Right, since the USSR and mid century China are widely known as bastions of academic freedom.
I never understand why people think whataboutism arguments actually mean anything. Do they do this at home too? When their significant other suggests they need to do a better job picking up after themselves, is their first response about how the neighbour across the way is a bit messy so it doesn’t matter?
The point is that this has nothing to do with capitalism. Education has been abused in this manner by every society on the planet, and if anything modern “capitalist” democracies have a historically large amount of academic freedom. If my roommate was like “wow you cishet men sure hate washing dishes” and I say, “but these are Tammy’s dishes” is that really whataboutism?
Someone on Lemmy posts this same comment in every fucking thread. I am far from a fan of predatory capitalism, but it’s just annoying when every thread is call and response: “DAE hate the color green?” “Capitalism in a nutshell.”