I mean, those are the traditional values they are fighting for - a traditional family made up of only one man and one woman, where one of them (usually the former) is aggressive with the other as a normal way of life.
This is also what the Putler-backed far right parties in Europe stand for.
A horrible simplification. Power is what they are fighting for and they are getting it.
This is also what the Putler-backed far right parties in Europe stand for.
In European politics corrupt, and usually by Russia among others, parties encompass much more than these. You can tell easily a not yet poisoned voice when comparing with theirs.
Power is what they are fighting for and they are getting it.
Indeed, they are fighting for power, that's what every political force does. But what I was referring to was the way they do it - they put excessive emphasis on "traditional values" in their campaigns (whichever those might be). They picture an idilic image of these and sell to the public, so they can get the votes, while in reality, the stuff these mean is completely different. And it is not just the "traditional values" - history also plays a part in this.
In my country, the AUR party makes heavy use of medieval rulers like Vlad the Impaler (yes, that one that is known in the Western pop culture as count Dracula) to stirr nostalgia for a past most people don't know. Or their Facebook pages post lots of ex-communist propaganda (messages like "before 1989 we were masters on our own lands, now we're slaves to the foreigners" or "we had an industry back then, we had factories, we were producing our own stuff, now we sold everything and we no longer have shit" etc.).
They are basically romanticising the past in order to get to power, and maybe blur the line between the democratic institutions afterward - just like in Russia, but also in Hungary or even Poland.
excessive emphasis on “traditional values” in their campaigns
It was also “if not us then Communists”, “if not us then Nazis”, “anti-fascism in the world” and “counter-terrorism” in the past.
In my country, the AUR party makes heavy use of medieval rulers like Vlad the Impaler (yes, that one that is known in the Western pop culture as count Dracula) to stirr nostalgia for a past most people don’t know.
We-ell, there’s a certain appeal in impaling Turks for me, it makes the remaining ones friendlier.
They are basically romanticising the past in order to get to power, and maybe blur the line between the democratic institutions afterward - just like in Russia, but also in Hungary or even Poland.
As if they weren’t in France or in UK or in Italy.
My opinion is that we’re fucked from all sides, there’s no need to pretend it’s only a handful of countries.
I know this whole thing is tiring and frustrating. I just explained how things look like in this side of the world, where in the current young(er) democratic regimes people are still nostalgic over the older despotic regimes where the economy was flourishing (spoiler: it was not) and basic human rights were systematically violated by the state.
I respect your opinion, and if there are any elections where you live, I urge you to go out and vote for the best option you may find. Be on the lookout for what every political force is saying/doing, corroborate all the information as good as you can, compare them, and choose the person you find less likely to turn your country into something like I described above.
Democracy is, after all, the power of the people, and if any politician/party is threatening to take away this power - or even erode it - then that one is not fit for any seat that is running for.
I live in Russia, so meaningful elections are off the menu for a period of time.
The fact that a mod decided that my comment should be removed is telling. See, if we consider that only freaks openly funded by Russia yadda yadda are its hands in Europe, then what I said is harmful, because I’m spreading the attention of the reader to wide. But if what I said is true and European politics are in general, just as well in the West, penetrated by Russian\Azeri\etc influence, with bribing politicians and companies which then lobby for criminal regimes, then what that mod did is much more harmful.
Weeelll, they do still export a lot even to countries that have nominally sanctioned them. Obviously less nowadays than before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but China definitely isn’t their only export destination for petrochemicals:
What might screw Russia over is their reliance on Chinese imports, however. Everything they need for eg. maintaining that oil production – let alone consumer products – has to come from somewhere, mostly either from dodging sanctions (making it more expensive and slower) or from China
I assume the bigger problem is the switch to a wartime economy that has no good outcome. All that production is not going toward future productivity, in fact, quite the opposite. I am no expert in this but that’s my view.
I don’t know if China can afford to cut off Russia but it looks like they control enough of that income pie that it’s a very effective threat. Maybe not full control “vassal state” but it’s a pretty strong position for negotiations and how’s that going to get weaker over time? Then again I’ve heard China’s economy isn’t that great right now.
I emailed olympics.com and they referred me to their “Olympic Studies Centre” but neither knows the answer. “The AIN anthem has been independently produced by the IOC as mentioned during the IOC press conference on 19 March. The IOC holds all rights for this. Unfortunately, we don’t have more information to share about this anthem.”
If I may chime in, I believe you’re both correct in your own ways. Russia is being controlled through very “in your face” propaganda. America also, in many ways, is very controlling and also gets away with its fair share of atrocious behavior.
