https://www.reddit.com/r/CommunismMemes/s/QvPiEUohuu
http://archive.today/3njhc
I feel like you should have submitted this to /c/shitultrassay.
But yeah, this is a classic oversimplification. Just because the government at the receiving end of neoimperialism is also reactionary doesn’t mean that the NATO expanding its operations is okay. By that logic, we should have been neutral during the reinvasion of Ethiopia.
I was not aware that community existed. I will next time.
Ah, the old "two things can be bad at once, mkay?" Otherwise known as "I am too lazy to actually try and think dialectically about the world around me, so I'm going to sit on my high horse and act morally superior" defense.
Why are we reposting Reddit stuff from over a year ago on SRS?
It's a shit ultra say, I wouldn't call them reactionary. To think that Russia is doing imperialism is only an oversimplification of Lenin's theory imperialism. Plus we're in a context of high media pressure, defending a foreign war is a massive unpopular opinion, especially since Putin is a conservative politician. Only the bravest dare speak their mind.
A lot of ultras will someday grasp that no, Russia being capitalist doesn't automatically make it imperialist, since imperialism stems from an absolute necessity of exporting capital to not suffocate, which Russia doesn't since they mostly just pump out fossil fuel and enjoy.
But I think it's unreasonable to get angry at people for being wrong on this subject. We need to be more patient.
To think that Russia is doing imperialism is only an oversimplification of Lenin’s theory imperialism.
No, more like they never read it. They probably think military invasion = imperialism. More generously they have a general idea of Leninist imperialism, but use faulty analysis to claim Russia is, then use Lenin’s principle of not taking sides in an imperialist war, and call this an imperialist war.
They think acquiring land for their nation state is imperialism, but not acquiring every drop of oil and passing off costs incurred for an invasion as debt(us and iraq).
They probably think military invasion = imperialis
Maybe I give them too much credit but I'm pretty sure that, when interrogated, they would elaborate by saying that "capitalism love war because war makes money so a capitalist power going to war is necessarily just chasing money so that's imperialism" which is a decent shot for a beginner
Unless they're properly idealist, like anarchists and radlibs, but I don't think they would be posting on a "communism" themed subreddit
Yeah, that’s my thought. The baby lefties are like “war make money,” then we have ultras like Maoist Paul misinterpreting Lenin.
how many military bases does Russia have in foreign countries i wonder
Hey, Putin’s not a cool guy or anything, we don’t love him, but damn if I wasn’t happy when I heard Yemen was allowing Russian shipments and troops to go through the Red Sea. There are too many scenarios that would have to happen (or not happened) for me to support Ukraine. 1.) Alley of Angels needs to have never happened 2.) Donetsk and Luhansk would need to be Pro-Imperialism 3.) Russia would have to be Anti-AES 4.) There would need to be zero Nazis (or Bandera supporters) in Ukraine’s military or parliament 5.) Ukraine would have to want political neutrality for foreign policy, aka not seeking NATO membership. I could probably list a few more if I thought about it even more but that’s the basics. Since none of these are the case, I can’t support Ukraine and I can’t take a neutral stance, I kinda have to give it up for Russia for fighting against Nazis and for defending Luhansk’s (and to a lesser extent, Donetsk’s, but I’m especially excited for Luhansk) claim. And considering how anti-comm and accepting of Nazis the early Russian Federation was, I’m much happier to see Putin interacting positively with Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping
I feel like "weedftw_69" is 14 years old and very opinionated and ignorant. Or is an adult with the mentality of a 14 year old who needs to show off how smart they are by using the term "irredentist."
It doesn't matter how much Putin may or may not hate dentists, the proxy war against the US is ultimately in the interest of the global working class. I don't think any actual communist like Putin, or have any illusions about him being pro-capital, but in inter-capitalist infighting, they all grow weaker.
Irredeemable dentists, their crimes will not go unpunished👊
This is a good take. Putin is the result of Yeltsins brutal repression of the Russian people and an anti communist. He's not an anti imperialist either. I can get behind toppling Nazis in Ukraine but if doesn't make putin based or something.
It is but not by choice. The imperialists have forced Russia to adopt an anti-imperialist stance and now Russia is more anti-imperialist than most socialist states. The only state more openly anti-imperialist than Russia is the DPRK.
Cuba doesn't really pose the same kind of danger to the imperialists. Yes they remain principled and they try to do all they can in terms of international solidarity against imperialist pressure in Latin America, but given their difficult geographical location they have to do what they can to just survive in the face of the strangling blockade imposed on them.
They aren't sending volunteers over to fight in anti-colonial struggles anymore like they used to back in the day...though there have been a few rumors of Cuban volunteers in Russia's SMO, but if i remember correctly the Cuban government was not very approving of that. And i can understand why since they are probably wary of provoking the US.
The DPRK on the other hand is in a much better position to take hostile action against the imperialists as we have seen with their material support of Russia, supplying them with ammunition of various kinds. This isn't because the Cubans are less revolutionary, but simply because Cuba doesn't have the same military might that DPRK does to defend itself.
And having nuclear weapons also makes a big difference in establishing deterrence...they give you a protective umbrella to act much more confidently against imperialism. Which is why i cannot understand why Iran still hasn't gotten them, they absolutely could if they wanted to and the US and the Zionist entity could not do very much about it at all since Iran is also conventionally powerful.
except this is not an inter-imperialist conflict; modern Russia isn't anti-imperialist in ideology but it is in practice, at least for the time being
"Neither Washington nor Moscow" and this purposefully incorrect definition of imperialism always has a psyop taste.
Russia is not a imperialist country in the moment. I will cite myself:
Looking into Russia: In whose interests does Putin rule? What impact has the privatization of state assets had on the way the Russian capitalist elite perceives its security interests? Which elements of Putins foreign policy have changed compared to the soviet foreign policy? Which have remained? Russia is trying to restore the previous status quo, where its bourgeoisie could exploit the country undisturbed. Russia has become a target of Yankee imperialism not because of the autocratic nature of the Putin regime but, first, because its defense of the interests of Russian capitalists clashes with the United States quest for world domination and its related preparations for war against China. The attack on Ukraine is a thoroughly reactionary response to the expansion of U.S. hegemony into Russias spheres. In doing so, Putin invokes the reactionary legacy of tsarist Great Russian chauvinism and revives the foreign policy of Tsar Nicholas by also calling for support for “Mother Russia.”
Lebanon is more imperialist than Russia.
I did some analysis here. This is fairly casual and only quantifies one mechanism of imperialism, but it is an important mechanism and it does give us a good picture.
https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3066117?scrollToComments=true
I’m not sure what happened there. I don’t think Yemen’s GDP data was carried over correctly.
Edit:
So it turns out that Yemen’s GDP data was incorrect, and somehow it’s the same as Vietnam’s gdp data.
However, even when accounting for that, it would only push it past down Paraguay. This is because this chart uses Investor-State Dispute Settlement cases as data. So, for countries where the state is complicit in exploitation and is aligned with the interests of the exploiters, there won’t be many cases. (Which also explains why there is a revolution in Yemen at the moment.)
But in these instances, there won’t be many cases where the country is hosting an investor state either.
