Pfff, a real tankie would never admit it was for territorial expansion. Don't you know Zelensky is the new Hitler? Russia is just saving Europe from Ukraine.
Or when they say that Russia's genocide of the Ukrainians or China's genocide of the Uyghurs isn't real and claiming it is real is actually genocide denialism?
/This is an actual image of .ml's and dbzer0's admins.
They'll point to Israel, Israel, Israel. Okay, sure, agreed.
But when you point out that China, North Korea, and Russia are all engaging in a blatant genocide against Ukraine -- they suddenly cannot grasp the concept!
My political sanity check is to ask what one's opinion is on Ukraine and Palestine.
See Ukrainians as victims of genocide but not Palestine? Zionist piece of shit. Palestinians are victims but Russia is justified? Tankie piece of shit. Don't approve of either genocide? Might be a sane human being that actually dislikes genocide itself.
See, I understand the sentiment, but then I also know many people who use terms like "tankie" also wouldn't be super chill about anti-imperialism in any way related to abolishing the EU, US, Canada, Australia, etc. Not that is necessarily the case, but hardly worth focusing on "hypocrisy" without consistency.
North Korea is supporting the Russian war effort by providing troops. North Koreans have been fighting alongside Russian soldiers for a long while now. It's actually worse, because North Korean soldiers are on the front lines they're getting experience fighting a modern war. Which means that if North Korea ever gets into a shooting war with South Korea or the United States they'll have experienced troops. Right now the best thing to do would be support Ukrainian forces because they're also gaining experience fighting a modern war and could teach those skills to American and NATO troops.
Ah oh no you pointed to Israel so that argument just doesn't count.
I mean if that counted you could say that almost all the western nations are "blatantly engaging in genocide" for supporting Israel or preventing sanctions. That basically normalized genocide. It becomes an everyday thing. Genocide, schmemocide.
Obviously the removal of Children by Russia is considered a war crime and can amount to ethnic cleansing.
Well yeah, Russia is also gaining experience in drone warfare. It's just one reason why I'm against continuing this war. We're literally building up Russia as our enemy. The military elites in Russia all support this war, and the war economy is going to build up their weapons capabilities long term.
Wars can be won or lost. Surrender is always an option. Ukraine is down to ~45% of it's prewar population, and it's not certain how many refugees will want to return.
No I'm not "noble" I'm just an adult. Call me daddy. Don't be a baby and crash out when you loose a little game of war. And eat some vegetables with your peace agreement! Ukraine is just fucked, but better them than us. I'm not spending fucking 5% of GDP on fucking Nato 3.0!
I'd celebrate that we get to own what is left of Ukraine but it's obviously going to be owned by the banks. And then Ukraine is going to create their own "stab in the back" myth, really looking forward to that as well haha.
PS: I'm obviously bullshitting but that is more or less the shitty reality of the situation.
Surrender equals to mass tortures, oppression, pillage and rape, thus less or more similar to continuation of war. Except you won't be reading about it in the news. Adult my ass.
I'm Ukrainian, my father's friends were killed this week by a random drone strike in their home. Get fucked with your vegetables.
I'm very sorry to hear about your sorrows. It doesn't change my argument though.
Surrender equals to mass tortures, oppression, pillage and rape
This is bit much on the hyperbole and borders on incitement to racial hate. Trying to paint the Russians as some kind of orc people fell out of use like 2 years ago.
In any case a diplomatic solution would obviously require some kind of security guarantee (that includes security for Russia). This retired Commodore suggest the OSCE as a possible peacekeeping force.
How do you see this war ending? Just keep painting Russia as the supreme evil and push for endless confrontation, escalation, war? Some kind of wunderwaffe?
The new reality is that even NATO cannot cannot guarantee security, that article mentions this - the US has been practically been pushed back from the gulf by Iran. And Russia has better weapons than Iran. And neither US or Europe can afford to produce more weapons, and doesn't even have the capacity.
And winter is going to be a problem with the self imposed energy crisis. The looming AI bubble is going to pop sooner or later. European countries are going to go into recessions, reactionary parties are going to get into power.
This fucking insanity and dream of total war has to stop. Why does Russia have to be my enemy? I don't have to like them to get along.
NK provides troops and artillery shells. China keeps their market open to russi allowing drone and drone parts purchases - which are instantly weponized into loitering ammunition aka kamikaze drones
So basically all the following countries that are still engaging in trade with Israel are engaging in genocide against Palestine:
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Brazil
Canada
China
Costa Rica
Czechia
Denmark
Ecuador
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Greece
Hungary
India
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Mexico
Moldova
Morocco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Singapore
Slovakia
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Thailand
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Vietnam
This sarcastic comment was removed and got me banned:
I see. So the US western expansion wasn't imperialist because they weren't a hegemonic world power yet. They were just trying to make sure they could stand up to England! It wasn't about territorial expansion or resources at all. Ridiculous drivel.
They can't let other tankies see how ridiculous their arguments are.
The other one was mocking tankies for gargling Putin's asshole, which is a bit more understandable; I guess some people like the taste.
Tankies are authoritarians. Red fascists. They don't give a fuck about anything or anyone, just their fascist kings being in charge so they can hurt people they think are inferior. Just like any other fascist.
They shit on Marx and gargle Lenin and Mao, then tell you that actually state control and secret police are the real communism.
Is it any wonder from people who cheer when the tanks roll over protesters and revolutionaries?
I'd say it's even simpler than that, it's just tribalism.
$person has criticized our gracious $monarch. They deserve to die!
$person speaks against $religion and is a heretic. They deserve to die!
$person made fun of $fascist_leader. They deserve to die!
$person goes against $party. They deserve to die!
Whoever is in power speaks absolute truth. Be it a fascist leader, a church, a communist party or a monarch. Opposing that truth is heresy/treason/counter-revolutionary/evil and should be severely punished.
I hate how much they made Marx's name dirty, not only people will look at you funny for being communism because of the $$$ propaganda, they will also look at tankies and think communists are like this, infuriating
I have a 35 year-old coworker who is a Ride Or Die Russian dick rider he doesn’t fully support Trump since the Epstein cover-up, but he still will praise him, but he fully supports Russia in its invasion of Ukraine saying that Ukraine is full of pedophiles and they need to be wiped off the Earth. And somehow achieving this will make our lives in America better and everything will be cheaper somehow…
My theory with Tucker and MTG is that they are sitting on the sidelines waiting for Donnie to die, and that will cause a power vacuum in maga and they will do everything in their power to take control and move the party in their own way forward, which I don’t think will work, but it will cause a spinoff, which will be worse than it was before.
Don't give money to Ukraine because they're evil fascists. Let Putin and his glorious thousand year regime reign supreme and stamp out the parasites suckling the life out of the earth like ticks on the flesh of Matka Rossiya.
I think some of that stems from Zelensky holding Israel in favor a lot. He's had multiple positive comments about it, even though Israel is doing what Russia did to Ukraine (or tried to do really)
On the other hand, Ukraine really can't afford to antagonize the US or western Europe. And since those countries are ride or die for Israel, well, Ukraine needs to be, too.
