sandpaper

A nice cheat that can usually atleast point you in the right direction is to see what the US state department says. If the instant it happens theyre coming out like “The people of X are fighting for their liberty and freedom and bla bla” then you can usually guess they had a hand in it.

It’s not a bigger deal to the west because the west have always supported Naziism so long as it didn’t harm their own interests. The US supplied Nazi Germany with weapons and didn’t want to get involved in the war until Germany declared war on them. They recruited Nazi scientists into their government after WW2, put Nazi officials in charge of west Germany. Brought on Hitlers Chief of staff to help run NATO. etc. The US also sent military advisers to train Azov, and armed them. They are the allies of the west. Just as the Israeli Fascist Colonial Project is. For the west supporting Nazis is not an exception, but the rule. The exception to the rule was WW2, and only because the German fascists directly threatened the interests of the US, and UK. Prior to Germany attacking them they were singing Hitlers praises.

Just look at the current American government. They aren’t even pretending anymore to not be fascists.

Things are more complicated than most people realize, and many people here would probably have slightly different opinions on the specifics. I think it’s false to say people here all are of the opinion that Russia is justified in it’s war against Ukraine, but I’m not going to bother rehashing everything here, and will instead link you to some reading you should do related to the topic. After going through these you should come back to this post, and ask any new questions you have. It’s tough to discuss something so detailed if you don’t have the background info.

Some useful background: https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:The_Maidan_Massacre_Trial_and_Investigation_Revelations:_Implications_for_the_Ukraine-Russia_War_and_Relations#2_Evidence_of_a_Cover-Up

https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Donbass

https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/2014_Ukrainian_coup_d'etat

On Nazi’s in Ukraine: https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Assault_Brigade_“Azov”

Russias relationship with the US these days is guided by realpolitik. They know not to trust the US, but they also know that they have to play the game a bit to keep the pressure from becoming even worse. I can’t speak to their exact goals, but I’d guess it’s just to prevent the entire political discourse in the US becoming focused in on Russia. They don’t want to be the country the US uses as the big bad and have to shoulder the burden of that alone.

Reddit is not “in the open” its a website most working class people have never even used. This isnt some color revolution we arent gonna be able to use western social media to organize.

The working class are organized in the workplace. That is the meet them where they are.

Also social media is literally a state surveillance platform. If an actual revolution comes about it will not be fast. And the capitalists will use social media data to hunt down and capture or kill any person who they see as a potential revolutionary. Using platforms they control is just putting a target on your back, and helping them to build lists.

You say “weird legally grey activities” idk if you realize this thats what being a socialist is. They see us as criminals, and terrorists. We should always assume we will be treated as such, and take precautions.

Solidarity to do what? Look where we are. The way reddit is now is the reason platforms like lemmy exist. Platforms we will need to share information when the larger platforms crack down even harder. The solution is not to carve out space for communists on capitalist controlled platforms but to build our own alternatives. As much as it may upset the new people who are coming here from the banned reddit communities to have to migrate it is a good thing. Entirely getting off of all western corporate social media should be the goal.

Well we have small numbers. But it does exist. What it needs is organization which is serverely lacking in the west. There are some orgs, but many of the more effective ones, Black Panthers for example, are gone.

Personally i think it will be after a collapse of western hegemony that the conditions are right for full revolution. Which means leftists orgs need to be focusing on surviving that collapse, and having the means afterwards to offer material support to others. Forming a network of decentralized communes that are all members of the same organization unofficially, and keep in contact/support eachother maybe. Start recruiting people now, and do mutual aid to build good will over time. Focus on building a robust parellel production base for basic things like food/medicine, and do security training. That can be your base of power to expand from when conditions are right. Convert the communes into resistance cells, and try to claim some territory.

One of the issues becomes staying under the radar so you don’t get infiltrated by feds. You can’t give them a reason to spend resources coming after you until they’re spread to thin to be able to.

