• NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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      1 year ago

      Hexbear also has a large number of Putin and CCP apologists. Authoritarian bootlicking isn’t liberalism.

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          Pushing Native Americans onto reservations lifted a lot of European immigrants out of poverty.

          Burning fossil fuels lifted entire nations out of poverty.

          Campaigns against the barbarians lifted many Romans out of poverty.

          If you think this “lift” is some example of public good in action that hasn’t come at the cost of exploitation, you’re delusional.

          • RedDawn [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            Chinese poverty elimination didn’t come on the backs of any of those things you goober. “Well have you considered that sometimes OTHER countries did bad things to reduce domestic poverty, and therefore China doing so is inherently bad actually !?” Grow the fuck up, this isn’t a real argument.

          • Egon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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            Pushing Native Americans onto reservations lifted a lot of European immigrants out of poverty.

            Yes that was a bad thing the us did. What does that have to do with china?

          • tripartitegraph [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            Please watch this documentary co-produced by literally PBS on the poverty alleviation campaign. I’m sure you’ll just dismiss it as all a charade and propaganda, but I hope you approach it with an open mind. What the Chinese have been able to accomplish (through sheer hard work and determination) is nothing short of incredible and it honestly pisses me off you would compare that to the literal genocide of Native Americans.

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        All governments are authoritiarian. They have the authority to tax you and can do that cuz they have a monopoly on violence. But if you have “HUMAN RIGHTS” written on a piece of paper in your capital building that basically makes you a democracy, right?

        • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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          All governments are authoritiarian.

          This argument is essentially “words have no real meaning”. Having authority does not make a government authoritarian. The term authoritarianism is defined. The CCP is authoritarian, by definition, starting with (but not ending with) having only one political party.

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            The CCP is authoritarian, by definition, starting with (but not ending with) having only one political party.

            China has 8 other political parties in its congress xi-lib-tears

            also it’s officially the CPC (Communist Party of China), not the CCP stalin-approval

            • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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              Mmmhmm, and how many of those tiny parties have any functional political power? When was the last time that a non-CCP member led the PRC?

              Oh right, never. These other parties are tokens. Period.

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                maybe if more people voted for them they would be bigger parties curious-marx does a party stop being a party because it’s smaller than the dominant party? By that measure, Japan is authoritarian as they’ve been run by a single party (the LDP) for nearly 70 years!

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                America. This is America. It’s the same picture. America does the same thing but in a different fashion. Please at least admit America is authoritiarian. Why not? I’m a principled maoist, but this makes me want to burn down Walmarts anarxi

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                    its not whataboutism, Im saying a lake is a pond a pond is a lake. I watched john oliver in high school, but really tho would you have supported the entente in ww1 cuz the axis were “authoritarian”??? I know history, I know this shit is bullshit. I’ll talk to you all day about the shortcomings of the USSR, or the PRC, or the DPRK, whatever the fuck, they all have valid criticism, but fuck if america aint some kinda authoritarian state, then idk what

                  • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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                    Whataboutism is when you hold two governments to the same standard.

                    If capitalist bootlickers didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all.

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                These parties also haven’t liftend millions of people out of poverty, that should help them get elected then

              • Egon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                How much influence do the 6 other parties hold in the us?

                Would you think china was more democratic if the 8 parties had a larger share of the votes, or would you find some other way to downcut it? Why would a larger share be better? If it was equal would that then be the best? Is democracy a function of how many parties are in government? Would it be a good thing if the president had a minority share of the vote?

                • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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                  Would you think china was more democratic if the 8 parties had a larger share of the votes

                  Yes, broader representation would literally be more democratic.

                  Why would a larger share be better?

                  Because that’s how democracy works.

                  Is democracy a function of how many parties are in government?

                  Democracy is a function of broad representation in government, ideally complete representation, though this is difficult to achieve in practice.

                  Would it be a good thing if the president had a minority share of the vote?

                  In the PRC, only local officials are elected, and only candidates which are approved by the ruling party can be nominated for those elections. The president is not subject to direct popular election.

                  Under the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, the CCP is guaranteed a leadership role, and the National People’s Congress therefore does not serve as a forum of debate between government and opposition parties as is the case with Western parliaments.[9] At the same time, the Constitution makes the Party subordinate to laws passed by the National People’s Congress, and the NPC has been the forum for debates and conflict resolution between different interest groups. The CCP maintains control over the NPC by controlling delegate selection, maintaining control over the legislative agenda, and controlling the constitutional amendment process.[9]

                  ref

                  The ruling party controls delegate selection, the legislative agenda, and constitutional amendments, which ensures that they can maintain their own control indefinitely. This is the opposite of democratic.