His view on Israel has shifted considerably. I don't blame him for trying to highlight the parallels to gain favor and cooperation immediately after October 7. Naturally he's signaling, "Ah, you're going through what we've been going through! Let's work together!"
Though of course after months went on and Israel's response became orders of magnitude more atrocious and russian-like than the attack itself, then Ukraine began distancing itself and even providing aid to Gaza.
When a tankie says they’re not imperialist, they’re generally referring to the strict definition set forth by Lenin, and not the looser definition in common use.
You’ll get some online tankies who dick ride Russia for sure, but they’re just larping. Real Marxists, who do real organizing, are generally more discerning.
Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not supporting them. They intentionally misunderstand when people say imperialist just so they can argue Russia isn’t. No one is talking about the strict definition when they say it to a tankie.
If you want to understand fully how they decide imperialist vs not imperialist you’d have to read, imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism.
Really it comes down to finance and the export of capital. Lenin differentiated between finance and exporting capital, and wars of territorial aggression. What Russia is doing would fall under war of aggression and not strictly imperialism according to his definition.
90% of what lenin says is bullshit to justify shit.
To be fair literally everyone with any real power though history does that. If your getting your definitions entirely from a dude self justify their own actions your a fucking idiot.
I personally think Russia's long-standing attitude and justifications for undermining and attacking Ukraine are imperialist. It seems Russians view Ukraine as traditionally Russian, even the Ukraine has developed their own national identity. Same thing with how China views Taiwan and Tibet, they use past history to hand-wave away any claims of self-determinism and develop a narrative that manipulation and threats are justified.
(I'm not a geopolitical expert and willing to hear good-faith arguments, but anyone who's just snarky or insulting will just get ignored. I'm here to learn, not to fight.)
I guess it's the textbook definition? A larger nation using its resources (cultural soft power, or military power) to extend their authority over a smaller country. Usually for economic or territorial ends. I apply it to Russia/Ukraine because I put more stock in Ukraine's sovereignty-from-cultural-identity than I do in Russia's historical claims over it. It seems adjacent to decolonization to me.
Should they have made everybody speak French or English? To compete with the West economically the East needed a common language. How should the language have been chosen?
What they should have done is let countries keep their sovereignty. Or are you saying that ecomonic competition with the west is a valid reason for what Russia did to eastern Europe?
This is what I mean, by that definition you can cover almost every war. You don't see smaller nations invading larger, more powerful ones. You can even use it to say the US influence in Ukraine over the last 30 has been imperialist. The Norman invasion of 1066 becomes imperialist. Can you really not see how meaningless a definition that is?
Agreed as very well known and easy examples that prove not all wars got the definition.
Plus what in the world is wrong with it fitting 80-90% of wars for at least one side of the conflict? It is easily one of the most likely reasons for counties to go to war.
You mean the revolution? Because I'm pretty sure you aren't about the raise the civil war, where the more powerful north imposed it's will on the confederacy through military power.
Exploitation of a nation for labour and resources. You know, like America invading Iraq and Afghanistan for oil and heroin, or America invading Korea so they could get cheap sweatshop labour, or Europe invading Africa for everything and everyone that wasn't nailed down.
Yeah I'd call those all imperialism as well. There's a distinct theme of economic expansion - and that certainly doesn't describe every war I know about
I can't help but feel you are actually engaging in bad faith when you've commented twice that you definitely know other wars but don't mention what they are.
You say it like I'm some capitalist pig that doesn't agree with all of the above. I don't get why Russia gets a pass though, they mucked about in Africa, Asia and Latin America in their past too. They are still in Africa from what I understand and it's hard to pretend they aren't in Ukraine specifically for ressources.
Russia doesn't get a pass for it's actual imperialism, but Russia's other actions doesn't make this action imperialist.
It's hard to pretend they are in Ukraine for resources, Ukraine was having a full blown civil war over the banning of speaking russian. I know we're used to standing idly by and shrugging our shoulders when someone's attempting genocide, but saying Russia is there for resources is just pretending history started in 2022.
What kinda irks me, as an American, is when other Americans act like this is the first time anyone's done an invasion in the 21st century. As though our government didn't spend the last twenty+ years establishing what huge economic, nuclear powers can get away with on the world stage.
No, no, no - it's no annexaion, it's freeing people (as I got from some tankie about China's occupation of Tibet).
Mind you, all Imperialists (no matter from which region) tend to claim they're freeing the people they're attacking - America and its allies are constantly "freeing" people in the Middle East from some autoritarian or other all the while leaving behind 10x - 100x more dead than the dictator ever killed, Russia claimed to be invading to free Ukranians from Nazism.
Even the Genociders claim they're somehow freeing people: notice Israel's talk about how the Palestineans treat homosexuals badly, all the while they were indiscriminatelly mass murdering people in Gaza, including said homosexuals.
No? I suspect you are talking about threads where I've been saying that the Russian-Ukranian war must be stopped, threads where I defended/explained some Putin's talking points, and literally telling people that there's no difference between deaths of Ukrainian civilians and Russian civilians, the fact that killing more Russians will not grant Ukraine victory. I also recall a few threads where I called out literal neonazis in Ukraine and got downvoted by Ukraine larping supporters from the left to hell.
I have never defended Putin's expansionism and have always called it imperialism.
So you're against the war, but only when it means criticizing Ukraine?
Not full-strength kremlin propaganda then, just kremlin propaganda lite. Got it.
How about you tell everyone that the war could end in a day if Putin simply decides to pull his troops out of Ukraine? I don't recall you ever mentioning that.
Oh, by the way, there's a substantial difference between one or two collateral civilian casualties now and then, and deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, killing them in the thousands, as well as detaining, displacing, torturing, and raping them.
The fact that you try so hard to draw a false equivalence between the two, is itself kremlin propaganda.
Only the US can perform imperial expansion, therefore Russia's invasion into Ukraine is the defense against US expansion. Go ask ml guys, they'll confirm it
Lemmy.ml in general. Mod of lemmy.ml/worldnews called Ukrainians terrorists for drone striking oil depots. I called him out badly (won't use the word) for not calling Russia terrorists for bombing hospitals. Got banned from lemmy.ml/jellyfin. So yeah, arguing on worldnews got me banned from jellyfin, and a few other completely unrelated forums despite them not sharing mods.
That means their homeserver, jellyfin and a few other forums are run by hardcore tankies. If you insult Russians , you are banned from helping people with their server problems.
Right, would that be the only place? I can't say I've seen any DPRK supporters like, ever. Maybe during that period where people began challenging US propaganda and understandably assumed it was all bullshit; that was like seven or eight years ago though.
I’ve really bumped into it by accident when browsing all and not noticing where I am. Then it’ll be a week of hate messages after a non consequential comment on something unimportant.
When it happens more often that I see critics of a group make claims about what that group says or believes, and when I've never seen members of the group say anything that matches those claims, it makes me suspicious.
This is what warmed me up to veganism for example - growing up hearing nothing but arguments against vegans, and then when finally seeing some things a real vegan had to say and having to realize the vast majority of those anti-animal-rights arguments are grossly full of shit.