How much do you know about the era prior to Russian intervention in Ukraine? As far as i understand it the Ukrainian backed neo-nazi groups were literally shelling ethnically Russian towns, and killing civilians long before Russia stepped in. So i don’t think portraying this as a black, and white agressor vs defender situation is correct. Donetsk, and Luhansk were actively asking Russia to intervene.

Now do i think that is why Russia intervened? Because they are just super nice, and wanted to help? Fuck no. They did it for geopolitical reasons like anything else. To secure the historically single most effective corridor for invading Russia. That doesn’t mean that context is irrelevant though.

This is also functionally a proxy war. It’s the US vs Russia, but the US is using Ukraine as its manpower pool, and bullet sponge. Ukraine doesn’t have the ability to defend itself like it’s done alone. Even with western backing it’s losing.

The war only happened because the US wanted it to happen. They played Russia, but it backfired on them. The US wanted Russia to come in, and get weakened by Ukraine. Didn’t really care how much damage Ukraine took in the process. But Russia is arguably better off militarily today than it was before this war started. It’s also strengthened the ties between China, and Russia since Russia relies on China to be its economic lifeline in spite of all the sanctions.

So to answer the question: Why critically support Russia?

Morally- Tie: Neither side is worth a damn. Ukrainian civilians and Russian civilians are both innocent, and leadership in both countries is irredeemably evil.

Strategically-Russia Wins: Russian victory weakens the US. Aids the long term goal of destroying US empire.

Pragmatically-Russia Wins: If Ukraine maintains its independence it will have a total lack of young people, destroyed infrastucture, and be economically insolvent. It will be turned into a resource extraction site for the west, and likely never recover. It’s neo-nazi government will be backed by the US, and impossible to overthrow via domestic rebellion. Another war could happen at any time. Not just with Russia, but with Turkey, Poland, etc. If conditions arise to allow it. As Ukraine will still not have nukes, and will be weakened significantly.

If Russia wins Ukraine will be taken over, and become part of Russia. Economically they’ll be better off. Likely with significant investment from both Russia, and China in rebuilding their infrastucture. Still used as a resource extraction site, but since manpower will be able to be brought in from the rest of Russia working conditions will likely be better. They’ll now be under the Russian nuclear umbrella. So unless WW3 happens another war isn’t likely. (Yeah WW3 isn’t exactly unlikely, but yknow.) Ukraine also has significant wheat production. To the west this is kind of a meh thing. They have plenty of farmland in the US, and are more interested in minerals. But Russia/China would be quite interested in maintaining wheat output, and would not risk it just to get some minerals. Not just for their own use, but to keep nations like Egypt stable. So the international food supply markets are likely to be more stable in this situation. Which helps not just Ukrainians themselves via jobs, and investment, but anyone in a food insecure region too.

Anecdotally-Russia wins: Idk how much this matters to other people, but personally when it comes to foreign policy stuff I recognize that the info we as civilians have access to is limited. So i look to the positions of organizations i believe have similar long term goals to my own, communist orgs, and also have access to more information. Intelligence agencies, etc.

China: Officially neutral, but leans toward Russian support.

DPRK: Openly supports Russia.

Vietnam: Neutral, Abstains from UN votes about the conflict.

Cuba: Leans pro-Russia.

These have a clear trend. When 0 AES states are supporting the side of Ukraine that tells me all i need to know. The situation isn’t black, and white clearly. But critical support for Russia is the choice that makes the most sense for me. Not that my random poor person trying to survive opinion does much of anything.

If your looking for one that would be the most effective for actually convincing regular people probably Imperialist.

Funny how she thinks she can be president of Chile when Juan Guido already is.

oh lol i knew it was gonna be obvious in hindsight

Maybe im stupid… idk what DoTP stands for. I suck at acronyms. Anyway as for surveillance in general. Personally i like the idea of zones. Like different geographical regions have different levels of surveillance and you get to pick which one you live in. Since its really a personal preference, and both approaches have ups and downs. Just like how some people prefer city life and some prefer rural life.

