Mao is a dong, a man whose name is synonymous to many with one of the most heinous regimes

of the 20th century, if not one of the most heinous regimes in world history.

Communist China. Life under Mao, not the best. If you valued free speech, freedom of expression,

hearing multiple opinions, owning your own land, not starving, not being beaten, not being sent

to a labor camp to be reeducated for having an opinion that different from Mao's,

the Chinese Communist Party headed by Chairman Mao, they thought they knew how to make a better world

for China, and they were willing to purge anyone who thought differently. They ended up making

life a living hell for tens of millions of Chinese people for decades. Mao's two major hallmark

initiatives, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, did arguably way, way more damage

than they ever did good. The Great Leap Forward was designed to turn China into an industrial

powerhouse by setting very ambitious goals for production. Goals that people literally could not

meet. While trying to please Mao, they lived on communes where their food was strictly rationed,

rationed sometimes not enough to live on. They were worked sometimes for several days in a row

without giving any time for sleep, and if they complained or quit, they were beaten or killed,

and you thought your boss was a dick. When the Great Leap Forward failed, Mao instigated the

Cultural Revolution to paralyze his political opponents and throw the country into further chaos.

He mobilized thousands of students to fight against the quote, old ways, which included

violently destroying temples, beating teachers, brutalizing anyone, anything not deemed revolutionary

enough to his irrational liking. Teachers, elders, grandparents, all brutalized in the name of Mao's

revolution. Many, many people died as the result of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.

The most agreed upon number seems to be around 45 million. 45 million people died under one man's

rule and not through war, through tyranny and an aptitude. And the Communist Party of China would

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