I'm getting the same vibes here. I don't engage with political ideology much these days because theory makes my eyes glaze, but posts like these seem 1) suspicious af, and wouldn't surprise me if they're being pushed by paid actors, and 2) seem highly likely to be a strawman.
"We critically Russia" is too fucking funny to be a typo. Its almost like they can't disapprove of something without immediately defending the other side. As an adult, I can say US imperialism is bad. Also as an adult, I can say that doesn't make Russia inherently good.
I am not sure what you thought the statement was intended to be, but the typo is that they were saying they "critically support Russia". With critical support being a common leftist term for support while being critical.
Put simply they are saying "US imperialism is bad, that doesn’t make Russia inherently good."
I was like you until I started seeing more ML posts on here that completely baffled my mind. In one hand Palestine should be free (rightly so) and then in the other they claim Ukraine is full of Nazis and Russia is doing the world a service of exterminating them. The disconnect is pretty crazy. If you want hard actual evidence, just go to an ML instance and poke around for a bit. It's not hard to find, sadly.
You see in the current geopolitical material situation it's essential for Russia and China to be the counteraction to the US by doing the same and aligning on their shared goal of billionaire murder cult child fuckers exploiting all of humanity
Has it... Has it always been like this? Maybe it was there dormant, like cancer, that suddenly sprang metastases when conditions got ripe? Let it stew too long... You want to catch that early, nip in in the bud. You can't easily get rid of it once it burrowed its tick head in there.
Sorry for meandering, just thinking out loud...
Does anyone know if molotov cocktails work as tick removers? How well and what dose, does anyone know? (no AI answers ples)
Russia is a far-right petrostate that produces a disproportionate number of the world's billionaires while crushing internal dissent, killing & imprisoning critics of the regime.
It sure seems dumb to support a far-right invasion of a sovereign country if you consider yourself a leftist.
I know what they are, and the term for when one supports the weaking of capitalism is called critical support. Now I'd as the same for you, would you support a far-right nation or a fascist nation that's being used by the largest capitalist economic empire that's being used to attack its competition? The US is pumping out the most trillionares at this point, which are more centralized than the billionares in Russia.
This is a strawman on a "the liberals are transing our kids" level. Maybe you do find some idiotic people actually arguing this nonsense, but that means nothing.
Most liberals and leftists are willing to ignore incontrovertible facts and overwhelming evidence that the invasion wasn't as black and white. The CIA under Obama funded and trained the organizer of Euromaidan and with the help of far right elements in Ukraine managed the protests and a false flag massacre and to "regime change" Ukraine - overthrow a legitimately elected government. All of this is beyond reasonable doubt to anyone looking at the actual historical evidence. Russia reacted exactly like they said they would when the west "decided" in 2008 that Ukraine and Georgia was going to become members of Nato.
And still you're willing to massively simplify a complex geopolitical history into a simplistic "good vs evil" narrative. Because nearly the entire western mainstream media says so, and everyone walks in lockstep.
When anybody points out that you are missing what this war is doing to the western world, to the media and our economies you loose your shit. Under Nato 3.0 (their actual name) 5% GDP for the new privatized military industrial complex in Europe. All justified by the great bogyman in the east.
Ukraine isn't winning this war. It's been 3 years and they are stuck. Do you want them to fight until the last man? Ukraine lost. The US empire is winning by bleeding Russia. And Russia is winning by bleeding Europe in return.
Nobody you would call "Tankie" actually apologizes Russia or their invasion. At least I haven't seen one yet. Fuck Putin. But unlike you, I don't close my eyes and pretend to know perfectly what is and what isn't.
Your fervor enables the warmongering and jingoism. I would excuse ignorance but no doubt you've been shown the (western / ukrainian) sources (e.g. this and this and this) and choose to ignore the facts.
It doesn’t sound like this is directed at you when you’re not defending the invasion, so I don’t understand what this is a defense of. Nobody is saying the west is a saint either.
By this definition though, literally all wars of conquest (i.e. most of them) are “imperialism”.
I am a tankie so while I lean on Lenin’s definition of imperialism, let’s put that aside for a moment. “Imperialism” cannot be simple conquest. Because when we think of “imperialism” without tying it to a specific example, I think we all broadly get the same picture. Something like an octopus, extending its reach out far and wide an establishing control over places, in service of enriching the metropole. Conquest can be one initial stage of imperial control, or imperialism doesn’t even need military conquest. It’s why I would say the United States in 2026 is unequivocally imperialist. So were the pre-WW1 Western European nations.
I’m not making any sort of judgement on the rightness or wrongness of Russia’s actions. It’s just that I get a bee in bonnet when liberals try and downplay the true imperialism of present day US and Europe by saying “bbbbut Russia is imperialist too!!!” when they don’t even have any understanding of the word.
What's your point? It sounds like your complaining about some people downplaying western imperialism to highlight Russia while you downplay Russian imperialism to highlight the West.
I literally explained how I was taking issue with the use of the word “imperialism” and not commenting the morality of the action. But maybe reading comprehension is hard for you? It so I’m sorry for your affliction.
I am yet to hear from liberals defend imperialism from their own side. I mean, liberals are one of many who typically are vocal against imperialism. Liberals are labeled as "self-hating" by conservatives for a reason. Meanwhile, tankies are either paid or being useful idiots who side with anyone--including opposing imperialists-- just for being anti-Western just for the sake of it.
And I gotta say, I am extremely impressed with Putins strategy. He didn't even hide it, and it still worked over decades. A three or four decade long chess move. He is for sure one of history's great villains, but you can't help but respect the play. He brought the US to its knees without having to fire a single bullet.
Well ok a few very select bullets, but no hot confrontation. Just honey, rubles and polonium.
He studied his Tzu well! Or Napoleon, for that matter, or Caesar, or perhaps Machiavelli. Or Peter the Pretty Great but Perhaps Not So Great In Hindsight Great.
I wouldn't give Putin too much credit. A lot of analysts have astutely observed that Putin can only start conflicts but can't finish them. Even Georgia is an unresolved business. But of course, that problem culminated with Ukraine. Decades of consolidating power for himself and rebuilding Russia's prestige is undone in just five years. Putin's Russia excel at information war but not actual physical war.
Russia has been weakened just as the US. The real winner is China.
ShitLibs give no fucks whatsoever for what a word actually means once their billionaire masters have given them a definition that prevents them from thinking thoughts that are dangerous to the status quo.
Imperialism is a form of capitalism that exists when finance capital has eclipsed commodity production as the Primary driver of the economy in a nation. Russia would love to be Imperialist, but they aren't, bcs they aren't economically developed enough. You're thinking of expansionism, not Imperialism.
Russia would love to be Imperialist, but they aren’t, bcs they aren’t economically developed enough.
The word Imperialism was coined in the 1870's and applied to countries that were several orders of magnitude less developed than Russia today. Lenin defined Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism which definitely applies to Russia today. Russia is as capitalist and developed as the UK is today.
Just writing a bunch of tankie buzzwords makes you feel smart but nothing you said is true lol. When stupid people think they are smart because they've learned to speak in a certain cadence and use certain words popular with their in-crowd it's really dangerous and cringey to boot. Very similar to religion. Hearing people pray out loud just makes my skin crawl. Your comment is really similar.