                  • Egon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                    Yes, broader representation would literally be more democratic.

                    Okay so we should just redistribute some of the votes people cast for their choice of candidate? Ignoring who people voted for in order to get a more broad collection of parties would somehow be more democratic than following the will of the people? A broad selection in itself isn’t inherently “more democratic”. A broad representation is a symptom of a vibrant democracy, but it’s not a rule.

                    Because that’s how democracy works

                    I’m pretty sure democracy works by people voting for those they believe represent their values, but I guess I’m just misunderstanding things. Apparently the Democracymeter™ counts how many different parties are in a government, and the more there are the better it would be. I guess this at least means you’re admitting China is a better democracy than the US, Canada, Australia and most european countries, which is something.

                    In the PRC, only local officials are elected, and only candidates which are approved by the ruling party can be nominated for those elections. The president is not subject to direct popular election

                    Thanks for not answering my question! I do actually already know this, but it’s always nice to retread old ground. I’m gonna ask it again, since the point is to illustrate the absurdity of your statement. Would it be a good thing if the president had a minority share of the vote?

                    The ruling party controls delegate selection, the legislative agenda, and constitutional amendments, which ensures that they can maintain their own control indefinitely. This is the opposite of democratic.

                    Dawg you’re quoting wikipedia. Please bring some actual sources if you want me to take this seriously Wikipedia is prone to ideological bias it’s also a nazi cesspool Fact is that China has a very high voter approval - Now I already know what you’re going to say “Oh they lie, oh they repress!” Cope. I have no reason to think that. China isn’t the country with the largest prisoner population in the world. China isn’t the country that is legalising child-workers. China isn’t the country that is disappearing minority leaders China isn’t the country with media constantly housing state employess lying in order to drum up warfervor.

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                The parties represent interests separate from and under the CPC, which is one of the largest political parties on earth and comprises of a tenth of the eligible population in China. The CPC is the party which represents the majority interests of the population, of which mas multiparty organization would merely atomize and undermine socialization.

                Also stop saying ‘CCP’; you are illiterate lmao.

                • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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                  you are illiterate lmao.

                  Since this is demonstrably not the case, I have to assume that you don’t know what the word means, which is somewhat ironic…

                  • Egon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                    He is using it as an insult, and as a way to convey that you do not comprehend the text you are reading. He does not mean it literally, but figuratively. This is really basic-level communication, but sometimes it can be difficult to parse tone - Please indicate if you need tone signifier for communication.

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            “The United States is also a one-party system, but in classic American extravagance, they have two of them”

            -Julius Nyerere, first president of Tanzania

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            The word authoritarian has no meaning. Any definition that covers the PRC also covers every other country. Unless of course the definition is “non-white people are in the government” but at that point the definition is just madk-off

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          Any argument in favor of Ukraine surrendering territory to Russia is pro-Putin. It doesn’t have to explicitly say “I support Putin”. If the comment suggests that the invasion is in any way justified or that the conquest of Ukrainian territory should be legitimized, it is a pro-Putin argument.

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            It’s only the most brainwashed liberals that turn into this kind of frothing cult of personality turning an entire country of hundreds of millions into a single figurehead.

            Evidenced further by the reactionary stance “I’m not listening to a single fucking thing that doesn’t 100% align with the most one sided propaganda that I exclusively seek out”

            Real good way to not know a single thing you’re talking about and look like an idiot when you try

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              “I’m not listening to a single fucking thing that doesn’t 100% align with the most one sided propaganda that I exclusively seek out”

              Careful, your projection is showing.

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                smuglord

                Dumb fuck. You literally said that exact thing in your own words. Projection is something you can accuse someone of if you HAVEN’T completely walled yourself off from knowing the nature of their arguments.

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                  I’m sorry, are you arguing that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is justified? Is that your point?

                  Also, if you can’t make your point without insults then your point isn’t worth making.

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                    My point and calling you a dumb fuck are one in the same. You need to be and deserve to be called a dumb fuck right now. Did you really read past my several valid criticisms of you and absorb nothing more from it than a pissy attitude?

