This is the only correct answer. It's a sacred site to the Lakota Sioux, isn't it? I don't think non-Lakota deciding to blow it up further is any less harmful than what the US has done to it.

Russia may win this war in the conventional sense. They may take Kiev, install a Russia-friendly government, and even have military forces occupying the country to keep the terrorists from simply walking in and overthrowing them. But the West will do all they can to spread civil unrest in the populace, to get them to side with the russophobes, to fund and arm those russophobes, and to recreate this same model in all of Russia's neighboring countries. I'm not sure you can actually "win" the style of war the imperialists wage nowadays unless the imperialists lose wholesale. If the US and its lackeys keep channeling their propaganda in a region, keep throwing their money in a region, keep arming fascists in a region, then you have an infection you can't control. And if you crack down and secure it, it makes your liberalized population sympathetic to the fascists because they can't see or comprehend the threat to their sovereignty or lives. This is the game the West plays and has played for decades, and I don't think its going to end until the head is cut off the snake and the fascists are cut off from their platforms and funding.

Of course, everyone here knows this. How this is going to turn out for Ukraine, who can say? The terrorists might slip the leash and attack Europe, immediately turning everyone off from the whole thing and giving Russia a needed reprieve. I suspect Russia may win the war, but the peace will be a grueling and draining affair for years, until the US is forced to divert resources elsewhere and the fascists are forced to go underground as their funding dries up.

He hasn't. He knows he can get away with any amount of Nazi support just by spouting some liberal bullshit line about democracy and redirecting the people's animosity towards Russians, which everyone in the West seems to be indoctrinated into hating without a single critical thought.

Here in the US, we don't even have that bare minimum, and the propaganda is so insidious here, liberals who support the bare minimum are considered progressive. Our reactionaries would gladly stone people to death or burn them at the stake given half a chance. I feel your pain, but if I can find reasonable people and comrades here, you will too, I am sure of it. Stay strong and stay safe, comrade.

Here in the US, I've noticed the only people who don't support Ukraine and were allowed a platform to promote those views were ultraconservative Trump types. I have a suspicion that's by design, to help further discredit any counter-narrative.

And as others have said, the "alt-right pipeline".

Poland and Finland, though there's more nuance there than libs care to observe. For example, ignoring the fact the territory they took from Poland was Ukrainian territory Poland was, uh, "making Polish". And obviously the Finns wound up joining the Nazis. They also seem to think Ukraine spontaneously fought the Soviets and just happened to get Nazi support later.

They exist in a vacuum where they think the bulk of the Axis powers and allies that fought Russians were somehow wholesome victims who had no choice but to fight for Nazis. But, paradoxically, the USSR can't be forgiven for the Nonaggression Pact (even though the West signed NAPs first and financed much of the Nazi war machine, sometimes even during the war). Liberals have the attention span and object permanence of a wet noodle.

Normal people would, but there are libs out there who genuinely believe downvoting or trolling communists on Lemmy is some brave stand against totalitarianism. I don't think we need to assume any of them are getting paid. The West produces a surplus of terminally online people who want to attack communists without feds having to lift a finger (other than to dismantle education, ensuring more "patriots" attacking communists online).

Surprising absolutely no one here. We all knew they'd blame it on Russia, just like we know most libs will happily oblige.

As a person in the Imperial Core, I still can't comprehend how backwards the logic is here that most Americans would read this meme and think it's grounded in reality. Even having been the kind of guy who would believe it once, I still don't understand.

I think it's just racist indoctrination to believe Russians are evil.

They have a need to justify their warped worldview. They believe we're evil authoritarians, and they are taught to hate authority (unless it aligns with their wants), and so they will harass and argue with us in bad faith until they are inevitably banned, all so they can say "See? They silence those they disagree with!" They have a martyr complex and think harassing people online by talking out of their ass is like standing up to tyranny. It helps them deal with the dissonance of believing they're free and righteous while supporting the most warmongering regime in human history.

On Reddit, I was part of a leftist sub that became increasingly hostile to "tankies". I pointed out the "no leftist infighting rule", and some dude said "yeah, but I'm punching right" and called Stalin an imperialist. It was actually the moment that made me leave that shithole site. Thank goodness for Site B (Lemmygrad).