Lol, so you actually think that using the replacement definitions your capitalist masters created to ensure you wouldn't be able to think thoughts that are dangerous to them is not "dangerous and cringey"?
I'm guessing you also think your residence and car are "private property" too, don't you?
Your boss and landlord thank your for you pliability.
You have to remember- Russian fascism was fought since its inception by the West! It was never given a chance to grow into its full potential!
😡
Edit: ok except that one time when we collaborated with them to fight an even greater fascist threat that they were previously allied with but tomato potatoe
Forgive me if this sounds like I'm being dismissive - I'm not trying to be, just trying to be practical. Anyway, doesn't this seems like splitting hairs? Any violence initiated with the intent of economic expansion seems unethical and unjust to me. At least, far less just than revolutionary or anti-colonial violence. Labels are just labels, and whether or not something adheres to Lenin's definition seems to be far less important than the fact that people are dying and suffering because of the greed of the wealthy.
It looks like carefully slicing of the original definition to make a new one were, as long as the political ideology doing the deed is Marxist-Leninist or similar, then taking other people's shit and land and forcefully making them subject to your control is not "imperialist".
In other words, the same level of bullshit hypocrisy as when America attacks a Middle Eastern nation claiming to be "freeing" them or Israel mass murders Gazans whilst harping all about how it's Palestinians who are morally bad because of how they treat homosexuals (who, notice, are being murdered by Israel just as much as the rest of Gazans).
Conquerors and murders twisting and redefining words to claim they're the good guys.
The original definition came out of 1830s France. Definitions change when understanding evolves. Surely you wouldn't ding Encyclopedia Brittanica for bastardizing (or "careful slicing") the definition of imperialism as set forth by the original anti bonapartists?
Why do you believe that Lenin's narrow and skewed definition of imperialism is the only true and authentic one?
The word was in common use for at least 100 years before Lenin even started writing, mostly used to denigrate French and British expansion and colonialism.
I believe Marx would also disagree with Lenin on this definition, but I understand that .ml are much bigger fans of Lenin and Stalin than Marx.
I think you're running into a conflict of definitions. Usually that's what these sorts of disagreements boil down to. In order to answer whether Russia counts as "imperialist", you first have to know what counts as "imperialism".
the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation especially by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas
By this definition, it's difficult to say Russia is doing capital "I" imperialism, since they're not occupying and controlling a majority of Ukraine. If you count any amount of land occupied, then they are.
When you're talking to tankies, you also have to realise that Imperialism is a jargon term with a specific definition. That's explained by Lenin here, if you're interested.
I think you're confusing the "extending the power and dominion of a nation" bit and are treating that line as if it refers to two entities, as it it read "extending the power and dominating a nation".
"The dominion of a nation" is basically its possessions.
The passage is really saying that Imperialism is "the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and territory or resources of a nation especially ...", though personally I'd replace "nation" with "entity", since I do think the capitalistic use is also appropriate. It's really about an entity wanting to expand (or consolidate) its control.
Anyways, with that clarification, I don't think whether or not Russia is doing an imperialism is under question.
Your, rather pointlessly pedantic, argument makes sense only if you ignore the places russia has already taken over (and I'm talking about areas colonized by imperial russia, soviet union and current russian federation, that are still occupied by said russian federation) and also ignore their goals with Ukraine.
But if you don't ignore those things, your argument falls apart.
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Pfff, a real tankie would never admit it was for territorial expansion. Don't you know Zelensky is the new Hitler? Russia is just saving Europe from Ukraine.
We should be thanking them.
(Totally not sarcasm, I'm super cereal)
if ukraine was facist russia would be supporting them, not invading.
Or when they say that Russia's genocide of the Ukrainians or China's genocide of the Uyghurs isn't real and claiming it is real is actually genocide denialism?
/This is an actual image of .ml's and dbzer0's admins.
Pretty accurate. However it is just braindead like @[email protected] and @[email protected]
But as long as @[email protected] let’s them do whatever they want, he is part of the problem.
And they call themselves anarchists lol. Like someone who smoked weed once calls themselves hippie.
Edit: watch me get banned in real time from their hypocritical “Anarchist Flotilla”. I bet they all feel like heroes by using the term Flotilla
They'll point to Israel, Israel, Israel. Okay, sure, agreed.
But when you point out that China, North Korea, and Russia are all engaging in a blatant genocide against Ukraine -- they suddenly cannot grasp the concept!
My political sanity check is to ask what one's opinion is on Ukraine and Palestine.
See Ukrainians as victims of genocide but not Palestine? Zionist piece of shit. Palestinians are victims but Russia is justified? Tankie piece of shit. Don't approve of either genocide? Might be a sane human being that actually dislikes genocide itself.
Genocide is when the killing is not being done by my friends.
War justification can cause some crazy opinions and stances.
Israel isn't a democracy.
See, I understand the sentiment, but then I also know many people who use terms like "tankie" also wouldn't be super chill about anti-imperialism in any way related to abolishing the EU, US, Canada, Australia, etc. Not that is necessarily the case, but hardly worth focusing on "hypocrisy" without consistency.
You all for ending Canada or the US?
How are China and North Korea engaging in blatant genocide against Ukraine?
North Korea is supporting the Russian war effort by providing troops. North Koreans have been fighting alongside Russian soldiers for a long while now. It's actually worse, because North Korean soldiers are on the front lines they're getting experience fighting a modern war. Which means that if North Korea ever gets into a shooting war with South Korea or the United States they'll have experienced troops. Right now the best thing to do would be support Ukrainian forces because they're also gaining experience fighting a modern war and could teach those skills to American and NATO troops.
As for China, I don't know.
are you sure they’ll have experienced troops? russia doesn’t really fight wars in a manner that ends with experienced troops
China supports Russia in a similar, but lesser, way to the US supporting Israel.
Ah oh no you pointed to Israel so that argument just doesn't count.
I mean if that counted you could say that almost all the western nations are "blatantly engaging in genocide" for supporting Israel or preventing sanctions. That basically normalized genocide. It becomes an everyday thing. Genocide, schmemocide.
Obviously the removal of Children by Russia is considered a war crime and can amount to ethnic cleansing.
Well yeah, Russia is also gaining experience in drone warfare. It's just one reason why I'm against continuing this war. We're literally building up Russia as our enemy. The military elites in Russia all support this war, and the war economy is going to build up their weapons capabilities long term.
Oh so noble of you!
Wars can be won or lost. Surrender is always an option. Ukraine is down to ~45% of it's prewar population, and it's not certain how many refugees will want to return.
No I'm not "noble" I'm just an adult. Call me daddy. Don't be a baby and crash out when you loose a little game of war. And eat some vegetables with your peace agreement! Ukraine is just fucked, but better them than us. I'm not spending fucking 5% of GDP on fucking Nato 3.0!
I'd celebrate that we get to own what is left of Ukraine but it's obviously going to be owned by the banks. And then Ukraine is going to create their own "stab in the back" myth, really looking forward to that as well haha.