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            Pro-Putin is when I want there to still be Ukranians after this. Pro-Ukranian is when I cheer on wave after wave of old men and young boys get mulched by artillery while a bald guy with a sonnenrad tattoo points a rifle at their backs to make sure they don’t try to run.

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              You know what would keep more Ukrainians alive? If Russia stopped attacking them.

              If you were legitimately interested in fewer Ukrainians dying you would be overtly critical of Russia’s invasion.

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                Abstract principles really do matter more than human lives to you libs. Don’t talk about “legitimate interest in fewer Ukrainians dying” when you wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice every last one of them for one inch of soil.

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            I don’t actually think. I just know I’m right. Then whenever I’m in an argument I can just link the [word we’re arguing about] wikipedia article. Since I’m right and wikipedia has objective information the argument is over every time and I win.

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                The conversation was you linking a Wikipedia article, I was at least hoping you’d link like a book or something. Like we could have a discussion if you were trying to argue against authoritarianiam as defined by say Bakunin or some other anarchist thinker.

                Then I could respond with On Authority which argues that authority is a natural consequence of any organization and calling something authoritarian just means you’re saying that it’s a system that is able to successfully reproduce itself.

                You could also try to link “authoritarianism” to fascism, but again that is pointless because there’s already a term for fascism, which is Fascism.

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                You may as well talk to a wall. It would be about as useful although probably less frustrating.

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            Lmao they linked to Wikipedia! And the definition is so broad it covers literally every country!

            One of these days I hope you learn to be critical of the propaganda you’ve been enmeshed in

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        I thought this exact thing, but the more I learned about them, it turned out to really not be true. While there is a kind of meme culture there of asking Xi to nuke the town they’re currently residing in, and pointing out all of the white supremacist symbols used by the Ukraine’s army or whatever, there is a deeper context for it.

        They don’t necessarily support every move these people make and particularly in regards to Putin there is a lot of criticism towards his social stances.

        They’re more looking at this through the lens of what a nato conflict is causing in terms of a more multi-polar world and also Russia turning away from the neoliberalism that has dominated it since the fall of the Soviet Union.

        Not saying you have to agree with it. I’m more of a centrist myself, but it’s really not fair to say this as a blanket statement with no context.

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        Show me the apologia.
        Edit: incredible how asking libs for any proof is like a magic spell to make them disappear

                  • Bnova [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                    You should check out Vincent Bevins’ book The Jakarta Method. He covers the genocide of leftists in Indonesia but throughout it talks to people who’ve been victims of the Jakarta Method, people who were ostensibly where you are, they were communists who were against the use of force. And do you know what happened to them and their friends? They had to flee for their lives while their friends got murdered because as it turns out Capitalists will absolutely use authority to squash and kill anything that even remotely threatens their power. They’ve since changed their mind.

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                    300 years after the revolution people who talk about ‘communism’ will be using your definition. For now when people say ‘communism’ they’re talking about the ML(M) project of achieving that goal. This is a conversation that’s been going on for 150 years now. Not only have people argued out what you’re talking about, they’ve been able to see in real life what happens when you try to put principle to practice. You can’t have communism without class war. And if you don’t suppress the ruling class they will inevitably erode and destroy whatever victories you take from them. You have to use ‘authority’.

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                    Who gives a shot what you believe in, when your actions and ideology supports the dictatorship of the bourgeoise? It doesn’t matter what esoteric strain you are, it matters what you do and it matters what the end of those actions are

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                I know this will sound patronising, but have you read Engels ‘Socialism: Scientific and Utopian’ and Lenin’s ‘State and Revolution’. If not, these would basically answer your implicit question as to why we can’t just wish a perfect society into existence.

                “Authoritarian”, like so many other liberal concepts, is an idea that - while not completely without reality - is designed to obfuscate how power really operates. For example, non-authoritarian states have freedom of the press. But that press is owned by and will only give the point of view of the Bourgeoisie. The point of Communism is to put power into the hands of the proletariat rather than the parasitic Bourgeois.

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            So, someone who supports totalitarian rule to achieve communism? Like… A revolution vs voting? I’m asking in good faith btw, I am legit trying to understand

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              I mean, there’s pretty clearly a difference between the Cuban approach of letting capitalists leave vs the Russian approach of imprisoning them.

              There’s also a difference between the Bolivian approach of arming and training the peasantry and the GDR approach of maintaining an armed military police into peace time.

              There is a meaningful difference between methods of protecting working class power, and pretending there isn’t serves more heavy handed approaches.