I doubt they're feds. Living in the US, I can guarantee that the level of indoctrination here is so absolute, you don't need to hire or recruit people to spread the propaganda. The kind of messages and symbols used in children and family shows, what they spin in the history books for public and private schools, and the news we're bombarded with daily, and how its filtered through social media, all reinforce the same narratives and prejudices, raising generations that don't even need to be paid to make propaganda - they think it's the truth. There are whole swathes of the population who think they're fighting some great crusade against tyranny by shitposting about China online.

It's annoying, and they are a threat to our ability to come together and communicate, but it doesn't necessarily mean the feds are even trying with them. The anti-communist hate in the US - and the racism against Chinese and Russians - is intense enough that they don't have to do anything other than keep the news cycles going. The libs do the rest.

"Any member of the EU that doesn't hate Russians and blindly support the US waging a proxy war on our borders through Nazi terrorist orgs is obviously an active Russian agent." - the EU, apparent-fucking-ly

Iirc, back when I was interested in learning Esperanto, one of the criticisms I saw was that it's very Eurocentric in its design. It strives to be a "universal language" but is very obviously rooted in Romance language. However, conversely, I remember seeing the argument that learning Esperanto for a second language is comparable to learning the recorder for music: it's not so much that you will use the skill in Esperanto, but more you will use the skill in language-learning to more easily learn other languages.

Personally, I think Esperanto is pretty neat, especially conceptually, but probably not too practical unless you're involved in the Esperanto movement and committed to it. I believe there are people raised to speak it natively, and there is a sizable international community. It could still catch on, given the right spotlight.

I'd add that it's not just a lack of quality scientific education, but an intentionally-taught distrust of academics and intellectuals. At least here in the US, there's a trend in politics and media to encourage distrust and contempt for scientists. Typically the ringleaders are Christian fundamentalists who dislike scientists whose research validates concepts that contradict their teachings, and believe that Christian "scientists" who concoct conspiracy theories are unfairly shunned and censored by a cabal of corrupt, godless scientists. Most of the anti-science crowd here supports older, discredited sciences that align with Christian theology - at least the racist, colonial-settler flavor of Christianity.

Not really, no. I don't seek out evidence to justify my worldview. In fact, any time I come across something that reaffirms what I believe, my first instinct is to verify by checking multiple sources and waiting for confirmation that it's not just a lie. We don't think getting banned on a liberal or fascist forum makes us martyrs or justifies our worldview. Some people do it to harass fascists, but most MLs who get shutdown on other forums honestly were just trying to explain their views and were punished for it. The only times I've ever seen people banned in ML circles were for repeated instances of bad faith argument and harassment.

You may get downvoted to hell, but as long as you aren't being a thoughtless asshole, you're not likely to get banned, lol. Even if you are, you can appeal and will probably be listened to.

Part of it is to create and push a code of morality on your populace, then control the narrative so that way your side is always doing what's morally good, and the enemy is doing whatever is morally bad. That's why media control is so tight. Not just news, but every facet of entertainment reinforces our prescribed education of an artificial worldview. I could write a book on the anticommunist indoctrination put into children and family shows, and then those demographics start learning from one-sided history books, and then they're exposed to biased news and propagandic documentaries. And that's just the "neutral" liberal shit that's considered progressive or inclusive, enlightened, pacifist, etc. When you get into the hardcore shit like conservative media, military propaganda video games, etc., it's even more apparent.

I found the mask off racism with the Russia thing a shock, but I was expecting it with Palestine. I grew up with this shit during the Iraq War and War on Terror. I thought we'd learned, but the anti-China shit was obnoxious. Then with Russia. Then Iran. By the time it's gotten back to Palestine, I've come to realize that it's never about a specific group being targeted. It's about ensuring a specific group stays dominant, and cutting any others who dare oppose them down. They all pretend to care about human rights until the oppressed fight back, then they only care about colonizers and tyrants.

I can see why there are a lot of famous disillusioned/defecting Bolsheviks the West likes to cheer about. If I were sold on such an optimistic ideal and then had to deal with the realities and limitations of material conditions, I'd probably be pretty doubtful, too. One of the lessons we learn with hindsight, I suppose. In a way, I suppose I was one of those doubting idealists before I fully came over to Marxism-Leninism.

I'm under the suspicion it's not pointless, but an intentional effort to manufacture as high a death toll as possible. I don't think the fascists ever expected or planned for a Ukrainian victory, but rather to sacrifice as many as possible in order to justify a new era of russophobic fascism in Europe.

Honestly thought you lived here in the US because how your stepdad acts is so relatable to dealing with most people down here, lol.