PS: I'm obviously bullshitting but that is more or less the shitty reality of the situation.
Surrender equals to mass tortures, oppression, pillage and rape, thus less or more similar to continuation of war. Except you won't be reading about it in the news. Adult my ass.
I'm Ukrainian, my father's friends were killed this week by a random drone strike in their home. Get fucked with your vegetables.
I'm very sorry to hear about your sorrows. It doesn't change my argument though.
This is bit much on the hyperbole and borders on incitement to racial hate. Trying to paint the Russians as some kind of orc people fell out of use like 2 years ago.
In any case a diplomatic solution would obviously require some kind of security guarantee (that includes security for Russia). This retired Commodore suggest the OSCE as a possible peacekeeping force.
How do you see this war ending? Just keep painting Russia as the supreme evil and push for endless confrontation, escalation, war? Some kind of wunderwaffe?
The new reality is that even NATO cannot cannot guarantee security, that article mentions this - the US has been practically been pushed back from the gulf by Iran. And Russia has better weapons than Iran. And neither US or Europe can afford to produce more weapons, and doesn't even have the capacity.
And winter is going to be a problem with the self imposed energy crisis. The looming AI bubble is going to pop sooner or later. European countries are going to go into recessions, reactionary parties are going to get into power.
This fucking insanity and dream of total war has to stop. Why does Russia have to be my enemy? I don't have to like them to get along.
That a strange thing to say about the side that currently is winning.
NK provides troops and artillery shells. China keeps their market open to russi allowing drone and drone parts purchases - which are instantly weponized into loitering ammunition aka kamikaze drones
TBF to China, they're selling to both sides.
The whole thing is a Helleresque farce.
For example:
A comedy for those who can think, a tragedy for those who can feel.
Obviously, there's a war on, so take everything you read with a pinch of salt.
They are the Ferengi in this war.
War is good for business.
So basically all the following countries that are still engaging in trade with Israel are engaging in genocide against Palestine:
Argentina Australia Austria Brazil Canada China Costa Rica Czechia Denmark Ecuador Egypt Estonia Finland France Greece Hungary India Ireland Italy Japan Mexico Moldova Morocco Netherlands New Zealand Norway Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Romania Singapore Slovakia South Korea Sweden Switzerland Thailand United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Vietnam
wat
This sarcastic comment was removed and got me banned:
They can't let other tankies see how ridiculous their arguments are.
The other one was mocking tankies for gargling Putin's asshole, which is a bit more understandable; I guess some people like the taste.
Tankies are authoritarians. Red fascists. They don't give a fuck about anything or anyone, just their fascist kings being in charge so they can hurt people they think are inferior. Just like any other fascist.
They shit on Marx and gargle Lenin and Mao, then tell you that actually state control and secret police are the real communism.
Is it any wonder from people who cheer when the tanks roll over protesters and revolutionaries?
I am still convinced a sizable chunk of online tankies are just right-wing extremists cosplaying. Oh, and of course foreign operatives.
I'd say it's even simpler than that, it's just tribalism.
Whoever is in power speaks absolute truth. Be it a fascist leader, a church, a communist party or a monarch. Opposing that truth is heresy/treason/counter-revolutionary/evil and should be severely punished.
I hate how much they made Marx's name dirty, not only people will look at you funny for being communism because of the $$$ propaganda, they will also look at tankies and think communists are like this, infuriating
🤣 I enjoy refuting their bullshit about the USSR since I'm from there.
Don’t forget insulting your blood line while they are at it.
Oh that’s their only way of survival. Not by logic, but by banning anything going against their opinion.
It’s the same as if you would argue with a flatearther. Pure denialism.
I have a 35 year-old coworker who is a Ride Or Die Russian dick rider he doesn’t fully support Trump since the Epstein cover-up, but he still will praise him, but he fully supports Russia in its invasion of Ukraine saying that Ukraine is full of pedophiles and they need to be wiped off the Earth. And somehow achieving this will make our lives in America better and everything will be cheaper somehow…
It's why Tucker Carlson supports them: they're right-wing authoritarian nationalists.
My theory with Tucker and MTG is that they are sitting on the sidelines waiting for Donnie to die, and that will cause a power vacuum in maga and they will do everything in their power to take control and move the party in their own way forward, which I don’t think will work, but it will cause a spinoff, which will be worse than it was before.
You're right, but I don't think it's really theory that the far-right also has factions.
Don't give money to Ukraine because they're evil fascists. Let Putin and his glorious thousand year regime reign supreme and stamp out the parasites suckling the life out of the earth like ticks on the flesh of Matka Rossiya.
This will also make eggs cheaper.
It blows my mind that pro- Palestinians think they shouldn't support Ukraine.
I wonder if MLs around here are pro-Palestine only because that's a pushback against the Western representation in the Middle East, Isreal
I think you nailed it.
Yeah they have no issue with China helping Israel as long as sometimes the country says free palestine
I think some of that stems from Zelensky holding Israel in favor a lot. He's had multiple positive comments about it, even though Israel is doing what Russia did to Ukraine (or tried to do really)
On the other hand, Ukraine really can't afford to antagonize the US or western Europe. And since those countries are ride or die for Israel, well, Ukraine needs to be, too.
His view on Israel has shifted considerably. I don't blame him for trying to highlight the parallels to gain favor and cooperation immediately after October 7. Naturally he's signaling, "Ah, you're going through what we've been going through! Let's work together!"
Though of course after months went on and Israel's response became orders of magnitude more atrocious and russian-like than the attack itself, then Ukraine began distancing itself and even providing aid to Gaza.
When a tankie says they’re not imperialist, they’re generally referring to the strict definition set forth by Lenin, and not the looser definition in common use.
You’ll get some online tankies who dick ride Russia for sure, but they’re just larping. Real Marxists, who do real organizing, are generally more discerning.
Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not supporting them. They intentionally misunderstand when people say imperialist just so they can argue Russia isn’t. No one is talking about the strict definition when they say it to a tankie.
I'm not familiar with Lenin's particular definition of imperialism. Does it somehow exclude what Russia is doing?
If you want to understand fully how they decide imperialist vs not imperialist you’d have to read, imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism.
Really it comes down to finance and the export of capital. Lenin differentiated between finance and exporting capital, and wars of territorial aggression. What Russia is doing would fall under war of aggression and not strictly imperialism according to his definition.
https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2023/08/16/five-key-features-of-imperialism/
Honestly, that sounds like bullshit that Lenin made up so he could say he's totally not the new tsar.
90% of what lenin says is bullshit to justify shit.
To be fair literally everyone with any real power though history does that. If your getting your definitions entirely from a dude self justify their own actions your a fucking idiot.
Oh god, what is the looser definition then? Because it really looks like libs are using it to mean any war.
I personally think Russia's long-standing attitude and justifications for undermining and attacking Ukraine are imperialist. It seems Russians view Ukraine as traditionally Russian, even the Ukraine has developed their own national identity. Same thing with how China views Taiwan and Tibet, they use past history to hand-wave away any claims of self-determinism and develop a narrative that manipulation and threats are justified.
