Close encounters of the Avakianite kind

the RCPUSA had a "learn the truth about the communist REVOLUTION" (caps are original) "meeting" at my campus today, meaning five people sat in a room while their rep aggressively argued with a Chinese transfer student (the only student who attended) about the Cultural Revolution. I had to stick my head in for half of it since it you don't see train wrecks like this every day.

why are these guys so fucking nuts? seriously, what is going on in this organization? should i be worried that they know my face?

lol please tell me about that transfer student and the rep, even though most transfer students come from the rich upper class I'm sure the bone headed RCP made the most cliché arguments possible while praising their helmsman

on one hand i feel kind of bad about talking about this on a public forum since security culture and all but this was a public meeting and it's the RCP, so...

it was painful to watch. she was talking about how her family (who were probably wealthy, definitely intelligentsia) were forced to move to the countryside so her arguments were pretty much exactly what you'd expect (interestingly, one of her relatives remained there and has lived with peasants since). he made a coherent point about peasants not having a choice about whether they lived in the countryside, and healthcare and education being democratized, then went full-tilt into a rant about the sex trade and pornography in China (i have since learned that this is a Thing with the RCPUSA, as well as the whack position that homosexuality is oppressive to women which was mentioned on chat a while ago). after 5 or so minutes of this he was practically shouting at this girl. at one point she asked him "so are you saying that capitalism is bad for china?" and he yelled back "YES haven't you been listening to me??!" all this interspersed with plugs for his book. i don't think he ever clarified for her that when he talked about communism he didn't mean the Chinese communist party of modern capitalist china.

i don't know what exactly they're trying to do by targeting students; he could have kept his voice down and actually engaged with this young woman, but no. before i left he gave me his card (!) and described himself as "a professional revolutionary". SO embarrassing.