vovchik_ilich [he/him]

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Joined 3 months ago
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Cake day: August 14th, 2024

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  • […] is a provocation worthy of military invasion?

    See, that’s an entirely different statement. Threatening to join Russia’s geopolitical rival’s military alliance while bordering Russia, is provocation. The acts in Donbas since 2014 are provocation. Is it “worthy of military invasion”? I don’t believe so. The proto-fascist Russian government is clearly not acting entirely out of pure will and self defense, and I’ll be the last to defend it since I have loved ones directly suffering under that government. But it’s important to frame things correctly, and yes, threatening to join NATO while bordering Russia is a huge provocation.

    Particularly, NATO has no history of defensiveness (as far as I know it has never intervened for the defensive purposes it’s supposed to uphold), but it has a history of offensiveness. Yugoslavia and Libya can both attest to that, and extra-officially (technically not NATO interventions even if many NATO members participated one way or another), countries such as Iraq can also attest. The case of Iraq is a perfect example of what unprovoked invasion in modern times is, and we are still forced to see libs fall heads over heels for a fucking Dick Satan Cheney endorsement to Kamala “most lethal army in the world” Harris.

    So, yes, when a country bordering you chooses to join a historically aggressive military alliance that openly challenges you, that’s huge provocation. And it’s important to state so when we talk about the war in Ukraine.












  • The U.S. has been gunning for Russia for centuries

    Technically one century but sure, I don’t deny that the US attitude towards Russia stems from imperialism.

    It’s borderline racist to claim that Russia is imperialist

    “It’s borderline to say Russia has reached the final stage of capitalism, with the financialization of the economy and the concentration of capital in the hands of a few oligarchs” I really don’t see how it’s racist to say that.

    when you claim that Russia is imperialist for defending it’s people from a decades-long siege that is generations old

    Establishing a continuity in “Russia” and the reasons for the US hostility towards it for the past 100+ years is absurd. The reasons why Tsarist Russia was expansionist (although not imperialist since it was barely industrialized), weren’t the same as why the USSR invested in military and the US was hostile to it, and aren’t the same as to why modern Russia invests in military and why the US is hostile to it.

    for defending it’s people

    And I don’t claim that Russia is imperialist because it engages in warfare, that’s not my criteria. The USSR engaged in warfare and Afghanistan and it wasn’t imperialist, the argument could be made that something relatively similar is happening in Ukraine now. My point as to why it’s imperialist is the consolidation of capital in the hands of a few, and the financialization of the economy. The EU is also an empire in this regard. It’s harder to say for China given the wide state control over the private companies. I really fail to see how comparing highly developed capitalism in country A with highly developed capitalism in country B is racist of a State Department talking point.


  • Again, we’re talking of different definitions of imperialism.

    Despite the power of the oligarchs, this battle is about the survival of Russia as a nation-state as a whole, not just the wealth of the rich.

    Ok, but that’s exactly the point. The economic interests of capitalist Russia directly oppose those of capitalist USA, why else would the USA be hostile to Russia and push NATO to its borders and blow up the NordStream? Why not do all of those things against, say, Germany? That’s exactly what I mean by imperialist nations colliding, the private capital having opposed interests.

    Russia has no case of exporting money abroad to directly influence the outcome of elections

    It tries through hackers though, but yes, not remotely on the scale of the US. I’m not saying “Russia is worse than the US” here, I’m saying that according to Lenin’s definition of imperialism, Russia is currently an imperialist state.

    Financialization is a feature of capitalism in general

    Again, yes, exactly my point, I suggest you read the book I mentioned if you wanna understand what I mean. We agree, we’re just hung up in semantics


  • The definition of imperialist I’m using is that one of Lenin’s “Imperialism: highest stage of capitalism”. I.e. a developed, capitalist industrial nation, where the financialization of the economy has already taken place, and the competition of small capitalists among each other has given way to cartels, oligopolies and immense concentration of capital in the hands of a few. It’s precisely the conflict between the capitalists in Russia and the capitalists in US that gives rise to conflicts such as the Ukraine war. US is more advanced in imperialism and is the #1 empire on earth right now, but Russia is also an imperialist country by that definition.