(I'm not a geopolitical expert and willing to hear good-faith arguments, but anyone who's just snarky or insulting will just get ignored. I'm here to learn, not to fight.)
But why? What is your understanding of imperialism that qualifies Russia's invasion of Ukraine?
I guess it's the textbook definition? A larger nation using its resources (cultural soft power, or military power) to extend their authority over a smaller country. Usually for economic or territorial ends. I apply it to Russia/Ukraine because I put more stock in Ukraine's sovereignty-from-cultural-identity than I do in Russia's historical claims over it. It seems adjacent to decolonization to me.
Don't forget all the russification brought to eastern Europe by the bullshit imperalist Soviet union.
Should they have made everybody speak French or English? To compete with the West economically the East needed a common language. How should the language have been chosen?
What they should have done is let countries keep their sovereignty. Or are you saying that ecomonic competition with the west is a valid reason for what Russia did to eastern Europe?
This is what I mean, by that definition you can cover almost every war. You don't see smaller nations invading larger, more powerful ones. You can even use it to say the US influence in Ukraine over the last 30 has been imperialist. The Norman invasion of 1066 becomes imperialist. Can you really not see how meaningless a definition that is?
Well, I mean, as an American I can mention a couple of important wars to my homeland that weren't driven by these motivations. Shall I elucidate?
Agreed as very well known and easy examples that prove not all wars got the definition.
Plus what in the world is wrong with it fitting 80-90% of wars for at least one side of the conflict? It is easily one of the most likely reasons for counties to go to war.
Please stop engaging with this troll, they're not operating in good faith, they just want to engage in russian atrocity apologia
You mean the revolution? Because I'm pretty sure you aren't about the raise the civil war, where the more powerful north imposed it's will on the confederacy through military power.
Only if your reading comprehension sucks...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism
You're a sealioning fascist
Yeah, yeah, can you give me a definition without opening Wikipedia or not?
What definition are you using, just out of curiosity?
Exploitation of a nation for labour and resources. You know, like America invading Iraq and Afghanistan for oil and heroin, or America invading Korea so they could get cheap sweatshop labour, or Europe invading Africa for everything and everyone that wasn't nailed down.
Yeah I'd call those all imperialism as well. There's a distinct theme of economic expansion - and that certainly doesn't describe every war I know about
I can't help but feel you are actually engaging in bad faith when you've commented twice that you definitely know other wars but don't mention what they are.
If you think I'm trolling or whatever, you're free to bow out of the conversation. I was just trying to be succinct and avoid writing walls of text.
You say it like I'm some capitalist pig that doesn't agree with all of the above. I don't get why Russia gets a pass though, they mucked about in Africa, Asia and Latin America in their past too. They are still in Africa from what I understand and it's hard to pretend they aren't in Ukraine specifically for ressources.
Russia doesn't get a pass for it's actual imperialism, but Russia's other actions doesn't make this action imperialist.
It's hard to pretend they are in Ukraine for resources, Ukraine was having a full blown civil war over the banning of speaking russian. I know we're used to standing idly by and shrugging our shoulders when someone's attempting genocide, but saying Russia is there for resources is just pretending history started in 2022.
Are you honestly saying Ukraines defence against a violent seccession, possible only do to Russian instigation, is attempted genocide?
And of course Ukraines eastern natural gas reserves are one of the reasons for the invasion, thinking otherwise is just naive.
You are actually joking, right? How do you defend against succession? They're trying to leave and you're stopping them.
The whole of Ukraine produces a fraction of the natural gas Russia does. They've not reorganised their entire economy for a 5% increase in production.
You're moving further and further from reality as you try to vibe your way through politics. Read any sort of theory for once.
So you agree that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is imperialist?
Because it's exactly that.
Of course it's imperialism.
What kinda irks me, as an American, is when other Americans act like this is the first time anyone's done an invasion in the 21st century. As though our government didn't spend the last twenty+ years establishing what huge economic, nuclear powers can get away with on the world stage.
It's only imperialism if it's being produced in the special empire
If it doesn't come from the regions of the Western Imperialist Pigs then it's not real imperialism. It's sparkling annexation.
No, no, no - it's no annexaion, it's freeing people (as I got from some tankie about China's occupation of Tibet).
Mind you, all Imperialists (no matter from which region) tend to claim they're freeing the people they're attacking - America and its allies are constantly "freeing" people in the Middle East from some autoritarian or other all the while leaving behind 10x - 100x more dead than the dictator ever killed, Russia claimed to be invading to free Ukranians from Nazism.
Even the Genociders claim they're somehow freeing people: notice Israel's talk about how the Palestineans treat homosexuals badly, all the while they were indiscriminatelly mass murdering people in Gaza, including said homosexuals.
You're only being upvoted because people think you're being sarcastic, but I know you're being serious because I've seen you do this before.
No? I suspect you are talking about threads where I've been saying that the Russian-Ukranian war must be stopped, threads where I defended/explained some Putin's talking points, and literally telling people that there's no difference between deaths of Ukrainian civilians and Russian civilians, the fact that killing more Russians will not grant Ukraine victory. I also recall a few threads where I called out literal neonazis in Ukraine and got downvoted by Ukraine larping supporters from the left to hell.
I have never defended Putin's expansionism and have always called it imperialism.
So you're against the war, but only when it means criticizing Ukraine?
Not full-strength kremlin propaganda then, just kremlin propaganda lite. Got it.
How about you tell everyone that the war could end in a day if Putin simply decides to pull his troops out of Ukraine? I don't recall you ever mentioning that.
Oh, by the way, there's a substantial difference between one or two collateral civilian casualties now and then, and deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, killing them in the thousands, as well as detaining, displacing, torturing, and raping them.
The fact that you try so hard to draw a false equivalence between the two, is itself kremlin propaganda.
No, no,no, you must choose sides, good or bad, black or white.
No such thing as nuance or critical thinking on the internet, get with the program.
Otherwise it's... Sparkling fascism?
Otherwise it's a defense against imperialism
So... Are you saying that Russia invasion of Ukraine is Russia's defence against Ukraine imperial expansion?
Yes, in the current tankie narrative it is:
Only the US can perform imperial expansion, therefore Russia's invasion into Ukraine is the defense against US expansion. Go ask ml guys, they'll confirm it
Where do you guys find these people?
Lemmy.ml/socialism is a toxic wasteland filled with Stalinists and DPRK supporters (really)
Lemmy.ml in general. Mod of lemmy.ml/worldnews called Ukrainians terrorists for drone striking oil depots. I called him out badly (won't use the word) for not calling Russia terrorists for bombing hospitals. Got banned from lemmy.ml/jellyfin. So yeah, arguing on worldnews got me banned from jellyfin, and a few other completely unrelated forums despite them not sharing mods.
That means their homeserver, jellyfin and a few other forums are run by hardcore tankies. If you insult Russians , you are banned from helping people with their server problems.
Right, would that be the only place? I can't say I've seen any DPRK supporters like, ever. Maybe during that period where people began challenging US propaganda and understandably assumed it was all bullshit; that was like seven or eight years ago though.
