Orthodox Christianity is in many ways far more conservative and in much more insidious ways than other forms of christianity. Especially when it comes to Russian and Greek Orthodox conservatives, dogmatic religious fervour and nationalism are usually one and the same, to the point where the conflation between national/cultural identity and religious identity are one and the same. High-ranking priests can very often influence elections and public opinion, and they are usually the most fanatical anti-LGBTQ+ crazies you can find. Alex Jones pales in comparison to the batshit conspiracy theories regarding “the gays” these people openly peddle every chance they get. And a large part of the population listens to them.
After the fall of the USSR, the people who assumed power in these countries are (or need to pretend to be) all about God, Country, Family in the same way that European fascist/conservative dictatorships of the 30s used to be. Ukrainians and Russians aren’t alone on this. Literally every non-left eastern European politician (from Russia all the way to Cyprus) will say similar things to what Putin has said. The Ukrainian politicians are the same. They just pretend otherwise right now, to keep the West supporting them.
The thing is, unfortunately for our morals, Putin is integral at destabilizing the US hegemony, and the global capitalist machine it supports. That doesn’t make Putin a good guy. We critically support Putin and Russia, because stopping US imperialism has more priority than restoring human rights to the LGBTQ+ Russians (as in the US empire needs to be weakened, so we can maybe survive as a species). It’s also important to remember that the only real way this liberation can happen, is through the Russian people themselves and not through the rest of us.
The question we should be asking is “what do we want?”
If we want to end NATO/US meddling all over the world, then we need as many people to demand that, no matter their backgrounds, problematic pasts or ideological leanings. Sectarianism always favours the status quo.
As Lenin outlined, us marxists should be the vanguard of revolution. Not be the sole participants in revolution. Because that’s the way to a) convince people to carry out the revolution and b) to educate people into becoming marxists.
Join movements, lead by example, win hearts and minds.
They performed a “controlled burn” which is a stupid idea. Basically they wanted to avoid the substances leaking in the river, so they decided to turn it all into acid rain with a dose of toxicity. When vinyl chloride burns, it turns into chlorine gas (also known by its WW1 weaponization name, mustard gad). Chlorine gas, when mixed with water, turns into hydrochloric acid. Which then comes down with the rain and at these concentrations, it can utterly destroy marine ecosystems (can’t handle the pH - why all those fish were floating dead), soil structure (lowers fertility for years), and corrodes plants and trees severely. The real kicker is that vinyl chloride has a really low boiling point. So when you try to burn it, a good amount will not actually burn but it will evaporate (turn into vinyl chloride gas). This gas is heavy and will linger at high concentrations near the surface (where, you know, most living things, including humans, live and breathe). This is what makes for that low, thick, dense cloud cover over the area. This stuff is quite toxic, and people who work with it are meant to be exposed to under 1 part per million per hour to stay safe. So, you know… Great job whoever presides over this mess!
And for the cherry on top. They later found out there were other, more toxic, chemicals in there that weren’t supposed to be burned.
Russia doesn’t really care for territory. They’ll gladly take the Russian-speaking parts, but that’s not the main goal.
The main goal is to destroy Ukraine’s capability to wage war for the next 50 years, to bankrupt the country, to denazify the government, and create the conditions where the Nazis will never attain power there again. All this leads to Ukraine becoming undesirable to the NATO and EU expansion eastwards, while also becoming dependent on Russia economically, politically, diplomatically and militarily.
Russia will never accept the possibility that Ukraine will join NATO, and as long as that continues to be a Ukrainian desire and a Western interest, this war will keep going. Russia will also not even accept any condition where Ukraine will join the EU, unless maybe Russia is a beneficiary in that agreement.
The ideal situation for Russia is not for Ukraine’s conquest or vassalization. The ideal solution would be if Ukraine became a demilitarized, neutral buffer between Russia and NATO, that ideally would defer to Russia on international politics and trade in certain cases.
“blinding” is nothing to shy about. I’m not up to my Russian, but I think it says it’s vulnerable to blinding.
At any rate, if you use a sufficiently explosive shell and destroy a tank’s scopes, it’s basically dead against a fully operational tank, especially if the blind tank relies too much on computer-assisted aiming (which the Leopard does). Blinding first, destroying second is a common tactic in encounters against heavy tanks.
