StalinwasaGryffindor [he/him, comrade/them]

Removed by mod

Holy shit this is amazing

This is a very good idea that I never would have had on my own, thank you!

Well, and all the dead ukrainians

I mean, he did try a coup that failed miserably because he had no support. Even if he would have want to try to kill Putin, there’s no reason to believe he was capable of it

Do you realize how sociopathic this sounds? Are all separatists deserving of being bombed by the country they live under? Would you say the same to the people of Yemen, or Palestine or Ethiopia? “You’re being bombed, so just leave”?

Also, nice homophobia

Nobody in this thread has said anything positive about Russia?

Define authoritarian please

So, I’m sure that as a proud lefty you understand the concept of critical support, but just in case: most of us are not pro-China/pro-Russia, but have support -with criticisms when warranted- of their role in ending the current global system of US hegemony. I won’t go into Russia too much, as I think they’re a terrible capitalist country with deeply regressive laws but I do support them in their fight against nato and in giving another option for global south countries to reach out to when it comes to trade and military support.

China to me is a much clearer example of a country that has the opportunity to become a superpower without the truly horrendous bloodshed that has been a feature of American dominance. They also, in my opinion, have shown themselves to take climate change much more seriously than most countries, and given the daily news stories of the devastation we’re seeing I’m very grateful that a large country is making the steps they are.

When it comes to the Stalin memes, some of it is ironic, but a lot of it is serious. Stalin wasn’t perfect and definitely made mistakes, but his leadership of the Soviet Union was instrumental in defeating nazism and for that alone he deserves critical support.

I still see it?

It’s not an original observation, but it was something that once I was aware of really made me question why sanctions are so normalized.

If you’d like a better explanation from people who are much smarter than me I recommend the podcast Citations Needed. They’ve got an episode that goes into the harm sanctions cause, especially to the most vulnerable people in the target country.

The following link has both the podcast and a transcript if you prefer reading over listening:

https://citationsneeded.medium.com/episode-106-the-sanitization-of-sanctions-56f976af6019

Hi, I just want to say that to many of us in hexbear what you see as an echo chamber is a safe space. Most of us live in capitalist countries and are constantly being exposed to capitalist propaganda.

Personally, I like having a place where I can discuss things important to me without having to be constantly contradicted by people with what I view as a very shallow understanding of history and geopolitics. It’s honestly kind of silly to pretend that people on the left don’t get their opinions and views challenged, we are absolutely inundated with different views on a daily basis

I’m very confused by what you mean about sending people to die? I’m talking about civilian deaths due to invasions and sanctions. I don’t believe you can actually be supporting queer people while bombing them and/or starving them with sanctions.

I also don’t fully agree that my arguments are us-centric. I focus on the US and UK because I am Anglo and so am more aware of the role they play in the world.

I don’t believe anyone on hexbear is actually cheering for people who would remove us from existence. I’m LGBT+ myself, and a huge part of why I’m against the current capitalist system we live under is that I see it as incredibly harmful for people like me. There are numerous examples, such as anti-trans laws in the US, the extreme anti-trans rhetoric in the UK, the American funding of draconian anti-LGBT+ laws in African countries. I also truly don’t value people in western countries higher than people in the rest of the world, so when I see the death toll from our military interventions and siege warfare in the form of sanctions, it makes my blood boil. 100s of thousands of people were killed by the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan alone; statistically thousands of them were LGBT+. This means the coalition forces killed more queer people than the countries that have actual death penalties for homosexuality.

I don’t love Russia, they’re a capitalist country with terrible laws and a regressive culture, but Ukraine isn’t really any better. They’ve elevated right wing militias which have targeted people like me and banned trans women from leaving the country.

China is behind on LGBT+ rights, but seem to be moving in the right direction. Cuba has the most progressive LGBT+ laws in the world. Vietnam is moving in the right direction pretty rapidly as well.

I hope this helps you understand why at least one of our users thoughts on these issues. I don’t speak for anyone but myself, but I feel certain my views are quite close to the majority of hexbears.

I guess what I’m trying to get across here is that it’s very hard for me to trust that any punishment of Russia will result in any long term change to behaviors of other bad actor if the nations doing the punishing are completely unable to apply justice across the board. It’s a lot easier for the US to send Bush to The Hague than Putin you know?

Other bad actors like Saudi or Azerbaijan are also currently being rewarded by the same people calling for punishment of Russia. What message does that send to future tyrants? That as long as you’re useful to the west we will ignore your crimes?

Why is it more critical to punish Russia than to punish bad actors in the US?

By that logic isn’t it far more critical to punish the truly bad actors? George bush killed way more people than have been killed in Russia’s invasion. What message does it send that he’s allowed to roam free?

I’m not saying it as an excuse, I’m trying to point out that aggression has been rewarded before this. You’re arguing that it is critical to punish Russia to send a message to other states that aggression won’t succeed but I’m saying that ship has already sailed