              For those of us who are abolitionists, this is a central question.

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                I don’t understand your response. How is what you’ve described authoritarian, especially in order to achieve communism as op stated? Those were all communist governments.

                I could be mistaken, but this sounds people in different revolutions at different times defend themselves differently against the threats of the bourgeoisie. I don’t see how that is authoritarian, especially if the people are the ones involved, heard, and implementing decisions

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                  “A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon — authoritarian means, if such there be at all; and if the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionists. Would the Paris Commune have lasted a single day if it had not made use of this authority of the armed people against the bourgeois? Should we not, on the contrary, reproach it for not having used it freely enough?” ― Frederick Engels

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                    Moreover, the natural development of economic antagonisms, the waking consciousness of an important fraction of the proletariat, the constantly increasing number of unemployed, the blind resistance of the ruling classes, in short contemporary evolution as a whole, is conducting us inevitably towards the outbreak of a great revolution, which will overthrow everything by its violence, and the fore-running signs of which are already visible. This revolution will happen, with us or without us; and the existence of a revolutionary party, conscious of the end to be attained, will serve to give a useful direction to the violence, and to moderate its excesses by the influence of a lofty ideal.

                    –Ericco Malatesta, Anarchy and Violence

                  • JamesConeZone [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                    The beginning of that quote is worth adding for context for folks unfamiliar with Engel’s argument here:

                    Why do the anti-authoritarians not confine themselves to crying out against political authority, the state? All Socialists are agreed that the political state, and with it political authority, will disappear as a result of the coming social revolution, that is, that public functions will lose their political character and will be transformed into the simple administrative functions of watching over the true interests of society. But the anti-authoritarians demand that the political state be abolished at one stroke, even before the social conditions that gave birth to it have been destroyed. They demand that the first act of the social revolution shall be the abolition of authority. Have these gentlemen ever seen a revolution?

                    And his conclusion:

                    Therefore, either one of two things: either the anti-authoritarians don’t know what they’re talking about, in which case they are creating nothing but confusion; or they do know, and in that case they are betraying the movement of the proletariat. In either case they serve the reaction.

                    The short entire essay is worth reading for other folks reading.

                • Nagarjuna [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  I was comparing more or less heavy handed ways of doing it. I’m advocating for as light a touch as possible. I’m trying to say that authority is a meaningful concept and that we should engage with it because it’s actually very important.

                  It’s like how some US cities put you on a payment plan for debts, while others put you in jail. They’re both situations of capitalist class rule, but it’s fair to call the latter authoritarian.

              • Egon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                Those approaches came as a result of the material conditions. The capitalists in Russia had a literal army. The USSR was invaded by the us and the UK as well as the white army.

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                    How is human society organized? What do humans do? They create things and they consume things. What is politics? It is deciding who in a society resources are taken from and what they applied to.

                    Why do you draw a line between these things? Especially as a socialist who presumably wants to bring democracy to the workplace?

                  • Egon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                    But you live in a world that does, and therefore you are forced to relate to it wether or not you believe in it.
                    It does not matter what you believe in, what.matters is the material reality in which we all exist

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                Communism is most definitely a political system as it has an inherent system of power relations, representation of workers, ownership of the means of production by the workers themselves, and distribution of decisions among the people until the state can be dissolved. Internationalism is a huge part of communism as is real politik, historical materialism, and other political approaches.

                What I don’t understand is what you mean by authoritarian? Do you mean a literal dictatorship like in Latin America? I don’t know if a single communist country that has not had better representation than the USA as far as voting goes. I guess maybe the Khmer Rouge (I don’t know anything beyond Wikipedia for that one)?

                • meth_dragon [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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                  authoritarianism is when you do things and get results, the more results you get the more authoritarian it is

                  true democracy is when so much nothing is happening that everyone is stochastically dissolving into elementary particles like it’s the heat death of the universe

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                I appreciate the attempt to engage in discussion about it, but it is an interesting position. Do you not think your position directly competes with assertions from The Communist Manifesto, or State and Revolution, or most communist texts?

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      Liberal? They’re as extreme as conservatives who call communism everything they don’t like (cause they call everything they don’t like “fascist”)

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        1 year ago

        (cause they call everything they don’t like “fascist”)

        Maybe you don’t understand what fascism is.

        Or maybe you do, and you’re a supporter of it.

