Russia-Ukraine Megathread 19

CARCOSA [they/them] · edit-2 3 years ago

Russia-Ukraine Megathread 19

gofer300 [none/use name] · edit-2 3 years ago

One thing I rarely see talked about is the fact that US and EU did sanction Russia but a huge economic impact will also be caused by corporations willingly cutting ties with Russia and stopping doing business with them. As far as I know, nobody forced Visa/Mastercard to stop operating in Russia and they did so just for the publicity and good PR. The same goes for all the Onlyfans/Mcdonalds/Intel/Apple....

It highlights for me the power those huge companies possess where now the state governments don't hold the sole monopoly on inflicting huge suffering across foreign nations.

Edit : actually now that I think about it it has always been the case but it seems like it's getting worse

jackmarxist [any] · 3 years ago

It IS far worse than you think. Big tech like Google and Facebook are way too powerful with all of their data harvesting shit. Google and Apple control almost all smartphones on the planet along with a huge chunk of the internet. They monitor you 24/7 and the data goes straight to the US government. This is the largest spying operation in history and people are not fucking aware of it. China has been 100% right to ban these American companies from their lands.

gofer300 [none/use name] · edit-2 3 years ago

It made me realize that the fact China has its own banking/payment systems/social media etc. which are often cited as oppression and censorship is really an efficient line of defense against at least some kinds of sanctions.

DragonNest_Aidit [they/them,use name] · 3 years ago

Absolutely, what is happening to Russia right now is probably something the planners have considered all the way since they first opened the door for western capital.

Kevin_Sorbet [none/use name] · 3 years ago

Libs: “Facebook is ruining people’s brains and it’s why Trump won!”

China: does Great Firewall

Libs: “China has no :freeze-peach:!” etc etc

amenazaroja [any] · edit-2 3 years ago

deleted by creator

LeninWalksTheWorld [any] · 3 years ago

The private companies joining the sanctions is actually a very interesting phenomenon. For a while we have seen the American (and other countries') national interest be subordinated to the general capitalist interest. Such as with coronavirus, we had our shitty lock down that got quickly lifted because the businesses needed line to go back up. A sensible country like China recognized that killing a million citizens in a plague would not be in their national interest even if businesses lose money.

Now most businesses have fallen in line behind America and cut ties with Russia when asked. Now Russia isn't a massive economy, so they aren't missing too much profit, but still we all know capitalists usually never willing reduce their profits. I think Washington has been calling in some serious favors, and the StateDept-led media blitz has effectively "cancelled" Russia and capitalists want to avoid the bad PR like you said.

This may have some bigger consequences though. I know if I was a sovereign country I'd be pretty nervous letting some foreign owned company manage my entire financial sector or airline sector, ect that has proven they will just follow the US's order when push comes to shove. As far as I know it's not against the Visa terms of service to be a warmonger, but they shut down in Russia anyway. Will countries really trust these countries enough to allow them operate now? We might see China's non-interventionist policy pay off as countries who might run against the US turn to make their economies more resistant to these types of sanctions by embracing Chinese products/services. That's going to directly cut into American companies' profits, and we all know that rate if profit is only going down...