The first and most of the second seasons are pretty good. You see things from the American characters viewpoint, and that’s where the American exceptionalism and red hating comes from. But at the same time, the show subtly highlights how the Americans are doing a lot of the same dubious shit that they accuse the Soviets of. Most of the crises are started or escalated by the Americans. It’s just that the American characters don’t really see that, or if they do, it’s too late to fix things or they are too blind to understand how their side fucked up. The show mostly balances the pro-US sentiments of its characters by showing how the US objectively doesn’t really have the moral high ground.
In the 3rd season though, they paint the Soviets as cartoon villains.
Officials posting on Twitter “Thanks USA”
American ships and aircraft in the area for days before the explosion.
Biden and other US officials threatening to do exactly this multiple times.
US fossil fuel corporations saying the war in Ukraine is so profitable for them.
Yeah… Russia blew up their own pipeline…
Many people think that cats look cute/do cute things. When sharing images over the internet became a thing, cat pictures started becoming a thing. It really took off when Youtube appeared. Early youtube videos where either someone talking about something in front of a webcam or over a presentation, or people doing silly things and recording them. Well, the silly things category was very quickly overtaken by people sharing videos of their cats jumping around, getting distracted by lasers/toys, or being high on catnip, because it was easy and would generally get a lot of views and 5 stars (rating before the Like/Dislike buttons were introduced).
The short answer is: making likeable content centered on cats was easy and paid off.
For the past month, leaked Twitter documents have been coming out which show specific instances of how ALL US government agencies have leaned on/collaborated with Twitter to promote US internal and foreign policy, to censor and monitor individuals and groups with undesirable messages, to suppress news and information that would go against the establishment, to test psyops tactics, and to produce false evidence for cases like Russiagate.
We’ve all suspected of what’s been going on. Don’t think for a second this is restricted to Twitter. Facebook, Youtube, Reddit and all other US- and EU-based social media are most certainly doing the same thing. It’s good to finally have some evidence!
The law not punishing you for doing certain things is not the same as the society and economy actually allowing you to do those things.
One great example to bring up is freedom of expression. Really how free are you to express yourself in the US? The government might not prohibit you most of the time, but there are soft censorship mechanisms in place. Your social media accounts can get censored/banned/contained by the companies who control them on the regular. The press will refuse to report on your cause. The police/justice system will find ways to mess with you. The electoral system will block you through a myriad legal/semi-legal means of voter disenfranchisement.
Another great example is the idea of owning a house. Well in the US you theoretically (according to the mainstream perception) can own as many homes as you like and do with them whatever you like. Great. How does that help the ever-growing army of the homeless US citizens? How does that help the even greater number of people who can never afford their own house and are instead forced to pay exhorbitant rents to unregulated landlords? Then we pop by China, and almost 3/4 of the population owns their home.
The US offers theoretical freedom. China offers actual freedom.
Completely forgetting all the civilizations that were “racially pure” and collapsed, like oh I don’t know a little something called Nazi Germany?
When these people talk about “civilizations” they are talking at best about the Romam Empire before the split and the British Empire (maybe) because that’s the only tidbits of history they learned when they were 9.
I watched 2 movies that were great and I highly recommend them:
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White Tiger (free on Mosfilm’s youtube) - Great anti-war and anti-fascist message. Great film overall.
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The Road to Berlin (free on Mosfilm’s youtube) - Very decent war drama with good characters and portrays the Red Army and its sacrifices in a mostly positive light.
I found Panfilov’s 28 to be decent enough as a war movie, but didn’t really get into any politics. It also didn’t shit on the story either.
I also watched The Star sometime ago, and while some of the acting (particularly the B story) was crap, it wasn’t a bad war movie either.
These last 2 are mostly selling patriotism though.
Edit: forgot to mention The Brest Fortress. Also some bad acting/writing and cheap CGI work, but overall it’s worth watching I think. Doesn’t shy away from showing Nazi attrocities.
The smartest person in the world tries to save the world by inflicting a catastrophe on millions of victims. The most powerful person in the world disregards the world completely. The most hateful person in the world is the one with the actual moral compass. The most celebrated heroes are the ones used by the government to inflict war crimes.
Watchmen is a criticism on superhero culture, and its story is pretty antifascist.
The US drone bombed general Suleimani when he went to Saudi Arabia to discuss normalization of relations.
The US: “aktchuallyy it was us doing the peace all along”