They are everywhere but less impactful if you block some instances
I'm yet to see any really without seeking them out
I’ve really bumped into it by accident when browsing all and not noticing where I am. Then it’ll be a week of hate messages after a non consequential comment on something unimportant.
On lemmy.world often.
Every time someone posts about calling out ml bs they are like sharks to blood
I have certainly seen more posts like this than the posts it references, of which I could recall none
I'm mostly joking because of where the user is from. But they're there. Hexbear and .ml are the communities you'll find these people the most
Ahh I see
Doing good work 🏴
When it happens more often that I see critics of a group make claims about what that group says or believes, and when I've never seen members of the group say anything that matches those claims, it makes me suspicious.
This is what warmed me up to veganism for example - growing up hearing nothing but arguments against vegans, and then when finally seeing some things a real vegan had to say and having to realize the vast majority of those anti-animal-rights arguments are grossly full of shit.
I'm getting the same vibes here. I don't engage with political ideology much these days because theory makes my eyes glaze, but posts like these seem 1) suspicious af, and wouldn't surprise me if they're being pushed by paid actors, and 2) seem highly likely to be a strawman.
You want to be taken seriously, show evidence.
I'm sorry, you haven't seen tankies say this on Lemmy?
You can look through this thread if you want confirmation.
They're also in this very post.
The link to your thread shows zero comments for me. The OP post in the thread is correct though, Israel is a child killing state.
Israel is absolutely a child-killing apartheid genocidal state.
Here's a taste:
"We critically Russia" is too fucking funny to be a typo. Its almost like they can't disapprove of something without immediately defending the other side. As an adult, I can say US imperialism is bad. Also as an adult, I can say that doesn't make Russia inherently good.
I am not sure what you thought the statement was intended to be, but the typo is that they were saying they "critically support Russia". With critical support being a common leftist term for support while being critical.
Put simply they are saying "US imperialism is bad, that doesn’t make Russia inherently good."
Go look at any of the tankie communities, hell even c/leftymemes is full of this bullshit.
I was like you until I started seeing more ML posts on here that completely baffled my mind. In one hand Palestine should be free (rightly so) and then in the other they claim Ukraine is full of Nazis and Russia is doing the world a service of exterminating them. The disconnect is pretty crazy. If you want hard actual evidence, just go to an ML instance and poke around for a bit. It's not hard to find, sadly.
The Web has its share of agents working for a nation state to guide the discourse. I imagine this location isn't too different.
Don't argue with delusional people unless you're also willing to reject reality (don't do that).
commies can't conquer. Every tankie knows this.
You see in the current geopolitical material situation it's essential for Russia and China to be the counteraction to the US by doing the same and aligning on their shared goal of billionaire murder cult child fuckers exploiting all of humanity
Has it... Has it always been like this? Maybe it was there dormant, like cancer, that suddenly sprang metastases when conditions got ripe? Let it stew too long... You want to catch that early, nip in in the bud. You can't easily get rid of it once it burrowed its tick head in there.
Sorry for meandering, just thinking out loud...
Does anyone know if molotov cocktails work as tick removers? How well and what dose, does anyone know? (no AI answers ples)
The regime change already happened in 2014 tho
Do you think it's OK to invade any country every time it's leading party loses the grip on power? Or is it only true for Russia's neighbors?
If they're fascist aligned then yeah. I think fighting fascism is a good thing.
Russia is a far-right petrostate that produces a disproportionate number of the world's billionaires while crushing internal dissent, killing & imprisoning critics of the regime.
It sure seems dumb to support a far-right invasion of a sovereign country if you consider yourself a leftist.
I know what they are, and the term for when one supports the weaking of capitalism is called critical support. Now I'd as the same for you, would you support a far-right nation or a fascist nation that's being used by the largest capitalist economic empire that's being used to attack its competition? The US is pumping out the most trillionares at this point, which are more centralized than the billionares in Russia.
The US being a far-right imperialist hellhole is no excuse for Russia to be a far-right imperialist hellhole.
It's really not that hard to understand.
It is for people with their heads firmly up their own rectum
I am not saying it isn't
This is a strawman on a "the liberals are transing our kids" level. Maybe you do find some idiotic people actually arguing this nonsense, but that means nothing.
Most liberals and leftists are willing to ignore incontrovertible facts and overwhelming evidence that the invasion wasn't as black and white. The CIA under Obama funded and trained the organizer of Euromaidan and with the help of far right elements in Ukraine managed the protests and a false flag massacre and to "regime change" Ukraine - overthrow a legitimately elected government. All of this is beyond reasonable doubt to anyone looking at the actual historical evidence. Russia reacted exactly like they said they would when the west "decided" in 2008 that Ukraine and Georgia was going to become members of Nato.
And still you're willing to massively simplify a complex geopolitical history into a simplistic "good vs evil" narrative. Because nearly the entire western mainstream media says so, and everyone walks in lockstep.
When anybody points out that you are missing what this war is doing to the western world, to the media and our economies you loose your shit. Under Nato 3.0 (their actual name) 5% GDP for the new privatized military industrial complex in Europe. All justified by the great bogyman in the east.
Ukraine isn't winning this war. It's been 3 years and they are stuck. Do you want them to fight until the last man? Ukraine lost. The US empire is winning by bleeding Russia. And Russia is winning by bleeding Europe in return.
Nobody you would call "Tankie" actually apologizes Russia or their invasion. At least I haven't seen one yet. Fuck Putin. But unlike you, I don't close my eyes and pretend to know perfectly what is and what isn't.
Your fervor enables the warmongering and jingoism. I would excuse ignorance but no doubt you've been shown the (western / ukrainian) sources (e.g. this and this and this) and choose to ignore the facts.
Can we see some of that "overwhelming evidence"?
No? That's okay 👍! You can show it when you feel like it.
🥸
Sorry, thought you were the other guy.
😀
☹️
Like clockwork.
I should stop posting but i cant help myself
So like do you never read .ml posts on this stuff, or do you just do your best to ignore the comments you disagree with?
It doesn’t sound like this is directed at you when you’re not defending the invasion, so I don’t understand what this is a defense of. Nobody is saying the west is a saint either.
👍
By this definition though, literally all wars of conquest (i.e. most of them) are “imperialism”.
I am a tankie so while I lean on Lenin’s definition of imperialism, let’s put that aside for a moment. “Imperialism” cannot be simple conquest. Because when we think of “imperialism” without tying it to a specific example, I think we all broadly get the same picture. Something like an octopus, extending its reach out far and wide an establishing control over places, in service of enriching the metropole. Conquest can be one initial stage of imperial control, or imperialism doesn’t even need military conquest. It’s why I would say the United States in 2026 is unequivocally imperialist. So were the pre-WW1 Western European nations.
I’m not making any sort of judgement on the rightness or wrongness of Russia’s actions. It’s just that I get a bee in bonnet when liberals try and downplay the true imperialism of present day US and Europe by saying “bbbbut Russia is imperialist too!!!” when they don’t even have any understanding of the word.
What's your point? It sounds like your complaining about some people downplaying western imperialism to highlight Russia while you downplay Russian imperialism to highlight the West.