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        1 year ago

        I believe the comrade is making a joke about our politics. Not everything we don’t like is fascism, some of it is liberalism. But of course, we all know what bleeds when a liberal gets scratched.

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            1 year ago

            What exactly are you seeing as pro-russia?

            As communists we’re staunchly anti-NATO and against the US imperialist order. There’s a degree of critical support for the Russian Federations struggle against NATO, but thats not really pro-russia, or at least how we would define being pro-russia.

            Similarly we have critical support for Iran in its struggle against the US led imperial order, and we support when they do things like engaging in trade with AES like Venezuela. Thats not the same as direct support for the theocracy there or all their domestic policies for example

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                1 year ago

                How does communism inform your perspective?

                NATO aid and their not allowing Ukraine to negotiate peace is what is prolonging this war. We aren’t arguing for all of Ukraine to become Russian territory, which hasn’t been the position of the Russian Federation either.

                We would like a negotiated peace that alllows the Donbas republics to leave Ukraine and join the Russian Federation as they’ve voted to do, and a promise for Ukraine to not become part of NATO. That senario is not the alternative you’re talking about, or what you’re implying we support.

                  • ThereRisesARedStar [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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                    The quickest way to achieve peace is for Putin yo withdraw.

                    And then get couped and have the war continue under the leadership of a right wing hardliner

                    Please look up critiques of great man theory as it seems relevant to your line of thinking on this matter.

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                    1 year ago

                    I don’t even know what this means because it has no grounding in reality.

                    They can’t negotiate peace because they are in a war? How is it possible to resolve this conflict in any realistic way if thats the criteria?

                  • CriticalResist8 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                    1 year ago

                    do you sincerely think Ukraine will be like “it’s all good you were a good sport we’re gonna end the match here, everyone go home” if Russia suddenly decided to up and leave.

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                    Even if Russia were to withdraw to pre-war borders, Ukraine would keep fighting because they insist on taking Crimea which is a large majority Russians who want to be part of Russia.

                    Crimea has never truly been Ukrainian. It was internally transferred to the Ukrainian SSR in the 1950s, but its population was Russian then and stayed Russian the whole time since. But Ukraine insists on having it back.

                    And if they did somehow get it back, they would start ethnically cleansing it of Russians. I hope you understand how that’s a bad thing.

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                Without NATO aid, Ukraine will just plainly be taken over by Purine Russia.

                The war would end, a whole lot of people would stop getting killed, and it would open a sliver of space to organize on class lines instead of nationalist ones.

                As it is, it is basically illegal to be a communist or an anarchist in Ukraine, and the country is under martial law with NATO-armed and trained fascist brigades doling out summary justice. Could it get worse? Why should the left advocate for people to die on the hill of a country which arrests communists, dismantles labor unions, and liquidates public infrastructure on internet auctions for foreign investors?

                If you take the most vulgar Anarchist approach, all states are bad, full stop. Political practice doesn’t even operate on that paradigm. You struggle to undermine oppressive hierarchical systems that you come in direct contact with through direct action. If you take the vulgar Leninist approach, the Proletariat should struggle for the overthrow of their Bourgeoisie (this would include the proletariat of Ukraine and Russia respectively, as well as the proletariat of Western countries which see this conflict only as a means to strengthen their military alliances and diplomatic positions). Of course, the situation is too nuanced to apply such a vulgar approach, but that should be the STARTING POINT for anybody who considers themselves anti-capitalists. You should be able to justify any deviation from those bedrock positions.

              • Maoo [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                Im no fan of US imperialism, but you all conveniently leave out the alternative to NATO aid in Ukraine right now.

                Nope it’s mentioned all the time: diplomacy, peace talks, and to make that even possible, establish legitimacy by abiding by your own agreements. The undermining of all of these things has been discussed at length. They don’t really need to be rehashed in our spaces for the benefit of new people that don’t ask questions, though.

                Without NATO aid, Ukraine will just plainly be taken over by Purine Russia.

                lol RF could take over UA any time they wanted to if they took the NATO approach of completely destroying civilian life and essential resources via bombing. Military “aid” to Ukraine just keeps Ukrainian soldiers getting killed en masse, which is characterized by Russia as their compromise version of Denazification.

                As far as Im concerned, Putins expansion is really helping NATOs by giving them a justification to exist

                NATO obviously requires no credible justification to exist. This doesn’t matter.

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                    I find it completely unreasonable to request a peace talk whilst in a neighboring sovereign nation invading.

