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.”
As if the US isn’t exactly the same. It gets a little tiring that all the western countries are so sycophantic towards the US and post this garbage propaganda.
I didn’t defend russia. Its just the tone of the article and the fact that the states are almost in parity with Orwells vision of a police state. I find it kind sycophantic that BBC will point out this russian thing but they won’t touch the police/surveillance infrastructure in the states which might as well have been modeled after that book.
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.)
I just don’t think most Americans realize the extent that they are propagandized. I don’t think most Europeans understand the full extent of it either. It is pretty crazy. I say this as someone who spent my first 30 years growing up in the US and then moved to Europe.
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.
No, they are trying to imprison peaceful protesters for speaking out about another shitty country instead. Some scary shit happening with libraries too but that depends on the state.
The US is beautiful. Many of the people are great. The policies, politicians, military industrial complex, infrastructure, healthcare, and the police are all shit though.
The surveillance state and the propaganda is everywhere. It is eerily similar to Orwells 1984. Has been for a while. Thats all I am trying to point out.
The US literally has slave labor as a punishment for crime in for profit prisons. The place is a joke as far human rights go.
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.”
That is where you misinterpreted my words. I didn’t say the US is exactly the same as Russia. I was referring to the title quote from the article: “Russia now is like 1984”. The US is extremely similar to the surveillance/police state George Orwell describes.
Regardless of that, as far as evil countries go, the US is 100% up there with Russia. You need only look at what the US does outside of its borders to confirm that. Both countries are constantly having a pissing contest and they will use whatever proxy country they can to fight each other. The US is extremely aggressive all around the globe. And it has never been to “install democracy.”
They aren’t better inside the borders either. US citizens have a near 0% effect on federal policy, statistically speaking. That means that the representatives of the US are the military, intelligence agencies, lobby groups, and corporations.
I will give you one snippet from an intelligence group: the CIA literally started the crack epidemic in America to fund their secret war against socialism (and actual democracy) in central/south america. That is insanely evil. Countless operations on citizen control and disinformation too. And they didn’t stop doing shady shit when they moved their operations to their NGO they started (National Endowment for Democracy). And most americans think those things are “just some conspiracy theories” which is exactly inline with my original point.
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 hope you don’t need to draw conclusions in your line of work because that was pathetic. What an insane response to a very casual recognition of the American police state.
I am not even defending Russia, its just the same neo-liberal police state bullshit that happens to also exist in the US. Not all states are equally in your face about it but your rights barely exist and if you can’t see that then you aren’t paying attention.
I am not a tankie, just a person that is capable of observation. But that is the most typical anti-socialist rhetoric just because I point out that the US is just as vile as all the oppressors.
The fact that you included Hamas and not Israel in your shit stain of a comment means I don’t have to take you seriously though.
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 are the one who started accusing me of some BS. I never once lied. Your conclusion jumping and implied accusations are very revealing to what type of person I am talking to.
You have to ignore what the US has been doing around the world for 70+ years to come to that conclusion. Doesn’t matter if some states are okay if the feds start wars and coups and destabilize regions in the name of profit.
As far as Israel goes, being pro-LGBTQ doesn’t mean anything when the entire basis of zionism and their state is xenophobic as fuck. You don’t get to cherry pick which human rights to respect in order to seem progressive.
Israel’s history is full of oppression and lies and I am not going to have it out with you when it is clear that you are absolutely unreasonable. No one should take you seriously.
They are also afraid of real democracy which is why they have infested the US with the shittiest politicians through AIPAC.
Don’t try to teach me about Palestine via Israeli propaganda lol
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.
Poor reading comprehension maybe? I didn’t casually throw away anything, I pointed out that if you are a racist piece of shit, then you aren’t automatically a good person for not being homophobic.
But what is disinformation in my comment?
What is it with lots of people here on lemmy that label everything that doesn’t suit their worldview as misinformation/disinformation/propaganda?
That and name-calling does not change facts, you know, it just shows to other people that you can’t argue your position…
If your comment isn’t disinformation, then surely you are able to provide reputable sources on what makes the Ukrainian government illegitimate and when it has kidnapped its own civilians and forced them to fight.
Otherwise, your baseless claims do not deserve further consideration - what has been stated without evidence can be dismissed without arguments.
when it has kidnapped its own civilians and forced them to fight
Every day!
It doesn’t get shown in the western media, but if you subscribe to the local channels of big cities (Kiev/Odessa/Lviv/Kharkiv/etc.), or basically any sources actually covering what’s happening in Ukraine (in Ukrainian or Russian language), you will see videos of TCK (I dunno how to properly translate it, but that’s the government-military organization that does the kidnapping) posted almost every single day, people are caught on the streets and forcibly put into vans. Sometimes people manage to escape them, sometimes the crowd helps fight TCK off, but more often then not they get successfully kidnapped. Some villages got almost every men kidnapped that way (because previously they were scared to operate in big cities and preferred villages, but now they don’t give a shit about anything).
A very small portion of that is documented here: uadraftmuseum.ch
That’s exactly why I asked for reputable sources - if an ancap think tank and an online “museum” are enough for you, I’m going to risk breaking Beehaw’s rule on civility and call you a useful idiot at best - but considering nobody in this thread has agreed with you so far, your usefulness is not proven.
So basically you have no arguments against what is said there, so you just attack the source instead of disproving anything that is written there? Very cool :)
online “museum”
But what sources would you expect? The mainstream media is not going to report every case, because it shows completely opposite view to the current propaganda that says that Ukraine is a democratic country where people want to fight and die for their glorious master leader Zelensky…
Here is a link for you to msn, is it a more reliable source which you would trust? www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/…/ar-BB1naQUE
Some quotes from there:
When you see people in uniform, you panic. You start thinking someone will mobilize you now against your will
You worry that someone will throw you into the bus one day, take you somewhere, turn off your phone, and you will be cut off from the world"
It shows a physical fight between recruitment officers and civilians
Telegram threads give tip-offs on where drafting officers are patrolling. There are chats for different regions and cities across the country, sometimes with more than 100,000 members each. there are reports of some being taken away on the spot, without a chance to return home.
But there are claims of officers using harsh or intimidating tactics. There are also reports of conscripts finding themselves on the front line with just a month of training.
How many more sources you need to believe that Ukrainian government is kidnapping people on the streets, forcefully puts them into vans and then sends them to die? People who don’t want to fight for Zelensky, people who just one to live. They want to keep the one thing that is most precious to each human - their life. And our government, with support from your government, and people like you, is murdering thousands of us. Do you really support this? Would you still support it if it wasn’t random people you don’t know, but if it was your family, your father, your son if have one, your friends that were kidnapped and sent to die?
Now, we are not just going to be kidnapped on the streets, they are going to break into our homes, and kidnap us in front of our families and forcibly send to die.
But you still support it, after all it’s not some people worth worrying about, it’s just Ukrainians, we can be slaughtered till the last person in the name of geopolitics, right?
His [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s] statement comes after US President Joe Biden announced Israel had proposed a three-stage plan to Hamas aimed at reaching a permanent ceasefire.
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