Something about octopuses? Or octopii? Octopodes? I am uncertain about the preferred nomenclature but a mollusk of some brand is involved.
Si the reason you don't think Russia is imperialist is whataboutism. While simultaneously complaining about "liberal" whataboutism. Truly .ml logic.
Tl dr. You are excusing one assfuck because another assfuck does something bad.
Making you the biggest assfuck in the room.
More than one entity can be wrong at a time, and that means everyone is an assfuck.
So say it with me now. Russia is being an assfuck.
I literally explained how I was taking issue with the use of the word “imperialism” and not commenting the morality of the action. But maybe reading comprehension is hard for you? It so I’m sorry for your affliction.
Invading Ukraine is bad.
I am yet to hear from liberals defend imperialism from their own side. I mean, liberals are one of many who typically are vocal against imperialism. Liberals are labeled as "self-hating" by conservatives for a reason. Meanwhile, tankies are either paid or being useful idiots who side with anyone--including opposing imperialists-- just for being anti-Western just for the sake of it.
/Sun Tzu
And I gotta say, I am extremely impressed with Putins strategy. He didn't even hide it, and it still worked over decades. A three or four decade long chess move. He is for sure one of history's great villains, but you can't help but respect the play. He brought the US to its knees without having to fire a single bullet.
Well ok a few very select bullets, but no hot confrontation. Just honey, rubles and polonium.
He studied his Tzu well! Or Napoleon, for that matter, or Caesar, or perhaps Machiavelli. Or Peter the Pretty Great but Perhaps Not So Great In Hindsight Great.
Divide et impera.
Alas, I wax latin...
I wouldn't give Putin too much credit. A lot of analysts have astutely observed that Putin can only start conflicts but can't finish them. Even Georgia is an unresolved business. But of course, that problem culminated with Ukraine. Decades of consolidating power for himself and rebuilding Russia's prestige is undone in just five years. Putin's Russia excel at information war but not actual physical war.
Russia has been weakened just as the US. The real winner is China.
No argument there. Our weakness is as much to blame as his... Whatever that is. Tsarism?
I get the distinct impression that you're actually hard core capitalist.
ShitLibs give no fucks whatsoever for what a word actually means once their billionaire masters have given them a definition that prevents them from thinking thoughts that are dangerous to the status quo.
Imperialism is a form of capitalism that exists when finance capital has eclipsed commodity production as the Primary driver of the economy in a nation. Russia would love to be Imperialist, but they aren't, bcs they aren't economically developed enough. You're thinking of expansionism, not Imperialism.
Expansionism is a subset of imperialism. Imperialism (the word and the actual behavior) existed before Lenin described imperialism under capitalism.
The word Imperialism was coined in the 1870's and applied to countries that were several orders of magnitude less developed than Russia today. Lenin defined Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism which definitely applies to Russia today. Russia is as capitalist and developed as the UK is today.
Just writing a bunch of tankie buzzwords makes you feel smart but nothing you said is true lol. When stupid people think they are smart because they've learned to speak in a certain cadence and use certain words popular with their in-crowd it's really dangerous and cringey to boot. Very similar to religion. Hearing people pray out loud just makes my skin crawl. Your comment is really similar.
Lol, so you actually think that using the replacement definitions your capitalist masters created to ensure you wouldn't be able to think thoughts that are dangerous to them is not "dangerous and cringey"?
I'm guessing you also think your residence and car are "private property" too, don't you?
Your boss and landlord thank your for you pliability.
Words are words are words. A rose is a rose is a rose and by any other name smells as sweet.
Blablabla.
Let's not invade and kill people. Ok? Ok.
Oh look we have a defender of neo fascist Russia.
Ohh they are not developed enough to be a neo fascist shithole, you don't say.
You have to remember- Russian fascism was fought since its inception by the West! It was never given a chance to grow into its full potential!
😡
Edit: ok except that one time when we collaborated with them to fight an even greater fascist threat that they were previously allied with but tomato potatoe
I will down vote because you have said something that my Lemmy-Cult finds offensive and also say something about how you are capitalist pig monster.
Wait, are those two different cults? I'm still trying to sort out all the flavors of insanity around here.
Good thing we've got folks like you who are better and smarter than everyone
No, not everyone. Just a lot of you. I do appreciate the compliment, though. Keep trying and you'll get there one day, maybe. :)
Forgive me if this sounds like I'm being dismissive - I'm not trying to be, just trying to be practical. Anyway, doesn't this seems like splitting hairs? Any violence initiated with the intent of economic expansion seems unethical and unjust to me. At least, far less just than revolutionary or anti-colonial violence. Labels are just labels, and whether or not something adheres to Lenin's definition seems to be far less important than the fact that people are dying and suffering because of the greed of the wealthy.
It looks like carefully slicing of the original definition to make a new one were, as long as the political ideology doing the deed is Marxist-Leninist or similar, then taking other people's shit and land and forcefully making them subject to your control is not "imperialist".
In other words, the same level of bullshit hypocrisy as when America attacks a Middle Eastern nation claiming to be "freeing" them or Israel mass murders Gazans whilst harping all about how it's Palestinians who are morally bad because of how they treat homosexuals (who, notice, are being murdered by Israel just as much as the rest of Gazans).
Conquerors and murders twisting and redefining words to claim they're the good guys.
The original definition came out of 1830s France. Definitions change when understanding evolves. Surely you wouldn't ding Encyclopedia Brittanica for bastardizing (or "careful slicing") the definition of imperialism as set forth by the original anti bonapartists?
Why do you believe that Lenin's narrow and skewed definition of imperialism is the only true and authentic one?
The word was in common use for at least 100 years before Lenin even started writing, mostly used to denigrate French and British expansion and colonialism.
I believe Marx would also disagree with Lenin on this definition, but I understand that .ml are much bigger fans of Lenin and Stalin than Marx.
I think you're running into a conflict of definitions. Usually that's what these sorts of disagreements boil down to. In order to answer whether Russia counts as "imperialist", you first have to know what counts as "imperialism".
From Meriam-Webster:
By this definition, it's difficult to say Russia is doing capital "I" imperialism, since they're not occupying and controlling a majority of Ukraine. If you count any amount of land occupied, then they are.
When you're talking to tankies, you also have to realise that Imperialism is a jargon term with a specific definition. That's explained by Lenin here, if you're interested.
I think you're confusing the "extending the power and dominion of a nation" bit and are treating that line as if it refers to two entities, as it it read "extending the power and dominating a nation".
"The dominion of a nation" is basically its possessions.
The passage is really saying that Imperialism is "the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and territory or resources of a nation especially ...", though personally I'd replace "nation" with "entity", since I do think the capitalistic use is also appropriate. It's really about an entity wanting to expand (or consolidate) its control.
Anyways, with that clarification, I don't think whether or not Russia is doing an imperialism is under question.
Your, rather pointlessly pedantic, argument makes sense only if you ignore the places russia has already taken over (and I'm talking about areas colonized by imperial russia, soviet union and current russian federation, that are still occupied by said russian federation) and also ignore their goals with Ukraine.
But if you don't ignore those things, your argument falls apart.