                    You have a very funny idea about the realities of war. By your logic most could never end. Wars are resolved through diplomacy or full collapse and loss. Your sociopathic ideas about what is “reasonable” devalues the lives and well-being of Ukrainians living through war.

                    This is liberal “moral victory” nonsense that no serious person believes.

                    That’s lunacy to think Ukrainians are being the unreasonable ones here in regards to a peace talk.

                    Thank you for conceding my point and implicitly retracting the claim I replied to.

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                    When in the history of ever did a nation willingly withdraw from its enemy before even holding peace talks?

                    Did the US withdraw from Mexico before they started hashing out Guadalupe Hidalgo?

                    Did Germany withdraw from Russia before negotiating Brest-Litovsk?

                    Even the ‘we do not negotiate with terrorists’ US negotiated with the Taliban before leaving Afghanistan.

                    It’s a deal, and withdrawal is one of the terms. You don’t do it before the deal has been made. That gives up all leverage.

                    And Ukraine has already demanded they get absolutely everything, including Crimea. If you want a deal to be everything you want and nothing you don’t, you need an unconditional surrender, not peace talks. Good luck getting Ukrainian tanks into Moscow.

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                What if I told you that in March 2022 the Ukrainians and Russians came this close to closing a deal that would end the war… that is, before the Ukrainians decided to accept effectively unlimited NATO aid in exchange for scrapping said deal?

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                Without NATO aid, Ukraine will just plainly be taken over by Purine Russia.

                No it wouldn’t. At most they would take the southern half, Novorossiya. The rest they just want a guarantee won’t align with the West.

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                  Putin has started multiple times that he does not consider Ukraine a legitimate country. If he does not think they should exist, where would the other portion of it go?

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                As far as Im concerned, Putins expansion is really helping NATOs by giving them a justification to exist.

                You have that backwards and are welcome to learn about the context behind the conflict, just ask

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                Without NATO aid, Ukraine will just plainly be taken over by Purine Russia

                Ah, I think I’ve found the issue. Here at Hexbear we only support Pyrimidine Russia. We hate fuckin’ cytosine, don’t we folks?

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            1 year ago

            Pointing out propaganda is not being pro-russia. Wanting an end to the American empire is not being pro-russia

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                I think you are being reductive. One can simultaneously be anti Russia and Anti US imperialism.

                Yes we agree.

                Idk why America being bad means oligarchic Russia is good.

                So pointing out American lies shouldn’t be an issue, right? Pointing out propaganda shouldn’t be an issue, right?

                There’s no nuance in your ideology.

                I’m not the one boiling this down to good guys and bad guys being on “the right side”.
                I support Russia in this conflict insofar as a defeat of Ukraine would be a defeat of the American empire, which would help usher in a multi-polar world - as we are seeing now - which aids national self-determination (as we are starting to see around the world, from the west African countries throwing off the yoke of France and the IMF, south American countries collaborating and throwing out US stooges, and middle eastern countries seeking peace with each other).

                The US generally sucks. They happen to be in the correct side of this conflict.

                If the US sucks, and the us has been shown to lie, and the us continues to lie, then ask yourself why the us supports Ukraine and to what end. Ask yourself why NATO felt the need to sabotage peace talks. Ask yourself why NATO felt the need to make Zelensky maintain an idea that Ukraine would join NATO, after being told it wouldn’t happen behind closed doors.

                They arent always, but here they are.

                Lmao is this your idea of nuance? “Well all the other times they were shown to be ghouls, but this time where I’m bought in, they’re definitely not”

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                    Are you implying NATO is just the US? That no other NATO nation has sway, and that they are all US puppet?

                    NATO is and has always been an extension of the US political apparatus. NATO is a void husk of ghouls initially staffed by ex-nazis like Adolph heusinger.
                    NATO is allegedly a defensive alliance but has so far only been involved offensively.
                    When has NATO ever gone against the will of the US?

                    This isnt a US vs Russia issue. Its the majority of Europe as well.

                    The current Ukrainian government was installed by the US, the US president and his predecessor are both embroiled in corruption scandals in Ukraine, and the US is sending an inordinate amount of resources to Ukraine. The US is fighting a proxy war.

                    tend to trust them as a collective before Id trust Russia.

