The Big [Censored] Theory

I'm not sure what aspects of the current Chinese government/communist party would be called "left". For instance, they don't seem especially interested in prioritizing any kind of equality of distribution of resources or power (I'm not sure if they even pretend they are, at least in a way that even any 'true believers' believe? I'd be curious for a read from someone in China though); or with providing any real level of 'social safety net'. I think they do both of these things actually less than the USA does, at present. I think any theory that tries to mostly put things into a dimension of "left" and "right" which calls the current Chinese regime or party "left" is probably not a great theory.

"The political left is supposed to be very sex-positive"

That is not my impression at all. See all the attempts to formalize consent in a way that does not really square with human sexuality. Consent apps? Wtf.

Not to mention all the attempts to criminalize buying of sex, which is basically an ultraconservative position multiplied by -1.

> The obsession with sex seems like an example of horseshoe theory to me. The political left is supposed to be very sex-positive, but...

I think China in general is a good example of why the 1D, and even 2D political spectrum is a bullshit abstraction.

> authoritarian communist regimes were/are so far left that they kind of wrapped around and became conservative

Placing autocratic "communist" states on the same axis as modern feminist professors makes about as much sense as placing someone like Peter Theil on the same axis as Hitler, in both cases one would have literally killed the other.

One doesn't go from tolerating gay people to persecuting gay people the more "left" they are.

> Stalin was very prudish about sex, so maybe they just don't fit into the same political spectrum

Or maybe tolerance of gay people and "leftness" are actually completely separate variables that we only lump together because we're trying to project our modern ideologies onto historical figures

I wouldn't take China as necessarily embodying left wing economics (there's obviously a lot of capitalism going on over there and their society doesn't seem all that equal).

There isn't any obvious correlation between left wing economics and social progressiveness other than the coincidental alliance that has occurred in the US. Authoritarian communist regimes were, obviously, authoritarian.

And finally, "sex positivity" and dumb sitcom sexual jokes aren't really the same thing. They often have "man stupidly objectifies woman," "having same-gender parents is inherently funny," "man is an idiot because boobs," or if you go back to like the 80's, "man has poor understanding of consent" as a punchline. These aren't progressive ideas.

So in conclusion, no at every level.

It's not all the left, as much as it is the auth-left, lib-left are the free love hippies... they still exist... auth from every direction though drowns out the peace/freedom loving group from having a strong voice.

> Not to mention all the attempts to criminalize buying of sex, which is basically an ultraconservative position multiplied by -1.

What country/party has this position?

As a naive European, that sounds like you might be talking about the left in the USA that is still far to the right of the European idea of "left".

(Posting from Switzerland, where not only is sex work legal, it's regulated and taxed)

> what aspects of the current Chinese government/communist party would be called "left"

That would be the end-state of what inevitably happens when you adopt leftist policies.

It's part of the Puritan heritage that still affects US progressivism.

That's an opinion and a boring argument, but I don't think it has much to do with "horseshoe theory". I think that read (that adopting "leftist policies" (like... social security? immigration liberalization? not sure what we're talking about) invariably(!) leads to a result that is not legible as 'left' at all but for its history) is probably incompatible with "horseshoe theory".

> What country/party has this position?

Northern Europe. In Iceland even porn is illegal.

Off-topic, but your username sounds like a standardized student login name from MFF UK, Prague.

That is exactly what it is :-)