoist ultra-left I guess?

Bruno Bettelheim has been recommended to me.

[Saorsa]

Anyone who doesn't criticise Mao is not a Maoist.

This. Maoism is based on the idea that 'it is right to rebel'. That includes against people who claim to be communists, and may genuinely believe themselves to be communists.

Everything is decided through struggle. Criticism of others is a struggle against others and their bad tendencies. Criticism of yourself is a struggle against your own bad tendencies.

Maoism is an ideology of struggle - that must mean struggle against Mao and Maoism itself.

[Red Commissar]

You don't have to be a cut-out of what you think a tendency is. There are fundamental parts of Maoism you would have to adhere to, and that doesn't involve being uncritical of Mao.