                    Why would you trust what Europe does more than Russia? Why is your skepticism a one way street? I trust neither, I observe the material conditions and the verifiable facts. That is what should lie to grounds for your belief, not vibes about “slavs being untrustworthy” or whatever. Why exactly does it matter how many parts a population is parted up in? Would you trust the Russian federation more if it was The Russian federation and it’s puppet states?
                    Besides - Far more countries are netural/pro-russia than opposed.

                    Again. I think you are being reductive and turning this into a US bad issue when the US isnt even the most important player here.

                    You keep coming back to this statement, this is now the third time I argue it. As before I do not think it is a question of “us bad”, however it is striking to me that you 1. Part this up into “good” and “bad” sides 2. Insist you’re on the “good” side 3. Discount any notion of nuance as wanting to make this about the us.
                    Seeing as how you keep returning to this way of dismissing me and seeing how you choose to avoid answering my questions It is clear you are not actually interested in a good faith discussion.

                    America centric.

                    As I’ve clearly illustrated it is about the US. You refusing to engage with this point does not make it less true.

                    Edit: you keep speaking of nuance, yet I see none from you. You reduce this to a question of right and wrong, good and bad, and then declare “were on the good side”. How is this nuanced? How is it nuanced to complain about added context? The fact that I am unwilling to mindlessly go “putler bad, zlava Zelensky” somehow makes me the unnuanced one? The fact that I think questions of NATO encroachment, breaches of treaties and economic interests are relevant to the discussion is somehow unnuanced?
                    Your willingness to reduce it all to “invasion wrong, all other doesn’t matter” is somehow nuanced? Please do some self-crit.

      • American_Badass [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        This is essentially what I used to think as well, until I spent more time there. There’s some stock phrases busted out, and some users probably leave it at that and don’t engage beyond it. However, they genuinely have a deeper framework for an analysis of the world than what you’re going to see from conservatives.

        Basically as part of their extremely liberal ideology, they analyze things through a materialist lens, even the non-marxist liberals there, and through that there is a lot of seeking out of what material causes and contradictions have lead to where we are which can be really neat.

        There is probably some disagreement over what is fascist, what’s not, blah blah. But it’s really not as simple as “what I don’t like is fascism”.

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        Eh, it’s a lot like reddit.

        Two thirds of the rabid ones here are keyboard socialists. They type a good game, know all the stock phrases, but when it comes to actually doing shit, well, touching grass is scary.

        They stay inside and rant and rave about how things SHOULD be while we are out there actually making the incremental changes to try to bring it about.

        Then they post and pat themselves on the back for saying we’re not doing enough.

        It’s very clear that this is every bit the senseless, thoughtless, reactionary, pathetic echo chamber that t_d was, just with red flags instead of red hats.

        Thank you all for helping me to realize that so quickly.

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          They stay inside and rant and rave about how things SHOULD be while we are out there actually making the incremental changes to try to bring it about.

          Incremental changes like allowing abortion bans, trans bans, the cost of living to skyrocket, drone striking workers around the world, doing nothing about the climate, allowing millions of avoidable covid deaths for the sake of the rich… Oh and presiding over the restoration of child labour? Those incremental changes? Anything I missed?

          You’re useless. You are projecting enormously when you say we socialists only talk when literally everything is going backwards even when you’re in power.

          What do you even do anyway? Are you organising? Or do you just vote every few years and act like that means you do something? We organise.

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              Me personally, I teach and make my students aware of the dictatorship of capital, imperialism, the profite motive… Basically marxism-leninism 101 on a introductionary level.

              Other than that, I’m active in the teachers union and volunteer in the local chapter of the Marxist leninist party tog et local projects of the ground, like extending the public transport network, social housing, and most important of all, talking with people about their problems, the rise of fascism where I live and how to counter it, as well as the current neoliberal line of thought in both local and federale government.

              What have you done?

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          while we are out there actually making the incremental changes to try to bring it about.

          lmao most of the activism by liberals here is voting every 2 - 4 years and posting, don’t kid yourself. Just keep carrying water for an unrepentant segregationist and telling yourself that the incremental steps you are supporting are towards progress and not a third world war.

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          while we are out there actually making the incremental changes

          Oh, like choosing between the fascist hog and the cryptofascist corpo hog? vote

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          They stay inside and rant and rave about how things SHOULD be while we are out there actually making the incremental changes to try to bring it about.

          Phonebanking for Biden doesn’t count as doing shit btw

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            Incremental change doesn’t work, but if it did we don’t have time for it with the climate as it is, but if we did I’d still rather change something quick so we can stop people from dying in poverty and starvation.