You can choose somewhere with cameras everywhere if you care more about safety, or some local areas could ban cameras in public entirely. Public policy isnt a one size fits all thing typically.

https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Lao_People's_Democratic_Republic

In case anyone wants to look it up Trumps guy for governor is Byron Donalds, Desantises is his wife Casey Desantis. Desantis is fucked imo. His career is over cuz he pissed Trump off, and Trump loves to hold a grudge.

He is actually actively dismantling desantises power base right now. He has put his own candidate for governor of florida up and is trying to push out desantises candidate (his wife). Theyre throwing tons of money at it and i only expect it to intensify.

I’ve thought about this before, and i think while limits are a good idea, most peoples approach to this would be a disaster.

Using the internet is a skill. One that most of us alive today have naturally developed over time. Kids need to be able to do this too. Otherwise once they become adults they will be very confused, and susceptible to scams. Much like how elderly people who didn’t use it as kids are now.

For that reason i think its necessary to have an internet that is just for kids. I’m not talking about like the typical youtube kids sort of thing. I mean like an entire separate net. Similar to the one everyone else uses, but with guardrails in place. Give them all a little currency of digital points they can use to buy things like cosmetics for their profiles, or even real things. Maybe stores could offer little treats, or toys to them for the points. Then let them have ways to scam each other, and ways to earn the points by doing things like watching educational content, or doing good in school.

Moderate it heavily for content. But not for how they act towards each other. It would allow them to experience being scammed and losing their hard earned points in a controlled environment without it being real money once they’re an adult. Things like bullying, while they should be monitored, i would allow to an extent. It’s going to happen on the real internet, and people need to get used to ignoring it. I would even argue professional adult educators should have fake profiles in this kid net where they play bad actors. They comment things like “This is stupid” under posts, they try to scam them, stuff like that. Then we foster a culture among the actual kids where they are good at spotting these scams, it could be taught in school then used in practice against the fake accounts, and dealing with bullying. Teach them when someone comments a mean thing you respond by refuting it, and complementing the person it was directed at.

I think this mainly comes down to one thing. Kids are not gonna stay kids. People these days tend to act like they will. Like sheltering them from everything is the answer. People learn through experience, and if you shelter people through their childhood they lose out on opportunities to learn things naturally like this. Then they become adults who are naive, and vulnerable.

So we simulate the real internet in a controlled environment. Foster a culture on this fake internet that is positive, and robust against bad actors. Then let it slowly bleed over into the real internet as these kids get older. I’d probably allow them on the real internet once they turn 15 or 16, and allow them to stay on the kid net until 18. So there would be a transitional period.

As for enforcing it the most i would do if a kid somehow like jailbroke their device and got on the main internet is some sort of school punishment. Extra work or something. Maybe involving computers since they have shown an interest in that by doing it. As for adults who get on the kid net unauthorized I’d treat it as a serious criminal offense. Depending on what they were doing anything from massive fines, to prison time.

I thought the question was “what is THE single most right wing view” and i was like “Idk probably supporting genocide” then i read the comments and was so confused.

Glad i didnt comment without reading the question again that would have looked bad.

Its hard cuz idk what even is right wing or isnt half the time.

I don’t remember the exact quote, but i saw something like “To be a revolutionary is to be a ruthless bloodthirsty monster.” attributed to Che Guevara. I agree with it. I think to operate as a revolutionary successfully against something like a capitalist regime you can’t afford to limit your actions. You do what you have to do to win. No matter how cruel, no matter how unreasonable. Victory is the only goal. For any suffering you may cause pales in comparison to the suffering caused by your failure.

Nah in typical lib fashion its really a slap on the wrist. She cant run for a few years so she will just have someone run in her place and control things from behind the scenes until the ban expires. Thats my take anyway.

On the contrary i think it shows how desperate OpenAI is to not get left behind.