In my opinion, it’s a spectrum or a big circle. Instead of being “left or right”, they both circle around to their own variation of authoritarianism.
(although I would say the USA is slightly better off, for the time being, at least. I don’t think they’re quite as bad, but some aspects are indeed just as bad. But I have not visited Russia, so my perspective is skewed based purely on what I read about it.)
Oh, absolutely. We’re all subject to it. Even in ways that might confirm our own biases. It’s good to stop and try to think about what we’re reading/being told etc. But I think it’s super easy to not even realize
It literally isn’t. Some states are pretty shit, but the US isn’t forcing people into exile for building libraries. And some states are great places where people have rights and the legislature is actually willing to protect its population from authoritarian policies.
The original goalpost was: “The US is exactly the same as Russia.” This being in the context of an article talking about Russian librarians being imprisoned and active extreme suppression of the free exchange of ideas being organized by the Russian government.
There are certainly issues going on with libraries. John Oliver recently did an episode going over a lot of it. But the difference there is that these are largely organized by either fringe politicians or politicians in heavily right-wing states. I don’t really see evidence of it at a Federal level, which is what would be the equivalent to what’s going on in Russia. Even where some of this stuff is happening, it doesn’t seem to yet be as extreme as the situation there.
Is it a similar and worrying pattern? Yes. Is it ‘exactly the same thing’? Definitely not.
The US is extremely different from state to state, which can make getting anything done on a wide scale really chaotic, but it also means that we get to try new things and strike out on our own as a state if there’s popular support. That’s how we got marriage equality for queer folks, it’s how we legalized marijuana in a lot of states, and it’s what makes us able to do things like pass laws that protect people from other states’ repressive laws. We can do things like provide a safe haven for people seeking abortions who live in states where it’s illegal. There are states in the US that will literally take in trans folks as refugees from states with repressive laws. On the other hand, we have Florida, where there’s actually a no travel advisory for trans people because they’ll arrest us for trying to use a bathroom or having our gender on our driver’s license.
And like, all this stuff you’re saying is absolutely true. It is a huge mess of near unchecked capitalistic greed in a lot of cases.
But at this point we’ve moved the goal posts. Because they now seem to be “the US also has serious humanitarian problems”. Which, that’s true. But it doesn’t mean the same thing as “the US is exactly the same as Russia.”
What a dishonest and empty comment. I feel second hand embarrassment and shame for you. You know that that the US isn’t exactly the same, yet you chose to lie, just to defend a genocidal autocratic regime using the last line of defense any sycophants for dictatorships are using: Hypernormalization. After all, if everyone and everything is equally awful, your favorite oppressive machine maybe isn’t so bad. I’ve seen this exact line of reasoning, if one can call it that, used by defenders of Russia, Iran, China, Vietnam, North Korea, Hamas, Saudi Arabia, etc.
I have one question for you: Why are you doing this? Are you a paid troll for the Internet Research Agency, fighting on the virtual front lines of the new Cold War so that you aren’t sent to the real front lines of the hot part of it, so that you aren’t end up as the main attraction of some Ukrainian drone bombing video, dying slowly to the sound of some questionable music? Are you perhaps a delusional Western Tankie who is still reflexively applauding to everything Moscow is doing, despite the fact that the “evil West” you’ve been indoctrinated (or indoctrinated yourself) to hate is now far more left than the currently extremely far-right Russia? Or perhaps you are much further to the right and simp for Russia precisely because it aligns itself so well with your belief system, e.g. in regards to its oppression of ethnic and sexual minorities, its violent imperialistic politics, the macho strongman aesthetics the insecure leader is cultivating.
I point out that the US is just as vile as all the oppressors
That’s not pointing out anything, because it’s flat out wrong. For all its faults, the US not as bad, not even close and nobody sane would make this claim. You are doing nothing but normalizing actual oppressors with this.
The fact that you included Hamas and not Israel
I don’t think you are quite aware of just how stark the difference between Israel and Hamas is - or you’re deliberately ignoring it. Tel Aviv is considered one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world - whereas in Palestinian territories, gay people are being publicly tortured and executed. That’s just one aspect. The difference between Israel and Palestinian territories in regards to civil liberties is about as stark as the one between the two Koreas. This doesn’t mean Israel is perfect, far from it, but the fact that you feel the need to lie about yet another topic and in the same sentence excrete a vile insult doesn’t exactly make you look like a reasonable person.
You don’t get to cherry pick which human rights to respect in order to seem progressive.
The way you casually threw away a human rights aspect you don’t care about can only be called cherry-picking. That’s really all that needs to be said in response to this gish gallop.
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